Curiosity

There were no words to describe Zane's rage at the moment. As soon as the voice in that video started spouting all those rubbish, his eyes blazed hot in anger. He had to wonder who on earth had the audacity to create such a video trashing him like that. Everyone was surprised at what they were watching. Some of them already knew this side of Zane which was why they always did their best not to offend him since they didn't want to be at the receiving end of his wrath. Only other higher-up royals could do that without feeling threatened, however, he was friends with most.

Some of the students couldn't help but mock the creator in their minds. In their opinions it was perfectly fine for Zane to behave in that manner since he wasn't just an ordinary royal but a high profiled one. Others, however, silently praised the Creator's level of bravery to be able to do such a thing. They knew just how cruel this prince was, and some had even gotten picked on or humiliated by him in the past, but no one had the courage to say a thing about it. Zane also had a lot of girls that admired him along with the crazy four and to them his good looks and status covered up for his behavior.

Everyone's heads filled with different thoughts and opinions immediately went blank, and a loud gasp erupted as soon as the next scene came up. It was a scene pertaining to the King of the Kim empire and the real reason behind his absence for a long while now. Shock was an understatement to what the people felt at that moment in the auditorium as they continued to listen to the robotic voice as it now started to compare and state the similarities between Kim Minho and his father. No one had expected that Kim Minho would be mentioned at all in the video on seeing from the title that it was aimed at exposing the negative side of royalty.

In their eyes, he was the epitome of everything positive royalty stood for. He was kind, humble, and friendly to most people. Everyone agreed with that, except of course, those who envied and disliked him and thought of him as a privileged brat with unnecessary clout. Many people had already started to feel pity for him. They felt it was very unfair for the creator to judge him and make assumptions of his character based on his father's wrongdoings. They couldn't help but be on his side still, they now saw why the matter was kept a secret in the first place. Nonetheless, those who disliked him began to rejoice inwardly thanking the mysterious person that happened to make their day like this. Some of them had even brought out their phones and were now recording everything that was going on live, for the benefit of getting followers or breaking the news first.

When the video on Zane came up, the rest of the crazy four tried their best to calm Zane down and keep his anger in check. When suddenly, the video changed its target to Minho. The crazy four instantly froze upon seeing what was on screen, and all heads whipped towards Kim Minho, whose face was now terribly dark. He clenched his fists so tight his knuckles turned white. As the video started to make comparisons between the two of them, in an attempt to link his character to that of his father, his aura instantly changed into one of cold, dark winter and everyone around him at that moment felt a sudden chill go down their spines. Everyone was utterly shocked at the sudden change in Kim Minho, they'd never seen him so upset before. The rest of the crazy four however, weren't that surprised since they had long ago witnessed how Kim Minho got whenever the topic relating to his father was brought up. It was like he became a totally different person from his usual self.

The principal was the first to recover from the sudden shock as he practically ran towards the computer and immediately switched it off. He was sweating profusely. How could he let this happen?! He could only imagine the outcome once Queen Kim found out about this. Zane's case at that moment was very minor compared to Minho's case which involved unofficial and improper disclosure of information, slander against the royal family, invasion of privacy, and a whole load of other offenses. He couldn't help but pity for the poor child who was stupid enough to do something like that without knowing the full consequences behind it. If it were Zane's, it would've been better since his character was just insulted, but bringing in Kim Minho's father so publicly like that was a matter involving country V as a whole.

Nari was dumbfounded the moment she saw Kim Minho's father pop up like that on screen with images of him being arrested. It was impossible. No one knew about the whereabouts pertaining to the former King except for the people of country V and very few trusted allies, and they had all given their word to keep their mouths shut since they empathized with the Queen and cherished her a lot. The only reason she knew was because Kim Minho was a very close family friend and had opened up to her about it at the time. Besides, it was even more impossible to get those pictures...not unless. "Astrol?, why would she do that", Nari muttered to herself as her mind went back to the day of Astrol's visit. It was way too sudden, even if it was only just so she could make it up to her. She had probably snooped around when she was gone.

Astrol on the other hand, couldn't help but beam proudly at herself on seeing the numerous pictures that flooded the screen. As she continued to look, she was somewhat stunned at Minho's visuals from the various angles that were taken of him. He was actually pretty good looking, no wonder he was able to bewitch so many people including her best friend - Hinari. However, she'd had enough experience to know that good looks came with more cons that pros.

