COFFEE BREAK | NCT.

- TWENTY-THREE -

doyoung;

"he's awake."

the tent slowly swam into view, and doyoung blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the bright lights.

sooyoung's face suddenly appeared before him, and he jumped.

"what's wrong?" she smirked, "guess who brought you back to life?"

doyoung struggled into a sitting position, and winced when a spike of pain shot up his chest.

oh right. he spared his chest a glance before looking away; the sight of them, even plastered with bandages, was enough to send nausea rising in the back of his throat. they were stained brown with dried blood, and since the strips of cloth weren't large enough to cover his wounds entirely, he could still see drops of fresh crimson leaking out at the sides, which was fast blossoming into patches on his shirt.

"is that my shirt?" doyoung scrutinised the bandages.

"yeah, we didn't have anything else," sooyoung shrugged, "they're a little loose, but functional, i guess."

doyoung tried moving a little bit. his muscles felt pretty cramped, but a lot better once he'd stretched them out more. he couldn't stand yet without his chest hurting, but at least he didn't feel much pain as long as he didn't move his chest.

"oh, you're up." taeyong walked into the tent, giving doyoung's injuries a quick once-over, "huh. i think it's time to change the dressing."

"wait- what dressing?" doyoung looked around the room frantically, "how did you get dressing in this place?"

"relax, doyoung," he soothed, pushing the younger boy back until he had lain down fully. "it's just some sort of ointment sooyoung made from a bunch of leaves. she's quite a healer, by the way." he shot her a look and she gave him a small smile.

doyoung happened to catch seulgi's eye and saw them flash briefly, a murderous expression on her face.

"taeyong." she said sweetly, "don't you think you should get on with changing doyoung's bandages?"

"h-huh? what? o-okay," he replied shakily, seulgi's voice seemingly robbing him of comprehensible speech, an impressive shade of red deepening on his cheeks.

seulgi smiled innocently at him, before returning her attention to lighting the pile of wood on the ground.

doyoung watched the exchange, amused. who would've thought that taeyong, who had argued with seulgi so often at first, would end up falling for her?

sooyoung sat beside him, her hands cupped. carefully, she brought her handful of clear green gel to his chest- and hesitated.

"uhm, this is weird," she mumbled, "taeyong, you should do it."

"you didn't seem to have any problem doing it earlier," he grinned mischievously.

"he was unconscious!" she answered heatedly, yanking his hand towards her and pouring the concoction onto it.

taeyong rolled his hands and scooted over to doyoung. doyoung took the chance to find out what the dressing was exactly. it looked a little like soap before it began bubbling, mostly transparent with just a hint of teal. there were dark specks in the little puddle settling on taeyong's hand, which doyoung assumed were the pieces of crushed leaf.

taeyong slowly peeled the fabric off doyoung's wounds, and doyoung tried not to breathe, which seemed to lessen the pain. it completely vanished the second taeyong placed his hand on his chest, however, a cool, tingling, sensation working its way across his body, erasing any pain or exhaustion.