Hey!

I realized that I forgot about this story for a good week and a half!

Heere's the next chapter!

Vote and Comment!

AKD

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"Wonwoo!"

Crossing the field that led to their property, Wonwoo stopped and turned when he heard his name called, the smile falling from his face when he saw who was trying to get his attention.

"Seungri" he raised a hand in greeting, trying to smile again even though he didn't want to.

His last several interactions with his old friend had been awkward and Wonwoo wasn't entirely sure what to think of Seungri's new behavior.

The son of the local Baron, a family that had ruled their little valley for generations, Seungri had forsaken the higher education that other Royals received, choosing to do his studying at home so he could stay in the village.

He and Wonwoo had been friends since they were children, and while their friendships had always been intimate-- hugs and sitting close, laughing over secret, shared jokes, confiding their deepest secrets-- it had never strayed into anything romantic, and Wonwoo had been very content with it all.

But last year, Seungri had turned twenty-five, old enough to marry, old enough to start taking over some of his father's holdings in the valley, and the way he treated Wonwoo had changed.

Every easy smile between them turned into something flirtation, the casual touches lingering until it was more of a caress. Jokes had double meanings, and even their conversations started revolving around the future, around a life they would have together.

That change had been odd enough, but it became worse when Seungri started becoming jealous when other people spent time with Wonwoo, angry when Wonwoo would turn down an afternoon with him to do something else.

A comforting hand at Wonwoo's back became a push to go the way Seungri wanted, random trinkets and small gifts came at the price of doing what Seungri wanted.

Somehow their easy friendship had become something of an obsession for Seungri, and it made Wonwoo uncomfortable for a reason he couldn't quite name, but he knew he didn't like.

But he had always had a hard time speaking up, a hard time saying no to his oldest friend, so he hadn't ever said no to Seungri, had only tried to smile and go along with Seungri's plans, and today was no different.

Wonwoo gritted his teeth against the impulse to run away, and stopped halfway through the field, waiting for Seungri to pull up alongside him.

"I heard you were in town." Seungri slowed his huge gelding to a stop and leaped down. "Why didn't you stop by and see me, we could have had lunch together."

He reached out to pull Wonwoo into a long hug, hands dropping low on his back and squeezing gently, urging Wonwoo closer against him.

"I was only visiting the bookshop and getting some bread," Wonwoo answered, clearing his throat uncomfortably as he tried to step away without seeming rude. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Looking for you," Seungri's lips curled up in a teasing, one-sided smile. "I was hoping to catch you before you got home and walk with you."

He didn't even try to hide his open perusal of Wonwoo's body, and Wonwoo was glad his linen shirt and brown pants were loose on his slim frame today.

Just last month they had gone swimming together, and as Wonwoo had undressed, stepping out of his pants, Seungri had moved up behind him, circling Wonwoo's small waist with his arm.

"Wonwoo," he had whispered. "From the back...you look just like a woman. You should grow your hair, I would really like that."

Then his hand had started to slip lower on Wonwoo's waist, down to the curve of his ass, only stopping because the other boys were coming over the hill to join them.

Wonwoo had thrown up twice after that, then told himself for days that it hadn't happened like he thought...that Seungri had only been teasing, that Wonwoo was ridiculous for feeling so uncomfortable with someone he had known his entire life.

And yet, he had started wearing his clothes loose anyway, thinking that if he faded into the background, maybe Seungri wouldn't stare so much.

It hadn't helped.

"So, can I walk with you?" Seungri was asking, tilting his head and smiling, a charming, heated look that usually had the women, and some of the men, scrambling to do whatever he wanted.

"Sure," Wonwoo nodded, trying to will the nausea away.

He needed to get over this. Surely Seungri wasn't as bad as Wonwoo thought he was. Surely it wasn't... it couldn't be what Wonwoo thought. He and Seungri were friends.

They were friends.

Seungri didn't mean to be like that. Surely he didn't.

"What kind of book did you get this time?" Seungri asked, looping the reins around his hand so the horse would follow and they set out together. "Did you take it to the children's home to read?"

Wonwoo smiled a little, surprised that Seungri even remembered that he did that.

