Taemin had always loved festive atmospheres.

Minho couldn’t help but smile as a bouncy Taemin scanned the carnival stalls with eager eyes. The Prince deserved a break after all the pent-up feelings he was bottling up and Minho was more than glad to see a cheerful smile on that precious, beautiful face of Taemin’s.

“Minhooo~ you’re so slow!” Taemin whined as he tugged on Minho’s sleeve. “Let’s go! I want to buy popcorns! And cotton candies! Come on!”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Minho let Taemin dragged him around enthusiastically. Taemin excitedly pointed at various random stalls, and smiled at (almost) all the ladies around. Soon everyone recognized Taemin as their Young Prince and started giving him freebies.

“Thank you so much!” Taemin bowed at a middle-aged woman, “I’ll definitely enjoy eating these fresh apples!”

“Mr. Popular.” Minho teased.

“You’re popular too, you know.” Taemin stuck his tongue out at Minho. “Look at the ladies giggling and whispering behind your back.”

“I noticed. Should I say hi?”

“Go on ahead.”

Minho glanced back and gave a little wave. The girls squealed in delight and ran away blushing. Taemin puffed his cheeks and walked away from his assistant.

“Milord?”

“You flirt.”

“!! But I just did what you asked me to do!”

“Whatever. Mehrong!”

They bickered and teased each other – their relationship clearly got much closer after Minho comforted and ‘accidentally’ confessed to Taemin the night before. Minho was secretly thankful that Taemin didn’t probe much about what he had said.

May be he’s just that dense. Minho thought.

On the other hand, Taemin was actually not that dense at all. He clearly heard Minho’s words the night before and even as he played around with Minho, the words were still replaying at the back of his mind. But since Minho didn’t directly say ‘I love you’, Taemin dismissed it.

May be I’m just looking too much into it. Taemin thought. Why would Minho like someone like me? He doesn’t look like someone who will be interested in the same gender…

“Is it really all right for me to play around like this?” Taemin asked Minho. “Although Jinki hyung said it himself, I feel rather bad… And I heard that there’s a neighboring kingdom’s princess visiting.”

“Well, if you want we could go back to the castle, Your Highness.” Minho offered.

“NO!” Taemin immediately shot up. “I want to look around some more… But let’s go back before lunch time… I guess.”

Minho chuckled softly as he ruffled Taemin’s hair. “Of course.”

-*-

“It’s an honor to have you visit our kingdom, Princess Sulli.” Jinki bowed a little as he took her hand gently before pecking on the back of her hand.

“Oh no, It’s my pleasure. Your country is really beautiful and I just needed to indulge myself for a bit.” Sulli smiled warmly. “I heard that you even organized a carnival to welcome me. I’m really flattered.”

“It’s nothing much, but I’m glad you like it.” Jinki led Sulli to the dining hall. It was planned that the princess would arrive and have lunch with the princes before Jinki her to walk around the carnival downtown.

“So I heard that Princess Victoria will be coming only later in the afternoon?”

“She’ll be here before sunset. She said she wouldn’t miss the dance party tonight for the world.”

Jinki beamed at the princess happily. “Of course, I remember her telling me how much she loves parties. I myself can hardly wait for tonight.”

Yoonhae followed behind them in silence. She was slightly bothered seeing Jinki being such a gentleman towards someone – then again Jinki was always a gentle person, so it shouldn’t get on her nerves. She had previously learnt that the two prince