His Highness, King Namjoon was laughing. It had been almost a week and he was still laughing. The memory of Kim Seokjin telling him a joke in front of all of Korea was still fresh in his mind and would pop up constantly when he was trying to be proactive.

From his desk, General Yoongi rolled his eyes, "Are you really still laughing? It wasn't that funny, Namjoon."

"That's because you don't have a sense of humor," the king retorted, taking in deep breaths to calm himself.

"No," the general protested, "My humor is just more advanced than yours."

The King just laughed. He had been in such a great mood since he spoke to Seokjin a few days back. The meet and greet had been simple yet all of Korea was talking about it. For the first time in years the public got to see the faces of the royal family. There was a trending tag on twitter, several so called 'fan accounts' had opened for each of them and polls had been made regarding whether the King was daddy material or not.

That last part wasn't needed to be known but princess Geong Min made sure to explain every little detail of what she found out about them on the internet.

"Jungkook, people are saying you look like a cute bunny when you smile."

The youngest cringed, "I'm being compared to a fluffy and harmless animal?"

"Better than having the public believe you have some sort of weird kink which involves people calling you daddy," the King noted.

Jungkook cringed even harder at that.

"Lets move on from the fetishes people are forming over you guys," Yoongi ordered boredly, "What does the public want to see? What event do they want to see next involving the candidates?"

Geong Min scrolled down on her phone, "Swim trunks competition, shirtless sports competition, muscle comparison-"

"Okay, we're not doing any of that," the King stated, letting out a sigh. Korea already thought him to be a pervert for holding the competition to begin with. What would they think if he started making the candidates take of their shirts?

"I had an idea," Geong Min pipped up excitedly. The men all turned to look at her. "A talent portion. Each candidate must demonstrate a talent."

"Good idea," Yoongi commented, looking though his stack of papers, "But what if Namjoon's little angel has a horrible talent? We'd have to kick him out. I say we just marry the two of you already, the only reason that we're keeping this whole competition going is to distract the public from the whole war with North Korea anyway."

"We're still not sure if Kim Seokjin will win, hyung," Jungkook added from the couch.

Yoongi scoffed, "Are you even listening to yourself?" he pointed to the King, "This guy is totally whipped for that man!"

"But only for his looks," Jungkook continued, trying to prove his point, "We still don't know if they have any chemistry together."

"The guy said a horrible joke and Namjoon has been laughing for a week. You're telling me that's not chemistry?"

"Enough you two," the King ordered, rubbing his temples. "Geong Min, do it." he said, the princess beaming in response, "Go ahead and plan out the whole talent event. Make it big, make it public, make it like a concert from those kpop idols you talk a lot about."

The princess squealed in excitement. The two other males groaned. 

If the princess was going to be in charge, then she was most definitely going to make it like a kpop concert.

After they had presented themselves to the King, each candidate had been sent to their rooms, they had been given dinner and then sent to bed. The next morning when they had awoke and moved to the lobby they realized that there were only 30 of them left.

They were immediately informed by General Min that the others had been sent home, disqualified.

It would be an understatement to say that it had been a shock for the remaining thirty and it was then that it dawned on most of them that now every movement they made or action they took would determine whether they would stay or not.

The rest of the week, they hadn't seen the King. They had been set to receive etiquette classes, language classes, participated in work out routines and some were even suffering from diets.

Seokjin's diet remained the same. According to Dr. Song, his physical condition was perfect. Yet he still decided to always join the others at the gym. He was calmly working out at the peck deck machine while Tae, Jimin and Hobi were all running on treadmills in front of him.

At this point all of them had a routine to follow minus Seokjin and Hoseok, however Jin liked to work on his upper body while Hoseok enjoyed toning his lower body more.

Suddenly they heard a commotion and a bunch of sweaty men crowding around each other.

Hoseok was the first to jump off the treadmill and walk over, "What's going on?" he asked, standing behind the group of men.

One of the guys, one with silver hair, Kang Daniel, candidate number 27 answered. "The newspaper posted a ranking based on the public's opinion."

"Oh?" Hoseok leaned in to get a better look, but was being blocked by about twenty five other bodies. "Who's first place?" he asked.

"Kim-"

"Taehyung!" Jimin suddenly screamed.

