#the path that used to be familiar it’s now unfamiliar / minjun

[atsevenseas]

tag drop — muses

[mintvender]

The Final Chess Piece

HaremAU!

Synopsis: As a child, he found himself buried in the warmth of his mother. When that is taken away, he desperately clings to other. But of course, Taehyung with his unique mind found himself fated to be alone; like the bright stars that together light up the sky but is forever separate by the thousands of miles between them. Amidst the darkness, however, there is a guaranteed light source in every black hole. When Taehyung found his, it is guaranteed to be a euphoric moment. 

Warnings: Profanity, child abuse, indirect kills, Angst

Word Count: 11.6k

A/n: Finally finished the first part of the ongoing serie. This is an introduction to how Taehyung has meet Y/N. Took me over a week but here we are. If you spot any errors, please simply skip it. Thank you and enjoy 🌿

Masterlist 

His first memory was of a brunette, one with very stunning and bright eyes. Their eyes were comparable with the stars above him as he found himself sobbing, unable to stop himself. The lady, as he later found out, held him weakly and she tried to swing back and forth to help him sleep. Unfortunately, he was a newborn back then so he did not understand her and continued crying; it only stopped when he heard the door slam open.

Turning his weak body to gaze at the direction of the ruckus, he found himself being stared at by a black-haired male. He looked so delicate that if a gust of wind were to pass by, the force would probably knock him over. His face, however, clearly showcases a malicious intent but quickly dissipated when the person who held him raised her voice. They then began to exchange their opinions but the conversation ended with the female raising her voice. The sudden loud roar startled him while causing the male to run out of the room.

The brunette quickly brought him closer and ushered him to quiet down. She then turned to one of the maids and silently whispered something into their ear before turning back to him. The next thing he knew was her roughed hands interacting with his, gently playing with them. He then looked up at her after hearing a soft chuckle above him.

Suddenly, another person was in his view, blocking his view of the person who held him. Instinctively, he let out little whimpers that escalated to thundering screams. Unexpectedly, the woman only offered him a forced smile before leaning down and kissing his little forehead.

“ Everything will be fine, Taehyung-ah.”

♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟

Taehyung’s next significant memory took place on his 23rd moon cycle. It was the night when the moon was at its peak in the bright night sky. The young boy had decided to slip away while his nanny was distracted to gaze at the midnight sky. As Taehyung was still young and was protected by his mother, he was not accustomed to the format of the courtyards within their property. As a result, the young boy wandered through the unfamiliar place as he tried to return to his courtyard.

Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible for the 2 year-old as he was unable to see where he was going under the pitch-dark sky. The gleaming moon was likely to be teasing him, not allowing him to use any bit of its light to find a way back. It was as if the moon wanted to forever trap him within its webs and not let him leave.

Burdened by the thought, the poor child was unable to refrain himself from breaking down, little sobs turned into loud, painful screams that seemed to go on for hours.

Taehyung was now sitting on the dirty ground, his clothes covered in mud and dirt, seemingly having a tantrum. It only increases as the moment lengthens as the poor boy wanted his mother and nanny to come and rescue him.

*****

General Kim’s main husband, Minjun, had found himself unable to sleep and had decided to go on a walk through the Lily Blossom Pavilion. Unexpedly, he had decided to by himself instead of getting guards to accompany him.

He had a lot of problems on his mind and if a servant were to ask about his well being every time they saw him grimace, he would most likely deduct their salary before kicking them out.

With that settled, he took his time to walk to the pavilion. Once he got there, he gently walked through the countless flower bushes to admire the various types of flowers.

The Lily Blossom Pavilion was created by the previous general who gifted it to her lovely main husband as a gift. It was designed to host different types of flowers from around the world which was why the temperature inside the pavilion is so different compared to the outside.

Minjun unconsciously scoffed at the thought when he compared the couple to his current wife. The current General Kim was far different from her parents. She was instead cold, and distasteful; not caring about his health at all. Granted, they married for the benefits of alliance for the family but still, she should have reserved some affections for him and not for a lowly concubine. He is, after all, the main husband who has absolute control over his wife’s harem and was the one who helped create 3 daughters. What does that whore have that he does not?

Angered by his wife’s clearly unfair treatment, he kicked the flower bush nearby. Unexpectedly, the bush let out a painful screech which surprised him so much that he tripped over his robe and landed on the rock-covered floor, scratching his pale knees in the process. He then desperately yelled out, alarming countless people.

Soon enough, everyone in the Kim household was awakened by the terrible sounds. Many quickly rushed to the pavilion finding the main husband still on the ground, yelling for help. Minjun only stopped when he saw how many people had come. He then motioned to the nearest guard to see what was behind the bush.

The said servant then unsheathed his weapon as he strategically approached the bush, separating the branches to see what was underneath. When he was finally able to see who was hiding in the bush, the result surprised him. A boy was sitting behind the bush, with an arm clasped over his other one, tears running down his swollen cheeks, looking at him with a terror-filled gaze.

The guard quickly comforted the boy before he carried the bruised boy out. This, however, caused the boy to cry louder when he saw the amount of eyes staring at him.

Embarrassed that he was scared by a boy, Minjun quickly rushed to the boy, “ HOW DARE YOU INJURE ME!” After that, he raised his hand and swinged it with most of his force.

The sudden reaction caused the guard to freeze making him unable to shield the boy from the attack. This caused the boy to receive the full force of the slap, almost causing injury to his neck.

The next time Minjun attempted to cause harm to the boy, the guard was quick to intervene, quickly shielding himself.

“ You filthy servant, who dare you block me? I’m your master, you betrayer.”

“ Main husband, should not do this. He looks like the young master.”

The comment made him stop his yells, as he tried to examine the boy after the guard had removed himself. The crying boy in front of him did somewhat looked like the young master but he had not seen him ever since his birth, that he was not so sure. Believing that it was a bluff, he continued his glare at the guard.

“ Filthy servant, you dare to say that this is the young master? Do you think that you have made a severe mistake? Guards, bring him down and give him 50 sticks to avoid future lies.”  

The guards then immediately rushed to the soon-to-be-ex guard and dragged him out of the pavilion and towards the punishment yard. Some quietly scolded him while some apologized.

After he was dragged out, Minjun turned his attention back to the rest of the servants and ushered them to leave. After they left, it was only the 7 daughters that are still present there.

“ Daughters, if this were the real young master then we should cripple him. How dare he take all of General Kim’s attention away from us? Hmph, and a boy just at that. Does the sluttiness run through the family? From your father to you? Such an interesting bloodline.”

“ Father, what if he is not the main master?” Minjun’s youngest daughter asked.

Minjun turned towards the girl, and gently patted her head, “ Sooyoung-ah, don’t worry. If he is not the young master just pretend he is and vent your anger, alright?”

The comment made her nod, and she confidently walked to word the boy. Slowly she crouched down to the boy, looked at him and grabbed the material behind his neck and lifted him up.

The boy instinctively started to struggle against the grip that was slowly choking him, yelling and kicking to attempt release.

Chuckling at his weak attempt, Sooyoung dropped his fragile body to the ground. “ You are young, but you fall like a sack of potatoes... What are you waiting for just standing there?” Sooyoung yelled back at the crowd.

Slowly, some people decided to join Sooyoung until all of them did.

Laughters and threats were heard as the girls enjoyed their time torturing the poor boy.

One of the daughters was about to kick him in the stomachs when she was stopped by an angry scream.

“ WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

The group of people turned towards the voice’s direction and was stricken with waves of anger. Immediately, they all kneeled down, scared that they might have made a terrible mistake.

“ W-w-we did nothing, general,” Minjun stuttered.

General Kim looked at him unconvinced before she glanced at the hidden figure behind all of them. She squinted her eyes as the familiar body but soon realized who it was.

Angered by their outrageous actions, she kicked Minjun out of her path and quickly went to the boy’s side. Gently cradling the boy into her chest, she looked back at the group and contorted her face in distaste. Quickly standing up, she made her way out of the pavilion not sparing them any comfort.

“ If Taehyung does not make it, then consider yourselves done. I will properly punish you when he has recovered.”

And with that, they were no longer able to see her.

*****

“ Physician Kwon, is he alright?”

“ General Kim, he suffered many deathly injuries but he is thankfully past the risky point.”

General Kim quickly nodded her head, motioning him to continue but when she saw him hesitate, she didn’t know if she truly wanted to be informed of the upcoming news.

“ sighs, my general, even though his condition is stable. I am not able to predict that he would be able to wake up or not. I’m sorry for my mediocre abilities to not be able to help the young master. “

“ …” the comment shocked the general but quickly got morph into anger. She would definitely punish them when Taehyung has recovered… if he would even wake up.

“ Thank you, physician Kwon. Hwa, escort him out.”

When the door closed, General Kim made her way to Taehyung, and slowly caressed his hair.

That was the start of her own journey of taking care of Taehyung. So when he finally opened his eyes, general Kim was by his sides.

The poor boy started crying as waves of memories rushed into his head before he lost consciousness. Holding onto his mother as best as he could, while explaining what had happened. All the general did was to hug him and comfort him as best as she could, promising to punish the people who had caused him harm.

Slowly he began to recover and by the time he turned 2, he was back to his little minx self. Taehyung, however, acted as if he had not experienced such dangerous events but everyone else did not dare to forget about it, especially Minjun.

After Taehyung had awakened, general Kim punished her 7 daughters and Minjun, disappointed that he could act in such a way in front of a child. General Kim had decided to let each of her daughters sent to a temple to retrain their behaviours, and have Minjun get hit 30 times.

Sighing as she returned back to her room from a stressful day, she quickly changed into her night outfits and gently climbed up to bed and hugged Taehyung. She played with his hair and began to calm down. Before she fell asleep, she kissed his forehead.

“ Everything will be alright, mother’s here.”

And with that, the tired women went to sleep.

♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟

“ Mother, what are you and uncle doing?” a 5-year-old taehyung asked his mother. His bambi eyes looking at the board curiously.

“ Mother is playing chess with uncle, do you want to see?”

Taehyung quickly nodded, holding his arm out wanting her to carry him.

The woman chuckled as she carried Taehyung into her lap. “ Aigoo, Taehyunggie is getting so big.”

The comment made the person opposite of them unable to refrain the laughters bubbling inside of him. When general Kim looked over at him, questionably, he let out a chuckle.

“ Is this the young master of the Kim household?”

“ What do you think?” General Kim asked as she looked at the man, wearing an annoyed face, “ Taehyung, this is Park Jinsung, he’s my right hand.”

“ Nice to meet you, I’m Taehyung.”

Jinsung smiled at how cute the boy was but was drawn back to the game as Taehyung continued to ask about it.

“ Mother, what is this?”

Before she could answer, Jinsung beat her to it, “ This is called chess.”

Taehyung tilted his head cutely, “ Chess?”

“ Yes, chess. Do you want to learn it?”

Taehyung quickly nodded and got of his mother’s lap, and quickly headed to get an apple?

The adults looked at each other confusedly, curious at what the young boy was doing but could only chuckle when Taehyung with an apple in hand.

Taehyung quickly made his way to Jinsung before bowing, offering the apple to him.

“ Master, please accept this disciple’s offering.”

General Kim then let out a snort before cracking up while Jinsung pretended to think before carefully accepting the apple.

“ Hmm… I will accept the disciple’s gift. Now come, let me show you.”

Taehyung did a quick celebration before running to Jinsung’s side.

General Kim watched the two fondly, finding how they somewhat resemble each other.

Jinsung started to explain each of the piece’s worth and from the start, he was already impressed by Taehyung’s unique thinking.

“ There are 8 pawns on one side so does that mean that older sisters and I represent each of them?” Taehyung unconsciously asked.

General Kim, however, was shocked by how he managed to know that the ones who had beaten him were his half-sisters.

Bewildered, she asked, “ Taehyung, how do you know that you have 7 older sisters?”

Taehyung, who had previously been focused on the board froze at his mother’s question. His curious expression slowly changed to one that was almost guilty, his doe eyes refused to look at hers, hands repeated grasping to further indicate his nervousness.

Seeing how uncomfortable Taehyung is, Jinsung teasingly shielded his petite body and defended him. “ Yah, Taehyung is still young, why are you bullying him?”

