Baekhyun tapped his chin as he considered his plan. He looked over at Byul who was practicing her sword skills in the yard while he read his books and lazed around in his quarters.

Byul did a double flip in the air and pointed the sword visciously in front of her, as if imagining her enemy.

Baekhyun gulped. *Am I sure I want to do this?* he thought, having second thoughts.

Baekhyun shook his head and knocked his own head. "You're not going to bow down defeated by a girl like this, Byun Baekhyun." he told himself sternly. "You have to show her that she isn't a threat at all! In her face!" he punched his fists in the air to cheer himself up.

He grinned and clapped himself. He needed a little adventure or he'd go mad. The life in the Palace was luxurious and everything, but it was terribly boring at times.

He thought about the other EXO-K princes and how they would want to join him on this adventure. He grinned and shook his head. "Sorry guys. This time, it's adventure for myself." he whispered in glee.

-----

Baekhyun's plan could only be executed once he went for luncheon with his parents.

He walked cockily over to his parents' quarters with Byul following behind him. They bickered all the way and it was getting a little old. Initially the other maids around were simply astonished that someone would dare to say something bad to the Crown Prince, but this was now an everyday occurrance that they didn't think much of it.

If Baekhyun suddenly said something nice to Byul, or Byul was suddenly gentle or respectful towards Baekhyun, the others would know that something must be dreadfully wrong.

Baekhyun went into the King's quarters and Byul went off to the Imperial Kitchen to get her lunch. Chanyeol and her would always talk in that little garden of theirs now.

It had turned into their little secret meeting place that no one knew about since the garden was rather deserted. She gathered that the other princes didn't know about Chanyeol meeting her every lunch, and deduced that she didn't have any reason to tell others about it either.

What Byul didn't know was that our dear Crown Prince was a little more intellectual than she had imagined.

Baekhyun had caught on rather quickly that Byul was always doing something for lunch. Not that he cared what she was doing anyway, that girl could go and die and he wouldn't even be bothered to shed crocodile tears.

The thing was that Byul would always return rather late from her lunch breaks, but always just in time to catch Baekhyun from slipping away.

But would she always?

Baekhyun grinned to himself as he greeted his parents. He was going to make things different today.

"You're looking smiley today Baekhyun." The Queen noticed with a chuckle. "Anything good happened?" she asked, curious.

Baekhyun smiled. *Yes. I'm about to throw the Puppy Han Eunbyul off and I can't wait to do it.* He waited for his parents to start eating, and he immediately reached for his chopsticks and stuffed a large mouthful of rice into his mouth.

"Nothing." Baekhyun told his parents. Except it came out something like mmaaafingg. He shook his head and swallowed the rice, gulping down his soup. "I'm just in a good mood today." he fibbed.

"Oh?" The King smiled. "That's good. I never really liked how you always fooled around with those girls or slumped like you were dead when Dahae went away." he murmured.

"My Lord!" The Queen hissed. She darted to look at Baekhyun and was relieved to see that he wasn't as affected as she thought he would be. "Baekhyun, your father is talking nonsense."

"What nonsense?" the King snorted. "He's always grumping and scowling because Dahae isn't here. Honestly Baekhyun, you need to give her up. I never thought she was good enough for you anyway. The next Queen of Korea can't be someone like her, you know."

"Hmm." Baekhyun continued eating, stuffing another large piece of duck meat and some freshly fried vegetables into his mouth.

"You can't be so direct about it my lord!" The Queen shook her head. "It's still something our son is sore about right?" she looked at Baekhyun. "He's better now isn't he?"

The King chuckled and smiled at his son. "Yeah. I'm really glad that he's not going to have any chances to fool around with the other girls in the palace any longer. Han Eunbyul is really a good choice for a bodyguard." he praised. "Baekhyun needs someone exactly like her."

"Hmm." Baekhyun murmured again, slurping down the soup.

"I told you Eunbyul is someone trustworthy." the Queen grinned. "She's really someone that's suitable for taking Baekhyun in hand. Our son needs to be taught the hard way and we just aren't free enough to do it. Now Eunbyul will do it for us." she smiled.

"I'm done!" Baekhyun wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve and grinned at his parents. "I'm going off now. It's nice eating with Abeoji and Omonim!" he stood up and quickly rushed away.

The Queen and King blinked at their son's abrupt departure as the door slammed close. The Queen looked over at the King. "Why is he in such a hurry?"

The King shrugged. "No idea." he said honestly. He thought about Baekhyun's speed eating the whole way and something just didn't feel right.

"Oh wait." he raised a brow. "Does that mean he hadn't listened to a single thing we were talking about?"

The Queen blinked. "Oh."

-----

Baekhyun resisted the urge to let out a whoop as he ran away from his parents' quarters. He had nearly choked himself to death by trying to eat so quickly. He never did and it was seriously blocking his throat.

But it was all worth it because Byul was nowhere to be seen. It had only been ten minutes tops since he went to his parents' quarters to have his lunch. Byul would still be eating somewhere in the Palace, doing whatever she usually did during this time.

Baekhyun smirked and ran back to his quarters, looking through his wardrobe for the ugliest set of clothes he had. They were a dark blue robe that was made of less expensive material compared to his other robes and definitely cheaper looking.

But still, it looked like what someone of importance would wear.

"Aha, this is it." Baekhyun quickly threw his current robe off and wore the ugly one. "I knew this ugly robe from Minister Kang would be useful someday." he muttered. "No one would know I'm the Crown Prince if I dress shabbily."

Except this robe wasn't exactly shabby, but in contrast to his other clothes, it was.

Baekhyun pulled on another black hat and fixed his robe. He grinned to himself in the mirror for the last time before running off. He reached the secret escape route he usually used whenever he wanted to escape out of the Palace in the past and scaled the wall.

He was going to succeed this time.

"Hmm, this egg tastes really good with the seaweed." Byul munched. She looked at Chanyeol uncertainly. "You sure you don't want it?"

*Babo. I ordered it from the kitchen for you.* Chanyeol bit back his words. He shook his head and smiled at Byul. "I'm okay. You can have it."

To be honest, he made the Imperial Kitchen prepare larger amounts of food for him that usual so that he could give some to Byul. He really didn't like the diet the kitchen prepared for her, and wanted to do something about it. This was the only thing that he could think of.

Till now, the other EXO-K princes still didn't know where he went exactly during lunch. They just knew Chanyeol didn't want to eat with them anymore and had no idea where he was going.

And Chanyeol didn't want to tell them either. He knew Sehun would whine and want to tag along, and he knew Sehun's aegyo charms were things that was impossible to resist.

The only way was for the princes to be totally ignorant of what was happening behind their backs.

"Oh look, there's the kitten you saved." Chanyeol pointed as a white furry kitten appeared from the flower bed and made it's way towards Byul like it recognized his savior. Byul smiled and opened her hands and the kitten snuggled in her warmth naturally.

"It's so cute." Byul smiled as she behind the kitten's ears. Chanyeol looked at her. *You too.*

They continued chatting for a bit, until something unexpected happened.

An attendant that served at Baekhyun's quarters called Sulli came running frantically. "Byul!" she panted. "Something went wrong! The Crown Prince is missing!"

Byul shot up immediately. *Oh no.*