"Your Royal Highness, are you looking for me? You could have send for a messenger to pass the message on to me instead of coming here on your own..."

"I heard from Jaejoong that your sister is here... Is she alright?" 

"I guess she is better now.. Finally falling asleep after she had been crying for days..." as Yoochun spoke in a sombre manner which made Min Ho's heart ache badly.

How sad she must have been knowing just how much she love and cared for Haraboeji...

"Your Royal Highness.. Are you alright?"

"To know that Shin Hye is not fine... There's no way I can be feeling alright about it..."

"Now that she's here.. I think it would get better for her... Don't worry, Your Royal Highness."

"I hope she does get better..."

"Actually... I was about to meet you Your Royal Highness..." as Yoochun spoke hesitantly.

"What is it? How can I be of help?"

"She needs to do something for herself and not to wallow after the death of the elder."

"What?! Haraboeji has passed on?! When?!"

Why does this happened in the month that I was kept busy here? In all the months that I've visited in secret everything was fine... 

"A week ago according to Shin Hye, Your Royal Highness..."

"Why didn't she informed you about it...?"

"She said she didn't want to bother me since I am busy with my works here..."

"Shin Hye must be feeling terrible for the whole week! Goes to say that she had nightmares throughout that she could not even sleep?"

"That's right Your Royal Highness..."

I am sorry I couldn't be there for you Shin Hye... Even now... Even when I am standing here....

Min Ho zoned out for a while as his heart and mind was clouded with thoughts of Shin Hye which prompted Yoochun to ask if he was alright. Min Ho needed some time to recover himself before he spoke.

"Does Shin Hye know about my real identity yet?"

"No... I did not inform her as you had requested, Your Royal Highness... But why do you ask?"

"Alright.. You said you wanted her to do something for herself right? This means that I can suggest, for you to allow her to help you in retrieving or preparing the medicine... You needed the help anyways and she is well versed with all the medicinal herbs and its uses... Just as you are..."

"Would that really be okay, Your Royal Highness?" as Yoochun carefully raised his question because asking for favours directly is not allowed with the old rulings. But Min Ho was already breaking most of the old rules that were set.

"Yes, Yoochun... Definitely okay... But allow her time to rest and mourn over the loss properly instead of putting her to work right away. I also seek your help to take care of her. If she needs anything to get better please inform me.. Alright?" 

"Yes Your Royal Highness. Thank you very much for your generous act."

As the compound of the Royal Palace is vast, Min Ho had no qualms about having Shin Hye around and this would also allow him to ensure her safety and provided her with the golden opportunity of having access to all the books that she can ever read and to all the medicinal herbs that she can get her hands on, which she has great interest in. 

From that day on, Min Ho would pay a visit in secret at night to look at Shin Hye from afar as though he had tresspassed his own palace. He would be smiling to himself just by looking at her. He knew he love her greatly with all of his heart but he was too ashamed of himself to face her upfront after what he had said to her. He was content to just get by with her presence in the palace. For now, he just wanted her to be happy and healthy, and also the chance to be able to do what what she had always dreamt of doing. 

A year had passed from the day Shin Hye had moved into the palace compound. After her struggles to overcome her fears, she had since been a great help and an assistant to Yoochun and was interested to be a physician just like her brother. That day, Shin Hye seek permission from her brother to head out of the palace to purchase some plain handkerchiefs for embroidery works. She was accompanied by one of the palace maidens as Yoochun would not allow her to be out on her own. 

As she was walking towards the textile shop, she passed by a medicinal shop and the back of a person caught her interest that she bravely walked towards him and tapped on his shoulder.

"Min Ho?"

However, when the man turned around, she was disappointed that it was not who she had expected him to be. 

Shin Hye immediately apologized for her blunder and moved on to what she had initially wanted to do. 

"Shin Hye, did you know the person just now?" asked the palace maiden with much curiosity.

"Nope.. I did not.. I got the wrong person..." while she tries to hide her disappointment. 

She bought the things that she needed and returned to the palace. Yoochun saw her walking towards the medicinal hall and called out to her when he noticed that she was pulling a long face.

"Shin Hye.. What's wrong?"

"Oh Yoochun Oppa~ Nothing I am fine..."

"No more secrets Shin Hye.. Tell me what's wrong..."

"I thought I saw Min Ho earlier... From the back I thought it was him... I guess its just my illusion..."

"Huh? Where did you see him Shin Hye?"

"At the medicinal shop in the market..."

"Oh okay..." Yoochun heaved a sigh of relief as he thought that Shin Hye had uncovered the secret that they have been hiding from her. And to distract her further, Yoochun asked her to prepare some herbal tea infused with ginseng for himself.

"Arasso Yoochun Oppa.. Is it two portion as usual?"

"Yes.."

"Why do you always drink two portion of the same thing over and over again?"

"Because the King wanted you to prepare it.. To combat heat.. The weather has been bad of late... And prevention is better than cure..."

"Alright then... I'll get to it..."

Min Ho would order for that drink every single day just to be able to taste the very drink that Shin Hye had first prepared specially for him when he dropped by her home for the first time after he had passed out from hunger. The drink that was served during dinner. Besides that, he had also been ordering the beef ribs stew every single night through Yoochun, to the extent of Yoochun to get sick of it no matter how delicious it was, and had to come up with different excuses just to prevent Shin Hye from finding out the truth. He had been using the staffs name or the staffs' family members who wanted to have a taste of her delicious stew; and Shin Hye was more than glad to be of help. 

Everything went on as per normal and there was peace in the Royal Palace. 

* * *

There was to be a secret meeting between the three friends, Min Ho, Yoochun and Jaejoong once again, after Jaejoong received a tip off.

"What is going on Jaejoong? Why have you called for us to be gathered like this?"

"Your Royal Highness... There have been news going around that Emperor Yuan is expanding his territory and have been deploying spies to inflitrate our state."

"This is bad news... Totally bad news... What are we supposed to do, Your Royal Highness? What do you suggest?" as Yoochun chimed in.

"We have barely raised this Kingdom back up to its feet and now this? Am I not meant to be sitting on the throne? Am I going against the path that I am supposed to be walking on?"

"You are definitely fitted for the position Your Royal Highness.. The people of this Kingdom have expressed their gratitude towards you... And we cannot let Emperor Yuan take over as he is known to be a tyrant too Your Royal Highness..."