Seventeen Preferences & Scenarios

Crown Prince Junhui

• Prince Junhui — to the kingdom, their precious and handsome crown prince, and to the court, an annoying brat who never so much as puts a single toe in the council room

• spends most of his time being chased by his three bodyguards

• his parents hired that many to try and get him to stay still for ten seconds at a time

• occasionally also chased by his tutor Jihoon

• who is Jun's age, but seems so much more mature

• his bodyguards (Wonwoo, Mingyu and Minghao) spend days searching the castle and grounds and the royal city

• when in fact Jun is in the kitchens helping the staff, disguised in a servant's uniform he stole from the laundry and pretending to be a normal guy

• so far he hasn't let on that he's the crown prince

• he claims he was born a month after the crown prince and so his parents decided to name him after the prince

• people buy it, there's probably thousands of boys named Jun running around after the king and queen named their son that

• he also sneaks out to the stables or the gardens, or just helps out around the palace

• he's made many friends among the servants — a kitchen boy named Seungcheol, a stablehand named Jeonghan, a gardener named Joshua, two servants named Seokmin and Seungkwan, and so many more

• but when not in his stolen uniform he dresses semi-formally

• enjoys wearing capes, especially those one-shoulder capes

• doesn't wear a crown often, just a simple thin band of gold around his forehead and half hidden by his hair

• he's actually quite bright, but won't pay attention in his lessons

• he skips lessons and plays the piano a good bit of the time as well

• one day his bodyguards blow up at him

• and Wonwoo, without thinking, shouts "do you even try?"

• big mistake

• Jun's eyes fill with tears and shame and he bows his head

• and spills his story

• he's the king's illegitimate son but the queen adopted him so that there would be no inheritance issues

• for all the world knows, he's the legal heir to the throne but he knows he's illegitimate and it kills him

• he doesn't think he's worthy of the crown because of this

• so he tries to be such a disgrace that his parents come around to his way of thinking and he doesn't have to take a crown he's not born for

• and his bodyguards are staring at him and Minghao breaks the silence

• "we never knew," he whispers. "are you all right?"

• Jun doesn't meet his eyes

• the next day Wonwoo makes up some bogus excuse that Jun requires a change of air for his health and the king and queen are more than happy to oblige

• Jun is packed off to the seaside with his bodyguards and tutor

• and to his distress, three of the servants he's befriended as Jun, the castle's all-work boy

• no one else though

• on one of the stops on the way, one of the servants shifts from foot to foot and