Hi!

A double update coming up! Do stay and read!

Feel free to make guesses and ask questions ^.^ I am happy to see them. :p 

@cholatta: Yours is the most accurate... but why do you have to spit it all out in one single comment?! Now I feel obliged to complicate things further. T^T Aigooo

Anyhow, thank you all for your kind comments and also your subscriptions! *bows*

Now... to turn in for the 'night'. My eye bags are already sagging. *Yawns like a hippo* 

And and... Yunjae is up in the next chapter. I sincerely apologise for their slow progress... but them, beginning with a cool start and 'heating' up along the way will ensure that their relationship will be spicier in the future. *winks*

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The following night...

POV from Yoochun.

It's a pain to be living in the central plain... but that is also the most accessible part of the country. I can head in all four directions as and when necessary, which means my complains about the distance is invalid. Lets just say that this period isn't really the most appropriate for me to be travelling so far away from home.

I know Junsu probably won't need me... and he won't want me around either... but you know... I still want to be close by. I'm going to be a dad. That fact is already embedded deep in my mind a long time ago. I admit that I am looking forward to it... and I am most confidently and perfectly capable of taking care of him and our son... and so I assume the baby will be male. Anyhow, there is no one better than me for that job.

He will take some time to think like that though... or maybe never... I have to work doubly hard to impress. I intend to get him what he wants to eat after I am done with work. The north isn't too far if I travel on horse... no?

I was still in the formal southern capital, finalising the details for the opening of the new route for sea trading with one of my general when I heard someone calling out for me desperately. I was a little reluctant to answer him at first, since I am already dead tired and dying for some sleep.

The trip is supposed to last only a day, and I will depart early the very next day and head north. That was the initial plan. Who would have expected that I will need a fast forward in plans?

“Your majesty! Your servant feels deeply apologetic to have to interrupt your busy schedule, but sir Yunho have given this humble servant specific instructions to convey this message.”

What? Instead of apologising, he could leave me alone. I would love that. However, since Yun, that bastard, has something so important to say, I shall hear him out.

“Your majesty. The trophy is missing.”

What trophy?! What just got stolen?!

Don't tell me... NO. That's hardly possible! He is so heavy into the last trimester... and he can't even walk a few steps without swaying! How can he possibly escape?! Is this some sort of hoax?

“No, your majesty! Sir Yunho is still on the search. He will come over shortly to meet up with you.”

The heck!!!

“We will get every search on patrol. Sir Yunho is already leading some.”

Seriously?! I cannot tell if this is some sort of joke.

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“WHAT?!!” Yoochun roared and treaded menacingly towards the man, hands clenched into a fist, knuckles white and veins protruding. The exhausted messenger squeaked pitifully and prepared himself for the worse, but to his surprise, Yoochun just lumbered past him, headed straight for the stables.

“Sire! Won’t you wait for sir Yunho?” The messenger panicked upon seeing the direction that the king is headed. Yunho did instruct him to try and hold Yoochun in check before he arrives. The king is virtually unstoppable, so the man resigned to fate, hanging his head low while he witness Yoochun mount his royal stallion and disappear into the night.

It is already dark, and Yoochun is all alone on the roads, without a single word about where he plans to go.

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The following morning… back in the central plain.

“JUNG YUNHO!!! COME OUT!!” “WHERE ARE YOU?!! YOU HAVE A LOT OF EXPLANING TO DO!!!” Yoochun voice caused the gelid stone walls around the main palace to shake as he woke the entire palace’s worth of its occupants with his excessive sound pollution.

Throwing open all the doors, the king searched desperately for any signs of the 'claimed to be' missing Junsu, still hanging on to a tiny strand of hope that he is being trolled. No one. Not a single soul in sight as he throws open the door to Junsu’s chamber and charges in like a rabid animal.

“JUNSU!!” “YAHHH!!!” Yoochun shouted Junsu’s name for the first time. He wouldn’t usually address Junsu by the boy’s name, but to think the first time he does that is under such circumstances. The man can feel his heart beating painfully against his ribcage as his head throbbed with his blood pressure spiking dangerously.

Yoochun was about to tear down the house when his servants showed up timidly and revealed to him, the fact that Yunho had brought Junsu out from the palace a day ago.

The messenger from earlier almost peed his pants when Yoochun is fuming, so much so that he had forgotten to notify the king that Yunho and Junsu were in the northern plain when the boy disappeared, not in the central plains.

This information disclosed to Yoochun only incensed the man further.

Without resting even for a second, the man made his way back to his horse, galloping off into the horizon. It will take him a whole day no matter how fast he travels, but he did not hesitate, not even a single droplet of water touched his already chapped lips before he embarked on his lengthy journey north.

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POV from Yoochun

I am feeling so lost right now.

Northern plain?! How the heck did he get there? Isn't the north where he came from at the first place?! That will explain why he ran away!! STUPID JUNG YUNHO!!

Right now, aside from immense piss-ness, my head is also a whirling mess of thoughts. Very negative ones.

