Doubler || NCT || Completed

72

Yujin stood still and stared.

Jeno was supposed to be in Korea - yet here he was, standing in front of her, smiling and waiting for her reaction. Wind was playing with his hair that he had dyed dark brown. His eyes were barely visible, they had been turned into crescents by the wide smile on his face.

Had she accidentally eaten something inappropriate and started hallucinating?

Yujin closed her eyes and shook her head, expecting for him to disappear, but when she looked again, he was still there.

She swallowed. "Are you real?"

Jeno chuckled. "What do you think?"

Yujin's legs gave out and she stumbled to the side before finding her balance again.

The smile dropped from Jeno's face and, in a second, he was standing by her side, trying to stabilize her by grabbing her arms.

His touch was real.

Yujin craned her neck to see his face. She could see every single beautiful detail of his face. All the things she had missed for the past few months. His warm eyes, his nose, his jaw, chin, the mole underneath his eye. It was all real. It was all so close.

Her throat was dry. "It really is you."

Jeno engulfed her in a hug, pulling her body tightly against his own. She could feel his heart beat and the familiar warmth radiating from him. His body was so familiar but somehow foreign as it pressed against her. It was exactly how she remembered it yet it wasn't. Her memory could never capture the way his body made her feel like she had arrived home.

"It's really me", Jeno said softly. The vibration of his voice travelled through his chest to her body. He had buried his face into her hair.

Yujin's hands went around his waist, intertwining behind his back. She remembered that in the past, it had been difficult for her to hug him around his chest because of his muscular build but now he seemed slightly skinnier than before.

The reality hit her.

"Why are you here?" she demanded to know and pulled her head away from his chest enough to take another look at his face.

Even his face was thinner than it had been in the spring. She hadn't noticed it when they had had video-calls.

Jeno fixed her bangs for her before touching her cheek. "I promised to take you here", he reminded her and nodded towards the breath-taking scenery behind her. The sun had set and it was getting dark around them, though it wouldn't have time to get completely dark before the sun would rise again in a few hours. "I wanted to keep my word."

Yujin glanced at his stomach that was still pressed against her body.

"You were shot like four months ago", she said when she looked up to him again. "Is it really safe for you to take a 28-kilometre hike?"

The smile found his eyes again when he heard her worried tone. "I cheated and took the shorter way up. So, I've only hiked somewhat 10 kilometres so far."

Yujin's frown didn't disappear. She looked at his stomach again. She felt guilty for being happy that Jeno was here with her. Based on how he had lost muscles over the spring and summer probably meant that it had taken him some time to recover. That did make sense considering how severely he had been hurt but it still worried Yujin.

Jeno placed pointer finger underneath her chin and tilted her head up gently.

"Both Xiaojun and Yuta okayed my trip. They said that as long as I made sure that I'd take my time and not overdo it, it should be fine", he explained.