Pandora's Box

Chapter 32

content warning: slightly graphic descriptions of blood/violence/injury 
okay good luck 😁 i don't remember how sad this is because i'm numb from rereading so i wish you all the best 🙏

Beomgyu moved first.

He had no choice. His hand  was still holding the dagger, from healing Taehyun, and he raised it to his throat.

He cursed Taehyun's wit, as the other got there before he could pierce skin. Beomgyu was thrown to the floor, the dagger now clutched in Taehyun's palms.

The other was smart enough to realize the ineffectiveness of the instrument on his own body, and that Beomgu would continuously heal him.

He cursed Taehyun's intelligence for that too.

Taehyun threw the weapon across the room, his weight fully trapping Beomgyu on the ground. Beomgyu watched, in horror, as Taehyun grabbed the poison behind him without looking at it.

He wasn't sure if he could heal poison.

Sure, he had healed the snake bite. But even that was a physical wound. Physical wounds had always been successful, but foolishly he'd never tried something internal. If the poison was in the other's blood, healing might not work.

He wouldn't take a chance either way.

Thinking in a panic, he grabbed the other's waist and threw Taehyun's body down with all of his strength. He flipped them over and struggled against the poison bottle, almost laughing at Taehyun's facial expression.

Since they'd known each other, neither had ever gotten mad. They had never fought, and he had only seen Taehyun's scowl when it was directed toward others.

But here, in Beomgyu's efforts to save his life, the other looked absolutely livid with him.

"Would you fucking stop?! I'm not letting you do this."

Beomgyu had wrestled the bottle out of Taehyun's hands, and threw it across the room. But in the other's newly free grasp, he grabbed a sword off the table above.

Equally annoyed at his own lack of demise so far, Beomgyu scoffed. "Why don't you give up, idiot? You know I'm just gonna heal you."

Taehyun gazed into his eyes, something passing through his face that Beomgyu couldn't name. He couldnt imagine it was any kind of realization of his futile efforts, despite Beomgyu wishing it was that. But the other's ignorance left him without words.

Yet it hadn't, in fact, been Taehyun's ignorance. It had been his own.

The other smiled weakly and whispered, "I'm so sorry. I don't have a choice."

Beomgyu opened his mouth to question the words when he felt a searing pain in his left side.

Horror struck him as he glanced down at the sword impaling his stomach. Not enough to be fatal, just enough to leave him powerless.

"Don't you dare try to heal yourself. I don't think The Fates like liars." Taehyun's voice was menacing, and almost out of character. Beomgyu was stunned for a moment, until he watched as the other stood and bolted towards the poison across the room.

Beomgyu's vision blurred, but he refused to lose like this. He wouldn't break his promise, but he refused to let the other boy die by his hand.

He couldn't comprehend the idea of living in a world without Taehyun. As far as he was concerned, he never had.

The pain in his side was blinding, white, yet not enough to keep him down. Holding a hand over the wound as tight as possible, he stood as well. His movements felt agonizingly slow compared to Taehyun's, who had already reached the bottle.