Andrea jumped onto her feet. She felt guilty, as if being caught doing something bad. “Lucas!”

  If Lucas had heard her, he didn’t show it because his glare was fixated on the boy sitting casually on the grass.

  “Luke – “

  “What is he doing here?” Lucas’ voice was deep, somewhere between a demand and a growl. “Why were you talking to him?”

  “Luke, he’s the – “

  “Goddamn prince, I know.” He turned to Andrea and locked gaze with her. “And that’s why I’m asking why you’re talking to him.”

  “I was the one who approached her, actually.” Baekhyun stood up, with no sign of irritation on his face. He wasn’t mad at Lucas for interrupting the conversation between him and Andrea; however, he was kind of curious of him, wanting to know what was his relationship was with the girl he wanted to learn more about so much. He held out his hand. “I’m Baekhyun. And you are…?”

  Lucas studied him with protection written all over his face. “Lucas Miller,” he replied, not shaking Baekhyun’s hand, being rude on purpose. “Andrea’s legal guardian.”

  Andrea almost knocked over the bucket of water again. “W-what?!” She spurted. “Legal guardian?! W-who said you – “

  “Who did you expect it to be after Rick passed away then, Andy?”

  “I don’t need one anymore – “

  “You’re not 18 yet,” he shot back.

  She hated this. Andrea hated that Lucas hadn’t even bothered to tell her something this big for three months. She thought that although she had lost her father to a heart attack, she was free without anyone to restrict her, but then now she just knew that she still had a legal guardian, and he was just a year older than her. It also annoyed her how Lucas was glaring at Baekhyun as if she were something needed protection. It made her feel… that he viewed her weak and fragile and not strong enough to defend herself.

  “Why does it have to be you?”

  Lucas rolled his eyes. “Because other than Rick, I’m the only one who knows you have only 3 years of memory.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can make yourself – “

  “I didn’t give myself this position, Andy! Rick gave it to me!”

  Andrea stopped breathing for a second. “How could he have given it to you when his death was an accident?”

  He bit his lip, choosing his words carefully. “There was… there was this letter I found in his drawer – “

  “You flipped through his drawer?!”

  “What do you mean, only 3 years of memory?”

  Baekhyun, who had been quiet the whole time while his frown kept deepening, couldn’t hold in his confusion anymore. “Why did you say – “

  “I didn’t say that.” Lucas looked away, silently cursing at himself for letting slip that secret and couldn’t meet the prince’s eyes. He tried to cover what he had just said with a lie. “No one said that – “

  “You’re lying.” A fourth voice appeared. “I heard it, too.”

  Andrea watched as Lucas turned rigid the moment he saw Kai. His face flushed red with anger, but before he could – Andrea guessed – glare holes into the boy who just appeared, a whistle Andrea had heard a few times before reached their ears.

  “Dammit,” Lucas cursed under his breath. Why was his father calling him right at this precise moment? He didn’t want to leave Andrea alone with these two people, especially when one was the crown freaking prince and the other the person he hated the most, but another whistle, a more urgent and demanding one, left him no choice but to leave.

  “I gotta go,” he said through clenched teeth to Andrea, reluctantly. “Promise me, Andrea, don’t let them do anything to you, okay?”

  She rolled her eyes. “They’re not monsters, Luke.”

  “You can’t be sure.” Turning back, he growled. “If you touch one hair on her body, I swear…” he let the sentence trail off, then ran toward the direction of the village after throwing a few more glares.

***

  Kai was the first one to break the silence. “Ouch,” he said. “Does he really hate me that much?”

  “More than you could imagine,” Andrea muttered, but the boys still caught it. The confusion on Baekhyun’s face deepened.

  “Did something I don’t know of happen?”

  “Baek – “

  “Mr. Head-of-the-Royal-Guards here,” Andrea slightly scoffed, “watched as Luke almost got beaten to death a few months ago.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “You were standing a few feet away with wide eyes doing nothing. What is it like, then?”

  Kai raked his hand through his hair and groaned. “I wanted to help, okay? Stars, I was about to help when you appeared!”

  “You – “

  “Why are you here, Kai?” Baekhyun cut off their argument, eyes darting between them like watching a tennis game. “And you two seem like you’ve met before this morning.”

  “Only seen, not met.”

