“And so like that a spontaneous adventure was born….” I mumbled, flopping back onto my inflated bed. I was currently retelling the story of how I ended up in the Capital to Juniper, a rather tall 13 year old who half listen to my story but also doom scrolled mindlessly on her social media at the same time. 

        Juniper was Charis’ husband little sister, so that made us sister sort of—well according to Juniper’s mother, Mari, who very much welcome me with warm arms whenever I first meet her. She had set me up so that I was sleeping on a blown up mattress in Juniper’s room since the proper guest room was being used as a storage at the moment. 

        At first I didn’t want to invade the younger girl’s privacy, knowing if it was the other way around I would hate it. Turns out, Junpier apparently found me pretty entertaining—especially when she found out that I just moved back from Youngsmore, which was a very famous district that a lot of classic Themolian movies were filmed (although, nowadays, it was full of weird people and very expensive housing…but I keep up the glamour of it for Juniper). The younger girl would consistently chit chat about the latest trends, fashion, and of course;

        “AH! OH MY GOD!” Juniper screamed making me jump and look at her bulging eyes. She was staring at her phone with a big grin plaster on her face before hugging her phone. “ROYAL MY LOVE WHY ARE YOU SO HOT?!”

“H-him again..?” Heart still racing and now sitting up, I look at the girl.

        Apparently, everyone who was anyone—this all according to Juniper—loved the 7 royal princes of Themol. I however, was the exception because I'd been apparently living under a rock. I didn't know anything about the princes—hell, I just found out they were all guys this week, so when I was told they were the most eligible bachelors in this century I was a little taken aback.

        Was I that much in my own world to not know about them for the past 22 years of my life?

        I only really half listened to Juniper when she had ended up ranting about the Aphelion royals—one thing I did know was named ‘Royal’ and he was ‘hotter than any man that has ever lived’ was what the 13 year old had said but then quickly added ‘though the rest of them are all pretty drop dead gorgeous’.

        Juniper notice I was staring off and jumped beside me to show me her phone, “A new picture of Royal was posted on his fan page a few minutes ago! Isn't he hot?! Honestly, I use to be a hardcore Vincent stan until that huge scandal came out about him a year ago—but look at my boy here! How can you not be a Royal stan!?”

        Blankly looking at the phone I see a guy that looked to be around the same age as me with fire red hair that was soaking wet. Hugged around his neck was a fluffy gray towel and as my eyes scrolled down I took note he had no shirt and just wore grey boxers. I almost could have swore there were abs on his abs—was eight packs even real or was this photoshopped?! 

        Although I could definitely see the appeal in was she was showing me, I really didn't like oogling real people like this. Something about it make me feel a bit icky.

“Uhm…very sexy?” I really didn’t know what else to say.

        Juniper gave me an odd look before scrolling through and looking at the post as she spoke; “You never told me which one was your favorite…though let me guess!” She looked at me for a moment tilting her head a bit as if she was getting a read for me. “Definitely not my beloved Royal—not a diss! Just we would have bonded more by now if that was the case…”

        Snapping her finger she pointed to me, “Vincent, yeah? I could see you liking the tall. strong, stoic type…or not?” She added when she didn’t get a reaction. ”If not him…Harlan?! Although it hard to see you liking his c*nty energy…or liking blondes—although then again half of them are blondes…” she mumbled this as she scratched her cheek. 

        When I shook my head, not really knowing what in the world she was saying, she continued: “Maybe you like the fresh meat..? Callahan debuted last year so there isn’t a lot of info on him…but he is pretty damn fine from what I’ve seen—NO NO! I know!” Juniper clapped her hands together, “You into older mature guys, ya? A Kristopher Stan or a Maverick Stan would suit you honestly…though I prefer Kristopher over Maverick because he seems nicer—“

        “Juniper please—please stop.” I interrupted, not wanting to cause anymore misunderstanding between the two of us on my preference of princes. “To tell you the truth, besides knowing that there are seven princes—which mind you I found out from you this week—I have absolutely no idea what they look like, what their names are, or their anything about personalities.” ‘And honestly, you couldn’t care less’ is what I wanted to add but that seemed a little too harsh.

        Juniper sat there a little shocked at this news, to her the princes we what everyone and anyone talked about at school—thought to be fair she did live in the capital and it would take no time at all to get to the the ‘Aphelion borders‘; the name of boarder separated the district from the royal palace. How could I, who was around the same age as some of the princes, not know or be a fan of them?!

I didn’t like the way the young girl looked at me with an almost pitiful expression.

       “….I will teach you all you need to know—don’t even worry.” She smiled sweetly, then went back to her own bed with her phone. Once she got over there I was grateful when she changed topics; “So how long have you been here again..? I forget—it personally feels like forever though.” Juniper mentioned this nonchalantly, honestly I couldn’t agree more with the girl.

        I had been here for official a week now. Once I had arrived you researched every single clothing shop within a 5 mile radius and started from there. With every rejection from each shop made me widen my search. At this point, I had even made it to the ‘Aphelion borders‘ and back. It felt as if everyone was booked or they didn’t offer maternity dresses for the festival….completely understandable since it was now only two weeks away.

        “One week?” Juniper repeated after a moment I told her, she looked up from her phone to look at me; “This must be what they call ‘sisterly love’. Being the only girl I wouldn’t know…”

        “I would call it guilt tripping…or blackmail even.” I took the pillow to my right and slammed in onto my head. I just wanted to go home and not have to stress about this…it definitely has taken years off my life by now.

        A knock sounded from the teens door and brown hair pop their way into the open door. Mari stood there with a half smile as she looked in between the two of us.

