xxii. Shopping for Strawberries & Snapping Necks

How did it come to this?

How did it come to this end?

They were so close. So close yet victory slipped through their fingers like water, trickling down onto the snow beneath their feet.

Thick, red stained water.

Blood.

How did it come to this?

To this moment in which Sungyeol’s cough resounded through the air, blood spluttering out from between his pale lips. Staining the cheeks of the one whose blow had caused such a result in red streaks like splashes of paint. Guilt coated the eyes of the one whose swing was never meant to create such a result.

“Sungyeol,” he whispered, disbelief glazed like a hardened varnish on his voice mixing with regret that soaked him through to the bone to reduce him to a babbling puddle of remorse. He didn’t intend for his fist to collide so hard. He was softening the blow on its way down, as he always did when practicing with them. But, he wasn’t given a chance to. He wasn’t given a chance to as through red tinted eyes as blood flowed from a cut above his eye long healed, he looked on at Sungyeol who had jumped in without a second thought. Sungyeol who had leapt at the chance to protect his partner. To protect Jaehyo. To protect Jaehyo from him, from Hoya himself.

Thus ended the partnership of Jaehyo and Sungyeol.

Thus ended their fight against Hoya as Sungyeol went crumbling down, letting Hoya catch him before he fell into a pile of rubble in the snow. And as Sungyeol felt his eyes closing due to the mix of immediate pain and the sinking in of exhaustion, he saw Jaehyo’s face.

He heard Jaehyo’s voice.

“I won’t say “thank you” because I wasn’t worth it.”

And Sungyeol wouldn’t say “you’re welcome” because he was.

Thus ended the partnership of Jaehyo and Sungyeol in this training exercise.

Thus began the partnership of Jaehyo and Sungyeol for a long time to come.

Pink tinted lips. Kohl lined dark brown eyes. A sharp jaw coming to a rounded point.  Cheeks blooming, sporting a rosy red hue. And a head of newly dyed brown hair that traveled down past her slender neck and slim shoulders. She was beautiful. Niel thought she was beautiful. Not just on the outside either. She was timid. The type to fade into the background if you didn’t pay attention to her. Yet, she was also not soft spoken in the least. She was straightforward. She was honest. She was blunt. She knew what she liked. She knew who she liked.

She liked Kim Sunggyu.

Kim Ahyoung liked Kim Sunggyu.

Was it shameful of him to say he even liked her real name instead of her nickname? It sounded like his surname. Ah and Ahn. That’s what he first noticed about her that day in middle school. “Her name sounds like my name,” he remembers leaning over and telling Ricky the first day of school.

And that’s when it started. His last name wasn’t common after all and whenever someone called out “Ah,” he turned, thinking there would be a harsh “n” sound following it only to hear a melodious “young” after instead. He wasn’t the type to get annoyed or angry at such things but it always drew his attention. Every time someone would call her name, he would look up on reflex and his eyes would go to her. He would watch as she smiled in recognition of her name. A smile that caused him to look away shyly as though the smile was meant for him, was directed towards him, even though she wasn’t even looking in his direction.

And he began to wonder. He began to wonder if she looked up as well when someone called “Ahn” instead. If she noticed him as much as he noticed her. Thinking back on it now, he would assume that’s when his feelings grew. When he started to wonder things about her, that’s when he started liking Kim Ahyoung.

That’s when he started liking Yura.

And he has ever since. Once they began high school, he saw her less often and the feelings dulled a bit. At least, he thought they had. When he saw her that day at lunch, heard her voice that caused him to feel his confidence and words shrivel away into nothing, into a deep pit far out of reach, they resurfaced from the ground. Sprouting up like tulips in the spring. Shooting across the sky like fireworks in the summer. Turning vivid reds and oranges like the leaves of the trees during the fall. Surprising him like a white Christmas morning.

Surprising him because they were still there, his feelings. His warm feelings. His cold feelings. His in between feelings.

