Dylan just looks at Noah with a dumbfounded expression.

"I don't believe you." Dylan refuses to look at the piece of paper.

"I said what I said. I saw him throwing it in the dustbin." Noah says as he pushes the paper to Dylan. "He must have thought it was a useless piece of paper hence he threw it. But he should have....." Noah is stopped mid-sentence by Dylan.

"I'll take that. Just don't tell about it to anyone." Dylan says, snatching the paper. He read the first line and yes, it was the other half of the 'Forbidden Love' poem.

"Why are you defending James?" Noah asks, "I saw him tossing this in the dustbin, an important piece of information and you are trying to save him?"

"You must be mistaken. I don't want to scrutinize him over anything. And he isn't the only one who is hiding things from me." Dylan says eyeing Noah. Noah says nothing but a meek 'breakfast is ready' comes out of his mouth.

Dylan closes the door as soon as Noah goes out. He takes the other half of the poem which he had and examines it again. It is! It is the missing part! But why would James hide it? Is he lying again? What could be his reason now?

Knock Knock!

"Hey! Everyone is waiting for you at the table." It was James.

"Coming! Dylan shouts on the top of his voice.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"I think we should move past the servant's rooms now. We got enough poems last time." Logan groans as he sits down to have a breath. Everyone was down at the servant's room again, trying to find more clues.

"We haven't searched enough." David coughs as he takes out a bundle of journals. "Here." He dumps them onto Dylan's laps.

"I can't decode all of this! It's a suicide mission!" Dylan panics. Now when we say there were a lot of journals, the phrase 'lot of' doesn't even make up for it. David was busting his ass to find out more and dumping them onto each of the members.

"Why don't we give poems and couplets to Dylan? The others seem to be simple daily life entries." William looks at one of the journals.

"Seems fair. Why don't we segregate it right here and when we reach home, we just spend our day today reading through all of this?" Clive says already creating sections.

"Okay! So hear up boys! We take whatever we are given now and go back home. We will have a meeting exactly at 10:00 p.m. right after dinner to discuss. Can everyone cope up with the workload?" William asks.

"I might need someone's help." Dylan raises his hand. "James?" he looks at James.

James was a bit taken aback but smiled widely, "I would love to."

Clive whispers into Dylan's ear, "Ooooo... did you hear that? He would looveeeee to!" stretching on the love word. Dylan just hits his arm, blushing a little.

It was 5:00 p.m. and they had finally sorted out the journals. Thankfully there weren't many hard poems and Dylan had already decoded a few there.

"Hey! Good news." Dylan says as he carries his share of journals.

"What?" James just takes his journals in his hand, making Dylan skip a heartbeat.

"You don't have to do that...." Dylan tries to take it back but he just swivels away.

"It's okay, it's heavy for you. You were saying?" James says walking ahead.

"Ah right. The missing part? I found it." Dylan says in a low voice.

"What? Really? Can I please help you with decoding it? Please? Pretty please?" James begs in front of him like a kid asking for candy. Dylan laughs a little.

"Geez! You are such a baby! Of course, you are to help me. Along with these poems too." He points at the one in James's hands. James shouts a small 'YAY!' and runs ahead like a small kid.

"He is such a kid." Dylan chuckles.

"Or is he just pretending to be?" Noah was standing right behind Dylan and he saw everything. "I still don't know why you trust him."

"Hyung, please. Not here." Dylan walks away from him. It wasn't as if he doesn't trust Noah. But this doesn't seem plausible. If James had really threw away the paper, why would he be excited to know that Dylan found it? Or maybe James was just a good actor.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"No, not love like this.
Such love must stay hidden
inside dark corridors
beneath my ribs.

You mustn't look at me tender
you mustn't talk to me sweet;
you mustn't give this wild bird
its desired pair of wings.

If the shining lights of
his love would turn on
Darkness would come....
and he would be gone too.
Silently master loves so acceptance
would come along
For loving in secret
is only for the strong.

To keep apart,
two lovers' hearts
This might be true
Till the end of times."

"Man, I thought this was going to be a happy poem. It just keeps getting sad." James says with a pout. They were back in Dylan's room, decoding the poems with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Its forbidden love. What do you expect?" Dylan remarks.

"So, as I said earlier, a forbidden love to be hidden from everyone. Someone amongst the both of them wasn't willing to but eventually fell in love. And...." Dylan gets interrupted by James.

"I think it was Rufus, the one who was hesitating to fall in love. He looked like a stickler for rules. And Walter seemed like...more like a carefree...." James stops as he was greeted by a death glare from Dylan, "Sorry sorry, please continue."

