FORBIDDEN KISS (taegyu)

chapter 1 : naughty prince

It was about two hours until lunch time and the servants were preparing a big feast for the royal family since it was the first day of summer at their summer resident.
The king was polishing his sword in his workroom and the queen was lying on a sofa while reading a book and a loud scream came out of the hallway.

One servant was carrying a kettle for the tea but when she opened it many little bugs and spiders came out of it and crawled up her arms to her face. She dropped the kettle and hysterically started running around.
The king quickly rushed out of his workroom to see what happened, the queen put away her book and did the same. "Dear lord, what happened Ms Ban?" asked the king worriedly. Ms Ban stopped running around and looked at them. "Please... remove the insect from my face." she said calmly even though she was clearly frightened. "What insect?" asked the queen. Ms Ban paused in surprise and touched her face. She exhaled as she felt relieved. King and queen looked at her confusely. She pointed at the broken kettle on the ground and said: "I think your son put bugs inside of that kettle." King and queen looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"BEOMGYU!" shouted the king. He looked back at Ms Ban and told her to clean the mess and apologized to her.

Soon their son revealed himself. He's been hiding behind the corner of the hallway and acted as if nothing happened.
"Yes, dad?" asked the prince. "Did you call me?" he added. "Yes, I did." said the king angrily. "Why are you so angry? Did something happen?" The king was losing his patience. "Stop acting clueless, Beomgyu! This was one of your cheap jokes again." said his mother as she frowned. "This was a good one." said the prince with a laugh.
"Stop it!" said the king. "I'm getting tired of you and your jokes! This is not how a prince should behave! I want you to go find Ms Ban and apologize to her." Beomgyu lowered his head and nodded. "Yes, father... "

Beomgyu left the place and headed straight to the kitchen where Ms Ban was looking for a new kettle. Beomgyu knew where other kettles were so he helped her. "I'm sorry, Ms Ban... I didn't realize you were so afraid of insect." Ms Ban smiled. "It's okay, prince. It was actually kind of funny but some of your previous jokes crossed the line too much. I don't think your parents are very fond of this behaviour of yours." Beomgyu sighed and leaned against the counter. "I know you're young and you want to have fun but you should think about your title as well." Beomgyu watched her as she was boiling water for the tea. "Everyone tells me the same thing but maybe I don't want to be a royal. Sometimes I wish I could be a normal person and do whatever I want..."
"I don't think you really have a choice in this."
Beomgyu walked toward Ms Ban and took the kettle to help her. "Thank you." she said with a smile.
He helped her to carry the things to the dining room and arranged the table.

It was 12 o'clock which means lunch time. Both king and queen were already sat at the table as some servant poured the tea into their cups.
The king kept checking the clock as they were waiting for their son which was running late as usual. When he finally came his clothes were all ripped and dirty. He sat down and showed his cup to his parents. "Cheers" he said and started eating. His father bit his tongue and his mother's eye twitched. The king held her to hand to calm her down and she exhaled. "So... where have you been this time? And why are your clothes... like this?" she asked him. He looked at her and wiped his mouth with his ripped sleeve. "Climbing a tree, then I fell into muddy water underneath the tree." His mother raised her eyebrows and gulped. "And why didn't you change before coming here?" The prince just shrugged and continued eating. "Your mother asked you a question." said the king while chewing on roasted beef. "I was already late, changing would make it worse." Queen looked at his clothes once again. "You look like one of our subjects, such a wretch, not like a royal." she said. "They're people, too." he replied and continued eating wordlessly.

His parents looked at each other trying to think of something. "I'm going hunting in the afternoon, would you like to go with me?" asked his father. "No, thanks." "And what about spending time with me? We could discuss something or I don't know... we could paint something? Maybe?" Beomgyu took a last sip of his drink. "I have my own plans, sorry." He finished his meal and got up. "Where are you going? We barely ate something." said the king. "You should eat faster then." said Beomgyu with a smile as he ran to the balcony and jumped down over the railing. His parents and the servants ran to the balcony to check if he's okay but he was already running away most probably to the garden or the forest.

After lunch both parents laid down with full stomaches on their bed trying to think of a way to tame their son. "Do you have any ideas how to calm our devil down?" asked the queen. "Do I look like I do? I'm jsut as clueless as you are." Suddenly the queen sat. "I know! Maybe we should bring up marriage." The king looked at her surprised. "You think this would calm him down? I think it would scare him." She turned to her husband and thought about something. "What else should we do? I'm desperate, WE are desperate."
"Just give him some time and if he continues to misbehave we should intervene." said the king and closed his eyes as he was tired from the lunch.

Meanwhile Beomgyu was lying on a branch of one of the trees in their garden reading a book about a boy who goes on lot of different adventures with his best friend which was a wolf. He leaned his head against the tree and put the book on his chest. He sighed and looked up. "I wish I could be free like that boy." He inhaled and then exhaled the fresh summer breeze. He looked at his book again when a little bird landed on it. "Oh, hello little guy. What are you doing here?" The bird didn't want to go away so Beomgyu frozed and check what he was sitting on. Of course it was the bird's nest. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry little birdie. At least there are no eggs, oof. I will fix it for you." He somehow put it back together and the bird went to its nest.

Beomgyu smiled at it. "Oh to have wings like you and fly wherever I want. Maybe in another life." The bird made a noise almost like as if it was trying to communicate with the young prince. "I will visit you often and help you find some food. You like seeds and worms, right?"
He climbed down and started digging in the ground until he found some worms. He collected them and put them on a big leaf then he put it inside the nest. "Here you go buddy." He looked down and his personal servant Mr Kim was standing there. "Um... Beomgyu? Are you okay?" Beomgyu nodded and gently stroked the birds back.

"Okay... I was wondering if you maybe need something or you know." Beomgyu climbed down again and looked dirtier than before.
"No, I don't need anything. Thanks for asking."
"Yes, no problem but to be honest I sometimes feel useless being your servant, prince. You never need anything and I can't even look after you because you always run away." Beomgyu laughed and patted Mr Kim's shoulder. "Mr Kim, you're not useless, I appreciate you and your best interest in me. And be glad that I don't need anything, you have more time for yourself and you get paid regardless. Isn't it good?" Mr Kim laughed for himself. "Okay prince, just know that I really care about you and if you need anything I'm always here for you." "I know. Thank you."

Mr Kim nervously scratched his arm. "But I'd like to have a small talk with you, if it's okay."
Beomgyu nodded and followed Mr Kim. They sat in a gazebo and Beomgyu waited for Mr Kim to start talking. "I'm a bit concerned about you, prince." Beomgyu looked confused. "The thing is that... your reputation among people in your kingdom isn't well... good. People call you childish, careless... they're not really happy with you being Choi's descendant." Beomgyu just laughed at this and looked away. "I don't want to be their king either. I want to be a normal boy with a normal life." "You know that's impossible, prince. You're the only descendant, you're eventually going to take the responsibility and become the king."
"I'm not the only descendant. What about Soobin?"
"Your cousin is a part of the royal family but the crown belongs to your father, not your uncle."

Beomgyu sighed. "And what even is the point of this whole conversation?" asked Beomgyu a bit annoyed. "I want to help you." "But I don't need your help, okay? Don't worry about me. If I needed help I'd tell you." Mr Kim sighed. "Whatever you want, prince." He bowed to Beomgyu and left.
Beomgyu laid down on the bench and realized how bored he is. He was thinking about another joke and who should be his next victim. Then it hit him "I never tried anything on my parents... wouldn't that be too much though? I'm gonna come up with something." he thought to himself.