Seokjin, at first, felt like a trespasser. He felt like the Bangtan Secret Lair should only be for the princes of Nahae and their leisure, not Seokjin's. He felt very uneasy within the walls of the Lair, anxious about one of Prince Taehyung's brothers showing up and finding him there in their haven. Seokjin remembered how he, as a ten year old boy, hated it when his sisters invaded his 'secret' hideout which just happened to be an empty stable.

The prince of Gyeongsong was reluctant to entertain himself with anything in the room, arguing that he had no right to exploit the private luxuries of the foreign princes. Prince Taehyung laughed in reply, to Seokjin's annoyance, and commented on how cute his red ears were, which was completely out of context.

On the first night, they didn't stay in the Lair for long since Seokjin kept insisting on returning to their chambers. But the nights that rolled in further on, Seokjin was being visited by the youngest prince of Nahae and abducted to Bangtan's Secret Lair.

It would be a complete and utter lie to say that Seokjin was not fond of the place. The spacious room was the perfect kind of warm and it made Seokjin a tiny bit homesick for Gyeongsong, which was shocking since Seokjin never thought he would miss his palace that he considered a jail.

The books were neatly arranged on the built-in wall shelves, sorted out carefully according to subject and genre. Seokjin was surprised to find a whole section dedicated to element controlling and its history. There were some books that used to be in restricted section of the library back at his palace.

Seokjin was delighted to find an acoustic guitar among the instruments. He had always been passionate about this certain musical instrument and dreamt about performing infront of a huge audience; the only audience he had were their music teacher and his sisters.

The best thing about the Lair was how relaxed Prince Taehyung seemed. It seemed like an invisible weight of countless worries had been lifted off his shoulders. And strangely, Seokjin himself felt more at ease with the prince of Nahae in Bangtan's Lair than he did anywhere else in the palace. It was like the woods behind the palace of Gyeongsong, a place where Seokjin could be free, away from the royal drama and whatnot.

Two weeks had passed since the Royal Family of Gyeongsong arrived at Nahae. Seokjin had tried to bond with the foreign princes and they seemed to put in effort as well. His sisters too seemed to be warming up to the princes of Nahae and had been more or less comfortable at the palace. They still had not been able to adapt to the unfamiliar cold of the kingdom but they could manage.

Everything seemed normal except one very important thing, or more like, on very important person.

Jisoo

The youngest princess of Gyeongsong lately had been quite aloof. Whenever Seokjin would try to converse with his twin, he would be shut down by curt replies. Sometimes, Jisoo would walk off to another direction when Seokjin or any of the sisters approached her. It was very unlikely of her and it worried the royal siblings of Gyeongsong. They thought initially that perhaps their sister was stressed about the upcoming events and wanted to relief her anxiety by having some private time with herself. But now, Jisoo was acting like a whole different person as if someone had shrouded her true colours with fake ink.

Currently, Seokjin had his eyes trained on the floor, lost in deep thought. He was startled back to reality when someone abruptly placed a book on his lap. Seokjin looked up to see Prince Taehyung looking at him eagerly, as if waiting for his response towards the book.

With curious hands, Seokjin turned onto the first page which had text written under the painting of two men locked in a passionate kiss.

Seokjin's face burned bright, blame goes to the highly inappropriate thoughts his mind conjured up regarding the prince infront of him.

"I was wondering. . . ." Prince Taehyung started. "If my Prince would like to try it out."

Seokjin's eyes widened saucers. If possible, his blush grew even deeper as he shoved the book back into Prince Taehyung's arms and exclaimed.

"Don't propose something so scandalous, Prince Taehyung!"

Seokjin truly wanted to kick the prince of Nahae in his balls when he laughed at him.

"Why, tell me, my Prince," Prince Taehyung said. "What is so scandalous about reading a book about love, hm?"

Oh.

"Well-" Seokjin paused for a millisecond before continuing, "-is it not prohibited from having any kind of engagement with homosexuality?"

Yes, in Gyeongsong, acts of homosexuality had severe consequences. To the people, or more like to the Royal family, it was a sin that must be avoided at all costs. It was taken so seriously that even talking about it in public was dangerous. Other than not being blessed with magical powers, being attracted to the same gender was the most shameful thing a dweller of Gyeongsong could imagine.

Funny how Seokjin was both.

"That's a strange belief. Love should have no boundaries, regardless of gender. Maybe your culture is quite different from ours, my Prince." Prince Taehyung said with a serious gleam in his eyes.

Seokjin was afraid he had somehow offended the prince of Nahae. He quickly opened his mouth to apologise but he was interluded by rumbling.

Someone was entering the Lair.

Prince Taehyung ushered Seokjin towards a closet at the very end of the Lair, abandoned behind a pile of unused parchment. Seokjin hastily placed himself between the broken instruments that happened to be stacked there. When Prince Taehyung shut the doors, Seokjin was engulfed into darkness and silence. Why the princes of Nahae had a sound proof storage for broken music equipments, Seokjin didn't know.

Seokjin felt immensely uneasy amidst of the things because he knew the sharp broken edges or shards of metal could easily penetrate through his skin. Moreover, the confined space made him claustrophobic. The closet didn't smell great either.