“ I’m his mother, I should be asking him why he lied to me.” General Kim eyed Taehyung, “ I’m waiting, Taehyung.”

Taehyung gulped hearing his mother’s calm tone, knowing that he is unable to escape her questioning this time around. Begrudgingly he lift his head and looked at her piercing eyes, and answered, “ Siwon and I were secretly playing with each other, a-and she told me about the rest of my sisters.”

“...”

Hearing his mother’s non-responsive reaction, the poor child continued to quiver in his seat on Jinsung’s lap.

“ I-I-I also sometime play with Sieun... and she would tell me stories from different books that I couldn’t read yet.”

“ …”

General Kim then looked at Jinsung before she subtly nodded her head, she then stood up and began walking out of the room.

Not knowing what was happening, Taehyung cried out for his mother.

“ Mother! Mother! Mother come back, I won’t lie to you anymore.”

Seeing how distressed Taehyung was, Jinsung tried to comfort him, “ Your mother isn’t mad at you, Taehyung. She just had some businesses to take care of.”

Taehyung's eyes then looked into Jinsung’s, searching if he was being truthful or not.

“ Really?” Jinsung nods his head, silently patting his head.

“ Mother loves you too much to leave you.”

Taehyung then turned his gaze to the floor, “ If she loves me, then why does she always prevent me from playing with my sister?”

The comment made Jinsung sighed, knowing that he would never be able to fully explain the child.

“ Your mother is trying to protect you from the outside world, Taehyung. Because you were born into this family, you will face a lot of dangers and she is trying to prevent them.”

“ Then what does my sisters have to do with this? They are not outsiders!”

“ They are not outsiders but you never know what they will ever do to you. Now, how about we get back to chess, alright?”

Taehyung begrudging nodded, not satisfied with the answer but knows that he won’t be getting any more information out of Jinsung.

*****

“ Jinsung, how was it?”

“ What do you mean?”

General Kim looked over to Jinsung, before smacking him in the head, annoyed.

“ OUCH! You didn’t have to hit me, I was just joking. Taehyung is doing great.”

“...”

“ Alright, alright, he is proceeding at an incredible speed. Understanding the logic of chess and how to play it would take one at least a few days but he managed to learn all of that within one day. He could even be compared to mine… no even I won’t be his opponent if he is nurtured correctly.”

“ …”

Seeing general Kim not utter a word, Jinsung started to agitate, not knowing what was inside her head.

“ General?”

“ Is he really that outstanding?” Jinsung nodded, reconfirming his statement.

“ That boy is becoming more like his father— stubborn yet witty, he even said that he was part of the 8 pawns along with his sisters. If this continues, I believe that he will become the queen, the most important piece to…”

Jinsung then immediately turned his head up to look at general Kim’s figure, who was standing by the spacious window, staring at the bright sunset. He was shocked that Taehyung could even get involved in such a game.

“ General, he won’t be part of it. We will do our absolute best to protect him.” Jinsung then kneeled down on his right knee, bowing to her, showing his definite loyalty.

General Kim, however, does not look at him, her face not showing any emotion.

“ How can I ever guarantee that he will always be under protection? Especially with him being a male in a matriarchal family? When he turns old enough, people would want his hand in marriage to secure ties with our house. Even you know that this is almost impossible. After all, we are only pawns who are loyal to the throne. We cannot rebel because of the oath.”

“ You are right, general but we are only pawns for the citizens. We swore an oath to protect them, not the royal family. Even though we are not able to protect Taehyung forever, it is within our abilities to protect him until he matures enough to stand his own battle.”

Jinsung’s statement made General Kim look at his bowed figure, before she chuckle.

“ I always knew that you and Jinkyu were interesting kids… good, we will train him when he is able to stand on his own. Tell Jinkyu to secretly teach him physical combats, while you teach him chess and military planning.”

Jinsung happily nodded, before doing his last bow before he stand up.

“ Yes, general.”

General Kim nodded and started to leave the room before she halted in her steps, seemingly forgetting to mention something. After a moment, she then turned around, “ Jinsung, let Siwon and Sieun play with Taehyung more openly but make sure that those three are always protected from Minjun and his daughters. “

“ Of course, general.”

Satisfied with his answer, she then turned around and left the room.

“ … you hear that, Jinkyu? You have another disciple to take care of.”

From one of the poles holding the building, a shadow jumped down meeting Jinsung in his spot. The two, surprisingly, looked very similar that if someone were to pass by, they would not be able to differentiate between the two.

“ It’s because of your stupid mouth that I have to train a brat.”

“ If you say that in front of the general, she will kill you.”

“ I’m not saying it in front of her.”

“ You don’t believe that I won’t backstab you and report to her?”

“ She won’t believe you.”

Jinsung sweatdropped at his blunt answer, somewhat understanding where he was coming from.

“ It is her command, you have to do it even if you don’t have to.”

“ Of course, she is my master after all.”

“ … there is a chance that he will be involved so make sure to train him well.”

“ I always train them well when they are in my hands but it’s hard to escape them.”

“ sighs, I know, we were a part of it after all. Two little knights for their little playground.”

“ We are still those piec—“” but just on the opposite side,” Jinsung interrupted, “ Living happily at that.”

“ Mhm”

“ Young master will become a legend.”

“ Let’s see.” The two brothers then looked at the dark sky, each with their own opinion but just about the same person.

♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟

“ I want a rematch!” an annoyed voice yelled out.

“ Admit that you lost already, fourth sister,” Taehyung teased Siwon.

Siwon then stood up from her seat and turned her head arrogantly, “ I did not lose against a brat like you! I just went easy on you since you’re still so young.”

Taehyung giggles before turning his attention towards the other girl, asking her for help.

“ Fifth sister, what do you think? Did she win or did I win.”

Sieun, however, did not dare to look at Taehyung, already knowing that he looking at her with his infamous doe eyes. Sieun sighs at the thought, silently apologizing to Siwon.

“ Fourth sister, you already know that you can’t win against him.”

Siwon then looked at her, bewildered, looking shocked that she took Taehyung’s side but they all knew that none of them could escape Taehyung's cute acts.

“ HAH! I did win!” he cheered, running over to Sieun, “ I knew you would understand me, fifth sister! You are the best!”

Sieun patted his head, and congratulated him while Siwon went back to her previous position, and demanded another round which was wholeheartedly agreed by Taehyung.

*****

From the other side of the pavilion sat both Jinsung and Jinkyu as they were supervising the general’s children.

“ How is he?”

“ What do you mean?”

“ You know what I mean.”

“ …”

“ Aishhh, how is the young master doing with his training.”

“ …”

Jinsung turned to his twin brother, annoyed, “ YAH, an—” “ He is terrible.”

Jinsung then looked over to meet Jinkyu’s eyes, trying to detect if he was saying the truth or just bluffing, “ Are you serious?”

Jinkyu holds his gaze as if to silently challenge the worth of his words, “ What do you think?”

“ sighs, I guess there is no one in this world who is good at everything. Even the young master, who is amazing with strategic planning has a weak point.”

“ The young master is the worst. He can’t even run a lap without quitting and it has been 2 years already.”

“ Don’t be harsh on him, you just need to train him to help strengthen him, he doesn’t need to master it.”

Jinkyu then turned towards Jinsung and denied his suggestion, “ When he’s under my care, he has no choice but to become a master.”

Jinsung could only sigh, deciding that it would waste his time if he were to reject the idea.

“ It’s been two years since I’ve become his master. He will sooner or later surpass me.”

“ That would never happen with me.”

Jinsung then suddenly launched towards Jinkyu, knocking him down before trying to injure him.

“ You damn brat! How dare you be so rude to your older brother? Where is your manners?”

Before Jinkyu could open his mouth to retort, they both heard footsteps coming their way. The brothers turned their head around to see that Taehyung, along with Siwon and Sieun had approached them when they heard a loud sound.

“ Are you okay, master?” Siwon hurriedly asked as she quickly ran to them, attempting to lift Jinsung off her master, “ Jinsung, get off my master!”

“ Fourth miss, what do you mean? This brat is annoying so as a brother, I should help to get rid of that nasty habit.”

“ I don’t care, get off him!”

Jinsung and Siwon continued to argue with each other until Sieun was forced to stop the two, complaining that they were behaving like children which they both denied.

“ What is this commotion?” A sudden voice asked from behind the group.

Taehyung turned around to quiver under his burning gaze while the others stopped what they were doing and properly stood up.

“ You must have misheard something, main husband.” Jinsung said.

“ You think you can lie to me, right hand?”

“ We do not dare.”

“ Hmph,” Minjun then turned his attention to Taehyung, “ Young master, I see that you have grown up very well.”

Taehyung, who was now hiding behind Siwon flinched under his gaze. Too afraid to utter a word.

“ What had caused the main husband to be in the Lily Blossom Pavilion?” Siwon asked.

The main husband then looked at Siwon, before letting out a disgusted expression.

“ Oh… isn’t this one of the backstabbers? Wait where is the other one?”

Minjun began to look around before setting his eyes on Sieun, who was wearing a very ugly expression.

“ Ah there you are. How are you both doing.”

Before Siwon can blow him up, Sieun pulled her back to prevent any physical damage.

“ We have been doing extremely well these past few years? Especially after getting beat up, we have change for the better, right fourth sister?”

Siwon immediately nodded, “ We have become better people and befriended the eight brother.”

“ So you called him eighth brother now?” Minjun amusedly asked, “ I used to remember when you guys were younger, you used to call h—”

Sieun interrupted, knowing what trap he was about to set, “— that was the past, main husband. I prefer that we should forget about the past and move on. If we compared ourselves to you, the main husband was… much worse than us.”

Seeing that Sieun managed to help the memories of such humiliating actions resurface into his conscious mind, the main husband was not very pleased.

“ Good, really good, you dare to even mock me. Fourth and fifth miss, you must remember what you have done today.” He then turned away and walked to the opposite direction of the group.

“ Whew,” the entire group except the youngest slouched their previously tense posture.

Sieun then turned around to look at Taehyung, who was still frozen in his spot. Slowly, taking his little hand and gently caressing them while waiting for him to come back.

“ Taehyung-ah, he’s gone now. It’s safe, older sister promise.”

Slowly but steadily, Taehyung began to relax until he was able to move again.

“ How about we go back now, you look exhausted,” Jinsung suggested.

Taehyung nodded as he rubs his eyes, seemingly becoming sleepier as the moment passes.

“ Jinkyu, carry him.”

Taehyung then let himself be tug onto Jinkyu’s back before the group walk back to Taehyung’s courtyard.

On the way, Siwon suddenly had an excellent idea.

“ Sieun, I should go to the market and buy something for Taehyung.”

Before Sieun could even react to Siwon’s words, Taehyung had yelled out excitedly, “ Fourth sister, are you going outside? I want to go outside! Take me with you.”

“ No you cannot.” Sieun firmly replied.

“ Wh—“ Siwon was about to ask but stopped when she saw three people glaring at her.

“ But I want to go outside. Please, please, please, fourth sister.” Taehyung asked using his infamous bambi eyes, practically begging to allow him to follow her.

“ No, young master,” Jinsung said, “ It’s too dangerous.”

Taehyung pouted, “ It won’t be if the fourth sister is by my side, right fourth sister?”

He then looked over at Siwon but she had decided to look anywhere except him. Taehyung’s irises gloomed down after seeing her reaction but went back to its previous form when he found another solution.

“ I know! Jinkyu can accompany us to prot—“ “ I will not, young master. I am too busy for that.”

The young boy huffed, frustrated with the rejection, “ Fine, if you will not let me then I guess I will have to ask mother.”

The group then returned quietly to the young master’s courtyard, the tension between them and the young master was so tense that no one wanted to utter a word, afraid that it would worsen the situation. Looks like the young master’s mother would be dealing with this matter now.

*****

Later on that night, general Kim and her three children were having a peaceful dinner before Taehyung thought that it would be a good idea to bring up his peculiar request.

“ Mother, may I go outside with my fourth sister tomorrow?”

The seemingly-innocent question made the general stop her from grabbing another piece of vegetable. Setting her pair of chopstick down, she looked over to Taehyung, confused by his sudden request.

