ENTHRALL° s.th

019

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THE COAST
MIDDAY
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✧──────✦ jaehwa was all too far from taehoon and yeonu to know what was going on let alone hear their exact words. taehoon kicked him up a little bit, got in close and taunted him. and now yeonu was crying.

crying?!

she took a few steps to the side to make sure she saw correctly.

"i'm happy!" yeonu said with a smile on his face as a stream of tears dripped down his face. jaehwa realized taehoon must've hit a nerve about his personal life and she almost felt bad for the guy. no, she does feel bad for him. because all he can do after taehoon drills into him, is cry and scream about how he just wants to do karate and doesn't want to be a puppet controlled by his dad.

and mid sob, taehoon lays a hard, meaningful kick straight to his chest. he doesn't fly backwards like any average person would, but keeps put in a stance that only someone like him would be able to withstand.

a few minutes later, taehoon ditches his jacket (jaehwa is now wearing it) and is losing to a few sturdy punches and hobin yells at him to snap out of it.

with this, he dodges a game changing punch. footwork of karate is a bit slower than taekwondo's, so taehoon has the upper hand no matter how strong yeonu is. he's even got the karate kid on the ground, foot on his neck and everything. but yeonu is stood back up, panting about 'the kyokushin karate spirit'.

taehoon gives him a solid punch, taekwondo be damned for now, and yeonu passes out cold. taehoon doesn't ask jaehwa for his jacket back despite the evening chill, and continues to massage yeonu's legs along with hobin.

he thanks taehoon when he finally wakes up and wanders off back to his hotel room. jihyeok persuades the others to go back to the beach while taehoon and jaehwa head back to their rooms.

"you fought good." jaehwa is picking at her nails, she's a little jittery around taehoon recently since he started being nicer to her.

"are you taunting me because i had to use my fists?" he's looking over at her and realizes that she looks sincere even when she's avoiding his eyes.

she huffs as she upzips her (his) jacket, "i'm saying you fought good because you fought good! just accept the compliment." jaehwa throws the jacket into his arms and walks ahead. the zipper hits one of the bruises on his face and he winces. he speeds up to her, at a loss of words at the moment. taehoon has been a little on edge around jaehwa for a couple of weeks and his face gets a little hot even when he just thinks about it. he thinks it might just be because he hasn't had a genuine friend in a while.

when they enter the hotel, he grabs her arm and before he can stop himself, he asks "can you touch up my cuts?"

taehoon is a big kid. and he doesn't need anyone to help him put on a bandaid or hold an ice pack to his cheek, but some irrational part of his brain thinks the pain might be easier to take if jaehwa is helping him.

so they find themselves in the boy's room. taehoon is sitting on the bathroom counter while jaehwa searches for the first aid kit. when she finds it, jaehwa looks him up and down to see just how much damage yeonu inflicted on him.

she soaks a hand towel in cold water and rings it out until it was a little damp and folds it into a small rectangle. from here, jaehwa makes him lean down a little so she can reach and they end up switching positions with her on the sink and him standing in front of her.

their faces get a little red and their chest starts to hurt a little (taehoon just thinks it's from the heavy kick he got laid on him earlier, but that doesn't explain his rapid pulse). neither of them are used to being this close to each other, or anyone else for that matter.

jaehwa wipes any blood taehoon hadn't wiped off with his arm and has to rinse the cloth a few times before the water runs clear. to be honest, it hurt like shit. usually he would just be a wimp all by himself in his bathroom, dabbing at the wound and taking pain breaks every few seconds, but now jaehwa was here. and he wasn't about to just let her see him being a wimp, he would rather drop dead than be embarrassed like that.

before he knew it, jaehwa was already screwing the lid back onto the ointment for his bruises and closing the first aid kid. taehoon looks past her into the mirror and notices he doesn't look as busted as he did earlier.

he moves away from the counter to let her jump down and as she's about to leave she looks further into the room.

"you guys have beds?!" taehoon thinks she's about to comment on the mess the hobin and jihyeok had accumulated in 24 hours, but she doesn't even see it.

"you guys don't?" he follows her jaehwa to the girl's room. he's never been in a girls room before (don't tell anyone that or he'll kill you for real) and looks around before looking for the beds, you know, exactly what he came here for. and in the middle aren't beds, but traditional bed mats laying on the floor with a few thick blankets on the ground. "you guys really don't, huh."

jaehwa looks up at him, despite the fact that they aren't all that different in height. "i actually woke up this morning with a sore neck, and my back hurts."

he looks at the matts on the floor, "if i slept like this, i would too."

taehoon has to lean against the wall when jaehwa smiles at him and walks towards him. "do you think you'd be able to talk the guys into switching rooms tonight?"

"what? no," and it looks like one of her relatives just died the way she's looking at him. jaehwa even groans as she tries to stretch out her back. her back doesn't hurt at all but she's a good actor.

"why not?"

gaeul and rumi bring their bags in a few hours later after watching the boy's walk of shame to the room with no beds.