29: Kyungsoo's Heart

   Kyungsoo dipped his hands into the running stream and splashed the cold water on his face and around his neck, letting out a dejected sigh as he did. He wasn’t quite sure why he’d hesitated earlier when Jeongri told him she wanted to remain behind and talk to Baekhyun. There was no reason to, they were old friends, it was only natural for them to want to catch up. But there was a tiny voice in the back of his mind, one that didn’t want to leave Jeongri alone.

   Just meters away, Chanyeol pulled off his shirt in one swift motion and waded into the waist-deep stream, letting out a satisfying groan as the water flowed around his body. He dipped his head under and resurfaced seconds later, flipping his wet hair back in the crisp autumn night. Kyungsoo watched as Chanyeol stretched each of his muscles turn, wincing visibly at discomfort in his right shoulder.

   “What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo asked, welcoming the distraction to his meandering thoughts.

   “It’s nothing,” said Chanyeol, wincing yet again as he pulled his arm back.

   Kyungsoo shook his hands dry and beckoned for Chanyeol to come over. 

   “Come on, let me take a look.”

   “It’s really nothing that you can help with, Kyungsoo.”

   But Kyungsoo was having none of it. He stared at Chanyeol with a stern expression until he gave in. Reluctantly, Chanyeol waded towards him and perched himself on the bank of the stream, where Kyungsoo placed his palms on his shoulder. As Kyungsoo closed his eyes, he could visualise the broken tissue that surrounded the titanium skeleton reinforcement in Chayeol’s shoulder joint. He frowned, realising the problem was something that his magic could not fix.

   “There’s a bolt that digging into your flesh, gouging it with every movement,” muttered Kyungsoo, his eyes still closed, “Did you do this today?”

   “See, I told you it’s nothing you could help with,” remarked Chanyeol, pulling away, “And no, it was from that other fight a month ago. I was meant to have surgery tomorrow to correct it.”

   “Why were you on a mission if you had a surgery scheduled?” asked Kyungsoo with another frown.

   “CC’s orders,” said Chanyeol with a shrug.

   “That’s ridiculous,” said Kyungsoo.

   “Well, happens, I guess. At least my arm didn’t fall off,” joked Chanyeol, trying to gloss over the serious mood with his laughter.

   But Kyungsoo was unamused.

   “This isn’t funny,” he said, “Where are you going to find a mechanic? You can’t go back to the HLV now.”

   “Come on, it’s no big deal. It’s not going to kill me.”

   Chanyeol waded further down the stream and turned his back on Kyungsoo, the latter who watched with narrowed eyes. 

   “You’d better touch wood, Park Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo warned, frowning with disdain at Chanyeol’s choice of words.

   “You’re overreacting-” said Chanyeol, getting out of the stream in one swift motion.

   “Chanyeol…”

   “-Like you always do.”

   Kyungsoo felt himself getting more and more agitated. Chanyeol was always like this; a free spirit type of person, ready to ignore problems and their consequences so long as they didn’t interfere with the present day. That was all for future-Chanyeol to deal with. However, Kyungsoo did not agree with such ideals, and he was certain that Chanyeol wouldn’t take this problem as seriously as he did.

   “Chanyeol!” said Kyungsoo, this time more forcibly. 

   There was a raw power echoing in his voice that made Chanyeol stop and take him seriously for once. Comically, Chanyeol walked over to a nearby tree and wrapped his arms around it in a bear hug. 

   “Happy now?” he said, pressing his cheek up against the bark, “Touching a lot of wood here. That’s right, the biggest wood I could find in all its wooded glory. Are you satisfied? Feel free to make as many jokes while you can.”

   Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and looked away, feeling unamused.

   “Do I look like Baekhyun to you?” he complained.

   Chanyeol laughed and walked back over to Kyungsoo, sitting himself down with a thump.  

   “Not a chance,” Chanyeol said, “If anything, you’re way too uptight to be like Baekhyun. Chill out, Kyungsoo. You’ve been so tense since we met again. You need to learn to relax.”

   “I am relaxed,” protested Kyungsoo, but he wasn’t too sure, and it showed in his voice. 

   His thoughts meandered back to Jeongri once again. He wondered how she was back at camp, and what she was talking to Baekhyun about. He’d caught Baekhyun looking at them a couple times earlier, and for some reason, it made him feel uncomfortable. 

   “Dude, I still can’t believe that you were with Jeongri though,” said Chanyeol, “Talk about a small ing world.”

   Kyungsoo froze unexpectedly at the sound of Jeongri’s name. Perhaps it was time to go back to her. Without answering, Kyungsoo got out of the stream and started walking through the woods towards their camp area. He tried to hide the complicated emotions showing on his face, but Chanyeol didn’t give him a chance to be alone. Within seconds, Chanyeol was by his side, ruffling his wet hair. His torso and trousers were wet, but he didn’t seem to mind to chill in the air.

   “Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Chanyeol. His jovial mood seemed to have faded, “How long have you two known each other?”

   “A month or so,” Kyungsoo said. 

   He tried his best to look nonchalant, but he didn’t know where to look. His hands seemed to hang awkwardly by his side.

   “Since the ceremony?” asked Chanyeol, his eyebrows raised, “You found her after she got exiled?”

