Sora screamed as Minhyun splashed water on her.

 

“Aigoooooo!!!” She splashed water back to the laughing Minhyun. Minhyun avoided the attack.

 

Kyuglim, who was nearby Minhyun, got splashed instead.

 

“Aigoo, I’m so sorry Kyunglim-ah!”

 

“Yah!” Determined to get revenge, Kyunglim ran to Sora. But being the clumsy person that she is, she fell down.

 

Fortunately, someone caught her by the waist.

 

Yep, you guessed it right. It was Kikwang.

 

“I got you, babe.” Kikwang winked at the blushing Kyunglim.

 

Minhyun laughed at the two and before Sora could protest about Kikwang flirting with her friend once again, they heard a happy scream.

 

They looked to the direction of the scream and laughter.

 

Apparently, Sungyeol was lifting Mi Cha off the ground and was swinging her around, threatening to throw her to the sea.

 

“Aniyaaaaa!!! Put me down, Lee Sungyeol!”

 

Sungyeol kept on laughing and swung her around until he got dizzy and fell down, dragging Mi Cha along.

 

Sitting on the sand, laughing, Sungyeol kept his arm around Mi Cha.

 

“Mi-cha-yah~” Sungyeol rested his head on the girl’s shoulder.

 

“Ne?”

 

And Sungyeol just laughed as he forgot what he was going to say. “Nevermind, let’s just stay like this~”

 

“Haha, you choding!”

 

Sungjong went over to Minhyun. “Seems like everyone’s having fun, eh?”

 

Minhyun laughed. She felt so light-hearted and worry-free at that moment—nothing else to think about.

 

“If Mina was here, she’d pester me about collecting seashells and such!” Sungjong whined.

 

Minhyun’s laughter died down. “You’re talking about Mina again?” She kinda snapped.

 

Sungjong was taken aback. “W-wae?”

 

“Nothing, I was just...” She swam off to a farther place.

 

“Wait, Minhyun-ah!” Sungjong followed.

 

While swimming, Sungjong called out, “I don’t think that it’s a good idea to go too far.”

 

Ignoring Sungjong, she continued going further.

 

“Yah!” Sungjong followed “I said it’s---“

 

“What’s it to you, anyway?!” Minhyun yelled, turning around.

 

But Sungjong was nowhere to be found.

 

Minhyun gasped as she continued moving her legs so she’d float in the waters. “O-omo! Sungjong-ah, where are you?”

 

Minhyun was panicking when she felt something move under her.

 

“S-sungjong-ah?!” she was going to dive down to get Sungjong but was surprised when she felt something bump on her head.

 

To be exact, something was against her lips.

 

Eyes suddenly opening wide, she saw Sungjong’s shocked eyes staring at her as they realized that their lips were in contact!

 

Pulling away from each other and swimming towards the surface, Minhyun yelled, “What was that?!”

 

“I was going to scare you but you went down and—“

 

“Don’t say it!”

 

Sungjong kept quiet.

 

They stared at each other for a while. Then, they laughed. “Let’s forget about it!”

 

“Yah, don’t tell anyone about it, okay?!”

 

“Arasseo. We’ll forget about it.” Sungjong smiled as they swam back to the shore.

 

But none of them really shook the thought of the kiss away.

 

.........................

 

Min Hi was happily walking at the shore, observing the starfishes and the waves.

 

“Hyemi!” someone seemed to call out.

 

She didn’t know who Hyemi was but she turned to look at the direction of the voice, as if on instinct.

 

“Wae?”

 

“Look at this!” Min Hi was surprised. It was JR. And he was smiling at her!

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Hyemi, a beautiful seashell!” He took her hand and gave her a beautiful seashell.

 

“Hyemi...?” She stared at JR, confused.

 

Suddenly, the friendly smiled was wiped off of JR’s face.

 

“Oh, right. You’re not Hyemi.”

