The rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

Since Taehyung had a tutoring session which, for some reason, required a servant standing inside the room the whole time while doing nothing, Jungkook was requested to observe the session and watch Taehyung get tutored, probably Elysium's equivalent of school.

The tutor was a tall and wise-looking blonde man with a tone and a posture that made him seem much older than he probably was, looking a tad like Jimin but obviously much bigger in size. Jungkook hadn't forgotten about the prince's unintentional coming-out and, call him crazy but he tried to look for any signs that Taehyung might possibly be attracted to his tutor but didn't find any. Why he even cared at all was a mystery to himself, too.

What surprised him a lot was the tutoring itself. When he learned that Taehyung's lesson today would be entirely focused on Korean, he thought of literature and poem analyzations or writing an essay like in his own school.
But no, Taehyung was learning how to write.

It was weird seeing an eighteen-year old learn how to write basic, normal Hangeul but he assumed that Elysium tradition presumably included learning how to write only after becoming an adult.
"Knowing how to write, let alone read, is a priviledge," Taehyung had said matter-of-factly when he had asked him about it. He tried not to think about the people who were too poor to receive education in or outside the castle.

Today seemed to be a special day, the prince seemed to feel much brighter after the tutoring session as he picked out his daily tiara-crown-thing (gold with turquoise gemstones, perfectly matching his pale white robes) and smiled brightly as Jimin put it on him. Smiling suits him, Jungkook couldn't help but think.

"Do you want to see the castle's ball room? My sister should currently be receiving her dancing lesson, with her lady friends. I always find it highly interesting to watch as I personally do not receive any." Not missing an opportunity to lay eyes upon another one of this fantastic castle's rooms, the brunette nodded.

"Amazing. Let us go," the prince ordered, taking Jungkook's hand instead of his biceps like he had done the past few days and pulled him towards the door. "In case anyone happens to intrude, you will tell them I am bathing peacefully," he told Jimin who immediately nodded and bowed with a "Of course. Have a pleasant trip, Your Majesty", as if he was about to leave for some sort of road trip.

And so, Taehyung skipped excitedly along his corridor while clutching Jungkook's hand to which the younger didn't know how to react. It almost felt like having a bubbly boyfriend who would ask him to take him to the mall and then happily pull him towards all the expensive Chanel and Gucci-stores and beg him to buy several clothing items with pleading puppy eyes until he agreed with a sigh.

Something Jungkook never got to experience so far. However, if Taehyung were from his world, he was sure he'd be the type to love shopping for luxury brands and drag his boyfriend along with him forcefully, regardless of how the latter felt about that.
And something about that image made Jungkook smile.

"Here it is," the blue-haired male whispered in delight. The two of them were standing in front of a gigantic ball room of which the wooden doors had been opened to give them a perfect sight of the divine room. Just like the throne room, it shimmered and glimmered from every single angle, the walls seemed to be made of pure gold. It appeared that gold happened to flow like water in Elysium. Or it grew on trees, he didn't know.

"There they are!," Taehyung whispered, pointing towards four girls in long ballgowns who spun around laughing which made their puffy skirts twirl beautifully. Four well-dressed men stood aside the spinning females and looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Ladies, ladies, please!," a male voice interrupted desperately and another man in his fifties or sixties stepped closer towards them and clapped into his hands to make them pay attention and stop laughing.

So people in Elysium did know how to have fun!

It took a while for the man to stop the girls having a full-on blast (probably their dance instructor) and slightly panting, each one of them stood still but did not look concentrated at all. In fact, they appeared as if they were holding in their laughter and trying to prevent it from erupting like a volcano.

"Ah, my sister and her lady friends: Princess Nayeon from Kingdom Antiquus, Princess Yewon from Kingdom Juvenis and Princess Yerin from Kingdom Candidus. Usually, Sojung is very grumpy and quiet but while dancing with her friends, she is gleeful and zestful. As a brother, I appreciate this side of her." Taehyung himself looked like he was repressing a giggle and Jungkook had to say, he quite appreciated this particular side of him, too. So he did care about his sister, and that a lot.

And all of a sudden, waltzing music started playing. Jungkook hadn't noticed the musicians sitting in the far corner of the room, an ensemble consisting of eight or nine people. A very small chamber orchestra, perhaps? The music sounded extremely fancy and posh, something he absolutely was not used to. The princesses now positioned themselves next to each of the silent men and curtseyed, said men each taking one princess's hand and kissing it. Three of the girls giggled quietly when they did so but one of them (wearing a puff-sleeved ballgown in beautiful lilac and white silky gloves with sparkling rings and bracelets) just rolled her eyes and forced a pained smile on her face.

"Princess Yerin never liked her dance partners much. In fact, she appears very resentful towards men generally. Do you want to dance?," the prince suddenly asked which completely overwhelmed the brunette. Not once in his life had he ever attempted to dance in this particular style. After ballet, waltzes were the genre he thought he was least likely to attempt.
"Uh--Um, I never danced to Mozart before, you know?," he stuttered.

