Jackpot

The following day, Nari was told to wait behind once again. She expected Astrol to leave without her like she normally did these days, but to her surprise, Astrol was standing outside of the classroom waiting for her. Seeing her standing there, Nari hurriedly ended the chat between her and the math teacher, and left to meet her. "You're not going home early today?", Nari asked not bothering to look at Astrol directly. Astrol sighed seeing how upset she looked, "Nari, I'm sorry about how I've been behaving lately. It's just things came up and you had to study and_" "And that's why we need to be there for each other. I'll always be here to listen, and you'll always be there to push me to take things seriously. I need you to know that you can rely on me, okay? I got you", Nari said with encouraging eyes. She was happy at least that Astrol had decided to talk to her.

"Thanks Nari" "Sure sure. Anyway, where'd you want to go. Back home or_" "Actually, I was thinking if it would be ok if I follow you to your house instead....I've never been to the ancient library before, so I was thinking maybe we could go there together. Of course that's if you're free today and_". "Aah! yayyy!", Nari squealed loudly interrupting Astrol. "Of course you can! Do you know how much I've been dying to take you to see the ancient library?. I asked you lots of times, and even went there with Bora numerous times, but you never agreed to tag along even once", Nari whined childishly. "Yeah I know, sorry. I guess I realized that even though I hate royalty a lot, that doesn't give me a good reason to be completely ignorant about it....I mean history does come in handy sometimes right?", Astrol stated. "Right", Nari replied cheerful. Astrol had refused to visit the ancient library at her place mainly because most of the books there were based on royal families and their empires. They were called the royal history keepers after all. She was just glad that Astrol seemed to be putting her hate for royalty behind her now.

...

Astrol and Nari arrived at the Chen's residence as soon as the traffic cleared up. As they entered, Nari's eyes landed on the father figure sitted in the living room silently playing chess with one of the male household servants. "Daddy!", Nari screamed and hugged him tightly the moment he stood up to face her. "You're still home?, I-I thought you'd already be gone by the time I got back", Nari muttered in a shaky voice. Noticing her sad mood, Mr Chen didn't waste time to give a reply, "Mmm I was, but I changed my mind, I'll be leaving next week instead. I guess I missed home a little too much". Astrol just stood staring at the father-daughter pair and couldn't help but smile. Any other person that had experienced what she'd gone through when it came to family, and was standing there, would've probably felt a bit awkward or sad, but here she was smiling. She was weirdly happy...happy that even in this cruel cruel world, such warmth and love could exist, consoling her bruised heart.

"Astrol, you're here too", Mr Chen spoke snapping Astrol out of her daze. "Mm that's right. Greetings Mr Chen", Astrol said with a small bow before she straightened up and her eyes fixated on the man before her. He was the royal history keeper. Nanny Yu had taken it upon herself to tell Astrol all the important things and details that was necessary for a royal like herself to know whether she liked it or not, and this man before her was undoubtedly one of those important things. He probably knew her true identity already because of the special ability gifted to his kind, and just decided to play along with her act. He was the key....the key she needed to get justice for her parents, for her family. Nanny Yu had told her all about the mysterious deaths of the rest of her relatives, and like her, she was certain that someone was behind it. That's why they had to keep a low profile because Nanny Yu was scared that they'd come for her next if they found out she was still alive, since she was the only Hae existence left. She focused her attention back on Mr Chen and sighed lowly. He was the key yes, but she knew just how dangerously good this man kept a secret.

Mr Chen talked some more with Nari, before glancing over at Astrol one last time, "Make yourself at home dear", he uttered with a warm smile before finally leaving the two alone. Nari then hastily dragged Astrol towards the elevator so that they could finally get to the underground library. She knew that there was a chance that Astrol might change her mind, so she wasn't going to give her a chance to back out. Once the elevator doors pinged open, Astrol couldn't stop her jaw from falling as she stared at the humongous looking library. She couldn't even see the end of shelves from where she stood. A slight shiver ran down her spine. She briefly became scared that if she wasn't careful and ended up getting lost in this black hole of knowledge, that she would probably have grey hairs before they would manage to find her. Nari then yanked her arm pulling her towards a corner. Astrol wasn't even paying attention to Nari anymore, she just kept on staring around the library speechless. The library was neat and very spacious. The book shelves were made of finely polished oak, and were approximately five feet from each other. They were also various electronic ladders as well as the normal wooden one. Mr Chen did seem like the traditional type, so it made sense.

The library had multiple chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The largest one was just above the center of the library. She couldn't see the chandelier fully from where she stood but she could clearly see the powerful light it eminated. There were also ceiling lights that were attached as well. It looked like they had some sort of freezer for preserving books because some books hundreds of years old looked neater than some of the recent ones she got in bookstores. It was also terrifyingly organized that Astrol couldn't help but worry and wonder how someone like Nari would be able to manage generations worth of history, all passed down from previous history keepers.

