(Word count: 20803)
It's some time past late afternoon, the sky slipping from deep azure blues into fire sparked reds and purples, that Jungwon receives his next letter.
It arrives with the slow and steady decent of the sun, a whisper of wind and fluttering parchment following a harried wrap of knuckles on the door that drips with agitation, and all at once the somewhat peaceful air of the afternoon is snuffed out as a thick, weighted tension settles about the crooked house atop the hill.
The soft click of the door latching shut and the awkward shuffle of Jungwon's old boots has Heeseung looking up from his steaming cup of herbs and Ni-ki pausing in scrubbing clean the clay pots he'd been saddled with after an early dinner, and with his head nestled in Sunoos lap where they both reside amongst scattered cushions on the floor Jake tenses, narrowed eyes flickering toward the leader and then down, to where the slightly worn parchment sits in Jungwon's careful hands. In a flurry he's rearing upright, so fast he almost knocks into Sunoos skull, the expression that overtakes his usually serene features one of sudden apprehension.
Sunoo follows his gaze and promptly feels his gut swoop with apprehension at what he finds, muscles coiling tight. Oh.
The familiar chicken scratch scrawled across the surface of the parchment in thick red ink almost seems to glow in Jungwons hands, a flashing beacon that unsettles him- leaves him a strange mixture of both apprehensive and curious over what lays within, and as he watches the elder clumsily unfold it he feels his throat run dry.
They'd been expecting the letter from Jungwons source beyond the provinces walls for days now, and now that it'd come, he almost couldn't bare the idea of it's contents.
Just what had changed beyond the sanctity of the little town between now and the last letter they received? How would it affect the little life Sunoo had come to yearn for over the weeks?
Without realising he slips his hands into his lap, threading his fingers together and twisting until his knuckles flash white. Against his will he finds himself desperately hoping for things he shouldn't, for things that Jihyun surely wouldn't, and whilst the notion of disappointing his brother makes him feel physically sick, the thought of living through the opposite, of returning to a path that he's certain leads to a dead, heartbroken end for him is enough to have white hot panic seizing him at once.
Suddenly he's grateful that Jay's still stuck at the training ground with Sunghoon, for he doesn't think he could take the weight of the elders knowing stare, not when he knows Jay can see through him easier than a sheet of polished glass.
He snaps from his thoughts when he hears a sudden scoff. His eyes flit to the line between Jungwon's brows and the hard grit of his jaw, and he knows instantly that whatever words lay etched messily into the paper between the elders hands aren't ones he's going to want to hear. His stomach rolls and the air grows thicker with budding tension. He doesn't have to look to his right to note the way Jake practically leans forward in anticipation, thick brows furrowing and lips pulling into a frown that Sunoo rarely see's.
"Is it Donghyun?" Heeseung asks after a silence several beats too long, clearly having lost patience. His jaw sits tight, brows creased as he shifts forward in his seat to see Jungwon better. "What did he say? Has the East cleared of Kibums patrols yet?"
Jungwon swallows, the air curling with an unfamiliar kind of tension, as though the leader almost doesn't want to utter the words he's about to. For when he looks up from the parchment his expression reads something almost pained, brows pulled taut and a twitch to his hands that makes his fingers flex several times around the thin scrap of paper, near tearing it.
