I awoke from the sound of splashing water. The previous day, we had walked for miles before coming upon a pond by evening. Jongin decided it was a good place to stay because it was a watering hole for the animals. That meant I would be watching him skin prey all day.

I pushed myself up and saw him coming with a hand running through his wet hair. He stopped when he noticed me staring.

"Hey, you're up."

I nodded only slightly before opening my mouth. "What happened to you?"

"I washed up," he muttered while taking a seat next to me and pulled out some bread from his pack. "You should, too."

"In there?" My face contorted into one of disgust as I pointed at the pond. "But it's not even clean in there. And it's so cold."

Jongin leaned over to stuff a piece of bread into my mouth so I would stop complaining. "Get used to it."

"Not with my hair. I'm going to get sick if my hair stays wet for too long." I carefully chewed the tough, stale bread.

"Then cut it," he said as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.

My mouth dropped without warning but when he didn’t even notice my reaction, I fidgeted in my seat. "Can't we wait until we get to the next town?"

Jongin shook his head. "Who knows when we'll get to the next town? Besides, you're stinking up my cloak." He grabbed the brown rag that I had used as a blanket and sniffed it before twisting his face in disapproval.

I heaved a frustrated sigh before turning my back on Jongin. "Fine, cut it."

"What?"

I pulled out the overused ribbon that held my hair in a bun and combed through a few of the strands. "Cut." When it was down, my hair reached the middle of my back and suddenly felt a lot heavier.

"What do you mean by cut? I can't cut hair."

I turned around and gave a sneer. "You can kill ten men in ten seconds and skin a rabbit without a thought. Cutting hair isn't hard."

"But I don't even know where to cut. What if I get it too short? Then you'll cut my fingers off!" Jongin backed away little by little like a child shying away from impending chores.

I rolled my eyes and took the ribbon in my hands. I tied my hair so that the ribbon reached just past my shoulders. "Here," I gestured at the knot. "Cut just above this with your knife."

"You promise not to kill me?"

My eyes rolled and I was tempted to slump forward. "Just do it before I change my mind."

I heard Jongin unsheathe one of his knives and I shut my eyes. I never liked getting haircuts but this was even more frightening. Having an inexperienced person decide the fate of how I would look didn't sit well with me.

Jongin held the knot firmly and began sawing the hair. I didn't open my mouth to complain about how he was tugging but I wished that he'd be done soon. The last strands were the worst.

"There." Jongin let out a breath that he was holding and handed me my ponytail. I pretended not to notice how stiff he was from nervousness.

"That wasn't so hard, right?" I asked while looking down at the black hair sitting on my lap. I wasn't sure if I was talking to Jongin or myself.

"Just go take a bath already." I turned around and saw that he had his back towards me and was already onto eating his bread. Did cutting hair really scare him that much?

I stood up and scattered the hair beside a tree before pocketing the ribbon. The birds will appreciate the hair come springtime when they can use it to weave their nests.

"Okay, I'm going." I skipped towards the pond. "But don't look!"

I heard Jongin scoff loudly, intending for me to hear it. "I don't wanna look!" he shouted back.

I stuck my tongue out in his direction but it was no use since his back was turned to me. Hmph, he'd called me stinky and ugly already and it wasn't even noon yet.

-

I scrubbed as hard as I could to get off all the grime that had accumulated in the last week. It would be a while before I get back to the luxury of hot baths and fragrant soap. For now, I'll have to put up with only murky water to wash myself.

I kept an eye on Jongin in case he ever did turn around but, true to his word, he didn't. In fact, he laid down on my spot and took a nap. I hastily finished washing up and stepped out shivering. I dried myself with the cloak and then squeezed the water out of my hair with it. Then I threw my dress over my head and looked for my ribbon. However, when I found it, I also found a pair of eyes peering at me through the bushes of a tree.

I blinked twice before a small bear cub emerged. I held out my hand to welcome it and it stepped forward to sniff me. I wondered if I was supposed to do this. It was a cub after all and where there's a bear cub, there's always a—

"Eun Kyo!" I sprang up from surprise and turned to Jongin who was on his feet now. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled.

I opened my mouth to respond but then the hairs on my neck shot up as I heard a growl behind me. The little bear began walking towards Jongin who had the enticing food at his side. I was stuck between a cub and its mother.

I stood still as Jongin grabbed at his hair. "What do I do?" My voice shook a little as I called for help.

"Stay still and just keep talking to me. Once she sees that we're humans and mean no harm to her cub, we'll be fine."

The mother bear was still behind me, sending low growls. "But she's not moving."