Dylan takes a deep breath and continues, "So as I was saying, further the lines

If the shining lights of
his love would turn on
Darkness would come....
and he would be gone too; this part tells how they would love each other when there was light, but as soon as the darkness came, the lover would be gone too. Now, this is a bit confusing. Mostly, people love each other in the darkness of night, but here they are in front of everyone in broad daylight."

"Maybe, Rufus and Walter could spend their daytime, but not their nights. And nights tend to become lonesome." James adds.

"Perhaps...." Dylan nods. "The next part says ;

Silently master loves
so acceptance
would come along
For loving in secret
is only for the strong ;
is pretty self-explanatory. The people are praising the strong lovers, who, even with the society's eyes on them, could still love each other deeply. The word 'master' doesn't leave any doubt that it was for Rufus and Walter. Preferably, this poem must be written from Rufus' view since he must be the master of the castle."

"To keep apart,
two lovers' hearts
This might be true
Till the end of times ;
here comes the sad part. This part says that it is a tradition of times and people that they have been destroying lovers by keeping them apart. Till the end of times means until this world comes to an end."

"This means..." James wants to complete the sentence but could feel a lump forming in his throat.

"Maybe..." Dylan assures James, "Also, this could be a hint that Rufus and Walter's wasn't the only love story in that castle. The lines 'This might be true' suggests that. But again, it's just a hunch." Dylan looks at James who was still a bit sad.

"Come on now, we will find out if it's true or not, okay?" Dylan rubs his back a little. He felt bad himself about the fate of those lovers.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Those are some heavy poems you just decoded." William pats on Dylan's back.

Dylan was reciting his notes at the time of their meeting, leaving everybody at awe at the young boy's talent.

"I found another poem about betrayal."

"Oh sweet manipulative honey
drown him in your illusions
one million locks
you master of deception.
Your lies wash over us
like a warm ocean tides
comforting and homely
oh, sweet love!
Feed us false truths
like poisonous grapes on a vine
I still crave your deceitful bones
encompass my naïve skin
Transports me to your ecstasy of distortions."

"This is a poem that gets a bit confusing. The first eight lines still talk about how the royal had created an illusion, a master of deception. But the phrases like 'Oh sweet manipulative honey' and 'oh sweet love!' makes it seem like the servant might have been in love with that royal. Hence, even after knowing that he was betrayed, he still calls the royal by sweet names. This is also a type of forbidden love. A servant and royal blood."

"The last five lines just add to this suspicion. 'my naïve skin' shows that the servant was very new to the concept of love. But he still craves for the betrayer and it keeps transporting him to the bliss or ecstasy of the royal's wrongdoings." Dylan concludes.

"How are you sure that this poem is also about the royal?" Logan questions.

"I am not sure. I am just guessing. This poem has no mention of a master since the servant was in love with that betrayer. He might not take his name as a master. Or there was more than one betrayer in the castle." Dylan nods.

"And other poems?" Noah asks.

"Other poems were just like an ode to nature, the king and the queen. Even some about King Rufus and King Samuel. Odes are like always a praise song so I doubt we would get anything from them." Dylan answers.

"And there is no other poem for forbidden love?" Clive asks.

"No." Dylan shakes his head.

"According to our research," David starts, "There are four people who might be suspicious and who is a royal. Prince Percy, King Samuel, King Rufus, and Queen Leila. King Benjamin himself is exempted because the poems date almost a few years after his death. They can't be about him."

"It can't be about King Rufus either." James states, looking through David's notes, "The people, the servants all loved him."

"If that's the case, then King Samuel should be out too!" Noah says.

"Actually no. What James said about Rufus can be true, but Samuel was crowned pretty early. Also, King Benjamin grew sick and he was crowned as the king even before Benjamin died. There can be some foul play." William states a fact.

"Prince Percy and Queen Leila because they are outsiders. But we don't know from where..." Clive chimes in.

"What about King Walter?" Noah raises a question. Dylan has been looking at Noah for a while now but he keeps getting a feeling. A feeling of suspicion.

"I mean," Noah continues, "Even as a prisoner, he was a king. He would be addressed as a royal by the servants whatsoever. And why was he kept in the prison in the first place?"

William and David think a bit. Logan speaks up, "I guess we should keep all our options open. Let's not take anyone out. Let all the royals be on the radar."

Everyone nod at this suggestion. They did not want to take any risks.

"Hyung, are you okay? Are you hiding something?" Dylan asks Noah in a low voice.

"No." he says and bangs the door on his face.

He is definitely suspicious!