A/N: My stupid computer crashed just whilst I was in the middle of finishing updating this chapter, ffs. As much as I am pissed right now, i'm still going to rewrite again anywayss. But seriously tho, aff needs to do something about this, it's happening too often lately

Making sure that you had your bathrobe on first, you immediately bursted the door wide open, you stood there with your breath heavy, your hands tightening in to a closed fist which made your knuckles white whilst your head turned from left to right in an attempt to look for the little rascals. How dare they try and ruin your relaxing bath just when you were right in the middle of it?

The hallway in front of you was clear and it seemed empty at first, however, having a sharp eye, you noticed a shadow or two slipping down the stairs in a fraction of a second, but you were still able to notice.

"Obvious, much?" you said, smirking

Without hesitation, you immediately legged it and sprinted down the stairs to try and catch them. You came to a halt once you arrived at the bottom of the stairs, to your surprise you had found that no one was there and it was pretty much uninhabited. They were quick. You were curious as to know where they had gone, but then again, they are probably still within the palace, giggling and smirking like idiots whilst hiding in a corner by now.

To be honest, you already had a feeling of who it might be, there's only a few people in your mind that is mischevious enough to have done this on the first day of meeting someone, even you, a princess.

You decided to follow their version of the hide and seek game. You began searching the hallways and peeking in almost every room you walked past, not forgetting to check in all the edges of the palace, however, the place still seemed desserted. 'Damn, they're good' you thought. It seemed like they weren't even in the building and were gone, missing somewhere. You smiled at that cruel thought.

You went to the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and you even took a little peek for them outside in the garden even if it was almost night and asked the maids in the kitchen if they have seen any little 'suspicious ones', but they simply just shook their heads saying no, and you pursed your bottom lip in response.

After a while, you grew tired. You still didn't find anyone of their hiding spots yet, so you gave up with a deep and heavy sigh of defeat. You placed your hands on your hips and pouted your lips in despair. You decided that you weren't going to look for them anymore and that it doesn't matter because you have more clothes upstairs anyway.

You practically just stood there, cold in nothing but your bath robe to kep you warm with wet hair. 

"Whatever" you mumbled. You were about to make your way back up the stairs, when all of a sudden you hear small sounds of giggling coming from the living room.

Raising an eyebrow, you walked across the hallway that led to it and went in to the room, it seemed blaitantly empty at first, but clearly you knew that it wasn't. Obviously they're within the room, somewhere. You were just left surprised because you had been in here before, but didn't even notice a thing.

"All right," you said "That's enough now"

No response

"Seriously guys"

As much as you threaten them, they still seem to not want to co operate with you.

You were standing in the rim of the doorway, ready to leave. "Fine. It doesn't matter anyway; I have more clothes upstairs" you said sassily as you tured your back to begin walking away

"Aigo, princess, you're really no fun" a voice said behind you. You turned around in response.

Baekhyun.

And it seemed that he had been hiding behind that over-sized curtain all along.

"I knew it was you," you said "Is your little sidekick there, too?"

"Chanyeol? Nah" he replied, approaching you with your clothes clutched within his hands

"Right. Well, if you don't mind, can I have my clothes back now please?" you extended your arm and showed him your palm, but he stayed eye contact with you, you just narrowed your eyes in return

"Why do you seem so unfriendly towards us?" he asked out of the blue. You made a face at his random question, you didn't want to answer it, so instead you chose to ignore it and try to snatch your pajamas out of his hands, but he dodged it. "Tell me" he said

You rolled your eyes. "Your-question-is- irrelevant - to this - situation" you said inbetween, trying to grab your clothes back from him but he kept on snatching it back and dodging you. He smiled at the sight of you try and get it back.

"Pff, fine then," he said "Yeol, catch!" Baekhyun threw your pajamas high in the air above your head before a very tall Chanyeol who was just a few centimetres behind you had catched it whilst it was still in mid air, you were startled at his sudden appearance. He was holding it high above his head, so you wouldn't be able to catch it.

"Hi again, princess" he greeted

You sighed and put your head down before looking back up again "Look guys, this isn't funny anymore, just give it back" you jumped up high in an attempt to catch it from Chanyeol, but failed miserably because he was just too tall.

