Outsider • Woosang

3

San's heart almost jumps out of his chest when he suddenly hears a 'boo!' behind him.

Wooyoung and Yunho are out of breath laughing while San pouts. "You just made the weirdest noise!" Yunho says, imitating it and making Wooyoung laugh harder.

"Where were you two? I've been slaving my ass around doing your work and you have the audacity to come to me now that I've finally found the guy? Are you serious!"

"Oh you've found them? Let's see!" Wooyoung shushes them when they hear people coming out from the back of the stall.

San is upset with them, annoyed that they made him do this alone and are only here now that he's basically finished his task. He almost wants to tell them it's the wrong guy and make them look for him themselves another time.

However, this little task isn't worth all that trouble. Especially now that he's finally found the person that the King wanted them to find, so he bottles up his feelings for now.

San notices Jongho's eyes widen a little when he sees the new guests, and when Wooyoung's presence registers in his head, the shock is evident on his face.

San frowns and looks back at Wooyoung, the spell that was supposed to cover his marks had worn off, Wooyoung also seems to realise this now too, after seeing Jongho's reaction to him.

Wooyoung figures since he's exposed now he might as well take it from here, San has already done so much for him. "Hello. I'm sure you're wondering as to what we are doing here, I'll just tell you straight up, we've heard some strange rumours about you".

Jongho frowns and Mingi next to him shuffles nervously. "Your highness". The pair bow to him but Wooyoung just waves it off, saying all that isn't necessary.

"These crops that you're selling. Word has spread that it's not from the shared land. You know it's illegal to sell anything that's not from the communal land we give out to families to grow crop". Wooyoung tries to be as intimidating as he can even though he doesn't know much about his kingdom's laws. He just hopes these guys will cooperate with him smoothly so he can just get this over and done with.

"My trusted advisor San has worked hard to find who has been breaking this kingdom's laws". Wooyoung pushes San towards them to introduce him but the other just looks back at him and gives him a death glare.

Jongho almost glares at San but he tries to hide his annoyance because these people definitely have the power to throw him in the dungeons if he looked at them wrong. Which also means that they can not find out about Yeosang's crops that he's been selling for the past two years.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, your highness" Jongho displays a tight smile. "The produce that I'm selling is from the land my family own, I'm not sure where those rumours that they're from a secret place came from, but I can assure you that they are grown by me".

"Can we try them before buying?" San says, raising his eyebrows.

Jongho chuckles, almost caught off guard.  "Usually, I would say no to such a request but since I have special guests today..." He gestures for Mingi to grab an apple from the stall display.

Mingi is about to hand it to them when San suddenly puts a hand in front of him to stop him. "Not from there, I want to try those ones". He points to the crate where Yeosang's food is kept.

The millisecond of panic in Jongho's face is enough to make San scoff, he's not dumb. He saw that Jongho had come out with that crate when he asked for the special food, but after they got questioned and asked for it again, he was going to give it from a different crate.

Knowing they have no other choice, they give their three guests an apple from Yeosang's bunch to try.

The prince widens his eyes, even though he lives in a castle and has the best of things given to him, he's never had such a tasty fruit. He looks at San and Mingi who also have a surprised expression, clearly thinking the same thing as him.