Mixed Blood

36: Questions and Answers

"Morning!" Seokmin said, loud as ever.

"Kyeomie? Who are these people?" Chan asked in Seokmin's ears.

"I'll tell you later," Seokmin answered back.

Before Seokmin and Chan could take their seats, Wonwoo and Mingyu arrived with Mingyu confidently limping along with a huge smile on his face. Seeing the walking condition of Mingyu, the Royal Defense Force and the Mystics exclaimed teases to Wonwoo. Vernon and Seokmin could only drop their jaw at the realization.

While everyone was teasing Wonwoo and Mingyu, Jun and Minghao arrived together with Soonyoung and Jihoon. Jun was supporting Minghao on his shoulders while Soonyoung was carrying Jihoon on his back. And with the sight, the teasing from the Royal Defense Force and the Mystics grew louder. The King could only sway his head left and right at the joyful festivities.

"Someone had a rough night," Taehyung, a member of ARMY, said to no one in particular.

"You dirty little rascals," Baekhyun, a member of ERI, seconded. The statements made Minghao and Jihoon blush real hard.

"Stop teasing us. It's not like most of you did not do it, too," Jun rebutted. By his statement, half of the teasing crowd fell silent. Seokjin, Yoongi, and Taehyung of ARMY; Xiumin, Luhan, Junmyeon, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Tao from ERI; Seongwoo, Jaehwan, Jihoon and Daehwi from WANNABLE; and Aron and Minki from NU'EST all blushed at the recollection of their experience from last night.

"Bull's eye!" Soonyoung commented.

"By the way, where is Seungcheol-hyung?" Vernon broke the bickering.

"He and Jeonghan did not show up yet," the King mentioned. "I am seriously getting worried now."

Sure, everyone now was getting worried. Not only was Seungcheol the Crown Prince, he was also a son, a brother and a friend, whatever may apply, to everyone present. It was only natural for everyone to feel nervous about his fate.

It took more or less than ten minutes of extended anxiety for everyone. And they were relieved when they heard Seungcheol's voice coming from the hallway. But their relief was replaced with confusion when Seungcheol appeared on the cased opening.

"JOSHUA-HYUNG?" the five soulmate pair friends of theirs exclaimed. The rest were baffled why Seungcheol had Jeonghan on his right and Joshua in between the two.

"Uhm... why don't you take a seat so we can start breakfast?" the King offered.

Breakfast started and proceeded with an awkward, silent atmosphere after a series of introductions. Sticking to his royal qualities, the King was the one who broke the silence and opened the conversation.

"Uhm, Seungcheol... would you mind introducing us to your other friend and tell us what exactly happened?"

"Oh, this is Hong Jisoo, my other soulmate," Seungcheol casually revealed.

"OTHER SOULMATE?" everyone else, except the trio, exclaimed.

"Yes. You see Jeonghan thought that the 'threefolddestiny' mentioned in the prophecy means that I will be a part of a soulmatetriad; you know, threefold equals triad while destiny equals soulmates, " Seungcheol elaborated. "Since the two of us were already crushing on Joshua, we thought itcould be true. However, we haven't been able to test our theory since, as mybrothers and their soulmates know, Joshua had been avoiding us last week."

"So, how did it come to this?" Baekho, one of the Mystics, inquired.

"When Joshua knew I was dying because of the prophecy, he made his way to the palace last night to confess. Unfortunately, he got cold feet and lied instead, resulting to the merging of our marks. Just in time for the Super Blue Blood Moon," Seungcheol narrated.