"Let's play a game," he said, smirking "Baekhyun, get it!" Chanyeol threw it over your head and it practically flew, however Baekhyun still managed to catch it. The two looked at each other and a mischevious smile crept on both of their lips. 'Weirdos' you thought. You walked over to Baekhyun to get it back, but he just threw it to Chanyeol, then from Chanyeol to Baekhyun, etc.

After a while, it turned to a tiring game of piggy in the middle. You, being the miserable piggy in the middle, that is. You grew tired and your breath became heavier, you felt like you were running out of energy already. You hated this game so much, even the normal piggy in the middle when you were just a little girl was horrible because you always could never catch the ball.

And here they were, the two scallywags that were like two mean kids on the playground, you felt like you were being bullied by them already and the first day hasn't even finished yet. Chanyeol and Baekhyun just laughed because no matter how hard you tried, you still couldn't catch up with them.

"Meh, this is getting boring," Chanyeol said, your hopes got high and you thought that they would soon stop, but no "Sehun-ah!" he yelled whilst turning around and threw it to Sehun who was standing in the middle of the hallway which led to the living room and he catched it, but he gave a look that gave you the idea that he wasn't involved in this at all. Sehun, as a first impression, didn't seem that annoying at first, well, not up to the level of annoying as the duo Chuck and Larry here, so you thought that you might get your way round with him. 'Not Sehun as well' you thought. You walked towards him "Sehun-ssi, would you please give me back my clothes, please?" you asked politely, handing out your arm. You looked to your right to find Chanyeol signalling to him that he shouldn't listen to what you say "You just shh, okay?" you nudged Chanyeol with your elbow

You were still waiting for Sehun to give it back, when all of a sudden you heard faint whispherings coming from the stairs. "Sehun-ie"

You tilted your head in ultimate confusion and stormed across the hallway to get nearer to the stairs and to your shock and surprise, you found Luhan sitting half way between the stairs, his arms reaching out and his hands were out whilst his fingers spread wide, ready to catch. Sehun, being an awkward turtle, listened to his hyung and carelessly tossed it to Luhan, who, when receiving it, seemed overly amused at when he caught it and immediately scurried up the stairs like a mouse whilst laughing.

"Come up here, princess!" yelled Luhan

"YES LUHAN!" Baekhyun cheered

"When you're ready come and get it, na na na na" Chanyeol sang

"Luhan as well? Oh for godsake," you said in frustration "I feel like I hate you guys already"

***

A few days had passed since EXO's arrival. And yes, in the end, you did get your pajamas back. After chasing Luhan, you found yourself in a second round of piggy in the middle with Luhan and Lay, Suho had appeared and surprisingly joined in as well, but, after sometime, you gave up and showed your anger and frustration, and the boys gave it back to you in sympathy because they said that you were 'too cute that they didn't want you to cry'.

You were confused about them. Actually, no, you were confused about boys in general. They endlessly tease you and annoy the heck out of you, and the next minute they're calling you cute? You know that some people say that when boys tease girls, it generally means they like them, but to you, it's nonsense and a stupid way of showing someone that you like they. Obviously that person's just not going to like you back if you act that way towards them.

Since that day, it had been somewhat awkward between you and EXO. It's been rather loud and noisy in their rooms, and you were the one having to deal with it since you did live just two doors down. You occassionally bumped in to some of them in the palace, some of them were the nice ones, like Xiumin and Chen which you kindly greeted, most of them were the annoying ones that stole your clothes whilst you were taking a bath not so long ago. During meal times, it was hard because you had to keep up a fake smile for your father, too. He seemed to like them a lot, and you probably gave him the impression that you and the guys are getting along well, but he has no idea what they're actually like.

Right now, you were in the palaces' library. These days, it seemed like one of the only places in the palace where you could get away and feel again what it's like to be at peace. No boys, no 'EXO' , it was just you and the thousands of books there. You liked reading, but not big pages with big words. It puts you off slightly. You consider yourself to be quite intelligent, and being 19, you had already finished homeschooled high school, college was an option, but as a royal, your dad says that you should put your priorities first.

You randomly picked out a non-fiction book that just happened to be fashion and textiles based. You began flicking through the pages and adored the beautiful designs of the different styles and variety of clothes that they had drawn and made. You were quite a girly girl indeed, hence the reason why you have such a pink, princess-like bedroom. "This should keep me occupied" you said to yourself.

