✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

n i n e t e e n

"How did you drop the book?" Eunsoo asked again with a firm tone. Eunji sheepishly grinned. "If father was there on his seat it could have been a disrespect."

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? I was just shocked. Did you know the former ancestors of this kingdom? It didn't come from our bloodline."

"What?" Eunkyung had her eyebrows furrowed at the sudden information. The four sisters exchanged glances before they had a silent agreement to go to the library. Once the door was closed, the girls rushed to one of the furthest tables from the door.

Eunji flipped the page where she put a bookmark within it. "It says here the former ruler was King Cho Hunseo, in about three generations above us."

"How did it become..." Eunhee's words trailed off with her eyebrows furrowed. "....Min?"

"An illness," she simplified before explaining. "After King Hunseo's death, this kingdom was ruled by his son, King Cho Junsu and his wife, the queen. They had a son but at the age of seventeen, he had an illness and he was the only heir in King Junsu's family. The relationship between other royal family members was not good either and in fact, they hoped for the boy to meet his death soon so the crown will be given to their son – as in, King Junsu's twenty year old nephew.

"King Junsu knew how bad would it be if the kingdom falls into his brother's hands so he decided to marry a widow who had a son named Min Guinhi."

"He's allowed to marry a widow?" Eunkyung interrupted.

"That's the thing, not only she wasn't a royal family, but also a widow. Her husband died in a war ten years before. This caused a huge feud between the royals. King Junsu wanted to protect the people as much as he can so he did the last thing he wanted to — to kill other family members."

"No way..." Eunhee muttered with a small gasp while Eunsoo just read quietly.

"I haven't read the rest of it yet. I was cut off there."

"Is this the only book in the library?" Eunkyung asked as she looked around to see the brownish books arranged neatly in each shelves.

"I only found one. If you want to read it then maybe you can find at other libraries." Eunji replied.

"That's why father sent Yoongi away from here," Eunsoo muttered. "It's a tradition for the next heir because the Cho family is still revenging on us."

"Could it be the murderer?" Eunhee asked, and everyone fell silent at the question. "I mean... we don't know who's the Cho family."

"Father must know, right?" Eunsoo asked back. "He must have asked his men to look after the family, if not he won't be sending Yoongi at random places."

"So he knows the murderer?" Eunkyung leaned forward, a bit nervous to know the answer.

However, the first sister shook her head. "We don't know if the murderer is related to the family or not. It's an assumption."

The girl slumped back into her seat with disappointment. But then when she look up, all of her sisters' eyes glued on her. "W-what...?"

"Don't you dare going out." Eunhee warned her. Eunkyung sighed.

"If... Seungmin comes with me?"

"Not at night."

Maybe she won't find the culprit soon.

༆

"I surely need to apologise." Eunkyung muttered to herself while taking out a book from the shelf. The library was less crowded today, and she thought it was a perfect opportunity to search for the book without anyone seeing. "Weird, why people seem do not know anything about this? The school didn't teach anything."