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

A Magic Secret, Revealed

When Taehyun got his next chance, he rode on Brenna to Cholongkkoch's tower. He needed to see, to make sure for himself that Cholongkkoch was just a woman trapped in a tower. He wasn't here to play a shining knight in armor to a damsel in distress.

He needed to see her one last time, and then he needed a new lover, stat.

He climbed up the tower using his knives, as was semi-normal. When he got to the huge window overlooking the meadow, he sat for a moment, listening to ensure that there was no mother there today. He had a feeling that he had pinned down Cholongkkoch's mother's patterns for leaving and staying, but you could never be too sure about these things. Sure enough, there were no sounds of activity at all...which definitely meant only Cholongkkoch was home.

He knocked on the side wall, and Cholongkkoch came running. Taehyun watched her run, carrying the hem of her long dress so that she wouldn't trip over it as she came down the stairs. Her long blonde hair trailed behind her, and her dark eyes started shining when she saw him. He kept a firm smile in real life, but internally he was rolling his eyes.

Yeah, dude, it's just a girl. She might be pretty, but just imagine what's under that skirt. And that set Taehyun's mind straight. Okay, we're good, I like men. "Hi, Cho-yah."

"I missed you." Cholongkkoch stopped short before meeting Taehyun halfway. "But, um...I have some bad news. My mama found the map that you brought me, and she burned it all up. I'm not allowed to go anywhere."

"...oh." Taehyun hadn't been expecting that at all. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you at all? Do you feel safe here?"

"I don't know. I just...I mostly wished you were here."

"Oh." Taehyun shoved any frou-frou thoughts aside. "Why?"

"Because you always make things better. You come bringing news of the outside world, and it's not nearly as bad as my mama says it is. And to be honest? I really, really want to go to the Tiger Festival. The map even proved that I could do it! But she found it, and she burned it, and now I can't go anywhere without her or Mae finding out."

The name Mae was new. "Who's Mae?"

And Cholongkkoch froze. She had messed up. Nobody was supposed to know about her daemon, or her mom's daemon. Magic outside the castle was a rarity. If Taehyun found out about Mae and Kai, he might suspect something was up. But if she could tell him...maybe he would trust her about other things.

"My mama has a daemon," she finally told him.

Taehyun's face changed from confused to understanding to shock. "Your mom is magic?"

"Yeah. So, a long time ago, my mama was one of the most powerful sorcerers in the entire Naeil Kingdom. She lived in the castle, and she helped the previous King with anything magic related. Her daemon's name is Mae, and she is a great big hawk. She had me while she was still living in the castle, and then she says that she was banished by King Namjoon. To this day, I still don't know why. She won't talk about it. But she tells me it's because she was too powerful, and she had a daughter who would also be that powerful, and King Namjoon was afraid of that power. That's why we have to stay here in the tower all the time."

"Cho-yah, how old are you?"

"Mama says I am eighteen years old. We don't celebrate birthdays. We simply get a year older when we sip our soup during the New Year."

That stinks, Taehyun thought to himself. Even when you get older, birthdays are fun. "What might have happened is that Prince Beomgyu was stolen. And with King Namjoon going into mourning over it, he probably didn't want anything to do with you or your mother. Proper magic has been banned in the Naeil Kingdom since that happened."

"Oh."

"But you're magic, too? You have a daemon? How come I haven't seen it?"

"Oh, he's here," Cholongkkoch said as she looked upstairs. "I just don't know if he feels comfortable coming downstairs right now."

And Taehyun had to pause. Because Taehyun wasn't a magical person, but Taehyun also was not an idiot. He had read in many books that every magical person's daemon was the exact same gender classification as them. But Cholongkkoch had just called her daemon a he.

Cholongkkoch ran upstairs, and Taehyun figured he was going to anticipate a great bird like she had said her mother's daemon was. He was not expecting Cholongkkoch to walk downstairs with a penguin in her arms.

"This is Kai!" she said with a smile. "He's my daemon. He doesn't know too much magic, because we've never had the chance to learn. But someday, I want to learn proper magic, even if it's just to know it. There are all kinds of other things I want to do someday, too. I want to go to the Tiger Festival, and then I want to travel the entire world, and —"

"Cholongkkoch," Kai chirped in her arms, "I thought you said you weren't going to spill everything today!"

Cholongkkoch found herself blushing. "I just...get so inspired by the adventures I read about in my books. At the very least, I want to live within the palace gates someday. I can't see the world if I'm eternally stuck here."

"Well, you definitely don't want to live near the castle right now," Taehyun said. "I'm not sure how that's gonna all shake out, but it's been very different. Seems like every year there's a new tax being passed or a new law enacted that makes everything not fun again." What Taehyun really meant was that, if he and Soobin could pull off their heist, come next year there could be a new government in the Naeil Kingdom, and Cholongkkoch could travel wherever she wanted anyway. She just had to wait until then.

She looked at her feet, and then, "Okay. When you go to the festival, can you bring back a souvenir for me?"

Taehyun gaped at her. "What — what kind of a souvenir would I bring back?"

"I don't know." She looked up at him and unknowingly batted her long eyelashes. "Something that you think suits me."

And Taehyun was gobsmacked, at a total loss for words. "I — I don't — I don't even know what I would bring you, I just —"

"You don't have to bring her anything," Kai said, squirming in Cholongkkoch's arms. "All she has talked about is going to this festival and I keep telling her it's too dangerous! We can stay here and make some cookies instead! You know, like those mint ones your mom makes!"

"I don't like mint," Cholongkkoch said in a quiet voice.

"For all you care," Kai continued, "you should just end up going to the festival with Taehyun anyway!"

"I mean, you could."

No sooner than the words had left Taehyun's mouth than he cursed his own existence. No, no, no! I can't take her to the festival! I have a heist to pull off! "I mean —"

"You would take me?"

And Taehyun felt his heart stop cold. There was something weird about how Cholongkkoch was looking at him. Her dark brown eyes looked like they were boring into his soul. There was something...adorable about it, but it wasn't even remotely cute in the slightest.

It was almost handsome.

He sighed. "I...if I have to disappear at some point during the day, is that okay? I still have to work and take care of some things."

"I can keep myself busy. I'm not a child. I promise the world is not full of scary men like my mama thinks it is." And there was that look again, and Taehyun knew his decision had already been made for him.