        When I had first arrived Mari had pulled me aside and asked if it would be okay to be somewhat friends with Juniper since she was in that stage of her life were everyone and everything was completely against her. The only thing, that I’ve picked up on at least, was that she was really into the ‘royalty lore’ or whatever it’s called. Other than she was mostly glued to her phone.

        “Emalee, your search may finally be over!” Mari snapped me out of my thoughts and I sat up a bit to look at the older woman. “My friend recently opened a boutique in a less populated neighborhood so she told me they might have a couple of custom dress orders available! The only problem is that we have to go today—“

        I had already stood up and walk over to Mari, heart almost welling at her kindness as I took her hands in mine. “Let’s go today! Thank you so much Mrs. Crest—I’ll definitely name my first kid after you at this point.”

        The brunette chuckled at this but didn’t meet my eyes as she continued, “Well…I wouldn’t speak too soon. I was told it’s first come first serve so they may have some…but my friend likes to exaggerate a lot and I doubt she been at her boutiques this time of year—so the chances are really slim.”

I darken at the thought, but shake it off; “Then what are we waiting for? I’ll grab my purse.”

        ”Mom, can I come?” Juniper says from her bed, eyes still glue to her phone. Mari wave her off as I walk pass her to grab my purse. “I want to get this new limited edition signed photo of Royal—for scientific purposes, of course.”

        Mari raised an eyebrow and looked over her daughter’s shoulder without the young girl noticing and saw their royalty shirtless and dripping in either sweat or water the woman wasn’t sure. 

Her mother sighed, “…You’re going to have to hide that whenever your father comes back home—you know that?”

Juniper, cheeks glowing red chuckled a bit; “Yeah, don’t worry—I already know a spot.”

        “I'm sorry but I just booked my final appointment for this year.” I had just made it to the shop with Mari and Juniper when one if the assistants heard that I was looking for a custom dress and approached me with this statement. “A lot of people booked last minute and we’re completely full till end of January.”

“Is there any way to get a pre-done dress or something?” Mari asked politely when she noticed that I stood back and sulked a bit.

        The assistant pondered this for a moment, “Well, we don’t but there is this place I like called ‘Madam Wesson’s Boutique’ that may have something like that…”

        I perked up at this, only for the assistant to immediately let you down by adding; “…but she is so expensive you’d have to know literal royalty to get in this late.”

I felt like screaming.

        I had been so close to finishing this up and going home to celebrate the holidays one last time—but no. Everyone else had to do everything last minute too! Still, I thanked the young woman anyway and left the shop with a slight slug in my step.

“Cheer up hun!” Mari says this as she gives me a sideways hug. “I'm sure that you'll be able to figure something out.”

        “The only problem is that I promised her a dress no matter what.” I say this with a sigh, “I even said if there was no one left in the capital I would make it—I don't know how to make clothing!”

        “Youtube, baby.” Juniper chimed in not even glancing up at her phone. “Besides, with all this out of the way, we can finally go to get the exclusive issue of Pipz magazine! I saw that there's shirtless pictures of the princes..!” She whispered the last part only to me, I gave her a nervous laugh. I was definitely more stressed out from my sister then wanting to look at shirtless princes.

        “Well okay…but I need to go to the hardware shop before it closes.” Mari said this with a frown, not wanting to disappoint Juniper in not getting what she wanted.

        “That’s fine—Emalee can come with me it’s not too far from the hardware store.” Juniper pointed to me, who was still sulking over by a tree that was a few meters away from the boutique the three of us just left.

        ”Oh if you’re taking Emalee, then that should be fine! I trust that you’ll be fine until I’m done.” Mari said this with a smile and patted her daughter’s shoulder. I was not paying any attention at all and jumped a bit when I was pulled away suddenly.

”Stop mopping—I think they sell them down this street!” Juniper drags me away with her allowance in tow. 

        Just as she said, a magazine stand was positioned on a small street that had a few other vendors selling food and other merchandise. The young girl B-lined straight for the stand leaving you staring after her. She snatched a magazine off the shelf and slammed it on the counter when the young man had finally came around to the other side.

“That will be 15 ulters and 40 coins.”

        “Crap, I thought it was 15 even..!” Juniper mumble under her breath before digging in her bag some more. “I think I have 40 coins somewhere...”

                             “You're selling a mini photo album too?! How much I think I might have a 20!”

        This could take awhile...so not wanting to really get involved with the girl, I looked across the small shopping plaza to see that there was a bench with in the shade from the blaring sun. No one seemed to take claim to it which kind of surprised me considering there were a handful of people out and about. I look back at Juniper to see her trying to haggle with the stand worker.

        “Hey, Juniper, I'm going to sit over there.” I had tapped her shoulder to get her attention, but she waved me off with a 'ok ok' before continuing to haggle.

        I just shrugged, I would be right across the way so when she was done I could just grab her and go into the shop next door. With that I made my way to the bench and took a seat—stretching my whole body out before relaxing in the seat.

        Other than the fact that I couldn't find anyone to make my sister's closing ceremonies dress, I was enjoying the sights that the capital had to offer. The place I currently was in was a tiny little shopping district known simply as 'The Plaza'. The little area almost reminded me of a RPG village in a sense with their shops lining the streets, vendors with their carts, and clothes lines hanging from windows to name a few things. The area wasn't too jam pack with people too, like how my home town currently was like.

It also seemed like the people that walk through here were only locals.

        From what Mari was telling me, not a whole bunch of people knew this place really existed—that why the two of us thought I would had been able to get a custom dress so late in the festival season. Obviously not from the lack of dress but the place did hold a pretty sight to it.

“Excuse me, beauiful~! May I sit here real quick?"