She finally got a hold of herself when she saw Nari sit down. She immediately got down to business. She had her reason for suddenly deciding to come down here. She didn't want to waste any more time since she only had today to complete her plan which would be executed the following day. "Okay I'm ready. What would you like to talk about?", Nari asked, eyes glimmering in excitement. "I actually just came to see the library and get the basic information that I ought to know about royalty, but let's see... we've got a lot of royals at school, why don't you tell me about the most popular ones", Astrol suggested. She wanted to get basic information that she would need to teach those two scumbags a lesson. "Oh do you mean the crazy four?", Nari asked excitedly, and Astrol just creased her eyebrows. "The crazy four?", she asked confused. "Yes, the crazy four. You know, the one with Han Minjun, Kim Minho, Zane Lee and Auston Park", Nari explained, and Astrol nodded the instant she heard the names she was looking for.

"Hmm let's see...I'll start with Minjun then. Minjun is the first son and prince of the Han dynasty here in country Z. He's very well known to be the flirtatious one amongst the four, and can be a real Casanova sometimes, but I mean come on...can you blame him?, with a face like that he's bound to be surrounded by girls. It's like flirting is in his veins. He has dimples deeper than the Pacific, and thankfully he graces us with his smile every now and then", Nari explained before she let out a light squeal. "Hmm got it", Astrol replied. "Ok then, next we'll move on to Auston Park. He's the only son of the Park dynasty in country C and is an orphan. He stays with his grandpa here in Country Z and has an older sister - Park Yuzuri. You should know her, she's one of the most talked about artists", Nari spoke clapping her hands excitedly. "Mm I know her", Astrol replied so she carried on. "Anyway back to Auston. He's so damn handsome and has this sexy beauty mark by the side of his nose bridge. As we all know, he's deadly smart, they don't call him Auston the great for nothing. He's the quiet type and is very reserved, except of course when he's with the crazy four. He doesn't like to celebrate his birthday and hardly smiles; he only does that when he's around the crazy four, heck he even laughs sometimes, and it's said that those who happened to see him smile, died from a heart attack because of how dashing he looks when he does that", Nari explained and Astrol could only shake her head as she watched her friend swoon helplessly over them.

"Next we have Kim Minho", Nari started and Astrol's rapt attention was on her. "He's extremely handsome, literally drop dead gorgeous with a beauty mark on his left lower eyelid. I think I have a thing for cute moles. Anyway, he is the prince and only heir of the Kim empire in country V. He's the friendliest and warmest along with Minjun amongst the four. He is really kind hearted and is the all-rounder amidst the four since he's good at everything, and I mean everything from what I've seen so far. He can be pretty naughty when he wants to be, though no one can compare to Minjun in that regard. As the heir of the Kim empire, he's fond of having his way and always gets everything he wants __".

"Everything he wants huh", Astrol interrupted with a light scowl. " Wow, you seem interested in him already", Nari teased but Astrol only ignored her. "He's really capable of getting anything he wants?" "Well yeah. As far as I'm concerned, if he wants something and puts his mind to it, he gets it", Nari stated simply. "Oh and uhm, I don't think I have to say anything about the last person", Nari said referring to Zane as she stared at Astrol. She knew how much he'd hurt her back then and was avoiding bringing him up. "No. I've already heard enough", Astrol uttered in irritation.

After some more small talk, she eventually succeeded in shooing Nari away from the library so that she could get on with her plan. She'd asked Nari to tell her about them so that she could get important details, but the latter only ended up fangirling over them instead. Sigh, at least now she had some kind of idea of the kind of person they each were. Astrol had moved to a desktop on a table not too far off. She hoped against all odds that it wouldn't have such a complicated password, her IT skills could only go so far. However, on moving the touch pad, the screen flashed open before her without any sort of security. Some idiot had even forgotten to log out of the royal archives folder that was on full display before her. She couldn't help but shake her head at the thought that her best friend would most likely be the idiot. She quickly got to typing, and with a few clicks, she managed to get basic information on the crazy four.

Zane had just turned 18 on March 26th and the rest were set to turn eighteen as well later on that year. Kim Minho was still 17 born October 25th, Auston was 17 as well born December 25th, and Minjun was a day younger being born December 26th. Minjun Aiden Han had a younger brother her age (15) - Yujun Ethan Han in grade 9, who is the same age and friends with Nari's cousin Nicholas Yang. Zane had a little sister as well, Sumi Lee aged fourteen that year. Lastly, Auston Chaemin Park had never celebrated his birthday since he was eight. The reason was because both his parents had died December 25th at different years being on his seventh and eighth birthday. Astrol couldn't help but look away from the screen. She more than most would be able to relate, loosing a parent was never easy and he lost both of them one at a time on his birthday consecutively. She wondered if Christmas would ever be the same for him as well. With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the task at hand. She'd dug more into Zane and Minho and had already gotten enough dirt on Zane to teach him a lesson for being so unnecessarily mean and cruel to her. On the other hand, she wasn't so lucky with Minho. Like Nari said, he was perfect...even on screen. She couldn't find even a lint on his image and she was so frustrated. He was the main reason why she had decided to do all this in the first place! Just as she was about to give up with a final sigh, her eyes fell on a hidden document attached to his file. With a single click, her eyes hungrily ran over the words that appeared, and stopped short on a particular sentence. "Yes jackpot!"