 

Min Hi kept quiet.

 

Suddenly, she saw something move. She gasped. “I-is that a snake?!?” She pointed to a snake-looking thing.

 

JR quickly grabbed her small body away from the ‘snake’ protectively.

 

But it didn’t move anymore. “It’s just a stick.” JR sighed but kept a protective arm around her waist.

 

“Err... thanks.” She pulled away from JR.

 

‘I’m confused... At times, he’s so gentle but most of the time, it seems like he hates me.’

 

.....................

 

Minah, Yerin, and Deul Lae stayed at the shore.

 

“Aigoo, my head aches a lot. I can’t remember anything!” Yerin lightly tapped her own cheeks.

 

Deul Lae stayed quiet and looked down at the sand.

 

Unlike the other two, she could clearly remember what she did to Taemin. She could remember the feeling of being happy that she stabbed Taemin. She remembered being angry at the small child back in the village. She could remember relishing in the thoughts of killing.

 

Woohyun, Dongwoo, Chunhee and Hoya walked towards them.

 

Woohyun, hearing Yerin complain, said, “You don’t remember hitting me with that iron fists of yours and giving me a lot of bruises?! Unbelievable!”

 

Yerin gasped. “I did that???”

 

Woohyun smirked, knowing that the gullible girl was easily tricked.

 

“Yes, it still hurts, see?” Woohyun pretended to be hurt.

 

Yerin looked worriedly at Chunhee. “Chunhee-yah, I did that?”

 

Exchanging a knowing look with Woohyun, Chunhee laughed. “Yes, and I think you should take responsibility for that.”

 

“Omo, I’m so sorry!” She bowed down to Woohyun. “Come, I’m quite good at giving massage. It might ease your body aches a little.” She grabbed Woohyun’s wrist away from the others.

 

Woohyun laughed.

 

Yerin looked at Woohyun. “Wae?!”

 

“You’re so easily tricked!”

 

Yerin glared at him. “You tricked me?!”

 

“Duh.”

 

She stomped her feet and walked away.

 

“Yah, I’m sorry, you didn’t hit me, okay?”

 

“Don’t talk to me.”

 

“Yah, I said I’m sorry! I won’t lie again, okay?”

 

“You shouldn’t! I was so worried!” She just pertained to being worried about someone getting hurt because of her but Woohyun took that the wrong way.

 

“Aww, you were worried about me?” Woohyun wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

 

“Yah! Don’t touch me!”

 

As the two bickered, Chunhee sat beside Deul Lae. “Are you feeling better?”

 

“Yeah...” Deul Lae answered weakly.

 

Hoya, who never moved away from Chunhee ever since she got back from Junhyung’s castle, sat beside Chunhee.

 

“But I feel terrible...” Deul Lae confessed. “I did a lot of horrible things, didn’t I...? And I even—I even... stabbed...” She started sobbing.

 

Chunhee put her hand at Deul Lae’s back and patted her gently.

 

Dongwoo, watching the scene, sighed. “I think Taemin understands the situation.”

 

“But I hurt him!”

 

“Deul, it wasn’t your fault... You were controlled.”

 

“But I would’ve fought it! I would have done my best not to succumb to evil! But I was weak...”

 

Taemin, who happened to pass by, saw Deul Lae crying and tightened his fist.

 

“What’s wrong?” He firmly said.

 

Deul Lae quickly wiped her tears and smiled fakely. “Nothing much, I just don’t feel like swimming.”

 

Taemin stared at her. The others who were in the area were quiet. Taemin grabbed Deul Lae’s hand and pulled her to a place hidden from everyone’s view.

 

“Why are you crying?!” Taemin’s tone was high.

 

“I’m sorry...” Deul Lae couldn’t hold back the tears.

 

Taemin softened at the sight of her crying.

 

Taemin gently hugged her. “Is it still about the stabbing? I told you that you didn’t do it. It wasn’t you, okay? Your body was being controlled.”