Hoseok turned fast enough to see the brunette suddenly go down, his legs giving out from under him and yanking him down face first on the treadmill, then throwing him off, his body crashing onto the floor.

Jimin ran to him first. Hoseok bolted towards them and Jin basically threw himself off of his machine. 

On the floor Tae was groaning in pain, "I'm fine," he muttered through gritted teeth. He tried to stand, but there was a banging sound at his head, he could basically hear his heart thumping in his ear.

And the loud cries of his friends wasn't helping.

"I'm fine," he said again, definitively not feeling fine.

Seokjin didn't sound convinced. "Tae, you look pale," he reached down to lightly touch his arm, "Are you sure you're o-"

"I said I'm fine!" he snapped, shaking Jin's hand off his arm.

Seokjin stood dumbfounded with his hand still outstretched, feeling shocked at his brother's sudden action. 

Tae seemed to realize what he did. "I'm sorry, Hyung," he sighed, "I'm just...tired." It wasn't only that though, his body ached, his vision was getting blurry and he swore that he felt like he was in an oven. "Really tired..."

He blacked out.

Seokjin walked in circles within his room. He was worried. Something told him that something was up with his brother. After falling from the treadmill, someone had immediately called the doctor, whom had a few guards carry Taehyung to his room.

Jin had insisted on going with them, but Doctor Song made it very clear that he was not to step a foot near the room, not knowing if what Taehyung had was contagious. 

That had been before lunch time. It was now eleven o'clock at night and Taehyung hadn't given him a call like he had been the past week.

All the rooms had telephones, since their personal cellphones had been confiscated, the lines only worked for dialing specific numbers inside the palace, all other numbers being blocked.

And Tae would always call at nine pm, yet the phone hadn't rung once.

Seokjin tried to remember any other strange actions done by Tae, but he recalled that his little brother acted as weird as usual. They had goofed off as normal, Tae had joked around even, but at times he would just sit in a corner and stare off into space.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Jin slumped on his bed. It was difficult seeing his brother like that. He had looked so pale, so out of it, so bony and skinny-

He paused. 

Skinny?

 It was at that instance that the phone rang. Jin didn't even let it finish ringing once before he launched himself from the bed and picked up the phone.

"Tae?" he answered immediately.

It wasn't Tae.

Doctor Song's voice came in through the receiver. "Seokjin-ssi, I'm sorry to bother you at this hour-" 

"How's Tae?" the boy immediately asked, gripping the phone tightly.

"He's still a bit ill, Seokjin-ssi. I'm currently still tending to him but I had to ask you something about your brother first."

Jin didn't miss the sternness in her voice, "Um, sure. What can I help you with?"

"I was wondering. Does your brother happen to be bulimic? Or perhaps suffers from anorexia?"

He paused at that. "What?" he asked, his mind processing the question again, "No," he answers, certain. "He's never had any of that."

"Are you positive? I need complete honesty here, Seokjin-ssi. I've been trying to feed your brother for the past twelve hours but he's regurgitating everything. I'm trying to set him up on an IV but he's refusing."

"He hates needles," Seokjin explained, "As for his eating habits, I that quite odd. He's always eaten everything I've cooked...for him."

It was then that it dawned on him. He felt like the realization came in like a bucket of cold water. 

He could hear the doctor saying something on the other line, but his brain couldn't process the words. Seokjin wasn't listening. How could he have forgotten? Oh lord, how could he have forgotten? 

"Please let me see him," he begged.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, if you could just tell me what food he likes-"

"He doesn't eat any food that's not made by me."  He said, his voice now high pitched. Oh god, it was his fault. Tae's been eating Seokjin's food since kindergarten and had refused to eat anything else. Yet he forgot.

He was so caught up on this stupid competition that he neglected his brother.

"I find that hard to believe, Seokjin-ssi. I can't believe that your brother would rather starve himself to the point of malnutrition-"

Malnutrition.

He dropped the phone, suddenly feeling the air around him tightened. The room was shifting.  

He had to fix this. He had to fix this.

Seokjin ran. He ran right out of his room and straight down the hall.

He felt like crying. His heart was tightening in his chest. It hurt. He felt so guilty not realizing Taehyung's problem before it got to this point. He was mad. Mad at Tae for not mentioning it to him, mad at the doctor for not realizing it sooner, mad at himself for forgetting.

