Again with all the positive reviews~ Wow you guys. I appreciate it. ; 3 ;

Thanks to all those commenting and any new subsribers~

Slightly longer this time, hohoho.

Enjoy~

        It wasn't until he heard the sound of birds chirping outside that Hyunseung came back to his senses. Blearily, he forced his eyes open, glancing about himself for a few seconds in confusion as he attempted to register his surroundings. He was, for some reason or another, curled up on the floor of his living room, and pressed rather uncomfortably against the coffee table. And, perhaps even more peculiar, were the various bloodied objects, mostly band-aid packages and things of the like, littering his floor.  ‘Must have cut myself,’ he thought groggily as he began to push himself off of the floor.

        When he was sitting up completely, he raised his arms over his head, yawning a little with the stretch, and then pulled a hand down his face. Judging from the amount of light flooding in through the windows, it was probably just a few hours before noon. Lucky for him, his boss had of so graciously given him the day off, so there was no need to panic. Not yet at least.

        With a huff, he began to move towards standing, though before he had even made it halfway to his feet, his eyes settled on the couch; or rather, the body sprawled across the cushions.

        The very sight of it was enough to send him lurching backwards, causing him to crack his head rather painfully on the edge of the coffee table. And for the entirety of a minute afterwards, he rolled about on the floor, clutching his head in pain, a stream of angry curses rolling from his lips. But, eventually, the throbbing subsided to nothing more than a dull ache, leaving the brunette free to retake his seated position, and stare across at the couch once more.

        Ah, he thought as he ran his eyes over the unmoving figure. He had found this man on his front steps the night before, hadn’t he? Yes, he remembered it now. He had found him and then tended to his injuries.

        Speaking of which, how was the man doing?

        Hyunseung felt his stomach drop at the possibility he had died sometime during the night (why had he let himself fall asleep?), and scooted himself closer to the side of the couch. He could already feel the bile rising in the back of his throat, accompanied with a sense of dread as he moved closer, inch by inch, not totally willing to face the reality that may very well have come. The other was awfully pale…

        But, upon reaching the couch’s side, the brunette was quite thankful to find that, no, the stranger had not passed on.  There was still some life left in him. Now that he was closer, Hyunseung could see it. The shallow rise and fall of his chest, the little twitches in his face every couple of seconds, the constant blind rolling of his eyes beneath their lids. In fact, the closer he looked, the less Hyunseung thought the body before him resembled a corpse. Hell, there was even a bit of color returning to his face now. It was hard to notice it, obstructed as it was by the ever-darkening bruises; but it was there, Hyunseung was sure of it.

        “Well,” he mumbled, folding his legs one over the other and propping his head in his hands, “At least I managed to do one thing right.”

        Still, it wasn’t the most comforting of thoughts. He still had no idea who the stranger was, or why he was in such a terrible condition. For the latter of the two facts, Hyunseung would have to wait until the man woke up to gain an answer. Sure, he could draw assumptions, make up his own tale as to what had happened, but he preferred not to.  As for the first question, well, he supposed he could search for some form of ID.

        Grudgingly, he hoisted himself up onto his knees, leaning slowly over the couch before pausing. It was awkward, searching the pockets of an unconscious person— how police inspectors managed to do it day in and day out, Hyunseung was curious to know, but it needed to be done. He did want to know the man’s name, didn’t he?

        So, trying his best to move lightly and quickly, the brunette reached over the man’s body and slipped his hand into the other’s left pants pocket. It didn’t take long, or even that much effort really, before his fingers brushed against a grand total of two objects. One of them, judging by the size of it alone, was a wallet and probably held quite a few answers to his unspoken questions.

         And the other?

        It too didn’t take Hyunseung to figure out just what it was. At first he had been distraught as to what it might have been, puzzled by the cool metallic feel of it; but upon withdrawing his hand, wallet and said mystery object in tow, he discovered that it was nothing other than a pocket knife. Approximately four inches in length, Hyunseung realized with a morbid sense of fascination that the knife fit quite comfortably in the palm of his hand. Curious, he flipped it open.

