I'm finally updating again! I had been sick these days but now I'm feeling better so here is a little chapter, I hope I can update the next one soon, I'm excited to introduce Jun and his spokesman.

Wonwoo submerged his head underwater, the cold liquid isolating the sound of the voices around him and pricking his skin like little needles, helping him stay awake, anchored in this world.

He could hardly remember how he had gotten to the residence. He knew Mingyu must be the one who had brought him, he remembered the sound of his voice, the insistence and concern. But he didn't remember walking down the forest path to the residence, he didn't remember entering the house, or looking for Soonyoung. He could only remember his friend's hands as he led him to a cold bath.

Wonwoo was running out of air. A few seconds of peace and that's it.

However, he remained submerged until his lungs began to burn and despair took hold of him.

Jeonghan's worried face was the image that greeted him when he was back in this world.

"Are you feeling better?" his spokesman asked him.

Wonwoo nodded, accepting Soonyoung's help out of the bathroom and letting Soonyoung dry him silently. Wonwoo felt too weak to protest that extra help.

"What else have you been able to find out?" he asked, preparing for the worst.

"There is no indication of a demonic presence," Jeonghan informed him to his surprise.

"There is no?!" the prince and Soonyoung asked in unison.

Then looking at each other.
Wonwoo would recognize that form of cruelty anywhere, that was the way those demons killed people, their favorite food was eyes.

He had seen them in the palace more times than he would like to remember, you could never forget an event like that, but the attacks always left a trace of demonic energy too strong to be confused with anything else, he knew that Jeonghan was not wrong but he didn't understand how this could be possible.

"It seems like this is an impersonator," the annoying voice explained, as if he could read his thoughts.

Wonwoo jumped and covered his body as best he could, although he wasn't hiding much, something that obviously didn't go unnoticed by the general, who scanned his body slowly, marveling although he wouldn't admit it to anyone.

"May I know..." Wonwoo started, feeling the fury boiling inside him, Soonyoung took a step back, worried "What are you doing in my room, not knocking?!"

Mingyu gave him a dirty look.

"What a way to thank me for bringing you home," he protested, throwing himself into WONWOO'S BED. "Besides, I'm your fiancé, I have the right to be here, in the end at some point I'm going to see every corner of your body, the only one who shouldn't be here while you are in these conditions, is your spokesman."

He had said the last thing in such a carefree and lascivious manner, glaring at a calm Jeonghan, that Wonwoo knew he would have killed him if said spokesman hadn't stopped him.

"Kim MINGYU" he growled, furious as he tried to escape Jeonghan's arms to strangle him.

"The prince is very grateful to you," Jeonghan lied, offering him a bow. "General Kim, do you really think this is an imitator?"

At this Wonwoo stood still, he was surprised how much he cared about Mingyu's opinion on this, after all his father had been the one who had freed them from that demonic army years ago, if anyone knew about this subject it was the Kims.

Mingyu seemed to sense his desperation, because he looked at the prince with an emotion written in his eyes that Wonwoo could not decipher.

"It must be, there really is no indication of any presence," he stated.

Wonwoo stepped forward, momentarily forgetting that he was basically naked in front of Kim Mingyu. The general had to do his best to focus on the other man's eyes and not on his small, delicate waist, nor on Wonwoo's strong, fully exposed chest.

"You're not answering the question," he pointed out.

Mingyu considered it. He didn't really know Wonwoo, not like he knew Seungcheol and Chan, however he had seen firsthand the pain and anguish that this issue caused the Jeons, he knew that Wonwoo had been the closest to his mother as well, he didn't want to alarm him in vain.

"I think... it's not something as simple as an imitator," he admitted, watching with regret as the prince closed his eyes, in an attempt to contain all the emotions that threatened to overflow. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves, I'm sure that what you are thinking is not the case."

"Then what?" Wonwoo asked, surprised by the tiredness he heard in his voice.

"I think this was an isolated attack, from a smaller creature but of a similar nature," he confessed, the idea had occurred to him recently and he had not even discussed it with Seungcheol or Minghao, yet there he was, telling everything to Wonwoo and two men he couldn't trust.

Wonwoo finally opened his eyes before this and Jeonghan looked at him surprised.

"But we have never...we have not had that type of creature here, ever," commented the spokesman.

Mingyu didn't know, but Wonwoo did, of course. That was the primary reason why he had chosen this land forgotten by all gods as his residence. Because they had never experienced such horror, because he would be safe. Safe and far from the memory of his mother and the king who let her die.

"It seemed like this is a very quiet place," Mingyu accepted. "I don't think they would just show up here like they did in the capital years ago."

