I balled my hands into fists and turned to Taehyung.

      'You said you also cared for her how can you be so calm right now?'

Taehyung eyes widened slightly in shock by my confrontation.

     'Emotions will not get us further right now, but will only be an obstacle' he replied but his voice wasn't as stable as mr Moons, showing me some form of worry.

I took a few deep breaths.

     'Fine. Then let's "calmly" decide what we are going to do.'

     'Okay let's move ourselves to the main room shall we?' Father suggested and we all nodded. Yeonjun, Jiya, mother father, me, taehyung and mr moon. 

Mr Moon closed his hands. 'We will send them a message back that one of us will deliver the cash whenever they want' we in the meantime will put all our resources to track where this box came from.

    'That's it?' I asked frustrated because it was again not a solution to get y/n back.

    'I am afraid there is not much more to do'

We talked a bit more about the following steps and what we could or couldn't do and eventually Taehyung and Mr Moon had left, they would continue the search. But all we could do was wait now.

An hour later there was a response.

We are tired of your stalling and we are tired of waiting, we need to agree on a place and time with you alone otherwise you'll receive such a present every day. 

I asked everyone to come together again. I showed them the text.

     'We are going to do what they are asking' I stated calmly.

      'They only orchestrated this plan to lure you out of the palace into an unsafe situation, you get that right?' my father asked.

     'yes I do, and I don't care.'

Father scoffed 'I suspected that you fell for her but not this hard. do I have to remind you how valuable you are?'

     'And what? she isn't?' I asked with a raised voice.

There was a pause.

    'If they hurt her they hurt me!' I shouted angry,

Father did not respond immediately and mother Yeonjun and Jiya all looked at me shocked as it was probably the first time I openly shouted at him.

    'You don't speak to me that way, I am your father and more importantly your king. and regarding the plan, we will pay the ransom but its not you who will do it.'

    'Then I will renounce my claim to the throne.' 

I had thought about this for a while, it wasn't an idle thread I would actually go through with it, that was the only way that it would work, only if I had convinced myself to do it. ,

     'What?' my entire family simultaneously exclaimed.

     'Yes, if we don't do what they ask for in order to save y/n I will publicly announce I will take a step back.'

     'You're bluffing' my father indicated.

     'You think? I am aware the throne is my duty but y/n is a living person that I love, and I will not sit back while she is tortured and perhaps killed'

     'Love?' it was mothers fragile voice, probably suffering from some painful confusion about all this new information.

      'That's not the focus right now we need to save her.'

      'Don't you think they will kill her anyway?' father then asked.

       'What?'

       'She is a spy and why let her go when they have you out of the way?'

      'So you suggest to what?.... let her die?' I shouted again

      'No, I think we need to come up with a safe and sound plan' Father replied calmly.

His calmness annoyed me but it did help to steady myself.

      'yeah perhaps I can go?' Yeonjun suggested.

      'No, absolutely not' Jiya said instantly.

      'But baby it will be fine I'm sure' he tried to reassure her but she didn't really listen.

      'No don't you see they want Jungkook? this is not your fight. They are already pissed of because she killed some of their men, I don't believe they will let her go like that or you if you get there.'

Yeonjun answered something but I didn't follow it. My surroundings became blurry and their voices seemed to be far away. Jiya's words kept replaying in my mind.

"because she killed some of their men"

     'I never mentioned that' I suddenly said in the middle of their discussion.

    'Mentioned what?' Yeonjun asked.

     'About y/n killing their men' and in that fraction of a moment I saw the panic on Jiya's face.

It all connected. 

     'Show me your phone' I rushed her way.

     'You can't be serious brother' Yeonjun pleaded.

     'Yes I am, I kept wondering how would these criminals even know I cared so much for y/n that they could use her against me? They were aware of the fact I loved her and I only told you and I considered Jimin because he suspected it. Did you tell her?'

I asked Yeonjun and nudged at Jiya. Yeonjuns eyes widened, his voice trembling 'no' he then looked at his fiancé 'tell me this is not true'

Jiya looked straight at him and scoffed indignant

    'You can't possibly believe this crazy theory, I mean it makes sense she killed those men right?'

     'if its so crazy then show me your phone' I replied but in an impatient manner because I was growing impatient.

Jiya didn't answer and suddenly Yeonjun grabbed her purse. 

       'hey' she exclaimed but he was already taking the phone out and unlocking it.

I saw the pupils of his eyes restlessly scanning the phone when it suddenly stopped, and his eyes widened and his mouth dropped.

The phone moved slightly and I recognized that it was because of his trembling hands

He showed it to me without saying any words.

unknown: They have declined our proposition. how do you suggest to get the prince out of his palace? if he stays there we cant finish the job.

Jiya: do something that will upset him so much he won't have a choice anymore.

unknown: such as?

Jiya: I don't know.. you're the thugs, cut off one of her fingers or something and send it in a wrapped box.

unknown: good idea, we can make her suffer for killing our own.

Jiya: whatever just do it quickly .

   'Why' yeonjun trembled.

    'Why? because you deserve to be king and not this ridiculous brother of yours. and I deserve to become queen' Jiya said it in such a different tone then I was used of her. It was as if she was a completely different person.

Everything passed very far away for me.

     'Why didn't you just kill me here? why take y/n?' I almost whispered.

She laughed 'the first people they expect when its murder indoors is the family. so my idea was to let them kidnap you, stage some sort of ransom scheme but eventually kill you. That way we wouldn't really be suspects.'

She said it without regret, rather with a sense of pride.

Yeonjun fell to his knees, probably unable to grasp the fact his own fiancé was so different then who we thought.

My father in the meantime already called for Namjoon. who was present immediately.

     'Take her to a separate room and keep her there till the authorities are here.'