   “Yeah…”

   Chanyeol seemed surprised, “And what? She’s been with you all this time?”

   “Yeah…”

   “Living with you?”

   “Yeah…”

   “At your house?”

   “Yeah…”

   “Every day?”

   “Yeah…”

   “Do you know any other words other than ‘yeah’?” mocked Chanyeol.

   Kyungsoo cleared his throat, his nerves getting the better of him. Jeongri had asked him not to mention her during calls, so she never came up in conversation. He didn’t mean to hide his relationship from his friends. Kyungsoo paused at that thought, correcting himself. No, they didn’t have a ‘relationship’, it was just a ‘friendship’, right?

   “I don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” Kyungsoo retorted.

   “Seriously?” Chanyeol said, staring at him incredulously, “You don’t see why it’s a big ing deal that you were housing the woman who almost ended the world? Really? Did you not see the news, or were you living under a rock or something?”

   Kyungsoo decided to ignore Chanyeol’s remark. He continued walking forwards, pushing through the foliage and dipping under branches. His heart was beating faster. He wasn’t sure he was ready for another onslaught of questions since he didn’t know half the answers. How does he being to explain what they have? It was complicated. 

   “Yeah I knew, but so what. At that moment in time, Jeongri needed help,” said Kyungsoo, “So I helped her.”

   “She deserved what she got, just saying. Though I have to say, she doesn’t look half bad now,” mused Chanyeol, “In fact, she looks like she’s been well looked after.”

   Kyungsoo tried to ignore the burning look of accusation that Chanyeol was giving him, grateful for the darkness to hide his embarrassed reaction. Chanyeol was the last person that Kyungsoo would talk to about relationships. Given his lack of a love life, Kyungsoo had never actually spoken to anyone about matters of the heart. Usually, he would be on the listening end; from hearing about Minseok’s problems with his long term girlfriend, or hearing Chanyeol talk about another one of his capades back in Merehua. 

   Kyungsoo mumbled, not really agreeing or disagreeing with Chanyeol’s statement.

   “Are you guys aren’t together?” persisted Chanyeol.

   “No,” replied Kyungsoo, too quickly, “I mean, we’re just friends.”

   “Well me sideways because you could have fooled me with how you guys looked earlier. Weren’t you guys holding hands, hugging and all that romantic gooey stuff? I mean, didn’t you say something about ‘our dog’ earlier?”

   “Yes,” Kyungsoo replied quietly. 

   The sudden mention of Haengbogi bought along a new slew of unwanted feelings.

   “So, you lived together, you had a dog together, you didn’t tell any of your friends, you protected her with your life, and you’re telling me you’re not in a relationship?” asked Chanyeol with heavy scepticism. 

   Chanyeol started laughing loudly, but Kyungsoo didn’t find it funny at all. It was difficult to even say exactly what their relationship was. 

   When Kyungsoo first helped Jeongri, he only did so because he saw a woman who would’ve died otherwise. He didn’t even realise who she was until he brought her back to his home. At first he was afraid, he expected she would leave as soon as she was awake. But what he didn’t expect was to start falling for her as she slipped comfortably into his life, like two jigsaw pieces. Jeongri was a welcome light in the darkness that was his life; a bright, loving person who never once shy’d away from him despite his clumsiness.

   For once in his life, someone wanted to be around him because he was just Kyungsoo, and not because of his powers.

   It’s what gave him the courage to kiss her the very first time and to even boldly ask her to share his bed for the night. Kyungsoo blushed at the memory, remembering how he wasn’t really sure what he would have done next. He’d never even kissed a girl, let alone take the next step, but he was happy when Jeongri took the lead and told him she just wanted to cuddle for the night. Kyungsoo thought in his heart that this was it, that she would be the one to bring the colour back into his grey monotone life.

   That was until the next morning when she thanked him for being there for her… as a friend.

   Kyungsoo felt so perplexed, but he tried not to let it show on his face. When two people share such an intimate moment, was it possible to just be friends? There were nights when he spent hours on his computer, searching for advice on the internet, but none of it helped. He couldn’t talk to anyone about Jeongri either. All he could rely on was his instincts, and they were telling him that he didn’t want to lose her.

   So that was why Kyungsoo accepted their strange promise of companionship, toeing that thin line between friendship and something more. Somewhere in his mind, he knew it wasn’t a long term solution, but it worked for now. Jeongri was still by his side. Though sometimes Kyungsoo would cross the line, unable to stop his growing adoration from showing, she never pushed him away. There were some days when Kyungsoo hoped her reaction’s meant something more, but those words never came.

   “I told you, we’re just friends,” Kyungsoo said firmly.

   “If you say so,” scoffed Chanyeol.

   All of a sudden, Chanyeol turned to the right, his eyes opened wide. All the muscles in his body tensed at something stirring deep in the darkness.

   “What is it?” asked Kyungsoo, feeling alarmed.

   “Thought I heard something,” said Chanyeol, squinting at the darkness. He shook his head, unable to find the source of the noise, “We shouldn’t stay here long. There could be roamers in these woods.”

   Kyungsoo shuddered at the thought. Roamers were mutilated beasts that had escaped the Capital and bred during the first few years of the war. They had been gross experiments released by the demons and were often found ‘roaming’, like their namesake, in the areas around the Outskirts.

   “We’ll head to