 

“Please don’t hate me...”

 

“I told you, I’ll never hate you.” Taemin stared at her eyes. “Because I love you...”

 

He hadn’t said that for a while.

 

And he gave Deul Lae a passionate kiss as Deul Lae wrapped her arms around Taemin.

 

When the two went back to the shore, hand in hand, the others cheered.

 

“Yay! Deul Lae is back to normal now.” Sungyeol said.

 

“Awww, they’re holding hands. We should hold hands, too, Kyunglim-ah!” Kikwang grabbed Kyunglim’s hand as the girl tried taking her hands back.

 

“Mwoya? Kyunglimmie is dating Mr. Flirt?” Yerin asked.

 

“No!/ That’s right!” Kyunglim and Kikwang said at the same time.

 

“He had been harassing Kyunglim, Yerin-ah.” Sora sighed.

 

“But what’s wrong if they’re together? Our princess needs a prince!” Yerin said and high-fived with Kikwang.

 

“You’re okay with that guy being with Kyunglim?!”

 

“Food’s here!” Sungjong and Minhyun who were assigned to cook laid down a lot of food in front of them.

 

They circled around the food and started eating.

 

Sookyung was going to grab a grilled beef when the beef was suddenly in front of her. Himchan alread placed everything that she wanted in a plate.

 

“Thanks.” Sookyung said.

 

Himchan smiled.

 

Sookyung grabbed a piece of grape and was about to eat it when it fell down.

 

“Aish, Sookyung-ah, so clumsy.” Himchan laughed and fed her another one.

 

“I...” Sookyung took the grape from Himchan’s hand, anyway.

 

......................

 

Sora continued glaring at Kikwang who kept on flirting with Kyunglim.

 

Myungsoo chuckled. “Don’t tell me that you’re jealous of them.”

 

“What?! No way!”

 

Myungsoo stared at her.

 

“What?”

 

“Do you like Kikwang?” He said quietly.

 

“L-like?! What the--?! Why would I like him?” She was genuinely confused. Why the hell would L think that she likes that flirty guy?
 

“Don’t like him. You’ll become ugly, you’ll turn into a monster.”

 

“Mwo..?!”

 

And L continued saying bad things about what would happen to Sora if she liked Kikwang.

 

Sora laughed. She wasn’t used to L saying bad stuff about others. “I don’t like him.”

 

L smirked. “Good.”

 

...........

 

“That pineapple’s mine!” Chunhee yelled at Hoya.

 

“I just took a bite off it. Therefore, it’s mine.”

 

“But it’s mine! It was from my plate!”

 

“Fine, eat this, then.” Hoya gave Chunhee the pineapple that he just took a bite from.

 

“But you already took a bite from it!”

 

“What’s so wrong about that?”

 

Chunhee pouted. “If I bit from it, it’d be an indirect kiss...”

 

Hoya smirked. “You don’t want to kiss me?”

 

Chunhee blushed. Lately, Hoya had been really kind and protective of her. She was starting to think that Hoya was someone a girl could easily fall for.

 

Would it hurt if she fell for Hoya?

 

Chunhee shook her head. “I’ll just eat watermelon, then.” She stood up and left Hoya.

 

........

 

“Eat up, if you want more, I could get some for you.” Dongwoo told Minah.

 

“I don’t think I can eat all of that.”

 

“We’ll share then.” Dongwoo gave Minah a friendly smile.

 

As they ate quietly, Dongwoo blurted out something. “I missed you.”

 

Minah slowly looked at her friend.

 

Dongwoo blushed but hid it as he looked the other way. “I mean, playing in the fields, studying with you when we were kids, I missed those times.”

 

Minah smiled at the memories.

 

.......

 

The lot was having fun that they didn’t know that they were being followed.

 

“Hyunseung, what should we tell Emperor Junghyung?”

 

...................................................

 

End of Chapter