The plague continued and soon, even the royal food stalks started running out. There were just too many mouths to feed.
At the peak of the misfortune, there was a day when the food started to run out.
Yoongi and Taehyung, like every other day, were handing out food and the last packet they held was given away.
There was a young boy standing in front of Taehyung. The boy looked poor and malnourished. He was so small that he couldn't even reach up to Taehyung's torso. He wore torn-up clothes and his white face that would have otherwise looked to be cute was covered in dirt with tear stains clearly visible.
Taehyung gulped as he looked at the boy who looked up at him with eyes that seemed to be filled with hope.
The boy held out his hands in front of him as if asking for food but Taehyung had nothing to give him.
Taehyung crouched down and shook his head as he patted the boy's head, "Come back tomorrow."
The boy's face seemed to have dropped as he heard this.
With much regret, Taehyung stood and turned around, not having the heart to continue watching.
He was about to walk away but he suddenly felt someone tugging on his clothes.
Taehyung turned to see the boy clutching tightly onto him.
There were tears trailing down the boy's dirty face as he clung close to Taehyung and looked at him with a pair of pitiful eyes that seemed to be begging him.
Taehyung gulped as he looked at the boy.
He crouched down to the boy's level once again and mustered up a smile as he asked, "Are you really hungry?"
The boy immediately bobbed his head up and down.
Taehyung held onto the boy's arm that was so thin that it felt more like a stick than a human hand, "How long has it been since you've last eaten?"
The boy hung his head low and didn't give a response.
"Has it been too long?" Taehyung asked softly.
The boy lifted his head and opened his mouth to speak up, but what he said shocked Taehyung even more. The boy was deaf and hence, he could not hear Taehyung's question while at the same time, whatever he had said came out as nothing more than incomprehensible blabbering sounds.
Taehyung felt his heart breaking. This was a bit too much for him who was suddenly made aware of how bad the situation really was.
Yoongi who looked at the boy trying to shout something but not sounding comprehensible sighed as he ordered a guard to take the kid away and give him some of the food arranged for Yoongi and Taehyung.
Taehyung hugged the boy one last time before letting him go with the guard in order to get some food.
Once the boy was out of sight, Yoongi hugged Taehyung from behind and assured him that it was going to be all okay soon.
Although Taehyung nodded his head and agreed with Yoongi, in his heart, he believed that nothing was ever going to be okay.
He would definitely be a fool to not realize what the future held for them.
As if the plague wasn't bad enough, the neighboring country Gim decided to take this chance and attacked once again.
The royal court was in a disarray and most of the officials had refused to send their army with Yoongi simply because they had lost faith in their crown prince.
The unfortunate scar on Yoongi's face became a reason for them to push the blame onto him.
If he hadn't been stubborn, such a thing would have never happened. He was the one that chose his lover instead of choosing his country and now, he was about to pay a hefty price for it.
Yoongi was mentally suffering by now and the stress and worry had caused his health to deteriorate, however, he still guided his army to fight back.
For Yoongi, the royal army that was under General Park and General Jeon seemed more than enough to fight back the army from Gim.
The war continued along with the plague and soon, the war also saw its peak.
Some soldiers from Gim managed to infiltrate the royal palace of Mingyu and Taehyung was the first one to meet them.
He was in the study, writing a letter when the soldiers had infiltrated.
Taehyung simply smiled softly as he saw them, "Are you here to kill me? You are quite late. I've been waiting here for such a long time."
One of the soldiers stepped forward and took off the black cloth that covered his face, "Taehyung, come with me."
"Hyung...?" Taehyung was thoroughly shocked to see the person behind the mask.
.
.
.
At this exact moment, Yoongi was fighting with his army by his side when the news of the infiltration came. He immediately turned on his horse and headed for the royal palace, leaving General Jeon and General Park in charge.
"Oi!~ Do you want to place a bet?" Jimin cut down an enemy soldier as he cried out.
Jungkook frowned as he continued to fight, "What bet?"
"Let's count the number of people we take down." Jimin beamed as he cut down another one of the soldiers, "If I win, we get married! Let's get married before the crown prince does!"
Jungkook couldn't help but chuckle a little as he heard such a bizarre proposition, "Okay."
"Huh?" It took Jimin a solid minute to realize what Jungkook had said, "You mean it?!"
Jungkook nodded as he laughed teasingly, "But you have to win against me first. Though, with that injury on your stomach, I highly doubt it."
Jimin pursed his lips as he took a look at his stomach for not more than a few seconds. He broke the arrow that had stabbed through his stomach and exclaimed, "I can definitely win!"
Jungkook smiled but the only feeling that could be sensed on his face was sadness.
The two generals continued to fight but with the injuries that they carried, although they looked optimistic, deep in their hearts, they already knew that the marriage they had promised would never become a reality.