“ You want to go outside? Why so suddenly?”

“ I heard that the markets are very fun, with many food stalls and games. OH, there are also many people that I can befriend with, too!”

“ If you want those foods, I will send someone to get them for you. There’s no need for you to go by yourself. It is true that the market is filled by many people, but if you were to get lost in them, what would you do?”

“ I won’t be there by myself! I will go with my fourth sister and Jinkyu.”

“ People know Jinkyu’s face as my left hand, if you were to go with him, they would know your identity.”

Taehyung frowned, “ He can just wear a mask.”

“ Still a no.”

“ Why, mother?”

General Kim sighs, exhausted from her audience with the emperor, “ Do you want me to say it, Taehyung?”

“ Yes,” Taehyung nodded, “ I will try my best to be able to go outside.”

“ You don’t know enough about the outside world to even grasp the most basic concept of it. How do you expect me to let you do outside.”

Not knowing what to say, Taehyung could only try to protest, “ BUT, but, I really want to go outside. Won’t you let me, mother?”

General Kim looked into Taehyung’s curious eyes, before shaking her head, sighing, “ If Jinkyu can approve that you are qualify to go outside then you will be able to go outside.”

Taehyung’s mouth then dropped, “ NO, mother, that would take forever. I am not even able to run a lap after 2 years training with him so how could I? Please, please, please, mother. I want to go outside.”

Taehyung the jumped down from his spot before waddling his way over to his mother’s spot, arms wrapped around her right bicep, begging her for permission.

“ NO,” general Kim firmly answered.

Frustrated, Taehyung released her bicep before angrily stomping his feet, “ I HATE YOU MOTHER! YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING FUN! IT’S ALWAYS STUDY AND TRAINING. I HATE YOU!”

After his rant, Taehyung then left the dining room and ran back to his room while the rest were just frozen in their spot, shocked at the young master’s words.

General Kim then sighed before standing up and left the room along with Jinsung and Jinkyu. After that, the rest began to leave until no one was left there, too stunned to even comprehend that the food was yet to be taken down to the kitchen.

*****

“ Jinsung, was I too rough with him?”

“ No, general. He was so used to you spoiling him tha I believe that denying him of one of them is necessary. Besides, going outside is too dangerous for someone as young and inexperienced as him.”

General Kim could only nod, not knowing what to say.

“ I’m afraid that I won’t be able to apologize to him.”

It was now Jinsung and Jinkyu’s turn to be confused.

“ Why is that, general?” Jinkyu asked.

General Kim stood up from her spot before walking over to the window, silently admiring the moonlight.

“ During today’s audience, his majesty had announce that every general will have to go to the south to help with the ongoing battle.”

“ WHAT!” Jinsung yelled out.

“ How could he do that? It’s too risky,” Jinkyu added.

“ I have no choice but to leave tomorrow.”

“ So soon? Is he crazy?”

“ Careful, Jinkyu. You can get your head chop off if anyone were to hear.”

“ Will you go, general?”

“ Of course, I have to after all.”

“ You don’t have to, my general.”

“ I don’t but if I were to deny it, Byungseok would also deny it. Other ministers would start to get more suspicious, it will be too much of a problem. Besides, we are just play toys. Just two little rooks that could easily be replaced by someone else.”

Jinkyu immediately denies her claims, “ General, you are wrong. Right now, you are one of the strongest pieces on the board, against the king, himself. You cannot be replace by just anyone.”    

General Kim chuckled, hearing his almost immediate response, “ You’ve mature, Jinkyu. Both of you have grown so much that if I were to not be here, I would not be able to recognize the two of you.”

“ We’ve matured because of your care. You’re our savior and we swore our absolute loyalty to you because of that.”

“ Yes, without you, we would probably be dead that night,” Jinkyu added.

General Kim shook her head, “ You both have done too much, there’s not much more to do except the last few steps and we will be done.”

“ Even when we have accomplished our goal, we will still follow you, general.”

General Kim turned around and faced them fully, observing their body language before letting out a proud smile.

“ Fine, you both better stay true to your words.”

The two nodded before kneeling down, “ We will accompany you until we are unable to. Even then, our loyalty will still be yours.”

“ Sounds like you guys are courting me,” she laughs, “ Remember what you have say today. Now go and pack up, we have a lot of things to deal with.”

The pair quickly stood up before running out of the room, getting ready for tomorrow’s trip.

“  They never really change right? Right?”

General Kim then made her way back to the table, before pouring herself a cup of tea. The tea was now lukewarm yet she still found it tasty. Setting the glass cup down, she made her way out of the room and left.

“ Taehyung-ah, mother is sorry. Mother won’t be there for you anymore. Mother hope you will be able to grow up safely and happily.”

*****

As the sun started to creep up on the horizon, Taehyung found himself unable to fall asleep. All night long, his body was constantly in discomfort and itches causing him to create some rashes along his arms. He did not know why this was happening to him until his nanny came running into his room.

“ YOUNG MASTER, YOUNG MASTER, quick get change!”

“ Nanny? Why are you yelling? It’s still early in the morning.”

As the old woman bounced around the room trying to find an appropriate attire for him to wear, she announced, “ General will be leaving soon, you must greet her before she goes.”

As the mentioned of the general, Taehyung huffed and denied to go meet her, “ If mother needs to go, then she will go. There is no need for me to go and greet her.”

The nanny stopped herself when she heard the young master’s odd words. The nanny was unable to comprehend what he means? Doesn’t he adore his mother that when she has to go to the palace for her weekly audience, he would whine and cry, begging for her not to leave?

The nanny dropped multiple articles of clothing that was previously in her hand before running over to the young master. She then proceeded to set her hand on his forehead, trying to examine if he was ill or not.

“ Young master, are you ill?”

Taehyung quickly shook his head, pulling the nanny’s desperate arms off him.

“ I am fine, great at that! I will not greet mother, end of discussion.”

The distressed nanny sighed, knowing that it was not her position to yell at him.

“ Young master, the general will be gone for a very long time. If you don’t greet her now, you will regret it.”

Yet, Taehyung only huffed and ignored her. Not knowing that his rash decision would make him regret for his entire life and even beyond that.

*****

Six months have now past since the day the general has left. Taehyung was now starting to feel the regret of now greeting her but was too prideful to say anything. He was also starting to get anxious if his mother was safe or not.

“ Fourth miss and fifth miss! I received a letter from the general’s camp!” A maid announced, running towards the group with a letter in hand.

Sieun quickly stood up and the maid immediately handed her the letter. She then hurriedly opened the letter and read its content. Unexpectedly, she dropped the slip a few moments after, her face showcased a horrified expression.

Seeing how shocked Sieun was, Siwon rooked over the role and read the slip. It says,

The battle against the Ryrgs is proceeding extremely well and we currently have the upper hand. Unfortunately, during the last battle, we had some major fatalities. 200 soldiers had died along with some commanders. Within them General Kim and her left and right hands were included. They had died trying to defend the camps and were killed by a spy that had managed to enter our camps. As one of the commanders, we were unable to save them. They all had made great contributions to the nation and will forever be honoured.

Commander Park Jaekyun

By the end of it, the group was stunned from the unexpected news.

Sieun was the first to come back and quickly commanded the maid to inform everyone in the house of the general’s passing.

Taehyung, who had not uttered a single word, was impacted the most. He was the general’s only son and was the most treasured by her but what did he do? Ignore her when she could possibly not come back.

“ MOTHER! MOTHER! Taehyung is sorry, Taehyung is sorry. I won’t disobey you again. I will not be a bad son! COME BACK, MOTHER!” He yelled out before he ran towards the door with Siwon and Sieun behind, chasing after him.

“ Taehyung!” Both of them yelled.

Taehyung, who has tears running down his cheeks by now, did not hear them as he continued to run towards whatever direction. Because of his weak physique, Siwon quickly caught up with him before capturing him into a tight embrace.

“ Taehyung, it’s alright, we are still here.”

“ Mother is gone now. It was because of me! IT WAS MY FAULT THAT S-S-SHE…”

“ NO! It was not your fault that she passed away. She died on the battlefield, Taehyung. It wasn’t your fault,” Sieun quickly intervened.

Taehyung, however, continued to cry in Siwon’s embrace, unable to comprehend Sieun’s words amidst the moment.

The two sisters did not know how to comfort the boy but before they could do such things, all Taehyung could see was red.

In front of him were his fourth and fifth sister lying on the floor, each with an arrow penetrated in their backs.

Terrified, Taehyung could only freeze in his spot on the floor. Apparently, he was knocked onto the floor when the impact on the arrow caused Siwon to release him.

“ The traitor’s daughters are here.” A familiar voice said.

Taehyung looked over to the voice to see a crowd of guards that was lead by the main husband.

“ Main husband,” he whispered out, shock.

“ Ah, young master, … no I should say Taehyung, how are you?”

Minjun’s eyes were somehow red and had a bloodlust that Taehyung had never experienced.

“ …”

Minjun then turned towards the guards before motioning them to come over. The soldiers then quickly ran over and picked up the fourth and fifth miss’ lifeless bodies.

“ Main husband, what about this little boy?”

“ You can leave him, I will deal with him on my own.”

“ Yes, main husband.”

As they were carried, Siwon managed to insult Minjun one last time.

“ You will pay for this, you whore!”

“ Of course.”

After all the guards had left, Minjun and Taehyung were the only ones left.

“ Taehyung, do you know why I despise you so much?”

Taehyung was now too terrified to even answer, unable to keep his gaze away from Minjun’s burning eyes.

“ It all started with your damn father, he was just a commoner but he managed to even capture the general’s heart. How he did it, I will never understand.”

Minjun began to walk towards Taehyung, his steps were silent yet powerful.

“ When the general and I had three daughters, I thought that she would finally look at me but no. She continued to look at that whore like he was the best thing that came into her life. I understand that we were tied because of a political reason but she could have been more courteous and showed me some face.”

Minjun’s expression surprisingly saddens when he talks about those memories.

“ I decided that I won’t harm him if the general at least shows my children some affection. That was what happened for some time until she had you! Your damn father had died during the process but she still managed to keep you. After your birth, you became her most treasured child.”

His steps were now much harsher as it landed on the ground.

“ Just like your father, you managed to woo the general and left the rest of us desperate for her affections. YOU GREEDY BRAT! YOU CAUSED ME AND MY CHILDREN TO SUFFER FROM HUMILIATION! Do you even understand how humiliating it was, you brat!”

Taehyung, still on the ground, was now crying as he continues to plead for forgiveness.

“ But now it’s all good, the general is gone now so no one will be able to protect you. My eldest will inherit the position as the head of the house and no one will be able to bully us again.”

By now, Minjun had finally reached Taehyung. He then kneeled down and took Taehyung’s face into his grasp, tilting his chin for him to look up into his eyes properly.

“ You will become our slave and serve us for the rest of your life. You will suffer humiliation and pay for what you and your father had done to us.”

“ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Taehyung continued chanting yet Minjun was unfazed by it.

“ Welcome to your new life, Taehyung. A little queen that has been captured.”

♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟

“ You damn brat! Do something right for once!” Sooyoung yelled while continued to kick the frail body of a servant.

“ Sooyoung, you shouldn’t kick his body like that. If you managed to injure him, he would not be able to serve us.”

“ HMPH!” Sooyoung let out before walking back to her original seat.

“ Taehyung, you may leave.” Seoyoon said.

Taehyung then gently lifted his limp body up, one hand instinctively shielded his stomach before bowing to them and left.

“ Second sister, you ruined the fun. I was going to beat him up until he couldn’t even stand.”

Seoyoon scoffed, “ For what? You’re going to beat him up like 6 years ago. He could barely even work for us and had to heal for a month.”

“ Unnie, he’s older now, stronger than when he was 7.”

Seoyoon then hit Sooyoung’s head using her knuckles, “ With how much you beat the boy, it most likely will be the opposite. He’s probably a child in an old man’s crooked body.”

“ OUCH! But he just annoys me whenever he is nearby! How can I prevent myself when there is a delicious prey in front of me, literally waiting for me to conquer?”

Seoyoon sighed, and continued to drink her tea, too tired to talk back with her younger sister.

