"You say whattttt?" Baekhyun shrieked, nearly dropping the kimchi bowl.

Byul nodded with a sigh and slumped against the door. "We're locked in."

"How did this happen?" Baekhyun shrieked. He banged the door hard and yelled. "HELLOOOO!! Anyone out there??"

No answer.

"You sure we're locked in?" Baekhyun asked, trying to look outside. The windows were murky and dirty, not giving any view. It's purpose was just to give just enough light to see where the jars of kimchi were.

"Yeah." Byul nodded. "See when you look out from the key hole you can see something dangling from there." she pointed. "It looks like a lock." she tapped her chin.

Baekhyun pouted and slumped down on the ground beside Byul. "Who the hell's so stupid to lock us in here?" he retorted.

Byul shrugged. "I don't know. They must not have known we were inside." she sighed. She looked towards the window. "I wonder how long it'd take for someone to find us."

Baekhyun brightened when he remembered something. "Your sword Han Eunbyul! Do you have your sword with you?" he asked. "Just unpick the lock with that or at most just cut off the hinges of the door."

Byul rolled her eyes. "My sword would be damaged in that case." she muttered. "And besides, I left it back with the other princes." she sighed.

Baekhyun slumped. "Aww. How long will this take?"

"Pssh. Whiny. Just wait." Byul elbowed him.

They waited in silence for a bit until Baekhyun found himself rather bored. He decided to spice up their time. Since they were stuck in there, better make full use of it.

"OMO!" he suddenly shrieked in alarm. Byul blinked at him in the semi darkness.

"I heard that the kitchen just collected the new batch of kimchi from here yesterday!" he exclaimed worriedly. "They won't be coming here any time soon! We might be stuck here for weeks!!"

Byul blinked. "Oh." she retorted. "At least we have kimchi." she pointed emotionlessly.

Baekhyun frowned. "Yah. Can't you act a little afraid?" he pushed her forehead again. "Most girls would squeal in fright and burrow into my arms!"

Byul laughed a little. "Why would I be afraid when I can see when you're lying or not?" she looked at him. "And besides the Imperial Kitchen collects kimchi from here everyday. It doesn't take weeeeeeeeks, Ddong-ha." she told him dramatically.

Baekhyun snorted. "Fine fine. Forgot my bodyguard is different from all other girls." he muttered.

They fell silent again, a natural pace where conversations reached its slightly cooler part of the curve.

Byul fiddled with her robe. "Do you think I'm really different from the other girls?" she asked softly. "Is that a bad thing?"

Baekhyun turned to look at her in surprise. He never thought she'd be bothered about it.

"Honestly?" he responded. "You're same but different."

Byul shot him a look that told him it didn't clear anything up. "Well for one, you don't like anything the other normal girls like." Baekhyun explained. "You don't behave like them, talk like them, you're braver than even men and is one hell of a fighter."

Baekhyun let out a small breath. "But though you're different on the outside, you're still a girl inside." he shrugged. "You soften at the smallest things even though you act tough, you're vulnerable not to physical threats but emotional ones, and even the Han Eunbyul needs someone to protect her at times." he grinned at her.

Byul smiled softly, touched.

"So I guess it's a good thing really." Baekhyun whispered. "A really good thing."

Byul giggled softly, letting out a contented sigh. "You're not kidding?" she whispered back.

Baekhyun shot her an incredulous look. "Are you serious? Look at how much the EXO princes adore you!" he pouted and huffed. "They're all harboring tiny crushes on you. Every single one of them." he muttered.

Byul just laughed, finding that amusing. Baekhyun looked over at her, interested.

"Just asking, which one of the princes do you find the most handsome or attractive?" Baekhyun asked curiously, watching Byul's expression.

Byul furrowed her brows, clearly hadn't thought about that before. She turned to him with raised brows. "Well definitely not you."

Baekhyun pouted. "Yah!"

Byul laughed as he nudged her forehead again. "Arraso, I was kidding." she smiled. She thought about the twelve princes. They err dorky and lovely till the inside, not only their good looks.

"Honestly, all of you princes are amazing." she said sincerely. "All of you are wonderful people."

"But if you were to choose one....?" Baekhyun probed further.

Byul tapped her chin, running her mind through all the options and dismissing them. And she finally came to her last prince, the Crown Prince.

Byul looked at Baekhyun for a bit. *I think....you may be the most good looking one to me.*

"Hm. You all look the same." Byul responded, chucking the thought back into her head. Baekhyun pouted as he stared at her. "What! How can you not see that my immense handsomeness surpasses them all??"

"HAHAHAHA!" Byul burst into laughter, shaking her head in amusement. "Immense...handsomeness."

Baekhyun harrumphed. "Not as of you're some attractive catch either." he retorted.

Byul calmed down and shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm not." she responded truthfully. "I'm not attractive."

Baekhyun faltered. He didn't mean what he said. "No I wasn't serious." he quickly added. "I'm just teasing."

"Maybe." Byul muttered. "No need to be sensitive about it Ddong-ha, I know I'm not attractive. Who would want a tomboy for a girlfriend?" she shrugged.

"But there are so many other guards that like you, and I heard almost seventy five percent of the military academy boys had a crush on you." Baekhyun blurted, mentally slapping himself for letting Byul know he did some check on her.

"Well, they only saw my looks, they don't know me." Byul made a face. "Don't bother knowing either. And when they find out that actually I someone who places little value in love, they'll back away in the end. It happens."

Baekhyun couldn't believe there were people so stupid to back away from Byul. He thought knowing her on a deeper level made her more attractive, not less. But then again, most Korean men were just looking for a homemaker.

"I don't think you place little value in love," Baekhyun said slowly. "Because I've seen how important your family is to you. It's a different kind of love, yes, but it shows that relationships and ties are important to you. Maybe you just haven't realized."

Byul yawned. "Maybe."

She snuggled against the door and closed her eyes. "I wonder how long it's take for them to find us." she murmured, dozing off.

Baekhyun watched her, his heart beating at an irregular pace, biting his bottom lip and thinking hard. He looked at Byul, slowly dozing off and her head bobbing up and down.

Did she even know she was off to dreamland? One minute she was talking to him and the next she was slipping off. Baekhyun smiled.

He reached out to curl a lock of hair, that had escaped her ponytail, behind her ear. He let out a slow breath.

"You're attractive Han Eunbyul." he whispered to himself. "If those guys can't see it, they aren't worth you anyway. Even if someone needs to fight hard to reach you, to touch you, to move you..."

He let his fingers linger on her face. "I think you're totally worth it."

------

HELLO BABIEEEEESSS :DDD

OMO OMO GUESS WHAT? *I am such a captain obvious*

This fic got featured! ^^ I honestly didn't think I'd get featured so quickly again because I always thought there was a 15 week gap between features, but you guys made this possible after the new voting system was put up.

And I really really appreciate this! Thank you for your continuous support, JEONGMAL SARANGHAE!!! <3