Seokjin tried to calm his nerves because the darkness was making his heart rattle in its ribcage. He tried to find some sort of lighting device by blindly placing his hands on the objects. He felt a sharp pain on his forearm, as if some knife like object had sliced through his skin. He bit his lip to muffle the painful moan he was about to emit.

The closet had seemed to get warmer every moment. It wasn't the normal amount of warm. It was as if Seokjin was suddenly shoved into a furnace. Funny, since Nahae's weather was anything but hot.

After some time, the heat started to diminish slowly until it was replaced by the usual cool atmosphere. Seokjin's shirt, by then, was wet with his blood and sweat. He wondered if he could get out now; it had been a while.

As if to answer his question, the doors of the closet swung open violently to reveal three panicked males.

Seokjin stared at Prince Taehyung, Prince Jimin and Jungkook in shock while the trio stared back at him with equal amount of surprise. There was an awkward pause before Jungkook's eyes widened even more.

"Hyung, you're bleeding!"

The princes of Nahae noticed the wound as soon as Jungkook pointed it out and assisted Seokjin to get out. They escorted him to a random chair and Prince Jimin rushed somewhere in the Lair and got back a few minutes later with a wooden box.

He kneeled infront of the prince of Gyeongsong, while Prince Taehyung and Jungkook were on either side of Seokjin, and tended to the cut. Seokjin winced in pain as the Prince tried to stop the bleeding.

"How did you hurt yourself, Prince Seokjin?"

He didn't call me 'my prince'.

Seokjin silently noted but cursed himself afterwards for taking such a silly detail into account.

"I was trying to find a source of light in the dark." Seokjin explained.

"The bigger question is. . . ." Prince Jimin said after he was done skillfully bandaging Seokjin's arm, "-how did the closet catch fire out of nowhere?"

Seokjin was taken aback for a moment. The closet he was hiding in caught fire and all he felt was the heat? Like, the heat was very uncomfortable but not unbearable.

"What do you mean it caught fire, Prince Jimin?" Seokjin inquired.

"When I came here along with your companion, Jungkookie, here, I was greeted by a very frantic Taehyung. Afterwards, the three of us smelled the very familiar scent of fire and to our surprise, the closet was on flames."

"Did you perhaps light a match, hyung?" Jungkook asked.

"No, I didn't." Seokjin answered. A fire wouldn't just start out of nowhere unless someone had intentionally lit up the closet.

"Jimin hyung, are you sure the palace does not have any association with. . .ghosts?" Jungkook asked timidly and tugged onto Jimin's handsleeves, making Seokjin realise how strangely close the two had become.

Prince Jimin chuckled and ruffled the stable boy's hair fondly which was returned by a blush.

There was an awkward silence, Seokjin and Taehyung wondering why Jungkook was there and Jimin and Jungkook wondering why Seokjin was there.

Both parties opened their mouth in unison for explanation but Prince Jimin was quicker.

"Let me guess. Taehyung-ie decided to give Prince Seokjin a secret tour of our Lair, hm?" Jimin said with an eyebrow raise.

"I assume you did the same, hyung." Prince Taehyung retorted with a similar expression.

"Well, then it's even. I don't see a reason to debate further on this, unless Prince Jimin wants me to stop my visits. I will willingly oblique if my presence triggers unease to the princes." Seokjin said as he didn't want the brothers to fight on such a petty matter. Well, truth to be said, it would be wrong of Prince Jimin to get angry on Prince Taehyung for bringing Seokjin there since he brought Jungkook along with him; and vice versa.

"You are too selfless, Prince Seokjin." Jimin remarked. "Ofcourse you still have the pass to be here. I was actually planning to share this place with you sooner or later but it looks like Taehyung became impatient."

Prince Jimin ended his comment with a smirk directed towards his younger brother who was glaring daggers at him. If Seokjin wasn't there, Prince Taehyung would've definitely throttled his brother for exposing him like that.

"I can stay too, right- uh, Prince Jimin?" The way Jungkook ended his sentence made Seokjin wonder what the boy called Prince Jimin in private.

'Ofcourse you can, Jungkookie." Jimin reassured.

"And I'll make sure it stays that way." Jimin said with an underlying sense of threat subjected at his brother.

Prince Taehyung rolled his eyes and asked if the rest of his hyungs were aware of the situation. Prince Jimin replied saying that they probably weren't but he had once overheard Prince Yoongi and Prince Namjoon talking about it to Seokjin's personal assistant aka Jung Hoseok.

"Glad to know we all are snitches." Seokjin heard Prince Taehyung mutter under his breath informally.

"Anyways, Father was looking for you Taehyungie, you better go now. Oh and, I think Princess Jennie was looking for Seokjin." Jimin informed the two.

"Are you sure you just don't want some alone time with Jungkook?" Prince Taehyung said, making both Prince Jimin and Jungkook go red as a setting sun, much to Seokjin's amusement.

"Get out!"

And they did. When the princes were at the end of the passageway, before parting ways, Prince Taehyung placed the romance novel in Seokjin's hands and whispered into his ears.

"Perhaps one day we could reenact this, my Prince. . ."

He was pointing at the image of the men kissing.