Torment and Torture

XXXXII

"Hey ... Seung-hee ..."

Seung-hee jolted upright almost immediately after Yoonbum knocked on the door. He had fallen asleep on the floor, and Yoonbum had managed to drag himself to Seung-hee's bedroom door to check on him.

"Are you o-okay ...?"

Seung-hee sniffled a little.

"Yeah ..."

"Can I come in ...?"

"Okay ..."

Seung-hee shuffled away from the door and onto the bed and opened the door for Yoonbum. He crawled in and looked up at Seung-hee from the floor on his knees.

"You were gone a while ... I was worried ..."

"I'm fine ..."

"Did you fall asleep ...? It's 8pm now ..."

Seung-hee rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It was 8pm indeed.

"You must be tired, Yoonbum. You can sleep here if you want. I won't be sleeping much tonight."

"O-okay ... but ... I don't want to be alone ..."

"What?"

"D-don't leave me ... please ..."

Seung-hee helped Yoonbum onto the bed and covered him with a blanket before sitting on the edge of the bed, his back facing Yoonbum.

Yoonbum squirmed over to Seung-hee and traced his finger on the fabric of the back of his shirt. Seung-hee turned around and gave Yoonbum a little smirk.

"What are you doing?" Seung-hee giggled.

"I just ... I haven't thanked you-"

"I would rather we didn't talk about it anymore."

Yoonbum stopped talking and tugged at Seung-hee's shirt to get him to lie down with him. Seung-hee lay down with a sigh.

"N-no one has ever been kind to me ... like you have ..."

Seung-hee didn't say anything.

"I ... I'm just glad I'm safe ..."

Yoonbum slowly gave Seung-hee a hug, wrapping his arm around his chest and pulling him closer. Seung-hee didn't move, and he placed a hand over Yoonbum's.

"Yoonbum ... aren't you tired?"

"No ..."

"Yoonbum ..."

Yoonbum looked up at Seung-hee, gazing into his eyes.

It was at that moment that all of the stress, the sadness, the anger, every emotion Seung-hee had possibly been bottling up due to what happened, came bursting out of him. He couldn't think straight.

It was at that moment that Seung-hee kissed Yoonbum.