i beg to disagree with the other comments, i do feel like she has to leave at some point to truly see how much more happy she was with ml than she was at the capital.
she grew up sheltered after all, of course she will romanticize the capital but once she goes back after she experienced what it was like to have people actually care for her only then will she realize how the capital really isn't what they make it out to be.
i also feel that it's absolutely necessary for her to see that her father and her so called 'close friends' left her the moment she stopped being a crown princess, that they didn't care for her one bit and only used her to climb the social ladder.
i also think both the couples have to go through this to understand more of each other. fl still hadn't talked about her lore after all. overall, i believe it would be best for the character growth lol
They're so hard with FL her attitude is understandable she was forced to act like that coz her father wants her to be that way growing up to be the future empress. She's caged forced to act like a lady at a young age, they're likeable fk and fl both a romance that are hard earned like this is (slowburn) better that fast phased smut like I usually read it's kinda tiring maybe I like the chase lol.
i genuinely hope their close bond comes back :((