The Grand First Dinner was over extravagant. It was traditional for the hosting family to go all-out on the entertainment, food, comfort and whatever else their guests required during the Yearly Royal Meeting. The Grand First Dinner was just the start of it and therefore every year, the hosting families tried their best to make a good first impression and show-up the last hosts. Royal families were very competitive, and the Lee family was no exception. This year, they’d redone the massive ballroom, dressed in the most amazing outfits, making sure no other royal family outshone them, even their servants were dressed to the nines. There were trapeze artists hanging on the high ceiling above them and flame throwers doing dangerous tricks in a fire-proof room. The circus performers entertained the young royals while amazing singers, comedians, dancers and actors performed on stage one-by-one entertaining the older royals while they ate.

King Soo Man sat on his throne looking on at the Dinner and smiled when he saw that everyone was impressed and enjoying themselves, even Queen Kan who was the grouchiest royal ever known. He noticed all the children playing and enjoying themselves as the circus performers kept them busy and out of their parents’ way and the young adults dancing and having fun in their own ballroom so they didn’t have to worry about being scolded for their unroyal behaviour. On stage at the moment, the best group of stage actors were performing ‘Romeo and Juliet’, a royal favourite. He had on a smug grin at his success and knew that he still had one surprise under his sleeve.

‘Sica! Seriously, just come with me! I can’t wait until the end of the dinner to speak to you so please come with me to your garden now!’ Jonghyun begged his fiancée as she stubbornly sat on a velvet couch in the smaller ballroom where all the royals their age were partying.
‘No. I have to stay and be a good host,’ she said to him.
‘What good host sits and doesn’t socialise? Taeyeon noona is the leader anyway, let her do it. You’re just sitting here while all the others greet and talk to other people. Even Seohyun who barely talks to others!’ Jonghyun argued.
‘No!’
‘No?’ Jonghyun asked.
‘No!’ Jessica affirmed.
‘Arasso,’ Jonghyun huffed and slipped his arms around her waist, lifting her up and tossed her torso over his shoulder and carried her out of the ballroom.
‘Jonghyun! Put me down! This is embarrassing and I’m a princess!!’ she squealed.
‘I wouldn’t have had to come to this if you had listened to me in the first place, princess,’ he said as they left the ballroom and began walking through the frigid-cold garden.

Once Jonghyun stepped onto the pergola in Jessica’s garden, he put her down but kept his arms around her waist so she could not escape. She tried to wiggle out of his hold but was unsuccessful. In her temper, she kneed him in the stomach. It worked, maybe a little too well since he was doubled over in pain. Sica was about to run away but felt guilty for hurting him so she stayed, wondering what she should do.
She hesitantly asked, ‘Jjong?’
‘Yeah? And hey! You called me Jjong… that makes me really happy!’
Jessica blushed but nevertheless ignored his comment, ‘are you okay?’
‘Do I look okay? That really hurt… I’ve been feeling sick all day so this made it worse!’ he cried.
‘I’m so sorry!’ Sica yelled, startled, ‘can I do anything?’
‘It’s okay. It’ll pass soon. Just promise me that you’ll come with me to your surprise?’
‘Okay… only because I feel guilty about kneeing you,’ she said and sat down to wait for him to recover since she could do nothing to help him.

After a while, Jonghyun felt better but was still a bit weak. His stomach was churning but he still wanted to show Sica her surprise.
‘Follow me,’ he said, ‘I won’t kidnap this time, promise.’
Sica nodded and obediently followed. They crossed the small river that ran through the gardens over Sica’s specially made pink bridge.
‘I remember when we made this…’ she sighed happily, running her hands over the rail.
‘You made this bridge?!’ Jonghyun cried.
‘Yes. My sisters and I all worked together to decorate each others’ gardens one-by-one. It took us ages to make this bridge because we were still so young and clueless about woodwork. But it was fun!’ she smiled, reminiscing about her wonderful childhood memories.
Jonghyun couldn’t help but smile, he just KNEW there was a sweet princess under the ice princess façade, and he hoped that his gift would bring her out some more.

‘Come on, just a little bit further,’ Jonghyun urged her.
‘I thought the gift was in my garden!’ Jessica cried with difficulty, ‘not on top of a mountain!’
‘Well… it’s just a bit away from your garden since yours is at the edge of the palace grounds. Come on, I know it’s hard to walk uphill but I promise it will be worth it!’ Jonghyun said.
‘Okay… wait, let me catch my breath first…’ she huffed with her hands on her knees.
‘Here,’ Jonghyun offered her his hand, ‘if we go up together, it might not be as hard.’
She gratefully took his hand and let his lead her to the secret place, but it was more like her was carrying her weight up the mountain.
‘Okay… here it is,’ Jonghyun said when they approached a clearing near the edge of the mountain top.
The walked past the last few trees and bushes. When Jessica and Jonghyun successfully made it out of the forest, Jessica looked up and dropped in awe.