"Jin-hyung!"

He heard Hoseok's voice before he even saw him. Somehow the redhead had caught up to him, passed him and stopped right in front of him to where they crashed into one another.

Jin groaned in pain on the floor. He heard Hoseok do the same next to him.

"Hyung what the hell?" he asked rubbing the spot where Jin elbowed him.

Seokjin only managed to gasp out Taehyung's name.

Hoseok blinked, instantly straightening to where he ignored the screaming pain of his body. It felt like a tank had ran into him. "What's wrong with Tae?" He asked, placing his arm on the elder's back.

"He's sick." He said between gasps, the rush of adrenaline now dying down and his body now feeling the consequences. "He's sick and it's my fault. He hasn't been eating since we got here and I forgot all about the fact he doesn't eat anything that I don't make."

Hoseok knew. When Jin and Tae's mother had to start working double shift, Jin had to take over the parental role in the house. Tae began feeling lonely and neglected because he had been young. So he clung to his hyung. They thought the younger Kim would get over it. That he would mature. It was worse before, he couldn't sleep if Jin wasn't there. Eventually he managed to sleep as long as he slept hugging somebody. So Jimin and he took turns sleeping over when Jin needed to stay up all night doing a university project. He was sure that the food issue had also been resolved.

The redhead found himself frowning. "So he hasn't gotten over that?"

"Apparently not."

"So what were you planning on doing?" Hoseok asked. He didn't exactly see how running away would've helped.

"I was going to the kitchen," he said. "He needs to eat to take the medicine, but he's coughing up everything they give him."

"Wait." The redhead raised a hand in front of the elder, his lips pursed tightly together, "So you were going to run into a restricted area in the palace to cook?"

He nodded.

The younger male sighed. "Jin we're prohibited from going in there. They'd think we're going to break our diets or something if we tell them we need to go to the kitchen. Why not just let the doctor handle it?"

"Because the doctor has been with him for the past twelve hours and has not resolved a thing!" His voice was now high and strangled. He was mad. He was frustrated with everything. He knew he had to remain calm but he couldn't. Tae was sick and needed him. He closed his eyes, "I've taken care of Tae for years, I know what he needs. I know how to fix this, but all I need is to get into that darn kitchen!"

Hoseok hesitated, he shifted uncomfortably at the elder's shouts. He wasn't used to his hyung freaking out. While he knew that Jin had a point, it was still risky. Breaking the rules resulted in disqualification. Jin would be kicked out, he would be kicked out for helping him and Tae would probably be kicked out for being the cause of the whole mess.

Still.

When he though about it, he knew that even though Jin needed the money he would still do it. And while Hoseok was all about living a life of luxury, he wasn't about to let Jin go down by himself.

Jimin if we get kicked out, you better fucking win.

"Bad news," Hoseok whined as he peered around the corner to where the kitchen was. He caught sight of the last person he wanted to see talking to two guards right in front of the door they needed to pass. "General Min is there." He turned back to the elder, "Now what?"

"Maybe if we ask him nicely he'll let us through?"

The redhead scoffed. "Oh sure. Cause this is definitaly not the same man who killed one of his soldiers in cold blood right in front of us."

Seokjin sighed as he realized his friend was right. General Min was known to be ruthless, coldhearted and downright mean. Regardless of the fact that he had taken revenge for him and Tae, he didn't have to do it so "on the spot" without batting an eye.

There had to be another way. They needed to somehow get past Min Yoongi and then convince the guards to let them in. One of them was female, maybe they could charm her? 

"What are you two doing here?"

Both males jumped in shock at the deep voice. They didn't have to look up to know who the owner of that voice was.

Without giving it much thought, Hoseok reacted first. Before he could regret it he jumped on the general, pushing him down to the ground with his weight. 

Regret hit him almost instantly as he saw shock leave the general's face and his natural instinct taking over. Hoseok felt himself being flipped over and being thrown to the ground but not hard enough to knock the air out of him. He lifted himself up from the ground, his body responding in pain as he did so. He was able to do it all in time to see the general dash after Jin and tackle him to the ground.

Hoseok blinked in surprise as he processed what had just happened. 

This tiny little man really just took the both of us down on his own like it was nothing.

It was kind of hot.