Miss Royalty // BTS AU

Chapter Nine

23 Days Left Until The Ball

Chip and Ruby had gotten up early this morning to get themselves ready for the annual Flower Expo at Tango Garden. Upon their arrival, they spot tibias who looks like he's observing the flowers up close. Ruby surprisingly greets Prince Taehyung which he blanks out of space, snapping back to reality. "Greetings, Princess," he quietly mumbles.

"I see you like looking at the flowers up close," Ruby giggles. "It's just, all the flowers have many different colors which are amazingly nice, but what's so special about flowers?" He suddenly asks which Ruby stops smiling and wondered what kind of answer would she respond to his question. "No matter what kind of situation you're in, flowers open your heart," Ruby smiles.

Her answer actually changes his heart and made Prince Taehyung learned something new. "I see," he mumbles as he rubs his chin. "Thank you," he gently bows down at Ruby and walks further to admire the garden's flowers.

"Prince Taehyung is so innocent, he always spends time reading books and studying," Chip said. "We need more princes like Prince Taehyung, instead of Prince Jimin," Chip scoffs and nudges Ruby as they find Prince Jimin hitting on a group of young ladies. Ruby smirks as she calls out to him which the prince becomes startled and avoids the girls and shyly walks over to Ruby.

"What are you up to?" Ruby asked the flirty prince. "N-Nothing, just asking them for directions," he nervously laughs. Ruby gives him a playful glare which scares the prince and scrambles in fright. "Prince Jimin will always be himself," Ruby hears a soft chuckle from behind and when she turns around to face who it was, she sees Prince Namjoon standing with a large bouquet of lilies in his arms.

"My, Prince Namjoon, I wonder who's this lucky lady," Ruby teases causing him to blush furiously. It seems he's a bit embarrassed and Ruby could see how tense up he looks, so she asks him for his reason if he doesn't mind. "Well, these lilies are beautiful which reminded me of my sick sister back home. You see, I'm going to have these lilies ship to my kingdom and have them delivered to my sister."

Ruby felt awfully bad and apologized for earlier. "I hope she recovers soon, I would love to meet your sister someday," Ruby cheers him up. "Thank you, I must get going before the ship leaves." They both bid goodbye and went on their separate ways. As Ruby walks and spotted various flowers, some rare and some common, she instantly bumps into someone.

"Ruby, I'm sorry, but I can't stop, I gotta catch this fly!" Prince Hoseok was busy trying to catch a fly with his bare hands. "I suggest we should follow him," Chip says and Ruby nods in agreement. They follow him chase over a small fly, seeing him jump upwards and side-to-side. He even bumps into random people as he runs by.

Finally with success, Prince Hoseok managed to catch the fly. "You finally caught it after what seemed like an hour and a half," Ruby said as she applauds. "Ruby? H-How long w-were you f-following?" Prince Hoseok stutters, still trapping the fly in his hands. "I was following you behind, why were you chasing a fly?" Ruby asked in disgust.

"Oh, well, I'm going to feed the Venus flytrap," Prince Hoseok said. The Prince clapped his hands together, making sure the fly was half dead. The prince walked his way to the Venus flytrap. Ruby watched as the prince slowly opens his hand and grabs the fly by its wings. He takes the fly and drops it inside the plant's mouth.

They watched in amusement as the Venus flytrap slowly closes its mouth while the fly suffered inside. "Wow, I saw anything like that before," Ruby comments. "Yep, took a lot of work for me to catch a fly, but I managed to feed the Venus flytrap," the Prince proudly stated.

After their small talk about the Venus flytrap, Prince Hoseok had run off to meet up with his friends at Samba Square as he got bored running around in the garden. Ruby and Chip walked around a bit more before not too long the Flower Expo will soon come to an end. As they returned back to where the entrance of Tango Garden, they hear Prince Yoongi calls Ruby's name.

"Prince Yoongi, hi!" Ruby greets the prince. "Hello, Princess Ruby," he bows. "I just wanted to confirm that I would like to teach you and help you improve your dancing skills. I caused a lot of trouble in your own kingdom and the king, your father, wasn't happy. Even my parents had scolded me, which I deserved. What I said at Dance Hall, don't be late, in two days we should meet at Practice Hall." Ruby understood and thanked the prince for his help.

The prince simply smiled and walked off, which made Ruby's heart flutter. "Tomorrow you will start practicing with Jare at Practice Hall," Chip informs Ruby. "There's so much time before the day ends, I still want to find more information about The Lost Prince," Ruby says as they exit Tango Garden.

"You already spoke with mostly the princes, try to ask locals in Samba Square," Chip proposes. "You're right." The two had headed to Samba Square and began to question the locals if they knew anything about The Lost Prince. The aroma of fresh-baked bread meets Ruby's nostrils which Ruby couldn't help but enter the bakery.

"Your royal highness, welcome!" The baker bows. "Hello, I just wanted to ask you if you know anything about The Lost Prince?" She questions the baker. "I apologize, but I don't know much about The Lost Prince, but what I've heard was that the fisherman indeed finds a royal boat which had the royal Dandelion symbol. We knew it belonged to the Dandelion Kingdom. But the prince was not found when the fisherman found the boat. It was around seven in the morning." 

"Well, if anything new about The Lost Prince, please do pass by the castle." Ruby gives the baker a royal pass which allows the baker to legally pass the castle guards and allow him to enter the royal castle gates.

"Thank you, your highness," the baker bows. "No, thank you. I must get going!" Ruby smiles and walks out of the bakery. "Chip, please lead me to the fishing pier, we must meet this fisherman the baker was referring to," Ruby demands, and Chip guide her down Samba Square to the fishing pier.

Upon their arrival, there were many fishermen working, like preparing their boats and ships, gathering tools and fishnets, and loading fishes onto large carts. "Excuse me, sir," Ruby calls out to a random fisherman. "Oh, your highness, what can I help you with?" "I would like to speak with the fisherman who found the royal Dandelion boat many years ago."

"Ahh, that fisherman is Al, he is over there, polishing his boat right now." The fisherman points at a short old bald-headed guy who was polishing the rims of his boat. Ruby thanked the fisherman and walked over to Al as he was whistling a tune while polishing the rims of his fishing boat. "Excuse me, Mr. Al, I would like to ask you about what you know about The Lost Prince."

Al looks app and his eyes widened when he sees Ruby standing right in front of him. "Your highness," he bows down respectively. "You want to know about The Lost Prince? Well, I could tell you that the day I found the royal Dandelion boat early in the morning. When I examined the boat, that's how I discovered the large symbol. II checked inside the boat, but nothing was found."

"Where is the boat? I would like to take a look at it," Ruby demands. "I'm sorry, your highness, but the kingdom's deputy sheriff had taken the boat to their station to inspect it. I think the sheriff may still have the boat right now, the king decided to not return the boat until The Lost Prince is found alive or dead."

"I see, thank you." The fisherman was a great help to investigate more about The Lost Prince, she was able to find more information and she just found out about a royal boat with a royal Dandelion symbol which indicated that it obviously belonged to The Lost Prince. But why did he leave the boat here and ran off?

Where could he run off to and does he know anyone here in the village? "Did the real princess have met The Lost prince before his disappearance?" Ruby asked Chip. "She did meet Prince Jungkook a couple of times during royal holidays and royal dinner parties, but the real princess didn't find the prince interesting nor fond of him." Ruby had an idea, but she'd rather rest back at the castle, she will continue her investigation tomorrow instead...

To Be Continued...

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1,489 Words