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

...And There Was Only One Bed!

They reached the Ego Station just before nightfall; Cholongkkoch's countless wanderings meant that they kept getting off track. But at least they had not been stopped by guards on their way. They had passed a couple of other families, heading by foot to the castle for the Festival tomorrow, but neither had stopped long enough to ask any particulars. Which suited Taehyun well, because he wasn't sure he knew them any longer.

He had completely forgotten what Hobi had told him until they reached the edge of the town that held the Ego Station. Just be warned, there's only one bed. He panicked, but he did his best to not let it show. But now that he had remembered, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Good evening!" Hobi called out, waving from the Ego Station's front porch.

"We're staying in a store?" Cholongkkoch asked, turning towards Taehyun.

"They have an upstairs portion that Hobi has volunteered for us to use." Taehyun walked up to Hobi, putting his hand on Hobi's shoulder. "Cholongkkoch, this is Hoseok, one of my friends. He'll be traveling with us to the festival tomorrow." Hobi had also been in charge of getting fake papers for Taehyun and Soobin so they could both enter; they were brothers, newly emigrated from the United Colonies, with the last name Waeng. Taehyun hadn't checked the rest yet.

Hobi welcomed the two inside, where the shop was closed for the day. He knew that Taehyun hadn't divulged to Cholongkkoch about his Magic Island shenanigans, so he did not talk about that. Instead, he simply pretended that Taehyun was a good friend that he hadn't seen in a little bit. He asked about Soobin like Soobin was a brother, and Cholongkkoch ate it up, listening to faux stories about Taehyun's family. Taehyun was glad for the distraction, though it was broken once Hobi changed the subject.

"Well, you'll both want to be resting now, here? We'll be leaving at morning's first light. It's a long hike to the Castle grounds, and we must be there by noontime if we are to be counted."

Taehyun wanted to throw up, but he held himself together while Hobi led the way upstairs to the extra bedroom. "I stay next door, so if either of you need anything, please let me know. The water closet is downstairs, attached to the shop, next to the kitchen. Enjoy, and have a good night!" He closed his door, and Taehyun wished he hadn't said enjoy in addition to have a good night. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing to enjoy here.

"I have heard tell in stories that it is improper for a lady to change into her nightclothes in front of a man. May I change first, and then you may change?"

"Uh, I don't really change my clothes, but sure." Taehyun waited outside the room, removing his shoes, socks, and his overshirt only. Taehyun usually slept in dire circumstances; even when he slept inside, he was always sleeping with one eye open, knowing the guards of the Naeil Kingdom were after him and Soobin.

Even Yeonjun. Especially Yeonjun.

When Cholongkkoch opened the door, she was thankfully dressed in pink frills from the top of her neck all the way down to her ankles. There wasn't a single shred of skin showing where it shouldn't be. Her hair was out of its pins and clips, flowing along her ankles again. "I apologize if I toss and turn in my sleep," she said. "I don't like sleeping on my hair."

"Why do you keep your hair so long?" Taehyun asked as he walked into the room, putting his overshirt and shoes by the edge of the bed. Since he still had two layers of shirts, he was decent.

"Because my Mama wants it that way," Cholongkkoch explained. The bed was big, thankfully, and Taehyun could tell that there would be plenty of room for both of them to share. She tucked herself in, pushing all of her hair to the side, so that it cascaded off of the bed and pooled onto the floor. "I don't like it. I would like to have it short, maybe like yours."

Taehyun almost laughed. "Short like mine?" Then he paused to wonder what that might actually look like, and he had to erase the image from his mind.

"Yes. I've always wondered what it would be like for my hair to be short, like a man. But my Mama says it's not proper. I should wear it long. And I should do what she says." Cholongkkoch didn't say anything more about that, and thankfully, she fell asleep almost immediately when her head hit the pillow. Taehyun found himself wishing he was as lucky as her, to be able to trust the place you are sleeping in for more than ten minutes at a time.

He laid in bed, for a long time, staring at the ceiling, weighing the thoughts in his mind while Cholongkkoch slept next to him. It was right in front of him. Prince Beomgyu wasn't dead. Prince Beomgyu had been raised as a girl by his crazy aunt, hidden away from the world for reasons unknown. He glanced over at Cholongkkoch -- he didn't want to call this person Beomgyu, not yet, but the name felt easier than the long, unnatural one that Heulin had probably given to them.

He found himself wanting to be right. He wanted Cholongkkoch to be Beomgyu. He wondered if he could walk into the ceremonies with Cholongkkoch, and maybe, just possibly, the King would recognize Cholongkkoch, even with all of that hair. Perhaps they would be present at the yudeung lighting, and the King would step across the crowds, and they would part for him, and there would be hugs and crying and cheering from the crowds and it would fix everything, even though Taehyun knew it was silly. And then, he imagined King Namjoon putting Taehyun's own hands in Beomgyu's, and Beomgyu smiling with Cholongkkoch's long eyelashes and dark eyes, smiling only at Taehyun, leaning forward and tilting his head to the side --

He suddenly found tears springing to his cheeks. Taehyun stood more of a chance with Cholongkkoch if she stayed a girl. If she -- he -- really was Prince Beomgyu, Taehyun was officially out of his league.

"Stop it," he whispered. "You're not in love. You're not. You can't be." And so, he rolled over and looked at Cholongkkoch, committing her to memory as a woman, as someone he should never have. He ignored the signs that pointed out that she was a man. If she was convinced that she was a woman, then so be it. That was just how the world was going to be.

It wasn't fair.

But life was never fair.