"God, these fucking people," Jeongguk grouses irritably. "What in fucking Christ do they expect this realtor to do? Pull a three-hundred thousand dollar mansion out of his ass and plonk it in the middle of Charlottesville?"
Jimin cranes his neck, trying to use his chin to tug down the puff of the duvet cover blocking his view of the television. Jeongguk immediately picks up his struggle and flattens the duvet down so that Jimin can see. On screen, a couple are touring a rather cosy-looking restored Victorian home, currently complaining about a lack of yard. The realtor is in the middle of explaining that finding a home in town will limit the amount of backyard space they will realistically be able to have.
"It's like people don't realize that extra amenities cost fucking money. You want more square footage? You have to pay for it. You want to be closer to downtown? The houses are more expensive. You want a pool? Okay—Wait. I remember going to an open house at one of Haneul's properties, and there was this family talking about how it was so perfect , except it didn't have a pool. A fucking pool. A mated couple with three little demonspawn, and they're gonna pass up a house just because it doesn't have a pool that they're gonna use three times a year before they drain it or let it turn to chlorinated swamp water when the realize how much fucking upkeep they've gotta do on it. Not that I care about Haneul losing a sale, but Jesus fucking Christ. The hell they must've put that realtor through."
"Didn't know you had such a strong prejudice against home buyers," Jimin mumbles. He would laugh, because hearing Jeongguk get worked up over something so ordinary is amusing, but his body has been sapped of energy. It's all he can do to even keep his eyes open.
"I learned from an early age that all people are shitty, not just the ones around me."
Jimin hums, eyelids drooping shut. "I could've told you that."
Yesterday was hell.
The sex was mindblowing. Jimin has never been so utterly saturated in pleasure, pushed so far to his natural limits. To have Jeongguk's knot in him, thick and throbbing, was the greatest physical experience of his entire life. But if being knotted was the peak of the mountain, the drop was a sheer plummet all the way down the mountainside. As soon as Jeongguk's cock began to soften, panic pulled up in his gut. Intellectually, he understood that he'd lived his entire life without Jeongguk's cock, so it was unlikely that he would suddenly die now, but the feeling was too overwhelmingly powerful to combat. The dam burst the moment his hole was empty, body wracked by uncontrollable, heaving sobs.
He was empty.
The emptiness crawled underneath his skin and itched, like maggots. It coiled up in his belly and made him sick, squeezed his muscles until he shook so badly he couldn't stand. As much as he tried to scrape at his skin to get it out , he couldn't. He couldn't reach it.
Much of the afternoon was a blur. Jimin can't remember specific instances, save for little blips of clarity here and there. He knows he threw up until he was gagging on nothing more than stomach acid. Bruises circle his wrists from where Jeongguk had been forced to hold his arms down to keep him from digging his nails into his skin in search for the worms that were eating him from the inside out. His throat is raw, his nose is stuffed up, his skull is throbbing. Everything, right down to his bones, ache.
Sometime after dark, the terror subsided. Jeongguk was able to help him to the shower and wash him out, scrub him clean. The warm water felt good, and Jeongguk's hands felt better. They dried off, not really bothering to separate all that much, and curled back up in bed. Jimin was in the midst of a thought about how they should probably change the sheets when a loud sniffle against his shoulder interrupted him.
"Fuck," Jeongguk hissed, burrowing his face deeper into the pillow to hide his own tears. "I-I'm fine, sorry. God , dammit."
In that moment, Jimin realized to a tangible degree just how much his physical and psychological suffering had affected Jeongguk. It was his knot that caused this. Jimin never mentioned his lack of knotting before, not thinking that it was important. For the past several hours, Jeongguk had been nothing more than a helpless bystander while Jimin's body tried to twist itself inside out, unable to comfort him, unable to make the pain stop.
