June 2021: Mysterious anonymous ASTERHYTHM is celebrating Pride Month with their second annual entry in their HYBE PRIDE series, A TIGER CALLED RAPUNZEL.

HYBE PRIDE was started in June 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Pride parades and events were being cancelled in-person. The HYBE PRIDE stories are traditional fairy-tales, European in origin, rewritten with two goals in mind: to promote BTS and other Big Hit/HYBE bands, and to make the stories as impossibly, over-the-top, flamingly queer as possible.

"This is Pride Month, after all!" ASTERHYTHM says in relation to the HYBE PRIDE series. "Queer stories are for all year long, but we should get to let it out a little more in June." ASTERHYTHM always invites others to write their own HYBE PRIDE stories using fairy-tales, fables, and epics from writers' own cultures (hence why ASTERHYTHM sticks to European fairy tales).

The first HYBE PRIDE fairy tale, DREAM ON, CINDERELLA, featured Min Yoongi as the titular Cinderella character and Kim Seokjin as the prince. This year's HYBE PRIDE story, A TIGER CALLED RAPUNZEL, takes place in a completely different world and fairytale than the first book, and is its own standalone. Choi Beomgyu from fellow Big Hit property TOMORROW X TOGETHER is the title character, a prince whisked away from his kingdom and hidden in a tower, further disguised as a girl so nobody finds him. This version of the well-known Rapunzel fairy-tale takes some hints from TANGLED and features Kang Taehyun as a Robin Hood-style thief, who keeps stealing gold from the castle and giving it to the poor. Taehyun discovers the female Beomgyu one day while escaping, and they journey together to the castle to attend a festival.

"It's no secret to readers that this girl in the tower is really the lost prince," ASTERHYTHM explains. "Not only do we feature queer couples in the story, we get to brush up against what it means to question your gender. While Beomgyu's character isn't strictly transgender, he was raised as a girl, and the questions he has are the same questions a lot of transgender individuals carry about themselves."

A TIGER CALLED RAPUNZEL will update every single day during the Pride Month of June 2021 (updates will be during EDT). The cover features an image edit by @softsoobs on Twitter (now @SOOBCOR3) that inspired the story a year ago. ASTERHYTHM has received permission to use the image.

ABOUT ASTERHYTHM

Mysterious anonymous Asterhythm (they/them) is a long time fanfiction veteran and self-published author. Aster started their career in 2003 on Fanfiction.net, where they primarily wrote for anime fandoms including Digimon and Angelic Layer. In 2011, Aster discovered K-Pop, and began writing under the Asterhythm name in 2019 after becoming a fan of BTS. Aster writes on both Wattpad and An Archive Of Our Own, where a more extensive history of their work under different pseudonyms is located.

Asterhythm is a Municipal Liaison for National Novel Writing Month; to date they have won NaNoWriMo sixteen times. They have had their books displayed at trade shows including New York Comic-Con. While retired from the professional writing scene, Aster brings their writing skill and networking to the fanfiction world by giving instruction and advice and promoting other authors. Aster is a champion of the #OwnVoices movement, which is evident in both their stories and others'.

Aster currently lives in America, where they go to school. Their hobbies include playing rhythm games and doting on their cats.