✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

t w e n t y e i g h t

"Eunkyung, sit down." Eunhee once again pulled her sleeve before the youngest actually did. Eunsoo and Eunji remained silent as their mother began to speak while the king massaged his temple.

"We know, honey. We all know about him and the Han Jisung kid but we cannot do anything as long as he doesn't danger you out of sudden. Your impulse act of chasing him might be the reason why he ran away and pulled the trigger."

"But mother," the girl sighed. "How could he have knives behind his jacket and what is his work field to own a gun?"

"Honey,"

"Also, Seungmin and Felix told me Han caused Mina's death and I'm sure you knew that except me. Why would he do that when he's just a kid if not because of an adult's command?"

The entire room fell silent at the question and Eunkyung's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "The polices are patrolling and there's no crimes reported ever since that guy was free into the woods."

"That's because he is alone. He is the last Cho family that left." the king said.

Eunkyung wanted to speak again but Eunhee signalled her not to.

"As long as he doesn't do anything, we cannot take any action on him."

"Then what about the murder cases? What about Mina's death?"

"We have no witnesses. There should be at least three witnesses to justify their murder." the king said firmly. That instantly made her heart drop.

Then nothing will change...

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The room filled with small chatters between the students before their teacher came in. Some of them walked around to see others' paintings, some practicing their script while some just sat still, probably calming themselves before the presentation starts.

Eunkyung was one of them who tried to calm down while looking at their painting. It was just a paint of a huge apple tree with an apple laid on the ground. Around the painting, they added some grey shade to darken the surrounding that associates with meaning they were going to present later. A figure of a girl sitting under the tree next to the apple was also added by Jisung last minute. If people look at without any context, they would have thought it's a drawing of Newton's Law of gravity.

"Are you okay?" Jisung lowly asked, not intending to scare her. Eunkyung just nodded.

She's a great actor, she could say. Jisung didn't seem to realise how the girl was actually breaking down at the fact that he's done something unexpected to her ten years ago.

However, she's not good at hiding her nervousness. Her hands were slightly trembling at the sudden build up inside her. She quickly drank some water and tried to pull herself together again. Of course, the guy noticed this.

He hesitantly took the girl's hand in his. The princess snapped her head towards him before trailing down to their linked hands. Jisung gently massaged both her hands to calm her down.

"Take a deep breath and close your eyes,"

She did as what he told.

"Throw away all thoughts, good or not, throw them away."

The princess frowned subtly. This wasn't easy as she thought. At this moment, all the thoughts of Jisung siding with the suspect instantly left her mind. All she cared about was her best friend was here when she's a nervous wreck. She hasn't gotten the opportunity to speak in front of people often so this scared her.

"What if I screw up?"

Jisung chuckled, "We share the same brain. I'm nervous as well."

She opened her eyes and clutched his hand tighter for a second. The male yelped. "You're not helping."

"Hey, we're helping each other." Jisung lightly pouted. "Look, I know you might think that this drawing isn't as great as we expected but it's still decent and presentable. Let's just forget the fact that we destroyed the first painting and did this in less than two weeks."

Silent laughter lingered between them. Eunkyung closed her eyes again with a smile and a little confidence building up inside of her. "If I do great, Han will treat me."

"I didn't say that–"

"Good morning class!"

Jisung immediately dropped her hands and the students stood up, sending greetings to the teacher. He turned around to adjust his stool before sitting but then his eyes caught a figure who he noticed had been staring since earlier that day. The male paid a glance to see Seungmin near the window, a row behind him subtly looking before averting his eyes to the front.

The corner of Jisung's lips curled up into a smirk.

"So! Shall we start today's presentation? Who's first?" the feminine voice roared in the room, somehow sending shivers to the students even though she wasn't scolding. When there was no one replying, she hummed, "How about Yongeun and Yeseo back there?"

Eunkyung let out a low sigh.

Said girls exchanged unsure glances. "Of course, she loves picking the last one." Yongeun whispered while Yeseo nudged her as she took their drawing to the front. A chorus of clapping invited them.

The teacher took a seat at the corner of them room and raised her hand horizontally, "Show us what you got."

"This is terrifying." Eunkyung muttered. "I'm dead, I'm out, I'm–"

"Miss Lim, I'm sorry for interrupting," Jisung raised his hand. "Would you let us to step out for awhile? I promise it will be just for a few minutes."

The princess looked up to him in confusion. "Han,"

"Sure, be back before it's your turn."

"Thank you so much, Miss Lim." the guy bowed before pulling his friend out of the class.

As soon as the door closed, Yongeun and Yeseo began their presentation. However, there's one person who couldn't pay attention to them as the other day's incident was back to wrapping his mind.

Seungmin uncomfortably shifted in his seat. He remembered how the two best friends acted at the stairs during the same class, and he was not having any of it.

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