Once upon a time, there were five almost perfect princes.

 

The first was Prince JinWoo. Whose beauty and kindness known throughout the land. He was almost perfect, if not for his infamous directionally challenged affliction, which only happened when he was outside his own realm.

 

The second was Prince SeungHoon. Whose quick thinking and sleek movement known throughout the land. He was almost perfect, if not for his tendency for being unpredictable, which happened when he was inside and outside his own realm. In other word, everywhere.

 

The third was Prince Mino. Whose fast speech and friendliness known throughout the land. He was almost perfect, if not for his obsession with being funny, which somehow amplified whenever he was near yellow rubber duck.

 

The fourth was Prince SeungYoon. Whose smile and humbleness known throughout the land. He was almost perfect, if not for his nagging, which could not be ignored by his subjects but completely ignored by his friends.

 

The fifth was Prince TaeHyun. Whose logic and slanted eyebrows known throughout the land. He was almost perfect, if not for his habit of being weird, such as sticking his tongue out, which somehow increases his iness level.

 

The five princes were close to each other as they often go on a quest together, because that was the occupational hazard of being a prince. It was not because they were bored. And it was definitely not because they want to avoid their parents, whom insisted that they found princess to settle down already and give them the next generation of successor.

 

Definitely not that.

 

That was why when they went to the Quest Information Centre (which was a place where questing princes go, because knowledge was power), they choose the one labeled 'Sleeping Beauty'.

 

After reading the file, Prince TaeHyun applied his logic and reasoned that even if there was a real princess there, this was a perfect prince-bait. It was popular and they were almost guaranteed that there were other princes attempting this quest too. They could just found one prince, had Prince Mino befriended him, assisted the said prince in the quest, save the princess and married the prince and princesses off.

 

The other four princes could not see the fault in that.

 

But seriously, cursed kingdom covered with rose bush, with a hundred year sleeping princess in it, and a true-love-kiss to wake her up? It was four legged mammals excrement.  There must have been some kind of treasure with dragon or kraken or something, the Quest Information Centre loved to put a romantic spin to everything after all.

 

Their media play of a quest was infamous.

 

With that excuse goal in mind, the five almost perfect princes rode their white horses and went to start the quest.

 

It was an almost foolproof plan.

 

The operative word was 'almost'.

 

Everyone knew, almost was never enough.

 

Or at least that was the song said.

 

The five princes had no  trouble finding other princes, oh no, Prince Mino befriended a total of ten other princes during their travel to Sleeping Beauty kingdom, but all of them were on their way to their own quest and could not be persuaded to change course.

 

The curse kingdom was getting closer and closer and they still one prince short.

 

Prince SeungYoon was getting antsy, his head was darting left and right, back and forth looking for a new target prince. Prince SeunHoon sniffed the air and declared that he could smell the rose. Prince Mino wondered if there was a real princess instead of a dragon after all. Prince TaeHyun looked mysteriously meticulous even after a few days journey. Prince JinWoo let out a relieved sigh, it was a record, he was only almost got lost twice during this quest.

 

In no time, what seemed to be a mountain covered with rose bush appears.

 

Prince SeungYoon wondered if they should wait for a few days before attempting to go through the thorny path. Prince SeungHoon and Prince Mino did not care either way. Prince JinWoo and Prince TaeHyun wanted to go straight away because they missed their pets at the castle and would like to go back to them as soon as possible.

 

Seriously though, they really hope it was a dragon behind all that rose bush.

 

Prince SeungHoon took out five set of dragon-hide full body suits from his satchel and ordered the princes to wear it. It should protect them from the thorns. Cutting the vine was useless because it grew straight away. They had to go through it by opening a path manually without cutting the vine.  Their teamwork was impacable. It took them an hour to get through the thorns shield, and another hour to walk to the castle.

 

So.

 

It was a sleeping princess after all.

 

Prince JinWoo did not want to kiss her, it seemed un-gentlemanly of a prince to kiss someone without consent. Prince SeungHoon would like to search more thoroughly for a dragon before he decided anything. Prince Mino took one look at her and decided that she was not his type because she did not look like the energetic type. Prince SeungYoon did not feel that he was ready for a long-term commitment, so he also declined to wake her up. Prince TaeHyun applied another one of his logic and deduced that the true love of the princess must be her parents, because well, they are parents.  Besides, after sleeping for a hundred years, there was no way one of them was the Princess' true love. She did not even know they exist.

