A Tiger Called Rapunzel ✓ || TaeGyu || HYBEPride 2021

The Upcoming Tiger Festival

"Woah, woah, okay, hold up." Soobin put up his hands. "You met a girl?"

"Calm down," Taehyun said, lowering his voice to a whisper. It was the next day, and they had finally met up at Serendipity. The guards had lost their trails, and both were safe...for now. Who knew what would happen the next time?

"I'm sorry, I can't be calm about this. King Kang Taehyun, interested in a girl?"

"Not THAT way," Taehyun said back, but Soobin wasn't having it.

"You NEVER talk about women. It's like women don't exist for you. I think the last time you talked about a woman was your mother, back in the orphanage, because she was the only one you remembered. I remember. I was there."

"I know you were." Both Soobin and Taehyun had grown up in the orphanage together, escaping when they were twelve to make their own lives for themselves in the city. That hadn't gone according to plan, and now they were thieves, but they were still brothers and they wouldn't have it any other way.

"But really, man, a girl?"

"Yeah, and there was something strange about her. I couldn't really put my finger on it. Okay, I know, she lives in a tower with her mother and nobody else, and she doesn't really leave, I already get that's weird. I just think there's something else to her weirdness that I haven't cracked yet."

Soobin paused for a good while. And then, "You're going to see her again."

"Of course I'm going to see her again! I promised I'd bring her food from the castle! And maybe some pamphlets and stuff, and —"

Soobin could not keep from cracking up laughing. "You are in love with a girl. Taehyun, I never thought I would see the day."

"I am not in love with her." Taehyun knew he had a sudden fondness for this girl, but he figured it was just because she was lonely and needed a friend. He didn't have a raging crush on her like he often did with his paramours. "It's not like that."

"Sure, it's not. You said that with Jisung, and then with Hyunjin, and you also said that with Hongjoong and Mingi and —"

"Okay, okay, I get it, I don't have the best track record. But it's not like I want to kiss her." Taehyun pondered on this for about two seconds and promptly decided she was not worth kissing. "I just...want to make sure she's okay, that's all. Kind of like taking care of Brenna, but not a horse."

Soobin shook his head. "You are something else, man." And then his face turned more serious. "So...what are we going to do?" The Tiger Festival was coming up very shortly, and everybody in the Naeil Kingdom would be in the castle grounds, celebrating and mourning together. Soobin and Taehyun never went to the festival, because there was too great of a chance they would be caught. But they always had to find somewhere new to hide out each year, because castle guards and policemen on horseback would patrol every city and give jail time to anybody who did not attend the festival without a notice. And Soobin and Taehyun were running out of hiding spots.

"We were here at Serendipity last year. Just A Station is too close and too unsafe. We could ask Seokjin if we could stay in the library basement again, but the first time we did that, we almost got in major trouble because the guards came in and asked to see the basement. No offense, man, I never want to be locked in a closet with you again."

"None taken."

"So where do we hide out?" They both pondered for a moment, and then Soobin smiled.

"In plain sight," he said with a snap of his fingers.

Taehyun stared back in shock. "Are you saying we go to the festival?"

"I'm not saying we go, necessarily. I'm saying that we at least get inside the palace walls, disguise ourselves, and just continue with life as normal. Every inn and lodging in the castle has to provide places to sleep for those traveling far and wide for the Tiger Festival. We can pretend to be someone's brothers or something. Or hey, we could ask Hobi or Jimin if we can be related to them for a day. Split up, maybe, see if that will throw them off their game. We'll need papers, but we can forge those no problem. Literally just need another name to go by."

Taehyun started nodding. "That might just work." Off their game... "And honestly, it might be a good time to see if we can raid the gold reserves as well. Nobody's going to be watching them! They're all going to be lighting yudeung lanterns at the ocean's edge."

Soobin nodded. "If nobody's in the castle, think of what else we could steal."

Taehyun nodded in response until he got an idea. "What else we could steal...I have the perfect plan to piss off King Namjoon, once and for all. Wanna hear it?"