The Prince's Stableman | Taejin

Chapter 26 - Perfume

Taehyung and Seokjin were on the way to the same oak tree that they met at earlier that day. It was already late in dusk, lights were seen flickering in the castle as the evening slowly crept in. The wind was a bit chilly as fruit bats squeaked as they flew by with the sound of cicadas filling the air.

Thankfully, Seokjin didn't feel anything lascivious from the ride back. He was able to breathe normally with V seated in front of him. As they were nearing the oak tree, he saw an unfamiliar face standing there with his arms crossed on his chest with a displeased expression. He felt V tense in front of him as his body straightened.

"Do you know him?" Seokjin asked. But as soon as RJ stopped, V suddenly jumped off of the horse and ran towards the stranger. He could hear the stranger and V bickering as they whispered. The stranger looked up at Seokjin as he neared the both of them after getting off of RJ. The angered look was washed away by a vexatious expression as they lingered on Seokjin.

"Uhm, Seokjin. Meet my brother, Hoseok. Hoseok, This is the guy I told you about..." V says introducing the both of them. Giving Hoseok, to Jin's guess, a stern stiff smile as he faced him and then smiling cutely when looking back at Seokjin again.

Jin was immediately terrified. V's brother might be furious that he hadn't returned home on time and is now needing to pick V up.

"Good evening, Hoseok, sir. I apologize for returning V at this hour, sir. It will not happen again, sir." Seokjin says a wee bit too fast as he bowed his head so low in front of Hobi.

Taehyung's eyes widened a little in surprise. Hobi knew he was going to have so much fun with this. He has never actually been bowed at personally. All the bows and respect were always towards the prince whenever he needs to accompany him to a different palace or whatnot. A grin stretched his lips as he looked over at Taehyung and wiggled his eyebrows. Taehyung's eyes widen once again as a warning. Seokjin was still deep in his bow.

As Hobi spoke, Seokjin raised his head to look at him. "It's all right. Next time, bring him back early. I don't know you yet, so I don't trust you." Hobi says sternly, eyebrows furrowed with strict eyes boring into Seokjin.

"Sir, yes, sir." Seokjin glanced at V beside Hobi and back to Hobi again. Hoseok looked at Seokjin from head to toe, slowly scanning him which made him terribly conscious. Taehyung noticed and nudged Hobi and pulled at his arm. Hobi clears his throat.

"We'll be going then.. Seokjin." Hobi says as he then winked at Seokjin and dragged Taehyung away. Taehyung struggles to turn as he shouts, "I'll see you at work!!!" as he flashes a big boxy smile at Seokjin and waves as Hobi continued to pull him, not facing Seokjin again. Seokjin just watched as they walked away, speechless with V's "brother" but relieved that he was gone. Even though they were gone, Seokjin still felt eerie in front of the oak tree so he quickly got on RJ and rode back home.

~

"Aww, Jinniee.. He must really like you!" Seokjin's mom cheers as he hugged her when he got back home. He promised to have dinner with her to tell her all about the date and then return back to the stablemen's cottages the next day.

"What? How could you say that when I didn't tell you anything about our date yet? Did you become psychic or something?" Seokjin pulls away as his eyebrows met, confusion written all over his face.

"I can smell him all over you!" She says with glee.

"Huh?" Still, Seokjin's face was screwed with confusion. He pulled on the collar of his shirt and raised it to his nose. He could kind of smell strawberries but that's because they had been eating strawberries? It could easily have splattered on his shirt or something but no chamomile.