He liked her.

He likes her.

Even now, he found that voice in the back of his head screaming those words at him. Screaming them so loudly he couldn’t hear anything else but it. Blocking out everything else so much he couldn’t see anything else but her.

Her, standing there in the fruits and vegetables section, a light sigh escaping her lips as she examined a pack of strawberries. They weren’t ripe enough yet it seems and she resigned to not get them, instead placing them back down on their display stand.

The good ones come on Friday, he wants to tell her. By Saturday, they just put out the leftovers that didn’t make it on the floor the day before. If she digs down enough though, she might find some that look good. He’s dug through them in the past and he’s succeeded multiple times in finding the good ones. The big, bright red strawberries. The big, bright ones that fade into the background.

“You like her.”

His conscious whispers to him again. But, it’s not his conscious, not at all. It’s Ricky, whose arm had s its way through his own, their mothers' idea of what he should do to speed up Niel’s “proposal,” as they would always joke. At least, he hoped they were joking.

“So go talk to her. Don’t be a word that rhymes with wussy because there are children here and I’m more civilized than to say such a word in front of children.” Ricky nudged Niel forward, insulting him in a long, roundabout manner. Niel shrugged his arm off in response, reminding himself to give Ricky a good fist to his face later.

“I’m not going to be provoked by you.” Niel pivoted on his heel, carrying in his hand a half full basket that contained tonight’s dinner ingredients. Ricky’s parents leave it to him to shop for groceries by himself with the money they leave on the counter each week, what with them always working at the hospital, but Ricky always insists on going with Niel to buy them each time. And he always tells Niel he’s out of food in his house the day after he runs out.

When Ricky says he “runs out of food,” he means it. He doesn’t mean “There’s nothing here I want to eat.” He literally means, “There’s nothing here to eat.” His cupboards look like someone ransacked them at the end of each week and a half or so. Despite trying to, Niel could never precisely pinpoint when Ricky would run out, he just knew he would. And he just knew he would have to go shopping with his shorter best friend when he did.

Today was too last minute and Niel didn’t feel like doing anything on a Saturday. So, he put on a pair of jeans and a sweater before leaving the house to at the very least buy Ricky ingredients for dinner so that he could eat that night. A dinner he would most likely end up cooking anyway and thus he himself was deciding the menu. Imagine his surprise when he spotted Yura here. As though by some kind of twisted fate, she just had to be where he was the one day he walks out of the house with bed head and an unwashed face.

“Are you scared she won’t like you or something?” Ricky bounded to his side in an instant, short legs proving to provide no difficulty to him in the least. He leaned in close, pressing his shoulder against Niel’s own, his skinship knowing no bounds even in public as he wrapped an arm around Niel’s waist, “You’re quite the catch, you know? Believe me. I’m the one who caught you first, after all.”

Niel pushed him away with force this time, the cheesy nature of Ricky’s words and the insinuations he was making along with them caused an unpleasant shiver to go down Niel’s spine, “Could you not act like we’re alone here?”

“So if we’re alone I can do this?” Ricky slid his arm right back around Niel’s waist, this time receiving a harsh and quick smack to the back of his head in retaliation.

“What happened to being too civilized to become an improper role model for children?” Niel asked, pointing to the same children Ricky mentioned before who had started to throw glances their way as they tugged at the hem of their mom’s jacket.

“Right, think of the children. We have to think of the children, Niel. We can save this stuff,” Ricky pointed to Niel’s body, his lips pouting and his fingers wiggling, “for later. For now, we call Hyunjoo.”

As Ricky pulled out his cellphone, Niel tried to figure out why calling you now was simply the thing to do. He didn’t have any problem with it, no matter how random it was, until he found out that it wasn’t random at all. That Ricky had once more brought the topic back to its starting point.

“Hyunjoo! As someone who belongs to the girl species, would you or would you not date Niel if he asked you out?”