  Andrea scoffed. “I don’t recall meeting a stuck-up royal, too.”

  Kai’s jaw dropped. “You – “

  She picked up her skirts while throwing a mocking smug expression at him. “My apologies, but I must go now – “

  “Wait!” Baekhyun and Kai said at the same time.

  “Stay,” Baekhyun said a second later. “We didn’t even start to, you know…” he smiled shyly. “Chat?”

  Andrea felt her face start to warm up.

  Kai frowned, deeply disturbed. “Why do you even want to talk to her?” He didn’t recall his best friend being so… blunt before. “Why?

  Andrea made an unbelief noise with her nose. “You got a problem with that?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  Suddenly angered, she didn’t want to politely refuse the prince’s ‘invitation’ anymore, seeing how it irritated Kai so much. Instead, she tightened her grip on the bucket and turned to Baekhyun. “But it looks like the prince has no objection, and no one can say no to the prince, right?” She turned to smirk a little at Kai. “Not even when somebody has a problem with it.”

  “You – “ Kai started.

  “Come on, Baek.” Andrea emphasized the nickname and mentally laughed in triumph when she saw the shock on Kai’s face. Even the ends of Baekhyun’s mouth were playfully tilted upwards. “I know just the place where we won’t be interrupted."

***

  “Why aren’t you inviting us to your cottage?”

  “Why are you even coming with us?”

  Kai scoffed. “Did you honestly think I would let the Southern Commonwealth's prince walk away with you, under no protection?”

  “There’s no – “

  “And you might even want to seduce him, like every other girl in the village.”

  “Kai – “

  Andrea stopped and turned back, waiting for and watching the two boys step over fallen tree trunks and brush away branches and leaves from their faces. “What does ‘seduce’ mean?”

  A twig snapped and hit Kai right in the face. She doesn’t honestly…

  “You really don’t know?” Baekhyun’s gentle and curious tone was like a melody to Andrea’s ears, and she just suddenly so wanted to know what that word meant. She shook her head, but instead of answering her question, Baekhyun asked, “Why?”

  “W-why?”

  “Why…” he studied her for a moment, “do you have loss of memory?” A second later, he frowned and shook his head. “Nevermind that, my apologies, it is okay if it’s your privacy or something of that sort…”

  Tell those only you trust, Andrea.

  Andrea hesitated, Rick’s warning ringing like a bell in her head. Do I trust them? She thought. Do I… do I trust Baekhyun?

  What danger is there to tell anyone, anyways?

  “It’s…” she took a deep breath and decided that there was nothing to lose. “I'm not sure myself. I just woke up one day three years ago and couldn’t remember anything.” She panicked when she saw the faces of the two boys. “I-it’s not as if losing memory is uncommon… right?”

  The next few seconds of silence answered her fear. “B-but…” her voice turned into a whisper. “Weird things happen often, right? A-and as Rick told me, there’s magic – “

  “Magic isn’t supposed to be here anymore, Andrea.” Kai and Baekhyun finally reached the top of the hill she took them to, a place which wasn’t a part of the Forbidden Woods, and Baekhyun stared at the creek, watching the water flow at a slow, measured pace. “Stargazers, magic…”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you don’t.” Kai found a place he preferred and sat down on the grass. “You must not know anything about the world we live in, I assume?”

  Andrea nodded reluctantly, secretly not liking the feeling that Kai was viewing her as someone with no knowledge at all. “I only know… a little. Like how some royal killed another royal and then the Woods became forbidden to enter.”

  Baekhyun stiffened, and Andrea caught his movement, raising an eyebrow. Kai cleared his throat awkwardly. “Andrea, I don’t know if it’s okay for Baek – “

  “It’s okay,” Baekhyun smiled at the both of them, leaning on a tree trunk behind him, staring at the glistening water. “Everybody knows, so so should she.”

  After heaving a sigh, Kai cleared his throat and then looked at Andrea. “Do you know who the previous king's advisor was?”

  “No,” she replied. "I thought there isn't one."

  “There was, and it was Baek’s father, Byun Soo Jun.”

  “May he rest in peace,” Baekhyun whispered, making Andrea’s eyes go wide as soon as she understood.

  Oh My God…

  “And he was the advisor of,” Kai gave Baekhyun a sad look, “the Park family. Yes, Baek’s family wasn’t actually the original one on the throne.

