The King Likes Men

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"Jimin did you put makeup on?"

The small boy jumps as his friends approached him. As he turns to face them, Seokjin can't help but notice how his pink hair is blow-dried and styled to where a bit of forehead is evident past his bangs. Not to mention his eyes had been brushed with some eyeshadow to give his eyes a smoky look to him. Jimin's eyes meet his, catches his staring and then looks away.

"I, uh," he stutters, suddenly blushing, "weren't we supposed to?"

Hoseok grins and raises a brow, crossing his arms. "Yeah, but you seemed to go the extra mile with yours." He wiggles his brows, teasing. "Who you trying to impress, huh?"

Jimin is about to protest when Taehyung suddenly appears behind him and wraps his arms around Jimin's neck, smiling widely at him. "Don't listen to them, Chim Chim." He pats Jimin's chest. "You look great."

The pink haired boy blushes even harder.

Smiling to himself, Seokjin steps forward and ruffles the boy's hair. In his opinion, Jimin doesn't need makeup. He's always had this natural charisma to him. His smile was so pure that it cured the most fatal diseases. Jimin looks up at him, then frowns. "Not that you two need it, but didn't you put makeup on?"

"He's gonna have to see our natural faces someday, might as well be today in case he doesn't like it," the eldest jokes.

His friends glance at each other dully. Hoseok even rolls his eyes.

The room starts filling up after several minutes. Candidates sit where ever they felt like it. The four of them decide to sit together, Jin between Jimin and Tae and Hoseok next to Jimin. Everyone was wearing a denim set but some tried arranging it in different ways, some tying the jacket around their waist, others find other ways to make it stand out. What impressed Jin was how obvious it was that they took their time to do their hair and makeup. Everyone there looked like a prince.

When the cameras started rolling in Jin felt his stomach drop. Maybe he should've taken the time to look decent, but no one told him that this part would also be filmed. He looked at Tae who seemed completely unbothered by it all.

A man walks up to the stage. Seokjin's jaw drops as he sees none other than the Nation's MC walk in. Yoo Jaesuk. Dang, they were really going all out with this. This guy was a super famous celebrity. Their mother used to love watching episodes of The Running Man just because she enjoyed Yoo Jaesuk's humor. And here he was, dressed in a nice black tux just a few feet away from Seokjin. 

It seemed rather unreal.

"Good evening, gentlemen," the MC said into his mic. "First off, let me congratulate you all because you have been favored as candidates to marry the king." The courtyard echoed with the sound of awkward applause, no one really knowing how to take in this whole situation. Jaesuk lifts his hand to silence them, a smile on his face. Yoo Jaesuk was not by any means handsome according to the standard that South Korea had for its men, but he did have charisma, lot of it.

"What we're going to do today is quite simple. You will each present yourselves to the King and his family. You state your name, your age and one additional comment that you wish for the King to remember you by."

Naturally, chatter starts among the candidates. Jin frowns to himself. He didn't know much about royalty but it seemed pretty pointless to give them an hour to get ready just to say a few words to the King. Didn't the king have better things to do? He turned to Tae who seemed to also be frowning in thought. The two brothers lock eyes, seeming to silently agree with each other's thoughts.

"So without further ado," Yoo Jaesuk continues, "Let's begin. Gentlemen," —he looks straight into a camera at his right— "and our viewers at home. Allow me to present to you her royal highness, the Royal Queen dowager!"