Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

37 Shine

Around one year ago

Akira doesn't have the time to protest as Seonghwa puts his hands on her waist before heaving her up, placing her onto the saddle. As he helps her to sit comfortably on her horse, Golden, he stretches out his hands to pull down her knitted cap so that it will properly cover her ears and tighten the scarf around her neck. He then helps to straighten her heavy cloak, making sure that it's properly covering her body and places her hands underneath it so that they're protected from the cold weather.

"Stop fussing over me and look over yourself," Akira breathes, heat rising to her cheeks as Seonghwa places his palms on them.

"I don't want you to get cold and freeze your limbs," Seonghwa says casually. "We're going on a long journey in winter, so you need to keep yourself warm."

"I keep asking you where we're going," she complains. "But you won't tell me."

"It's a surprise," he utters with a smile before he heaves himself up behind her, snaking his arms on either side of her waist before he pulls the reins. He scoots over to her, leaving no space between them as he puts his chin on her shoulder, smiling as he feels her relaxing against his body.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" she utters. "When you could have sat in front while I'm at the back. How are you going to control Golden if you're busy hugging me?"

Golden neighs, and Seonghwa blushes because he knows that the horse is judging him and laughing at him silently for trying to make a move on its owner. Sometimes he hates the fact that he can understand what the animals are saying, because he simply gets embarrassed on his own.

"I'm cold," he whispers near her covered ears, which makes her shiver and it's not from the cold.

"If you're cold we could just spend our time inside the palace," she rebutts. "You know, with proper heating and we can spend all the time we want without freezing to death. The temperature has dipped under 0 degrees."

He pouts as he says, "But it's not private because everyone else is there, and Wooyoung would always keep disturbing us. I want to spend time just with you, away from the others."

She chuckles as she looks over her shoulder, seeing that even his pouting lips look dry and cracked. "You're really risking our lives out in the cold just because you want some private time."

"It's going to be fun, I promise." Then he pauses, "Well, guaranteed that no one else will be there too, or else it won't be that private. And I cooked something for us to eat while we're there, so we don't have to worry about starving."

"I have no idea what you have in store for me, but lead the way. I'm looking forward to freezing to death," she chuckles, "but at least it's with you."

He does a satisfied hum as he snuggles up to her, controlling the reins and Golden starts moving, bringing them to wherever Seonghwa had planned for them to spend their day at.

She has completely no idea where they're going since all he told her was that they'll be spending the whole day together alone, and that he had prepared everything so she won't be needing to bring anything. She had simply waited at the library, Golden with her before he arrived, hopping off a public carriage bringing bags with contents that he tried so hard to keep as a secret from her. She only followed his every move, from helping her to get onto the horse, to tying all the bags securely so they wouldn't fall off until he had sidled up to her from behind.

Luckily, winter with a possibility of snow falling any time meant that not a lot of people were out and about, so she isn't that embarrassed to be on a horse while Seonghwa is too close to her in public. It's quite amusing to her how in general Seonghwa seems to be shy but he's not embarrassed to show affection in public; something that she has to slowly get used to even though she's perverse to it. It's not that she doesn't like it - she just needs time to be comfortable with it since no one has ever shown her this much affection since she was little.