Seonghwa and Hongjoong swam back to others, hand in hand. Hongjoong felt a little shy, though no one was really looking at them, and had his head bowed the entire time. When they reached Yeosang, Jongho and San, who was accompanied by Byeongkwan and Sehyoon, San and Jongho stared at them with knowing expressions.

This caused Hongjoong to hide behind Seonghwa, his face buried into Seonghwa's arm.

"Well, something obviously happened to you two huh?" San giggles. 

"Perhaps something did" Seonghwa agreed, but said nothing else.

He knew that San and Jongho would be able to guess what had happened, but if they hadn't, he wasn't about to just say it for all to hear. He knew when privacy was necessary.

Hongjoong, however, was having a bit of an internal struggle. His lips tingled, and he had the overwhelming urge to kiss Seonghwa, but the fear of doing so stopped him. Hongjoong wanted nothing but to disappear into the sand, but unfortunately, that wasn't a possibility.

"Excuse me, but I would like to apologise" Byeongkwan spoke up.

Hongjoong peaked his head around, frowning. "You have nothing to apologise for."

"I believe I do. I am the one who sparked that odd conversation between yourself and prince Seonghwa."

"There is no need to apologise for that, Byeongkwan" Hongjoong sighed. 

Hongjoong slowly swims to his roght, floating beside Seonghwa. His grip on the older's hand was tight, causing a pang of worry to run through Seonghwa. The prince squeezed Hongjoong's hand, the younger returning to gesture.

Seonghwa's heart swelled. To him, this was a sure sign that Hongjoong liked him more than he knew, but he wasn't about to push it; he'll let Hongjoong figure that one out on his own.

"Hey, here's an idea; why don't I show you around the castle?" Yeosang grins, looking at Hongjoong.

Hongjoong opened and closed his mouth a few times before looking up at Seonghwa. Seonghwa nods and smiles encouragingly. Hongjoong takes a deep breath in and out, releasing his grip on Seonghwa's hand. Yeosang places a quick kiss on Jongho's cheek before ushering Hongjoong inside. 

The inside of the castle was elegant and clean, with framed pictures of Yeosang's ancestors and current living family hanging on the walls of the entryway. The carpet was a dark aquamarine with a purple seashell pattern , the sandstone floor and walls painted a beautifully bright aquamarine, and the ceiling was a dark purple. 

Hongjoong was rendered speechless at the sheer size of the castle on the outside, but inside it was like stepping into another universe. It would be completely impossible to find something of this nature in his world. 

When they entered the throne room, they swam a few moments before turning a hard left towards a flight of stairs. They swam up, Hongjoong briefly wondering why merpeople would need stairs in the first place, but then again this could have been a sunken castle that the merpeople remodeled.

Yeosang's room was spacious but simple. It had the same colour scheme as the rest of the castle, however it was sparsely decorated. There was a bed up against the back wall with a picture of a part of the reef that surrounded Aurorialis, there was a desk with a mirror placed against the front wall, and an arched window with a window seat to the right of the bed. 

"You can see the entirety of Aurorialis up here" Yeosang smiled, swimming over to the window, sitting down in the window seat. 

Hongjoong followed him over, seating himself down next to Yeosang. The merman stared out the window, watching the merpeople swim past shops, in and out of shops, and making casual conversation with each other as they made their way to wherever they were going. 

"You know, I once tried to make friends outside of royalty. They didn't know who I was, and I never told them. It was a couple of weeks before they found out, and once they did, they avoided me" Yeosang seemed sombre, which seemed a little unusual for him seeing as he'd been smiling the moment Hongjoong met him.

"They avoided you because you were royalty? That's a bit of a shitty reason, don't you think?" Hongjoong shook his head, a little disappointed.

"It's just how things are. Being different, being higher up from what is socially normal isn't all that great. There's a lot of loneliness."

Yeosang turns to Hongjoong, looking him dead in the eye, "what do you think will happen when people find out you're the child of prophecy?" 

"We don't even know if I am yet!" Hongjoong said exasperatedly.

"But what if you are? Do you think you'll be praised? If you truly are the child of Taemin, people will fear you, and some will outright despise you and want you dead. No one except for a small few even believe the prophecy is real, so once those people find out that they're wrong, they will be none too happy" Yeosang scoffed.

Hongjoong was silent for a moment, processing the information.

"Are you saying I should fear for my life?" Hongjoong asks in a small voice.

"I'm saying you should already be worried. There are people watching you from the shadows Hongjoong; terrible and irrationally fearful people. Even the Shades are drawn to you, it seems" Yeosang sighs, "I'm not saying all of this to simply scare you, but whilst there are good things about Aurora, there are also bad and life threatening things. At one point, Shades were never seen outside of the forest. It's only in recent years they've been appearing more and more. There is something coming Hongjoong, and I'm afraid you could be caught up in the middle of it"

Hongjoong then realised how dangerous Aurora was for him, and he began to second guess his decision to try the Shade thing Byeongkwan suggested. He just hopes he'd live to see the next day...