"Taemin and me, we are just like each other, aren't we?"
"Your best friend is a copy of me."
"We are twins, after all, the exact copy of the other."
Kibum couldn't help but think of Sulli's statements on the way back to the castle.
"... the exact copy of the other."
"No, you're wrong. Taemin might look like you, but deep down, he has a big heart and that's what makes the difference between you two."
"They might look alike at first sight, but Minnie is different. He is not like Sulli. Appearances are deceiving." Key murmured to himself, looked out the window while they drove through the dark wood. Just then something came into his mind, caused him to gasp.
"We are twins, after all, the exact copy of the other."
"Where is it? Where did Jjong hide it?" The boy talked to himself in frustration as he wreaked havoc in the small storeroom.
"It has to be here. I'm sure. Where the hell-"
"Oh here it is," screamed Kibum, beaming, with something glossy in his hand.
Right after, he ran out of the dark room as if his life was depended on it. As fast as he could, Key jumped on a horse and left the castle without saying goodbye to anyone.
Jonghyun couldn't believe what he just heard. Kibum had really left him at this moment when he needed the younger boy the most. He was aware that Kibum had every right to leave whenever he wanted. Jonghyun had promised him not to force him to stay after all. Yet, the Prince could never think Bummie would really leave him, not after everything they had been through together. Jonghyun was undoubtedly in love with the beautiful boy named Kim Kibum and he had begged God with all his strength that the other boy would love him back. But now he had to accept it. Kibum didn't love him – at least not as much as Jjong loved him.
"JONGHYUN?" A loud call of his name brought the Prince back to earth. Damn it! For one second he had really forgotten about Minho and Onew and all that because of Kibum.
"I'm sorry. What did you say?" The Prince apologized.
"I'm asking you if you're really sure. Prince or not, you could lose everything for helping a prisoner to break jail." Minho said full of worries.
"Do you have a better idea? We don't have another choice, do we? If we don't get him out of there, he'll be hanged in a few hours, unless a miracle happens and father changes his mind." Jonghyun replied sadly and Minho knew his friend was right. This was their last chance to save Onew.
"If this were a story, none of us will survive in the end. We all will die." Minho said, sighed. Why did all of his friends have to be so crazy?
Shaking his head, he finally said. "But what else can we do? Well, let's get Onew hyung out of jail. We only need to do it as we talked before and everything will be fine." Minho said with determination.
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"Close the gate, search every house. No one is going to leave town until I find them. They are going to be hanged for doing this." The King stated angrily.
"Question every guard, every servant. They couldn't leave the castle without being noticed by anybody. That's impossible." The Queen added, worried. The guard bowed and headed to the door as someone rushed into the room with a shocked expression on the face.
"Kidnapped? Who is kidnapped? Noona is kidnapped? Father, please tell me what happened."
"Jonghyun," The Queen called the prince's name as she ran into his embrace, breaking into tears. Jonghyun couldn't do anything but hugged his crying mother tightly, hoping to be able to comfort her a bit in this situation. Seeing his father nodded sadly, not saying a word; he knew it was true. The princess was gone.
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Jonghyun walked down the dark street with his sword ready in the right hand. When the road ended, the Prince found himself being in front of an abandoned mansion. Carefully he opened the front door and entered the old, eerie house.
"Jonghyun," he heard someone called his name tiredly. "She is in here." The voice said.
Following the footsteps, Jonghyun finally found the secret room. The door opened and the first person he saw was Geunyoung, his lovely sister, and next to her was Minho, his best friend.
"Noona," he exclaimed.
"Jjonggie," answered the Princess. Worries were on her pretty face.
"Did they buy it?" She asked impatiently.
"Hell yes," replied Jonghyun with a smirk and everyone breathed out in reliefs.
---Flashback---
"All right, then let's get Onew hyung out of jail. We only need to do it as we talked before and everything will be fine." Minho said with determination. Jonghyun nodded in agreement and the boys left the room, heading to Onew. As soon as they reached the stairway, a woman voice from nowhere broke the silence of the night, almost caused them heart attacks.
"Are you guys really that idiotic or are you just tired of living?" The princess said, stepped out.
"Noona? Are you still awake?" Jonghyun asked innocently, showed the ghost of a smile.
"Don't play dumb, Jjonggie. I know what you guys are going to do and if you ask me, that's a bad idea. That's the most stupid idea you ever had." Geunyoung warned.
