[note: this is the continuation of chapter 9]
yeosang is exhausted. from his argument with wooyoung to his encounter with old rivals, this had to happen. the universe must hate him, right?
how long has it been since wooyoung and jun saw each other? the reunion of his two best friends must be something he should be happy about, but instead of happiness, he feels anxious. usually, you would want two of the most important people in your life to get along, but apparently, for wooyoung and jun, this isn't the case. they hate each other for a reason yeosang doesn't know of.
they're both still gripping yeosang's wrist, wooyoung on one side and jun at the other. they're staring each other down like pit bulls protecting their owner. he can feel the underlying tension between them.
"what's wrong with you guys," he says trying to break free of their grips. "come on guys, don't be like this, please let me go."
noticing his discomfort, jun lets go of his hand first, but his eyes don't leave wooyoung's. wooyoung lets go too, only to intertwine their hands and drag yeosang with him. he could hear jun shouting in the distance, but he doesn't care and keeps walking.
jun doesn't follow them.
"wooyoung, let go," he says softly.
they both don't know where they are, wooyoung just ran without thinking of a destination and dragged yeosang with him. they're in some kind of old market: the stalls are closed, the halls are barely lit, and it reeks of fish and sweat. wooyoung pulls a chair from one of the stalls and tells him to take a seat. he takes a look at yeosang's face, it's still covered with bruises and dry blood.
"don't move, i'll be right back," wooyoung says firmly. yeosang thinks for a second—thinks of running away and avoiding him once again. can he really deal with him now? his heart hurts. but he gives a small nod instead, running away won't help him right now. wooyoung gives him a warm smile before running to the nearest pharmacy.
yeosang releases a deep sigh when he leaves. the sun is starting to rise, is it around 6 a.m. already? he wonders if jun is coming back to find him, or if seonghwa is worried that he didn't come back to the motel, or just what if, what if wooyoung gave up on him and went back to the room, back to san.
his thoughts are always wrong, well most of the time anyway—wooyoung does come back.
when he comes back, he grabs a chair and carefully scans yeosang's face again. he takes out the ointment he bought and gently applies it to his small bruises, treating his face like it's made of glass: fragile. yeosang flinches at his touch.
"god yeo, what happened?"
"it's nothing," yeosang brushes off. he doesn't really want to explain everything right now, and besides, who knows what wooyoung might do after hearing about the navy? he expects wooyoung to nag at him, to give him the this is nothing serious look, but instead, he nods with understanding.
"i know it isn't, but i won't force you to tell me right now. just relax and focus on recovering," he says. he finishes off by placing a small bandage on his forehead, patting it ever so gently. he looks at yeosang in the eyes then. the eye contact makes yeosang shudder.
