quick question! do y'all want to see me, like a face reveal djdkrndm idk most of y'all probably seen my face thO bUt–

YEAH ITS UP TO Y'ALL

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        3RD PERSONS VIEW。

by the hand, taeyong held her securely as he guided both of them back to the study. outside stood a very worried jungwoo, he was a bit mad at himself for letting jaeyoung wander off and get lost. once he saw both of them, a sigh of relief escapes his mouth and he ran towards them.

out of a sudden, the prince engulfs the girl into a hug, "i told you not to wander off so much, see? you got lost!" he scolded softly, tousling her hair as he let go and look down at her.

jaeyoung scrunched her nose, chucking lightly as a light blush of embarrassment covered her cheeks, "i'm sorry, i got caught up with the oil painting portraits."

taeyong glanced at her, "do we look that good?" a smug grin creeping up his face.

"don't get your hopes high." she replied bluntly making the prince dramatically gasp in a teasing manner.

"that hurts, little lady!" taeyong mocks as they entered the study.

"i'm not even that little!" the girl whines as faces taeyong with an annoyed expression.

the playful prince scoffed, "our height differences say otherwise."

"okay, you need to stop doing that." jaehyun crossed his arms and gestured the girl to sit beside him.

"what do you mean?" taeyong raised a brow at his brother.

"that 'otherwise' thing you've been doing." the younger points out and taeyong laughs knowing that he also said something similar to jaehyun.

"us jae's don't deserve to get mocked like that." jaehyun huffed as jaeyoung agreed quickly.

taeyong rolls his eyes, "not gonna stop any soon." he snickers and sat on the chair in front of jaeyoung, he then turns to face them. "you stole my chair, and attention. great job jaeyoung."

the girl was startled by that and averted her gaze onto something else, not wanting to lock eyes with the prince's sharp eyes.

taeyong pursed his lips, "you need to stop avoiding my gaze every time i look at you." he uttered before facing front.

doyoung cleared his throat, "probably because she can't stand your face."

"wanna get hit?" taeyong said jokingly while doyoung stifled a laugh, "rather not."

"seems like you're still here." taeil muttered as he noticed the girl once he stepped in the study.

taeil chose to sit beside taeyong and before he did, he looked at his brothers with a stern look, "it's not good to let her stay, it's gonna get dark soon, a lady needs to get home early."

jungwoo nodded his head, "we'll send her home after the short meeting."

taeil sighed in relief, "good." he gazes upon jaeyoung, "do you want or need anything?"

the girl shakes her head, "no, thank you."

taeil hums in acknowledgement, "okay, just ask me if you need anything."

"noted." she nods curtly.

a few minutes passed and they heard loud noises just outside the room, the older ones immediately expected that it was their younger brothers because of how loud they were.

the door bursts open revealing the young ones, however renjun wasn't present.

taeyong tilts his head, noticing that they weren't complete, "oh? where's renjun?"

chenle pouts, "he said he wasn't in the mood..."

doyoung shot his head up, remembering what had occurred awhile ago and called out for taeyong, "let renjun be for awhile. he needs some time alone."

taeil and taeyong nodded, "okay, it's fine, this meeting isn't that important anyways."

as the quintet walked in further into the study, that's when chenle, and jisung noticed the new presence in the room.

their eyes widened in surprise, a bit flustered to see her in the palace.

"e-eh?" jisung stumbled upon his words, not being able to say anything at all as he continued to stare at her.

"oi, staring is bad." jaemin snapped his fingers in front of jisung's eyes and the younger immediately directed his eyes somewhere else, his brows furrowing as a pink blush dusted his cheeks in embarrassment.

"i-i'm sorry." the younger bowed and scrambled to his seat at the back.

chenle laughed at his brother's embarrassed behavior before waving at the girl, "nice to see you here, lady jaeyoung!" he beamed happily.

"nice to see you, too, chenle!" the girl greeted back with the same amount of energy the boy did.

once they all got seated they decided to start the meeting, despite them not being complete. the other princes were busy running their own errands that the king has given them, so they were excused.

minseok mainly discussed their future schedules, which only consisted of training, studying, and preparing for the efflorescence season. once the meeting was done, the young ones immediately said their farewell to the lady before running off, saying that they had to look for renjun.

taeil glanced at the clock, seeing that it was already seven o' clock in the evening. he looked at the girl worriedly, "um, jaeyoung?"

the girl gave him a questioning look as he scrunches his nose, "it's seven, we're gonna have dinner soon..."