Jimin's dream of strolling through the mountains, hunting animals, and growing crops for food. Adopting a child and building a house together on top of the mountain. A hopeful future where they lived as a small family. A peaceful life with no fear of wars nor politics... The beautiful summer dream was going to be nothing more than just that. A dream that would forever remain as a dream...
They knew it...
They weren't going to make it through this war...
Maybe that was the reason why Jungkook had finally agreed. Maybe he realized that he had lost the opportunity to be honest. So for the last time, he wanted to admit it. He wanted to admit that he liked Jimin's dream...
"General Park, I love you so freaking much!" Jungkook yelled at the top of his lungs as he beheaded an enemy soldier in front of him, but not before getting stabbed in the stomach by that soldier.
Jimin's eyes widened as he turned to see the smile on Jungkook's face but saw something far more frightening instead, "Noooo!!!!"
Jungkook coughed up blood as he pulled the sword out and continued to fight, "So make sure that you win against me!"
Jimin, who had hardly ever cried in his entire life suddenly had a face stained with tears that refused to stop, "Damn it! I can't see anything!" He cried out as he attacked the blurry figures in front of him. The tears were blocking his line of sight, but this didn't stop him from fighting till the very end.
.
.
.
"Please be safe. Please be safe. Please be safe," Yoongi chanted continuously in his head as he made his way to the royal palace.
His horse was running at the highest speed possible for it, however, for Yoongi who had his heart in his throat, he was dissatisfied with the extremely slow pace.
"Hurry, damn it!" He cried out as he tried to make the horse go faster.
For some unknown reason, he felt his heart suddenly ache in fear and sadness. Tears started trailing down his face soon enough.
"Please be safe!" He cried out, his voice begging and pleading to the God above.
When he finally got to the royal palace, he didn't even wait for the horse to stop as he directly jumped down and ran inside without any sense of hesitation.
He searched the entire palace but he could find no infiltrators nor could he find Taehyung who was supposed to be here.
The more time passed with him searching, the more he felt that something had gone extremely wrong.
The last place he went to was the royal study and it just so happened that this was the exact place where Taehyung lay on the floor covered in his own blood.
Yoongi felt the world shatter. His thoughts went still and the tears on his face stopped. His face dropped colors and turned white as his hands started trembling, "T-Taehyung-ah...?"
The man on the floor was already long gone and hence, there was no response.
Yoongi gulped in fear as he slowly stepped forward. His eyes were glued to the body on the floor that was no longer breathing, "Taehyung-ah...?"
He called out to him again and again in hopes of the man replying but how could that be possible?
He kneeled down dejectedly next to the body and shook Taehyung's shoulder, "Taehyung-ah...?"
He burst into tears as he flipped the body and looked at Taehyung's face that had a small smile on it.
Yoongi screamed and cried as he hugged the dead body close, "Wake up! Taehyung-ah!! Don't joke around with me!!!"
Taehyung felt cold under Yoongi's touch and his face looked to be turning blue, but there was no sign of him waking up.
Yoongi cried and cried. He screamed louder and louder but there was no one hearing his anguish or pain. Taehyung was no longer there to comfort him... The beautiful spring dream that they had, popped like a bubble.
Yoongi was his life and now... That life had been ruthlessly taken away...
Yoongi felt himself getting choked by his own breaths and when he had finally managed to somehow calm himself down, his eyes trailed to the letter clutched tightly in Taehyung's hand.
He squinted at the letter before reluctantly pulling it out of Taehyung's hand.
He carefully opened the letter only to cry even more as he read the first line.
Your highness,
Don't cry anymore.
Both of us knew this was going to happen. We were fated together and destined for this unfortunate ending.
You were like a dream to me. A dream that no matter how much I clutched onto, it would start getting further and further away. This dream was like a bubble. I was always afraid that it would pop, but eventually, it was always made to pop in the first place itself.
Our fate started from the day we met and it brought us here.
I'm happy... At least, I got to spend the rest of my life with you and it would have been better if my life was longer than this... But that's just me being greedy, is it not?
I hope we can be reborn again...
Reborn as just us and not some countries pawns.
I wonder if your highness would be interested in meeting me again?
Even if our end is a tragic one, I don't regret meeting you and I don't regret loving you.
Even if life gives me another chance, I would still choose to be with you.
I'm not confident when I say that I'll be willing to suffer again, however, never meeting you again is even more torturous for me.
So let's be reborn, okay?
Let's be reborn and complete the promises we made to each other.
Your royal highness, I'll be waiting for you...
You can take your time, but you have to make sure that you come into the new world and find me first. I don't want to become a hostage prince again so I hope your highness can be the one who comes to find me.
Yoongi chuckled dryly in between his sobs, "Yeowool is dead... Hyun is dead... And now you have left me too..."
