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

Fireworks

Taehyun pushed aside the curtain to Prince Beomgyu's room, making sure the two of them were standing between the curtains and the window glass, just on the edge and out of sight of any castle guards. And Cholongkkoch immediately gasped. The balcony in front of them gave way to the southern shore beyond it, and an entire sea of twinkling lights laid out in front of her.

"It's so beautiful! There are so many of them."

"They're all going out there to where the Prince is, maybe to bring him home." Taehyun didn't even need to look at the old painting on the wall. He already knew that this boy version of Cholongkkoch was a spitting image for the Prince. But he wasn't sure how to tell her about his inklings. There was a heavy chance she wouldn't even believe him. After all, she had been raised as a woman, and she didn't know any other way to be.

"Taehyun?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I be honest about something?"

He had no idea what he was in store for. "Sure. Someone's gotta listen to you, right? And it's not gonna be your mom. Lay it on me."

Cholongkkoch looked out the window at all of the ocean lights. "I told Prince Beomgyu that I want to be a boy."

"You're not supposed to tell me your wish!" Taehyun hissed, panicked...until he realized what she had said. "A boy?"

Cholongkkoch nodded, and she didn't realize that there were so many tears streaming down her face. "I told you that I've always wanted to be that girl who goes on adventures and sails across the sea. But I know why I only read my adventure novels. I don't like romance. The romance books say that I'm only advantageous if I'm with a man. Men only want women as wives and mothers, not as adventure partners. But I think it's more than that, too. It's not just going on adventures, my mama does that without me all the time. It's...dressing in boy's clothes, and wearing my hair like a boy, and making my voice sound like a boy." She laughed. "My mama says my voice is so groggy and gross, but I love how low it is!"

So do I, Taehyun thought to himself before he could stop it.

"I've always felt more like a boy than a girl," Cholongkkoch continued. "I wanted a strong name like Jim or Ishmael, but I could never pick anything out for myself because Mama says Cholongkkoch is the perfect name for me. What would be the boy version of Cholongkkoch?"

"What about just Cholong? It takes the flower meaning off your name and makes it simpler."

Cholongkkoch found herself blushing. "I could never be a boy. I could never make a spell that could make me into a boy. There's no such spell in any of the libraries, and trust me, I've looked. So I thought maybe Prince Beomgyu could come back and turn me into a boy instead. But it sounds so foolish. I was born a girl. That's just the way it has to be."

"...you know." Taehyun had a small smile on his face. "There are men who are born women, and women who are born men. There are people who don't even have any gender at all. It might not be commonplace for your mama to talk about such things, but it's normal in the castle grounds. You know the lady we bought the strawberry cake from? When she was born, everybody thought she was a boy, but it turns out she was a woman instead! What I'm saying is..." He put his hands on Cholongkkoch's shoulders. He wasn't doing this for himself, or because he really knew he had a huge crush on Cholongkkoch now. He was doing this strictly for her — for him.

"If you're a boy, then you're a boy. That's all there is to it."

And Cholong let himself cry, leaning his forehead on Taehyun's shoulder, letting it all out. There was more repressed emotion inside than he thought there would be, more bottled up that he had never been able to tell his mother. And Taehyun had put it so simply, so eloquently, but so truthfully at the same time. Cholong was a boy. No matter what his mother said, no matter how she might force him to change in the future, he would be returning to the tower as a man.

"I'm a boy," he whispered. "No, I'm an adult. I'm a man."

"You are the bravest man I know," Taehyun whispered as there was a whistling noise outside, and Cholong propped his head up quickly enough to catch the fireworks being fired off over the southern shore. They exploded into humongous fire flowers, blue and purple and pink in color.

"If I'm a man, that means I get to go on adventures, right?"

"You can go on all the adventures you want, but you should probably go get Kai and move into the castle grounds first."

"With you?"

"I —" Taehyun paused, forgetting that Cholong still didn't know that Taehyun was technically a thief by trade. He had no place to call home. But the idea of owning a small cottage inside the castle walls and living there with Cholong sounded incredibly romantic. "Sure?"

"You know how, in all the big adventure books, the person always travels on a boat and gets into a lot of trouble and almost dies, and a lot of other people around them die? But the hero never dies. The hero gets to come home at the end. And home isn't in the tower anymore, Taehyun. Home is wherever I'm with you."

And it was Taehyun's turn to have his bottled up emotions rise to the surface, overflowing, no longer hidden away where nobody else could see.

But he didn't cry.

He kissed Cholong instead.

Nobody — male or female or otherwise — had ever made him feel like this. Not a soul. Not Soobin, not any of his previous paramours. Perhaps he had known from the beginning that Cholong was a handsome man dressed up as a bellflower. Perhaps that was when he had started falling, and now Cholong was here to catch him —

He pulled away, slowly, not wanting to startle Cholong. He had probably not taken into account the idea that Cholong might not be interested in men. The fireworks were still going, blue and purple lights reflecting in Cholong's eyes.

He reached out, hands on Taehyun's face. "Taehyun?"

And Taehyun met Cholong halfway this time, kissing him gently, not wanting to scare him away or confuse him further. This — this required a conversation at some point, but for now, he was kissing the boy he was in love with, while hiding out in the Prince's bedroom, while his best friend was stealing the crown jewels, with lanterns all around and fireworks in the air and fireworks in his heart. And Cholong had no clue how to kiss, but he did his best to kiss back.

They kissed until Taehyun heard something fall from across the room; he pulled away. "Soobin? You okay?"

The curtain was ripped away from both men, and five castle guards were standing there. Yeonjun was in front, arms crossed. "Look who we found, boys."