  "Legend has it that centuries ago, when the Southern Commonwealth was first born, there were four families in charge, the Parks, the Byuns, the Kims, and the Dos. Ancestors of the Kim family, my family, didn’t want the throne, only to be royal knights, to fight and win for the realm they founded and loved so dearly. Ever since then, sons in my family have always been the head of the Royal Guards. The ancestors of the Do family also had no wish nor want to be king. So the sons of the Do family have always been dukes.”

  “Like right now, as Duke Do Kyungsoo owns half of the Southern Commonwealth’s property.” Baekhyun smiled when mentioning his other friend. Kai smiled and went on.

  “As for the ancestors of the Parks and the Byuns, both of them were too humble and didn’t want to take the throne themselves. After a voting among the four best friends of the four families, the prime ancestor of the Park family was chosen to be king, to rule this realm with the ancestor of the Byuns by his side as his visor and best friend. For centuries, every first son of the four families took on the same role his father had, and the Southern Commonwealth was in balance and peace. Everyone lived happily as the realm prospered, everyone loved and respected the king, the sons of the four families always considered themselves blood brothers…”

  “But the Parks had a secret.” Baekhyun pushed his back off the tree he was leaning on, picked up a leaf that had fallen to the ground, and let it drift away with the wind. It amazed Andrea how fluid his movements were, and… and just how perfect his every move was.

  “What,” she coughed to stop herself from staring at him. “W-what secret?”

  Her breathing stopped when Baekhyun locked gaze with her. “They have special abilities.”

  She tried to frown. “I don’t understand – “

  “Not just common special abilities like never missing when shooting, Andrea,” Kai explained. “Special abilities… as in magic powers.”

  All that could be heard was the ruffle of leaves from the wind and the water splashing against the sides of the creek. “Magic… powers?” Andrea’s voice came out as a whisper. Something clicked in her head. “Does this have anything to do with the Stargazers?”

  Baekhyun smiled. “You’re clever, Andrea. Yes, the rumor of Stargazers having magic powers isn’t merely a rumor. They were the supporters of the Park family, ones who were proved to possess abnormal abilities like the Parks. And my uncle banished them from this realm when the Park family fell.”

  “But – “ Andrea scrunched her eyebrows, still trying to let everything sink in her head. Strangely, the spot right underneath her left collarbone started stinging again. “What’s wrong with that? It’s not like they were using, I don’t know if it even exists… dark magic?”

  “No matter what, a country should never be ruled by magic – “

  “Don’t quote your uncle’s words, Baek.” Kai sounded angry, as if they had had this argument before for many times. “You know you don’t really believe that.” Before the shorter male could argue back, Kai turned to Andrea. “For the record, we aren’t sure if this secret was really a ‘secret.’ Maybe the founders, the originals of this realm had actually known, and maybe it was even a reason why they chose the Park family to rule. But for generations, the fathers of our family must have forgotten to tell their sons this, and the Parks didn’t mention it, too. Eventually, it became… a secret. I mean, that’s my theory. Besides, nobody really believed that magic exists. I bet even you still have a few doubts that there really is magic in this world.”

  “And you believe there is?”

  Kai and Baekhyun shared a look before nodding their heads simultaneously. “We have… witnessed it with our own eyes before. Within a friend of ours.”

  “A friend?”

  “Park Chanyeol. He could… he summoned fire right in front of our eyes, trying to protect himself.”

  “H-how…? Why? When?”

  “It all happened because of a fire.” This time, it was Baekhyun’s turn to tell the story.

  “7 years ago, this realm was still ruled by King Park Chan Young, Chanyeol's father, and my father was his best friend and advisor, just like their fathers. Them two, along with Kai’s father and Kyungsoo’s father, were still The Four. No one… no one ever thought that a betrayal would occur among them.”

  Andrea wanted to ask more questions, but then stopped herself when she saw how Baekhyun’s eyes darkened as he continued.

  “One day, 7 years ago, King Park Chan Young murdered my father.”

Author's Note: Brick me, please? Becoz I'm sorry for not updating TTTT And I'm not sure if something like this wouldn't happen again... but I THANK YOU ALL WHO HAVE BEEN READING THIS STROY OF MINE OHKAI. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU /THROWS BAEK/.

WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT HIM... /SIGHS DREAMILY/