What if he died?! He is very delicate right now… in very bad shape… and needs the best care he can get. What the hell can he achieve outside of the palace?! What in the world is he doing so far away anyway?!

I can’t! I can’t accept this!! I can’t lose him!! Not this way!! Not like that!! NOT WHEN I FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE I ACTUALLY FEEL SO COMPELLED TO LOVE!!!

Also, I don’t even know how my child look like!! The gender… the… I’M GOING CRAZY!!!!

GOD!! If I have to choose one, please at least give him back to me. I will be contented with just him!! I don’t need anything else!!

I HAVEN’T LOVED HIM PROPERLY!! I DON’T WANT HIM TO DIE HATING ME!! BLAMING ME!! I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING FOR HIM BESIDES TREATING HIM SO INAPPROPRIATELY!! PLEASE GIVE ME A CHANCE TO GO BACK IN TIME!! I SWEAR I WILL MAKE IT UP TO HIM!! I WILL CHANGE MY APPROACH!! DEFINITELY!!

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Meanwhile… At Jaejoong’s place…

“Junsu. Wake up.” Jaejoong, now spent and covered in blood smears as well as spatters, patted the unconscious boy on his cheeks, but to no avail.

Fearing the worse, the healer quickly got up from where he was seated and dug through his medicinal chest for a bottle of ammonia salt. Gripping the bottle tightly, the man prayed hard that his last method will work. With beads of sweat trickling down his forehead, the man hurried back to Junsu side and positioned the bottle beside the boy’s nose.

“Junsu! Not now! You can sleep later. Stay with me.” Junsu stirred and coughed while Jaejoong patted his pallid cheeks again. The boy looked to be in a daze as he stared back at Jaejoong blankly. With labored breathing, the boy opened his bloodless lips to speak, but nothing came.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you now. You have to try as hard as you can! I am here to help and I can see the head now. Just a few more times will do!” Jaejoong gripped onto Junsu’s hands tightly as the boy grimaces, shivering and hitching his breath a few times. Jaejoong quickly wrapped him up with another layer of cloth and demands that he tries again.

It has been nearly an entire night since Junsu is referred to Jaejoong, and the healer knows that the boy will not make it if they delay any longer. After the race against time, and being so close to succession, the floor beside Junsu is littered with bloodied clothe, and the linen beneath Junsu is already ensanguined and pooling, spreading all the way up to his upper back.

“One, two, three, PUSH.” Jaejoong yelled, for the first time in his life. One can hardly ever see him so worked up. Junsu does as he is told; biting the inside of his cheeks til they are erythematous and ulcerated.

Without giving Junsu a break, Jaejoong pressurised the boy again. Junsu complied. Then, for the first time in years, the healer beamed, genuinely excited. “AGAIN! Junsu! You can do this!”

“Harder!” “We are almost there! Hurry! You need to stop bleeding soon, or even I can’t save you!” Jaejoong cheered on, trying to stay as optimistic as possible. Junsu gave two consecutive pushes and almost passes out again, had Jaejoong not slapped him square across the face. The boy didn't even have the mood to pout, under the influence of unbearable pain and never ending stress Jaejoong is subjecting him to.

“Give us one last one!” Jaejoong used a hand to clean off the sweat on his and Junsu's forehead and prepped his grisly hands to receive the infant.

“I SEE IT!! I SEE IT!! GOOD JOB!!” Jaejoong almost clapped, but his hands were too tied up with the slippery small biceps of the ‘bundle of joy’ that just emerged. Wasting no time, the healer grabbed the cleanest clothe he could reach to wipe off the bloody and gelatinous mess on the infant’s skin, before swaddling it with a towel he had prepared since they started the birth process. Jaejoong is just glad that he got to use it.

“WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” The infant’s late first cry broke the silence in the cold room, followed by a few ray of sunlight invading the small windows of the hut. Somewhat relieved that the baby looks human and alive, Jaejoong continued to work on Junsu.

Taking a small knife, Jaejoong sever the umbilical cord connecting the two and put the wrapped up baby away on his own bed before attending to Junsu again. The boy had slipped back into unconsciousness by the time Jaejoong was done retrieving the placenta.

Sliding the sheets out from under Junsu, the healer trudged over to his water vats to refill his depleting brass basin with water. Tucking all the bloodied sheets and clothes away, Jaejoong proceeded to wash Junsu up while waiting for the medicine to boil. Using the last of his remaining strength, the man half dragged half carried Junsu over to his own bed and laid the boy beside his child.

“Good job. Take the rest you deserve.” Jaejoong smoothed Junsu’s soft brown hair and pulled the few strains away, tucking them behind the boy’s ears.

Setting the bowl of medicinal drink on the table to cool, Jaejoong rinse himself down briskly as well and slipped onto the edge of the bed, back facing the infant as the tiny creature remains silent. The three humans lay together in silence on a single bed, and since they do not require much space, all three rested comfortably, replenishing the night’s worth of energy.

TBC

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