Starfall. |Lee Know

Thirty-Seven.

Nine months.

Nine months since Minho left with no clue of his whereabouts. Nine months since the last time Dabin saw him and was able to touch him. Nine months since she could hear his voice.

During those nine months, Minho missed many events that were turning points in the lives of his friends and surely Dabin.

He missed Hyunjin's engagement with a lady from the Bang Kingdom, who was the daughter of a duke. He missed Christopher's wife's pregnancy and will be missing the new royal member's birth soon. He missed Jisung saving a little child's life and being rewarded and named as a hero. He missed the announcement of one of his vicious cousins as the successor of the King and lining up for the throne. And Minho surely missed on the hell that broke in the Seo Kingdom.

It was a hell of a night when Queen Brittany finally had the courage to face them and demand her freedom from this hellish palace. She asked for divorce and what came after was the consequences.

After weeks of fierce fights, Hyunbin couldn't hold onto her for more cause he knew she was right in every single word she uttered in those fights. He was weak and couldn't protect or support her. He couldn't be a good husband just as Changbin said, so he had to let her go and live a life where she would be loved and respected cause she deserved all the love and respect that he couldn't give to her.

And that was the first time ever for Hyunbin to go against his mother who opposed the divorce, saying that the King couldn't get a divorce. But that wasn't the worst part of the divorcing process. Shortly after the divorce, Hyunbin got sick, very sick. All the doctors and physicians from the four kingdoms couldn't find the cause of his illness, and finally, they all agreed it was a psychological factor that triggered all the bubbled-up tiredness and fatigue from the past twenty years, letting them attack his weak vulnerable body when he was at his lowest.

Hyunbin decided to take a break and rest away from all of the royal responsibilities, leaving them to his right-hand man and second in line, Changbin. Although he had his rest, when Hyunbin came back, he dropped a new bomb on his family. He decided to descend the throne and step back from the title of the king, leaving all the weight to his only successor, Changbin.

Although Changbin wasn't very keen on holding those weights, he was ready for it. Ruling was in his blood and even his mother knew that he would definitely make a good king. The thing is, he really made a good king and his very first decision as a king was that his mother wasn't allowed, by any means, to cross her boundaries.

He made it clear to the council, the nobles, the dukes, and the officials of his kingdom that he was the King and he was the only ruling Royal Member of the family, and whoever crossed the lines, whoever got confused about who had the higher authority, would have to face accusations of treason according to the kingdom's laws. And that was all it took to put his mother in her place.

Rubin was Changbin's next target. He made it clear to her. If she wanted to stay as a Royal Member, she had to act like one. If she decided to continue her careless life and play the whispering bird role, then she could leave and live the life she wants cause Changbin didn't need a whispering bird in his palace.

Woobin was given the choice of staying in his position or leaving it if he ever wanted. Oddly, he decided to stay where he was. Eunbin too had the freedom to continue her loveless marriage, or to go back to her family. Changbin made it clear that he would unconditionally support her if she decided to break off the marriage. But she decided to keep it as it was. She didn't completely hate that marriage after all.

And then, there was Dabin who had her wish granted the second Changbin was officially crowned. Accompanied by Seungmin, they set off to the Hwang Kingdom. Dabin was so excited and nervous at the same time that Seungmin had to check on her every now and then as she got dizzy from nervousness. She had millions of scenarios in her head of the moment she met Minho. She had forecasted their happy life together in that remote beach house. She was surely going to let it all behind her back and just be with him. She was ready to be reunited with him.

But then, all the hopes, scenarios, and excitement came crashing down on her.

Empty.

The beach house was empty.

True to Hyunjin's words, it was a very calm and cozy house as it looked. It was placed in a remote and secluded area. The ocean ahead of it was breathtaking. It was perfect. More than perfect. It was something that Dabin surely loved and wished to have. But it was useless without him.

The house was empty with no clue about Minho and it seemed as if the house had been empty for long. Months to say the least. And this time, Hyunjin really knew nothing about Minho's whereabouts and just like that, Dabin went back home empty-handed and heartbroken.

But that wasn't what broke her, what happened later was what drove her insane and acted as a trigger for her usual collected personality to switch.

Minho was proven innocent.

For all those months, her brother, Seungmin, Christopher, Felix, and the rest of the boys didn't stop digging into the accusations that were falsely thrown at their friend. And since they all knew who was behind them, they dug deep, very deep, into the past of those twin cousins and even their late father who was Minho's distant uncle. And what the boys found was very ugly.

They were criminals and their scheme started with their father around thirty years before.

Minho's mother never got sick on her own during her pregnancy. She was poisoned. And that was how she gave an early birth and how her body couldn't take it anymore and left once she brought her little baby boy to this world. She was murdered at the hands of the Royal Family on the side of Minho's dad.

The current Queen had no disease that stopped her from completing her pregnancy. It was the venomous foods that hired maids by those twins and their father gave her. And then it was the same poison that they used on the late Queen, that they used again on the current one to kill her when she was about to deliver her baby but this time, it was the baby who was murdered.

Minho was poisoned once and it was their doing too.

The rumors about Minho being cursed. Him being isolated. Faking an accident to kill his ex-fiancee. And then lastly, framing him for corruption.

All were their deeds.

And how could the boys know? Christopher had his hands on one of the maids who used to work in the Lee Palace thirty years before and of course, she was hired by the uncle who passed away a few years later but not before handing his hate and envy to his two sons. That maid went hiding after the death of the late Queen but Christopher could find her. She wasn't even in one of the four kingdoms but Christopher had his connections and power that granted him finding her.

And that was the first clue they got.

Working silently, they started gathering more clues, witnesses, documents, and testimonies. It took them nine months to build a whole case and present it to the Royal High Court of Lee Kingdom. A council from the four kingdoms was formed and the case was secretly discussed. When they came to a conclusion, it went public and it was a great shock.

The Prince was innocent and actually, he was a victim of those criminals for all of his life. They killed his mother, tried to kill the current Queen, his ex-fiancee, and even him. They tainted him with fake curses and stories that weren't even true. And then they framed him for corruption.

He was innocent.

Minho was proved innocent and he had regained his name, title, and position. The culprits were captured and sentenced to the worst sentences in the history of the four kingdoms. Minho was innocent and his people were waiting for him.

But where was he?