Rednegne ✅

Peal 6

[이도]

"I'm starving." "There's not much we can do about that. We never really had money to begin with." It was hard, really. "How far have we gotten?" "A quarter way." It was hard being at such a disadvantage. "Should we use the sphere now?" "Yeah." I threw it onto the ground then watched as we were now enclosed in a floating bubble. "It still amazes..." "Are we heading in the right direction?" "Uh...Yeah." "'Uh, yeah.'? Are you unsure?" The bubble started to lose altitude. "Focus Geonhak." The bubble had gone back up.

"Here we are." He wasn't kidding when he said it looked like my hometown. The bubble landed then shattered. "We should be okay here. I have a cousin who lives around here." "We're not staying with any of your family members." "I promise, she's the nice one." I reluctantly agreed as it was either her place or the streets. The streets these days were quite unforgiving. We received looks from the locals and a few mothers pulled their children away from us. "Why are they looking at us so weirdly?" "They always do when a new face appears. It doesn't last long though."

He knocked on a door and a short woman appeared from behind it. "Youngjo?" "Clair." "You've gotten bigger since I last saw you. And, who's this?" "He's a friend. Introduce yourself." "Hi. Kim Geonhak. Pleased to meet you." "Looks like he has manners. That's good." I gave her a half hearted smile as I was only doing it to be invited inside. "Come in, come in."

She placed cups in front of us then looked at Youngjo. "I heard from the family you ran from home. They didn't say why. Assumed you've gone mad and all." "I'm not crazy. They're the crazy ones." I remained quiet as he told his cousin what had occurred through tears. "Oh my...No wonder. And you've been roaming this entire time?" "Yeah. Then Geonhak and I met then got involved with some weirdos." "Weirdos?" He nodded then told her all about that as well. "Wow, so much has happened for the both of you huh? Well, you're always welcome to stay here. I think it was smart of you both to leave when you did." I finished off the rest of my drink then stood to wash it. "Ah, leave it. Go on upstairs and rest. I hope you both don't mind sharing a bed." "W-" "That's fine, Clair." Youngjo ushered me upstairs and into the bedroom.

"Why did you interrupt me?" "Did you want to sleep outside?" "No." "Then I had to. Around Clair, be grateful. She always goes back on everything if you aren't grateful for what she offers you. I saw it happen to my other cousin once. She didn't like the food Clair made, so Clair didn't feed her anything after that." "Ouch..." The bed was small, but it seemed sturdy enough to room two grown men. "You can have the bed. I'm used to sleeping on the floor." "No, you take the bed." "Don't start this." "Then let's just share it." I didn't want it to come to that, but it looked like it had. "Fine."

I could feel our backs touching as we lied in bed. "Jo? You sleep?" "Not yet." "What if...I suddenly disappear from your life? What would you do?" "Go and find you." "Why?" "I feel bonded to you." Bonded. Another way to say attached. I internally sighed as I couldn't help but think he actually would come looking for me. "Don't look for me. You'll waste your precious time." He was quiet. Was he thinking? I rolled over and saw he was fast asleep. "If only I could fall asleep that quickly." I didn't hold many things dear to my heart, but I was certain Youngjo was becoming one of them. I briefly played with his hair before settling him in my arms and closing my eyes.

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I opened my eyes and took note of Youngjo's still body. "Jo? You awake?" "Yeah." The room was quiet and dark. The only sound heard was our breathing and the scampering of a rodent on the outside. "It would've been nice to have powers. But we've got no one to learn from." "It's not so bad, being a nowol." "I guess. Everyone up to a certain point in their lives were nowols too." "Yep. I wonder if there are other nowols out there in the world." He interlaced our fingers then lifted up our arms as he looked back at me. "Then why don't we go find out together?" His eyes were full of life and excitement. He really wanted to do this.