"So what do you think?" Wonwoo asked him.

"That someone summoned that creature," the general reported. "That's why I don't think it's something as simple as imitating, there is someone who wants to replicate what happened in the capital."

"WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DO THAT?!" Soonyoung exclaimed fearfully, speaking for the first time since Mingyu's arrival.

If Mingyu was bothered by Soonyoung speaking directly to him, he didn't seem that way. And Wonwoo hated him a little less for not ignoring one of his best friends.

"That's what I have to find out," he announced, standing up. "Whatever it was, the attack was isolated and not very powerful. You don't have to worry, the most likely thing is that I will find the person responsible for this in a short time."

"However, someone died," Wonwoo pointed out, "someone was left without the opportunity for a future. Someone lost a lover, a friend, or a family member. Again"

Mingyu was surprised to see the deep sadness that reflected on the prince's face. He had lived among monarchs the last few years of his life, and he had worked for high-ranking men long before, yet he had never seen such sincere lament for a single life. For those in charge, deaths are seen in terms of statistics, in numbers, where the higher the number, the more worrying it is, and the lower the number, the easier it is to ignore and sweep under the rug as a coincidence.

Wonwoo no, Wonwoo was really sad for only one person.

Mingyu swallowed the lump in his throat, not knowing what to think.

"Yes," he agreed, heading to the door. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

Jeonghan had made sure Wonwoo ate something and then had basically fought with the prince to get him to go to bed and get some rest, that impression after the engagement with Mingyu couldn't be good, and no matter how strong Wonwoo could be in front of his eyes, he was also a human, a delicate man, he needed this.

Evidently his friend, being the airhead that he was, had tried to get up a hundred times, until finally Jeonghan had the brilliant idea of asking Prince Chan to come to the room and stay taking care of his brother, and as always, weak to his favorite, Wonwoo had finally given up and let Chan stroke his hair until he fell asleep.

There was no one in this world that Prince Wonwoo loved more than his little brother and Jeonghan planned to use it to his advantage.

He smiled as he thought about it, Wonwoo's family, being the royal family, had many more problems than most, however it was obvious that the three brothers loved each other, and Jeonghan couldn't help but think what it would be like to really have a brother, by blood.

Of course he knew about brotherly love, after all he had Soonyoung and Wonwoo whom he loved with all his being, but he wondered not for the first time if he had as special a place in the hearts of his two friends, as they had in his. Surely not, since they both really had brothers, they didn't need a substitute, they wouldn't have room in a place so important to them for him...

"Oh, I'm sorry," the man apologized as he bumped into him.

Jeonghan was ready to say it didn't matter and go his way when he realized who it was.

He quickly bowed deeply.

"Prince Seungcheol, your highness," he said softly, "I am the one who is sorry. I was lost in my thoughts, I didn't pay attention to where I was going."

"Please, it was my fault," the prince insisted, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. His dark eyes brimming with concern. "How is Wonwoo?"

"Good," Jeonghan responded immediately, he knew he owed the crown prince a more substantial explanation than that, however Wonwoo was a private person and Jeonghan respected that, if the prince wanted to know more details about his brother he would have to ask directly. "How are you?"

"I?" asked the prince, openly surprised, as if he could not imagine that anyone would want to know about his well-being.

Jeonghan was surprised, he found it curious, who in their right mind wouldn't want to know if Choi Seungcheol was okay? In a matter of a few years a golden crown would rest on his head, and he would be the one to command among all men.

"Yes, it must also be a sensitive topic for you, to say the least. You also experienced these horrors in the capital," he said simply, because it was true.

Wonwoo had only told Jeonghan the bare minimum of his story, however Seungcheol was as present in all of his memories as Wonwoo himself, and if it was difficult for his friend, it must have been difficult for the crown prince too. .

"I... yes," he accepted, somewhat confused. "Although Prince Wonwoo and Chan got the worst of it, they are the youngest."

"Being older does not exclude you from pain, you also lost your mother" Jeonghan had said it without further ado, without even thinking about it, it had come out of him without his control "I... I am very sorry, your highness. I did not measure my words"

He had been a fool, an insolent man. His closeness to Wonwoo had guaranteed him more familiarity with the secrets of the royal family than his position implied, however he was stupid if he believed that this courtesy and strange relationship with Wonwoo extended to the other brothers, worse even, to Prince Seungcheol.

He could cut out his tongue if he wanted and that punishment would be acceptable.

Jeonghan bowed and swallowed the lump in his throat. He wouldn't make a mistake like that again.