The atmosphere was silent as Yoongi hugged onto Taehyung tightly, "Tell me, what am I supposed to do without you? Didn't I tell you? You are my life... Without you, I'm nothing more than an empty shell."
Taehyung naturally gave no response.
Yoongi sighed as he gripped the letter tightly, "This rebirth plan... Sounds fun."
After a long while, Yoongi came out of the royal palace, carrying an unconscious cold Taehyung.
By now, the soldiers from Gim had surrounded the royal palace completely indicating that the last barrier had been broken... That General Jeon and General Park had succumbed to the war.
Yoongi's eyes looked soulless as his knees gave out and he fell to the floor. All his strength was being used in clutching tightly onto the man in his arms.
One of the soldiers stepped up behind him and the soldier seemed to be shaking in fear.
Yoongi gently kissed Taehyung's forehead before lifting his head and waiting for the soldier to strike, "Go ahead... Kill me."
He had given up.
The great crown prince of Mingyu had finally been broken beyond repair.
The soldier was hesitant at first but when he heard Yoongi giving the order, the hesitation was gone and somehow, with a clean blow, he managed to behead the crown prince who was kneeling in front of him.
Even with his head completely cut off, Yoongi's body still clutched tightly onto Taehyung.
.
.
.
Your highness, this isn't our end.
This is the start of our spring dream*...
VOLUME 1: END
*spring dream- Dreaming of spring is about rebirth and hope for the future.
________________________________________
A/n: Watch the trailer again just for some extra feels T T
Okay...
Um....... Raise your hand if you cried.
Let me be the first â(â¥ï¹â¥)
We have finally come to the end of volume 1 and I cannot explain the feelings I have related to this book.
This book was never actually meant to be written. It was just a story that haunted me after I saw daechwita mv.
I made the story into a video with the hopes of sharing it with others because the story deserved it but after I made a video, viewers started asking for the story to be adapted as a fanfic and I gave a small mission of getting the video to 1k likes within a week.
Originally, I thought it was an impossible mission, but the next day itself, I woke up to see everyone completing the mission. The video got 1k likes and it was time for me to keep my promise.
At the beginning of the story, there were times when I didn't have enough time or motivation to continue it(mostly because they were gonna die in the end and I don't like writing tragic ends)Â but because of all the support the story got, I continued it and I'm so glad I did.
Most of you don't know this but I took a year off to figure out what type of author I wanted to become. I asked myself what type of story I wanted to write and for a whole year, I couldn't come up with an answer.
I tried to quit writing fanfics and focused more on my original novels.
I took most of my fanfics down now because I left them all unfinished and at an indefinite pause just because I had no idea what type of story I wanted to portray.
If it hadn't been for my mother who told me to continue writing crown prince, I really would have quit writing fanfics.
But, I can proudly say today that I know what type of author I want to become.
After reading mdzs( or also known as untamed) so many times, I finally realized why I like that book so damn much.
It's a book that hides a lot of secrets and feelings. Every time you read it, you find something new, and the intended plot holes which can't even be called plot holes really add to the beauty of the story because they show us how the book is more of a world on its own and not just a creation from the mind of an author.
I wanted to write something like that. A book that subtly tells a lot and hides a lot.
And according to me, I was successful in showing exactly that.
With this book, I wrote a story that hid a lot of secrets that you might not have noticed.
If you read it again, you might learn something new, and if you read it for the third time, you'll realize even more things.
With that said, I would ask you to read again just to see if there are some more deeper meanings you can find.
Let me tell you the first hidden element: At the starting of the novel, it was said that the late king tried to kill young Yoongi, but it was later hinted that this was not exactly what happened.
The queen didn't die saving Yoongi and this was something that was never talked about in the book just because our MC, Taehyung never got the chance to know.
There are a lot more things that are hidden within a line or two and would need you to reread to understand.
So for everyone planning on rereading: All the best! If you find something, let me know in the comments!
Is this the end of the book?
Um... No lol
Like Taehyung said at the end of the letter,
This isn't our end,
It's the start of our spring dream.
We'll now be moving on to the extras!
Filled with fluff and laughter.
After I'm done with the extras, The volume 2 of this book would be released,
And just between you and me, I'll now be officially leaking the title of volume 2!â¨
Reincarnation Cafe~
I might decide to change the title later but for now, this is the decided title of Volume 2.
The official release date would be updated here so make sure that this book is in your library!
With all that said,
Thank you for all your support throughout this journey.
I've had fun along the way and I hope you had fun as well.
I love you all a lot and hope to see you in the next volume as well (Which I promise is a happy ending!)
Take care of yourself. Don't forget to eat your meals, drink plenty of water and remember that the spring dream is only beginning.
Our future is bright. ððð