You let the question sink in for a moment. You attempted to process what spurred it on and if it was actually a serious question at all. Judging from who it was coming from, it wasn’t. Judging from the fact that it came from Ricky, it wasn’t. And even though you heard it as clear as day, even though his high-pitched voice resounded it through the transceiver of your phone loud enough to echo amongst the trees that surrounded you, even despite that, you still questioned him.

You still questioned him as you took deep breathes, your back pressed against the rough bark of a tree, “Wait, what?”

“It’s all hypothetical,” Ricky asserted, and you could hear movement on his side. Movement followed by faded out crashing sounds, followed by a slew of curses in a voice you recognized as belonging to Niel, followed by Ricky breathing harshly as he urgently said,  “Just answer.” 

You peeked over your shoulder, around the bulk of the tree you now hid behind. Well, you weren’t exactly hiding. You couldn’t hide from him. You could only evade him as long as possible. You could only run from the owner of the smiling face that peeked around the other side of the tree as well, locking eyes with yours.

Woohyun.

Woohyun whose smile got larger as your own eyes did.

“I guess?” You questioned as you quickly pushed off of the tree, dashing around it to make a quick escape from the embodiment of all that was cheesy. Of all that was greasy. Of all that that you never thought would be able to annoy you.

It was endearing at all other points in time.

Now however, it was infuriating.

His natural proneness to affection was maddening. Especially since the two of you had been playing this game of cat and mouse for a good five minutes now. Him chasing you, you running away. Him smiling, you scowling. All the while a less than lighthearted fight was occurring between Myungsoo and Dongwoo.

A fight in which two thirds of the hits that had passed between the two were directed towards Myungsoo. A fight you wanted to aid him in but you didn’t know how. What could you do? What could you do with Woohyun on your tail, his hands reaching out like claws, pouncing on you as he grabbed hold of your jacket before you could put enough distance between yourself and him?

Not only did you have an overly eager Woohyun to deal with but you also had a persistent Ricky to handle, “What are his good points?”

“What?” You asked as you had momentarily pulled the phone from your ear in order to shift your jacket from your shoulders. Woohyun promptly tugged it off and tossed aside right after, discarding it and leaving you only in your long sleeved sweater now.

Ricky sounded exasperated on the other side of the phone, as though he were facing his own battle wherever he was right now, “What are his good points!”

Niel’s good points?

Exactly how could you think about Niel’s good points when Woohyun was at your heels as you swerved around another tree, not giving in a single inch?

“He’s sarcastic, witty, smart, and nice.” You answered, not putting that much thought into your answer in the least. But, you did get your point across, a point that would have taken much more description to convey had you not been quite figuratively fleeing for your life, clearly and concisely. You considered that a large accomplishment at this point in time.

Apparently, however, that’s not exactly the answer Ricky was looking for. “Is he good looking?”

“Yeah!” You stuttered, flinching as right as you rounded the tree trunk, Woohyun was there, foreseeing your move beforehand. Thankfully, you hadn’t expected it would be so easy to get away from him after using this same trick two times already and had devised a back up plan this time. Instead of running away, you reared back your free hand, sending a punch sailing towards him.

He didn’t expect it.

He didn’t expect you to be so bold.

Because you were smarter than that, you knew such an upfront attack wouldn’t work. Because you were so unpredictable, so you, you would do anything but what he expected.

And he loved it.

He loved the un-expectancy of your fist which then did anything but even attempt to hit him.

He loved the unpredictability of your hand unfurling as it neared him, snaking past his own which he put out to block it and instead, ruffling through his fringe, running through the almond brown strands of his hair before pulling it down in one swift motion, blocking his vision. And just like that, you got away again.

It was one of the tricks you always had up your sleeve – along with your signature head butting technique. It was the same one you used on Tablo in the past as you blocked his vision with his hat.

