Make me eat my words || Taegyu

Chapter 5

When Beomgyu woke from his nightmare, for a brief second, he had no idea where he was. He raised his hand to his face, found his cheeks wet with tears, then all of the memories came rushing in; the ceremony, the carriage ride, the king's speech, his new room. When he looked out his window, he could see the moon hanging high in the sky, lighting the desert sands up in white. He glanced at the baggage at the foot of his bed, then at his closed door, the tiny window in it open for ventilation; he could probably unpack now, right? He could be quiet.

Sighing, Beomgyu slid out of bed, noticing that he was still in his clothes from earlier. He tugged his shirt over his head and wiped his eyes with it, then tossed it into a basket in the corner of his room that he assumed was for dirty laundry. "I have too much stuff," he whispered to himself, shaking his head as he knelt by his first bag. Soobin had helped him choose what to pack, but he hadn't actually packed them himself, so each bag was a surprise.

The first bag was entirely full of clothes. Thankfully, there'd already been empty hangers in his room, so Beomgyu took the time to hang up his nicer shirts, then shoved everything else into the dresser, silently thanking whoever had folded the garments. The next bag had shoes and accessories (which he hadn't realized he had so much of) so he unpacked those too, shoving the empty bags under his bed in order to clear up floor space.

In the biggest bag laid all of the possessions he almost couldn't live without; the sword his father had given him on his eighteenth birthday, the framed dried flower he'd saved from the day he first met Soobin, the crappy painting Yeonjun had made of them together when he was seven. As Beomgyu rifled through the bag, he couldn't stop his eyes from welling up with tears again, his fists clenching around a picture frame. "Ah, fuck. I wanna go home." His voice broke, and he laughed to himself. "I'm such a loser." He took a few minutes to compose himself, then started arranging them around the room, making sure even the smallest things were visible on top of the few pieces of furniture he had.

When he was done, Beomgyu sat back down on his bed and looked around, taking everything in as best as he could with only the light of the moon illuminating the room. It already felt more like home. Maybe this wasn't as bad as he thought.

He settled down in bed with one of the books his mother had sent with him, thankful the moon was full. After he'd woken up so suddenly, he felt like he couldn't fall back asleep, so he might as well pass the time until the sun rose, even though he didn't have any candles to light the pages.

An hour or so passed, and the sky lit up with a reddish tinge over the sand as the sun started to rise. Beomgyu hadn't considered the inconvenient part of living in Taehyun's glorified closet, which was not being able to leave his room without waking him. As much as he disliked Taehyun, he could see how tired the prince had been yesterday; and as he'd said, he was just an asshole, not evil. Still, though, it would be nice to leave.

Right when he'd almost finished his book, he heard loud rustling come from Taehyun's room, then a soft yawn. He glanced over at the windowed opening in his door when he heard footsteps. Tousled pink hair appeared in the window, then big brown eyes, staring directly at Beomgyu and growing impossibly wider when they saw him staring back. "Fuck, you're awake?"

"Mhm," Beomgyu hummed, reaching for a scrap of paper he'd started to use as a bookmark. "Have been for a few hours."

The door swung open to reveal all of Taehyun in his sleepy glory, the sleeves of his nightshirt falling past his hands as he rubbed at his eyes. "This isn't a prison, you know. You're allowed to leave." His face was a lot cuter when it was puffy with sleep, Beomgyu noted with a smile.

"I know. Just didn't know where I would go. Not like I live here." Beomgyu raised his shoulder in a shrug.

Taehyun gave him what he assumed was supposed to be an intimidating look but was more of a pout. "You do now, dumbass. Get dressed. I'll show you where to go so you can get out of my hair."