VI. The Faster You Run, the Easier to Breathe

Heejin was, thankfully, light enough for Baekhyun to carry without faltering much. Wincing at her leg, she hobbled to her feet, wrapped her arms around his neck and her uninjured leg around his waist.

Baekhyun hadn’t really been in such close proximity with anybody, much less a girl. He could feel Heejin’s each breath on his neck, the way she shifted positions to find a more comfortable one, and it all felt very much uncomfortable and distracting. Still, he told himself to focus on the task at hand, which was to get them out of the alley before one of the patrols saw that they were breaking curfew. And then saw that he was breaking… well, a lot more rules than just curfew.

“You’re stronger than you look, Boxian,” Heejin noted. He nearly jumped at how close she was. “I thought you’d topple over.”

Adjusting his grip on her, Baekhyun glared at the wall in front of him. “Be thankful I have not dropped you yet,” he snapped.

“You wouldn’t drop me after offering to carry me,” Heejin shot back. “That’s just impolite.”

She was right, even if he didn’t want to say anything about it. Instead, Baekhyun grunted in response, shifting his weight one more time, and eyed the pile of crates Heejin had attempted and failed to climb.

“How are you going to get up?” she asked when he didn’t move for a couple of seconds. “I know you’re from a family and all, but you didn’t say your power was rock climbing, and I don’t suppose it’ll be easy carrying someone on your back.”

“Does everybody in the outer city talk as much as you do?” Baekhyun demanded.

Heejin huffed. “Is everybody in the inner city as prickly as you are?”

Baekhyun thought about Dowon. His tutor was certainly worse. Then there was also Miran, who was at the opposite end of the spectrum. “I am not prickly,” he replied, but it sounded more petulant than anything.

Heejin was close enough for him to hear her take a breath, most likely preparing to respond. Before she could say whatever she was going to (probably something to get on his nerves), she stiffened. “Guards,” she said, tone changing so fast that it took Baekhyun a couple of seconds for the words to register.

Sure enough, the sound of footsteps on cobble sounded, still a bit far off, yet loud in the silence. And definitely coming nearer.

“,” she swore under her breath, “we need to get out of here now. There’s no time to climb up, you need to—“

Heejin broke off when he moved, her only response being the tightening of her arms around his neck. Baekhyun jumped up a crate, summoning air to make each step lighter and to boost him upwards. In a couple of seconds, he had mounted the precarious pile of boxes and they were on the rooftop.

Thankfully, it wasn’t completely flat; rather, the roof was walled off, giving them a place to hide. Heejin slid off his back with surprising ease despite her injured leg and yanked him down so that they were ducking under the slight rise, hidden from the sight of anyone who would pass by underneath.

Baekhyun wasn’t sure why, but he held his breath as he listened to the steps of the guards come closer and closer. The pattern of their steps didn’t falter, a good indication that they didn’t see anything suspicious in the alley that warranted them to pause and check. Neither he nor Heejin moved until the footsteps finally moved further away and then disappeared altogether.

He glanced at her first. Her face was inches from his, and Baekhyun realized for the first time that her cheeks were covered with freckles, some splashed over the bridge of her nose as well.

He sat back with a speed he didn’t know he possessed, and Heejin did the same. Then she winced and swore again, attention once again turned to her leg.

It was a good distractor, so Baekhyun followed her example. She had her injured leg propped straight in front of her, and the area where the crate had hit her thigh was stained with dark red.

“You need to bandage that,” Baekhyun told her dumbly.

To his relief, Heejin didn’t make any sort of smart comeback, only continued staring at her leg. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I don’t think it’s bleeding that badly, but it’s… it’s probably bruised. I need to see a medic.”

Baekhyun thought about the healers back in the inner city, who often treated his wounds from training to make sure there would be minimal to no scarring. He also healed faster in water. The thought of Heejin healing like… well, like a normal person was awfully strange. It also seemed oddly vulnerable, a concept that he couldn’t quite bring himself to associate with her. Perhaps it was because, since their first meeting, she’d stared him down with absolutely no fear, even after finding out who he was. Heejin was surprisingly adept against all odds. Yet she bled and hurt like a normal person, and it was so… human.

“Boxian?” she waved a hand in front of his face. “Hello, are you listening?”

He blinked. “Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re not. Do you have anything I can bandage this with? I need to put pressure on it to lessen the bleeding, then I’ll be fine.”

