Forbidden // Yeongyu FF

24. Calm Before The Storm

Everyone was standing there, waiting for an answer from the King. Beomgyu was playing with his fingers, as he stared at his own Father. He'd never stood up for himself in front of the King, but now that he just did, he felt amazing.

Right now, it wasn't helping though, because Beomgyu was just eager to hear what his Father would say. The latter was speechless, after being yelled at for possibly the first time in his life. No one had ever disagreed with him, and now everyone in the room was against him.

"I- Beomgyu, I was only doing this for you. I didn't know you felt this way about the marriage, I lied about Ryujin for you! Beomgyu, you have to understand who Choi Yeonjun is, son! It's not as easy as getting married and living happy. You're still my son, the heir to the throne, and Choi Yeonjun is a criminal! What would people think, huh?" 

"Your highness, I'll try my hardest to fix my mistakes. I'll apologize to the public, just let me be with your son!" Beomgyu looked at Yeonjun from behind, the latter had a frustrated expression on his face. Like a longing for Beomgyu in his heart.

Beomgyu looked back at his Father to see a guilty look on his face. Who knew his Father could show such expressions? "I never wanted to be a bad father for you, Beomgyu. I just wanted the best for you. Although I don't agree with your relationship with Choi Yeonjun, as long as he doesn't do anything to you, I'll mind my own business. I hope you know though, I still want you to take the throne after me."

It was quiet in the room, as Beomgyu tried to comprehend what his Father had just said. Yuna was the the first one to move, as she quickly hugged her sister tightly. It wasn't even her problem, but she looked as happy as she had ever looked before. While Beomgyu was spacing out, Yeonjun went up to him from behind and hugged him too. Without any talking, Beomgyu started slightly feeling tears on his shoulder. 

Yeonjun was crying, hugging him from behind. Beomgyu quickly came back to his senses, and hugged Yeonjun from the front. He could feel the tears start prickling his eyes too. After so much secrets, and trouble, Beomgyu's Father had finally broke. Although, no one was really sure what Ryujin's Father would say about this.

Beomgyu still had a lot of problems to overcome, he knew himself. The Village wouldn't be happy to hear about the Prince romantically liking the most well-known criminal. He wasn't going to give up the idea of becoming King though. If there was one thing Beomgyu could do to show how grateful he was to his Father, it was to become King. 

*~*~*

"Father? I have a question to ask you." They'd all left the prison, with Yeonjun ultimately being bailed out for no cost. That was a benefit of royalty that Beomgyu had never known about. It was just him and his Father in the carriage, as Yeonjun requested to go separately back to his own home. Beomgyu respected his decision, and also said bye to Ryujin and Yuna who were boarding their own carriage to go back to their own Palace.

"Go ahead, Beomgyu. What are you curious about now?" Beomgyu looked to the side at the beautiful scenery and hid his smile. He liked his Dad this way, not irritated by Beomgyu at all. Especially because the whole ride back, Beomgyu had constantly been asking the King questions. "I promise this is the last one...so, how did you find out where I was hiding?" 

The King looked at Beomgyu with a surprised look on his face. I guess he'd thought Beomgyu would forget to ask that question. "I found out myself. With the help of the Village police, we were able to track down your whole time there. You know, cameras are everywhere, Beomgyu. Just think about that next time you kiss someone in an alleyway." 

Now Beomgyu was the one with the surprised face, as he covered his face with his hands. "Father, don't talk about that!" As Beomgyu had said that, the carriage had made its way to the entrance of the Palace. Except, there was so much people guarding the gate! It was like a whole mob in front of the palace, how would everyone know about what happened already.

As the guards pushed through the crowd, Beomgyu could hear people screaming different questions out, "Prince, what's your relationship with Choi Yeonjun!" "Is Choi Yeonjun out of prison now, Prince please answer!" "What about the village's safety, aren't our lives at stake!" To say it was overwhelming was an understatement, no one had said anything publicly yet, so how could the whole Village already know!

The carriage was barely able to make it pass the gate. Once Beomgyu got out of the carriage, he looked back at all the people behind the gate. Some had big cameras, others microphones, Beomgyu even recognized the one lady who had given him apples, but nonetheless, they all wore the same worried expression on their faces.

Did they really feel that they were in danger, because of Choi Yeonjun? Was this partially his fault, for liking Yeonjun romantically? Beomgyu looked back to the Palace, to see the King holding his own megaphone in his hands and shouting into it, "We will have a meeting tomorrow at noon for all villagers to attend, if you want answers, you'll get them all tomorrow!"

'Oh great, another event worthy of tears.'

*~*~*

"Beomgyu-ah, don't be nervous. Just talk the way you did yesterday, loud and clear. Maybe i'll cut down your lessons if you show confidence. Now come, it's almost noon, and we need to get to the hall before everyone else."

It was the next day, at about 11:00 AM. Truthfully, Beomgyu hadn't slept at all the night before. He was up making different scenarios in his head about what the people would think of him. After barely getting into his clothes, and eating breakfast, him and the King were to be headed to the hall. The hall was the place that any public meetings took place, but only if they involved  Royals. Non-Royals were not aloud to use the hall for meetings of any size.

"Ah, yes Father. I'll see you down soon, I just need to check one last thing." With his response, the King left Beomgyu's room. Now the latter was alone, having the freedom to do whatever he wanted in that moment. The nervousness though, was biting down on him, and he stood there frozen in thought. He had a lot of minds he needed to convince today, but not enough confidence to speak his own.

Quickly shaking it off, Beomgyu started the trip downstairs. He was really the only person everyone was waiting for now, and with what was happening today, Beomgyu really didn't want anyone else against him.

"Father, I'm ready to go now."