*****

As Taehyung continued to make his way back to his shared room, he began to hear the same old words from the other maids again.

“ So filthy!”

“ Was he really the young master?”

“ He deserved it! A spoiled brat should understand how we commoners live.”

At the beginning, he would constantly stand up and defend himself but that only resulted in more humiliation and even getting beat up. 4 years later, he knew better than to just speak out.

Finally arriving at his shared quarters, he unexpectedly got a surprise visitor.

“ Nanny? What are you doing here?”

Sitting on his bed was his nanny that had helped nurtured him before the incident. Taehyung ran towards her and captured her into a tight hug.

“ Oh, young master I have finally found you!” The nanny hushed out, “ Oh, young master! Why are you so thin?”

Taehyung ignored her questions and continued to hug her, “ Nanny where were you?”

At his question, the nanny only sighed and patted his head.

“ Young master, I apologized that I wasn’t there when you needed me the most. After the main husband got notified that the general had passed, he immediately sent me to another place to work. Over the years, I had tried to sneak into the main house to help you but I couldn’t. I finally managed to sneak in after so long but we need to hurry.”

Taehyung then let go of her, confused at what she was hinting.

“ What do you mean, nanny?”

“ Young master, there is a secret that the general and her right and left hand have always kept hidden. Only people that are involved in it know. When she first had you, she never wanted you to find out as it would cause you to be in danger. She knew that the moment you are announced, many eyes will constantly be on you so she was very protected by you.”

“ What do you mean, nanny?” Taehyung grasps his nanny’s hand and held them tightly, “ What was my mother involved in?”

The nanny then quickly stood up before opening the door and peeked her head out, looking to see if anyone was around. After making sure that no one was, she then proceeded to close the door and returned to her previous spot.

“ Young master, you must not tell anyone,” the nanny then leaned into Taehyung’s ear and whispered, “ We are a part of the Scarlet Phoenix organization.”

Taehyung looked at his nanny in disbelief, “ No, you must be lying. My mother has always been loyal to the nation that she won’t be a part of an organisation of another nation.”

“ No, young master you are wrong. The Scarlet Phoenix is not a rebellion group, they are much more than that. The organization has at least a branch in every country but not many know that. For example, our clan is one of the branches of Corea.”

With the added information, taehyung was even more confused, “ If we are the one of the branches of the organization, then does that mean that Seolhee is the head?”

“ No, of course not, young master. Minjun was married into our family because of a political marriage. Except for him and your father, everyone is a part of the organization here.”

“ My father wasn’t a part of it?”

“ Yes, young master. He was a commoner that the general had fallen in love with. He is also should have been name main husband.”

“ Then if it was like that, then why did Minjun…”

“ He became the main husband because of his majesty’s direct command. He was also the only one that had children with your mother except for your father.”

“ … you mean that except for the three eldest, the rest are not my sisters?”

“ Yes, young master. They are your cousins that have been brought from your mother’s side to make it easier for interacting with each other. Their ‘fathers’ are also a part of the organization and have been secretly working with them. Unfortunately, the fourth and fifth miss’ got exposed and was… disposed of.”

“ If they were part of it, why did they not tell me?”

The nanny then stroked his head, trying to comfort him.

“ I know that this is a lot of many but you were too young to be exposed to it.”

“ So I’m old enough now?”

“ No, my little master. It’s just that I am not sure if there will be any opportunities to escape in the future.”

“ Escape?”

She excitedly nodded, “ Yes escape, young master. You will be able to be free from the main husband.”

“ How?”

“ Listen to me, young master. Today next month, a group from the organization will arrive in Corea. I have already sent them a message that you will be waiting for them near the river. You just have to find a way to go there before the moon is at its peak, and they will help you.”

“ … you will not be going?” He asked, looking into his nanny’s eyes, desperately finding any trace that could tell him the opposite.

“ My little master, this nanny is too old to do that. Besides I need to be here when the time comes when one of the other miss takes the head role.”

“ I don’t understand. No… I don’t want to know. Will we ever meet again when I have to escape, nanny?”

She sighs, not knowing what to say except for a hesitant nod.

Seeing how uncertain she was, Taehyung could only stay silent, trying to absorb all the information that was given to him.

“ I understand, nanny. I will go.”

The nanny perked up at his decision, glad that he had decided to escape.

“ Young master, I’m glad that you have made this choice. There is not much time left before someone would grow suspicious of my missing presence so I will leave now.”

Taehyung nodded, not looking at her, knowing that if he were to see her leave, he would not be able to let her leave.

Before she left, the nanny looked into his eyes.

“ Young master, you must know that even if your loved ones have left you, they will always be in your heart,” she then motioned to his chest, “ When you get there, make sure to train hard and become someone outstanding, alright?”

After she said that, Taehyung could then see her figure leave the room before falling on top of his bed, exhausted of the recent events. After a few moments, he fell asleep in the same position.

*****

A month quickly passed by with Taehyung’s usual routine; wake up, work, get beat up, work, get yelled at, work, eat, and sleep.

The day before the grand escape, he got beaten up quite badly that he was unable to work properly. Of course it was by the hand Sooyoung, who had vented her anger because one of the maids had ‘accidentally’ destroyed her precious vase that was given by her lover.

Unfortunately, the maid knew that Sooyougn especially has a distinct distaste towards him so they blamed them.

“ You damn brat, you’ve done nothing helpful in this house yet you even dare to destroy my stuff?”

“Oof!” He called out on a partially sharp hit to his stomach. That would probably take a few days to heal.

The treatment continues Seoyoon had to intervene, claiming that it was enough. For him, Seoyoon was a very neutral person. He didn’t know if he should hate or like her. She was always the one to intervene when Soonyoung decided to beat her up, yet she always chose to stand by when others bully him so he doesn’t really know her true intentions with him.

“ HMPH! Because of my second sister I will let you go, if you repeat the same mistake then don’t think I will repeat mine! NOW GO!”

Taehyung hurriedly pushed himself up despite his obvious injuries and ran out the door.

“ Just another day, just another day, just another day,” he tiredly muttered.

“ Just another what?” A voice behind him asked.

“AH!”

Turning around, he was met with a pair of amber eyes looking down at him.

“ Sixth miss! Pardon me, I d—“

“ You don’t need to be that formal, come with me. Looks like you got beaten up quite a bit.”

If he didn’t know about the organization and how many people were involved in it, he would not do something so rash. But because he trust his nanny, he decided to follow Siyeon.

The two walked in silence to Siyeon’s room, not knowing how to start a conversation with each other as they have never been close.

When they arrived at her courtyard, Taehyung was invited for a cup of tea offered by the miss herself.

“ There aren’t much servants here.”

“ We prefer little to none as it becomes quite difficult to gather and plan when there might be a potential spy,” Siyeon nonchalantly answered as she brought out a medical kit from within her room.

“ You know how to disinfect wounds?”

“ Are you that surprised?”

Taehyung quickly shook his head, trying to not offend her.

“ No, of course not. I just didn’t expect you to be knowledgeable with medicinal herbs”

“ You don’t know a lot about our organization. Nanny must be in a hurry and didn’t explain it to you.”

“ Explain them to me, then.”

Siyeon chuckled, “ Such a curious child… the Scarlet Phoenix organization is infamous for its skills in a wide range of aspects. From medical to physical, financial to materialistic items, the Scarlet Phoenix is at the top of the rank. As long as their customer has a good enough currency to exchange for our service, we will literally do anything.”

Using tweezers to grab a disinfectant cotton ball, she skillfully dabbed them onto Taehyung’s minor wounds.

“ Like many other members, we are born into a family that is part of the organization. As a result, we are trained about a specific skill starting at a very young age.”

“ If you say it like that then shouldn’t I also be trained at a specific skill?”

Siyeon looked up at him, before pointing her pointer finger against his forehead.

“ Taehyung, you have been training ever since you were 5. Starting with chess, you were already training with your logical mindset. Seeing how much talent that was hidden in your tiny little body, the general must have seen that and told Jinsung to train you. He frequently notified me about your progress and I’m truly impressed with your talent.”

Met with an unexpected compliment, Taehyung could feel his cheek slowly turn crimson.

“ When you reach a certain level, you will be able to take missions.”

“ Missions? Have you ever done them?”

“ Yes, Taehyung, I have. Countless, even. I accomplished my very first mission when I was 13, just around your age. Siwon, Sieun, Sora and I became a group that very day also.”

At the mention of their names, Taehyung’s expression saddens.

“ I’m sorry, it was my fault that they are not here anymore. I’m so—”

Taehyung’s words were interrupted by a pat on the head.

“ You don’t have to apologize, they died during a mission in which they understood the risks very clearly. Instead, I should apologize to you for not being there when you needed me.”

Taehyung quickly shook his head.

“ No I understand that you didn’t have a choice.”

“ I’m happy that you can forgive me.”

Siyeon then came closer to him and gave him a hug, avoiding the bruise on his stomach.

“ Alright, now let me apply some medicine on your bruise to hopefully make tomorrow’s plan easier for you.”

“ You know about the plan?”

“ Of course, Sora and I are in charge of it after all so you won’t have to go alone.”

“ Really? You would do that?”

Siyeon happily nodded, “ Of course, just think of it as a way to compensate you for our negligence these years.”

“ Mhm.”

“ Listen to me, Taehyung.” Siyeon crouched down to look into his eyes, “ When you are dismissed from your duties tomorrow, immediately go back to your room. Make sure that no one is suspicious of your doings and start packing your belongings. Only bring things that you absolutely need, make it as light as possible. After that, quickly run to my courtyard but make sure that no one is following you. We will be waiting for you here.”

Taehyung nodded, determined to escape.

“ We will then help you go to the destination where the people from the main branch will pick you up. After that, it is up to you to train hard. Maybe in the future we would be able to meet each other again.”

Taehyung this time, however, did not reply and the two spent the rest of their time in Siyeon’s room in silence. After Siyeon finally finished disinfecting his wound, she lead him to the entrance of her courtyard and bid him goodbye.

After he left, she sighs, “ Please, let tomorrow go smoothly.”

*****

“ You are dismissed, Taehyung.” The head maid said.

Taehyung then thanked her before making his way back to his quarter and started packing.

Initially, he had very limited belongings but after he finished packing up, he barely has anything in his luggage. Before another person entered the room, he quickly exited the room after rearranging his bed to how they were before he had entered. He then secretly made his way over to Siyeon’s courtyard as promised.

When he got there, he saw both Siyeon and Sora were both present. They were sitting on the table near the entrance, drinking tea and acting like everything was normal.

The moment they saw Taehyung, the two quickly led Taehyung to Siyeon’s private quarter.

“ … wow…” Taehyung uttered out as soon as he entered Siyeon’s quarter.

There were weapons of many kinds displayed on the walls as a map was placed on the table in the centre. This was not what he expected.

“ It’s not what you expected?” Sora asked.

“ Mhm.”

“ Come, Taehyung. You can’t wear that when escaping.” Siyeon said motioning at his outfit.

Taehyung was currently wearing a servant’s clothing which was quite bright in color and will be easy to spot out. He walked over to where Siyeon was which was in front of a massive closet. Siyeon then proceeded to take out a black cloak and told him to wear it.

“ I don’t think you will be able to fit any of these so just a cloak will do.”

After getting it on, Siyeon and Sora did the same, wearing similar cloaks that hid their figure and face.

After that, the trio hurriedly ran out through the back door to avoid anyone possibly seeing them leave. They all knew that there was a time limit until someone has notify the head that one of the servants was missing. Especially if it is Taehyung, they will immediately start their search right away.

As Sora carried Taehyung on his back, his anxiety started to overwhelm at the thought of getting caught. Gripping on to her cloak tightly, he prayed that he would safely escape.

The closer they are to the river, the faster his heart beats, scared that he would be caught.

“ It will be alright, we’re almost there.” Sora whispered, feeling how fast his heart was beating.

Not knowing what to say, Taehyung could only nod.

However, the exact scenario happened to them as soon as they reached the river. A group of guards had surrounded them, their weapons unsheathe and ready to attack.

“ We were waiting for you, sixth and seven miss.” Minjun greeted from behind the guards.