The words took a moment to register. Baekhyun glanced down at his attire. He’d been shoving the clothing under his bed every time he returned from the outer city, which wasn’t the best hiding place. He could very well tear a piece of cloth from the cloak to give to Heejin to wrap around her leg, but he wasn’t sure if he could even make up a believable excuse if someone were to find the cloak under his bed missing a chunk from the side. It was also dirty from the dust on the streets, which wasn’t the best option for bandaging a wound.

His tunic, on the other hand, might work. Baekhyun was certain he had at least three others that looked the exact same in his closet so it wouldn’t be missed, and he was wearing another shirt underneath. Even if it were technically his nightshirt.

Completely neglecting to tell her what he’d planned to do, Baekhyun had just finished shrugging off his cloak and was pulling the tunic off as well when Heejin asked, “Why are you stripping?”

Baekhyun froze. “What?”

She looked just as confused. “What, you tell me.”

He looked down at himself. “I am not stripping,” Baekhyun managed, both aghast and indignant. “I was taking off my tunic so you could use it to bandage your wound.”

“Oh.” At least Heejin looked chagrined too. “Well, in that case, continue.”

Part of him wanted to do the exact opposite to make up for the embarrassment, but one look at her leg again had Baekhyun hurrying his movements instead. He finally pulled off the tunic and tossed it at Heejin. “Here.”

She caught it, an eyebrow arched. “The whole thing?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun snapped. “Are you stupid? You need more pressure on the wound to stop the blood flow better, so a larger piece of cloth would do the job more effectively because you can tie it around more.”

“It’s not bleeding that much.”

“Just do it,” Baekhyun told her, and she followed the instructions as he clipped his cloak on once more.

Heejin stretched her leg after she secured his tunic. “It feels better,” she noted. “Thanks.”

Baekhyun glanced at her before looking away. “Whatever.”

Shakily, the girl pulled herself to her feet. She tested her weight on her injured leg a few times, wincing a bit, before she gestured at the rooftops. “Did you want to see?”

He followed the direction she had waved her hand in, but there was virtually nothing around them except the dark grey stone of the roof. Baekhyun frowned. She had mentioned the rooftops were supposed to lead somewhere, but from what he could see, the only thing it led to was another rooftop. And also promised a certain drop down, which had landed Heejin with a heavy box on her leg and a wound. But that was about it. Nothing else.

“What?” he asked as cynically as possible. If Heejin was the least bit bothered by his tone, she didn’t show it.

With no little effort, she managed to push herself into a standing position, still wincing. She hobbled a few steps over, knelt down, then moved her hand in a strange pattern across a couple of stones. Baekhyun hadn’t caught what she’d done, but a moment later, the ceiling had shifted and Heejin was holding up what seemed to be a very heavy trap door, both legs dangling into the hole it created. She tilted her head at him. “Here.”

He hadn’t been expecting that, because, dignity momentarily forgotten, Baekhyun gaped. “Where does that go?” he somehow managed out.

“Passages,” came Heejin’s reply. “I need to find a medic, then there’s some place I need to be. It’s… kind of personal, so I can’t bring you with me today.” She met his gaze, and Baekhyun was almost certain there was some sort of challenge in her eyes, like she was daring him to act on the unspoken fact between them. I can’t exactly stop you if you try to follow me.

She was daring him, that’s what she was doing. This girl in front of him was an absolute idiot, and Baekhyun wasn’t sure how she survived for so long when she was that stupid. She knew he was from a family, she knew his power, yet here she was, offering to him something as easily broken as trust. And she was challenging him about it. He could hear the unspoken questions, the implications—I’m trusting that you won’t insist on following me even though you very well could. I’m trusting that you’ll leave me be to this. I’m trusting you. Can I trust you?

Heejin was extending an olive branch at the same time as she was testing him. Baekhyun took a deep breath. “Alright,” he said, trying to feign nonchalance. “I must go back now, anyway.”

The relief that washed across her face was palpable, even if she masked it almost immediately after. Baekhyun wondered why she even bothered asking him, challenging him, if she clearly didn’t want him to follow. Maybe there was something wrong with her head and she was astronomically stupid. “Are you going to come back again? Maybe I’ll show you around next time.”

Next time. Those exact words had brought so much dread just in the afternoon that Baekhyun was surprised he hadn’t been physically crippled by it. Next time, the evaluators had said, like a death sentence. But Heejin’s wide-eyed, curious (pretty, his brain supplied, which Baekhyun shut down violently) gaze held no judgement of the sort, and she waited for his answer with something akin to anticipation in her eyes.

