The nine princesses and their fiancées were all gathered in the girls’ old playroom except for Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk. As soon as they’d entered the playroom, Taemin made a beeline for one of the nine easels and was now drawing a picture of a dragon. The room was from when they were still young and was filled with their childhood toys. Luckily it was not dusty since the maids cleaned it every day even though the girls hadn’t stepped foot in the room for years. Minyul and  Ontaeng made their way to the only two loveseats in the room and took up all the space with Minyul lying down on the red one and Ontaeng sitting side-by-side on the pink one. The two large couches faced the loveseats and Khuna, Woofany, Sookey, Seokyu and Sunny all squashed up together on them. Jessica sat on the rocking chair next to Woofany and Jonghyun sat on a single couch near Sookey, they sat far away from each other and were avoiding each others’ gazes. Unfortunately for Sungmin, the only seat left was the small rocking horse chair that barely reached his knees and he only just fit in it.  

‘Where is Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk?’ Onew asked, looking around the room.
‘They went for a walk, Prince Eunhyuk told me to inform your majesties, I’m sorry I forgot,’ Kyuhyun bowed in his seat.
‘Aigoo, stop with the formalities! We decided to call each other in a friendly way since we’re all going to be family soon!’ Taeyeon exclaimed.
‘But, I’m a lowly scholar and you are all royal, I cannot act friendly with people out of my league,’ Kyuhyun said.
‘Nonsense! We don’t care about bloodline! You’re our brother!’ Tiffany said.
Kyuhyun’s eyes brightened, ‘really?’
‘Really,’ Yuri nodded.
‘This is the first time any royal has ever accepted me and wanted to be my friend! And don’t care that I’m not one of them!’ he cried happily.
Sunny smiled, ‘we’re not like any other royal families, we’re too weird for them! To tell you the truth, we only act proper when people are around, when they’re not, we’re the most mischievous royals ever!!’
Kyuhyun smiled brightly and said, ‘thank you!’

Yoona’s giggle erupted suddenly and everyone turned to look at her.
‘What’s so funny?’ Onew asked.
‘Sungmin oppa looks so funny on that small rocking horse!! It’s too small!!’ she laughed.
Sungmin pouted, ‘not my fault! I don’t want to sit here either but there aren’t any more seats! Stop laughing!’ 
‘Sit on the floor, hyung,’ Taemin said without looking away from his drawing.
‘I guess that would be more comfortable than the rocking horse…’ he murmured and sat on the floor, leaning against Sunny’s legs.

‘I was talking to King Soo Man this morning and he suggested that we go for a trip so we all get to know each other better,’ Wooyoung said.
‘Really?! But he almost didn’t let us go into the village last time!’ Tiffany exclaimed, a little too high pitched as she smiled sweetly at Wooyoung.
Sunny scoffed at her in disgust, ‘aegyo is my thing…’ she mumbled.
‘Yes, well he was saying that it would be still on royal grounds so…’ Wooyoung trailed off.
‘Oh… that ,’ all the girls said at once.
‘I can’t be that bad. If we can think of some sort of loophole… I’m sure we can do it, and since King Soo Man wouldn’t mind us spending some quality time together in case the war really does happen, he go with it,’ Onew suggested.
‘Not to mention that he wants SOME couples to become closer,’ Taeyeon said as she meaningfully eyed Sookey who were silently fighting over the last cupcake.
‘Yes, that’s a great idea but we have to come up with ideas. I’m sure our father was suggesting that we go to the Sakura Palace which is the smallest and furthest palace from the Main Royal palace. It’s fun to stay there but isn’t as exciting as going to the village since we do it all the time,’ Seohyun said.
‘How about we all write up our ideas and share them in 10 minutes?’ Sunny suggested.
‘Okay!’ Taemin, Sungmin, Yoona, Yuri and Sooyoung all chanted and reached for some paper and crayons.
‘She should be some sort of Royal toddler caretaker or something…’ Wooyoung whispered to Tiffany who in turn giggled.
‘Yeah, she’s always been good with kids. If she didn’t have to be a princess, she’d become a caretaker like the ones we had when we were kids,’ she whispered back.
‘Yah! Yah! You two! Get to work! You can work in pairs if you like but don’t be too loud!’ Sunny ordered.