"She will. Give me a second." Jongin pulled out a loaf of bread and waved until it caught the cub's attention. The cub ran towards him and then suddenly I saw a mass of brown fur rush out from behind me.

"Jongin!" The mother bear was moving quickly as it charged towards her cub and Jongin. She was halfway there when Jongin chucked the bread and began climbing a tree with immense speed. His feet disappeared into the foliage in just a few seconds.

The cub chased after the bread and the mother chased after her child. I still stood where I was, a little bit shaken from the turn of events.

"Jongin?" I called warily, hoping I wouldn’t attract the attention of the mother bear.

He hopped down from a branch and landed softly on his feet in the leaves. "Come here." He stuffed everything into his pack and threw it over my shoulders. "Hop on." I made sure the pack was secured on my back and clutched the brown cloak tightly before climbing onto Jongin's back.

"I guess we're going to have to travel by tree today," he announced before climbing up the trunk again. I looked down to shield my face from the dry leaves and noticed the cub and its mother coming back in search of more food. I wondered how differently the situation would've turned out if Jongin wasn't here.

-

"Hey," I said when Jongin began to tire. He'd been hopping across the tops of trees for hours now. "Let's stop for a second."

He didn't object and swiftly landed on the ground. The moment I got off, he collapsed face first and groaned. I knelt down beside him and turned him around.

"Jongin?" I asked as I brushed away small smears of dirt from his cheek. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he muttered as he pushed my hand away. "I'm fine."

I crossed my arms and sat down. "You don't look fine." His face was red unlike the other times when he'd been running hard.

"I just overexerted myself a little. It's nothing."

"It's nothing?" I swept the fringe of his hair out of his eyes but he wouldn't open them. "Why did you have to run so fast? We weren't being chased."

Jongin threw an arm over his forehead. "We weren't but…I still can't believe I fell asleep." His voice sounded full of guilt and embarrassment.

I scratched my head in confusion. "You sleep all the time. You take naps all the time."

He chuckled a little before he sat up and rubbed his eyes with his palms. "For your information, I only took a nap when I knew you were safe with the prince. And I'm always listening whenever it's night time. I never fully fall asleep."

"So you shouldn't be so hard on yourself for not hearing the bear."

"But I should've. Don't you get it?" He finally opened his eyes to look at me and I noticed the dark circles that stood out from his sickly pale skin and red cheeks. "I was trained to do this and yet I can't."

I touched his arm but I couldn’t look away from his bloodshot eyes. "It's okay. Nothing bad happened."

"But something could've happened and I didn't even have anything planned." He raised a hand to pull off the bag on my back. "Here, pick some weapons."

"Weapons?" My mind went blank. What could somebody like me do with weapons?

"Take your pick." Jongin laid out a few short knives and daggers in front of me.

I sat there staring at the weaponry. "How? I don't even know how to use them."

"Don't worry, I'll teach you. Just pick two."

I whispered a little rhyme and lifted a dagger in each hand. "These?"

Jongin nodded and gestured for me to stand up. He slowly followed and stared at me through hooded eyes. "Hold to the hilt and then—" He staggered forward with a groan and I threw my knives to the side to catch him. I grabbed him by the arms as he leaned his forehead against my shoulder but his weight bore down on me. I wobbled backwards and my back hit a tree. I slid down, carefully holding onto Jongin along the way.

 

“Is this your definition of ‘fine’?” I asked his limp body.

Looking around, I saw the mess that was still on the ground and didn't feel sound as Jongin slept. What if we needed to flee? I gently placed Jongin on the ground and gathered up the scattered weapons, taking care in keeping my hands from the blades. When everything was stuffed in the bag, I looked over at Jongin's sleeping figure just as he sneezed loudly. I dragged the pack over to him and sat down against the tree.

He grumbled something as I pulled him from his fetal position and placed his head on my lap. His eyes opened just slightly and they scanned my face as if to take in some new information.

"Eun Kyo?" he uttered through a pained voice.

"Shh," I hushed him and combed the hair out of his eyes. "Just sleep for now."

To my luck, he listened to my order and closed his eyes again. A soft snore resonated from his chest. I realized had never heard this when I slept around him before. It must've meant that he was truly asleep.

I pulled out some dried meat from the bag to chew on since it was only early evening and I wasn't tired.

I sighed.

Don't push yourself so hard, Jongin.

 

---

 

i'm planning out a mafia!kris & mafia!kai story because jfc it's a very tempting idea and i literally spent the night reading up articles on mafias instead of doing my homework and wow, if i want to stick to real facts, i'm gonna have a very hard time with this story ;~; does anyone know any mafia!exo stories they can link me to (specifically kris and/or kai ones hohoho)??

pretty please?