Hongjoong was sent home early to ensure that he would be at the Estate at the ass crack of dawn in order to leave. He went to bed early and awoke early so that he wouldn’t be left behind and so that he could make sure that he had everything.
He bid farewell to the families telling them he’d be back in slightly over a week. They waved him off and off he was.
The estate was crazy.
Seonghwa was being lightly slapped on his face by his mother who appeared to be giving him a pep talk. The Dukes were ensuring that the carriages were properly loaded. The workers were all over the place. Yeosang, not surprisingly, was seated on the front porch on a comfortable sofa beside his mother who was standing.
The Duchess of Yeonsu was fussing over Jongho who would be riding in the same carriage as them because apparently, Yeosang gave a tantrum stating;
"But Father! What if one of the horses in our carriage gets a damaged shoe?! You HAVE to let the blacksmith come with us! There’s NO way I am willing to be stuck in the middle of nowhere!"
And so of course, Yeosang ended up getting his way and so there was the Duchess ensuring that Jongho was fancy enough to be in the same carriage as the other five individuals.
Five because Seonghwa insisted his only friend, Hongjoong, ride with them as well.
One of the maids rushed to Hongjoong and immediately began cleaning and fixing him up, giving him a set of clothes to dress in.
"Hongjoong!" a voice called.
Hongjoong turned and was met with Seonghwa's smiling face.
"Hello, Seonghwa."
Several heads snapped at Hongjoong's greeting, mouth wide open in shock.
"Dear? Why did he call you by your first name?" the Duchess of Sacheon asked, mildly concerned.
"I asked him to."
The response seemed to satisfy her and she nodded in understanding. The others, seeing the Duchess react as such, also went back to normal.
Within an hour, everything was ready and they began the journey that would last the entire day. The first two hours was just complete silence.
The Dukes sat at the very front of the carriage with the coachman, ensuring the proper journey. Their carriage was leading all the others and so they had to make sure everyone would follow and head the right way.
Inside, they sat facing each other. The Duchess of Sacheon sat beside her son, Seonghwa, and Hongjoong sat beside the taller male. Facing them on the other side was the Duchess of Yeonsu with her son, Yeosang, sitting beside her and Jongho sitting beside the young Lord.
The two hours that had passed by were deafening and no one made any form that they wanted to speak until, of course, Yeosang made the move.
"Mother! I don’t like sitting here!"
"Nonsense. You sit at home all day and yet you can’t sit in a carriage?"
"That’s different! In here I can’t move even if I wanted to and remember I told you I hit my hip the other day? Well it still hurts!" Yeosang whined.
"That’s unfortunate," the Duchess replied, staring out the window.
Yeosang sighed and slid off the seat like a slimy eel, crossing his arms with a frown on the floor.
"Kang Yeosang, what kind of Lord are you? Do you have no morals? And acting like that in front of low lines?"
"Hey," Seonghwa said, a bit of warning in his voice. "Aunty, I know you don’t fully agree with me on my views but kindly refrain from referring to them as such in my presence."
"I apologize, Hwa."
The carriage went quiet again for another half an hour, Yeosang still slumped on the floor.
Hongjoong was amused. He couldn’t help but wonder how a high-class Lord could be someone like Yeosang. He had never heard of another that acted in that way and in all honesty, he expected all of them to be more like Seonghwa.
He stared out the window and slowly began getting drowsy. His head drooping and lightly hitting the window every now and then.
He felt a gentle hand grab his head and was guided to lean against Seonghwas shoulder. He was nearly fully asleep when a loud whine erupted from Yeosang's mouth disturbing his peace.
"Mother I need to use the bathroom!"
"Why are you like this?" The Duchess asked.
"I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me why humans need to use the bathroom and why I have to use it now?"
The Duchess let out a sigh and ignored Yeosang, turning to stare out the window.
"Go tell your Father then," she said after a while.
Yeosang obeyed, getting up from the floor and crawling on top of Seonghwa to reach a small window behind the males head to tell them they needed to stop.
Seonghwa grunted in pain but waited for his cousin to finish speaking to push him off.
No one else got out of the carriage except for Jongho who also needed to use the bathroom and Hongjoong settled against Seonghwa again to fall asleep.
Even when the other two males entered he didn’t move nor when the carriage hit a rock. He didn’t move when he felt a weight settle against his head, that being Seonghwas head, and after a while, he fell asleep.
The two sleeping against each other while Yeosang longed to do the same with the male a mere two inches away.
Seonghwa took that opportunity to sleep close to the tiny male knowing that he would never have another opportunity like that and slept with a smile on his face.
He did not wake for another three hours and even then did Hongjoong not wake up. And when they were served a meal, Seonghwa did not wake the younger and instead held the food so that he could eat when he woke up.
The long sleep made Seonghwa wonder how much Hongjoong slept per night. It couldn’t be a healthy amount if he was still asleep two hours after Seonghwa woke up.
Yeosang now speaking in whispers since he had been glared at by his cousin for being too loud and could possibly wake Hongjoong.
Finally, Hongjoong woke up.
