Minzy grew nervous by the second as the carriage took her closer and closer to the palace. Sitting with her face cloaked, she began to wring her hands together as the carriage started to come to a light gallop letting her know that she was right at the gates of palace.

"What is your business here," a guard asked as he stepped forward to look into the carriage. Minzy slightly tilted her head, allowing the guard to see just enough of her face. The guard gasped in shock as he stumbled back and quickly shouted at the other guards, "QUICK OPEN THE GATE!"

Minzy grinned to herself, grateful that she still had it, at least for the moment. "Whoa," an unfamiliar guard walked up the carriage and it looked like he was probably someone in charge. "Who let you pass? The king is not accepting visitors today. I'm sorry but you must leave," he instructed.

But Minzy knocked on the roof of the carriage, making the driver jump down and open the door for her. "Hey did you not hear what I just said? The king said that we're not have any visitors today." The driver held out his hand and Minzy took it making her way out of the carriage to be stopped by the guard, "Did you not hear me?"

Minzy dropped the hood of her cloak and looked up at the man who stood in front of her, "I heard every word you said." The guard stood wide eyed at the queen, "Who are you?"

The guard quickly got down on one knee as he bowed his head, "I'm so sorry my queen I didn't know that was you. I am Teddy the new head guard."

"It's not your fault," Minzy nodded for him to get up as she walked into the palace. There were loud gasps from various servants and maids as they saw the queen enter. "Debrief me on what is going on," Minzy said as she walked through the halls.

Teddy quickly fell into step with the queen, "Yes my lady. The king has locked himself in his room for the past three days after he has come back from his trip to find that Seungri, the past guard had run off with Dara. Rumors have it that..."

Minzy stopped in her tracks and gave him a stern look, "Did I ask for rumors?" He shook his head as she continued, "I don't want to hear about any rumors of Seungri and Dara understood?" He nodded, "Good, now what else," she asked as she made her way to the main hall.

"Umm...well because of the fact that Dara and Seungri have run away together the king has ordered that he not be bothered and to not have anyone visit the palace."

Minzy stopped as she stood in front of her throne and looked to Teddy, "I need you to gather all of the servants, maids, guards, workers, everyone that works in the palace in this hall by tonight is that understood?"

"Yes my lady," Teddy nodded.

"Good," she nodded for him to take his leave.

Minzy stood in front of her throne a moment longer before walking away. As she walked through the halls passing a couple of shocked servants and maids, she didn't like all the big commotion, but couldn't stop it from happening as she made her way to her room. Taking a deep breathe, Minzy walked into her room. She looked around the room and felt a shiver run down her spine. Each way she looked brought a bad memory to mind, but the worst was when she looked at her neatly made bed. The endless nights of crying and the very fact of losing her baby there made her close her eyes to fight the tears that threatened to escape her eyes. It was a tender mercy, as the first thing she thought of was the smiling face of baby Daesung followed by Bom and CL who were laughing as they picked apples.

Minzy sighed at the soothing thoughts as she reopened her eyes. She thought of how grateful she was at the moment that the king was locked up in his room. This would allow her the time to get back into the groove of things.

A knock came at the door as Minzy gave herself one last glance. She smiled at herself feeling good that she still fit her wardrobe, "Come in."

Teddy bowed as he entered, "My lady everyone is waiting in the hall for you as you ordered."

"Thank you. I'll be down in a minute," Minzy nodded to him before he left. She turned and sighed as she pulled out the folded note and gazed at Seungri's handwriting as she smiled, "I'm going to be strong just like you want me to." She then tucked the note into her top draw before walking out to go and meet everyone that awaited her.

Minzy took a deep breath before walking out in plain view for everyone to see her. Just as expected there were loud gasps left and right as she turned and stood in front of her throne. She smiled as she looked around seeing familiar faces mixed with new ones to let them soak up the fact that she was really there. Opening her arms she widened her smile, "First I want to thank you all for all your hard work and efforts you all have put in to make things happen in this palace. Second..." she paused before continuing. "Second, I want to apologize for my long leave of absence. The kingdom has suffered great losses during my leave and I have no excuses to hide behind for it. I as queen am back to make things right again. Though it will take some time, if we work together we can take the hardships we've experienced and build upon them to make this kingdom stronger. As your queen I ask you, no I beg of you all to not speak badly of Seungri or Dara." There were a couple of whisperings that didn't go unnoticed by Minzy, "Do not take my words lightly. I will not tolerate such talk of them in my presence. Understood?"

"Yes my queen," the crowd nodded in understanding.

"Good. Now let us all join together to move the kingdom forward by having a celebration of the new beginnings of this kingdom that will take place in two weeks time." She paused as she looked to Teddy, "Tomorrow I want everyone in this kingdom to know that I am back and will speak to the people in three days time."

"Understood," Teddy bowed.

Minzy turned her attention back to the crowd, "Now let us get to work with happy hearts for a bright future for this kingdom."

Minzy walked through the dark halls as she made her way to the other side of the palace. As she came to the big gates, she sighed as she gave it a push to reveal the royal grave site. She walked up to the little grave that had started to be dotted by little patches of grass. Sighing deeply as she was doing a lot that day, she sat down by the grave and began to pick out the grass. 

Minzy paused to admire her work of cleaning off the grass, "Hi baby boy it's me mommy." She stopped to frown, "I know, mommy has been very bad to leave you all alone for so long, can you forgive me?" She sighed, "Mommy may be queen, but she has her weak moments too. But that's not what I've come here to talk about. I wanted to tell you how much mommy has changed in the year that she's been gone." She smiled to herself as she bent down and cupped her hand around , "I have a secret to share with you. You have a brother, his name is Daesung." Minzy chuckled at the thought of Daesung, "He's such a good baby, but you already know this don't you? You've been watching mommy all along in the heavens." She stood on her feet brushing off the grass, "Well please continue to look after me will you? Mommy needs to be strong. Goodnight my love. I'll come and visit you later." Minzy turned to see Teddy standing by the gate. Her smile faded as she stared coldly at him, "How long have you been standing there?!"

"I just got here," Teddy bowed and gave her an apologetic smile.

"How much did you hear?"

"I didn't hear a word," Teddy promised. 

Minzy nodded as she relaxed before walking back into the palace, letting Teddy close the gate again. "Teddy..."

"Yes my lady," Teddy said as he followed closely behind her.

"I would like you to find me a good horse."

"What's wrong with the horses we have?"

"Nothing, I just want a horse to myself."

"Okay, I'll get you a good strudy..."

"Make sure it's a fast horse."

"And a fast horse," Teddy nodded in understanding.

"Thank you. You may take your leave for the night. You need all the rest you can get for tomorrow," the queen said as she was nearing the stairs to get to her room.

"Goodnight my lady," Teddy bid his farewell before she made her way up the stairs.

As Minzy was nearing her room she paused to see GD's light was on. In an instant she found herself standing in front of his door. She stood in place as she silently debated on whether or not to enter. Placing her hand onto the knob, Minzy thought of the various pros and cons of going in and vice versa. A shuffling in his room made her quickly pull back as she held her chest from the sound that had scared her half to death. Seeing the shadow of his feet moving around in his room, Minzy retreated to her room deciding that tonight wasn't the night to face him, not yet. She needed a little more time to prepare herself to see him again.

Author's Notes:

boo i know, a filler chapter how boring lol. hopefully it wasn't too boring for ya. but thanks for reading, commenting and subscribing! <3