“ Took you long enough.” Sooyoung said, standing with her father and sisters.

Siyeon looked at them and the guards around them, trying to prolong their time.

“ What do you want?”

“ What do I want? I want that boy… no I want to finish all of you.”

“ Why?”

“ Are you really asking me that sixth sister? You are a traitor by being a part of a rebellion organization. It is my job as a minister to help get rid of any threats.” The current head of the clan answered.

Sora smirked, “ Soonyi, you finally decided to appear. It’s been a while since we have met. Can you still beat me?”

“ Me beating you or not does not matter. What matters now is that I am a minister and head and you are neither.”

“ Really? If I remember correctly you can barely even understand politics, how did you even get that position when you were 20? I bet you are still unable to fully understand what politics truly mean.”

“ YOU Dare to mock me? I might not be smart and talented as you but my family is much more powerful than yours. Besides, mine is loyal to the Min unlike you.”

“ I don’t fucking care about those damn royals. I will never ever be loyal to a family that kills and uses dirty tricks to win a battle.”

“ Good, good, Sora. GUARDS, ARREST THEM!”

Immediately after Soonyi’s command, dozens of guards from all sides rushed towards the trio. Sora and Siyeon then unsheathe their weapons and the fight begins.

“ YAH!” A guard yells behind Sora, aiming to slash Taehyung to distract her.

“ You damn guard, don’t you dare injure that child!” the main husbands yelled out.

Fortunately Siyeon managed to spot the guard and quickly threw multiple needles towards him, killing him on the spot.

Siyeon and Sora then looked at each other before moving towards each other until Taehyung and Siyeon’s touched each other.

“ We need to lengthen the time, the moon is almost at its peak.” Siyeon whispered.

Sora nodded while Taehyung was desperately clutching Sora’s body, his face covered by the cloak and hidden in her neck.

Siyeon kicked the guard near her, opening a space for them to move forward. The two sisters continued to fight, not breaking their formation. It was until one of the guards managed to slash Someone's right arm that they broke.

“Gah!” Siyeon yelled out after the guard had managed to injure her. She was about to fall from the impact but was quickly pulled towards Sora for balance.

“ You alright?.”

Siyeon gritted her teeth and nodded as she continued to attack the guards.

“ How much longer?”

Taking a look at the moon as she managed to slash another guard’s chest, she answered, “ A little bit more. Hang on.”

“ Mhm.”

They continued for what seem like hours, each slowly getting more injuries until they were no longer able to fight any longer.

“ Do you admit defeat?” Soonyi asked as she tightly gripped Sora’s hair, tilting them to get her to meet her gaze.

“ Never!”

“ Hmm, you are so close to death’s door but still struggling. Why do you have that much motivation?”

Sora did not answer but only spit at her.

“ YOU DARE!” Soonyi yelled out as she wiped her face disgustingly, “ Fine if you really want to die, I will do you a favour. But not after killing him.”

Knowing who she was referring to, Sora let out a threatening growl.

“ Don’t you dare!”

Seeing how affected she is, Soonyi continued to tease her, “ Why can’t I? Especially when he had ruined my childhood. Because of him, mother began to disfavour me until she no longer cared about me. I was only able to become the head because of her sudden accident. Ah, how coincident, just when I wanted to be the head.”

Soonyi then walked over to Taehyung, who was now lying on the floor. Grabbing a guard’s sword, she slowly raised her arm up.

“ Soonyi! Don’t you dare! You must let him live!” her father yelled out.

Rolling her eyes, she turned around, annoyed by him interrupting her playtime.

“ Father, you have no right to control me.”

Minjun, angered by his daughter’s arrogant answer, lifted his hand and pointed at her.

“ You unfilial daughter! How dare you disobey your father!”

Soonyi, however, ignored his words and turned around.

“ Guards, the main husband is exhausted from today’s event. Escort him back and do not let him leave.”

Some guards began to approach Minjun’s direction before grabbing him and dragging him away.

“ How dare you filthy servant touch me! Seoyoon, Sooyoung! Why aren’t you helping me? HELP ME!”

The two mentioned daughters ignored him as they made their way to their eldest sister.

“ Eldest sister, continue.”

Soonyi once again lifted her arm along with the sword and let it fall with gravity.

Unexpectedly, before it can reach the boy, a powerful force penetrated her arm.

“ GAH!”

The two other sisters turned around, alarmed at whoever just attacked Soonyi.

“ Who?”

Behind the cherry blossom tree nearby then walked out a figure.

“ I didn’t know that this was a part of this escort.”

“ Me too,” another voice said as he slowly brought out multiple figures that all of them were able to recognize. It was the guards that had escorted the main husband not long ago.

“ Gosh, you guys are a mess, Windflower, Black Wolf.”

“ You are finally here, Phoenix.”

“ Of course, I’m always on time.”

“ Doesn’t hurt if you arrive a bit earlier,” Sora said.

“ Hush, let us deal with this and we’ll talk later,” Phoenix said as they turned their attention towards the crowd. Skillfully they began to skillfully finish all of them with the help of Bear.

“ YOU CAN’T KILL ME! I HAVE VALUABLE INFORMAitON tHAT CAN be USEFUL! PLEASE, DON’T KILL ME!” Seoyoon cried out as she saw Phoenix moving towards her.

“ Boring,” they said before slashing her.

“ Is that it?” Bear asked, looking around.

“ That must be it. They probably did not expect reinforcement would come and help. Such stupid people.”

“ … Phoenix, that’s the boy you need to escort.” Siyeon said pointing at Taehyung.

“ This is Taehyung? Are you sure he’s 13? He looks like a baby… nevermind, Bear, Panther, go and help them get back to their quarters. I’ll escort this little guy here,” Y/N said, “ you guys are lucky, having the chance to be escorted by the two bishops. 

Phoenix then crouched down and faced Taehyung, smiling at him to try and comfort the terrified boy.

“ Hi, Taehyung. I’m Y/N but use Phoenix for now, alright?”

Taehyung nodded. If his sisters trusted you, then he will trust you as well. Grabbing your offered hand, he stood up and patted his clothes.

“ Taehyung, your mother has told us how talented you are. We are willing to offer you a spot and help train you. After you have finish training, you will forever be part of us and never betray us, alright?”

“ My mother told you about me?”

“ Mhm, she told me very wonderful things about you.”

“ Really? But she is gone now, how can she guarantee that I am that talented?”

“ She is… was the infamous General of the Wind, I believe that she has enough nights that she can differentiate who is special and who isn’t, Taehyung.”

“ Was… my mother there a lot? The main branch I mean.”

“ Aside from her home, she probably is there the most. Just seeing you now, I can understand why your mother assigned you queen.”

“ Queen?” Taehyung asked, curious, “ What do you mean?”

“ Ah, it’s a tradition for an older family member to name our alias. Mine was given by my mother. Your mother has decided that yours will be Queen. Just like the most valuable piece in chess.”

“ Haha, that sounds like mother.”

“ Of course. Oh! Before she left last time, she gave me a letter that was meant for you.”

Taehyung looked up to gaze at Y/N’s eyes, surprised

“ Really?”

“ Mhm so let’s quickly go back and ready it, shall we?”

Taehyung excitedly nodded and pulled Y/N towards the direction of the sunrise.

♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟

“ Taehyung? Are you ready?” Y/N asked him, entering his room.

“ Mhm. I’m ready.” He said, pulling Y/N out of his room and ran down the stairs, pulling them with him.

“ You look excited.”

Taehyung then pouted, “ You know why, Y/N. Don’t act why?”

“ I know? Really? Wait let me see…” Y/N said, pretending to think.

“ Aish, how can you forget such an important day? Today is the day where I get my first mission!”

“ AHAH!” Y/N sarcastically yelled out, keen on teasing the hell out of their junior.

“ Don’t you dare, Y/N!” He said chasing them.

“ Don’t be hasty, little junior. As your senior, you need to respect me.” Y/N sassily said, pointing their finger towards Taehyung.

Taehyung rolls his eyes, “ If you are my senior, act like one. No senior would forget their junior’s first mission day.”

“ OH! You will be surprise of how many people have done that.”

Instead of answering, Taehyung only pouted, obviously sulking that he was never going to win their little competition.

Y/N then walked towards the door and offered him their hand, “ Come now, Queen. You have a busy day in front of you. Don’t want you to be late now do we?”

Taehyung then happily nodded, grabbing onto their hand, the pair made their way out of the building to their first ever mission together.

At that moment, Taehyung was unlike the past. Instead of being a pawn, he had become a knowledgeable queen who is worthy of respect, alongside him is a king then cannot be captured and will always be there for him.

Copyright © 2021 MintVender

All rights reserved. 

[staytheb]

Love Warning

Pairing: SKZ′s Hyunjin x OC [Linna] || SKZ’s Chan x OC [Kierra] Genre: college!au, slice of life, slight fluff Word Count: 8,406 Summary: Linna and Kierra both find themselves submerged under water unexpectedly. They’re both saved even though they know how to swim. What happens afterwards leads them in another path towards love, perhaps. It’s a love warning they didn’t see coming.

Warning: curse words. ditching class. name calling per se lol i think that’s it.

hello guys! i’m back and it’s another SKZ story. this was inspired by Third KZ’s Love Warning and something my sister would love a story for and viola, it’s here. more or less in a sense. why it also draws the same title as well. plus i didn’t know what else to call it since while writing this the temporary title was ‘love warning’. anyways, other than that happy reading, Admin Lia~

revised. 9.10.20

"It's just a kickback, Rara." Linna reminded her sister as the duo arrived at their friend's house.

Kierra rolled her eyes before answering. "Yeah, true, but we both still have classes in the morning tomorrow."

"We're not gonna stay that long. Just say hi and hang out. Besides, it's also Ayeon's birthday."

"Yeah, next week."

"Whatever. She's just celebrating it early. C'mon, Rara. Don't be such a loner."

Linna dragged Kierra towards the house and rang the door bell with the latter rolling her eyes an evident frown upon her face. The sisters were greeted by an unfamiliar female face, but the stranger still welcomed them with a smile.

"Hello, ladies."

"Hi. Ayeon invited us." Linna introduced themselves. "I'm Linna and this is Kierra."

"Oh, right. Yes, yes. I remember her mentioning the both of you. I'm Christina, but wow. You guys can totally pass off as twins." Christina commented with a laugh.

"Hello, Christina, and wow, Ayeon's even spreading that nonsense to random people." Linna said with a shake of her head.

"Haha yeah, she talks about you two a lot. She misses y'all late night food and movie sessions. Anyways, come on in. Everyone's out back." Christina informed them as she opened the door wider. "Ayeon's still in her room getting ready and what not."

"Thanks." The duo thanked Christina as they entered and headed towards the backyard.

Once the two reached the backyard they noticed that there were a steady crowd hanging around the pool area and the backyard itself. It wasn't too crowded and seemed more like a mini party instead of a get-together kickback.

"So much for a kickback." Kierra muttered towards Linna who shrugged with a smile.

"Her words, not mine."

"Yo, Linna! Kierra! What's up!" Their friend, BamBam, greeted them first upon noticing them arriving and motioned them over.

The sisters made their way to him and their other friend, Yugyeom.

"Hey, guys." The duo greeted.

"Who are all these people?" Kierra asked after glancing at the group of people scattered all over Ayeon's backyard.

"Ayeon's friends from her other school after transferring last semester." Yugyeom answered.

"Ah, right, right. That makes total sense."

"No wonder I don't recognize the majority of those here." Linna commented before spotting two familiar faces. "Oh, wait. I see Jamie and Yerin way back over there."

"They arrived a few minutes before you did." BamBam informed them before looking over towards the refreshment tables. "Do you guys want something to drink?"

"Maybe later." Kierra replied before looking behind her back at the house. "I'm gonna put away Ayeon's gift first and gotta use the bathroom. I'll be back afterwards."

"Okay. I'll chat with these two before seeing Yerin and Jamie." Linna added.

"Okay. I'll be back."

Kierra waved the trio off as Linna remained with the other two.

"So, why did Ayeon decide to have a mini party instead of a kickback?" Linna asked the pair.

