"Thank you again, Jaehyun," she tells the prince as soon as the medical staff has removed the catheter from her hand. She's fully recovered now so she can join the activities again, but her heart doesn't seem to have recovered yet from a certain someone.

"I promise I won't ever ask you to hike again, Patricia," Jaehyun says, looking at her intently.

She flashes him a smile. "And I won't ever do that again even if you ask me to, Your Highness. I'm sorry but my health is more important."

He lets out a soft chuckle. "I know and I'm sorry."

"Alright. Enough with the apology. I better go back to my friends now." She stands up from her seat and is about to leave the prince, but he stops her.

"Patricia, about the proposal..." He pauses, causing her to turn to him again.

"Only if you promise to never ask me about that again," she answers, teasingly.

Jaehyun looks at her confused. "So is that a yes?"

She shrugs. "I'll just have to wait for a letter from Eton, right?"

He chuckles, standing up and catching up to her to open the door. "I'll make sure to arrange that as soon as possible."

When they step outside the cabin, she gets overwhelmed to see a group of men clad in black suits, probably waiting for the Prince. She stops on her tracks and tries to think of a way on how to pass through them.

Jaehyun exhales a breath, forcing a smile at her. "I apologize for their sudden appearance Patricia. I guess the King wants to see us at the Palace."

She shakes her head. "I understand, Your Highness." She bows at him, just so she won't appear rude infront of his guards.

He presses his lips, nodding at her. "I'll see you around?"

She returns a nod and before she knows it, the prince is being escorted into a black limousine. When the car disappears from her sight, her phone beeps signalling a message. She fishes it out from her pocket and sees a text from Izzy saying that they're already setting up their tents in the field. She almost forgets that tonight they will be sleeping in tents and camping under the stars, which is on her list.

When she reaches the field, she can't even find where her friends are with the amount of people there. She tries to ring Chelsie to ask where they are and when her sister finally picks up, she follows her directions while scanning the field. "To your left. I see you, Traze. Can you see us now? We're-"

Then, her phone dies. She groans silently and curses at her damn phone. She's about to give up and just go back to their cabin when she hears her name being called out from afar. "TRAZE!!!"

Looking up, she finally sees someone running towards her direction. She recognizes him as he gets closer to her. "Doyoung!"

"Let me just..." Doyoung stops, catching his breath.

"You didn't have to run though." She chuckles.

"I know. I shouldn't have. But Izzy told me to," he says in regret. "Let's go!"

When they finally reach the others, she notices that their tent is almost done. She hasn't set up a tent before so she's lucky that her friends did it for her.

"Damn! This is too hard," Haechan whines next to them, who is also setting up their tent.

"When did you ever find anything easy?" Chelsie teases him, causing the others to laugh.

Haechan makes a face at her. "Try doing it then!"

"No thank you." She raises both her hands up in the air and taps his shoulders. "Goodluck sleeping on the ground, okay?"

Traze's attention goes to Izzy when her friend nudges her on the side. "You alright, bun?" She nods at her. "How did it go with the prince?"

"Well he had to attend to a royal matter so..." She shrugs.

Izzy chuckles. "Are you upset that he left?"

She shakes her head, looking away. "Not really." And in that moment, she feels as if someone is watching her so she scans around and true enough, she sees him standing a few feet away from her.

He is sporting his favorite go-to look: black denim jacket with white shirt underneath, black tight jeans, black Balenciaga cap and black trainers. She doesn't know why but seeing him now, she realizes that he is actually really good-looking. God, what am I saying? She thinks to herself, tearing her eyes away from him.

She tries not to be bothered by him while on the field. Everytime she glances towards his direction, she sees him looking back. "Hey, you good?" Izzy asks her again.

"I'll just go to the dining hall. Do you guys want anything?" She asks the others.

"I'll come with." Chelsie stands up from her seat.

Haechan follows suit. "Me too. I'm starving."

"But you just ate the whole lot of pizza a while back," Jisung points out.

Haechan grins. "You can blame my tummy for that."

Chelsie stifles a laugh. "This is why you keep on getting fat."

"I can say the same to you," he counters back, earning him a glare from Chelsie.

"Alright kids. Let's go!" Traze finally says and the two follows her lead towards the dining hall.

After Chelsie and Haechan get some drinks and boxes of cupcakes from the hall, Traze realizes that they're short of cash. "Sorry but you have to put some of that back," she tells the younger ones.

Before they can do so, someone appears from behind her, causing her heart rate to increase at an instant. "It's on me," Taeyong says, fishing out his phone from his pocket.

Chelsie and Haechan look at each other, then turn to Traze and Taeyong. But neither of them say a thing as Taeyong gestures them to get the items they bought and taps his phone on the machine.

"Thanks. Wait... do we know you?" Haechan squints his eyes at him, but Chelsie just nudges him on the side.