‘It’s so pretty…’ she murmured.
‘I thought you’d say that… I saw you stargazing once so I decided to find the best place to stargaze. And your sisters also said that it was your dream to have a picnic with your fiancée at night surrounded by candles…’ Jonghyun told her.  
Jessica blushed, ‘I’m going to kick them when I see them… it’s so embarrassing… you probably think it’s really cheesy and stupid, not to mention childish but don’t laugh at me… I’ve just had that dream since I was a kid.’
‘I don’t think it’s cheesy or stupid. I think it’s sweet and romantic…’ Jonghyun said, ‘come on, we  don’t want to food the cooks prepared to get cold do we?’ and with that, he led her to the picnic blanket and started taking the food out of the picnic basket, but not before handing Jessica a blanket to keep herself warm with, of course.

The eight princesses along with Onew, Sungmin, Key, Minho and Taemin all giggled happily as they ran down the mountain. They’d help Jonghyun prepare Jessica’s surprise and were all excited. Once they’d raced back into Jessica’s garden, they stopped running and fixed themselves up, making sure that they were presentable.
‘You have a leaf in your hair,’ Key told Sooyoung and pulled it out.
‘Thanks,’ she blushed and ducked her head.
‘No problem…’ he blushed too but then realised the state of her hair, ‘aish! Look at you… your hairs a mess! Come with me, we have to go fix this first!’ and lead her back to their bedroom.
One-by-one, they all began to go their own way, leaving Seohyun by herself. She sighed and walked out of Sica’s garden, arriving at the intersection that could lead her to any of her sisters’ gardens but she decided to go to her own garden. She’d forgotten to feed her fish today and wanted to make sure they didn’t starve.

Seohyun noticed a figure sitting by her pond when she approached it. She stayed silent for a while and noticed that the person was a man which made her nervous.
‘You can’t be here. This is my private garden. In fact, you shouldn’t have been able to get to the intersection that leads to any of the private gardens,’ she said in a shaky voice.
‘Oh!’ the person cried startled and jumped up from where he was sitting, ‘I didn’t know that it was private! It was just too noisy inside the ballrooms and I wanted to go to a quiet place to think to myself. I’m so sorry!’ he bowed and tried to run away.
‘Scholar Kyuhyun-shi?!’ Seohyun asked when she saw his face.
‘Ah!’ he cried in surprise, ‘yes! Princess Seohyun-shi? I’m so sorry! I didn’t know this was your garden!!’
‘It’s okay…’ she said quietly.

‘I should leave you to it then, but I must say, your garden is beautiful and peaceful, it was very relaxing to read ‘The Truth’ here! And very eerie since the garden is so quiet.’
‘You’re reading ‘The Truth’? I read that a couple of days ago! It’s such a good book. What do you think of it so far?’ Seohyun said excitedly.
‘Oh, well… it’s good but I think the ending is quite obvious,’ Kyuhyun said happily since his fiancée was smart and taking interest in him.
‘Really? I thought so too!!’ Seohyun said and sat down, pulling Kyuhyun with her, ‘but I guess if you don’t notice the clues, you wouldn’t have known,’ she continued, not noticing that this was the first time she was talking to a male that wasn’t family or her sisters’ fiancées or Taemin.
Kyuhyun smiled and nodded as he watched her talk animatedly about the book. He never would have guessed that a princess would be interested in books that didn’t involve romance. He could see this marriage actually working…  

Yoona strolled around the front garden in hopes of seeing Taecyeon but he was nowhere to be seen. It was starting to get cold and she was in a dress. Just as she was about to head back inside, Prince Nichkhun appeared and wrapped his jacket around her.
‘It’s a little cold don’t you think, Princess?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ she answered and pulled the jacket tighter around her, ‘but now you’re going to freeze because you gave me your jacket.’
‘It’s fine. A reward from you should make me forget all about the cold,’ he said.
‘What kind of reward?’ Yoona asked.
Her question was answered immediately when his lips brushed across hers.
‘Oh!’ she cried in surprise, blood rushing to her cheeks as she looked at Nichkhun shyly.
‘Prince Nichkhun!! All the princes need to be inside to prepare the surprise!’ Taemin popped up out of nowhere and started dragging Nichkhun away.
‘Go back inside soon or you’ll get a cold. I’ll see you later, Yoona!!’ Nichkhun cried back over his should before leaving the blushing Yoona standing there, not sure if she was happy or embarrassed.
‘Prince Nichkhun…’ she murmured and touched her hands to her lips.

(a/n): i'll try update as much as i can this weekend to make up for not updating all week!! okay? LOVE YOU GUYS LOTSSSS

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