"She wanted both of her friends from the different school to mingle." Yugyeom answered with a shrug. "I mean, Ayeon's been up in her room changing her outfits from swimwear to casual to classy and all that. She's still the same even transferring."

"She said it's because she wanted everyone to mingle and get to know one another without her doing all of the work and to let it all happen naturally." BamBam explained from what he had heard from Ayeon earlier that day.

"Sounds like her." Linna remarked with a chuckle before looking around again with a neutral look before looking at the males.

"Well, it just started so I'm sure it'll pick up. Anyways, I'm gonna say hi to the other two and catch up with y'all later."

"Alright, see you." The duo bid her goodbye as Linna made her way towards her other two friends.

While Linna was walking over to Jamie and Yerin along side the length of the pool she happened to spot another group of people on her way over to her own friends. She wasn't really paying attention to them until they took notice of her as they recognized who she was. Although Linna attended the same school with that group since junior high it wasn't like she was popular at school to make her stand out or anything.

Then again, one of the guys of that group named Hyunjin sort of held a grudge on his part as Linna didn't really bothered herself with the male. Sure they had some classes together and had projects and assignments with one another a few times, but other than that she never associated herself with him on that end. Linna wasn't even sure on why he was always a brat or a jerk towards her, but then again she never pondered on it much and just did her own thing.

So when Linna was about a meter from them she suddenly stopped walking when she noticed Hyunjin had blocked her path after being pushed by one of his friends. The duo just stared at one another awkwardly before Hyunjin took a step forward, but Linna took a step backward out of instinct with a cautious look in his direction. Curious, Hyunjin did it again and Linna repeated her previous reaction. Amused, Hyunjin took a few more steps towards Linna and she took a few more back.

In the process of being cautious of his actions, Linna ended up tripping over her own feet and was about to fall backwards into the pool, but Hyunjin instinctly reached out an arm to help her. Unconsciously, Linna took a hold of his outreached hand to keep herself from falling into the water. Hyunjin firmly held his stance in hopes of not letting go of Linna's hand although Hyunjin's group of friends were suddenly chanting for him to let her go.

Upon hearing the loud chant, Linna looked at Hyunjin wondering what he was gonna do as Hyunjin's facial expressions seemed like he was in turmoil in what to do. After a few seconds of nothing really happening, Linna was about to use Hyunjin's strength to her advantage and pulled herself forward. Before she could actually do that she suddenly felt herself slowly falling backwards instead and into the swimming pool.

Linna realized that Hyunjin had actually let her hand go in accordance to what his friends were chanting and chose to be a jerk in that moment for them. As Linna tried to resurface it appeared like she was struggling when in reality she wasn't. Her outfit weighed her down and made her unable to use her arms easily. When Hyunjin noticed that Linna seemed like she was struggling his guilty conscious ate at him and with a deep sigh he dived into the pool to save her.

Seconds later Hyunjin noticed that he could actually stand up on this side of the pool after diving into the water. He turned his head to the left and noticed that Linna was also standing with her arms cross over her chest while glaring at him. There was laughter from the crowd and the pair quickly looked up at the others becoming aware of their situation. Linna slapped a hand against the surface of the water to splash against Hyunjin to let him know of her annoyance at what had just happened.

Hyunjin cast her a sheepish look as Linna rolled her eyes while quickly pulling her phone from out of her pocket. She held the power button to shut off the device while waddling over to the edge of the pool to pull herself out of it. If the situation was any different, she wouldn't have minded being in the pool, but since it wasn't she was low-key annoyed. Linna was aided by Jamie and Yerin once they realized it was their friend who had gone into the pool and not a total stranger.

"You okay?" Jamie asked once Linna got out of the pool.

"Not really." Linna replied with a stoic expression.

"Are you hurt at all?" Yerin asked afterwards.

Linna shook her in response before glancing down at Hyunjin.

"I don't know what I did or said to you in the past for you to treat me this way, but this is some childish shit you got going on. Next time you or your friends see me, please leave me the fuck alone."

Before Hyunjin could respond, Linna turned her attention away from him while looking at her friends.

"Could you guys come with me and find Kierra? I don't want another incident to happen again once I walk by his group of friends."

"Sure. Yeah. Let's go." Yerin and Jamie agreed as they each protectively stood on either side of Linna and made their way towards the house.

Meanwhile that situation had happened with Linna, Kierra ended up with a similar situation of her own once she got done using the toilet. When she had stepped out of the house and back outside, Kierra's first instinct was to look for her sister. She took a few steps before remembering that Linna was gonna meet up with Jamie and Yerin. Kierra made her way to the back of the backyard before her attention turned towards a familiar friend upon feeling a tap on her shoulder.

"Minjun?" She let out in disbelief upon seeing her friend who she thought had went to school overseas and stopped walking to talk to him. "Hi, you. Damn, how are you? I thought you were in London? When did you get back?"

"Hi. Well, I did, but I'm back home now." He explained with a chuckle. "I got back like a month or two ago. I attend the same school as Ayeon."

"Oh, nice. And here I thought I wouldn't have to see your face for like another four years."

"Wow. Ouch. Some friend you are."

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's what you thought we were while growing up, Minjun."

"Ouch. Double burn. You're just asking for it, huh?"

"Wait. No. I'm kidding." Kierra denied while waving her hands in front of her in submission upon knowing what Minjun was gonna do to her after saying his words in response to her own.

Before Kierra could actually back away and duck from Minjun's hands, her friend's hand already ruffled her hair into a mess. Minjun laughed at his action while Kierra glared at him while fixing her hair back into place.

"Ugh. Rude." Kierra tsked while shooting him a narrowed look. "Linna worked hard in doing up my hair. You know how much tim-"

Before Kierra could finish her sentence the pair was interrupted by Minjun's girlfriend, Suvi. Well, more like Suvi pushing Kierra away from Minjun causing Kierra to unexpectedly fall into the pool right at the moment that Linna had resurfaced. Unlike Linna, Kierra went with the flow of it instead of trying to come back up instantly to the surface after being pushed in.

Kierra swam towards the floor of the pool as she had fallen in to the deep end. Compare to Linna, Kierra also wasn't wearing anything heavy to weigh her down. She was about to swim back up for air when she felt something wrapped around her waist and later pressed against something solid. Before she could even look over to her left, Kierra found herself breaking the water's surface with a cough and struggling for some air.

In that process Kierra wasn't aware that the person who helped her assumed she was drowning after not trying to come back up immediately. Just as she was trying to get some breaths in she was suddenly lifted out of the pool with the person joining her a second later. Before she could even register her current situation or glance at the person that aided her, Kierra found herself back into the pool thanks to Suvi.

"Oh, gosh, Suvi?!" Minjun exclaimed while casting his girlfriend and incredulous look. "What are you doing? Chan just got Kierra out of the pool the first time you pushed her in to it."

"I don't care. She deserved it. She was taking you away from me." Suvi argued as Minjun gave her a confused look before replying back. "She's one of my good friends and we were just catching up. Your jealousy is way out of line this time."

"But I love you, Minjun."

"But that doesn't give you the right to do what you did, Suvi. You really need to control your jealously."

While that couple argued, Chan had once again jumped back into the water to save Kierra. He helped her out and even made sure that Kierra was a good distance away from Suvi just in case she tried to push her back into the swimming pool.

"Are you okay?" Chan asked Kierra a moment later when he figured Kierra got her breathing in control.

"Yeah. I'm just feeling super peachy." Kierra replied nonchalantly while giving him an OK sign even though she hadn't looked over to see who he was as she was too busy calming herself down.

Closing her eyes in wanting to ease her temper from attacking this Suvi chick for pushing her into the pool twice already, Kierra remained calmed as she reassured the male of her status. "Totally peachy. Thank you though."

Chan chuckled at her response and before he could follow up with another question about Kierra's well-being once again, Linna had called out her sister's name upon nearing the house.

"Rara."

"Hmm?" Kierra hummed loudly while opening her eyes and looking towards the direction she heard her sister call for her. "What, Nana?"

When the sisters finally located where the other was and noticed their soaked clothes they asked each other the same question.

"What happened to you?"

They replied with the same response.

"I'll tell you later."

"Anyways, let's go home." Linna suggested. "I'll text Ayeon what happened later."

"Okay. Give me a minute."

"Alright. I'll be in the car."

"Okay."

Linna entered the house to exit through the front door with Yerin and Jamie still assisting her. Kierra stood up while looking down at the person who saved her almost forgetting about Chan.

"Um, thanks for saving me twice although I know how to swim, but you didn't know that. But uh, yeah, bye." She thanked Chan while giving him a small wave before walking away quickly after mouthing a goodbye to Minjun to avoid the girlfriend from getting even more jealous.

Linna arrived to class early and took the nearest seat to the door. Instead of worrying about the class Linna was more concern about her phone since it had a lot of important information on it. Currently it was in a ziploc bag of rice and sitting on her desk in her room since she got home last night. Linna hoped that after she got back home she would be able to use it without any difficulties. If not, then she would have to get a new one and hoped she backed up everything completely before falling into the pool yesterday.

Mindlessly staring at the open notebook in front of her as she thought about her phone, she didn't notice Hyunjin walking by until the seat next to her made a noise. Linna turned to her right and saw that Hyunjin had taken the seat next to her. Making a face, Linna turned away from him while propping up her right arm onto the table and leaning her head against her right fist to create a barrier. She began writing random things with her left hand to occupy herself.

"Can we talk about yesterday?" Hyunjin asked even though Linna was completely ignoring him.

Linna didn't reply.

"Linna?"

She still didn't respond.

"Alright, then just, hear me out, please."

Once again, Linna gave no response to his words.

"I like you, okay." Hyunjin confessed.

Linna scoffed as she immediately turned her attention towards him with a dubious expression.

"Seriously? You like me, but you treated me like shit since junior high. You confessing just makes you more of an asshole now, Hyunjin."

Hyunjin let out a sigh with a nod.

"Yes, Linna, I know that, but I never really thought about it until yesterday."

Linna scoffed again.

"Okay, wow. Thanks for telling me, Hyunjin. Now go sit somewhere else and fuck off."

"No, Linna, I won't." Hyunjin disagreed before frowning slightly upon remembering something. "Plus, we're partners starting today."

"Ah, fuck my life man. Seriously?" Linna groaned upon remembering that she had pulled Hyunjin's name out of the box the other day.

"We can e-mail each other instead. Just sit somewhere else."

"Look, Linna, I told you that I like you, but that's not the only reason on why I acted the way I did towards you. I wanna explain myself."

"Cool story, bro. I don't care for any more of your explanation or reasoning. Deuces." Linna dismissed him as she propped her right arm in-between them again and went back to writing random things on her notebook.

Before Hyunjin could try again the teacher called for their attention to listen in on the lesson as it would be on the final. Linna was minding her own business and wrote down things she perceived to be important for the upcoming final as she knew how the teacher did it until she saw a folded up note land on her notebook. She side-glanced Hyunjin as he motioned with his eyes for her to read it. Her eyes flickered back and forth between him and the note for a moment or two.

Curiosity got the best of her as she was bored and also knew that whatever the teacher was talking about for now, he would repeat later on the next class day. Linna let out a sigh as she picked up the note and slowly opened the content of it. There in Hyunjin's handwriting was the words 'can we talk?'. Linna rolled her eyes, but figured she could amuse the male for now until class was over. Plus, she the teacher's voice was starting to make her sleepily. She wrote her response before lazily sliding it back towards Hyunjin.

Less than ten seconds later the note was tossed in her line of sight again. Linna languidly opened the note and read the contents in boredom even though this thing was way more interesting than what Mr. Kim was currently talking about. Of course, she wouldn't let Hyunjin know that. One side of her lips quirked up upon seeing Hyunjin's response to her 'no'. Re-reading his 'let me make it up to you, please?' response to her 'no', Linna smirked while replying back to him.

Hyunjin wondered what Linna could be writing as she was taking quite a while. When he got the note back there were two words on it. The obvious was another 'no', but a 'warning' was written underneath alongside a drawing of what he assumed was him being punched in the face by what he assumed was a drawing of Linna. Hyunjin cast her a curious look as she slightly waved at him with a playful look. He could tell from her eyes that she was challenging him to mess with her. So Hyunjin wasn't sure if he should continue or try another time. He went with the former as a mischievous smile graced his lips.

