Their schedule together came to an end after the tour and the encounter leaving them with extra free time to do whatever they want to before officially working the next day. Bang Chan left the three of them to their own devices and disappeared to who knows where, probably to do more work since he seems to always have something to do while each of them was handed a couple of documents detailing their schedule for the foreseeable future.

Felix quickly excuses himself to go back to his room by telling Jisung and Jeongin that he's feeling exhausted and also left the two on their own much to Jisung's worry.

His head is filled with turmoil spiraling uncontrollably as he walks away and his path was anything but a hazy mess unknowing any direction to go to. Everything in his sight has lost their appeal and very much turned into a blurry fleeting motions since he couldn't careless about it. All that is occupying his thought at that moment was the man he just saw.

General Dong... Dong Hyunsik.

He had asked Chan before they part ways about the man and managed to find out his full name just now. Isn't it hilarious? The man massacred his entire family but he didn't even know his full name. The killer is out and about, living his best life with no consequences while everyone even innocent maid servants were killed brutally and unjustly with their names wrongly labeled as traitors. The image from the fateful night and the face of the man that he saw just now starts to blend together fittingly. Felix bit his lips as hard as he could so tears that were starting to well up in his eyes doesn't fall.

"Hey!"

An unfamiliar voice called out as he was walking along a quiet hallway. Felix responded by looking for the owner but unexpectedly he's met with a big splash of smelly water, leaving him drenched and dumbfounded.

"..."

"Hahaha! What are you standing dumbly there for?"

Turns out it was the girls they had met back at the assembly hall. They were standing not too far away from him laughing as each of them was holding a bucket of the same dirty black cleaning water, one full and the other empty. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened.

The dirty, grimy water emits a strong foul smell like a mix of dirty dusty smell to possibly rotting things or maybe some sort of animal feces, who knows where it came from. Not only did the it slightly stained his uniforms, which thankfully he was given more than one, there's dirt and small bits of gooey grim from who knows where sticking onto him making his skin crawled. As he's holding the urge to vomit back down, Felix couldn't help but hold grudges.

Normally, he wouldn't act up on these things even more so when he's in a sticky situation of trying to stay under the radar like now. However, his mood had been all over the place ever since an encounter with a certain general and this taunting is just making it plummet down even lower. As much as he doesn't want to be involved, he can't just stay still and let people bully him either. Felix grits his teeth and his gaze slowly lifts up to meet the two laughing girls.

"What do you say I should do?" he asked in a low voice

The two girl's mood seems to faltered a little with the sudden change. However, that mood change only happened for a couple of second before the girls shrugs of the thought completely and continued to laugh and taunt "Ooh~ What can you do?"

Felix huffs in amusement. He then also showed them a half-smile which instead of looking smug or taunting, it instead display a hint of coldness to it. He kept eye contact with them like a lion looking at it's prey. His already pale face now looks like there's a layer of frost on, the slightly rounded eyes doesn't have the soft glint in it anymore just the dark pupils glaring sharply, his head is swirling with thoughts but the small bits of rationality stopped him and he ignores most of the ideas he had only choosing the harmless one out of them.

He walks slowly towards them while the two suddenly felt the urge to back away.

"What, what are you doing?" one of them stuttered

He doesn't say anything and just reached out to grab one of the bucket that's full and yanked them into his grip. The girls screeched in surprise. The full bucket of dirty water is now hanging in his grip as he looks at the two girls with a challenging expression.

"Don't you dare, you freak!" one of the two girls seems to caught on what he was planning to do and yelled

"Oh, I so dare to." Felix sneers

Splash!

The full bucket of dirty water turned empty quickly with just a yank, the content in it splashed all over the two girls in front of Felix. In a blink, the two girls who was dressed up decently is now drenched from head to toe in dirty water. Bits and pieces of dirt and grime clings on them stickily as they gasp in disbelief. Their brightly colored clothes are now a dull grey-ish version of the previous look. Everyone is now stood frozen in said quiet hallway.

"You freak! What did you do?!" they yelled

Felix dropped the bucket, his mouth form a tight smile before replying "I told you that you're not here to find a prince to marry but as a servant. What made you think that you can act like YOU own the palace? What made you think YOU can do this to me and leave on your merry way?"

He inched closer and closer towards them with every words he speaks ending up almost towering over the girls. His eyes still holds the same cold glint in them as he looked at the two shocked girl. He sneered "What right do you think you have?"

"I'm telling you, if you feel like crossing the line again, don't say I didn't warn you because next time it might not be just dirty water." Felix speaks in a low voice through tightly gritted teeth

He backed away quickly and leaves the two girls.

❄️

Jisung watched as Felix leaves him and Jeongin with worry in his mind. He wanted to followed the boy but at the same time, it's clear to him that Felix really needs some alone time and he knows that whatever happens he doesn't own him any explanations if he doesn't want to.

He tears his gazes away from his disappearing friend and moved to Jeongin who's looking back at him with confusions and innocence. He smiled at the younger boy "Come on, you said you wanted to walk around more."

"Is Felix okay?"

"I'm sure he'll be fine after a rest. Don't worry."

"He was acting pretty strange just now..."

"Hey now, he said he wasn't feeling well and wants to rest alone. Just let him be for now." Jisung pats the youngest shoulder comfortingly "Why don't we get going?"

After walking around and staring in awed at the castle's scenery, Jisung and Jeongin comes across a quiet hallway that is well decorated with paintings and emblems of gold. The cream colored wall looks almost identical to the rest of the castle but something made the both of them felt foreign in the area, Jisung suspect that this hallway is not the one they was introduced to in their tour. The area is dead quiet not a single servant can be found unlike the other part of the palace, each step they take echoes lightly. Jisung's eyes dart around nervously as his hand instinctively grab a hold of Jeongin's hand tightly.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

A rough voice echoed from behind the two making them jump slightly, their heartbeat raising rapidly. Turning around, there is a tall burly imperial guard in full armor looking down at them, his eyes practically glaring daggers at the two of them. Jeongin timidly looked over to Jisung while the older blinks nervously at the scary looking guard.

"We're sorry... we're a little lost." Jisung replied meekly

The guard raised his brows before scrunching it again into a frown, his eyes narrowed at the two youth "That's suspicious. I've never seen you before. How did you two get here? This isn't a place you're allowed to enter easily."

"We're new. We got lost, sorry."

"You're coming with me. Until I can confirm your identity, you two are not going anywhere."

"What's going on?" A gentle man's voice was heard from behind them. 

The new set of footstep came to a halt as the two youth and the guard turned to see the new comer. The first prince, Lee Minho, looks at the scene curiously. His highness is clad in a soft silky lilac garment, his demeanor relaxed as he's standing in the middle of the cream colored hall right in between the two youth and the tall guard.

"Greeting your, highness." the guard quickly bowed, followed by the two youngsters who are now almost shaking from fear "These two said they're lost, I've never seen them around before so I was planning to confirm their identities first."

Prince Minho looks over to the aforementioned youth by the imperial guard who's currently holding each other's hand tightly as they squeeze themselves to the wall trying to make themselves smaller, their face seems to fade to a paler shade with doe-like eyes widen and darting around nervously. He couldn't help but flash a light smile, finding the sight quite amusing.

"It's okay, leave them with me." He ordered lightly