“This is so ridiculous!” Yuri slammed her fist on an old wooden table with a loud bang. “What am I even doing here?! I hate this job!”

            “Hey, calm down, sheesh. Hand me over those left-over cold noodles,” Soo-Young said with a mouth full of rice. She was always munching on leftovers but for some reason she stayed really skinny. “These stupid people have no idea how to appreciate good food. Food shouldn’t go to waste.”

            “You said that if I get a job here, I will get a chance to learn earth bending from the Great Hyoyeon, but it has been six whole months and I am still serving noodles to losers! How is working here even supposed to help me?” Yuri exploded and threw the cold noodles at Soo-Young. A few stray black hairs fell on her face, making her look even scarier.

            “Hey, why did you throw that? You’re wasting food!” Soo-Young said angrily. Her voice was even louder than Yuri’s. “I just said there was ‘a chance.’ I did not guarantee it. Don’t blame me; I just wanted to work here for the food.”

            “This place was rumored to be Crown Princess Hyoyeon’s favorite restaurant back when she was a little kid,” commented Shindong, one of the restaurant’s loyal customers. He was quite chubby. He obviously ate a lot.

            “Really? I didn’t know that,” said Kyuhyun, the friend of Shindong, who was eating with him at the same table. He was obviously from the Water Tribe since he wore blue Water Tribe clothes.

            “Argh!” Yuri took off her apron and headed straight into the back room of the famous Xiah Dragon Noodles restaurant. There she found the owner of the restaurant, Junsu, scribbling finances on a paper.

            “I quit!” Yuri said as she slammed the apron on Junsu’s table.

            Junsu looked surprised. He had never seen Yuri like that before. He had been really nice to all his employees and even cooked special dinners for them on special occasions. He even served Yuri a special welcome party when she got employed in the restaurant. He tried to be very employee-friendly. What was wrong with Yuri now?

            “Whyyyyy?” Junsu asked with his weird high-pitched voice. Most people said that he talked like a baby. “Do you want me to raise your pay? I can raise your pay if you want!”

            Yuri tried to explain. “No, no, I’m just…”

            “Hey! I want a raise in my pay too!” Soo-Young rudely barged into the office, interrupting Yuri and Junsu’s conversation.

            “But you already eat our dishes and some of our ingredients without my permission,” Junsu said to Soo-Young.

            Soo-Young looked dumbfounded. “Oh, you knew about that? Sorry, boss.” Soo-Young quietly tried to go out in embarrassment, but then some of the other employees were listening by the door.

            “What is all this fuss about?” asked Amber, a girl with short hair and dressed like a boy. She was in charge of cleaning the dishes.

            “Did Yuri just say that she is quitting?” asked a very tall employee named Kwangsoo. He was also in charge of cleaning the dishes.

            Just then, fourteen-year-old teenager nicknamed Key, peeked into the door. “Junsu Hyung, why is everyone crammed in this office? Did anything happen? What’s going on?” he asked, taking his chef’s hat off.

            “Arghh!!!” Yuri exclaimed in frustration. She pushed everyone out of the way and headed out of the restaurant.

            Junsu, Soo-Young, and Kwangsoo followed as Yuri angrily marched her way home. Everyone tried to convince her to rethink her decision to leave. She just ignored them and continued walking.

            “You can’t leave, you’re like part of the family!” said Boss Junsu.

            “Hey, what about me? I thought we were friends? Who would I talk to without you?” said Soo-Young whose voice stood out amongst the noisy group.

            “But I only took this job because of Yuri,” whispered Kwangsoo to himself dejectedly.

            Finally Yuri has had enough of it. She stopped on her tracks and stomped her foot, causing a weak tremor on the solid rock ground. Everyone, even the passersby was surprised. They all stopped and looked in Yuri’s direction.

            “I said I’m quitting, so leave me alone because I’m never coming back!”

***

            “The cherry blossoms look amazing!” Princess Fany exclaimed as she skipped and danced on the Fire Nation Palace grounds. “It’s a pink, pink wonderful world!”

