The King Likes Men

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He was about to comment on Jaehwan's remark but his friend suddenly stopped in his tracks, stopping Seokjin along with him. Seokjin looked up.

Before them stood none other than the king, eyeing the two of them. He looked serious and displeased.

He also somewhat glared at Jaehwan's hand on Seokjin's shoulder. Did he seem...jealous? If so the situation would be a bit awkward. Seokjin cocked a questioning brow at him. "Your Majest-"

"You two should be getting changed," the king says abruptly, "its almost time for your next group number."

"Right," Jaehwan replies, lowering his hand,  "We were on our way over there, right Jinnie?" He gives Jin's bottom two good pats, making the latter jump and making Namjoon's eyes narrow.

"Yeah," Jin replies a little too high pitched for comfort. "We just got a little side tracked."

Wrong thing to say. The King's eyes went dark.

"I see," Namjoon says with a bit of a strain his in voice. He didn't say anything else, simply walked off, a very unpleased look on his face. Seokjin bit his lip as he watched him go.

"Geez, if he isn't whipped for you then I have no idea how to explain what that was," Jaehwan comments as soon as the king is out of sight.

"He's completely getting the wrong idea," Jin notes.

"Yeah, but this might be good for you. Jealousy is a good way to get a guy." He winks at him, "You should use me to reel him in."

Seokjin stares at him, mouth agape, "I'm not going to pull some stunt with you."

The guy actually has the nerves to pout, "Aw, come on, it'll be fun. Make him feel a bit of what you felt."

"Nope, not happening."

"Party pooper."

Seokjin rolls his eyes. He pinches the bridge of his nose, that stupid headache was back again.

They got dressed and luckily the next group dance was performed successfully, even without Jimin present. The MC announced Jimin's injury, thus his inability to be able to perform his solo. Taehyung glances at Jin, noticing something was off but not questioning it.

Everyone watched the individual performances from the monitors. Each time a candidate finished Seokjin felt his nerves get worked up again. It was terrible because it seemed that almost every candidate was talented in the arts, Seokjin suddenly felt inferior.

"I can't do this," he gasps, ready to bolt and just leave everything behind. Hoseok and Taehyung grab him and sit him down on a bench nearby. 

"Hyung, you'll be fine," Taehyung assures him, massaging his neck, "You need to relax."

"The more you tell me to relax the harder it is to do so," Seokjin says. He silently wished he could disappear right now, wanting nothing more than to avoid this whole show.

Maybe he would get lucky. Maybe guards would take him away before he even got a shot to go up on stage. He kept pacing back and forth, there were still a few candidates before him, but his body was reacting as if it was his turn.

He ended up in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror, wanting nothing more than to just splash his face with water but knew that his stylist would yell at him for ruining his make up. He was sweating, yet his body was shivering. He was almost sure that it was due to nerves, though.

After drinking some water from the sink, he walked out. There was a lot of commotion outside. He frowned as he watched Adora and two other guys from BigHit Entertainment -Sejin and Hobeom,  was it?- fighting with one another in the corner.