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

Reunion (Final)

The royal family did not waste any time, and they scheduled Prince Beomgyu's coronation to become king two weeks after Beomgyu had the talk with his family.

The entire kingdom was suddenly abustle with activity as everybody planned for the near-surprise coronation. A new king in two weeks? And not only that, but it was the long lost Prince, who had finally come home? The preparations suddenly snowballed into something bigger than the Tiger Festival. People brought out their best dresses, made plans on who to go with, scheduled afterparties. There were talks of even holding another yudeung lighting to celebrate the Prince's return home.

And Kang Taehyun continued to work in the garden, unfazed. He just kept his head down and kept working. So what if Beomgyu was getting married and becoming King? Good for him. He would just ignore how badly it hurt until he could skip town.

Thankfully there were two people who were in the know about the Prince's plans. And so, while Taehyun would have preferred to stay in bed and sleep, Soobin and Yeonjun insisted on him going with them. "Wear your best clothes," Soobin told Taehyun. "It's not every day a king is crowned!"

"It's not every day that the Prince is married to someone," Taehyun muttered as he pulled on his best trousers.

"Dude, they've never said anything about a marriage or engagement," Yeonjun noted. "They've only said that the Prince is going to be crowned King today. Everybody's assuming that there will be an engagement, because the King must have a Consort to rule properly. Kingdom rules."

"But don't hold off hope," Soobin said to Taehyun. "Maybe you should actually talk to Beomgyu about this. You two got along so well together, and, well...we all know you kissed behind the curtain during the festival. Communication in relationships is key, you know."

"Yeah, I would love to...but he just feels so unreachable now." Taehyun sighed. If he was going to be forced to go to the Prince's coronation, he might as well entertain things for a bit.

"Tell you what," Yeonjun said, putting an arm around Taehyun. "If you're up for it, after the coronation we'll go say hi to Beomgyu. They'll let us in the circle, I'm the Captain of the guard. Go talk to him and at least get some closure."

Taehyun didn't want closure. He wanted to throw up. But he said, "okay."

The morning of the coronation, everybody gathered outside the castle, under the balcony where official kingdom announcements were always made. All of the Magic Island Network helpers were there, no longer scared to be open about their secrets. Sam was there with her little bird daemon, and Seokjin was there with Jungkook and Hoseok, chatting with Jimin and the other palace guards openly. The day they had been working for for years was finally here. There was finally change in the kingdom!

The assistant to the king, Kim Taehyung, took to the balcony first, announcing the official terms of the ceremony. Then, King Namjoon gave a farewell speech to his people, apologizing for making everybody suffer for as long as they had. He announced that, as his last act as King, he was reversing the taxes he had set into effect. From now on, people would pay more normal taxes for the services they used, instead of being forced into poverty. This resulted in cheers from the crowd, long before the Prince was even crowned. A new day was finally dawning!

Then Taehyung got back on the balcony, attention on him. "As is customary of the crown, before the coronation there will be an engagement of Prince Beomgyu to a suitable Consort," he announced.

"That's it. I'm out," Taehyun said, and he turned tail. Both Yeonjun and Soobin had to grab his arms tightly to keep him from leaving. Taehyun squirmed and tried to fight against them, but it was two against one.