Taehyung looked offended. "This is not Mozart, it is Strauss! I presume commoners are not very familiar with ballroom dances but they are not difficult to do. You simply need to adjust to the rhythm and it will be easy. I wish for you to dance with me because this dance requires a partner and I dare not ask Jimin or any other servant. But I love to dance. I know two men shall not dance together, but no one needs to know about this. We are not going to be seen from here," he spoke, looking at Jungkook with high expectation.

"Oh, alright then," the younger agreed. He felt terrified to say the least but didn't dare defy the crown prince and tried copying the men's actions, taking Taehyung's hand and pulling him a little closer, he left out the kiss on purpose. He somehow felt like he was breaking a million rules, dancing with a literal prince like this. Oh god, was he seriously starting to adjust to the horrible hierarchical mindset in this place?

The blue-haired boy surely was enjoying himself. It seemed that in contrast to his usually so uptight and tough self, he was letting all his worries go when dancing to the cheery waltzing music. Jungkook blinked in surprise when the royal heir grabbed his shoulder and stepped even closer to show him the steps of the simple dance. He had to admit, they were quite easy once you adjusted properly. And seeing Taehyung have so much fun added to the experience and he forgot about his worries, too.

"Do you see? I told you it would be easy, you are doing surprisingly well." Jungkook smiled a little, putting one of his hands on the prince's waist like the men in the ballroom did which, then again, made Taehyung smile, too. And soon enough, they were swaying around the corridor in front of the ball room in pure relaxation, each of them pushing their personal worries and doubts aside and just enjoying this unusual type of dancing (at least for Jungkook).

For the first time in days, Taehyung was able to forget the pressure of being the crown prince and having all the responsibility over everything and everyone in the future that usually penetrated him to no ends, along with his reluctance to court a lady which had heavily weighed him down until Jungkook had given him a bit of reassurance by showing him he was not alone. As for the latter, for the first time in days, he allowed himself to forget his friends and family and the fact that he was far away from home without any chance of contacting them.

Or was there?

He was starting to feel a tad like Alice in Wonderland, falling down a rabbit hole and experiencing a crazy fantasy world where nothing seemed to make sense. Except that this was Elysium and not Wonderland, no potion to make you shrink, no rabbit wearing a waistcoat, no smoking caterpillar, no Mad Hatter and no Queen of Hearts demanding his head.
He was also starting to wonder whether he may be dreaming all of this.

Then again, everything felt so damn real there was no way this was a dream. His feet tapping the ground felt real, the music ringing peacefully in his ears felt real, Taehyung's touch felt real. But maybe he wanted this to be a dream, but part of him also didn't. He wanted his old life back, his family and friends and schoolmates. But he also couldn't deny the fact that dancing like this, in a royal palace with an ethereal royal prince, made him feel special. He wanted to help the crown prince, he wanted to be there during all his struggles and he wanted to guide him and encourage him to embrace his true self instead of living in a world of pretending and faking.

To him, Kim Taehyung was a confusing person. There were things about him that he didn't like and all and there were things that he admired about the prince. He didn't like the way Taehyung treated and thought of his servants and subjects, he didn't approve of the mindset he grew up with and he didn't like the walls he was building up around himself.

But then again, he liked Taehyung's passionate and creative side. He liked this sincere side of the boy who had a passion for medicine, the boy who spent hours in his garden pavillion while reading to feel at peace and the boy who sneaked in front of the ballroom to watch his sister dance and copy all the moves. The boy who could just be called a normal boy instead of a prince.

He thought about all of this while continuing to dance with said prince, who looked so happy he could burst any moment. His happiness was extremely contagious and Jungkook couldn't help but smile aswell. How long they stayed like this, he did not know. But he liked the feeling, very much.

At some point, they were interrupted by a running Jimin who immediately bowed when he saw the crown prince. He must be doing this a lot since the servant didn't seem surprised about Taehyung's whereabouts. "Your Majesty," he panted, clutching his sides. "It is time for you to take your bath. After you have finished, dinner will be served. I shall also remind you to practise your writing once again before going to bed, these are your tutor's orders."
Taehyung, who had clearly planned on simply reading a good book before bed, was thrown back into reality and nodded in defeat.

"Duty calls. Let us leave," he spoke to Jungkook and grabbed his biceps, the two of them following Jimin through the castle.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(A/N: i can already promise you that next chapter will be fun sksksk

let's say this one was written in honor to permission to dance because they did nothing but dance in this chapter lolol anyways i looooove permission to dance sosossososos muchhh it's such a cute and catchy song, it's sooo sweet and the mv was sweet too i just love it and i especially love the scene where jungkook was dancing and like spinning around idk he just looked so happy i found it adorable :( i also loved his hair it rlly reminded me of old times uwu

this is random but i also love alice in wonderland (which i referenced) and i asked my mom to buy me the books so i hope i'll get them bc i rllyrlly want to read sksfjd anyways i hope you could enjoy, thank you for reading and i love you alot <333 *insert purple hearts again*)