The King Likes Men

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Seokjin pretty much has to stay in Hyun's room the whole time he's at Changgyeonggung Palace. Occasionally, he'll press his ear to the door in an attempt to hear about anything that's going on. All he gets is the sound of people running back and forth, shouting orders and it just sounds like utter chaos if he's honest.

Normally, Seokjin is a pretty patient person. Quiet. Understanding.

But right now he is bored as hell and needs to go out and do something.

At least back at the BigHit building he had TV, what was he supposed to do here, sit around and rot till Jaehwan comes up with the appropriate time to unveil that he's perfectly alive?

Hmp. No. Maybe if they give him a video game or something, but since they haven't Seokjin needs to go out and stretch his legs a bit.

He waits. Waits till he hears nothing before he peeks his head out the door. The place was clear, not a person in sight as of yet. Still, he listens for a few more minutes, before he tells himself that no one seems to be around and leaves the room.

Taking in a deep breath and stretching his arms as soon as he's out might seem like an exaggeration, but he feels as if it's been an eternity since he's been outside.

"What are you doing?"

Seokjin jumps and lets out an embarrassing yelp at the sudden voice. He turns around, sees Soobin leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, staring at him. The kid has this frown on his face. "It hasn't even been a whole day and you're already out of your room," he shakes his head. "I'm disappointed."

"I was bored," Seokjin replies matter of factly.

"Still shouldn't have left. We're trying to keep you hidden and you're not really being of much help."

Brat. Seokjin wants to fight him. "I haven't been caught yet."

"I caught you." The boy then looks him up and down. "Also, it might be hard not to seem suspicious when you're dressed like that."

"You don't count," he retorts. Seokjin looks down at what he was wearing. Okay so maybe the sweatpants he had on didn't match the bright red hoodie that HueningKai gave him but it was the least he could do on such short notice. "Also, how dare you? I'll have you know that I pull off this look quite well."

Soobin just dully stares at him. "Sure. Okay." He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a black mouth mask and hands it to him. "Here. At least put this on."

Grumbling under his breath, Seokjin takes. "So why are you here?" he asks as he puts the mask over his lips and nose.

"I needed to ask you something."

"Okay, ask away."

"Does your brother like Japchae?"

Okay. Not the question he was expecting. He was expecting the kid to probably ask him his skin routine or something. "He loves it. Why?"

"The prince wants to cook for your brother," he says calmly. "He wanted to make Japchae since that was the first dish you made for him, but he wasn't sure if Taehyung likes it."

Aw. Jungkook was a cutie. "Can he cook though?"

Soobin shrugs. "Over the years I've come to realize that the prince is capable of doing everything he puts his mind to." He pauses. "Except math. He sucks at math."

Seokjin hums. "How is he by the way?"

"The prince? Just fine, he—"

"No. Taehyung."

"Oh." He seems to ponder on that for a bit and that's making Seokjin a bit nervous. "I guess he could be better."

A queasy feeling makes its way into Seokjin's stomach. "He's not eating isn't he?"

Soobin shakes his head. Seokjin bites his lip. Poor Tae. He was probably the one suffering the most because of his death and Jaehwan refused to let Taehyung know that he was alive. "Is there anyway I can use the kitchen here?"

"So you can cook for him? No."

Puffing his cheeks out, Seokjin places his hands on his hips. "Yah, my brother is sick."

"And it would seem like a miracle if he suddenly stopped being sick from a random bowl of food. The doctors would be too suspicious, they'd ask too many questions."

Unfortunately, he had a point, but Seokjin didn't care. "My brother's health is more important to me than some silly political feud."

"This political feud could get the king murdered in the future if we don't stop it." He stares at Seokjin, face serious. "Assuming you like the king I think it's safe to say that you wouldn't want that to happen."

Like a child, Seokjin wants to throw a tantrum, but keeps himself from doing so. Instead, he sighs. No, he didn't want that, but he also didn't want Tae to go through what he was going through.

"Seokjin-ssi—"

"Call me Hyung."

A sigh escapes him first. "Seokjin-hyung—"

"Jin-hyung sounds better."

The way Seokjin can see the younger boy's jaw tighten is somewhat satisfying. He does his best to hold back his laughter.

"Jin-hyung," Soobin tries again, pausing in case he'll get interrupted again. Once he sees that he won't, he continues, "Do you really want to be king?"

Once again the question is not one that he's expecting. This one though, takes him a bit longer to answer. "I think rather than being king, I just want to be with Namjoon."

"Aren't you scared?"

He smiles. "Marriage is a scary thing in general. I mean, 'till death do us part'?" He shivers. "Kind of intimidating considering that all you need to die is to be alive."

Soobin doesn't make a comment, just sort of stares at him.

"Company was about to go bankrupt. This deal saved them from doing so."