"Royal Queen dowager, please, this whole thing is extremely embarrassing!"

The Royal Queen dowager looked down upon her three grandchildren and scoffed at their remarks. "Embarrassing?" she laughed, "Maybe you should've thought of that before you announced to me your brother's preferences."

The Prince Jungkook, younger half brother to the King stared at his grandmother in shock, "I didn't think you would go this far! You're literally collecting all the gay men in Korea so that one of them can marry Hyung!"

"I'm also pretty sure this is in some way illegal," the king adds.

The elder doesn't deny anything. "I just want my grandson, the King, to get married. Whether it's male or female I'll make sure that we pick out the best spouse for the royal family. You should be honored," she spat at the taller of the two, "if it had been years back, just the thought of you being with a man would've caused death to whoever had thought it."

King Namjoon sighed from his place next to his younger siblings. His grandmother had wanted him to marry as soon as he took the throne, he had put it off because he had certain preferences. In the end his grandmother was beginning to speak of holding a competition where the women of Korea would compete for the King's love. 

Namjoon had been against it, but he had no good reason to deny his grandmother. He was sure that telling her he didn't like women would've broken her heart or killed her from shock on the spot.

Instead when Jungkook blurted it out to protect his hyung, the Royal Queen Dowager did a complete 180 and decided to hold the same competition but for all the gay men in Korea. 

Namjoon had never found himself feeling so embarrassed till now, knowing that at this moment all of Korea was realizing that he liked men.

He was also positive that in other countries taking men from their homes by force was completely illegal. Here in South Korea though, the royal family could literally do much more than this. 

"Namjoon." The King looked up. "I know this is a bit uncomfortable for you, but you all know exactly why I'm doing this."

Yes. He knew. All three of them knew. The three of them were all she had left. Her son, the Great King, had fallen ill and had passed away fifteen years ago. Due to this, and the King's heir being too young for the throne, the late King's cousin Jeon Jung-hyun had taken the role as King and with Geongmin and Namjoon's mother, had Jungkook. 

But then he was assassinated by rebels when Jungkook was only two years old, their mother also a victim of the rebels' hand. The Royal Queen Dowager made a decision, to become Queen regent, hiding her grandchildren from the public until she found Namjoon to be ready to be King. 

He was ready now. And thankfully it was perfect timing. For the Royal Queen Dowager had been diagnosed a few months back. She was ill. Cancer.

With no cure and no knowing how much time was left for her, she wanted to complete her one wish. To see her grandchildren married off. Assuring that they would marry only the best. At this point in life, she didn't care who it was as long as they would make them happy. Even if it was someone of the same sex. It was her condition before handing sovereign powers over to Namjoon.

"I advise you to choose wisely. And don't worry about an heir, I will not leave that burden to you. Geongminnie will be left with that job." The elder raises her brow. "Unless you want to tell me that you like women?" she asks.

Princess Geongmin shakes her head and smiles. "I like men just as much as my brothers do. Leave the baby-making to me so that they can date men without any stupid pressure of producing an heir."

The Royal Queen dowager smiles at her. "Such a sweet girl, you are." She turns to the Prince, "And you. Your brother gets first pick but you should also be on the lookout, I don't think I can bring in all of Korea's gay men a second time to the palace."

Prince Jungkook smiles, it was a bit tense. "Yes, Royal Queen dowager."

Their grandmother dismissed them and all three of them left, walking down the hall together.

"She doesn't act like she's ill," Namjoon comments, scratching his chin. His younger siblings both nod in agreement.

"She's outlived her son and daughter-in-law." Geongmin comments, walking in between her two brothers. "It is understandable for her to act this way." She pauses, scrunches her nose. "To a certain point."

The King nods. He too understood his grandmother's worries, but at the same time, he felt that the whole idea was ridiculous. He wanted to meet someone the old fashion way, dates, courting, friendship before all. Yet here he was holding a competition to where Korea's men would be trying to impress him.

"Thanks by the way," Namjoon tells her as they walk through the courtyard. "Not that I'm happy that you're the one forced to birth an heir or anything, but the fact that you're doing this for me and Kook is nice of you."

Geongmin smiles at him, waves the comment off as if it's nothing. "I want kids," she informs him. "And if I didn't do this, you'd be forced to marry some girl because we," —she makes quotation marks with her hands— "'need an heir.' It's not fair since you don't even like girls. And since it's so difficult to change the law, it's easier for me just to be in charge of this."

It was easy to make gay marriage legal in South Korea. There was no law that prohibited. No previous law that even mentioned it. So Namjoon's grandmother had no problem making it legal as soon as she found out that Namjoon and Jungkook were both gay. 

What she couldn't and wouldn't change, however, were the laws that talked about producing an heir within the royal family. It was a standard tradition. One of them had to have a kid. One of them had to continue with the bloodline, hopefully producing several possible heirs. These heirs had to be produced through marriage. No children out of wedlock could obtain the throne. Those were the laws. 

It had been a burden that Namjoon had face ever since he was claimed as the next heir to the throne. The thought of being forced to have sex with a woman when he didn't like them like that, just to have babies. It made him sick, made him feel like nothing more than a tool.

Luckily, they had found a loophole. Geongmin was that loophole. But Namjoon still hated knowing that now his little sister was being viewed as a baby-making machine and nothing more.

They enter his quarters, Gangnyeongjeon Hall. Both his siblings run inside without his permission and throw themselves on his bed. He chuckles and sits on the edge of it when Geong-min reaches for the TV remote and turns it on.

"So those are your suitors, Oppa," she teases, nudging him with her elbow as the screen shows a live stream of the candidates arriving at the main gate.

