♔ Royal Pain ♔ → kth | jjk

XIX

"Taehyung, it's time for what?" Jeongguk asked again, even more confused when Taehyung didn't respond directly again.

Instead the blonde Prince beamed excitedly and grabbed Jeongguk's wrist to tug him up to his feet.

"Stand up, Ggukkie!" Taehyung whined. Jeongguk stared at him at the slipping of the nickname. That was new.

"No." Jeongguk shook his head, refusing to budge. "Not until you tell me what's got you so happy-go-lucky all of a sudden."

Taehyung huffed, about to respond when he heard a very distant shout.

"Hey! Jeongguk! Taehyung! Can you hear me?!"

Jeongguk heard the voice as well. He narrowed his eyes and got up from the ground on his own, walking past Taehyung to look for the source. "Who the hell... Is that-"

"Jiminie! Yoongi!" Taehyung had both hands cupped around his mouth to amplify the volume of his shouted response, then waved one arm in the air just to be sure they could be seen clearly. "Start!"

Jeongguk stood next to Taehyung, squinting his eyes to get a better look. "What the hell are those two doing out on the lake so late!? Yoongi can't swim! Those dumb- What the hell?" His thoughts were cut short when he noticed what the two far-off figures were holdings- or doing, rather.

Two objects the size of their heads, thin and almost paper-looking. When he saw a small, almost magical glow appear within one of the objects his eyes doubled in size.

"Tae- Are those-?"

"Lanterns? Yeah." Taehyung's voice was a soft whisper. "Yeah, they are, Jeongguk."

Jeongguk watched in awe as Jimin let go of the glowing lantern, and he followed it, his head moving with his fixed gaze as it ascended into the sky to be among the many stars above their heads. Yoongi soon let go of a second lantern, and Jeongguk continued to watch as the two illuminated objects floated into the air.

"We love you, Jeonggukkie!"

Jeongguk was instantly snapped out of his daze and wrinkled his nose.

"Ugh, Jimin." Jeongguk muttered but he couldn't help but smile. Taehyung did as well and turned his head in the direction of the lake.

"He says he loves you too!" Taehyung shouted back with a wide grin on his face.

Jeongguk shook his head with a laugh and looked once more at the lanterns, which were now almost nothing more than a tiny specs in the sky. "Wow." He murmured. "That was really nice... Did you arrange that, Taehyung? Is that why you were meeting up with them behind my back?"

Taehyung smiled sheepishly. "Maybe..."

Jeongguk nodded with a small smile. "Thank you, seriously. Even if it was just two lanterns... Thank you. It- It means a lot." He ran a hand through his hair. "We should be going back inside, though-"

"Um, no we shouldn't." Taehyung scoffed. "No way. We're staying put."

"Why? The lanterns are far gone."

"You are such a dumbass." Taehyung grumbled. "Pay attention to your surroundings, you dimwit."

Jeongguk wasn't about to retaliate this time, instead did as Taehyung instructed and looked around. Sure enough, rising from the abundance of trees and buildings that made up the town surrounding the castle on either sides of the lake were more lanterns.

A lot of them.

Jeongguk could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and quickly brought a hand up to wipe the few that leaked away immediately.

Hundreds of lanterns began to make an appearance in the sky, stretching as far as the Kingdom's border and some even coming from directly below them. When Jeongguk noticed one rise from the palace grounds below, he peered over the edge (carefully, so he didn't fall off the roof. That would be bad.).

Far at the bottom, standing in the heart of the palace gardens were a group of people he could recognize instantly. Namjoon, Seokjin, and Hoseok, all with beaming smiles on their faces. Near them were Jiyeon, Sunhee, and Minji, still holding onto their lanterns. The two little girls were skipping around the garden in their night gowns, singing and giggling happily. When they noticed the man peering down at them from above they immediately stopped and beamed upwards.

"Prince Jeongguk!" Minji hollered. "We have lanterns! Look!"

Jiyeon said something to them, which Jeongguk couldn't quite pick up, but he saw the two girls hold their lanterns out for Namjoon to light them. Namjoon crouched down to help the two girls release the lanterns steadily.

Everyone watched the two lanterns rise and Jeongguk was going to watch them go when Minji shouted again.

"We all made them pretty for you!" She called up to him and Jeongguk furrowed his brow. He looked at Taehyung with a questioning look, who smiled sheepishly once more.

"Yeah. We did. Hold on." He disappeared for a moment inside, leaving Jeongguk to stare in awe at the sky riddled with glowing orbs of light. To think that this was all for him...

Well, it was every year but this year was special...

He hadn't expected this. Not in the slightest.

When Taehyung returned, he brought two lanterns with him, a proud smile on his face. "Here." He pushed one into Jeongguk's hands. "Read it."
Jeongguk slowly looked down at it, reading the words painted across the surface in black ink. Small flowers were covering this specific lantern, as were little hearts and smiley faces.

"The girls insisted on making yours custom." Taehyung said gently.
Jeongguk nodded slowly as he read the words over and over again.

We love you, Jeongguk.

Jeongguk stared at it endlessly, not even sure if he had blinked or not but he didn't care.

"Are you crying...?" Taehyung frowned.

Jeongguk reached a hand up to feel his cheeks and, sure enough, he was crying. He hadn't even realized it. "Shit- I'm sorry, I-"

"I get it. It's fine." Taehyung shook his head, smiling. "Want to light these?"

Jeongguk nodded wordlessly, pursing his lips together to keep them from trembling as he lit his with a match Taehyung had provided and watch it join the others overhead. Taehyung let his go after Jeongguk and stood directly beside him. Jeongguk felt a stable arm place itself behind him, a hand comfortingly rubbing his back.

"I'll have you know this whole thing was a pain in the ass to arrange." Taehyung teased quietly. "Jimin, Yoongi, and I got all of these lanterns made and designed and passed them out to every single home and shop around here. It took forever... Jimin did most of the work, though."

Jeongguk said nothing, staring with his glazed eyes at the sight surrounding him.

To think that the entire Kingdom had made the effort to do this for him.

It was so incredibly moving for Jeongguk, so much so that he felt that gaping hole in his chest fill for the first time in what seemed like his whole life. Perhaps it was temporary, but for now all he cared about was that he didn't feel it.

He didn't feel so broken and empty like he always had before; he didn't feel lonely. Looking out at the lanterns that sprinkled across the night sky, blending in with the beautiful stars, he felt like for once he wasn't so alone. He felt like people cared about him, he felt like people actually did this for him and not just for the sake of tradition.

"Taehyung?" Jeongguk whispered. His voice was choked and scratchy, his body fighting to hold back ugly (but happy) sobs.

"Hm?" Taehyung turned his head, eyes flickering over Jeongguk's facial expression. The Prince looked utterly speechless, unbelievably emotional, and all-in-all happy for once. It was a beautiful sight to see.

Jeongguk swallowed the lump in his throat, only for it to reappear immediately but he didn't mind. Not right now.

"Thank you..."