Kingdom of Thieves (1/2)

“Prince Baekhyun! Your majesty, the EXO thieves have struck our main base in the town just outside of our castle boundaries!” My servant rushed into the room, bowing right at my petite feet.

“Are you serious? Those filthy thieves are so gross. It’s okay though. Mother and Father will think of something. Plus, our armies can’t be defeated.” I huff and cross my arms, making a shooing motion towards the servant.

If you didn’t know, EXO are a group of disheveled bandits that ransack my family’s territory. They are horrible, and even claiming they are the bad ones; they were the ones who destroyed everything! It’s out territory, and they kill lives by just setting entire cities aflame.

You can probably tell I hate EXO because they ruin Father and Mother’s happiness. I wish bad people like them never existed.

I hurry downstairs to go to the training room to practice hapkido. I need to know hapkido, a form of self-defense since I’m the prince of the kingdom, Exoplanet. However, I stop short because I hear some muffled voices that are extremely suspicious.

“I am done with the EXO troops. We know where they live, and will annihilate them immediately.” Is that... Father? I’m pretty sure annihilation is overboard... But I can’t stop Father, because he is law. What he says, goes.

I turn to leave but what Father says next astonishes me.

“That boy, he is taking too long. We don’t know when the prophecy will take action. He isn’t even our real son, and I am sick of treating him so well when he is doing nothing.”

I’m... not their son? And what is this prophecy?

I am just a few steps away from the room full of treasures and dart into the room, seeing Tao already stealing everything in sight. How he got here before me is no mystery, he’s just a ninja. I don’t question it.

“Hey Tao, great haul today huh? I bet Kris will let us finally let us relax for once.” I laugh, patting him on the back.

“Chanyeol, Kris isn’t that bad. He’s really nice, honest!” Tao splutters, trying to protect his lover.

“I’m just joking Tao, but I know for sure we’ll be having a party today.” I smile and grab everything in sight before withdrawing from the room by jumping out the window.

I keep on making jokes with Tao while we walk home. He pretends not to laugh, but I see him let out a minuscule smile. We walk back to our base happily until we stop right where our base used to be.

Everything lay in ruins, the entire place demolished and a bright fire still raging strong in the distance. There are a few corpses lying about and people are knocked unconscious. Not a single person was stirring and the place seemed somewhat like a ghost town. Not a sign of some conscious or alive.

Tao freezes instantly and starts running off, screaming for his lover to answer him. I’ve never seen him show so much emotion or even crying at all. But I understood his remorse; the people that may have died in this wreckage were my family.

“Chanyeol! Over here! Kris is alive! You have to help me pull him out! … P-Please.” Tao’s voice comes out in sobs.

I race over to find him kneeling toward a house that’s be completely bashed over. I can hear Kris comforting him from under the destruction.

Tao and I grab onto Kris, pulling his arms up until his entire upper body was above ground. He then got up on his own and Tao attacked him, hugging him so hard that Kris looked like he couldn’t breathe.

Tao let go after an eternity and Kris started coughing out violently. The black smog from the devastating fire had probably gotten into his lungs, but he coughed a few times more before starting to talk.

“The Royals... They were here and obliterated everything. There are a lot of survivors but many are injured. We need to find Lay to treat the wounded.” Kris sighs, “Let’s spread out and find everyone.”

I run around desperately, rescuing quite a lot of people before I hear Tao announce that he found Lay. We all rushed to find the healer of our guild, and recovering him from the wreckage. After we found him, healing the wounded was a lot easier and we found out that only a few died and mostly everyone was alright. However, our home was extirpated and we had no other place to live. EXO, our thieves’ guild, was just another victim to the ruthless Royals and their destruction.

The Royals are the ones who rule the entire Exoplanet, and they ransack every place to get them to obey them. They get respect and power through the fear of the citizens.

“Kris. I think I have an idea. We need to capture the prince.” I say, more serious than I have ever been.

“We can’t stoop their level.” Kris hesitates.

“We won’t really. He’ll be a ransom. We’ll return him as soon as the Royals stop being tyrants.” I convince Kris.

“Alright. I guess I will allow it. Tao and I will accompany you to capture the prince, but if anything at all is at risk, we are abandoning the plan. Got it?” Kris asks sternly.

“I got it boss.” I salute in a playful manner.

“Meet at the gate in front of the castle at high noon tomorrow. If you’re late, Tao and I will go without you.” Kris commands strictly and I nod.

At high noon the following day, I met with Tao and Kris exactly right where Kris had instructed. I was actually a few minutes late because I got lost. But that isn’t important.

“Okay, you’re late. We should’ve left you. Anyways, we’ll sneak over the fence. Tao and I already disarmed all of the security cameras, we just need to surreptitiously get past the sentinels, and that shouldn’t be too difficult. According to our knowledge, the prince lives on the top floor and in the left side, three doors straight and the door on the right. This could be propaganda, but it’s the only lead we have.” Kris announces, informing me.

“Ready? Go!” Tao whispers and we all vault upwards simultaneously, plummeting on the other side.