"oh, don't worry i'll—"

"i was actually going to ask if you wanted to stay for dinner." taeil cuts her off, knowing that she was gonna scurry home.

she sat frozen in her spot, quite shocked at the sudden invitation. she most certainly did not want to have dinner with the whole royal family. she knew how uncomfortable she would feel, especially since she despises their royal status.

"w-well..." she tried to form words, unfortunately for her, she was too overwhelmed to do so.

jungwoo noticed her struggling and stood up, "i don't think she's comfortable yet with that."

taeil hummed, "i mean, we could have a separate dinner with the king and queen... if you want." he trails off, eyes still on the girl.

taeyong clapped his hands, "let's have a separate dinner then?"

"wait, i didn't say—" she panicked.

"we're the ones who invited you over, at least eat something before you go home." taeyong told her and stood up as well.

"but," she bit her bottom lip, contemplating hard about it. "i mean, not everyone is actually happy with me being around..." she trails off nervously.

jaeyoung knew that some of the princes weren't fond of having her around. those were probably renjun, doyoung, chittaphon, youngho, and possibly kun as well. the girl didn't want to create another tension between the brothers that could worsen their relationship with each other, knowing how one's emotion could tend to get.

seeing how renjun bursted awhile ago, she knew that she had to leave right away because of it.

doyoung's eyes softened at her words and sighed, "she's quite right, hyung."

"is that so?" taeil hummed, "are you okay with not having dinner before going home?"

she nods, "it's fine, i'll just eat something when i get home." she smiles at them.

taeil pursed his lips, his hands on his waist, finally giving in, "okay, just make sure you eat something when you get home."

"i'll go tell the chauffeur to get ready." jaehyun said and stood up.

jungwoo nudged doyoung and the boy immediately gave him a look of confusion, "hmm?"

jungwoo eyed jaeyoung for awhile before looking back at him, as if signaling him that he should talk to her. doyoung got the signal and sneered. jungwoo glared at him lightly before walking up to taeil, "hyung! let's go get jaeyoung's things."

"wait– what?" taeil was about to refuse when he got literally dragged by jungwoo out the study.

doyoung felt a bit uncomfortable being alone in the same room with taeyong and jaeyoung. memories of their encounter at the bakery went rushing in his brain as he looked at them.

he grunts and stands up, "daisy, let's go roam around for a bit."

daisy? taeyong flinches at the sudden nickname.

jaeyoung nods at him and stands up, "okay."

"do you want to come with us, hyung?" doyoung offered, not wanting his brother to be left out.

taeyong felt a weird nostalgic feeling between them, it's like it happened before, but it wasn't jaeyoung. it was mina.

taeyong swallowed the thick lump in his throat, "i guess it wouldn't hurt to roam around a bit." he mumbled and stood up.

the three of them left the study as doyoung lead the way. they went down a different hall this time, which made jaeyoung look around, scanning the paintings that she had yet to see awhile ago.

the paintings were mostly landscapes of heraphany, yet there were portraits of the royal family from time to time.

as they walked down the hall, her eyes trailed onto every bit of painting there was until it caught one painting.

she gawked at the huge painting as it covered a lot of space on the wall. she noticed how it was a painting of the eighteen brothers and was happy to see a painting with all eighteen of them on it. however, she frowned upon seeing their down expressions.

her brows furrowed, why do they look... sad.

she didn't notice how she had stopped in front of the painting.

the boys continued to walk and came to an abrupt stop when they noticed the girl was no longer in between them. they looked at each other before they glanced back to see the girl still, staring at the painting in front of her.

doyoung eyed taeyong and the boy nodded walking towards jaeyoung.

he stood behind her, also glancing up at the huge painting. something struck in his heart as he eyed their faces. this was painted a month after the incident, he thought.

"don't we look good?" taeyong startles her with his deep voice.

jaeyoung shot him a look, "you look sad." she replied.

taeyong chuckled dryly, "we do. don't we."

"you must've hurt a lot." jaeyoung mumbled sadly.

taeyong pats her head, "we're okay now," he said and gave a final look at the painting, "we're finally being healed." he smiles and locks eyes with her.

jaeyoung frowned, "you don't deserve to get hurt."

taeyong perplexed at her words.

"because all you wanted to be accepted as a regular person."

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