An answer that comes much easier than the past few times. “When?” Baekhyun asked.

Heejin’s entire face brightened. “Two nights from now? On this rooftop?”

Baekhyun, by some miracle, had the capability in him to school his face into a neutral expression, even if Heejin’s smile was contagious. “Fine,” he said as shortly as possible.

Her smile widened into a grin. “You’re agreeing this time?”

“I am not,” he shot back, a tad bit too hotly before he realized that he was agreeing. With no other way to save the remaining scraps of his dignity, Baekhyun turned the other way.

He barely managed two steps before a thought hit him. Against all better judgement, Baekhyun whirled around again. Heejin was still sitting at the trap door, legs dangling down. She tilted a head at him.

Baekhyun swallowed. “Do you…” He gestured, but she clearly didn’t understand what he was pointing towards. Frustration and embarrassment grew by the moment, and Baekhyun cursed himself for lingering. “Do you need help.” He grit it out as a statement rather than a question. Baekhyun jerked his chin at her bound leg. “Because… you know.”

She blinked at him, as if processing the words. Baekhyun felt his face warming up both unwelcomely and rapidly, which was positively stupid, given that he’d just taken off his tunic and was beginning to feel cold. Feeling the overwhelming urge to curse like Heejin did, Baekhyun raised his nose into the air. “Forget I asked,” he snapped at her. “You are clearly fine and ungrateful if you do not plan on answering.”

That was definitely the cue to leave before Heejin could reply, but his legs didn’t move. It was ample time for Heejin to say, “I was just surprised you were offering to help.”

Apparently the wrong answer to Baekhyun’s frazzled, panicking, confused brain, because clearly on automatic, he snapped back, “I helped you down there, so I gave you no reason to think so lowly of me now.”

Heejin raised her hands. “Not thinking lowly of you,” she replied, and Baekhyun could swear there was still the ghost of a smile on her face. “Call it pleasantly surprised. But no, I’m fine, I can make it on my own. Thank you for the offer, though.”

Baekhyun nodded stiffly. For a moment, he stood there, still staring at Heejin, before the thought occurred to him that he really ought to leave before she noticed just how red his face was (which meant he was embarrassed, and clearly, embarrassed-Baekhyun seemed to run on a much less filtered mode of his usual self) and that he didn’t really want to leave.

But he had to, lest he wake up another four hours after his lessons were intended to start. He’d… he’d see Heejin again.

“Goodbye,” Baekhyun told her, for lack of anything else to say. Then he leapt over the side of the building before he could hear the response.

***

Baekhyun woke up on time, but it didn’t mean Miran wasn’t waiting for him downstairs.

She was quiet about it, this time. Baekhyun headed down the stairs carefully, very much relieved by the fact that the sun was in the place where it usually was when he woke up. He was trying to not think about how he wanted it to be two nights from then, where he could go meet Heejin again, because the simple act of thinking such thoughts while being in the inner city felt like he was breaking some sort of unspoken rule (more than he’d broken the others, at any rate).

Truthfully, though, Baekhyun had reasoned it through to himself on his way back to the inner city the night before. If meeting Heejin didn’t get in the way of his lessons and his training, then it didn’t really matter. In fact, occasional visits to the outer city were, for the lack of a better word, motivating. It was a good break from training, and a break meant that he could concentrate better later on, which meant better performance where it mattered.

So it was fine, he told himself again. If his lessons and training went well—it didn’t matter.

The last step creaked, and he winced. The kitchen smelled of breakfast, which Baekhyun figured the servants had prepared. He rounded the corner, spotted the food on the table, and hurried over. There was a bowl of seaweed soup, an eggroll, a small plate of pickled vegetables, and a bowl of rice. It wasn’t a breakfast he was extremely accustomed with, but the smell was heavenly and running around the outer city must’ve drained him, because Baekhyun felt hungrier than he usually was in the mornings.

He was halfway through the bowl of rice when Miran asked, “Do they not feed you enough or something?”

Baekhyun inhaled a mouthful of rice into his lungs, then sputtered it right back out onto the table. He spent the next couple of seconds alternating between wheezing and coughing before the fit finally passed, after which he managed to swivel around to gape at Miran.