            “You like everything that is pink,” Sunny and Taeyeon said at the same time.

            Months had already passed since Taeyeon’s coronation. Her sixteenth birthday had also passed since then. During all the time after the coronation, Taeyeon had been working hard on her fire bending. She tried hard to forget about Jaejoong—for she had not seen him again since the coronation—and all the strange events prior to meeting Fany at the old abandoned temple. Whenever those thoughts bothered her, she just practiced harder until she exhausted herself. Sunny was really impressed by Taeyeon’s improvement, even though Taeyeon was still unable to defeat her.

            Since the palace was mostly boring, empty, and lonely, the three Fire Nation Royal Princesses liked to stay in the Royal Gardens just outside the palace walls. There were villas that were also very much like the vacation house in Ember Island. There Taeyeon learned controlled fire bending with Sunny. She tried not to burn the garden plants but she still made plenty of mistakes. Fany liked watching the turtle ducks (creatures that were half duck and half turtle) by the pond. Together all three of them just enjoyed a quiet life among the plants, herbs, and trees. However, what Taeyeon liked about the place most was the decorative cacti. They came in all shapes and sizes. She found the thorny plants fascinating. Sunny and Fany just thought she was weird.

            “I have to admit though, the cherry blossoms do look amazing,” Taeyeon added. “But I still like cacti better.”

            “What is so great about cacti? They have thorns and they prick,” Sunny said to Taeyeon as they were walking along under the cherry blossoms in the royal garden that spring.

            “They’re tough plants. They don’t die under the hot Fire Nation sun,” Taeyeon replied confidently.

            “Whatever, I like the cherry blossoms,” Fany said with a giggle.

            “Because it’s pink, yeah, we know,” Taeyeon and Sunny said at the same time. That had been happening a lot lately.

            Just then, a palace maid came to them and gave a low bow and said, “Your Highnesses, a message just arrived from the Northern Water tribe.” The palace maid then handed out a scroll to Princess Sunny.

            “Oh, that must be Princess Sica!” Fany exclaimed. Princess Sica was one of Sunny and Fany's old friends from the Northern Water tribe. they all used to play together whenever the Firelord went to the North Pole for a visit.

            “What does it say?” asked Taeyeon.

            Sunny then began to read,

            “My dear ‘hot’ friends, I am bored right now so I decided to write this letter. My little sister Krystal has been really annoying lately and begging me to go penguin-sledding with her since our brother Yonghwa has been busy learning politics and all that boring business…”

            “What’s penguin-sledding?” asked Taeyeon.

            “It’s when you ride on the back of an otter penguin (a creature that is half otter and half penguin) and slide down ice slopes with it,” explained Sunny. “It’s fun. Fany and I have done it before when we visited the Northern Water Tribe when we were kids. We should try it together when we get a chance to go to the Northern Water Tribe again.”

            Then Sunny continued on with the letter,

            “I heard that Taeyeon’s sixteenth birthday just passed so please tell her that I said happy birthday. I hope I can meet her in person one day. From the way Fany writes about her, I can tell that she must be a very decent new sister to your family.”

            “Thank you,” Taeyeon said as if Sica was around to hear it.

            “I hope that we can all meet each other again soon. Writing letters take too much effort. I miss you, Sunny and Fany! P.S. Have you heard that Princess Hyoyeon was about to be crowned as Queen soon? Oh my goodness how did she become Queen before any of us? Anyway I am proud of her too. I really can’t wait until we all meet again. I hope it happens soon. Your cool friend, Princess Sica.”

            Fany gasped at the news of Princess Hyoyeon becoming Queen. “Wow, Queen already? We need to write her a letter as soon as possible!”

            “Eh, Sica could be lying,” Sunny said, obviously in doubt. “How can she be crowned Queen when the current Earth King is perfectly fine?”

            “That’s why we have to send her a letter,” said Fany.

            Two weeks later, a green silk scroll with a golden seal arrived from the Earth Kingdom. It addressed the Firelord and the entire Fire Nation Royal Family, inviting them to a grand party.