The first thing he realized even before he even opened his eyes was that Seonghwa now had an arm wrapped around him to hold him steadily and butterflies erupted within his stomach. His eyes blearily opened and he saw Jongho subtly playing with Yeosang's now shoulder-length hair.
The male lifted his head and Seonghwa turned to look, his head tilted slightly down so he could see Hongjoong. Their faces extremely close and their noses basically touching.
"Good morning," Seonghwa greeted, a dazzling smile on his face that made Hongjoong smile back widely.
"Morning."
"It’s actually evening," Yeosang said, interrupting the aura of their little bubble.
"Shut up. I know that and so does Hongjoong. Now back to whisper complaining about whatever you were saying."
Yeosang rolled his eyes and got up from the floor where he had been sitting and collapsed on the seat, purposely landing closer to Jongho.
Hongjoong slowly ate the food that was handed to him and put the plate in a basket on the floor once he was finished. Seonghwa made sure he drank enough water before they went back to being quiet and comfortable.
"I’m cold," Seonghwa said out of nowhere, all eyes on him because the carriage was in fact, not cold.
"What the fuck?" Yeosang asked, eyebrow raised in question.
"Language," both Duchesses said at the same time.
"Yeah, yeah sorry but Seonghwa, what the fuck?"
Seonghwa shrugged.
"I’m cold and what about it? I believe I put a blanket in my carry-on bag but it’s above Yeosang's head."
"Well get it then," Yeosang scoffed, leaning further back into his seat, arm brushing against Jongho.
Seonghwa rolled his eyes at his useless cousin and stood up, getting his tiny carry-on blanket and sitting back down. He spread it over his chest up to his knees and part of it went over Hongjoong's arm.
"Perfect," Seonghwa said to himself. "Exactly what I wanted."
He slid his hand into Hongjoong's smaller one and interlaced their fingers, staring at the ceiling with a smile.
Hongjoong nearly gasped but kept his vocal chords quiet and glanced at Seonghwa who was... smiling?
"So he wasn’t cold but wanted to hold my hand?" Hongjoong asked himself, a smile settling on him.
He squeezed Seonghwas hand and rested his head on the taller’s shoulder in an attempt to go back to sleep even though he had woken up moments before.
Seonghwa was slightly surprised that Hongjoong wasn’t pulling back but instead cuddling closer and a spring of joy set off within him.
He had been planning for a while in the carriage how he could hold the other’s hand without anyone seeing when he was struck by the amazing idea of using a blanket.
No one would see underneath and he could hold the smaller’s hand in peace.
Seonghwa rubbed his hand over the smaller’s knuckles, feeling the ridges and frowning a bit at how much they stuck out and how thin the smaller’s hand felt.
Seonghwa decided then and there had he would properly nourish Hongjoong at all chances. He was filled with the sudden sense of needing to provide the smaller with everything he needed.
Hongjoong awoke again in less than an hour and stayed awake after that.
His hand wrapped tightly in Seonghwa's larger one and he loved the fluttering in his stomach from that.
Them holding hands in the same compartment as two Duchesses, a Lord, a blacksmith, and two Dukes nearby?
How scandalous.
The travelling finally came to an end and the two had to, unfortunately, let go in order to get off and start setting their things up.
"Meet me later tonight right here," Seonghwa whispered as they got out of the carriage.
Hongjoong simply nodded in understanding.
Seonghwa headed to the stables to see where Aurora was placed in and to make sure his horse was properly watched over. Several other horses were present and Seonghwa was quite amazed at some of the conditions the animals were in.
He climbed up into the loft and sat on a hay bale, staring- out the window contentedly.
Kim Hongjoong on his mind and his heart fluttered. Thoughts of the male consumed him and soon enough he was holding his head with his hand while his elbow rested on a window ledge.
He had never felt such emotions before and even though they were new, he knew exactly what they meant.
He truly liked Kim Hongjoong.
"Aish Hongjoong you’ll be the death of me," Seonghwa whispered, giggling to himself at the thought.
The small delicate figure the younger had and the hard-working personality. And who cared about staus or money? Not Seonghwa considering he could provide for the both of them well enough.
And even though Seonghwa had just come to the conclusion that he really liked the younger, he wasn’t that stupid to not notice how the younger always tried to subtly glance at him from their younger years.
It never bothered him but more intrigued the taller and he never knew the reason until that evening.
He hadn’t been sure how Hongjoong would react when he grabbed his hand in the carriage but after the act not being rejected, Seonghwa was hoping the male liked him back.
But even if they did like each other, and even if they did form some of relationship, what would the Dukes and Duchesses think?
How would they react to such an abomination? And how would they react that it was with someone on the other end of the ranking system?
Seonghwa thought over all the possible negative outcomes and none of them seemed bad if he compared them to something such as a life with a woman and raising children. The raising children part didn’t seem too bad but it was with who he'd want to raise them.
He had never lain his eyes on an attractive woman and to suddenly marry one and produce?
Ridiculous.
It seemed the more Seonghwa thought over the situation, the more he wanted to be with Hongjoong.
Fuck all the women he would be offered and fuck all the homophobes because the only person he had ever found breathtakingly stunning was Kim Hongjoong.