"No, it's okay Jeonghan. It's...true," the prince said with incredible softness, a softness that he could never have allowed himself to have in the palace, but...his father was not here, and there was no one else close to them to accuse him of being a weak man. "I guess that I had never allowed myself to think about me in that way too"

"You are a man too, Prince Seungcheol," the spokesman told him, and the crown prince felt the heat spread through his chest.

Yoon Jeonghan was right, he was a man too, and he was torturously aware of it when he was in front of the other. When he saw his hair blowing in the wind, and his shrewd eyes.

Seungcheol knew better than anyone that the crown prince couldn't afford to waste time, however...

"You're right, Jeonghan," he told him with a smile.

And when the spokesman returned the gesture, it seemed to Seungcheol that he had never seen anything more beautiful in his entire life.

"Yes, I always am," the man allowed himself to say.

Subtlety wasn't Wonwoo's strong suit, but if we were fair and honest (And Seungcheol was) it wasn't Mingyu's strong suit either.

The rumor that they had gone for a walk together this morning had spread not only through the halls of the residence like fire on gasoline, but also among the inhabitants of the town, and although Seungcheol had thought that despite the unfortunate events it was still progress between them, he had understood how wrong he was when he saw the mortification and hatred in his brother's eyes, while Mingyu was totally pleased, with a sly smile on his face.

Seungcheol and Jeonghan sighed at the same time.

But what could Wonwoo do? Anyway, sooner or later the news of his engagement was going to get out, however he looked like an idiot now, not having thought about what being seen with Mingyu would mean to him.

"Could you stop looking like you want to jump on each other's necks?" Seungcheol asked while they were eating, it was time for dinner so unfortunately they were all together again.

"Did you hear prince, Wonwoo? You don't have to look so hostile," Mingyu pointed out with a sly smile. "You better jump on my..."

Jeonghan choked on his tea.

"Mingyu!" Seungcheol protested, covering Chan's ears even though it was too late and Chan was almost an adult anyway.

"Hyung! I already know about those things" protested the youngest.

"Let me kill him," Wonwoo asked as he tried to pounce on Mingyu while Jeonghan and Jisoo restrained him. "I can't believe I have to marry such an ordinary, disgusting man."

"You wouldn't say that when..."

"That's enough Mingyu," Seungcheol interrupted him again, sighing. "Please remember who you are, you should be able to at least maintain a civilized dinner."

"He started it," Wonwoo protested, but sat back down, frowning.

Mingyu smiled like a child and Wonwoo again felt like hitting him, but he restrained himself. He didn't understand how a man could be so irritating? He had really had bad luck with this marriage.

Now it was Jisoo's turn to sigh, doing that in front of princes would generally be frowned upon but no one at the table judged it.

"Since we are on the subject of being able to maintain a civilized dinner..." he began, looking between the prince and the general with marked intention, "in a few days they will have to visit Prince Junhui at his residence in Baekje, taking advantage of the fact that he will be in the country to so they don't have to make such a long trip."

"Why?" Wonwoo asked, frowning, already annoyed at just imagining himself in a carriage with Mingyu for hours.

Mingyu rolled his eyes.

"How come you can call yourself a prince?" He protested rudely. "Wedding invitations must be personally delivered to important monarchs and very high-ranking men."

Wonwoo would have insulted him but that distracted him.

"The invitations? Are we seriously going to continue with this while an investigation is happening?" Wonwoo asked annoyedly, looking at Seungcheol.

Jeonghan wanted to ask him to calm down a little but he understood the prince's concern, he had just witnessed a horrible scene in the morning and at dinner they were already asking him to hand out invitations for a ceremony in which he did not want to take part, it was surreal.

However, such was the life of a prince.

Jeonghan would have expected Seungcheol to scold him, but his older brother sighed and looked at him compassionately.

"I know it's ridiculous but unfortunately these are the king's orders," he clarified.

"Was the king informed of what happened?" Wonwoo asked, complaining.

"As the law establishes, there is nothing that I know that I hide from the king" Seungcheol responded and a shadow crossed his eyes as his face became more serious "I told him what you saw, however, since it was an isolated attack with few victims, the king considers that we must continue the preparations for the ceremony normally, and that you, Prince Wonwoo, must take charge of the task of consolidating good relations with the neighboring kingdoms by personally delivering the good news of your nuptials."

Seungcheol had recited it all without any emotion, as if he were reading his father's words directly from a piece of paper, yet it was obvious that he had memorized them verbatim, and he wasn't specifically happy with them.

Wonwoo sighed, and after dropping his utensils with a loud clatter, he got up from the table and left without excusing himself.