            “The Earth King has invited us to the grand coronation of the new Earth King and Queen,” announced Firelord Soon-Jae. “He is abdicating for his retirement and to train his son in government affairs. Your friend Princess Hyoyeon is going to be Queen along with Prince Eunhyuk.”

            “Oh…so that’s the name to the Earth Kingdom Crown Prince…I wonder if he’s decent looking?” Sunny thought.

            “Yay!” Fany exclaimed. “This is it! In this party, we will get to meet our friends again. Taeyeon, you will meet them in person too—finally! I’m so excited!”

***

            “Wow,” Taeyeon said with her jaw loosely hanging down. “I can’t even believe this actually existed.”

            After ten days of travelling by sea and land, the Fire Nation Royal Family finally arrived at Ba Sing Se, a week before the coronation of the new Earth King and Queen. The long trip was boring and tiresome, but Taeyeon enjoyed sightseeing anyway. The Earth Kingdom had plenty of grasslands, hills, forests, streams, and lakes—some things one does not see in the dreary Fire Nation Palace. They saw some wild animals along the way too. Taeyeon found them all to be very interesting. However, when Taeyeon saw the great Outer Wall, she was just at a loss for words at the sight of the massive wall.

            “Welcome to Ba Sing Se!” greeted an Earth Kingdom General by the wall. He then escorted the Firelord and his company into the wall. With his earth bending, he stomped his foot to open a hollow spot in the giant wall. He led the foreigners into what seemed like a huge elevator within the thick wall. The general used his bending to raise the elevator to the top of the wall. From there they could see the vast grassland beyond the wall.

            “Whoa, I almost forgot how amazing the view is from here,” Fany said as she looked at the vast grassland that stretched for miles.

            “Where is the city?” asked the naïve Taeyeon.

            “It’s past this great grassland,” Sunny explained. “The city is still a long way to go.”

            “What? Really?” Taeyeon asked, doubting Sunny’s words.

            “Yup,” Fany replied. “But don’t worry, we’re taking the train.”

            “A train?” Taeyeon was just too unfamiliar with all these things.

            “The train is operated by the earth benders too—just like the elevator. The earth benders push the train from behind with their advanced earth bending skills. Everything basically works on earth bending power here,” Sunny explained.

           When they boarded their own personal train car, the general that greeted them on the wall stayed with them as their . The Earth King himself asked the general to accompany them as they made their way into the city.

            “Sir, please explain the city to us,” Sunny spoke up as they were riding in the train. “One of us is visiting for the first time.”

            “Well then, Ba Sing Se, widely known as The Great Impenetrable City, is the capital of the great continental Earth Kingdom, as you all probably know already. A large, thick, earth wall called the Outer Wall—the one you just saw out there—surrounds the city, separating it from the rest of the kingdom, and making it very safe and secluded from any foreign destructive conquest. The citizens have enjoyed a long history of peace for no conqueror was ever able to break through the walls. This vast area of grassy plains, called the Agrarian Zone, separates the Outer Wall from the actual city so if the Outer Wall was ever breached—which of course, has never happened before—the actual city was still safe. The Inner Wall, which surrounds the city, is smaller than the Outer Wall, but still tough enough to keep invaders out. All the giant rock walls are opened by earth bending only, as there are absolutely no doors or gates in any of the walls. Each wall is opened by a team of earth bending soldiers. Earth bending guards protect all the walls and making sure everything is in perfect order.”

            “Oh, I see…,” Taeyeon nodded in astonishment. Ba Sing Se was absolutely nothing like the Fire Nation Capital—that’s for sure.

            After a few hours of riding the train, they finally arrived inside the Inner Wall. When Taeyeon saw the vast area full of houses from the high train, she was even more amazed. The city was bigger than she had ever imagined. The city continued on past the horizon in all directions. It was like an entire country in one city. The general then continued explaining.

            “The city is divided into three major sections: the Lower Ring, the Middle Ring, and the Upper Ring. The Lower Ring is located past the Inner Wall, and is home to the poorest class of the city, mostly the craftsmen and others who live in poverty. Lower Ring citizens are not allowed to enter the higher rings.”

