Up close, Yeonhee reckoned that a horse was probably one of the most terrifying animals she’d encountered.

For a start, it was big.  Its nostrils were almost the size of her clenched fist, and its muscles rippled under its well-groomed coat as one of the stable hands led it over and told her that Jasper was a placid, sturdy gelding ideal for first timers.  The heavy hoofs clip-clopped like thunder over the concrete yard and Yeonhee could hear the swishing tail practically whispering I’m coming to get you every time it went back and forth.

Jasper’s withers were taller than Yeonhee’s head.  He exhaled onto Yeonhee’s gloved hand and she immediately backed away, able to feel the hot breath through her gloves.  Jasper watched her with large brown eyes.

The eyes were a bit too large, was Yeonhee’s immediate, panicked thought.

“Are you sure this is safe?” she whispered dubiously to Yixing out of the corner of .

He was standing at her shoulder and looking like he was having difficultly containing his mirth.

Jasper snorted and Yeonhee jumped with a little shriek, almost knocking Yixing over as she scrambled to back away.  The horse’s ears went flat as it tossed its head, eyeing Yeonhee so hard she could see the white of its eye.

“Of course it’s safe,” Yixing snorted.

Yeonhee tried to back away further, shaking her head.  “I really don’t think he likes me,” she whimpered.

“Rubbish.  He’s just as nervous as you are.”

With the confidence of somebody who’d been around horses most of his life, Yixing stepped forward and took off his riding gloves, patting the horse’s shoulder and then moving round to scratch the star on Jasper’s forehead.  Jasper’s eyelids dropped and he dropped his head down to Yixing’s height, whickering softly.

“See?” Yixing said, turning his head to look at Yeonhee as he the horse’s nose.  “It’s fine.”

Yeonhee eyed the horse’s gigantic teeth.  “Does he bite?”

Yixing looked most amused.

“Come here,” he snorted, beckoning.

Making sure to keep Jasper in her line of sight at all times (which, admittedly, was not hard), Yeonhee sidled cautiously over to the prince.  Jasper immediately turned his head towards her and she froze.

She was within range for Yixing to reach out and pull one of her gloves off, though.

“Give him a pat on the shoulder,” Yixing told her.  “Go on.  He’s not going to roll over and flatten you.”

Yeonhee decided not to question how he was so sure on that.  With a nervous look at Yixing and then at the large, solid muscle of the horse’s shoulder, she tentatively reached out and prodded the coat there as though it was a poisonous scorpion.

“God,” muttered Yixing, beyond amused.  Moving away from Jasper’s head, he reached behind Yeonhee to lace the fingers of his right hand through hers, and then placed her hand firmly on the horse’s shoulder.  Yeonhee flinched.

“Give him a good pat,” Yixing told her.  “Say hello.  He’s not going to do anything.”

Yeonhee didn’t dare move.  Regardless, Yixing let go of her hand and then stepped back.

Jasper eyed Yeonhee warily.  Yeonhee eyed him back.

Against her better judgement, Yeonhee followed orders and gave him a timid pat.

Jasper tossed his head and took a couple of steps forward.  Yeonhee leapt back with a squeak.

“Yixing!  It moved!”

“It’s a living being, what do you expect?”  Yixing stepped back to catch the reins under the horse’s mouth and to him again, calming him.  It was only then that Yeonhee realised the groom had long since disappeared and that nothing had been there to prevent the horse from bolting or kicking her in the face.  She heard Yixing murmuring to the horse in Zenyu (how that was going to help anything she had no idea), and she reached out towards him for reassurance.  After some coaxing, he persuaded her to pat Jasper’s shoulder again – Jasper didn’t move this time, but Yeonhee was pretty sure the horse was still alarmed – and as she graduated onto the horse’s nose with trembling fingers under Yixing’s guidance (those teeth really were huge), the stable hand reappeared.

“Sicheng,” Yixing said in Zenyu, “could you help Yeonhee get mounted while I sort out Mischief?”

“I’ve tacked her up for you, sir.  Will you need help mounting?”  Sicheng looked politely at Yixing’s left arm and shoulder, which were still in their sling.  Yixing shook his head with a small wrinkle of his nose and disappeared towards the stables, leaving Jasper and Yeonhee with a pat to the shoulder apiece and thanking Sicheng for his concern.

