Princes in Love

✾13✾

It was the next day and all of the princes was out in the castle garden having a fun-filled picnic. According to their parents, the other seven princes were supposed to stay at Hongjoong's place for a week, but since the queens missed one another, they had managed to persuade their husbands into letting them stay longer.

So instead of a week they are going to be staying at the Kim's for the rest of the month, which was three weeks to be exact. And the eight princes couldn't be even more happier.

“Hey Jongho, pass me an apple will you?”

“Here you go Seonghwa hyung”

“Thanks, hey is there a knife in there as well? I only wanna eat half of it”

“No there is not, but don't worry I can split it in half with my hands if you'd like?”

“You? With your bare hands? How's that possible?”

“Well I do more than enough exercise in my free time”

“Oh really? Well then be my guest” Giving the red fruit to the youngest, Seonghwa and the others waited to see Jongho break the apple.

Crack. With one flick of the wrist,  Jongho literally broke the apple in half with his bare hands, the older princes were surprised with the younger strength that they made a mental note not to mess with the younger prince.

Done eating their food, the princes were now goofing off, well more like the younger princes were goofing off,while the two oldest stayed at the picnic blanket and just watched the others from afar playing chase.

“Anything interesting that happened to you lately?” Hongjoong spoke to break the comfortable silence around them.

“Nothing really, I would say finding the stone was the only thing that was interesting, but its all just being a prince and doing my duty”

“I see... How about being interested in someone, did your father force you into a relationship?”

“Really? all of a sudden?” Seonghwa was confused on why Hongjoong wanted to know about his love life. “What, it was the only question that came into my mind”

“I'm not telling you”

“Why? Aw come on Hwa please, I'm just curious if I know anybody that you've dated”

For some reason Seonghwa liked the way how his nickname sounded coming from the younger's mouth. Facing the younger to get a look at him, he was met with an adorable face from the other prince; big doe eyes sparkling, cheeks puffed out a bit making them look softer,and his bottom lip jutted out which Seonghwa found them captivating and that he wanted to kis-

“Prince Hongjoong!” Getting startled by someone screaming, the older prince blinked and averted his eyes to somewhere else that is not Hongjoong for the moment.“Maddox hyung? Is there something wrong?”Coming over to the princes who were on the blanket, the servant bowed to them and addressed the news.

“The King wants you to go into town and do patrol”

“And here I thought I was free from duty for today, guess not. Have my horse and three guards ready I'll be there soon, thanks hyung”

“Of course Prince Joong”

His servant going back to the castle, Hongjoong sighed and stood up from where he was seated and looked at Seonghwa who was fiddling with his hands.

“You can stay here and watch over them, and get inside when thay start to complain about being tired and bored”

“I'll come with you, I can send you off”

“What about the others?” both of the princes looked at the other seven to see what they were doing. They were now playing hide and seek with Mingi as the seeker, and San is trying to climb the tree for his hiding spot.

“They'll be fine, let's go”

Not letting the younger complain, Seonghwa was now pulling his arm to get to the entrance of the castle.

Arriving to the entrance, the princes greeted the guards who will be accompaning the prince around the town. Petting his white horse to let him know that his owner has arrived, Hongjoong climbed onto the saddle that was on Star's back.

“You be careful out there”

“Relax Seonghwa its just patrol in the town, and besides I have the guards with me and I know how to use a sword”

“Still, you never know what could happen”

“Alright alright, I'll be careful. Gosh did you become more of a mom?”

“Haha very funny, now go”

Not wasting anymore time the second eldest prince and the three guards left the palace grounds.

The town was as peaceful as ever, vendors trying to get customers to buy their products, kids running and playing, and everytime someone would notice the prince they would greet him. Everything seems to be in order, up until some screams were heard behind Hongjoong and his men.

“SOMEONE HELP! THIEVES!”

As the man continued to plead for help, the prince and two guards followed the bandits, while one guard helped calm down the citizen and made sure no one was hurt. The advantage that Hongjoong and his guards had was that they were riding horses while the thieves were running on foot, but they can sure run fast, close to catching them, one of them went the other way.

“You two follow them, I'll get the eacapee.”

Changing his horse's direction, the prince tried his best in catching the crook, to his luck the thief tripped and fell. Getting off from his horse Hongjoong went to confront the bandit.

“Stop right there thief” The prince stated while drawing out his sword. What Hongjoong noticed was that the thief was wearing a familiar kind of hat.“Show me your face” At the prince's command the bandit turned around, and when Hongjoong saw the front of the thief, fear was evident in his face.

“Hello prince, nice to see you again”