            “Really? Why?” Taeyeon asked—obviously clueless.

            “We don’t want these people to mix with the higher class. For all we know, some of them are thieves and scum. It’s for the safety of the citizens. That’s how our system works,” the general explained.

            Taeyeon grimaced at the general’s reply since she was born as a low class Fire Nation citizen, but she just let it pass with a sigh. Looking down on the low-class citizens—that was just how society worked.

             “The second section separated from the Lower Ring by another earth wall is the Middle Ring, home of the well-to-do citizens. The people who live here are mostly businessmen, entrepreneurs, employees, and scholars. They all live in nice houses with bright green roofs. Various restaurants, assorted shops, the town hall, and even Ba Sing Se University are also located in this area. Middle class citizens are allowed to roam about all the sections of the city without needing permission.”

             When they reached the wall past the middle ring, they left the train and headed down the elevator again. They were all escorted into a carriage drawn by an ostrich-horse (an animal that is half-horse, half-ostrich—used for transportation) and toured around the upper ring of the city.

             “The last and most important area of the city is the Upper Ring, where the upper class military and government officials and noblemen reside—mostly the important people. In the middle of it all is the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace, where the Earth King and his family reside. Common citizens are not allowed to enter the palace unless the Earth King personally invites them in. Rules are strict when it comes to meeting the Royal Family to ensure their safety. But of course, since you are all invited by the Earth King, you can all meet him at the coronation.”

             When the tour was over, the carriage then halted in front of a nice, spacious, Earth Kingdom residence house which they will be staying in for the rest of their visit.

             “For now, this is where Your Majesty and company will stay,” said their general.

             “Thank you very much,” all of them said with a respectful bow.

***

              Yuri wandered around Ba Sing Se’s Middle Ring, desperately looking for a job since she was running out of money to pay for her rent. It had been two weeks since she abruptly left her job at Xiah Dragon Noodles Restaurant in the Upper Ring. Her friends at the shop have asked her to come back numerous times, but she was just too stubborn to take back all the harsh words she had said. However, she did not want to get kicked into the Lower Ring of the city for not being able to pay rent. So she went around the Middle Ring to check the bulletin boards for any wanted ads.

             “Hey!” a loud, familiar voice called out to Yuri. The passersby were even taken aback by her loud voice. Yuri was surprised too. It was Soo-Young. “What are you doing here?”

             “I’m looking for a job, duh,” Yuri replied in an annoyed tone.

             “Ah right, ‘cause you can’t pay for your house rent since you don’t have money, ‘cause you quit your freakin’ job.”

             “I’m trying to live okay!” Yuri shouted at Soo-Young’s ear. “Besides, I asked you to come and visit me on your free time so we can hang out but you never came! I don’t even know why I call you my friend…”

             “Aish, this punk,” Soo-Young said with her finger in her ear. “If you hadn’t quit, you wouldn’t be wandering around jobless in the streets! If you hadn’t quit, you’d be eating good food at the Xiah Dragon Noodles place whenever you just feel like it.”

             “Well, I’m not a stupid fool like you who’s just content with stuffing food in your face. I actually have ambitions in life!”

             “Hey, who you callin’ a stupid fool? At least I have a job in the Upper Ring!”

             “Upper Ring? The Xiah Dragon Noodles is in the middle ring.”

             “Well we moved to the Upper Ring last week. You can come back and work in the Upper Ring too, you know. This time we’re all serving a bunch of rich folks. You could be working in luxury too if you just weren’t too stubborn…”

             Yuri turned to the large bulletin board and began to look at the posts. She just ignored Soo-Young’s blabbering since she has had enough of it.

             “Whoa,” Yuri gasped. “Soo-Young, look at this!”

             On the middle of the huge bulletin board was a grand, eye-catching poster with the Earth King’s official seal. The calligraphy of the Chinese characters was excellent—written by the King’s scribe himself.

