“Where were you last night?”

  Lucas kept his gaze on Andrea as she fiddled with her teapot. “I came by dawn to check on you before morning school but you weren’t here,” he said.

  “In the woods,” Andrea replied, careful with her words. She wasn’t lying; just partially telling the truth. “Taking a stroll.”

  “In the early morning?” Lucas sounded doubtful. “When you’re usually sleeping, and with the possibility of danger lurking around?”

  She scoffed. “I have been in the Woods for years now, Luke, and there is no danger.”

  “Still, Rick told you never to go there when the sun is not out yet.”

  The teapot made a faint sound of protest as Andrea slammed it onto the table. “He said ‘beware of the shadows’, not ‘never go in there.’” She clenched her teeth. “Besides, Rick isn’t here anymore.”

  Questions.

  The more she talked to Sehun, the more questions she had.

  Answers.

  The more their conversation deepened, the more answers she needed.

  “I don’t understand. Rick is my father.”

  Sehun looked at Andrea as if he was deeply troubled by something, puzzled by what Andrea had just said, but he didn’t think she was lying. “Rick is not – “

  “Maybe we’re referring to different people, Sehun.”

  “No.” He shook his head firmly. “Names are powerful words, Andrea, and when one man exists with a name, there is never another with the same. And, the cottage you pointed to is the one Rick used to live in, as I recall.”

  “So you knew him?” Andrea asked. “You knew my –… Rick?”

  “Yes.” A cloud of sadness stormed over Sehun’s eyes. “He was my mentor, before he died. But he never… he never told me he had a child…”

  “Maybe he kept it a secret?”

  “He doesn’t even have a wife. His only family I knew he had was his sister, who has also passed away.”

  “But – “ A sudden thought hit Andrea like a wave of explosion. “Sehun… is Rick… is he a Stargazer, too?”

  Before he could reply, Sehun snapped his head to the direction of his right and hissed. “Someone’s here.”

  “Wait – “

  In a flash, Sehun’s silhouette was nowhere to be seen anymore.

  Taking it as her cue, Andrea dashed as quick as she could back to her cottage, feeling the wind around her pick up as if wrapping around her, and then she heard it.

  Sehun’s voice. His message to her through the wind.

  ‘I know you have many questions, girly, and I will give you the answers you seek the best I can. But what you just told me about, about Rick being your father… I need to require some answers myself I do not have. When I do, I will call to you and meet at where we first met, okay? But meanwhile, do not try to find us – you will not succeed on your own. And for the last question, girly… I know you already know the answer yourself.’

  “Andy? An-deeeeee? Andrea!”

  She snapped out of her flashback. “Luke, can I ask you something?”

  “As long as it isn’t strange.”

  “Had Rick ever mentioned… his wife?”

  Lucas blinked. “… Now that is a strange question.”

  “Luke, I’m serious. Had he ever mentioned about her or… or anything about her giving birth to me?”

  “Is this what this is about?” Lucas stood up from his chair and walked toward Andrea. “You… you doubt that you’re Rick’s child?”

  That’s too quick to assume, Andrea thought. “N-no, it’s just… I’m curious and – “

  “To be honest, I once doubted it, too.”

  Her breathing stopped for a moment. “W-what?”

  Lucas, with his blue eyes shining the way that meant he was in deep thought, leaned back against the counter. “When I first met you, Andy, I didn’t believe that you were Rick’s child. I’ve seen him a few times in the village before, and never have I seen him with any woman or even look at any woman. But then suddenly, one day he announces that you, a beautiful young girl who doesn’t look the slightest like him, is his daughter?” He shook his head. “I thought he was lying; I thought you were – “

  “Adopted,” Andrea finished for him. “You thought I was adopted.”

  Lucas nodded. “But I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Andy. He looks at you the way a father would his precious child, the wanting to protect you from any harm visible in his eyes. And that day, when you shot your first rabbit… you should’ve seen the pride flowing out of him, although you ran away to cry.”

  “But – “

  “You two bear so many similarities, Andy. Sometimes you talk like him, sometimes you move like him, and sometimes… you just remind me of him.”

  “But you can’t be sure I'm his child.” Andrea wrung her hands together. “You have no proof.”

  Lucas shook his head. “The only proof you want has passed away – Rick himself. But it doesn’t really matter, does it, Andy? He raised you, and whether or not he is your father – “

  “It matters a lot, Luke!” Andrea frowned. “If he’s not my father, then who are my parents? Is it really true that I had such a severe illness and lost my memory? Is – “

  “Why are you all of a sudden asking all this?” Lucas tilted Andrea’s chin up with his finger, searching her eyes. “Did something happen?”

  She refused to look him in the eyes. “N-no…”

  “You have the same blood as his, Andrea.”

  “But you aren’t sure – “

  “Rick is your family! That is no lie, and that’s it!”

  “No!” Andrea shot back, noticing the flicker of orange in Lucas’ eyes. “There’s something you’re not telling me, is there? I can feel it!”

  “You’re being too sensitive – “

  *Knock knock!*

  Two knocks on Andrea’s cottage door cut her and Lucas' argument off. Angry and frustrated, she pushed Lucas out of her way and stormed to open the door. “Who – “

  “Are you alright?”

  She forgot what she had just been doing, along with the anger, as soon as she saw the person in a cloak, standing in front of her. “B-Baek?”

  Baekhyun smiled, a smile so radiant that Andrea felt the ends of tilting upwards. “Good noon, Andrea.” He craned his neck to look over her shoulder. “Is everything alright? I thought I heard raised voices.”

  Andrea instantly melted when she saw the genuine concern in the prince’s clear, brown pools. “It’s just…” she sighed. “Luke is being unreasonable again.”

  Instead of storming into her cottage up to Lucas and demanding him to be nicer to Andrea, Baekhyun just smiled at her, a hint of mischief glinting in his eyes. “Is that so? Then I guess you would like to leave a little while, no?”

  “Leave?” She asked. “To where?”

  “The village,” Baekhyun simply replied.

  “Why – “

  “Would you like to take a stroll around the village with me, Andrea? To let me show you the intriguing corners of it you might have never noticed, to allow me to let you lose yourself in the wonderful, overwhelming feeling of happiness with people dancing all around you merrily, in the center plaza?” He held out his hand. “Would you, Miss Archer, bestow me the honor to take you to the festival that is taking place this afternoon in the village?”

  A festival? Andrea had never been to one before. Baekhyun's smile seems so inviting, and I've never seen what a festival looks like...

  Without anymore hesitation, she smiled and took his hand and cloak without even glancing back. “I would love to, your highness.”

  Andrea didn’t know what the festival was to celebrate for this time. Baekhyun knew she didn’t know, otherwise he wouldn’t have snuck out the castle with his cloak on, and Andrea wouldn’t have agreed to go with him. She didn’t know.

  And Baekhyun intended on letting it stay like that.

[A/N] So... Chapter 11 will make you guys explode. NO KIDDING. Well, maybe the last few paragraphs... and then the beginning of Chapter 12... MUAHAHAHA. I was spazzing so hard when writing it I had to put my head in the fridge for a few times to calm down LOL.

I was planning to update again soon, but I'm going on a cruise tomorrow for almost a week... and when I get back school is going to start again, so IDRK when I can update again. Soon, hopefully, for the sake of my lovely readers' heart xP

THANK EVERYONE OF YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING AND COMMENTING! AND WELCOME, NEW LOVELY SUBBIES <3 /starts singing 'can you feel the love tonight'/