For the next 10 minutes, they all concentrated really hard on their ideas. Seohyun and Kyuhyun were working together on a large whiteboard which now seemed to be covered in mathematical problems.
“What’s that got to do with our trip?” Sunny thought when she walked past while observing the room.
Wooyoung and Tiffany seemed to be giggling like schoolchildren in the corner hiding behind a large picture book. Sunny shook her head, some children just didn’t listen. Yoona and Nichkhun were working together with Nichkhun writing their ideas on a piece of paper each and Yoona drew pictures under them so they could put it together like a book.
‘This is going to be the best since all our ideas are put together in a book!’ Nichkhun exclaimed.
Yoona nodded, ‘the best!’ while she drew a dragon carefully with her tongue sticking out in concentration.

Sungmin worked in the middle of the room alone and listed all his ideas on a small blackboard the girls had used when they were younger to play “school”. Taemin, Yuri and Minho were all crowded around a small table but when Sunny approached, they comically covered their creation up.
‘No looking, noona!’ Taemin jumped up and down.
‘I want to see!!’ Sunny whined.
Yuri hid their idea behind her and Minho stood in front of her, beside Taemin.
‘I can’t let you pass any further, noona,’ Minho said.
‘Fine!’ Sunny pouted, ‘I don’t know why you’re being so secretive!!’
‘You’ll find out soon!!’ Taemin shouted as she walked away.
‘Love you Sunny unnie!!’ Yuri yelled out.

Ontaeng were drawing pictures separately but sat side-by-side.
‘Why aren’t you working together?’ Sunny asked.
‘Because he wants to draw chicken on everything I draw! It ruins the pretty picture!’ Taeyeon answered.
Sunny nodded, ‘I see.’
Jonghyun sat in a corner leaning against a wall, painting on an easel while Sica sat as close as she could without him noticing and moving away. Sunny could see they were very intense so she didn’t approach them. The last couple were sitting beside the table with food and eat while writing. When Sunny glanced at their list, she noticed only ridiculous ideas such as ‘camp out in the kitchen and eat food all day’ and ‘survival cooking in the wild’.

When 10 minutes were over, Sunny called everyone’s attention and they all gathered back to where they were sitting before.
‘Can we go first?’ Seohyun piped up.
‘Okay, explain away,’ Sunny nodded.
‘Well, we figured that according to the calculations we made, if we uproot the Main Royal Palace and move it 2 kilometres East, the village would JUST be on the outer ring of the royal grounds so we can stay in the village! We don’t need the mountain to be part of royal grounds, anyways,’ Seohyun explained brightly while Kyuhyun pointed at their calculations and very detailed diagrams on the whiteboard.
‘Well… that’s an amazing idea but it seems like too much effort for a small trip… we’ll consider it, okay?’ Sunny reasoned but doubted that it would happen.
‘Yay! We definitely got it in the bag!’ Kyuhyun cheered and hi-fived Seohyun.

‘Tiffany, Wooyoung, what are your ideas?’ Sunny asked.
‘Uhh…’ Wooyoung looked at Tiffany.
‘We… uhh… kinda didn’t come up with anything because we were getting to know each other better!’ Tiffany hurriedly explained.
‘Hmph, you could’ve gotten closer while coming up with ideas!’ Sunny complained, okay, next, Onew and Taeyeon.’
‘Well, we put our ideas together and came up with… camping in the gardens and eating chicken!’ Ontaeng said together.
‘… yeah, we’ll think about it…’ Sunny said, ‘Sooyoung and Key, next.’
‘Instead of staying elsewhere since it’s so unroyal,’ Key said in his diva tone, ‘we can make a deal with the King so that we stay at the palace during the nights but go into the village during the day to explore.’
‘And eat food,’ Sooyoung added.
‘Good. Yoona and Nichkhun?’
‘Okay!! We have lots of ideas and pictures to show you…’

Half an hour later, Nichkhun and Yoona’s presentation finished and the others sighed in relief.
‘That was a little long but it’s okay,’ Sunny said, ‘so, Jonghyun, what were your ideas?’
‘I didn’t really have much except for campfires and alone time without maids and stuff tending to us,’ he said.
‘Good, good!’ Sunny said.
“Wonder what’s wrong with hyung…” Taemin thought.
‘Sica?’
‘I don’t have any ideas…’ she mumbled.
‘Okay then, our last group, Minho, Yuri and Taemin!’
‘What about me?’ Sungmin complained.
‘I already looked at your ideas, they were stupid,’ Sunny said and turned her attention to the others…

(a/n): srry for the late update but i had been meaning to update two days ago but i got a bad headache and couldnt write and also, yesterday, i got home late so i couldnt update then either! the chap might not be good but im still recovering so be easy on me, please :D