Soon

The next day came and Kim Minho's birthday was the talk of the entire school; he'd already even received lots of early birthday gifts. It was two days left till the 25th of October and everything at Kim mansion had already been set to throw the birthday of the year, courtesy of his mother and uncle. 

It'd taken two weeks to plan and another two weeks to get everything ready for Minho's big eighteenth birthday which would be celebrated only amongst close relatives and friends for security reasons. His mother had only allowed few media personnels to be present to broadcast the event as well.

That morning, the crazy four had arrived a bit late to school and were instantly swarmed by a large crowd as they made their way to their classes. Auston and Minjun soon bid Zane and Minho goodbye since they arrived at their class first.

The first three periods went by well but was a bit distracting for Kim Minho because he was constantly finding random gifts, more like pop up presents, hidden around him and in his things.

When it was break time, the crazy four met up on their way to the locker room. "You seem pretty moody today, did something happen?", Zane asked referring to Minjun since he seemed quieter than normal.

"He's probably upset because he can hardly find girls to talk to these days since everyone's been obsessing over Minho", Auston answered instead with a smirk playing on his face. "I am not!", Minjun refuted. Of course the only time this statue manages to utter a sentence he ends up making fun of him like this. 

Everyone ended up laughing except for Minjun whose solemn expression was now replaced with a frown. 

Minho shook his head at his friends silliness as he turned to open his locker. However the moment he opened his locker, he was instantly greeted by a present wrapped in black and enclosed with a blue ribbon.

Blue...Minho dropped his gaze to the blue band at his wrist. Blue was his royal family colour and an official color of Country V as well. Every royal bore a band the color of their royal family at their wrist. It was a way of recognizing royalty from the ordinaries.

Kim Minho looked back at the present sitting in his locker and frowned. How did this person manage to get the gift into his locker?. No one knew his locker combination apart from the crazy four. 

Trying not to think too deeply about it, he simply presumed that the gift was probably from one of them. He brushed the suspicious thoughts off as he reached into his locker and his right hand closed around the box. However, his whole world immediately came to a stand still on opening the box.

Inside the gift box was an old family picture that consisted of himself along with his mum and dad. But what really made his heart stop was the fact that his mother's face was doodled on in red marker, and a line was drawn vertically, isolating his mum from him and his dad. He took in his father's familiar signature at the bottom of the photograph as he released a shaky breath.

The longer he stared at the photograph, the more the bad memories came flooding back, but he just couldn't make himself look away. He was momentarily thrown back to that time again, and his head began to spin.

'In. One. Two'

'Out'

'In. One. Two'

'Out'

Kim Minho counted in his head, practicing the breathing exercise that Dr. Su had used to calm him whenever he was having another lapse.

Just when his breathing seemed to stabilize, his phone started to vibrate. He couldn't quite make out the numbers on the screen that seemed to be dancing around in his head, so he just answered the call with clumsy fingers still shaken from his almost panic attack.

"Hello son", a familiar cool calm voice spoke and Kim Minho's senses were instantly jolted awake. His voice always had that effect on him, the scary smoothness in it like a calm before the storm. And the storm always came.

When no response came from Minho's end, the voice continued, "Happy birthday in advance my son. You're almost eighteen now and I must say you've taken after your old man quite a lot. Even if sadly it's only in appearance. I must commend your mother as well, Ayra's done a pretty good job looking after you and the empire. These days she's behaving more like an heiress of the Min clan than the fool she'd been before.

However, I do believe that it's time I take over, don't you think?", he crooned with that taunting cynical laugh he possessed so well.

"What's wrong, don't you like your gift?", he mocked. "You can't escape me you know that. You're my son so no matter how far you run, I'll always find you. You of all people should know that, after all I always did, remember?

Greet your mother for me would you...who's to say, it might just be the last time you do", he concluded with another manic laugh before the call ended.

Kim Minho stood trembling and frozen as his mind kept repeating his father's words like a broken record. 

'In. One. Two!'

He frantically recited, but it was of no use now. His vision only spotted farther and his chest contracted. Nothing had changed, he was still the same helpless boy he'd been many years ago, still too scared to face him. He wasn't healed fully yet and might never fully heal, but he was definitely not ready to face him this soon.

He felt his chest collapse in on him and his breathing became ragged and harsh now as he struggled to breathe. Somewhere, he could slightly make out Zane's voice faintly calling out to him. He felt his phone slip from his hand but couldn't hear it collide with the floor.

And then he was falling. He'd already made contact with the ground but he was still falling, deeper and deeper into this endless darkness. 'At least I can't hear him anymore'.

Thud! The crazy four stood frozen as they watched Minho's form collapse onto the floor still shaking with little tremors. Auston was the first to recover as he immediately rushed and knelt by Minho's side. The first thing he did was to reach and check for Minho's vital points. His pulse was gradually slowing, NOT GOOD.

"Guys, shit! I think Minho's having a panic attack", Auston stated, snapping Minjun and Zane out of their momentary shock. A panic attack? It'd been so long since Zane remembered Minho having those and his attacks were always bad.

"Minjun, get over to the school clinic now and inform them on what's going on. Make sure everything is set before Auston gets there with Minho", Zane instructed and Minjun rushed out almost immediately.