"No, I'll be spending tomorrow at the orphanage reading to the children. This one is um, poetry." Wonwoo sent the future Baron a cautious look. "It's mine. Jihoon gave it to me."

Seungri had never been one to put any value on reading when they were younger, grabbing and hiding Wonwoo's books when they had still been in school, and making fun of him for caring so much as they had gotten older.

He had only completed enough of his studies to make sure he would know how to run their little part of the valley, and then Seungri hadn't touched a book again.

Wonwoo knew Seungrididn't understand the appeal of reading, and even now Seungri was laughing at him, shaking his head.

"Poetry," Seungri rolled his eyes. "Wonwoo what are you doing with poetry? You talk so much anyway, are you going to start quoting us things we can't even understand now? Why do you need poetry?"

"Maybe to learn a little about love? And I don't talk all the time, " Wonwoo retorted defensively, and Seungri put an arm around his shoulders, tugging him closer, seeming not to notice how Wonwoo stiffened.

"I suppose you have gotten better about talking. God, remember how you used to ramble on about absolutely nothing all the time? We used to just laugh at you for it. There is something to said for silence, Wonwoo," His arm tightened a little. "Besides, I can teach you all you need to know about love. You don't need poetry for that. Once we are married, I will teach you things you won't ever learn in your books."

Seungri was grinning, winking as if there was a joke that Wonwoo should be laughing over, or a secret that Wonwoo should know, but all he could think was married?

"Seungri," Wonwoo leaned away, his eyes confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I've told my father that we plan to marry," Seungri shrugged as if Wonwoo shouldn't be surprised. "You are my oldest friend, Wonwoo, it makes perfect sense for us to wed. Why would I wed a stranger?"

He paused under the giant apple tree at the edge of the yard, grasping Wonwoo's wrist and pulling him to a stop.

"Just think about it, Wonwoo," he leaned in closer, dropping the reins of the horse to cup Wonwoo's jaw. "We've known each other our whole lives. We know everything about each other. I'm set to inherit everything from my father, you wouldn't want for anything in the world. I would give it all to you, and you would give me--"

Seungri ran his fingers down Wonwoo's arm. "You are so beautiful, Wonwoo. People talk about you, how odd you are since you don't have any flowers, but I love it. I can't wait to put your first bloom on your skin. Your pale, perfect skin."

Wonwoo flinched away from yet another reminder of how strange it was that he didn't have a single flower anywhere on his body.

Seungri was covered in flowers and vines, his life lived with laughter and parties and beautiful people always willing to spend a night with him. He had received his first bloom at the age of fourteen, and now his arms and chest were almost covered completely.

Wonwoo looked empty next to him.

Empty.

God, he hated it.

"We are a perfect match, you and I," Seungri continued with a wink. "You're like a blank canvas, and I have so much to show you. The entire world will be jealous of the colors I bring to your flowers, Wonwoo."

"A blank canvas," Wonwoo repeated and tugged his shirt sleeves down a little farther. "Seungri, that's not really a compliment."

"Hey, it's fine," Seungri tipped Wonwoo's chin up. "I don't care that you've never been with anyone, I don't care that you are so innocent, that you spend your days reading. Because you are beautiful, and I want you. You'll be twenty in a few weeks and we can get married then, for your birthday. It would be a perfect present for both of us. Just say yes," Seungri leaned even closer, his eyes somehow looking hard even though he was still smiling. "Just say yes to me."

"Seungri--" Wonwoo tried again. "What about Yewon? She loves you. Has always loved you."

"I don't care about that. I don't care about her," Seungri placed a hand low on Wonwoo's hip, pressing him back into the tree, and Wonwoo wanted to scream. Seungri was only a couple inches taller but outweighed him by quite a bit of muscle and Wonwoo hated feeling so helpless.

"All I want is you, Wonwoo." Seungri dropped his head like he was going to kiss him, and Wonwoo closed his eyes, wishing he was anywhere but here, wishing he wasn't so disgusted by his once- best friend, wishing something would happen to stop--

"Wonwoo!" Uncle Jeonghan's voice carried across the distance to the house. "Wonwoo is that you, there? Come home, I need some help with these mixes!"

