[ bt ] surprise engagement
taemin is rather bored as he walks down one of the castle's many corridors, wondering what he's going to do to kill the remaining fifteen minutes or so before dinner is scheduled to start. normally people can just come down to the dining hall and eat whenever they want, but there's been some highly-ranked lord visiting from the eastern border, so they're throwing a feast for him and his family.
they just want something from him, taemin thinks cynically. troops, resources, land, money, whatever. though jongdae's been really excited about the lord's arrival, so he hasn't expressed much of this pessimism thus far.
as he rounds a corner, he spies an obviously drunk noble -- taemin can't be bothered to remember his name right now -- approaching a girl who's only vaguely familiar to taemin. he thinks for a moment, recalling the two princes talking about the visiting lady suzy of vicia, and though she looks different from a distance taemin is certain that's who it is. she's only been here for a fortnight at most, and right now her nose is buried in a book.
his eyes narrow as the lord leans against the wall next to the lady, and taemin can hear his voice drifting down the wide stone corridor to his ears. "m'lady, i'm sure you can find much more suitable entertainment than that book," he drawls, and taemin acts before he even gives himself a chance to think this through, walking forward with a newly found purpose in his step as he works the ring off of the third finger of his right hands and replaces it on the same finger of his left.
he comes up behind the girl, stepping up to her side and resting a hand on her shoulder. he knows she's probably shocked, so he squeezes her shoulder in a way that he hopes is reassuring.
"my lady, you're supposed to wear your ring. we are engaged now," he says, looking over at her and trying to convey with his eyes that she needs to just play along. he moves his left hand across his body to take hers, pretending to check it for a ring. "you'll need to put that on before dinner."
looking up and meeting eyes with the drunken man, he makes his face look as closed off and intimidating as he can, which isn't too difficult since he's been told that he can seem intimidating when frowning. "can we help you?" he asks, not even wanting to think about how many risks he's taking by doing this.
thankfully, the drunk man slurs out some sort of disappointed excuse and slouches past them. taemin turns to watch, his hand falling from the female's shoulder as soon as the man rounds the corner. he turns to face her, a sheepish smile on his face as he raises a hand to run through his hair.
"sorry about that. i saw him starting to bother you and i didn't want to just let it happen," he explains, dropping his hand from his hair and holding it out to shake, his head automatically bowing in the polite custom that comes with introducing himself. "i'm lee taemin of newbridge."