nytis
"soonyoung. you're back." the monotonous voice was familiar to soonyoung's ears. seeing the outline of the man's face, along with the dark red hood could only mean one person and that was minghao. "and you've brought a friend over."
"another one of your friends?" jisoo said lightly, "i'm starting to think you've made friends with everyone here." he laughed, not tearing his eyes away from minghao. the killer put away his knife and tilted his head at jisoo, staring back with the same amount of intensity.
the air was heavy just like how it would feel like before a large thunderstorm as two people stared each other down with a scary amount of intensity. soonyoung would have never thought jisoo and minghao were similar in any way until now.
seemingly polar opposite people, one gentle and soft spoken while the other one was blunt and harsh, both gave off the same energy at that moment. he came to the conclusion that both minghao and jisoo were a little, well, terrifying at times. soonyoung almost didn't want to approach them.
tapped the shoulder of his friend, "..jisoo.. we should probably.." the servant broke the staring contest and smiled back at soonyoung.
"sorry about that." just like that, jisoo was back to his normal self.
"minghao. i came back as soon as i could. this is hong jisoo. jisoo, this is xu minghao." soonyoung said, introducing the two people. "where's jihoon? what happened to the bakery and why isn't there anyone home?"
"lots of things happened while you were gone." said minghao with a slight bitterness in his voice, "follow me. we have things to discuss." soonyoung looked at jisoo and shrugged. "and i hate to break it to you but you came back too late. at least too late to see jihoon."
when arriving in the alleys he couldn't help but feel like the entire place was a maze. all the walls looked the same, every turn minghao took led to a place that looked just as dirty and disgusting as the last. only after a few minutes soonyoung had already lost his way back.
there were a lot more people than he expected too. he could only assume that the people he saw at every turn sleeping under the tarps on mattresses were the people so poor to the point they couldn't afford to live in a proper home.
"there are some people i think you should meet." minghao said, stopping at a dirty piece of cloth suspended from either side of the walls acting like a makeshift door. "wake up you two. there's someone you should meet." sliding his foot under the cloth, soonyoung assumed he was prodding something or someone.
there was shuffling behind the curtain before a familiar person emerged from behind. "who is it.." chan looked from minghao to soonyoung to jisoo. his face dropped into a dark scowl when seeing soonyoung.
saying no more, the boy took two strides forward and slammed his fist into soonyoung's face, which unfortunately for chan, ended up hitting the palm of jisoo's hand instead. "i'd appreciate it if you didn't punch soonyoung in the face." jisoo stated calmly as he pushed chan's fist away.
"i'd appreciate it if his highness didn't lie about being a regular commoner to jihoon." chan hissed back. "you're fucking back soonyoung. that's wonderful." the boy rolled his eyes, "here for ji aren't you?"
soonyoung didn't retaliate. he deserved all of it. he deserved that punch too, jisoo shouldn't have stopped it. "i am."
"well guess fucking what. jihoon isn't here anymore. you know where he is? he's in the goddamn castle with that shitbag dongyun." chan spat out, "why?" he laughed sardonically, "oh i wonder why. because he was trying to get to you of course."
soonyoung looked at chan in surprise. jihoon tried to get to reinwa?
chan scoffed, "yes he tried to get to reinwa. he tried getting to you because he's in love with you, probably still loves you. the least you could've fucking done is stop time and then send one of those royal carriages to pick him up. again and again, you fail to protect him and bring him trouble instead. and to be frank? i don't even know why ji-
"that's enough chan." seungcheol's tired voice came out from behind the curtain.
"but he ruined so many things!" chan called back, clearly still enraged. "he doesn't deserve jihoon!"
there was a sigh, "sure he ruined things but what good will yelling at him do? bringing jihoon back is our main worry right now. cursing at soonyoung won't do us any good right now."
huffing, chan ignored soonyoung and looked at minghao, "i want to be there for the planning later today."
nodding, chan disappeared behind the curtain. minghao gestured for jisoo and soonyoung to follow him. next, the three paid jeonghan a short visit. the baker was happy seeing soonyoung back yet tired as well as a little disappointed in him.
"your bakery.. what happened?"
jeonghan sighed, "dongyun and his stupid little crew did. but at least i'm still intact, right?" the man said, smiling weakly. perhaps physically he was but soonyoung could tell that the bakery meant a lot to jeonghan. him losing the bakery was equal to someone losing their best friend.
and although jeonghan didn't blame it on him, soonyoung knew that it was his fault. maybe things would have been different if he came earlier...
the last two people, shared an alley. it was quite clear minghao wasn't very fond of one of them. the man harshly kicked the mattress, "wake up dumbass." a handsome young man appeared from behind one of them and flashed minghao a weak smile (which minghao flat out ignored).
"so you're reinwa's prince, the love of jihoon's life." the man reached out and shook soonyoung's hand. "it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is wen junhui. a royal guard, er.. more like ex royal guard. but technically i still am one since i can't quit buuut.."
"we use him for information." minghao stated bluntly before shoving junhui back behind the hanging tarp ignoring his complaints about how he "didn't even to to meet the other guy".
when the last person showed up in front of soonyoung, he couldn't help but feel like he had seen this guy somewhere. "kwon soonyoung, it's an honour meeting you." the man smiled his blue eyes curving up as well. "i'm song kitae. jihoon's childhood friend, the supposedly dead prince as well as the true heir to the throne."