"I've got to go," Wonwoo nearly yelled, pushing Seungri away as hard as he could. "I've got to go, let me go."

"Think about it, Wonwoo," Seungri called as Wonwoo took off towards the house. "We're perfect for each other! You'll see!"

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"Was that Seungri?" Jeonghan asked with a concerned look when Wonwoo walked through the door and dropped the bread on the table with a huff. "Are you two alright? I feel like you haven't been as happy to see him lately."

"It's nothing." Wonwoo shook his head. "Everything's fine, Jeonghan. He just missed me in town and wanted to talk for a few minutes."

"Alright then," Jeonghan watched him for another second, well aware that there was something his nephew wasn't telling hiim. "Well, will you help me with these? I have so much to get bagged and labeled before leaving for the market."

Uncle Jeonghan made mixes and poultices every year to sell at the big market a few towns over. Gathering herbs and flowers and spices, he would carefully measure them out into packages, with clear instructions on how much water to mix in, or which fresh ingredients needed to be added, to create lovely scented lotions, pain-numbing poultices, or skin creams.

People loved them, coming to him from all over the valley with specific requests, eager for the chance to make up their own lotions or creams as they needed instead of having to pay the extra coin to buy them from the traveling merchants. Even local physicians came to Jeonghan for the small packages that were specifically for pain relief for their patients.

"Will you start filling these?" Jeonghan motioned to a big pot and the dozens of small bags in front of it. "It's an antiseptic cream with a bit of a numbing agent, and it was so popular last year I made an extra batch and now I'm behind."

"Of course, Uncle Jeonghan," Wonwoo rolled his loose sleeves up and tied an apron on, content to sit in the warm kitchen and work with his Uncle.

"Have you decided what to do for your birthday, Wonwoo?" Jeonghan asked absentmindedly, sometime later. "Twenty-five is an important one. You know, I was only twenty-four when your Uncle Seunghcehol saw me for the first time, but he was turning twenty-five the very next day. He fell in love with me at first sight, he always swore that the iris bloom on his palm appeared before he even spoke to me, and he knew I was meant for him," Jeonghan touched his heart, where his own iris bloom lay.

Wonwoo smiled as he worked, listening to the familiar story. He had heard the tale so many times he had it memorized, but he never interrupted, never stopped Jeonghan from telling it again. After losing Uncle Seunghcheol in a hunting accident several years before, Wonwoo wanted to hear the story as much as Jeoenghan wanted to hear it, because it made the hole in their hearts hurt just a little less.

"--that's why we should have a party. Invite the town. I'm sure Seungri would be happy to have it at his manor--"

Wonwoo definitely heard that sentence and couldn't help his shudder, couldn't help the way his hands clenched against the table.

How was he supposed to tell his Uncle that he felt threatened by his friend? That when Seungri put his hands on him it made him physically sick? That it made him crazy to be manhandled just because he was skinny, to be leered after every time he bent over or stretched.

Sometimes Wonwoo wished he was a woman, just so he could scream assault and someone else would keep Seungri the fuck away from him, but no one would take such a claim from a man seriously, and how could he even think of something like that, when Seungri had been his friend for so long?

Marriage.

The conversation from earlier floated through Wonwoo's mind, how offhandedly Seungrihad told him that they would wed, the hard look in the light eyes when he had pinned Wonwoo to the tree, the possessive press of the big hand at his hip.

Marriage.

Wonwoo would rather die than be married to whoever Seungri had turned in to.

"Excuse me please," he whispered and went outside so he wouldn't be sick in front of Jeonghan.

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Looking up from his book of poetry that night, Wonwoo stared out the window into the dark, watching the stars come out one by one.

"There's got to be more to life than this," he half-whispered, half begged to the night sky. "Please tell me there's more out there for me."

But no answer came from the stars, just a cold wind that made him shiver and close the window, and Wonwoo fell into a troubled sleep, dreaming of a life with Seungri

And a life with no flowers upon his skin.

Not Edited

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Song Recommendation:

"Good Things Come to Those Who Wait" by Nathan Sykes