*Update because you're all lovely and this was featured!

Chapter 15

It was Soyi and Baekhyun that returned to camp first, and Hwayoung went back to the stream to attempt to soothe her ankle with cold water. She had a bit of medical supplies left in her backpack, and given the state it was in, she decided that the gauze she’d saved for worse injuries could be split between her and Baekhyun. Her ankle would definitely improve with more support, given that it had practically had received nothing but more and more straining everyday. She hoped that the dragon being gone meant that they’d be able to rest a bit more, and hopefully, the sprain, which had persisted for nearly a week already, would finally have a chance to heal.

Kyungsoo accompanied her to the stream. She wasn’t too keen on going with him because they always ended up arguing around each other, but she could barely manage to walk on her own without flinching, and she could already see her ankle was once again a swollen, angry red. As much as she didn’t want it, limping to the stream and then back to the camp was too hard on her without someone’s help.

He was surprisingly quiet when on the way there. She sat down on the closest rock next to the stream, took off her shoes and socks, and bent over the water. Kyungsoo stood silently behind her as she dipped her foot in the water.

It was cool to the touch, relieving against the burning pain. She waited until her foot nearly felt numb before finally pulling her leg up, and it was then that Kyungsoo spoke up. “Your ankle is never going to heal at this rate,” he muttered. “There was a reason we told you to stay behind.”

“Yeah, and you’d probably all be dead if I stayed behind. Then the dragon would be after me, and a sprained ankle would be the least of our worries. You’re welcome that I saved your , Prince.”

Kyungsoo scowled at her. “We’re never going to be able to move on if you can’t walk. You’re dragging all of us down, Windwalker.”

“Would you rather be dragged down or dead?”

“First of all, we would’ve done fine without you—”

“You nearly got killed twice,” she replied. “That doesn’t look like fine.”

Kyungsoo pressed his lips together tightly, but that was supposedly the end of the conversation. She let her foot rest for a couple of seconds before securing the gauze around it too. It hurt when she tightened it around her ankle, though any sort of support would’ve helped it heal faster, and when Hwayoung slipped her shoes back on, walking was slightly less painful than it had been. She was about to start towards the camp again when Kyungsoo stopped her.

“Get on,” he said in the most grudging voice Hwayoung had ever heard. It took her a couple of moments before she realized he was telling her to get on his back.

She paused, then physically took a step back. “No thank you. You could barely stand up properly thirty minutes ago from using your power too much.”

“You’re slowing us all down,” he grunted in annoyance. “Being tired after using my power isn’t the same as you going around with your ankle like that until you break it, so just get on.”

It was, as usual, impossible to tell if he was being himself or being cranky, so with a sigh, Hwayoung wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to hoist her up. Kyungsoo wasn’t wrong that it was a huge relief on the injury, but she definitely wasn’t about to admit that he was right at such a time, so she shifted and managed, “I really could’ve walked back by myself.”

“You’d probably fall down another dragon trap.”

It took Hwayoung a good moment to realize that Kyungsoo was joking, and then another when the realization came in that he had the capacity to make a joke. She frowned. “Are you actually joking?”

Kyungsoo sounded insulted. “Why do you say it as if you think I’m incapable of that?”

“Because you always act like you have a stick up your ?” she suggested. “No offence, it was probably drilled into you as a prince.”

“I do not act like I have a stick up my ,” he shot back immediately, now obviously offended. “If anything, you’re the one who has got the wrong assumptions on royalty. Especially half royalty.”

She faltered at that. He obviously hadn’t meant it to sound accusing, but from the little he had told her, none of it sounded pleasant. Silence followed his words, and for the longest time, Kyungsoo walked forwards unspeaking again, no sounds but the crunch of leaves and debris under his feet. Hwayoung wondered briefly whether or not she should say something again, though the atmosphere had dampened completely.

The silence was getting too heavy when she finally got out, “What was the palace like?”

Kyungsoo nearly stopped in surprise before moving on, movements slightly jerkier for a couple of seconds. “Why do you ask?”

Hwayoung shrugged. “I’m just curious.”

Part of her expected him to shut her out, leave the question unanswered. She had no idea why she asked it in the first place either—perhaps to break the tension from earlier, or maybe she was slightly curious. Whatever the reason, Kyungsoo didn’t seem to be willing to continue on talking.

Somehow, he replied. “It was lonely.”

Hwayoung blinked. He was moving forward with the same pace as before again, steps steady, though there was the faintest tremor in his voice that gave away something more.

Now regretting having brought the topic up, Hwayoung leaned forward. “You said you used to be close to the Crown Prince, right?”

“Yeah, when I was younger. That was a long time ago.”

Ironically, both of them had, in ways, lost their brothers. She would’ve brushed Kyungsoo’s situation off a week before—after all, his brother was alive and he had obviously hated him enough to try to kill him (both sides, really), but hearing him, she couldn’t tell which one was worse. At least Sehun had died fighting to defend her. At least her memories of him had all been pleasant. At least, every time she thought of him, he’d be the same person that took care of her since she could remember to the very last moment. And maybe he was gone—but for a relationship to crumble to the point of both trying to kill the other despite once being close? It was just as bad, if not even worse. Even if the crown prince was alive, neither he nor Kyungsoo were the same anymore.

“You know,” Kyungsoo murmured, “that kind of silence where you feel like everyone’s watching you and judging you but they don’t say anything?”

She did a double take at him. “What?”

“That’s what the palace was like. As long as I wasn’t alone, that’s what it felt like. And there are rarely moments you can be alone in the palace. I guess my brother liked that attention, and people liked giving the attention to him too. They did for me too, but for different reasons.”

Bastard prince. Wasn’t that what everyone, including her, had whispered about him? Too scared to say it out loud in fear of authorities, but everyone knew. There was no way Kyungsoo didn’t know what everyone said about him. And while he wasn’t really someone that would worry himself with reputation, she couldn’t deny that there would always, no matter what, be a sting to it.

He didn’t say anymore, and neither did Hwayoung. The remainder of the walk was much shorter, and in little time, they had arrived back at the camp, where she could see the figure of Baekhyun and Soyi through the line of trees. Baekhyun was securing a makeshift bandage around his side where the dragon’s tail had caught him, and Soyi, back facing him, was grinding something together in a small wooden bowl that Hwayoung couldn’t see properly.

Kyungsoo stepped through the line of trees. Baekhyun looked up, apparently struggling with reaching where the knot was supposed to end, and nodded at them in acknowledgement. Kyungsoo set her down near her pile of belongings, then made a beeline to where he’d put his, which was conveniently separated from the rest of them. Stretching her injured leg out in front of her, Hwayoung went with rummaging through her bag.

“Is your ankle worse now?” Baekhyun asked. He had apparently managed to tie down the bandage, pulling his shirt back on. “Did you hurt it again?”

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