Kierra tiredly climbed the steps to the second floor of the school's building while trying to keep her breathing under control. She would have taken the elevator, but she hated riding it when there were a crowd of people and so she always opted for the stairs in those situations. After making a right when she reached the top of the stairs she began to hum to the song that randomly got stuck in her head since she woke up towards her designated spot.

When she arrived outside the classroom Kierra noticed there was a notice on the door of her class. She tilted her head while reading the contents and made a face after finishing it. She let out a groan upon the cancellation of her morning class. Out of habit, Kierra reached towards her back pocket to fish out her mobile device before realizing that it was at home in her room on her desk inside a Ziploc bag filled with rice since last night. In the same situation just like Linna's.

Kierra sighed wondering how she would inform Linna about her current situation since they both came to school together. Also, Kierra only had this one class and couldn't just go home like that. She also knew that she could go to Linna's class, but she didn't remember her sister's schedule. Kierra let out another sigh as she turned left and made her way back towards the stairs. Kierra also thought that she might as well get in her morning exercise for the day while she felt like it, too.

After deciding on the cafeteria for breakfast and a drink, Kierra settled herself down at a free table that wasn't surrounded by other students doing the same thing. Kierra pulled out her school materials and began working on other assignments while she waited for Linna's class to finish. Plus, if she didn't want to study or read books, then she could always watch TV in the cafeteria and let time rolled on by that way. To which she always opted for. Well, not today when another person joined her at her table and she glanced up to see who it was.

"Oh, hi, Seungmin. What's up?" Kierra greeted him with a small smile while closing her books.

"I should be asking you that, Kierra." Seungmin stated with a soft chuckle. "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?"

"It got canceled. Also I came with Linna and so I can't leave since we both don't have our phones to contact one another."

"Ahh, it's because the both of you fell into the swimming pool at Maya's little birthday party, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?."

"I was there."

"Oh. I probably missed you."

"Well, I didn't miss you getting shove into the pool by Suvi."

Kierra shot him an annoyed look and was ready to rant to him.

"She pushed me into the water twice and I don't even know her. This is why I need to stop being friends with guys." She huffed before ranting again. "Their girlfriends always think I'm trying to steal them away or something. Ridiculous. Why would I still your man when I see him like a brother? Like, you serious or what? Anyways, some random dude had to save me although I don't know why though. He didn't even know me."

"Ah, Chan. That's just how he is. He's always thinking about others regardless of his own condition and what not. Also, he's a pretty great swimmer." Seungmin informed her with a smile. "Besides, Kierra, you've always gotten along with males more than females. So that's never gonna change."

"True. Anyways, what do you want?"

"I just came to have a chat with a friend. I can't do that?"

"No. I've got better things to do."

"Like what? Sit here and wait for Linna."

"Mmhmm."

"C'mon." Seungmin suggested while standing up and motioning with his head towards the door. "I wanna show you something."

"I don't wanna see what you want to show me." Kierra rejected.

Seungmin chuckled with a shake of his head. "I want you to meet some people."

"I hate people."

"Yeah, sure you do."

"I do, Seungmin."

"C'mon. You have nothing else to do. Plus, you'll have a lot of fun."

"You do know that our definition of fun is different, right?"

"I do, but I guarantee you that you'll enjoy yourself because we like good company."

"Ugh. Fine. Since we both love good company."

Linna thought that Hyunjin gave up when he didn't pass her the note again even though she noticed the weird smirk upon his face. She dismissed it as she went back to taking notes and doodling in her notebook. Linna's gaze drifted to the clock on the wall above the teacher's head and inwardly groaned about there being at least forty minutes left of class. She could ditch class and ask another student about what happened and go do something else, but she was the one paying for the course so ditching would seriously be a waste of her tuition.

Too lost in her own thoughts Linna didn't notice that Hyunjin had given her a new note. He placed it right on top of her notebook just like last time, but she gave no response. It wasn't until she felt a poked to her right cheek that brought her back to the present. Linna slowly turned her head to glare at Hyunjin who was already smiling at her. He pointed at the new note and Linna's attention went to it. She stared at the white piece of paper before using her pen to slide it back to its owner.

Hyunjin's jaw dropped upon her reaction and seemed offended as he pushed it back towards her, but Linna repeated her previous action. She smiled when the same note came back into view a third time. She looked over at Hyunjin as he cast her an angry pout while his eyes flashed back and forth between her and the note. Linna found it weird that he was acting like this after the incident and just confessing not that long ago. Still though, she never thought about entering a relationship as she was the type to let things happen if they ever did.

Now that her thoughts were thinking on their own. Her mind came to the thought about on she always thought that Hyunjin was a total cutie, but besides that she didn't really know that much about him. They didn't talk that much and even then it was always about school or some dumb comment he got for her. Then again, he was still a total jerk to her since junior high and even now without any real reason either. This made Linna recall what he had said earlier about there being another reason on why he acted the way that he did.

Still though, to her that didn't give her enough good reasons to see a different side of him as she only knew what he presented her with on that end. Linna also knew that she didn't interact that much with others even if they trusted her, she didn't really trust them all that much. She usually kept to herself and just did things at her pace without worrying about others unless it was a group assignment. A few seconds later, Linna inwardly scolded herself in wondering why she was even thinking of those things, especially about Hyunjin like this and why now.

Linna started to gather her things as quietly as possible, but Hyunjin became alerted to her movements. He didn't try to stop her and silently watched her packed up and quietly slipped out of her seat and towards the door. Linna didn't glanced back and Hyunjin pouted for some reason when she didn't spare him a glance. He contemplated to do the same or not. He took his things and chased after her, but once he left the classroom she was no where in sight. He did a three-sixty, but still Linna was nowhere to be found.

"Where did she suddenly go?" Hyunjin asked himself while doing another turn here and there.

Linna had instantly hid behind one of the pillars once she left the class. She had a feeling that Hyunjin would try and follow her, but she just didn't know exactly why. She watched the male try to look for her and found herself enjoying the way he was behaving. Linna couldn't figure out why this was amusing to her, but she assumed it might be due to her boredom and the fact that he was the person responsible for her phone.

Also, the other fact she may have enjoyed messing with him was being that she now knew he liked her. Although she wasn't sure why he would like her in the first place. Linna knew for sure that she wasn't that interesting and was more mellow than a lot of their peers and her own friends. She kept to herself. She hated drama. She didn't like going out and about unless she wanted to. She also didn't participate in things unless it interested her. So nothing came to mind in why Hyunjin would find something in her to like.

Too lost in her own thoughts, Linna wasn't aware that she had let out a loud giggle. Which alerted Hyunjin of the sound and he followed it to find her hidden behind the pillar. He smirked upon see her behaving like this and wasn't sure if he wanted to make his present known. He figured that she would continue to ignore him again, but then again Linna did the same thing even before he confessed his feelings. Now Hyunjin wanted to change that, but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy. He was willing to try though.

"Found you." He cooed while tapping Linna's left shoulder.

Linna jerked upright and slowly turned to face the male with a scrunched up face.

"What do you want?" She asked with clear disgust in her tone. "Can't you heed my warning?"

"No." Hyunjin answered before taking a deep breath before replying. "I wanna take you somewhere."

"Uh, no. I don't trust you."

"Just trust me this one time and then you can decide if you wanna talk to me ever again."

"I'm pretty sure I told you at Ayeon's party that if you ever see me to fuck off."

"That's kinda hard when we have classes together, Linna."

"Not really. Just ignore me. Pretty simple, my dude."

"I can't, Linna. I like you and I wanna make this right. So please, just trust me this once and then we can take it from there."

"How about this," Linna began in hopes of striking up a deal, "I'll trust you this once, if you buy me a new phone if my old one doesn't work."

"Deal." Hyunjin agreed without hesitation.

Linna cast him a cautious look.

"Seriously?"

"Mmhmm."

Hyunjin nodded his head happily while holding out his hand for her to take. Linna stared at his hand and shook her head.

"Nah. That's too easy. You're not playing around right?"

"I'm not. I'm toally serious." Hyunjin assured her with his offered hand still out to her.

"Fine, but I ain't holding your hand, boy." She declined while pushing his hand away. "You either lead or walk alongside me because I hate people walking behind me and I'm not about to hold your hand just yet either."

Hyunjin pouted, but comply.

"Alright. I'll do as you say."

Kierra was skeptical of where Seungmin was taking her, but still followed as she had nothing else to do. Also she had already finished her drink and sandwich, so she hoped this place had some snacks she could snack on. Anyways, Kierra took in her surrounding and saw that Seungmin stopped in front of some building that she never had to visit that was on the furthermost side of the campus. After entering the building Kierra followed Seungmin to the other end of it heading towards a door that led down to something like a basement.

"This better not be a prank, Seungmin." Kierra told him as he let out a chuckle.

"It isn't."

"Better be because I'm warning you, if you're fucking around with me I’ma destroy all your Day6 merch."

"I swear on my life as a MyDay it isn't."

Kierra didn't respond back as she didn't have anything else to say, but once they reached the end of the stairs she was surprised to see the area was brightly lit and cozy. Kierra was welcomed into what appeared to be like some sort of a hangout spot. Kierra was confused since it looked like someone's man-cave or one of those teenage hideouts away from reality on school's grounds. The only place she ever saw this was the lounge in the recreation room in the building for clubs activities and meetings which was usually off-limits to non-members.

There were already a few people occupying the room, but Kiera noticed that they were all male. There was no other female in sight and she became a bit apprehensive of it. None of them noticed her presence or that Seungmin had entered. When Seungmin turned around to introduce her to the others she was already glaring at him with a knowing look. Seungmin's smile dimmed as he shook his head in response to what Kierra may have been thinking and assuming upon noticing there was nothing but guys here.

"It's not like that." Seungmin assured her.

"Oh yeah? You sure?" Kierra countered.

Seungmin nodded in affirmation.

"Yes. It isn't. Remember I swear on my life as a MyDay on this."

"You did, Seungmin, you did, but then again, you never know."

"Kierra, seriously. They're like my closes friends. Besides, you met one of them already yesterday."

"Who?" Kierra asked clueless.

Before Seungmin could clarified, the duo were interrupted by the group of boys that finally took in their presence.

"Oh, Seungmin! What's up?!" Chan greeted his friend before shifting his eyes onto Kierra.

His eyes lit up in recognition and his smile broaden. Before Chan could greet her another male spoke.

"Ah! You brought Hyunjin's crush here?!"

"Who?" Kierra questioned.

"You." The same male repeated.

"Felix-" Seungmin said firmly, but Kierra interrupted him.

"Um, yeah, no. You got me confused with the wrong person and I'm just gonna go."

She pointed a thumb behind her while walking backwards, but unfortunately for her she wasn't prepared to bumped into the other friends that were coming down the stairs. Kierra let out a a suppressed squeal as she fumbled forward and landed on her knees while the person she had bumped into also fell beside her. Kierra was about to apologize to him, but recognized the male instead.

"Aren't you supposed to be at your own school right now?"

Linna found herself at the furthermost building on campus and wondered why Hyunjin had led her here. Hyunjin held the door open for her and she at first didn't want to walk through, but stepped inside a second later. Once she was inside she moved off to the side so that Hyunjin could once again take the lead. She followed the male to the end of the hall before going through a door that led down stairs.

Linna didn't question Hyunjin as she was lazy to do so, but if he was trying to mess with her he had another thing coming. Hyunjin kept shooting glances behind him to make sure that Linna was still there. He figured she might have run off instead the chance she got, but she remained and he was relieved in knowing that. He just hoped that his friends wouldn't scare her off.

The duo could hear several voices yelling and cheering, but couldn't really make out any of the words. So when they arrived at the bottom of the stairs and could see what was going on, Linna was surprised to see Kierra amongst the rowdy boys. As for Hyunjin, he was surprised that his friends actually allowed a female into their hangout since it was usually just the nine of them.

Then again, he did just bring Linna although it was a different story since they all knew of his crush on Linna. Linna passed by Hyunjin to walk up to the group to see what game they were playing knowing that her sister couldn't resist such a thing. They were playing a fighting game and she forgot the name of it, but remembered that her older brothers played this often.

