The Prisoner of Oryn

15. Decorations

The whole palace turned upside down with frenzied guards and maids in the time that Jimin and Taehyung took to take an afternoon nap after having a heavy, delicious lunch.

"Woah, woah, woah, what's all the sound?!" Taehyung exclaimed as he shot up from the bed to check what all the noise was about. He shook Jimin awake and walked to the window. 

"What noise?" Jimin asked groggily, his mind still too sleepy to notice the sounds of the trumpets and drums in the Palace. 

"Can't you hear the noise? I think they are celebrating something. Oh my god, did Jeongguk win??" Taehyung asked excitedly. Jimin, who had finally registered all the celebratory sounds around him, sat up straight, all the sleepiness wiped clean from his features. 

"Let's go and check it out" he said. "Yupp" Taehyung said and leaped out of the room along with Jimin. 

Utter chaos. 

That was what came to their mind as they watched the maids and guards try to decorate the Palace as fast as they could. They tried to stop one of the maids to ask her what was happening, but none of them would stop to clear their doubts. 

Judging by the happy expressions on their faces and the decorations in the palace, they concluded that Jeongguk did win the war. 

"Yah! If they are decorating Yoongi-ssi's mansion like this, how do you think they are gonna decorate Jeongguk's mansion?" Jimin asked. 

"Oh, damn, right!! Let's go and see" Taehyung said. 

'Holy......when did they even start all these decorations?' Taehyung thought as he stared at the heavy decorations in Jeongguk's mansion. 

"Oh, Minho hyung!!" Jimin exclaimed. Minho turned around and spotted Jimin and Taehyung waving at him. He jogged towards them and patted their shoulders. "Done sleeping?" he asked. "Yeah" Jimin grinned. 

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Yoongi-ssi's mansion?" Taehyung asked. "My guards will take care of that mansion. This one needs more work" Minho said. "Ohh. Did Jeongguk win?" Taehyung asked, making Minho gasp loudly. 

"Don't refer to His Majesty by his name!! Have you gone mad?!" Minho exclaimed with wide eyes. Taehyung stuck his tongue out as if he couldn't care less. Minho shook his head at the two of them and rolled his eyes. 

"Yes, His Majesty won the war. The huge feud between Oryn and Alyndus finally got settled" Minho said happily. "That's great!! When will they come back?" Jimin asked. "Who? His Majesty?" Minho asked. "Yeah" Jimin said. 

"He will take care of evacuating the battlefield and all the soldiers who need to be brought back to the Kingdom before coming back to the Palace. It will take time for him to reach here" Minho said. 

"Ohh. Can we visit Hoseok hyung, then?" Taehyung asked. "You can if he is awake" Minho said. "Ohh, okay" Jimin said and the two of them walked towards Hoseok's mansion. 

"Is anyone there inside?" Taehyung asked the guards outside Hoseok's bedroom. "Yes, sir. Their Royal Highnesses and Madam Min" one of the guards said. 

"Ohh. Let's wait for them to leave, then" Jimin said. "Yeah, okay" Taehyung said and turned to the guard. 

"Please let us know after they leave. We'll be waiting in the garden" he said. "Yes, sir" the guard said and bowed to them. 

Taehyung and Jimin bowed to him as well and walked towards the garden, but before they could even start looking at all the different plants in it, the guard called them, saying that they could visit Sir Jung. 

"How are you feeling, hyung?" Taehyung asked as they walked towards Hoseok's bed. "Great. All by your grace" Hoseok said and grinned widely at him. "Hyung! Don't say such stuff! It's embarrassing" Taehyung exclaimed, waving his hand in front of him dismissively, making Jimin and Hoseok chuckle. 

"Sit down, both of you" Hoseok said, pointing to the chairs next to his bed. He sat up as well, as he didn't have to pretend like he was dying in front of the two of them. 

"So....the Palace is turning upside down because of Jeongguk's win" Jimin said. "Yeah, I heard. Also, how dare you refer to Jeongguk by his name??" Hoseok asked, feigning anger. 

"Ahh, it's weird to say 'His Majesty', hyung. We've never called anyone that way before. 'Your Majesty' is fine, but 'His Majesty' is really weird" Taehyung complained. 

"Ohh. What did you guys call your King, then?" Hoseok asked. "We didn't have a King" Jimin said. "Oh, right. You mentioned something about selecting your own King, right?" Hoseok asked. 

"Yeah, but there was no 'King'. We don't select a 'King'. We select a 'leader'. He or she is going to lead the country. If we don't like his or her way of leading the country, we can bring them down and select a different leader" Jimin said. 

Hoseok stared at him like he grew a butt above his head. "How's that even going to work?" he asked. 

"It's a huge topic, hyung. Kids learn about it for five whole years and they still don't understand half of what's happening" Jimin said. 

"Ohh." 

"A King's rule is called Monarchy, right? The one where people elect their own leader is called Democracy" Taehyung explained. 

"Sounds like nonsense" Hoseok said. 

"It is nonsense" Taehyung and Jimin said and chuckled, "but way better than Monarchy. We'll explain the whole thing to you in detail some other time, hyung. The guards might throw us back into the dungeons for overburdening a dying man if we do it now" Jimin said. 

Hoseok laughed out loud and shook his head, but before he could come up with a witty reply, someone knocked on the door, making the three of them turn towards it. Hoseok immediately laid back down and yelled a weak "Come in".

"Madam Jung is here, Sir" a guard said and bowed to him. "Let her in" Hoseok said weakly, maintaining his act well. The guard bowed again and left.

"We'll get going then, hyung. Get well soon" Taehyung said, winking at Hoseok at the end with a slight smirk. Hoseok snorted at him and winked back. "Sure, I will," he said, "but stay. Don't leave. I want to explain everything to her."

"Okay" Taehyung said and stood up to greet Hoseok's wife. "You are awake!!" was the first thing that the tall lady from the morning exclaimed the second she entered the room, without minding the presence of the other two. 

She ran to Hoseok without even waiting for the other lady who had been walking with her. Hoseok gave the other lady a small smile and a nod before grinning widely at his own wife. 

"Come here, Tzuyu-yah" he said, patting the side of his bed. Tzuyu didn't waste a second in rushing to his bed and grabbing his hand. "I was soo scared" she said, tears welling up in her eyes and crossing their boundaries. 

"I know, I know, it's okay now, I am alive" Hoseok said, patting her head lovingly and wiping her tears, but that just made her cry harder. 

"Does it hurt a lot, Oppa?" the other lady, who had been staring at Jimin until then, asked Hoseok. "It does, but it's okay. I'm alive" Hoseok said, smiling sadly at her. She smiled back at him sadly and turned towards Taehyung and Jimin. 

"Who are you?" she asked. Jimin noticed that her eyes contained a lot of sadness that no one of her age could ever contain. He began to wonder why such a beautiful lady had so much sadness within her, but a sudden sting on the back of his thigh brought him out of his thoughts. 

"-ce, nice. It's just that I've never seen you before" the lady said. Jimin realized that Taehyung must have answered her while he had lost himself in his thoughts. He rubbed his thigh and glared at Taehyung for pinching him so hard before turning towards Hoseok. 

"We'll go, hyung. You can explain stuff later" he said. 

"Alright. See you later. Come to the main palace when Jeongguk arrives" Hoseok said. 

"Okay, hyung. Bye. Get well soon" Taehyung said and the two of them left, leaving a confused set of three people in the room, wondering what in the hell they meant by 'Bye'.