[✔️] Across The Years | Seulrene

Ch. 17 - The ride

Seulgi's POV

I found myself unable to sleep very well that night as I was too busy thinking about my ride tomorrow with Irene. I was excited, to say the least. Fortunately I had nowhere to be in the morning so I could sleep in.

After getting up, I washed up, made myself some breakfast with some eggs I bought from a local farmer and read some on my kindle. At the time approached to meet Irene, I suddenly got a bit nervous. All I had for lunch was a meat and cheese sandwich.

Though it's a pain to have to buy everything fresh, either from the local farmer or the sometimes farmers market, some of the food is quite good. Not to mention no preservatives. But one must be careful to buy only what you can use that day, because most of that stuff won't keep long.

Not having any proper riding clothes as Irene did, I dressed in my traveling clothes; cavalry boots, pants and a white shirt. The day itself was overcast, windy and a bit cold, so I did wear my coat. The last thing I did was to comb my hair so it looked perfect.

At 2 pm sharp, I came to the barn where I found Irene waiting just inside.

"Hello, Seulgi. I have your horse ready for you. You can ride Percy, and I will ride my own horse, Emma."

"Thanks." As I walked in, I got a strange look from Robert.

I was one of the servants like him, only I was going riding with Irene. What I was doing was most unorthodox, to say the least.

Ignoring Robert, I went to my horse and checked the saddle. Once I was satisfied that everything was secure as it should be, I mounted my horse. I found myself being very glad that I took the riding lessons before I came here. I used to hate horses, thinking they were stupid. Now, I don't mind them so much.

"So, where are we going?"

Irene just smiled at me enigmatically, then quickly motioned for the horse to take off on a full gallop out of the barn and towards the park.

"Why— you little..." I muttered as she set off in pursuit of her.

For almost 5 minutes, I chased after Irene. The Korean-Latina would occasionally look back and giggle, all the while her long brown hair was flowing with the wind. It was a very beautiful sight.

By the time I had caught up with her, we were at the far end of the park, nearing the edge of the fields and meadows beyond. Irene then laughed and eased up a bit to let me ride along side. But my competitiveness got the best of me and I quickly zoomed ahead of the surprised Irene.

"Hey, I was slowing down for you!" She protested.

I merely waved goodbye as I raced out onto a meadow, towards a group of trees at the far end. Soon, Irene and her horse galloped past me. Obviously she had no intention of being beaten.

Quickly, she raced ahead and reached the stand of trees a good 10 seconds before I did, where she stopped.

"Seulgi, I figured that you would have beaten me easy. Your horse is as fast if not faster than mine," Irene said, looking briefly puzzled.

I thought quickly of how to respond and shrugged, "I don't know, I'm not used to this horse. Not sure what it can do." In reality, she was a much more experienced rider having years of experience.

I, on the other hand, had only few months of lessons. In the back of my mind that did exist as a worry, that I would be seen as a fraud. But that worry, sat along with all the other anxieties about how well the day would go.