Make me eat my words || Taegyu

Chapter 3

The wooden sword whistled as it swung through the air, and Beomgyu laughed as he jumped back to avoid it. "Geez, Jun, calm it. It's just-" he lunged forward, the tip of his sword hitting Yeonjun's knee before the older boy could even blink. "-practice."

Without missing a beat, Yeonjun kicked up the leg that'd been hit, hopping around on his other leg. "Practice makes perfect," he teased in a nasal voice, mocking their old fencing teacher. He wobbled, trying to keep his balance on his good leg, and Beomgyu backed away.

"There's no way you're hitting me like that." He glanced at Yeonjun's leg, then took another step away when his brother hopped closer, his chest glistening with a thin sheen of sweat under the pounding sun.

"I'm not dead yet," Yeonjun insisted, holding his sword up protectively to cover his chest. "Just injured."

Beomgyu wiped his hand on his pants and readjusted his grip on his sword, hating how clammy his palms had gotten. "I could just walk away and leave you to bleed out of your knee stub." As soon as he finished talking, Beomgyu made a jab at his stomach, cursing when Yeonjun's block easily knocked his arm away. "Dammit, you're too strong."

Yeonjun tentatively swung, but Beomgyu's block almost made him lose his balance. "Prince Yeonjun, you'd definitely be unconscious from blood loss right now," Soobin called from the sidelines. Yeonjun blew a raspberry at him, then yelped when Beomgyu knocked out his other knee, sending him tumbling to the dusty ground.

Beomgyu ran a victory lap around him, then jogged over to Soobin and leaned on the fence, wiggling his eyebrows. "What do ya think, Soob? Am I not the coolest?"

"I think you're sweaty and you smell bad, your highness," Soobin said with an angelic smile, hitting his chest with the towel he held in his hand. "Wipe yourself off, at least."

"With my dear Soobinnie, I forget I'm royalty," Beomgyu sighed, complying with his demands. He heard some faint conversation from outside of the little arena, but he ignored it, stealing a sip of water from Soobin's bottle as Yeonjun stood up and brushed himself off. "Round ten, Jun?"

"How are you not exhausted yet?" Yeonjun called back, leaning on the handle of his sword and laughing. "I hate young people."

"Just one more," Beomgyu whined, walking over and tossing him the towel so he could wipe himself off. Yeonjun did, then readied himself, shaking his head as they waited for Soobin's signal.

Soobin yawned, holding up a finger, then spoke. "Ready... start!"

Beomgyu immediately went on the defensive, knowing his brother's strategies all too well. Sure enough, Yeonjun immediately went for his stomach, his sword getting easily knocked away by Beomgyu's block. Faintly, he heard the doors to the arena open, then some footsteps coming closer; he waited, gaze fixated on Yeonjun's face, continuing to circle. The second Yeonjun's eyes flicked towards the doors, he lunged, the tip of his sword hitting right between Yeonjun's ribs. "You're dead," he announced, and his brother rolled his eyes, falling dramatically to the floor.

"Oh, nooo, I'm dead, what a shame. Killed by Choi Beomgyu, how embarrassing." He hooked an arm around Beomgyu's knees and yanked him to the ground, the dust rising around both of them as Beomgyu hit the floor with a thump.

"You little- you bastard , I'll kill you again," Beomgyu giggled, lunging for him and putting him in a chokehold.

Yeonjun snickered, pretending to struggle. "In front of your husband? Such bad etiquette. I thought we raised you better than that."

"First, I am not married yet, you dumbass, and second, he's not here." Yeonjun raised an eyebrow, glancing behind him, and Beomgyu craned his neck to look. The second he saw a flash of pink behind Soobin, the panic set in. "Oh, wait, he is. Why the fuck is he here?"