(note: let's just say, for the sake of this fic, that in ancient korea there were many girls with short hair. So Key, Hae and Ye dont really stand out. Enjoy this chapter ^^)

Entrance to the Royal Palace --- Side Door

It was a bright, sunny day when all the girls arrived at the Royal Palace. The sight was spectacular- a long, twisting line of carriages filtered through the side gate of the palace, each holding one of the 'flowers' the King or Princes were going to choose from. Carriages of all different shapes, sizes and colours were pulled by horses and each stopped at a selected area to drop off their own 'flower'.

The girls were all helped off their carriage before being led to a spacious courtyard filled with beautiful roses, peonies, frangipanis and chrysanthemums. They stood in small groups, talking and complimenting each other, some friends from before, some just met.

Key was standing quietly by himself near a pink frangipani tree as he observed how the other girls acted. He was standing half behind the tree as he tried to hide himself from the view of anyone else as he was wearing quite a revealing dress. It was the same turquoise/ pink off-the-shoulder dress he put on two days ago before he left his house. Honestly it was very uncomfortable as there was spiky stuffing sown inside the dress to imitate s.

As he saw some girls walking closer towards his hideout, Key shuffled backwards and more into the tree until he bumped into someone else. Yelping out of surprise he quickly whirled around to find another... girl?

Key was trying to decide whether the person in front of him was a girl or not. Because they were very pretty with a sky blue dress but something was off... Key's thoughts were interrupted as the person spoke.

"Ah mianhae." the person spoke with a slightly deep voice.

Key just stared at the person before blurting out, "Are you a boy?"

The person looked at Key with wide eyes and jaw drop before quickly looking down when he realised he just gave himself away. "O-oh... PLEASE DON'T TELL ANYONE! PLEASE!" he suddenly shouted, as quietly as possible, dropping to the ground and kneeling in front of Key.

This time it was time for Key to be wide eyed. Immediately crouching in front of the now confirmed to be boy, Key lifted the boy's head and whispered. "It's okay. I won't tell. Because I'm a boy too."

The boy gaped before smiling cutely. "Oh really? I'm Lee Donghae. Nice to meet you."

Key returned the smile and introduced himself too. "I'm Kim Kibum. But you can call me Key. And I'm only sixteen."

"Oh sixteen? Th