"What are you talking about? I just wanted to go for a walk with Minho, that's all." The Prince said, not being able to look at his sister. It had never been easy to lie to her.
"And you're sure your walk won't end up in Onew's cell so that you can help... no force him to break jail?" She asked with sarcasm.
"How did you know that?" Minho asked in shock. His eyes widened.
"Kibum told me," answered the princess simply.
"Bummie? But he didn't even know about this." Jonghyun couldn't believe it. How did the other boy know about this plan? He had made sure Bummie wouldn't be involved in this mess, so who told him about this? The Prince turned to Mino, the only person who knew about the plan, giving the tall boy a death glance.
"Don't look at me like that. I didn't tell anybody. I'm not stupid, you know?"
"Then how did he know about the plan?" Jonghyun questioned.
"You just don't want to accept it, do you? You didn't have to tell him anything. He knows you too well. And in case you haven't noticed it yet, your beautiful fiancée is very smart. He can be drunk and in his dream, he still can tell what you will do next; little, silly brother." Geunyoung explained to the hopeless prince. "Who did you think came to me in the middle of the night, begged me to help you guys. He knew you two would do something stupid and he was right. I can't believe you are so brainless."
---End---
Jonghyun's heart sunk at the thought of Kibum. His sister was right. Key knew him too well. And the fact that he asked the princess for help... could it be that he still cared about Jjong? No, he didn't... or else he wouldn't leave him. That was certainly only the guilt. Surely Key just wanted to do him one last favor before left him for good.
Whatever it was, they still should thank Key. His plan was way better than the one that Jonghyun and Minho had quickly made a few days ago. If the princess was kidnapped, the whole town would be in a panic. Everyone guard would be busy looking for her. There wouldn't be any time for Onew's execution, especially not when the neighbor King was on his way to the castle to meet his wife. This was genial. Even if the King argued that everything for the execution were prepared already, he still would never risk executing a King family's member when he was not completely sure when the other King would be in town. It was obvious that the princess' husband would hurry up as soon as he heard about the shocking news that was being talked about everywhere. So he'd surely reach the castle earlier than it was planned and the curse of two Kings in the same castle as royal blood flowed wasn't something to play with. At least Jonghyun's father believed in that mythos and in this case, it was enough to delay Onew's execution.
"To change a King's mind, you need another King," murmured the Prince.
Key could feel his eyes threatened to close every moment as he was riding on his horse. He had been on his way the whole day without any break. Even the black animal was getting tired. It didn't want to walk anymore. Patted its neck, Kibum whispered almost breathless.
"Hold on my dear. We're almost there. We can't let them down right now. It's all depended on us now."
The boy encouraged the horse and also himself. He knew his plan to 'kidnap' the princess was not bad. It was, in fact, a good one. Especially because in the end, no one would go to jail, since there was never a real crime. But Key also knew that this plan could only work for a short time since the princess couldn't be gone forever.
After a long time, the poor boy's face lit up as he saw a military base.
'We're here," he murmured, breathed out.
----
'Kibum." A tall, muscular man called, causing Key to smile automatically.
"Father," exclaimed the boy.
It had taken Kibum a lot of time to persuade his father to let him go in his half-death condition. His dad wanted him to stay at least over the night to have some rest. Yet, being the stubborn boy Kibum was, he decided to leave as soon as possible.
He had to go back to the castle, especially after the conversation with his dad.
"Yes, in fact, she did. She wanted it to become something special."
His father's words repeated over and over again in his mind, making the tears in his eyes felt like sand.
Even when you're not here anymore, you still save us. You have never stopped caring for us, had you? I miss you so much that it hurts, mom.
----
"That stupid ass of a prince said what?" Kibum yelled in anger as the guard told him he was not allowed to enter the castle, because of the tighter safety measure and Jonghyun's statement that they were no longer an engaged couple wasn't helping at all.
"Tell him I can prove Onew's innocence, so he better gets his lazy ass over here or I'll hunt him in his dreams." The boy said. He was so mad at the silly prince right now. He was gone for only two days and Jjong had dumped him as if he wasn't worth anything. He had really trusted that boy too much. But who could he blame if not himself?
"Everything that has to do with that case will have to wait until we find the Princess. Now go away or I'll have to arrest you." The guard said, causing Kibum's hands to clench in frustration.
"No, YOU step aside and let me in or I'll have to hurt you," threatened Key with a dangerously low voice.