 

With that in mind , they  look for the Princess' mother or father, which was not be hard because the Queen and King wore crown, obviously. They maneuvered the Queen respectfully and had her kiss the Princess.

 

It did not work.

 

They tried the king.

 

Still did not work.

 

They run out of true love.

 

It was not as if they could just give up and abandoned a whole cursed kingdom.There were at least a thousand people in it. It would be an un-princely thing to do.

 

It was cruel but it bears repeating. Almost was never enough.

 

Fear not though, princes in quest did not panic. No sire, they went over the Sleeping Beauty dossier instead to see what other loopholes they could apply. After all one have to learn the rules of the game and then one have to play better than anyone else. The devil was in the details, or in this case, in the technicality.

 

 Prince JinWoo mused that the term 'true love' was such broad term applicable to everything, why not, he loved his pets, it was technically a 'true love' (but animals was not affected by the curse and if the princess had a beloved pet, it had perished long time ago).

 

Prince SeungHoon loved dancing, he agreed that it can be technically called a 'true love' too (but the princess did not keep a diary so they did not know what her favorite activity was, and it was not as if you could kiss an activity).

 

Prince Mino loved to eat, but he would not classify that as a 'true love' (they tried trickling water and putting berries inside the princess' mouth, but it was impossible as the princess' body was frozen slightly and was closed stubbornly).

 

Prince SeungYoon loved the other princes, but he would called that friendship, but it was also a 'true love' (they could not forced random people on the princess to see whether it was her friends or not).

 

Prince TaeHyun loved himself the most, and there was no truer love than that (they tried having the princess kiss a mirror as she could not kiss her own lips).

 

Anyway, back to the problem in hand.  

 

What could be considered as 'true love'?

 

Prince SeungHoon pointed out that nowhere in the requirement said that the true love should be a human.

 

With that in mind, the five princes scattered around the castle and collecting a numerous items and started pressing them to the princess lips. Dolls, trinkets, flowers, vases, swords, shields, cupboard, as long as they could carry it, they had it kissed.  Hours went by and still the princess stay asleep.

 

And snored lightly.

 

Prince SeungYoon wondered if they should put a balm on the princess' lips, worrying that all the kissing would chap them. His heart was in the right place, but the concern was misplaced, so the other four ignored him.

 

And keep on putting stranger and stranger objects to the princess' lips. Including a doorknob that Prince Mino had liberated from what seemed to be the princess' room.

 

Prince TaeHyun brought a small statue of a cat and asked Prince JinWoo to knighted it and dub it as a true love. Prince JinWoo was the only one who had that power since he just had his Prince Regent coronation as his king father liked to go out to the sea for fishing expedition. He ruled the kingdom when his king father was absent.

 

Prince JinWoo tapped the cat's statue shoulders and conducted the knighted ceremony without further delay.

 

When they put the cat on the princess' lips, a strange thing miracle happened.

 

The princess fluttered her eyes and woke up. The curse was broken.

 

Yay.

 

The whole kingdom started to woke up to. The five princes preferred to be gone before they were caught in all the fanfare, but they need to have their quest's dossier signed to mark the completion.  

 

Bureaucracy at its finest was a pain in their backside.

 

Unsurprisingly, the kingdom was very thankful and even offered the princess' hand in marriage but Prince JinWoo refused by stating that it would be cruel to force the princess to choose between five of them. Prince SeungHoon asked for the kingdom to build a statue in the main market in their honor instead as a repayment of their service. Prince Mino would like to have a feast prepare for them before they go back. Prince SeungYoon added that the princess should have the freedom to marry anyone she liked instead, without worrying about politics. Prince TaeHyun would like some information about dragon, if they had them.

 

The King and Queen were happy to grant all their requests. The Princess, strangely enough, went back to sleep.

 

The next day, the five princes left the kingdom to go back to their own kingdom.

 

And they live happily ever after until the next quest.

 

The End (for now)

 

AN: there is one quote from Albert Einstein in here, can anyone spot it? (^-^)

Review and feedback are greatly appreciated.