"Thank you," Chelsie finally says to him.

Taeyong just nods at them. "That's alright."

"You two go ahead. I'll catch up," Traze instructs the kids so they set off without her and leaving her in the dining hall with Taeyong.

When she turns back to him, his brows are already furrowed, looking at her. "Your phone is dead again?"

"Yes. Why?"

He lets out a sigh, handing his phone to her. She looks at it in confusion. "That's yours now," he tells her.

"But this is yours," she points out.

He fishes out something from his other pocket and shows her another phone. "I have another one. That way I won't have to worry about not being able to contact you again."

Her mouth opens in astonishment. "Taeyong, I can't take this!"

He closes his eyes for a second, exhaling. "Why can't you just say thank you?"

"Because I didn't ask for this. And it's not my freaking birthday for you to be giving me a present."

He locks his gaze at her, ignoring the few people looking at them inside the hall. "Traze, the moment you said you didn't want me to leave, I swore to myself that I won't. So whether you like it or not, I will be here for whatever you need."

"But I-" she pauses when he notices him looking somewhere. She follows his eyes and realizes that he's looking at his brother who just entered the hall with his friends.

"Mark," he mumbles. His expression turns into worry that she can't help but wonder what happened between them. In normal circumstances, when you see your brother or sister, you would call out to him or her with a smile or a banter. But his expression clearly says something is wrong between them.

She doesn't speak and just watches him look at his brother with a pained look. Whatever it is, she has no intention to intrude his issues with his brother. But somehow, she's worried and wants to know about it.

****

"I messed up," he starts to speak, leaning his back on the trunk of the tree.

She looks at him. "I'm sure you did," she says, trying to lighten up his mood but he doesn't answer back. "Hey, I'm listening," she continues to speak.

He suddenly takes his wallet out from his pocket, opens it and shows an old torn photo to her. "That's my dad right there."

She leans closer to him to stare at the black and white photo of a man who resembles him slightly. "You look a lot like him."

His lips curve into a smile. "I don't really remember... but yeah, I guess I do."

"So..." She turns to him again. "What about him?"

"Remember the man who offered you a job at Green Fox?" He asks, looking far away. "He's our stepdad. Mum married him when dad died. But I just learned that our real father is alive. And Mark doesn't know a thing."

She frowns, trying to process that information she just heard. "So you're saying..." She shakes her head. "And now Mark found out about it and he's taking it out on you?"

"I understand his rage," he says, sighing. "I should've told him but... I want him to know when the time is right."

"When telling the truth, there's no such thing as right timing, Taeyong," she advises.

He nods, closing his eyes. "I know that now."

She just stares at him while his eyes are still closed. She's tempted to give him a hug, but she just stays still on her seat. "Give him time. I'm sure he'll forgive you soon enough. Mark seems like a good kid."

"He is." His eyes slowly open, his face tilts to face her. Suddenly, he moves closer to her. She doesn't even have time to think of what to do when she feels his head resting on her shoulder. "Can I?" He asks for permission.

"Suit yourself." She suddenly feels an instant warmth all over her body even though it's really chilly out there, but she tries to ignore it by looking up the sky to see the stars. It takes her a while before finally seeing the stars forming the Big Dipper. "Oh, it's the Big Dipper!" She exclaims in delight.

He doesn't budge from his position.

"Hey, what's your star sign?" She questions him again.

"Cancer."

She pauses, thinking. If he's Cancer, he must be born within June or July.

"You?" He asks, startling her.

"Sagittarius," she answers.

"So your birthday is in a few months?"

"Maybe?" She answers indirectly. Then, she remembers something. "Your star sign is the least compatible one with mine."

He slowly lifts his head up from her shoulder to face her. "You believe sh*t like that?"

"Hey, I'm just saying."

"Well don't. Because that's just bollocks!" he mutters.

She stands up from her seat. "I'm going back now. My friends are waiting for me. I don't want them to think that I got kidnapped by a pervert."

He scoffs, standing up as well. "Well why don't you tell your friends that you're with your boyfriend?"

She chokes. "W-What?"

He takes a step closer to her and reaches for her hand. "It's alright if you're not ready yet. I'll wait. It's enough for me knowing that you don't want me to leave your side."

She falls silent, looking down. His grip on her hands is still tight so she can't free herself from him.

When he slowly pulls her in and closes the gap between them, she hears him say under his breath, "I know I'm not the nicest guy out there, Traze. But believe me, I won't ever try to hurt you. And if for some reason I do, then I'll just have to kill myself."

A/N: Anyone watched the KBS half year special? Well Taeyong wasn't present (because of health reasons) and that was a first for them, not having a leader to guide them. Jaehyun did TY's rap part for Kick It which totally gave me a mini heart attack but it still felt empty without TY tbh.

Anyway, Jeno, Haechan and Jaemin in NCT U? I'm not complaining. XD

~neozone