"This will be so hard," Jisoo lamented.

But Jeonghan could only stare at the frozen expression on Seungcheol's face, his eyes distant from them, as if he were in another world.

Wonwoo knew he was acting like a child, and he also knew that when he did, Jeonghan didn't run after him. He let him have the time alone that he needed, and Wonwoo took advantage of this moment to go to the farthest part of the residence, where there was a huge cherry tree, however fragile looking, as old as the earth itself.

Wonwoo walked past it and put his bare feet into the river that surrounded him, closing his eyes.

He did not feel well. This was all ridiculous, his marriage to Mingyu, the stupid royal formalities.

He sometimes wondered if his birth had been a mistake, if he was really someone else's son who came into the king's hands by mistake. No matter how hard he tried, it was evident that he was not born for this life.

He didn't find it right to pretend that nothing had happened after witnessing a murder, he couldn't pretend that he was happy to be with Mingyu when he barely knew him, and didn't care about the opinion of anyone else in the kingdom.

When people imagine a prince, they see a confident man, who has everything, a man greater than all those who walk beside him. Wonwoo was a small, insecure man, a man who really owned nothing, a landless man, nothing belonged to him, not even his own body, nor his heart.

"You shouldn't be there at night. You're going to get sick"

Wonwoo opened his eyes to meet the man who was his executioner, his eyelids feeling heavy.

Mingyu was a few steps away from him, the moonlight bathing his face creating very interesting planes and angles on an already very beautiful face.

Beauty is cruel, Wonwoo thought, a man like him shouldn't possess it.

"And what do you care if I get sick?" the prince snapped, angrily.

Mingyu just sighed, as everyone at the table had already done. Wonwoo felt like a real bother.

The general took off his clothes then, ignoring the prince's surprised look, until he was exposed to the cold of the night, and walked to the river, passing by the prince, and diving into the deepest part.

Mingyu was a really tall man, Wonwoo too, but the general was taller, so even in this part, his head stuck out easily.

Wonwoo watched him for a few minutes, and finally, driven by something he couldn't understand, he took off his clothes as well and swam to the deepest part.

Under the dark water he couldn't see anything, however he could feel Mingyu very close to him, the heat of his body slightly changing the temperature of the water that curved around him.

Wonwoo surfaced then, taking a breath, and Mingyu watched him carefully as he raised his hands to brush his long hair away from his face.

Wonwoo was so, so beautiful, it would be painful to love a man like him, and Mingyu was glad with all his heart that he didn't, asking all the gods within earshot to never fall for him, because a man like that could break anyone's will.

"I know you hate me," Mingyu said without preamble. "And you know that I don't have the best opinion of you, but today I saw something about you that surprised me."

"My penis?" Wonwoo asked cheekily, remembering what Mingyu must have seen as he waded into the water.

"That too," the general accepted, unable to hold back a smile. "But today I saw you running towards someone who needed help, I didn't think you would be capable."

"You don't know me, Kim Mingyu" was what the prince said, and this time there was no malice or recrimination in his voice, it was just a fact.

Mingyu didn't know him, he had no idea what was really going on in his life beyond the palace rumors.

"I admit I don't, Prince Wonwoo," Mingyu accepted. "But you don't know me either. I know it seems ridiculous, but our visit to Prince Junhui should not mean ignoring what happened here today, you can always take advantage of situations, if you are smart enough to do so."

Wonwoo raised an eyebrow.

"And you are?"

"Just wait, I promise you that what happened won't just be forgotten," Mingyu said, and his voice was so serious that Wonwoo thought about it before nodding.

It wasn't a truce, he still hated Mingyu, and he knew he had no reason to really trust him, but Mingyu was a general, and generals didn't mess around when doing their job, especially not the general of a family as revered as the Kims.

Wonwoo supposed that at least on this, he could give in. If Kim Mingyu thought that even by visiting Prince Junhui he could continue investigating what had happened, then Wonwoo was willing to endure the torture that going there would represent.

Mingyu nodded then too, a silent promise.

And then he dove into the dark water. Wonwoo couldn't see him, but he felt Mingyu close to him, blowing bubbles near that delicate place, making Wonwoo shiver, wishing Mingyu would dare more.

Because apparently as much as his mind hated him, his body didn't find Kim Mingyu that disgusting.

However, the general limited himself to just that, to tease, and he stuck his head out of the water then, to pretend that nothing had happened.

Wonwoo allowed the general to run his fingers through his hair, and promised himself that once he got out of the water he would continue to hate him with all his might, now however... he could pretend a little.