You didn’t like running, not in the least. You simply hadn’t thought up a way to get the upper hand on Woohyun yet. And while improv was the best technique you had, you couldn’t carelessly do something that would cause Myungsoo to be left to fight against both Dongwoo and Woohyun alone, no matter how much he said he didn’t need you.

Now that you thought about it though, he hadn’t said that at all.

Not once.

And that thought caused you to glance back, only for a moment, to find Myungsoo pounding a right jab into Dongwoo’s shoulder. He trusted you. That black enigma lit up with the stars of the night sky trusted you. Trusted you enough to not make a single move to help you, believing without a doubt that you would not be so easily trumped by Woohyun.

 “See, I told you. You are a catch.” Ricky’s voice invaded your eardrum, along with yet more faint cursing coming from beside him, “Thanks, Hyunjoo!”

And you hung up. You hung up before you even heard the last syllable of your name roll off of his lips. Ricky’s timing never was the best. His decision to call at this inopportune time had proved such a statement correct as his call had not worked in your favor at this point either. You didn’t hang up because you wanted to put an end to the conversation before he dragged it on for longer than you had time for right at this very moment, though you would have if you had a choice.

If you had a choice as Woohyun’s hand reached out, one long stride all it took due to his inhuman speed to catch up to you as you ran, and grasped onto your hand that held your phone by your ear, forcing you to press down the end call button completely by accident.

And as easily as he would send a stack of dominos falling over, he leaned forward, making you succumb to his weight. Your back hit the less than welcoming ground, a shockwave of pain traveling outward from the base of your spine. A pain you couldn’t pay attention to, let alone react to, as Woohyun toppled down onto you, his left hand pinning down your hand that held your phone while his other held him up above you.

But, he didn’t end it so easily.

“What are my good points?” He smiled wide, eyes shining, as he mimicked the same question Ricky had posed to you about Niel moments ago.

What were Woohyun’s good points?

What were Niel’s good points?

Your mind worked as adrenaline pumped through your veins and you found your answer faster than you would have had you not been so aptly pinned beneath the one who inquired it.

It was simple, really.

Niel was Niel and Woohyun was Woohyun.

Woohyun’s good point was just that. That he was him.

That he was the forever smiling, forever supportive Nam Woohyun. Nam Woohyun, who liked your cruddy cooking. Nam Woohyun, who preferred your hair to be tied up into a ponytail. Nam Woohyun, who had trusted you from the very beginning. Nam Woohyun, who was simply Nam Woohyun.

That was his good point.

And in response to your silence, in response to the large eyes you were giving him as your lips parted in a way that told him you were thinking about your answer as you stared up at him, he stifled a laugh.

He stifled a laugh and changed his question, “Am I good looking?”

At that, you scoffed, that amused smile of yours forming on your face like a flower blossoming so as to showcase its vibrant petals to him; effectively attracting him, pulling him into it until he couldn’t even remember what any other single flower looked like.

“Sorry.” You said through your smile as your free hand came up to his fringe once more, reordering it, cleaning up the wreckage you had left behind earlier. And while he relished in the feeling of your cold fingertips brushing against his temple for a second longer, a single second, he failed to see it coming.

He failed to see the unpredictable once more and a sharp pain was his punishment. A sharp pain that hit him right between his legs. A sharp pain inflicted by your knee.

While you trusted him and he you beyond any doubt, it wasn’t his trust you needed to maintain right now.

“Sorry.” You said again courteously as he groaned, the real reason behind your words clear now. His stomach clenched as his body became easy to push off of your own. You moved away in his moment of weakness, reminding yourself to add that trick to your list later, and stumbled to your feet, breaking out into a run.

You ran straight for him. Straight for the back of the powerhouse of a werewolf whom had delivered a punch to Myungsoo’s stomach that made the latter go buckling over and the former go leaning over.

Was it the best plan?

Well, it was thought up within a mere matter of seconds as Woohyun asked you that jeer worthy question of “Am I good looking?” Your answer being a stern knee.

