𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙮'𝙨 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙠 ᵃᵗᵉᵉᶻ

5. two birds

━━━━━━━━

༄ 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥𝘴

━━━━━━━━

the night was as silent as ever. no floor boards moaning under late night weight, no crickets singing their song, even the waters were silent. so still, so dead.

san sat on their bed, eyes trained on the now clean bone. he had seen moss. wooyoung had seen flesh. now they both saw nothing but pearl-white.

moments passed as they both watched it, waiting for everything and nothing at all. "so," the younger started, the word trailing off with insecurity, "are we going to talk about what's been going on?"

san's gaze weighed heavily on the bone, never one leaving even as he spoke. "i don't even know what that thing is," he whimpered.

even if this thing looked like yeosang, he knew it couldn't be. he knew yeosang, had known him for sixteen years. he knew the elder would never do anything like this, never be so vicious and violent. it wasn't in his nature. so what was that thing?

"what even is there to say?" he mumbles.

silence befalls them again, only this time it weighed heavier with each passing second. san could sense the anxiousness in wooyoung's small, subconscious movements. the way he lightly gnawed at his chapped bottom lip, the light thumping of his foot constantly bouncing and hitting the ground hinted he wanted to say something. but the look in his eyes spoke of nothing but fright.

what was he so afraid of saying?

"maybe," san started, reaching out for the bone-not missing the way wooyoung hissed- and caressed it lightly in his hand, "maybe we should just leave."

wooyoung's face spoke of utter disbelief. "but what about your parents? y-you can't just leave them here alone with that thing." he whispered.

"they'll be fine."

"what san, you can't-"

"i talked to him, it-yeosang. he said that my parents have never seen him before, and he seems to like them. i don't think-i don't think he'll hurt them."

"you can't be sure sannie."

"well then what would you tell them? they won't even move out of this house knowing i hate it, knowing that someone died here. do you really think us telling them it's haunted with some ghost will convince them? they'll just call us childish and crazy."

"what if we prove it to them?"

"how-"

wooyoung swiped the bone from san's hand, warranting his attention. he then slowly peeled away the fabric of his long-sleeve revealing some of the newer marks he'd received. san gasped at the sight, surged forward and taking the injured limb carefully into his hands.

they were worse than before, deeper too.

san could see the flesh and slight muscle in one in particular, it was still caked with blood, wooyoung not having had the time to cover it like the others. san couldn't even imagine how much they hurt, his own skin and flesh ached just looking at wooyoung's.

"he-he did this to you?"

wooyoung gave him a jerky nod, sighing lightly when the elder pressed a soft kiss to his forearm. "they started the day before yesterday."

san continued to inspect the damage as wooyoung spoke, noticing the slight jerks the younger would make whenever san accidently ran a finger over the bruised flesh.