Ignoring his sister's teasing, Namjoon focuses on the TV. The camera zooms in as the cars stop and palace staff open the doors, revealing the candidates' faces as they exit the car. Most of the men look confused as cameras flash at them, others appeared frightened, and some stand proud with their noses up in the air, waving to the cameras and posing.

"Isn't there a lot of them?" Jungkook comments, almost as if he was reading Namjoon's mind. He knew that the list had been big. Saw the cars leave this morning as they headed out to several provinces to pick up the candidates. But now as he watched almost ten men per car be dropped off at the main gate, he wondered if maybe they should've shortened the list beforehand.

Seeing the sudden dilemma, the king sighs. What on earth was his grandmother thinking he would make it through all of these men? Was she going to give him his own harem? 

Or worse.

Was he going to have to sleep with all of these men?

"Oh, look! There's Yoongi!"

The King raises his head. Indeed, there's Yoongi on the screen, face clearly reflecting how much he didn't want to be there. His face is completely solemn, devoid of any emotion, but Namjoon can clearly see the tick in his jaw. He almost laughs at it.

Besides his own siblings and grandmother, General Min was the only other person whom he trusted. The Min family had always protected the royal family and Namjoon wouldn't have it any other way. 

The camera focuses back on the candidates getting out of the car. Namjoon leans on the palm of his hand and watches them.

His breath caught as he saw the last one.

He wore an oversized pink hoodie that almost reached his knees, it hid away any trace of muscle or fat and made his legs look small. At first the hood covered the top part of his face, but The King still caught a glimpse of a set of perfectly full, plump lips. 

Then a burst of wind came through and the boy's hood fell back and that was when Namjoon felt his heart jump and swell in his chest.

He was beautiful. 

"So that's basically it," Hoseok said with his arms crossed, "We're being sent to the royal palace to be suitors for the King."

They were all sitting on the back of the truck, far from the ears of the soldiers who had taken them from their families and now took them ever further from there.

Jin sat on the floor, his knees pulled tight against his chest. His heart hurt heavy as he recalled his mother's body on the floor of their home. Her only family was now being sent far from where she laid resting. No one would pick her body up from there, no one would hold a funeral for her. 

He closed his eyes and silently prayed for his mother's soul to be at peace.

Taehyung sniffled in Jimin's arms. His little brother was clearly still not over the shock. Jimin patted the boy on the back, his other hand holding on to one of Tae's. It was a normal thing. Those two were always holding hands. "Why us though?" Jimin asks. "There are plenty of other guys in the neighborhood, why is it only us?"

Hoseok pauses, says. "They must've known."

Jimin blushes, his hand still rubbing Tae's back. "Known what? That we like guys? How?"

"They did a census last year," Seokjin muttered, loud enough for the others to hear. His eyes are focused on the floor as he speaks. "They went house to house making us fill out several forms. One of the forms asked our sexual orientation. Tae and I filled ours out without hesitating."

"But some of us here are Bi," Hoseok adds, looking at a few specific faces.

"I don't know. There's the possibility of some people not answering the question truthfully, so maybe the number of homosexuals was low so they had to expand it to bisexuals too. There may even be some pansexuals included, I don't know. "

The silence between them after that was deafening. Uncomfortable. Each one was to their own thoughts. The truck kept on rolling, only the sound of gravel being heard underneath the tires.

The four of them had been neighbors since kids. Hoseok's sister, Dawon, would babysit them when their parents were busy with work. They had grown close over the years and it somewhat relieved Jin to know that he would have to go through this new experience with them by his side.

Taehyung and Jimin were now 19, Hoseok was 21 and Jin was now 23. As the elder of the four of them, he would have to be strong. His mother was dead, there was no one to take care of them, meaning that Jin would have to drop his university studies and find a job so that Taehyung could focus on getting a degree. 

However if Taehyung would become The King's husband then he would basically have everything he needed.

The elder looks to the other three boys.

For a long time, he had suspected of Jimin's relationship with his father. After Jimin explained today of how his father basically threw him out upon seeing the amount of money he would receive, Jin's suspicions were confirmed. It had been obvious since they were young. It was noticeable in the way that the pink-haired boy would basically inhale his food, how he would constantly faint at random times, how his clothes looked bigger on him every month.

Jimin could perfectly well need this more than anyone.

Hoseok was another matter. He and his sister were pretty well off, but Hoseok was often very lonely. His sister worked from home but sometimes that implied that she would focus more on getting food on the table rather than on who she was buying food for. Hoseok needed a companion just as much as any of them.

As for Jin, because of his age he was sure that out of the four of them he was the one with the least possibility to suit the King. 

So he would seek this chance to convince the King to end up with any of them.

They felt the truck come to a stop. Heard doors open and muffled voices. Jin takes in a large breath. They had arrived. Time to take charge.

"Listen," he said in a firm voice, catching the attention of the other boys, "Chances are that as soon as we leave this truck there will be hundreds of cameras pointed our way. Get rid of those sad faces and smile as soon as you get out."

Taehyung started to protest, the elder lifted a finger, silencing him, "I know today's events were a lot to take in. Trust me I know," his voice strained, "I know we're having a hard time with this. But we might as well make the best of it. As soon as those doors open, you will all smile as brightly as you possibly can. Got it?"

The three boys nodded their heads. 

The curtain was pulled back, the sunlight beaming strongly into the truck. They all caught a glimpse of General Min outside. "We're here," he informs them, face stoic. "Please get out one by one."

Each one held the General's hands as they leaped out of the truck. Jin was the last one out.

Just as he had suspected, the place was roaming with cameras, some were pointed to other trucks, others were pointed towards theirs. Jin found his heart thumping hard against his chest, he was shaking.

He took a deep breath as he felt a sudden burst of wind blow against him. The second wave of wind was strong enough to push his hood back, revealing his face to the many cameras.

He followed his own advice.

He smiled.