"This is where I was born!"
"That's my brother's room! And this is mine! Come in, let me show you around!"
"Everything's changed, it's not the same anymore, but the basic building is the same. I used to love taking long baths filled with different scented oils. Lavender was my most favourite!"
"My father used to sit here, my mother here, me and my brother here! The dining table is huge, I know, but it used to be completely full of food and people whenever there were diplomatic meetings!"
"This is where me and my brother used to play all the time! We used to play hide and seek and my brother still doesn't know where I used to hide every time! I'll show you that next! It's a secret passage that leads you straight out of the palace's compound wall!"
Jeongguk didn't let a single word get out of Taehyung's mouth as he showed Taehyung around his home.
"This is where I fought all those men that my brother sent to attack me. That hall right there showed me his true colours."
"No offence, Ggukie, but I hate your brother," Taehyung said when he saw where Jeongguk pointed. He entered the room and pouted when Jeongguk showed exactly where his family was sitting when he heard his brother's traitorous words.
"I hate that he did that to me, but I don't hate him," Jeongguk said in a small voice.
Taehyung only nodded in return, wanting to know more about the palace that no one could ever tell and know instead. It made him feel proud that he was getting so much insider information that no one would ever get.
"Shall we see that passage you were talking about?" he asked.
"No, let us use that passage to get out of the palace when we leave. I will show you another passage through which you can enter the palace. We can leave normally after that," Jeongguk said, grinning excitedly at the prospect of showing his lover every nook and corner of his home.
"Sure! There's a building behind the palace that has old paintings and information about the palace. We can go there too. It might make you sad, but you do need to know what happened after you disappeared, right?"
"Yes, of course, we shall go there after we explore the passages and then we can leave," Jeongguk said. He didn't miss how Taehyung said knowing what happened after he disappeared might make him sad. And he didn't want that sadness to dampen his mood and stop him from showing his home to Taehyung.
"Oh!" Jeongguk exclaimed suddenly. "Do you want to see a childhood portrait of mine?" he asked. He didn't know if it was still there, but if no one after him discovered the secret loft in his room, then his painting would definitely still be there. Along with all the other favourite things that he had saved up there.
Taehyung's eyes lit up. "Of course!" he exclaimed and both of them all but ran back to Jeongguk's room.
Taehyung wondered how Jeongguk's painting could have been preserved for so long if not by the heritage workers, but he didn't have to wonder for long.
Jeongguk walked straight to one of the corners of the room and crouched down. There was a centimetre gap between one of the wooden floor blocks and the wall. He pushed the block towards the wall and slowly began to push every block after that until that little gap moved to the other end of the room.
He happily looked behind at Taehyung. "I don't know if anyone found out about this secret loft in my room, but if no one did, then we can find a lot of things there," he said and slipped his fingers into the little gap, palm facing the wall.
With almost no effort showing on his face, he pulled the wall out and it opened like Taehyung expected it to. Still, Taehyung's jaw dropped. He had never expected himself to explore one of the most famous palaces of the country, the Jeonkungjeon, like this. He suddenly felt the urge to take a photo and post it on social media, but barely stopped himself from doing so.
The little stairs leading up to the loft weren't even covered with cobwebs, showing how tight the wooden wall door was. They turned on their phone torches and walked up the stairs until they reached the loft.
Jeongguk gasped. "No one found out about this!" he exclaimed happily, his cute bunny teeth popping out and ruining his hot image in a second.
"Really?!" Taehyung asked, his eyes shining with curiosity.
"Yes! This is where...oh my holy mother!!" Jeongguk rushed forward and moved a cupboard aside with extreme ease before retrieving a bunch of keys from underneath. He then rushed back towards an ancient trunk and opened its huge lock. He threw it open and turned to Taehyung with a huge grin.
"There are all my childhood possessions. Games that I don't play anymore, things I just randomly found and liked, and all the paintings that artists made of me," he said.
Taehyung pointed to the other four trunks that were still unopened in awe. "They are the same too?"
"Oh, they are just all the jewellery that don't fit me anymore," Jeongguk said nonchalantly before tossing the bunch of keys at Taehyung. "Go ahead and open them," he said. He noticed how the jewellery of the modern times was so thin and of so poor quality. Knowing the quality of his own jewellery, he couldn't wait to see Taehyung's reaction when he opened the chests.
A very unnaturally loud gasp left Taehyung's mouth when he threw the trunk open with utter difficulty. Gems and jewels literally shone in it, not to mention all the gold that just lay there, abandoned but so pretty to look at that he wished he were a kid again so that he could try them out instead.
"Th-The other three are like this too?" he asked Jeongguk, his voice barely a whisper as he ogled at all the shining jewellery.
Jeongguk chuckled and came up to wrap his arm around Taehyung's waist. "Of course. Your oppa is rich," he whispered in his ear.
Taehyung chuckled at that and turned to his side to twist Jeongguk's nipple. "You are not my oppa!" he exclaimed and then looked back at the trunk. "So...you mean....all of this belongs to you. Not the heritage trust, not the country, but you. Because it's not some random treasure we discovered, this is literally yours."
"Yes, baby, yes," Jeongguk chuckled.
"So we can take this home!!"
"Definitely."
"I rented this place out with absolute privacy, so no guards are around either. Still, how do we take this home?"
"We can take it through the passage, of course. What are you going to do with it, though? You yourself are quite wealthy," Jeongguk said.
"We can figure that out later. Let us first get what's yours out. We'll take this home first and then see through everything. We can come back another day to explore the rest of the palace. There are only pictures of your war, your parents, and then about the next rulers in that new building I told you about. We can see that later, what say?" Taehyung said.
"Alright," Jeongguk agreed. He had seen how greedy modern people were for things that weren't theirs. He understood Taehyung's sudden resolve to get what was his home so that they could deal with everything later.
"Wow, this isn't what I thought of when I brought you here. I just did because you said you missed your family and I wanted to show you how your palace was still preserved as national heritage," Taehyung said, staring at the other trunks in pure awe.
Jeongguk chuckled and threw his arms around Taehyung, pulling him into a warm hug from behind. "Thank you for this, though. You are very kind," he said.
"I just love you, Ggukie. I love you too much."
Jeongguk hummed contently and smiled, gently swaying their bodies side to side. "I love you too much too," he said.
"Don't forget to get that trunk of all your games and other possessions too. I wanna see your childhood face," Taehyung commented, his voice muffled by Jeongguk's shoulder.
"Of course. Let's move these babies now, then," Jeongguk said and moved towards the trunks. "Call Seonsaeng-nim to come and help me. You can guard the trunks outside the palace until Seonsaeng-nim and I get all of them out. I will show you the passage first so that you can tell him where to come," he said.
"Okaie," Taehyung exclaimed excitedly and whipped his phone out. "Even though all of this is yours, it feels like a heist," he giggled.
"What is that?" Jeongguk asked, bursting his bubble right away.
"Never mind," Taehyung deadpanned. "Let's just go."