A stern “yes.”

So, you considered it a plan worthy of executing, all things considered.

What was the plan?

Well, it started off with one jump, one bunny hop, right onto his back. Right onto the back of the powerhouse, Jang Dongwoo. This action that caused him to flinch was followed by your legs hooking around his waist and your fingers curling around his neck, spreading out across the expanse of his skin. Then, you turned his head left. You turned his head left and there was silence.

Simply silence. 

And you couldn’t help but ask.

You couldn’t help but ask if your plan actually worked.

“Out?”

Your voice was a low whisper due to even your own uncertainty as to whether this counted. Whether the move P.O taught you one day so long ago, the same one he had used on Jaehyo, the move which was the act of snapping the opponent’s neck, actually got Dongwoo out or not.

Dongwoo straightened up slowly, your position on his back having to be readjusted as he did so.

“No?” You asked again, the hush around you engulfing you, him, and the duo of Myungsoo and Woohyun who watched on in astonishment. The stillness was enough of an answer for you.

You reacted too hastily to the opening you had caught fleeting sight of. You had wanted to put this arduous fight to an end, or at the very least do something to tip the scale in favor of yourself and Myungsoo. You acted on your feet without a single moment’s hesitation, your instincts that had been instilled in you thanks to Zico and the rest of his pack taking over, until now.

Now, as an eternity went by before you heard it.

Before you heard the answer to your question in a different form than words.

Instead, there was laughter.

Laughter that spilled from Dongwoo’s throat as his head fell back.

His body trembled against yours with each vibration the action sent flowing down his spine and soon, it was too much for him to take. The hilarity of it all was too much for him to take. His body weight shifted as he went falling back onto his heels. You yelped as you unhooked your legs from around his waist so as to land on both feet in exchange for the prospect of going crashing down with him.

But, he didn’t let you.

As soon as your muscles unclenched, loosening their hold around him, he grabbed onto your left leg to keep it from sinking down as your right one had. His right arm reached back, grabbing onto your back and with a single tug in tandem with the releasing of your left leg from his grip, he swung your body around. He swung your body and again, it was like being on a roller-coaster ride with him. There was the feeling of weightlessness as his pure, unabated strength pulled you to his front. Pulled you so that he was holding you bridal style.

And the two of you went crashing down onto the snow together.

And he laughed again, his heart beat drumming in tune with each and every one of his breaths. Pounding and pounding and pounding against the thumping of your own as he held you to him, your nose buried in his nape. The thin hairs that escaped the collective body of auburn on his head tickled at where your jaw met your neck, his heavy and hot breath blowing in contrast to the cold breeze the afternoon had brought in against your exposed earlobes.

“Out.”

He affirmed, and you could feel the corner of his lips hitch upwards against your cheek as he smiled as though he could have wanted nothing more.

Because it was too cute, your questions to him after you committed the action that caused him to now be eliminated from the training exercise.  

An action that held behind it a force he didn’t know you were ever able to produce. A strength that had come bubbling to the surface, slamming against his unsuspecting frame like a speeding bullet. A strength he didn’t let himself dwell on as he lay there a moment longer, indulging in the feeling of your weight on his own. Of being so close, of being so content, for a second time.

And once more, the question passed under the radar to be forgotten until another day. Until another time farther into the future. A future in which there would be no ignoring what so blatantly presented itself.

A/N:

This was supposed to be a shorter chapter guys! I even cut out the big Sunggyu and Zico fight scene so that it wouldn't be long and look at it! Look at it! It's still long as ****! Long as buns that is. Long buns. Long bunbuns. Long bunny buns. Long bunny ears. Bunnies. The end. Ahem, I'd say I handled my way out of that one quite nicely, eh? Eh? No? I think you mean yes. 

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say I think...yep. That's it. Wow, short author's note is short. 

Me thinks my Dongwoo Bias is Showing.