Touch || TXT Yeonbin (TOMORROW X TOGETHER Yeonjun x Soobin)

VI || Tale

It stung and I froze, staring at Yeonjun... or better that other half he had talked about. The Half that belonged in his opinion in a cage.

He looked different from the Yeonjun I knew. His black fingernails had grown into claws, his teeth were sharp and he had two fangs like the typical vampire would have them, his eyes were a piercing icy-blue with slit like pupils and from his head protruded two large black horns. He was neither looking like a beast nor like a human anymore.

He crouched behind the bars watching me intently as if I was his prey, ready to jump at me again, at any time. Still I wouldn't go away. I sat myself up against the wall looking at him and waiting, waiting that he would be Yeonjun again, the Yeonjun I knew and cared about.

‚I'm not afraid Yeonjun-ah..' I said ignoring the stinging scratches on my neck. ‚I won't leave you.'

I waited, eventually closing my eyes for a little bit, listening to the even but beasty breathing of the one opposite me. Even though it wasn't my Yeonjun watching me, just the fact that I was with him, made me feel at ease. I didn't know how much time passed when I was sitting there, waiting hopefully, that my Yeonjun would return to me.

‚Soobin-ah...' I then suddenly heard a weak and hoarse voice say. My eyes shot open in an instant and I hurried forward to the cage, where a Yeonjun without horns and claws was kneeling behind again. ‚Yeonjun-ah!' I looked him all over worried how bad his injuries would be. There were more little scratches and scars than the day before, but gladly no big open wounds.

‚I hurt you..' His hand reached though the iron bars but I quickly covered my neck, looking away from him.

‚It's nothing, don't worry..' I said with a smile, but he pushed my hand away, his fingertips gently brushing over the scratches.

‚Why didn't you leave..' He mumbled still examining my neck, his head right behind the bars, that I could nearly feel his breath on my face.

‚I said I wouldn't leave you, even if it's not you. I'm not afraid of you.'

‚You should have been, I hurt you..'

‚Yeonjun-ah' I said my hand reaching up to his cheek, my thump slightly brushing over his bottom lip, that was still split and a little crusty in the corners. ‚It's really nothing.. Stop worrying about me, when you're hurt far worse than me..'

With the still damp towel I gently wiped away the old, crusty blood from his pale face, then moving to his arms. After I was finished with that I exchanged the towel against the box of food, reaching him one of the buns, leaning against the bars again.

‚I read a book recently.' I began, when he leaned his head against mine, chewing on his bun. ‚It reminded me of what you've said about the forest out there.. In the tale exists a forest with extraordinary beings like you living in it.. They say that one could only find and enter the forest, if he either was one or partly one of these beings or if he knew and believed that they existed within the forest. Often it were children getting lost in the forest, as they were believing the tales they heard in the human world..'

‚They never found their way back out again...' Yeonjun mumbled.

‚What?'

‚As well as this forest up there isn't ordinary this tale isn't either. It's not just a tale.. it's real.' He explained reaching out for my hand again. ‚These children, or any human, that found the way inside the forest, they never found their way back. They couldn't. They either died within the forest, killed by creatures like me, or they lived inside. But the forest slowly changed them. These lost humans, they not only lost their way but also lost themselves, they turned into beasts. Real beasts.'