        The blade flew open, popping out of its handle-sheath in a fraction of a second, its edge glinting in the sunlight. Hyunseung turned it over a few times in his hands, examining it as a farmer might a new piece of equipment, subconsciously drawing up various reasons as to why the man would carry such a blade. Lots of people had them, right? It was perfectly normal to have one, wasn’t it? Who knew, maybe the man came from a run-down part of town, and he chose to keep a knife on him for…. emergency reasons.

        In all his thinking, Hyunseung failed to notice his thumb getting dangerously close to the sharpened edge of the blade, and soon enough, he had given himself a cut.

        Shocked, he snapped the knife shut and dropped the folded blade to the ground before stuffing his thumb in his mouth with a scowl. Jesus that had hurt. That was the last time he was going to go playing with knives, he thought, now directing his attention to the nearly forgotten wallet.

        With his uninjured left hand, the brunette flipped the leather item open; and there, on the inside “cover” was the stranger’s license. Fumbling a bit, Hyunseung carefully pulled the plastic card free from its holder, and held it up before his face.

        He first found himself staring at the picture, glancing back and forth between the unconscious figure on his couch and the image every now and then, surprised at what he found. The stranger, or Yong Junhyung, as the license read, wasn’t half bad looking. At least, when there weren’t bruises and scrapes littering his features, Hyunseung thought. Even though his features seemed dark, and almost threatening, the brunette felt oddly… drawn to the image before him.

        So drawn, in fact, that he failed to pay attention to his surroundings for a short period of time. It wasn’t until he heard the rustling of fabric against fabric, and a half-annoyed half-pained grunt that he looked up, his jaw dropping open at what he saw.

        The stranger— no Junhyung,his mind corrected— was moving to sit up, his eyes narrowing to slits as they turned to settle on Hyunseung, who was busy shoving the ID back into its case and folding the wallet shut once more; his movements clumsy as his own eyes went wide with shock.

        “You… You’re awake.” Hyunseung stammered, anxious under the other’s stare.

        “Obviously!” the other, Junhyung, retorted, “What else what I be doing, sleeping?”

        “Well, yes… actually. You've—” Hyunseung continued, growing increasingly intimidated with each passing second.

        He was cut off my Junhyung raising a hand, the other’s eyes lowering to settle on the wallet. There was a brief flicker of recognition in Junhyung’s eyes, and Hyunseung knew instantly what he was thinking, swallowing hard to brace himself what was to come. Time seemed to pass all too slowly as Junhyung placed his hand into his pocket, fishing around for a matter of seconds before snapping his attention back to the brunette on the floor.

        “Where is it?” he hissed venomously through clenched teeth.

        Confused, Hyunseung lifted the wallet. Perhaps the other had hit his head?

        “Not that,” Junhyung groaned, bringing his raised hand to his face with a huff. “My knife. What the did you do with my knife?”

        Ahh, so that was what he wanted, Hyunseung thought. Hesitantly, he reached to his side and slipped the knife into his grasp, letting the wallet fall back into his lap for the time being.

        “It’s right here.” he said, holding it out for a fraction of a second before his mind began screaming no.

        Maybe giving this man his knife back wasn’t the best of ideas. At least, not right now. He was obviously angry, though about what Hyunseung wasn’t totally positive. Sure, he had done a little bit of snooping, but it had been harmless, hadn’t it? And getting so worked up couldn’t be very good for his health, especially after all that blood he had lost.

        So, without further ado, the brunette clutched the knife back to his chest before the other could grasp it.

        “What the hell?” Junhyung  snapped, obviously disapproving of the other’s antics, “I said give me back my knife.”

        “No, I don't think I will.” Hyunseung retorted with a frown, “You’ve only just woken up, you lost a lot of blood you know, and it’s probably not good for you to be getting so worked up. And besides, this is my house, I’ll have you know. And while you’re here, you’re going to have to live by my rules, understand?”

        He stood up, though not before tossing the wallet back to the other, and slipped the knife into his own pocket.

        “So be a good boy and relax, okay?” He finished, gently pushing Junhyung back against the couch cushions. “I’m going to get you some food.”