Nari looked around and spotted Astrol with a slight smile on her face while she stared at the screen one last time before it got disconnected. Her shoulders dropped in disappointment as she soon realized that her guess was right. Astrol could feel someone watching her and turned only to be met by Nari's gaze filled with disbelief. Astrol was even more confused seeing how hurt Nari looked. Nari just shook her head as she threw her a disapproving look before she turned around and disappeared into the crowd...

Kim Minho stood motionless with his eyes still fixed on the screen long after the video was taken off. He looked so lost in thought and all the crazy four could do was stay there with him and wait for him to snap out of his daze. "I wonder who could have done that", one of the students in the auditorium said. " I know right. One thing is for sure, the person must really hate royals", another student seconded. " I agree, I mean to have sat down and taken the time to do this?, if that's not pure hatred, I don't know what is", another remarked. "Who could've done this though", one more asked, and the hall became noisy as everyone murmured amidst themselves. On hearing some of the comments from the students that managed to drift into his subconscious, Kim Minho's eyebrows slowly creased as his mind flashed back to the scene at the IT room earlier that day, and his eyes widened a bit at the thought.

'Did she really do this?', he pondered as his mind went back in time to crystal clear blue furious eyes at the library. It was when he first saw her. With a sigh, he finally released his grip on his palms, and felt a gush of blood flow into them. The principal then walked towards Zane and Minho and asked them to accompany him to his office. The rest of the crazy four felt relieved to see that Kim Minho had calmed down a bit. Though his silver grey eyes remained icy cold, his aura was a bit warmer as he turned to follow the Principal with Zane trailing beside him. The teachers on the other hand had finally managed to calm and curtail the students.

The principal was currently with the two in his office while attending to the issue at hand. Unfortunately, some videos had been taken and circulated online for a while before the Kim empire managed to shut everything down. It was a lot harder this time because their enemies had managed to get a hold of the video. So, it would still take some time to completely shut the already chaotic state of the media down with the assurance of it never resurfacing again.

The principal had managed to calm Zane's parents down over the phone since they currently weren't in the country. However, it seemed he was getting nowhere with Kim Minho's mum standing and fuming in front of him. She was too furious to even sit down. She couldn't believe that her precious son had to experience this again - seeing his father's face and being called his copy again! Ever since the traumatic experience with Marcus, she tried her best to keep any memory of him far away from her son. She'd changed their family portraits in the mansion to only ones containing the two of them, she'd gotten rid of their maze - like garden where her son normally hid from his father, and had even moved to another country to stay for the mean time; yet this happened! Thanks to that heartless person she now also had a long line of international interviews concerning the sudden news of the former King. She'd arranged for the interviews because it was one of the easiest ways to sate the media and prevent any outrageous rumors from rising.

Ayra insisted on finding the culprit and teaching the one responsible a lesson. Kim Minho, who had been quietly seated all the while with a blank expression, finally spoke and managed to calm his mum down. He'd insisted on her letting the issue slide with nothing more than a warning from the principal to the students. Ayra Kim was taken aback by his suggestion, and totally against letting everything go just like that, but after seeing how resolute Minho was on letting it go, she finally gave in to his request. Nevertheless, she made it clear to him that she would fight head on next time should such a thing happen again.

After the meeting was over, Ayra Kim had to reluctantly hug her son goodbye since he'd wanted to stay and finish the rest of the school day. Kim Minho remained silent throughout the day until it was down to the last period. Since his last period was free, he went off to his favorite spot in the school and just sat staring into nothing. His classmates and friends had tried to cheer him up, they really did, but he just couldn't help being this way after what happened back at the auditorium. Every single moment spent staring at the screen only added to his already existing trauma and fears. He was busy staring when Auston arrived and sat next to him. "Are you alright?", he asked. "Mm", Minho replied. "No you're not, you're behaving like me now, talking so little like this", Auston stated and Minho only released a deep sigh. "Why didn't you say anything about her?", Auston asked next, making Minho to turn to him in surprise.

"How did you__" "Miss Wang asked me to help fetch her glasses from the music room since she'd forgotten it there. So, I left the auditorium and headed back into the school building, when I saw her leave the IT room and you standing there. I presume you already knew that it was her since the computer was in the IT room which she snuck into before it was taken to the auditorium", Auston explained. "To be honest with you Auston", Minho started with a sigh, "For some reason I'm not mad at her. I know I should be and it's true that I'm upset, but that's only because of the memories it brought back. Instead of being angry, I'm actually more curious to know why she did all that", Minho said. Auston thought his words over for some time before looking back at him. "So what are you going to do now?", Auston asked next. "I'm going to satisfy my curiosity", Minho replied with a soft smile on his lips...the first smile on his face since the incident at the auditorium.