My Royal Lesson (Kingdom University, #4)

Epilogue

Epilogue: Conquered

They say if you want to be happy, keep your personal life private. But sometimes, no matter how careful you are, some people will still learn about something, whether they intend to or just by mere chance.

"Oh god, I still can't believe it," Moon murmured.

Everything escalated quickly that I didn't even have the time to process it.

An hour ago, King and I saw each other in the cafeteria. Steff and Jess were skipping lunch while Alice was with Kevin. Since we were both alone, we decided to share the same table. It had been more than a month since I last saw him, and I was happy that I got to talk to him before the semester ends.

"Whoa," I gasped as I stared at his graded paper. "You aced it."

"Because it's critical writing," he reasoned. "I do better in that than the objective and memorization type of exams."

I smiled at his remark and he continued eating. Honestly, I didn't expect for us to be this close. Besides those three, and by extension, their boyfriends, I didn't have any friends whom I could talk to about matters that I wasn't comfortable to say to them, so I was thankful that I got to know him, even though it was an unforeseen circumstance. In addition, we were alright with being silent together because it wasn't awkward at all.

His phone suddenly lit up and I saw the portal's notification by accident. He glanced nervously at me and lightly clicked his tongue as he turned the screen off.

"H-how's the portal, by the way?" I asked in a hushed voice.

After what happened last time, he didn't open any topic related to the portal anymore. I'm sure he was worried and conscious because I was with him when I thought I'd lose my friends. Still, it was also the reason why we became close. Besides, I wanted to know how they were doing.

He gave me a hesitant look but gave in after a few seconds.

"Halos wala namang pinagbago," he said, "though they miss your presence a lot."

I missed them, too. Despite not knowing them personally, I grew fond of them and they treated me well.

"Mugi and Mocha's fighting every day, as usual," he continued.

I chuckled at his remark. "Moon must be having a hard time, then."

"Uhm, excuse me?"

A tall girl standing behind him holding a pile of books looked at us with a confused look. I started panicking when I realized she might have heard something about the portal. King was about to stand up but the girl suddenly gasped as if she just had a moment of eureka.

"Oh my god!" she beamed as she sat next to us. "Don't tell me you guys are kingtrex and yeoshin?"

My heart thumped painfully upon hearing my previous username from the portal. King and I looked at her in bewilderment while she excitedly typed on her phone.

"Wait, are you . . ." King's voice trailed off.

She grinned. "Oh, come on, it's me, moonlight."

***

It was like a cascade reaction. The five of us never wanted to meet each other to protect our identities and it was already the tradition passed through the generations of administrators from the portal. However, this time, since the three of us had already seen each other's faces, Moon said it would already be pointless to hide and remain anonymous, so she informed Mugi and Mocha, too.