Scintillating Ember Eyes || Tk

•20•

•Chapter twenty•

Winter Moon festival.

Taehyung found a new way to distract himself from everything.

He started leaving his depressing room and began going out to do things he hasn't done before. He used to hate it when Yoongi used to force him try new things out, but it all reminded him of Yoongi now so he did it happily.

He went around and asked the servants with the things he can help them with.

Most of them just ignored him and went ahead to do their own work, but this one elder girl who radiated the same extroverted energy as Hoseok, let Taehyung tag along with her to bring water from wells and rivers and let him help her in gardening.

She was good company, but Taehyung chose to stay away from conversations because he didn't know who to trust and who not to. If he said something he shouldn't, he'd get into trouble.

Chohee, the girl, understood his hesitancy and talked only about what they were doing at the moment, explaining in detail about what kind of fishes visit the river and the kind of plants found in the royal garden.

Taehyung listened quietly, feeling oh, so warm when he heard that there were abundant gardenias growing in the garden.

God did he feel himself slowly lift away from the ground, topple over and fall head over heels for Jungkook.

It just started, and it was a lie to say that he doesn't like it.

He was used to feeling short-lived attraction and lust, but this was the first time he loved the personality of a person more than their looks or how good they could be in bed.

Jungkook and Taehyung didn't really spend long time with each other.

Taehyung didn't know why Jungkook wouldn't come and speak to him when they came across each other on the corridors. The alpha was still a pure angel to come to Taehyung in the nights and tuck his sleeping form--pretending to sleep--under the blankets before leaving.

He didn't think much about it.

Mira was doing a really great job at being a queen, like as if she was meant for the role.

That is all Taehyung knew about her. He didn't communicate or approach her. She would greet him with a warm hug a few times and leave right after, claiming to be busy.

All of them seemed to be busy.

At the moment, he was walking back to the palace, holding a bucket filled with water in his hands, the clothes he was wearing being wet and stuck to his body.

He walked past a group of young farmer alphas whose gaze lingered on him for longer, making him uncomfortable.

"Careful," Chohee warned, glaring at those alphas who looked away, bowing apologetically at Taehyung.

"What's going on?" Taehyung asks, suddenly feeling all warm. "Do you think I'm going on heat, noona? Is there a change in my scent?"

Chohee was slightly taken aback by the fact that he was asking her something, but she quickly forgot about it and paid attention to his question, "No, it's not because of heat. This is common during winter moon festival. I'm a beta so I don't suffer, but all the other ranks do suffer because of this."

"Yeah?" Taehyung frowned. "Why don't I know about this festival then?"

"It comes once in ten years. You were too young in the last festival, so you don't know about it."