my prince // seungjin

25 letters

edited as to best of my capabilities and if something doesn't make sense, just keep reading it was a mistake on my behalf. enjoy

Everyone had gathered into the meeting room as planned but no sound was uttered. It was dead silent with occasional breathing breaking the silence.

"Minho, what did you and Changbin find?" Hyunjin started off the meeting.

Clearing his voice, Minho answered, "Yesterday or some time ago, Seungmin got poisoned when he taste-tested our food. Luckily he made it to the clinic on time or he would have died."

"We interrogated the chefs and one of them said that they saw a male wearing an archery uniform coming into the kitchen. But she didn't think too much about it, assuming that he was lost."

"Wait, backtrack, why was Seungmin taste-testing our food?" Hyunjin furrowed his brows. "I thought we had someone assigned for that."

"I was told that Seungmin went to Amelia (the head maid, aka Felix's mother) and personally asked her to remove the current food-tester." Minho shared, "Amelia said she was hesitant at first but Seungmin persuaded her to allow him to take on the role."

Hyunjin turned to Felix. "Did you know about this?"

Felix shook his head. "I'm just as shocked as you are. My mother doesn't usually agree to such requests.."

Is there ever a time that he doesn't overwork himself... Hyunjin sighed. "Chan, what did you and Felix find?"

"We were able to determine when, where, and how Seungmin was taken. But the footage is disoriented. Felix tried everything he could to get the video to a higher resolution but even so, it wasn't helpful."

"But we did find out that he had an accomplice," Felix added. "The accomplice was still wearing his uniform so we can cross eliminate everyone besides the staff working at the clinic."

Hyunjin nodded, "How was he taken?"

"When Seungmin was heading to his room from the daycare center, he encountered the perpetrator and was... stabbed." Chan whispered the last word.

Hyunjin couldn't help but tighten his fist when he heard Chan's words. "Anything else?"

"A few days ago I walked past Seungmin and he was acting weird," Jeongin spoke. "He was out of it like his attention was elsewhere. When I slightly tapped on his shoulder, he flipped me over. The next thing I knew, we were on the ground with him on top of me. He had a knife sticking behind his back and didn't even wince. Instead, he was looking for someone, making sure the coast was clear or something. He refused to go to the clinic and said that I could just treat him in his room. When we got to his room I questioned him but he kept on avoiding them."

Jeongin paused then resumed. "I know Seungmin enough to know that he was keeping something from me and when I confronted him he begged me to keep it a secret. When I refused to listen, he drugged me and I blacked out. He was so desperate to keep whatever was going on with him a secret."

"That explains the bloody needle and scent of lavender," Chan mumbled to himself

"Seungmin knows who took him! He knew from day one who he was dealing with and knew what was going to happen." Jisung's gears were spinning. "A wager! Seungmin and his kidnapper made a wager!"

"Darling, you're forgetting that we can't read minds. Care to explain what's going on in that pretty head of yours?" Minho winked at his boyfriend.

With a slight blush on his face, Jisung started to explain his thinking process. "Think about it, Jeongin said that when he was going to tell us about whatever is happening to Seungmin. He took it far enough to put Jeongin to sleep. If Seungmin was that desperate to keep whatever he's dealing with a secret that must mean the perpetrator has something against him. Seungmin knows his kidnapper well enough to know that we aren't just dealing with some random, first-level criminal. And I bet the kidnapper threatened Seungmin that he would harm one of us if he doesn't do whatever he wants."