             “This has been all over the newspapers since two weeks ago. I can’t believe you just noticed it,” Soo-Young said nonchalantly. “Oh well, I guess you don’t have money to buy newspaper either.”

             “I can’t believe it,” Yuri said as she covered her gaped mouth. “Princess Hyoyeon is going to be Queen! Yay yay yay!”

             Child-like Yuri proceeded to jump up and down in happiness. Soo-Young just watched her friend lose her mind over it.

             “All hail our new Queen!” Yuri screamed as loud as she could and danced around like a little girl. Passersby were beginning to stare at the rejoicing girl, thinking she was probably out of her mind.

             “Hey,” Soo-Young rebuked Yuri with a slap on her head. “The King is abdicating and you’re just bouncing and dancing like a fool. And you say I’m the stupid fool here.”

             Smiling Yuri ignored Soo-Young’s comment and looked at the post again. “It says that there will be a grand party in a week’s time to honor the new King and Queen. There will be fireworks at night and royalties from all over the world will be coming to the celebration…”

             “So what?” Soo-Young said, breaking off Yuri’s long explanation of the bulletin. “Those grand parties don’t even include common citizens. They only invite important people into the palace. The fireworks will be viewable from our rooftop though…”

             Soo-Young noticed that Yuri was not listening to her at all. Yuri’s eyes were burning with passion already. Without a doubt, she was already formulating a plan.

             “Hey, what the heck are you thinking about? I’m warning you, if you plan anything stupid, don’t drag me into it!” Soo-Young warned Yuri.

             “Soo-Young,” Yuri said with great determination. “This could be my chance!”

             “Chance for what?” Soo-Young’s eyes were wide with curiosity. She also felt nervous for what Yuri is about to propose right now.

             “This could be my chance to ask the Great Hyoyeon to teach me her great earth bending techniques! I honestly don’t care about being a waitress even on the Upper Ring. I just want to be a great earth bender. I will enter that palace somehow! You’ll help me right?”

            "What? No! Absolutely not!" Soo-Young refused.

            "It's a grand party in the richest palace in the entire world. In other words, there will be plenty of food."

            "Really? Bribing me with food? That's low. Very low," Soo-Young crossed her arms. Then after a few seconds she replied with, "Okay fine, I'll help."

            "Great! Meet me later at my house for planning, okay?"

***

            “I’m bored,” Sunny said as she rested her head on a soft green pillow in their own Earth Kingdom quarters. She always looked cute as a bunny even with a frown on her face. “What should we do today?”

            “Let’s go get our nails done!” Fany suggested.

            “We just got our nails done at the Fancy Lady Day Spa the other day. Aren’t you happy with your pink nails?” Taeyeon asked as she sat on the bed igniting a flame with her fingers on and off like a gas lighter.

            “I am happy. We’ve been staying for three days and it’s been great so far,” Fany said as looked at her bright, pink nails with her pretty smiling eyes. “Honestly, I just want to wander around.”

            “Oh, let’s just get out of here and take a walk or maybe get something to eat or whatever,” Sunny said as she got up from the bed.

            “Sounds good,” Taeyeon said following after Sunny and heading out of the room with the twin princesses.

            “Yay!” Fany exclaimed.

            So then the three Fire Nation princesses wandered around the Upper Ring again to look for something to do, buy, or eat. This time they went without a guard watching over them since the Firelord trusted Sunny’s and Taeyeon’s fire bending abilities. Fany just had to stay close to them. They proudly wore their red Fire Nation silk robes as they went about the city and it certainly caught others’ attention.

            “Xi…ah’s… Dragon Noodles?” Fany read the huge sign as they passed by the famous high class restaurant.

            “Oh? Isn’t that the restaurant where Hyoyeon took us the last time we visited Ba Sing Se?” Sunny asked as she looked up at the sign with a golden dragon.

            “I think it is…,” Fany replied. “They finally moved to the upper ring! Let’s go eat and see how Junsu Oppa and Key are doing.”

            “Who are Junsu Oppa and Key?” Taeyeon asked.