Sicheng got Yeonhee to try on riding hats and gave her time to put her gloves back on and attempt to compose herself before helping her to mount up.  Yeonhee was convinced she was going to fall the second she put her foot in the stirrup to get on, so she was quite surprised to find herself sitting on top of Jasper a couple of seconds later with Sicheng passing her the reins and instructing her on how to hold them.  She made the mistake of looking down to thank him once she had the correct grip, saw that his head wasn’t even above her waist, and yanked nervously on the reins for stability.  Jasper threw his head up at once, snorted, and then stretched his neck out to give himself space to manoeuvre.  Sicheng moved to hold the horse’s bridle, though Yeonhee reckoned it was more to calm her than to calm Jasper.

Heart in , Yeonhee congratulated herself for staying on and closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see how high off the ground she was.

Clip-clopping hoofs announced the arrival of another horse in the yard and the newcomer whinnied, causing Jasper to neigh in response.  Yeonhee felt the horse’s head tugging at the reins again, and she gripped onto them for dear life.

“Relax,” said Sicheng, placing a hand on her knee.

“At least try to look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Yixing’s voice teased.

Yeonhee gulped and inched her eyes open.  “It’s a long way down.”

“Jasper won’t let you fall,” Sicheng told her in halting Hanmi.  “He’s good with beginners.  Look, he’s relaxed.”

Yeonhee opened her eyes properly to see that Sicheng was pointing to the horse’s ears, which were alert and ready.  As she watched, a fly landed on one.  The ear twitched lazily and the fly buzzed off again.

The sound of a phone camera shutter went off and Yeonhee looked up to see Yixing lowering his phone.  He was sitting astride a horse that practically screamed speed on legs.  It was a little taller than Jasper, but much finer-boned and with a much more delicate head.  Even to Yeonhee’s inexperienced eye, Yixing’s horse was evidently pedigree, and to Yeonhee’s utter alarm, Yixing seemed happy sitting on it not only with his arm in a sling, but not even holding on to the reins at all as he held his phone out to Sicheng.

“Sicheng, could you take a photo of us?” he asked, nudging the horse forward and apparently unconcerned that he wasn’t directing the animal’s head at all.  The stable hand took the camera and Yeonhee stared at Yixing as he drew his horse up alongside Jasper, so close that Yeonhee’s leg was almost touching his.  Yeonhee tried not to look too terrified for the photos, and once Sicheng had given his phone back, Yixing reached down and clipped a rope onto Jasper’s bridle.

“I thought we’d go into the woods on the west,” he said to Sicheng as he straightened up.  “There aren’t any gates and the track’s wide enough to go alongside each other.  We’ll probably be back in about an hour.”

“Of course, your highness.  Have fun.”

Sicheng retreated to get on with his other duties, and Yixing ran Yeonhee through the instructions to get her horse moving.

“If you stay tense, you’re both going to have a horrible time,” he told her as she gritted her teeth, trying to summon up the courage to kick Jasper and tell him to walk on.  “Just give him a squeeze with your heels.  He’ll follow Mischief anyway.”

Yeonhee looked at how docile Yixing’s horse was as he sorted Yeonhee out, reins slack against the horse’s neck.

“Can we swap?” she asked.  “Yours is so well behaved.”

“Mischief is called Mischief for a reason,” Yixing told her, getting her to lower her hands and relax them.  “Hold on to the neck strap if you need to, but honestly, Jasper is not going to throw you off.  You’ll be fine.”

“But she’s so obedient,” Yeonhee said, still looking with envy at the horse.

“Mischief is my polo pony,” Yixing informed her.  “She likes me because I spoil her with carrots, but she’s an absolute horror to almost everybody else.”

Mischief tossed her head as if in agreement.  Yixing clucked in false disgust.  “Don’t look so proud of yourself,” he admonished the horse.

Once they actually got going, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Yeonhee had feared.  Ten minutes in, Yixing managed to get her to admit (very reluctantly, for the sake of her pride) that she was in fact enjoying herself, and that Jasper really wasn’t that scary.  She soon got used to the rhythm of the horse movi