Chapter Text
He was never doing this again. The dirt alone was causing his allergies to flare up. He hadn't been able to breathe through his left nostril for the last ten minutes. You would think in all the time they would find a way to combat this. No it appears this stable is still operating in the dark ages.
"There you go U Yeong! Focus on keeping your torso tight, that'll help you when you start loping"
"Look Uncle Jeongin!" The smile currently radiating from the girls face is enough to make his annoyance dwindle. He was here for a reason. It was only a month, he can handle spending a couple hours in a dusty smelly barn if it meant his niece got to keep up with her lessons.
How he would survive those hours he wasn't quite sure. The lesson was barely halfway through and the novelty of being at a stable had quickly worn off. He is sitting in the stands observing his niece going between walking and trotting in circles. Sometimes she goes into the center and works on going backwards, he enjoys those because U Yeong has to make this funny clicking noise. He will be using that on her to corral her to the car.
"Yah!! you know I'm standing here what was that for?!" Grateful for an excuse to leave the growing cloud of dust. Sparing a final look back to make sure U Yeong is paying attention to her lesson and not him he moves towards the noise.
Looking around he doesn’t see anything glaringly out of place. Not that he would really know anyway. To his left there are a few people riding around in an outdoor arena. What looks like some sort of jumping course set up. He thinks U Yeong would love to do that one day.
Continuing his investigation he looks to the right as sees a group of horses grazing and running around. Neighing as they chasing each other.
“Luna I’m warning you, if you don’t stop this is going to take longer than it should.” His gaze snaps to the middle. Across the pathway he sees a horse tied to a metal bar. The pavement is wet as is the horse who is clearly upset about that fact. Its hoof moving to paw at the ground seemingly in protest of the current situation.
“Luna, my love please if you let me was your mane without protest we’d be done and you’d be back in your stall.” A woman comes into his view, mostly obstructed my the horses body but he can make out some features.
The first thing he notices is how she is quite pretty. Her full attention on who he assumes is her horse. She bends down grabbing something and pours it in her hands.
“Now Luna we’re both going to hate this but it must be done. Please just work with me for the next five minutes.” She’s clearly pleading with the horse. A bit hesitant when bringing there hand to the horses head.
As soon as contact is made the horse starts freaking out. “Now see I warned you about this! It’s a necessary evil Luna please. Relax for another couple minutes.” She continues rubbing the soap along the horses neck and face.
“I hate to say it girl but it’s about to get worse.” The horse seemingly in tune neighs and he chuckles when is sounds more like a sigh.
Jeongin can’t bring himself to tear his gaze away. She turns moving things and grabbing the hose. He’s watching her every movement, no part of the horse stays dry, much to her dismay. However by the end neither is the woman.
“Well girl another bath survived! I’m proud of us.” She finally steps around coming fully his view. She gives the horse a giant hug and if she wasn’t already soaked she surely was not.
She starts cleaning up, his gaze still never leaving her.
“Uncle Jeonign!! Where did you go?!” The voice of his niece snaps him from his staring. Realizing he’d been away for significantly longer than he meant his checks start to flush.
Your head turns in his direction when his nieces shouts for him don’t stop at the first one. Embarrassed at being caught he straightens and quickly goes back inside.
“There you are! Where did you go?” She’s already off the horse and changed back into her ‘civilian clothes’ He was DEFINITELY away longer than he meant to be.
“Nowhere, sorry how was your lesson?”
“It was great! Today I did a trail pattern and next week we’re going to start doing contesting patterns!”
He tried to focus on his niece. Giving her the attention her enthusiasm deserved. He couldn’t get his heart to settle though. His face still burned from having your attention for a second. The way you looked his way and your eyes widened when you noticed him. God your eyes, he couldn’t get your eyes out of his mind. Afraid that when he closes his they’ll be the only thing he sees.
“Uncle Jeongin, can we get food before we go home?”
“Yes and I know just the place.” He squats down grabbing her bag and guiding her to the car.
Despite his better judgement he looks over to where you had been. Only to be met with an empty bar and wet pavement.