            “They’re Hyoyeon’s brothers,” Sunny said. She then grabbed Taeyeon and Fany into the restaurant. “Let’s go, I’m hungry.”

            When they entered, Sunny and Fany was surprised to see a very fancy restaurant with pale yellow walls, flowing white drapes, green marble flooring, and golden dragons etched on the pillars. The tables were varnished and made of expensive redwood. A folk band was even playing soothing music with their twelve-string gayageum, fiddle-like haegeum, and bamboo flute. The atmosphere was really nice and the smell of delicious, hot, soup noodles and other dishes filled the place. It was surely appetizing to just look at the place.

            “Wow,” all three of them gasped.

            “It surely looks different from the Xiah Dragon Noodles Restaurant that I remember,” Fany said. “It was more ‘commoner’ friendly back in the middle ring. Now it’s just full blown fancy.”

            “Ehem, can I help you young ladies?” approached a man with a voice that sounded a little rough and high at the same time.

            “Oh, Junsu Oppa?” Sunny and Fany both said as they looked at their old familiar friend.

            “Oh?” Junsu squinted his eyes. “Fire Nation?”

            “It’s us—Sunny and Fany!” the twin exclaimed.

            “Oh! Hyoyeon’s friends! Wow, you girls have grown so much, I barely recognized you,” Junsu happily greeted with a respectful bow to the royal princesses.

            “This is Taeyeon, our new sister,” Sunny introduced Taeyeon. Taeyeon bowed and thought about Jaejoong and Yunho, who were just about the same age as Junsu judging by his appearance. Although unlike Jaejoong and Yunho, this fellow seemed pretty eccentric and childlike.

            “It’s very nice to meet you,” Junsu said with another bow. “Shall I lead all three of you to wherever your highnesses want to sit?”

            “Sure! I’m hungry,” exclaimed Fany.

            Junsu led them to a nice table near the musicians. The three Fire Nation princesses sat on their seats and are very excited to have nice warm noodles specially made by the best noodles restaurant in Ba Sing Se.

            “Anyway, I’m very busy so I’ll let the waitress take your orders. Just order whatever you want, even if it’s not on the menu. I’ll nag Kibum to cook it all for you. We’re good at nagging each other.” Junsu then left with a big smile on his baby-like face. He seemed to be really happy and energetic today.

            Meanwhile, Soo-Young was in the kitchen munching on crunchy dry noodles while chatting with boy-like Amber and tall Kwangsoo. Fourteen-year-old Key just stayed in his own little world of cooking fried chicken and hot noodles as they chatted.

            “You know what, Yuri has totally lost her mind,” Soo-Young said with a mouth full of dry noodles.

            “What happened to her?” asked Amber as she was washing the dishes with Kwangsoo.

            “Well she basically…,” Soo-Young began while she was trying to swallow all the food in . Everyone in the kitchen lent their ears.

            “Soo-Young, go get the order of our three lovely Fire Nation princess customers please!” called out Junsu from outside the kitchen before Soo-Young was able to say anything.

            “Aish…I’m in the middle of a story,” Soo-Young mumbled when she heard Junsu calling her. “Wait, Boss, I’m coming!”

            Soo-Young, wearing her brand new waitress uniform and apron, with her braided dark-brown hair rolled up into two buns on the sides of her head, ran off out to meet Junsu outside the kitchen. Energetic Junsu dragged out three menus from the wooden shelf and handed it over to Soo-Young for her to lend to the three guests.

            “Okay, Soo-Young, be extra nice and friendly to those three Fire Nation Princesses. Take note of whatever they want to order, no matter how outrageous, ridiculous, foreign, and extravagant—in fact even if they order something that can only be found in the spiritual realm or high above the heavens, we must give them what they want. Do you understand?” ordered Junsu in a cute, but rather weird way. He stared into Soo-Young’s eyes while smiling like a pretty little girl—only problem was he was not a little girl at all. He was still as cute as a bunny though. People say that was his charm.

            “Aish, this man is just getting weirder. I understand,” Soo-Young retorted. “Just stop looking at me like that. It’s creepy.”