Auston then carefully lifted Minho up into a piggyback position and hastily ran after Minjun the moment he had him secured on his back. As soon as they were gone, Zane made his way to Minho's phone lying on the ground. He instantly paused however as his eyes landed on the picture not so far from Minho's phone. 

He picked up the picture and the phone, and proceeded to unlock Minho's phone. "Shit", he cursed as soon as he saw that it'd been an unknown number Minho had been on the phone with. Most likely his dad from the look of things.

 Zane quickly took out his phone and dialed Minho's uncle along with the school principal to inform them on what had happened. He thought of calling Kim Minho's mother through Minho's phone, but decided against it since Minho wouldn't like his mother getting so worked up. Kim Chan would know how best to let the queen know.

Zane rubbed his hands over his face in exasperation. It didn't make any sense. Why now? He'd been so quiet for the past nine years so what happened?. He sighed deeply before taking out his phone once again to give his own parents a call. Kim Minho's unconscious state would circulate the net in due time, and hopefully his parents could do something to assist the Queen of country V before rumors started to spread about.

...

Everyone was busy chatting with friends, having snacks or engaging in other leisure activities since it was break time.

Astrol was at the topmost floor hanging out with Nari, Bora and Xander. This floor was a popular one where students normally hung out because of the amazing view. It was possible to see the entire school from that height. 

The area was packed with other students playing games and passing on gossips, when they suddenly heard the commotion going on below. They stood and made their way towards the railing to try and see what was happening below. 

As they stared out, they were surprised to first see Minjun running out of the school building at full speed like he was in some kind of trouble. Some of the students began to murmur amongst themselves in confusion. 

"Is there a fire?", Astrol heard one of the students murmur. "I don't think so, the fire alarm would've gone off and he's the only one running outside the building like that", another replied pointing in Minjun's direction.

A loud chorus of gasps quickly followed as soon as Auston came into view with a trembling and slightly pale Kim Minho lying almost unconscious at his back, while Auston ran in Minjun's direction.

Auston could hear Minho mumbling from time to time. He was constantly repeating the same words over and over. "No dad please...please stop. I'll do whatever you want so please", he'd utter while his body shook slightly.

"Dammit Minho, snap out of it", Auston muttered under his breath as he quickened his pace. The situation only got worse, however, when Auston could no longer hear any noise coming from Minho anymore. Minho had fully passed out now. "Wake up! You can't pass out now. Shit Minho! Don't you know how bad it is for you to be unconscious right now?!", Auston said frustrated as he ran faster than ever.

The school was thrown into a complete state of agitation and panic. Astrol could see various staff members rushing about as quickly as they could, not even dulling for a minute.

A few of the students including Nari had made their way down and onto the walkways as cars started filing into the school compound. When one of the passengers alighted, Astrol immediately recognized him as Kim Minho's uncle and watched as he walked towards Zane. He appeared calm but his movements seemed somewhat calculated.

When he was done speaking with Zane, Astrol saw him move on to speak briefly with the school principal while Kim Minho was being wheeled on a bed into a medical van that came along with the convoy.

Astrol felt a bit troubled by the scene before her. Was he sick?, but he seemed fine earlier that morning, so what could've happened?. Realising that she was getting this worked up over a royal, Astrol shook her head to clear her mind and gather her thoughts together. Kim Minho had helped her a few times when she needed it, so it was normal for her to feel obliged to worry for him.

The cars soon left and the situation eventually calmed down, as the principal along with the teachers started to herd the students back to their classes to carry on with the rest of the day. "Astrol let's go in now", Bora said to her, and Astrol glanced at the school gates one last time before turning to follow after Bora.

...

At the principal's office;

Zane explained once more what had taken place in the locker room. He also told Minjun and Auston about the photo and unknown number. 

"Well King Marcus couldn't have obviously sent an outsider to do this, it would've been too risky since the security at this school is tight", the principal commented. "So are you trying to say that he did this with the help of a student? That sounds absurd if you ask me", Minjun remarked.

"Absurd, yes, but not impossible. It could've been done by a staff member as well", Auston reasoned. "What about the camera in the hallway, did it pick anything up?", Zane asked.

"Nothing. Everything looked normal up until your arrival in the locker room", the principal replied and Zane sighed. 

"No use crying over spilt milk now, it'll take us quite some time to get to the bottom of this. Marcus is really smart and for all we know, we might never be able to find out how that gift got into Minho's locker. The best we can do is to ensure this doesn't repeat itself again, hmm?", the principal suggested. 

He was actually a citizen of country V and one of Ayra's trusted people, which was one of the reasons why she'd sent her son to study at New Dawn and reduced her hold on him without much worry.

"Our parents are already doing as much as they can to help Minho's mum", Zane spoke.

"Yeah I got a call from my grandfather earlier", Auston relayed. "And my dad sent some of his security to accompany uncle Chan as well", Minjun added. "I just hope the queen won't be too worried, Minho wouldn't like that", Zane said again with a heavy sigh.

...

On the other end of the phone;

Marcus smiled widely in his cellar as soon as he got word of what had happened at New Dawn after his phone call with Minho. He was glad he still had that effect on him.

"Soon my son, everything will play out all in due time", he muttered softly to himself, followed by his resounding laughter as it echoed off the cold walls of his underground prison.