life is still going on ; norenmin

5. his attention

did those two people listen to yuta? no, of course not. they merely sneered at him once they saw his face and kept going down the sidewalk towards winwin.

furious that they were ignoring him and their intentions clear for him to see, he pelted after them as fast as he could, despite his entire body's protests expressed through the soreness in his limbs being worse than usual.

he comes to see them stop at a dull red car that was clearly old, peering on either side of it. yuta pauses for a moment before slowly edging closer towards them, ready to swing a fist into their face just to protect winwin when one of them jerks back away with a screech, suddenly terrified.

he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, stopping once he ran into yuta and turned around. his eyes were wide and the word "you" was slowly forming on his lips when the police officer decked him right in the face, sending him to the ground faster than yuta thought.

"kwan!" yelled the other as winwin slowly emerged from the other side away from him, still behind the car. his eyes widened when they spotted yuta and he quickly pulled his black mask up, hiding his nose and mouth once more.

"why are you here?" winwin hissed.

"protecting you!" yuta shouted as the guy supposedly named kwan slowly raised up his head, blood running from his nose.

"ignore the idiot," kwan said firmly when the other advanced towards yuta. "get the freak, geun!"

winwin whipped his head around to see geun, looking as if kwan's usage of 'freak' had slapped him across the face, his eyes flashing red briefly before attempting to sprint away. but a simple reach and grab had kwan's hand around his ankle, sending him straight to the ground along with him.

yuta was quick to lunge for him, trying to pry his hands off. "let him go!"

geun was coming quickly, white as a sheet but determined nonetheless. winwin was trying his very best to wrench his ankle free, simply tugging his leg before finally managing to hit kwan's nose, making him groan with pain. at the same time, yuta managed to successfully remove his hand due to his loosened grip.

geun looked ready to go after the now freed winwin as he got to his feet, but yuta made sure to step in front of him threateningly. "leave him alone. i can easily get you arrested for assault already."

kwan was just now finally getting to his feet, his nose still bleeding profusely. "forget it, geun. we'll get him next time. you," his voice lowered in a hiss. "won't be there to save him."

"you can dream of that," yuta growled.

kwan just narrowed his eyes, wiping blood from his nose that had gotten onto his mouth, and walked away along with a still very white geun.

his eyes then look towards where winwin had escaped off to, the familiar pale-skinned, mask-wearing figure nowhere in sight.

yuta feels an urge to go after him, but the threat is gone. what's the point?

~*~

"i'll fight all the nightmares so they won't bother you," renjun was telling yua as he tucked her in.

"okay renjun," yua smiled at him. "good night."

"buenas noches," renjun smiled at her softly. she closed her eyes and soon enough, she was asleep. right afterwards, jaemin told him and jeno that he had something to discuss with his abuela and quickly gave them both a goodnight kiss before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.