You made your way out of the library, with the book clutched in your hand and against your rib cage, when all of a sudden, you had mistakenly bumped in to someone, making you startled and made you drop your book to the floor.

"Ugh, not you agai-"

You stopped when you realised that the boy who had dropped your book began to pick it up, he looked up at you and held the book in his hand. It was Kris.

"Sorry?" he said

"Oh, I-sorry. I didn't mean you" you said shyly, tucking your hair behind your ear 

"Oh," he replied "then, who were you talking to?"

"No one," you said anxiously "Don't worry about it"

"I see.  Who did you think I was to make you greet me in such a tone?" he asked, smiling

"Ah, I-um, I thought you were one of the other EXO members"

"Hm, they've been annoying you, huh?"

"Um, yeah.." you admitted shyly

"Well, they're like that" he replied, smiling

"Yeah, I know" you said, smiling back

It was awkward between you two for a moment before he finally broke it off. "Well, uh, I guess I will see you around, princess MiNa-ssi. Oh, here's your book back." he said, handing it over. You thanked him and you both bowed to each other before you were about to leave. 

'Kris isn't bad, actually' you thought.

The library was upstairs, you walking through the hallway and were about to go downstairs so that you could go and check out the book outside in the garden since it was still early afternoon, however, you stopped when you were hearing some voices that included some words that made you perk up your ears.

"She seems so cold, though" a voice said at the bottom of the stairs

"Why do you think she got her nickname for?" another says

"Oh, sir, please, tell us what we can do to at least make her warm up to us. We're her suitors for crying out loud, and honestly, she doesn't seem to like any of us since the first day. If she never will like us then it's useless."

All of a sudden, a familiar voice spoke. "Well, it's why I brought you guys here, isn't it? For someone to suit her? And if none of you can manage to win my daughters heart, then i'm afraid that's that. I'm giving you a chance here, though. Have you even really tried to talk to her properly? Why don't you try courting her with flowers or presents? I know it seems hard but she's definitely not easy."

It was your dad that was speaking. You didn't like the fact that he's helping them out to 'woo' you, but you did appreciate the fact that he pointed out that they weren't even making an effort at all.

"Oh, now I see where i've gone wrong. Dammit, guys, we all should have presented her a rose or something like that on the first day. Something prince-charming like."

"Well, at least we can win the princess' heart in our own ways. You know, solo solo. The one who captures her heart is the winner!  Maybe if I make up a technique, she can fall in love with me in a week."

"Hah, you wish. She said she already hates us anyway."

"Did she? Noooooooooo."

"Yes, pabo. She said it when we played that prank on her, remember?"

"Oh yeah"

"Well, whatever. I'm the one whose going to end up with the princess anyway"

"No you're not, cause I am. I, Byun Baekhyun, will earn the love of the princess!"

You frowned slightly at the conversation. The way they were talking made it sound as if they were debating over you, the 'award' after everything, and you didn't like it. You hated being used and taken advantage of, and their conversation made you annoyed slightly. 

You decided not to listen to their conversation anymore but instead join them and made your way down the stairs and immediately you met eyes with the bunch that was just talking about you. Pretty much all the EXO members were there, but you weren't sure since you didn't count, even Kris was there. However, most of the conversation you heard was between the five people that pranked you the other day. You decided to ignore the rest, "Hi, dad" you emphasized on his name

"MiNa, we were just talking about you" he replied

"Yeah. I heard," you say, sounding annoyed, your head turned to face the boys "Oh, by the way, can you talk about me like i'm not some prize to be won?" you said with an attitude. You walked past them, your book still clutched in your hand and you were about to go outside to the garden like you were planning to. 

"Princess..." You turned around and saw Luhan step out from the rest "What can we do to win your heart?"

You looked at him with bewildering eyes, wondering what to reply to his question. The rest of the members stood there waiting for your response, however, someone else spoke.

"Man, you can't," said Baekhyun stepping out "It's like she's got a bear trap around her heart"

You flashed a fake smile at Luhan "Well, there you go, question answered" and you left to go outside to the garden where you can get some sense of peace and be completely alone.