𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐋𝐄 ♕ 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐊

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘆-𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿

Gaeun felt like shit.

Her legs were being crushed under Minha's weight while her waist was sore from the heaviness of Wook's arm and the damned binding beads he wore. They had dug into her side and bruised her, leaving purple marks on her skin.

She climbed over him, trying not to disturb his sleep, and descended from the bed. Her feet hit the floor and her knees gave out, making her fall with a loud thud.

Wook jolted up and patted the space next to him, obviously searching for her. "Minha, where's—what are you doing?" He asked, stumbling out from under the covers and helping Gaeun up, "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You looked like you were sleeping well," she said, allowing him to hold her upright.

She had only experienced complete power loss once in her life and that was immediately after she had cast out Jooyong. It was nerve-wracking to find that she was completely defenceless. Had it not been for her grandparents, she would have tumbled down the stairs and died from a broken neck.

Not that she didn't want to die sometimes. But there had to be a better way to go than a snapped neck.

"Hey," Wook combed his fingers through her hair and tied it in a tidy knot, "You are the most beautiful person I have ever since, even when we were kids. You aren't plain looking and you don't look like a frog."

....What?

She stared at him for a count of four and jerked her arm out of his grasp. "I need to wash," she said, trying not to show her embarrassment for moving so sluggishly.

"I will carry you!"

"What, no—"

Wook picked her up as if she weighed nothing. He'd never done that before. Every time he had carried her in his arms, Gaeun had felt his legs wobble. Maybe it was her lack of strength that made it easy for him. Or maybe his training was paying off.

"How do you feel?" Wook asked as he carefully manoeuvred down the stairs with Minha bumping against his legs.

Gaeun shifted and adjusted her arms around his neck. "Tired," she said, "I..."

The silence reminded her all at once that her family was gone because it was never this quiet in the house. She waited, breathing as softly as she could, for her grumbling grandfather to emerge out of his office or to find her grandmother complaining about her backache while gardening outside.

They reached the bathing area without running into anyone and Gaeun toyed with the idea of drowning herself in the large wooden tub. Noticing how still she had gone, Wook lowered her onto a bench and shooed off Minha. "I'll heat the water," he said, "But don't stay inside too long. Your body can't take extreme temperatures in this state."

She frowned while he struck the flints to light the firewood under the bathing tub. Why was he being like this? He's taking this too seriously. "You don't need to do that," Gaeun said as he continued to struggle with the flints.

"I can," he mumbled.

"No, I mean our house was quite dependent on magic because of my grandparents. There are flash pellets in that jar over there to light the firewood."

Wook flushed from embarrassment and fumbled for the pellets, squashing three of them between the logs and coughing from the smoke when they began to burn. He stood by the wide tub that came up to his bicep, and dipped his hand in it now and then to check its warmth.