We all break into a sprint, running across the lawn and ducking and concealing ourselves behind extremely fancy gazebos. We manage to not get caught by any guards and found a window to break into.

Kris takes out a special knife and cuts right through the glass. Once there is a hole, he sticks his hand through the hole and clicks the window open from the inside, pushing it up. We all gather in, not even resting before rushing off to the top floor. After that, we just opened the prince’s door.

And then I saw him- the purple-eyed boy from the Prophecy.

I was dazed for a bit but I realize that he is opening his mouth to yell and instantly cover his mouth, pinning him to the floor.

He starts yelping like a cute little puppy, “G-Get off of my y-you freak!” he stutters really adorably.

Once I know I have him secured, I signal Tao and Kris that I am ready and we break the window in his room and jump onto the roof. Cautiously making our way down, we leap off the roof when we are close enough to the ground. The prince looks absolutely terrified. It’s really cute. He’s struggling, but I already have him in a hold that limits his movements.

After we make it safe past the gates, we run as fast as we can back to our hideout to celebrate victory. Finally the Royals will quit their tyranny. Once they find out that we have their precious prince.

“Um Chanyeol? By the way... You have to train the prince, to be a thief.” Kris ordered, after we set the prince down in one of the many tents that sheltered us, to replace the houses we had.

“What? Train him? It doesn’t matter right...? He is just a ransom or something.” I say, quite shocked.

“We can’t leave him so... vulnerable. Come on Chanyeol, he’s the purple eyed boy.” Tao convinces me.

“Okay! I think this might be fun... Cause he’s really cute.” I declare but Kris and Tao look at me weirdly.

“Chanyeol. Just stop being a creep.” Kris pats my shoulder and leaves, Tao right behind him.

What? I’m not a creep. I think.

“Come on buddy, what’s your name?” I ask the prince.

“I-I won’t tell you even if you’re handsome!” He blurts out, blushing immediately after and covering his mouth.

“What was that?” I laugh, raising an eyebrow.

“Stop being a creep!” Tao yells from the other tent.

“I didn’t do anything!” I yell back.

“Baekhyun.” The prince whispers all of a sudden.

“What...?”

“My name... It’s Baekhyun.” he whispers again.

“Oh okay Baekhyun, my name is Chanyeol. I’m going to teach you how to be a thief okay?” I smile and grab his hand.

Baekhyun flinches and pulls his hand back. He frowns and doesn’t look too amused.

“I don’t want to be a bad guy.” He snaps, looking furious.

“You won’t be! Do you even know what your parents do?” I ask, my smile dropping.

“The king and queen rule a kingdom, and you steal from them! They did nothing to you!” Baekhyun is pouting which is really cute but he seems so sad that I just want to make him happy again.

“They burn cities and terrorize citizens into loyalty. I’m sorry, but you didn’t know?”

“No... They don’t do that...” Baekhyun resists, but what he says next surprises me, “The king and queen of Exoplanet are not my parents... I heard the king say it.”

“I’m sorry...” I start but he cuts me off.

“I guess... I guess I’ll learn to be a thief like you. But only because it might be important for my survival!” He says reluctantly.

“Great!” I grab his hand and lead him to the training grounds, usually meant for younger kids.

Chanyeol grabs my hand and it’s so embarrassing because I’m trying very hard not to blush. He’s actually... kind of handsome. Just kind of! But he’s definitely more handsome than anyone that has ever tried to court me.

“Uh, you can let go now.” Chanyeol looks at our entwined hands and I snatch mine back as quick as possible, burying my face into my hands.

“Aw, you’re really cute!” he laughs, making me blush even more.

“Yah! Pabo!” I shout, my face probably really red.

“Okay, okay. Done messing around. Do you know how to do archery?” Chanyeol asks, grabbing a bow and a quiver of arrows.

“Baekhyun...?” He asked while catching me looking at him for too long.

“What?” I snap, trying desperately to cover the fact that I was staring at his handsome face.

“Okay hold the bow like this and put the arrow right there.” Chanyeol puts his face extremely close to mine and I instantly push him away, squealing slightly. Just slightly.

“Don’t put your face so close to mine, idiot!” I pout, flailing my arms in the air.

“Oh, sorry.” He laughs after I sneeze, “I didn’t know you were allergic to sexy.”

“You aren’t even that handsome.” I huff, crossing my arms.

“Really?” He smirks, leaning his head down so it’s extremely close to mine.

Suddenly, the panda boy from earlier rushes over, pulling Chanyeol away, and possibly knocking him out. The tall blonde guy then rushes over as well.

“Chanyeol! I told you not to be a creep!” Panda boy looks really concerned for me.

“Kris, let me train him instead okay? Chanyeol is probably going to kill the poor baby.” Panda asks the scary tall guy.

“Tao honey... I’m not so sure.” Kris purses his lips.

“Please?” Tao pouts and Kris looked really conflicted.

“Okay, but only for you.”  Kris sighed, and Tao hugged him tightly.

The rest of the day was relatively easier with Tao than with Chanyeol. He was really nice, despite looking pretty scary. Tao is really awesome, and I am proud to say that I think I am pretty good at combat and being a thief under his guidance.