            Soo-Young grabbed the menus from Junsu and headed to the three Fire Nation princesses’ table. Sunny, Fany, and Taeyeon gave her a friendly smile. She then bowed and handed the menus.

            “Good day, I am Soo-Young, your humble servant for today,” Soo-Young greeted with a big fake smile.

            “Nice to meet you, Soo-Young,” all three of them said in unison with big sincere smiles.

            “They better not order anything stupid or I’ll be dead,” Soo-Young thought.

            “Everything in the menu sounds good. I don’t think I can just choose,” Taeyeon remarked as she was flipping through the menu.

            “We should order noodles, because it’s their specialty,” said Fany.

            “Hey, you know what would be a good idea? Since Junsu told us to order whatever we want, why don’t we ask Kibum to surprise us with whatever he wants to serve us?” Sunny suggested.

            Soo-Young sighed in relief. Those princesses were not as unreasonably haughty as she thought. “I think that would be a great idea, Your Highnesses. Our chef Kibum is a great cook. He will not disappoint you. I won’t lie about that. I’ve eaten plenty of what he cooks here.”

            Just as Soo-Young was about to leave, she overheard the three princesses talking about something that easily caught her ears, and no—this time it was not about food.

            “I’m really excited to go to Hyoyeon’s coronation. I can’t wait to see her again. It’s been so many years!” said one of the princesses.

            “Oh, they’re going to the party that Yuri has been bothering me about,” Soo-Young mumbled to herself. “Hey, it’s not my problem though. I shouldn’t get dragged into her own black hole.”

            Soo-Young first served the princesses the restaurant’s delicious deep-fried dumplings as an appetizer with a special sweet sauce made from Xiah Dragon Noodles’ secret family recipe. Even Soo-Young’s mouth watered and demanded to be fed, but she restrained herself before she gets in trouble with eating customers’ food again.

            “Whoa,” the three princesses exclaimed in unison.

            “Little Key hasn’t lost his touch,” Sunny remarked.

            “Excuse me,” Soo-Young said as she poured a glass of special wine for them. “Would you all mind if I ask how you know of Boss Junsu and Chef Kibum?

            “Oh, they’re a good friend of ours. We visited the Xiah Dragon Noodles many years ago, back when the restaurant was still located in the middle ring,” Sunny explained.

            “Oh…,” Soo-Young thought. She still wondered why these royal princesses were friends with her weird boss for some reason. They were princesses. Princesses don’t just go around being friends with a lowly noodle manager unless there was some sort of secret agenda.

            “Where can I wash my hands?” asked Taeyeon. She had to wash her hands before eating.

            “It’s over there by the fountain,” Soo-young pointed.

            “Let’s all wash our hands together,” suggested Fany. They then left Soo-Young and their table to wash their hands. They left their purses there too.

            As Soo-Young was setting the plates, bowls, cups, and the chopsticks on the table, she noticed that one purse was open and something was gleaming from it. She bent over to close the purse and fix it on the extra fourth chair, but something stopped her. She looked at the shining thing from the purse and realized what it was.

            “It’s a royal Earth Kingdom invitation,” Soo-Young gasped and looked around to see if anyone was watching. “There are three invitations in here…”

            Yuri’s voice started to echo in Soo-young's head. “If we get into the palace, I’ll bet there will be plenty of delicious food in there—fit for royalty! You can eat as much as you want! So will you help me? Please? Please?”

            “Oh no no no no no…” Soo-Young tried to shake off those thoughts. “I can’t steal these. When they find out, they will kill me the fire-bender way—burn me to a crisp!”

            “But Soo-young, we’re friends, remember?” Yuri’s voice echoed in her head again. “Don’t you want to see the palace?”

            Just then the sound of Sunny’s, Fany’s, and Taeyeon’s chortling snapped Soo-Young back into her senses. Without even thinking, she quickly took all the invitations and hid it in her apron. She innocently continued setting the table for the upcoming soup noodles as if nothing happened. The three princesses did not notice anything strange as of yet, and just continued chatting and laughing as they ate their appetizer.