She nudged the lower part of her sister's back to get her attention. Kierra briefly glanced over her shoulder to see who it was and was surprised to see her sister.

"What are you doing here?" Kierra asked not really caring about her character getting beaten up while still pressing buttons to seem like she wasn't distract. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"I could say the same thing about you. What game is this?" Linna inquired glancing at the screen again.

"Super Smash Bros for the Wii U."

"Oh yeah. Like for the Nintendo 64."

"Mmhmm. Wanna play?"

Linna shook her head before hunching over to whisper to her.

"So who brought you here?"

"Seungmin. Who brought you?"

"That guy that likes me."

Linna slightly motioned with her head towards Hyunjin and Kierra's eyes scanned over to where the male was.

"Ah, that Hyunjin kid you like to rant about, right?"

"Mmhmm."

"Anyways, look over to your left and see who's also skipping school."

Kierra indicated with her eyes as Linna glanced to her left and saw their neighbor, Jeongin, who was supposed to be at his high school instead of here at their college.

"Ohh, I'ma tell your mom you ditched school, Jeongin."

The younger boy's posture jerked in alert upon hearing his neighbor's voice. He turned around to cast Linna an innocent smile while everyone stopped playing and watched the interaction between the two.

"Linna. Hi. Today's a free day." He lied with a firm tone although his eyes were kinda shaky looking.

"Mmhmm. Then why are you still wearing your uniform?"

"Because I had no other clothes."

"Wow. What a liar."

"Then why aren't you in class right now like Kierra, huh?" Jeongin countered not wanting to get questioned on why he wasn't in school.

"I don't know her reason for ditching class, but that guy over there wouldn't stop passing me notes in class after confessing that he liked me." Linna replied while motioning over at Hyunjin with a slightly annoyed look.

All seven of the males' jaws dropped as they turned their attention onto Hyunjin instead and went to surround their friend.

"You finally confessed?!" They exclaimed loudly and Hyunjin tried to brush them off.

"Yes, but I'm trying to get back into her good graces."

"What did you do?" His friend, Jisung, asked with a concerned look.

"I bet it's because she won't forgive him for pushing her into the pool last night." Another friend, Changbin, reasoned.

"I didn't push her in to the pool." Hyunjin stated.

"Yeah, but you're the one that let her fall into the pool in the first place." Seungmin remarked. "And got her phone all wet."

"Shut up, Seungmin."

"Ahh, it's because he was hanging out with those other friends of his from primary school, huh?" Minho, another friend of theirs, piped up with a knowing look. "I knew they were sketchy when they started to hang out with you again."

"I knew it." Changbin agreed. "I should've gone to the party. At least I could have kept you in control."

"Control on what? You had to finish you paper for the class that you're failing." Minho reminded him. "You're lucky I even let you borrow my notes for that class."

"And I'm very thankful for the help, Minho."

"Is that why you couldn't come to Ayeon's party?" Chan asked realizing the reason his friend couldn't come.

"Yes."

"Anyways, let's get back to Hyunjin's love life." Felix interjected with a serious look. "I really wanna know how he'll win Linna's acceptance."

"I mean, I'm curious, too." Jisung agreed with a nod. "Although, he's been a jerk to her since junior high."

Before either of the boys could say something their attention was suddenly drawn to Kierra happily gloating.

"Yay! I won!" Kierra cheered happily as she watched her character doing a victory dance. "Go Isabelle! Even though I had no idea how to play you."

"Technically, you cheated." Linna reminded her with a smirk as Kierra nodded in acknowledgement.

"True, but I still won."

Kierra stood up and faced her sister.

"Alright, let's go home. My class got cancel and I'm craving some pizza."

"Nah, bro. We had pizza the other day because of the bros." Linna disagreed with a disgusted face. "Let's eat something else today. Oh, I've been craving for some rice cakes and ohh some noodles, too. Maybe we can go shopping and make rabokki before picking up Bennet at school."

"Okay, fine. We'll eat whatever you wanna eat then." Kierra complied with a wave of her hand as she was about to make her way towards the stairs, but stopped when she realized that the eight males were blocking the path to it.

"Oh, right. I forgot about you guys."

Linna elbowed her.

"Wow, that's rude."

Kierra shrugged in response.

"Aww, you're already wanting to leave?" Chan asked with a frown while his eyes lingered on Kierra.

Kierra leaned over to whisper to her sister.

"Hey, how about I distract them first and you escape first. Then I'll follow right after."

"Aww, don't be so mean. I think that guy likes you."

"Which one?"

"The one that just spoke a while ago."

"He barely met me. There's no way he'll like me like that."

"Didn't you mentioned that someone saved you from drowning yesterday?"

"Technically, I wasn't drowning, but he didn't know that so yeah someone kinda did."

"Then that's probably him."

"Why do you say that?"

"He keeps staring at you although his smile is fake because he's trying to respect your decisions."

"Y'know, I'ma leave you with this Hyunjin kid so that the two of you can figure out what's going on between the two of you."

"Yeah right. He's kinda annoying."

"Yeah, sure, okay. Maybe it's a type of love warning on your end."

"How so? More like a love warning on your end since you barely met that guy."

"Leave me out of it. You're the one that wants to date."

"True, but it'll happen when it happens. You're the oldest so you should date first so that I can get a niece or nephew."

"Okay, Nana. Like I want that right now."

"Hey, you never know."

"You're a jerk."

Linna gasped upon hearing her sister's word, but nodded.

"True. Still have the older bros to grant my wish."

Kierra scoffed. "Yeah, like that will happen with their bachelor life."

Jeongin interrupted the sisters' conversation.

"Uh, excuse me, but we're still here."

The sister's return their attention back onto the males.

"Okay, bye!" Linna exclaimed loudly as she rushed passed the group, up the stairs, and out of sight.

"This bitch." Kierrra muttered under her breath as she watched her sister run off.

Kierra was about to do the same thing, but Hyunjin ran after her sister causing Kierra to stopped from taking off as she didn't want to witnessed that situation between her sister and the guy that likes her. Kierra felt awkward while standing there until the boys suddenly split up to do their own thing leaving her alone with Chan.

"Okay, like that wasn't obvious." Kierra scoffed in a quiet tone with a small smile on her face.

Chan cast Kierra charming, yet awkward smile.

"Oh, would you look at that. It's just the two of us now."

"You like me, don't you?" Kierra asked him off the bat.

"Well, I don't really know for sure, but you did catch my attention and I can't seem to get you off my mind."

"Wow just like that? All because of me just from me falling into the pool and you trying to save me when I really didn't need saving."

"Um, something like that."

He let out a chuckle afterwards before bring a hand to brush his hair back out of nervousness.

"This is some love warning then." Kierra mumbled to herself with a roll of her eyes. "I hate her."

Chan let out a cough to compose himself.

"This is kinda awkward now that I think about it."

"You think?" Kierra asked in agreement.

Chan let out another laugh.

"Yeah, well, anyways, do you wanna grab some coffee?" He offered with a soft smile.

Kierra shook her head.

"No thanks."

Chan's smile dimmed upon hearing her rejection, but Kierra wasn't finished talking.

"I don't like coffee."

"Wait, what?" Chan asked confused.

"I don't like coffee." She clarified.

"Oh."

He let out as silence fell between them. Kierra broke the awkward silence between them and suggested something else.

"I do like bubble tea though."

There was another awkward silence before Minho yelled out something for his friend to comprehend.

"She wants to get bubble tea instead, idiot!"

Kierra let out a laugh with a nod of her head and agreed with Minho's statement.

"Pretty much what he said."

Chan finally realized the situation.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Totally we can get some bubble tea instead of coffee." Chan agreed with a nod while letting out a sheepish laugh. “I don’t like coffee either.”

"Alright, let's go then."

Just as the duo were about to head up the stairs they were interrupted by Changbin.

"I want bubble tea, too!"

"Just text me what you guys want and we'll bring it!" Kierra told them with a smile before moving up the steps leaving Chan behind.

Changbin was smiling happily until he remembered something.

"Wait, I don't have her number."

"And Kierra doesn't have her phone either. I'm pretty sure she totally forgot about that." Seungmin added with a smirked.

Changbin let out a groan as Chan called out to him.

"Changbin, you still have my number. Remember?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, and thanks!"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll bring it back after Kierra and I have a good hangout time."

Chan bid his friends goodbye before following after Kierra with a laugh escaping his lips while shaking his head at his friend's behavior.

Linna let out a relieved sigh after getting away from the others once she exited the building. She was happily walking around contently until she felt a tug on her bag and almost stumbled backwards into someone.

"Hyunjin?!" She exclaimed upon noticing he was the one that pulled on her bag.

"Yes?" He answered happily with a sweet smile despite causing Linna to fumbled onto him.

Hyunjin helped Linna to stand upright as she shot him a glare.

"Is this another trick of yours?"

"What? No. It's not. I was trying to make sure that you didn't leave me again."

"Isn't it enough that I already passed notes in class with you and followed you to this hangout of yours for today?"

"No. I want to hang out more with you without my friends."

"You must like me that badly, huh?" She teased.

Hyunjin grew flustered by her words as he suddenly became shy.

"Aww, how cute." Linna cooed upon seeing his reaction.

"You think I'm cute?" Hyunjin suddenly asked as his whole demeanor suddenly turned charismatic.

"No. You're ugly." Linna deadpanned.

Hyunjin's jaws dropped in shocked upon hearing Linna's words. Linna chuckled at his reaction. She then spotted her sister and called out for her.

"Hey, Rara!"

Kierra turned her head and noticed her sister.

"What do you want, Nana?" Kierra asked, but not walking towards her and continued walking in the direction of the nearest bubble tea shop.

"Where you going?"

"Getting bubble tea. Want some?"

"Yeah!"

"Bring your friend because his other friend is coming, too."

Linna watched where her sister was pointing behind her and saw that the Chan guy was right behind her sister not that far a part.

"Okay, but won't we ruin your date?"

"It's not a date!"

"It's definitely a date!" Chan chimed in as he caught up to Kierra who nudged him playfully for what he had said with a slighly flustered expression on her face.

"It's totally a date." Linna reasoned with a laugh upon seeing their behavior with one another.

Upon hearing the word 'date', Hyunjin snapped out of it.

"Alright, let's double date!" He exclaimed as Chan agreed while hooking arms with Kierra. "Call! A double date it is then!"

"It's totally not!" Kierra disagreed as she nudged Chan again with an even more flustered look while trying to shake his hold off of her.

"It totally is!" Hyunjin cheered happily as he instantly hooked arms with Melanie while dragging her towards the other pair.

"Hey, who said it was a date?" Linna asked Hyunjin with a look a few seconds later.

"I did." He answered with a bright smile. "So did Chan and now you and I can have a nice conversation and get to know one another better."

"Psh, yeah right. You still haven't told me why you've been an asshole to me."

"It's because you said you didn't care about it earlier."

"Oh, right. Whatever."

Linna tried to free her arm from Hyunjin's hold, but he held onto her arm firmly.

"Clingy, aren't we?" She remarked with an annoyed tone, but Hyunjin brushed off her words with a laugh before answering. "I need to make sure you don't run away."

"Usually it's Kierra that does the running away and I'm the one that prevents her from doing so." She mumbled before casting a glance in her sister's direction where she was chilling and talking to Chan coolly still with her arm linked with Chan's.

"What was that?" Hyunjin asked upon hearing her say something, but not catching what she had actually said.

"I said you're paying for me." She lied.

"Okay." Hyunjin agreed without hesitation.

"I was kidding."

"Oh, well, then I'll treat you today and you can treat me another time."

"What makes you think there will be another time?"

"Oh, trust me, Linna. There will be another time once you and I get our bubble teas in a bit."

"This is a little too much all in one morning."

"Don't worry, it'll be noon and then evening."

"You're making it sound like we're gonna hang out all day."

"Mmhmm."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I get to hang out with you and you'll also get to know if you'll need a new phone or not."

"Wow."

"It's a win-win situation for all of us."

"Whatever you say, Hyunjin."

Linna brushed off his words although she was kinda slowly falling for his dumb charms. One little date couldn't hurt, especially if he was treating more than once.