Distant Daylight || Yunho (A Treasure Tale)

A Royal Parade

"Gunho, you're not even listening to me."

"Yes I am," Gunho whined back, lowering his voice when Yunho shot him a warning glance. It was just after midnight exactly a year after arriving at the orphanage, and Yunho and Gunho had become accustomed to sneaking around at night in order to meet each other unsupervised.

Tonight they huddled in one of the larger food pantries while Yunho tried to show a bored Gunho some self defence moves.

"No you weren't, you were nodding off," Yunho argued back. "Come on, what would you rather be doing?"

Gunho pouted at him and flopped over. "I just want to check on Mousey and make sure he didn't get caught in a trap. He wanders off if I'm not watching him."

"Mousey?" Yunho deadpanned. "I thought I told you to bring him outside and let him go." The orphanage was not a very good place to keep pets, especially rodents that may or may not be carrying diseases.

"But it's cold out there," Gunho whispered sadly. "I don't want him to freeze."

The two of them bickered similarly most nights, so much so that Yunho was worried about the fact that they were becoming so different from each other.

Gunho argued Yunho was growing too harsh and so Yunho told him to keep him soft, a charge that was easier said than done, especially when Yunho was practically living a double life.

"It was warm enough for Sangwoo to sneak out and come back with snacks—"

"Sangwoo, Sangwoo, Sangwoo," Gunho singsonged. "He's all you ever talk about."

"Well, you're all I talk about when I'm with him," Yunho spluttered defensively.

"So he's part of our family now?" Gunho crossed his arms and glared at him. "I thought we weren't getting adopted."

"It's not like that," Yunho sighed, putting his hands out in a placating gesture. "We have to stick together with the older boys, adopting couples can't be trusted. You heard what they did to Sangwoo. It's better to be a part of the orphan family."

"Well, maybe I don't want to be a part of this family anymore," Gunho spat in return, getting to his feet and running back to his room.

Yunho called after him quietly but closed his mouth when footsteps from the opposite end of the hall grew closer. Instead, he closed himself back in and sat among sausage links and fruit crates until the late night wanderer passed by.

They had never fought this bad before.

It was always gentle Gunho and his quiet complaints as he tried to keep up with all the fighting techniques Yunho was showing him.

When the hall had been quiet for long enough, Yunho snuck back into bed, stomach tied in a knot and tears threatening.

What was he doing wrong?

...

"Your stance is weak. Fix your footing."

Yunho blinked away a daydream and turned his ankle until it was the way it was in the correct position.

"Better," Sangwoo said with a nod. He was usually quite a blunt teacher, so this amount of encouragement from him meant something was up.

"You seem different," Yunho grunted, throwing a punch that was dodged. "What's going on?"

"It's not me, it's you," Sangwoo responded, dodging again. "You're distracted by something."

So he was accommodating to Yunho's mood.