Hakyeon ran.

The sound of his sneakers hitting the pavement echoed too loudly in the empty streets. He ran through the cold air of the night, sprinting past lingering shadow creatures. (The blundering things didn't look up until he was already blocks away.) He's never ran this fast before, especially without the aid of potions. 

He probably should've grabbed some potions (like numbing or… something at least) before he ran out, but its too late to worry about it now-- he'll just have to deal with the exhaustion afterwards. Magic's buzzing in his heels, his pulse thundering in his ears. If someone were to look out their window, they'd probably see a vague human like figure dart across the sidewalk at a speed that shouldn't be possible.

Its a relief that he knew where Hongbin lives prior-- it'd be pretty pointless if he runs laps around the city before he actually find him. Skidding around a corner, he narrowly leaps over a knocked over trash can. (He soars over it-- the magic in his feet apparently gives him a huge boost.) He lands shakily, his knees nearly buckling, but with a quick spike of magic he stays upright.

His landing does happen to alarm every creature in the area.

I don't have any damn time for this, he thinks begrudgingly, sliding past a shadowy arm that reached towards him. A flick of a hand send the thing in a blaze of blue, and its gone. It's only a transferring spell: it sends the receiver a distance away. It's the easiest and simplest way of getting rid of them for a small amount of time. 

When the apartment building comes into his view, he begins to push more energy to his feet. It's probably one of his dumbest ideas, but recently he's had a streak of doing dumb things. He feels the soles of his shoes begin to tear off-- they're worn down considerably even though he just got them the other month. 

Skidding to an unstable stop, he catapults himself into the air. For a moment, he's flying, and the next he's arching right into a glass window.

A pulse of magic runs through his arm as he reaches out. As his fingers brush the glass, it warps into something akin to jello, and he sails right through it. Yeah. It was one of the dumbest things he's done in a while.

He's lucky he knew which room Hongbin was in from the outside, otherwise he'd be tumbling into a living room of a unsuspecting family who certainly didn't need the city mage crashing in. But he's spot on-- he flies right past a terrified looking Hongbin and someone laying against the couch, hitting the floor face first. 

It's probably adrenaline that's keeping the dull pain blossoming in his head from affecting him. Hakyeon peals himself off of the wood floor, tears off his shoes that were quite literally smoking from friction, and turns to Hongbin.

"Where--" Hakyeon starts, but halts immediately when he glanced down to the person propped up against the couch. 

It was impossible not to remember his name. Jung Taekwoon.

Bitting hard on his tongue, Hakyeon crawls over quickly (still affected by the energy coursing through his veins) and scopes out the infection with ease. It looks vaguely similar to Yubin's, just less bubbly and it wasn't expanding across his skin. Hakyeon scowls and grips just below Taekwoon's knee, magic zipping down his shin and closing up small open wounds. He hears Taekwoon hiss in pain, but pays no heed to it.

I should've kept the damn thing when it came off of Yubin, Hakyeon thinks bitterly. He takes a breath and warns, "This is going to hurt." Pressing his palm onto the center of the wound, Hakyeon almost rips his hand back because of the heat. Taekwoon jerks his leg violently, cursing colorfully under his breath. Hakyeon curses as well, his palm burning, but forces a surge of magic onto his leg.

The skin physically ripples as the magic washes through. It's incredibly different from the time he helped Yubin-- this time, he has a vague understanding of what the infection was. The wound immediately stops scorching Hakyeon's hand and the purple of it slowly recedes until its roughly the size of his palm. The boils begin to deflate and mesh together with skin, disappearing completely.

If he knew more about the curse, he probably could just pull it right on out of his skin. But he doesn't, and he's sure Taekwoon would not like it if he were to tear a section of his skin off. 

But what could he do to get rid of it? Hakyeon's scowl deepens as he pokes at it, watching the wound writhe. 

"What happened, exactly?" he asks, moving to sitting down completely rather than on his knees.

Hongbin starts at the question, as if surprised that he threatened to break the silence. "It… the outlier came in and… attacked us? It wasn't… Pretty."

Hakyeon hums at the information, eyebrows furrowed as he continues to try and work on the curse. His mind races with all the possible spells or charms he can cast to at least stall it.

He doesn't ask about Taekwoon. He doesn't ask why he's here, or if he's okay. Its almost like he... doesn't care. Maybe he's forcing himself not to think about it?

On occasion, Taekwoon's jaw clenches tightly-- probably to keep any noises of pain quiet. Hongbin has absolutely no idea what Hakyeon's doing to the thing. It really just looks like he's pinching it a couple of times and sending surges of magic into it (didn't he say that it would take up a lot of energy if he did that?). 

Its way too tense in the room. Taekwoon is looking anywhere but Hakyeon, and Hakyeon's furiously trying to do something with the infection. Its almost like a damn drama show. Hongbin feels incredibly out of place, and this is his home.

Hakyeon curses under his breath and clenches his fists. Hongbin hurriedly peers to the wound, seeing the purple in the same position as it was before. 

"I…" Hakyeon murmurs, looking overcome with irritation, "I can't do anything. Else. To help it." His fingers are a dull purple, stained from the infection. 

"Wait--" Hongbin splutters, for a moment flabbergasted that Hakyeon would say something like that, "did you get the thing off of the girl? Y'know, the other day?" 

"I didn't. She saw an illusion and it came right off. I didn't-- I couldn't help her," Hakyeon says, gnawing on his lip.

"What did she see though?" Taekwoon asks suddenly, making Hakyeon halt all movement. (Its almost like he forgot Taekwoon was there.) Taekwoon looks confused, although in pain.

He doesn't answer for a while, looking helpless as he leaned over Taekwoon's leg. He almost looks conflicted, like he doesn't know what to say or if he should help.

"I… I think she saw the outlier. I don't know. She didn't explain it to me-- I didn't prod," Hakyeon bursts, the words rushing out of his mouth, as if he was just saying what he was thinking. "I don't know what else to do-- I'm sorry."

a/n: B) short chapters are my life

I would've written more, sorry, but I need to study for an exam, and if I added more, it would've at least been thursday when I posted it and I dont like delaying this for long;;

I might come back and add more to this im not sure;; sorry;;

thank you for reading!! ;;