How she’d been so quiet, he didn’t understand. She was perched on the arm of the couch, hands folded on her lap as she watched him with a slight smile. Baekhyun wondered if it was because she seemed to be always smiling, or if she was laughing at the fact that he’d nearly choked to death.

“Why—” he began, then realized she was his tutor and therefore ranked higher than him. Baekhyun pressed his lips together. “I, um, did not see you there. Good morning.”

Her eyes seemed to twinkle. “Good morning to you too, Baekhyun. It’s nice to see you up early today.”

Baekhyun winced. “I’ll make sure that I do not repeat the same mistake.”

She waved a hand, slipped elegantly off the couch, and made her way to sit down in front of him. “Don’t mind me, continue eating.”

Feeling rather self conscious about eating in front of somebody who was just watching him, Baekhyun felt obligated to ask, “Do you want tea?”

Miran’s smile never dropped. “I’ve already fixed myself some. I’m still waiting for the water to boil.”

Baekhyun nodded, then turned back to his meal and tried to ignore the fact that she was still looking at him.

Thankfully, there were no more surprises for the rest of breakfast. He finished as soon as possible, just in time for the kettle to start its shrill shrieking. Miran bustled away to make her tea, and Baekhyun stacked up the bowls and plates and set them into the kitchen.

When he got back, she was spooning sugar into her tea. Baekhyun watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as she put one in, then another, then another. Then she took a small sip of the tea, made a face, and followed through with another two large spoonfuls of sugar.

Baekhyun set his books down just as Miran finally finished making her tea. “Pardon me for asking,” he managed, “but do you not find that too sweet?”

Miran held up her teacup. “This?” she asked. “Oh, no, it’s just right. And—oh, speaking of sweets, Baekhyun, I brought you something!”

He blinked. “You brought me something?”

“Yes. Guess what it is.”

For a couple moments, Baekhyun stared at Miran, trying to figure out whether she was joking or not. He knew for a fact that she was practically polar opposites with Dowon, but at the end of the day, she still was his tutor and her attitude was disconcerting, to say the least. Dowon had never brought him anything. Come to think of it, nobody had really brought him gifts. It wasn’t that he particularly wanted any, so Miran doing so was odd.

“Er…” Baekhyun glanced around, wondering if he could spot whatever it was she brought. There was nothing he could see that was out of the ordinary. “A… book?”

“Oh, come on, that’s boring.”

He winced. “I don’t know.”

She began to rifle through her bag. A moment later, Miran produced an even smaller cloth bag. “Here.”

Baekhyun frowned as she dropped it into his palms. “What is it?”

“Open it.”

A bit hesitant, he did so, untying the string on top. Baekhyun squinted into the bag.

For the longest moment, he stared at the circular pieces, all no larger than a fingerprint. He had no clue what they were.

“Well?” Miran prompted. “Don’t you like cookies?”

Cookies. Baekhyun looked at them again with that new understanding, now more miffed than ever. “You brought me… cookies?”

Miran tilted her head. “Yes, I did. Are you going to try one?”

Baekhyun wasn’t exactly fond of sweets, but as odd as the gesture felt, it felt equal amounts touching. He picked out the top cookie, which fit between his thumb and index finger, and popped it carefully in his mouth.

His first thought was sweet, because it was much too sweet for Baekhyun’s preference. It took all of his self-control to smile at Miran, and even that he was pretty certain turned out more as a wince than anything else. “It is good,” he told her, swallowing the mouthful and reaching for his water. “I really like it. Thank you.”

Miran beamed. “That’s great! Studying can be so tedious sometimes, so I thought I’d supply you with a little something in-between. I made them yesterday.”

Baekhyun didn’t dare tell her that he was much better off without a ‘little something in-between’ if that something in question was as sweet as the cookies she’d made. He tied up the bag carefully to set aside, wondering how in the world he was supposed to not finish the cookies without offending Miran’s clearly kind gesture. Especially when she had hand-made them.

To his relief, Miran didn’t prompt him to eat another. Rather, she spooned yet another positively horrifying amount of sugar into her tea and passed him a book. “We’ll start on page three hundred and eight today, Baekhyun.”

***

Baekhyun was so exhausted after training that he crawled into bed and passed out before his head hit the pillow. It had been productive, though. He’d managed to disarm his trainer, which earned a compliment, and the woman who was substituting Dowon for practicing his power told him he’d improved since the last she’d seen him. As Baekhyun ate dinner by himself and climbed up the stairs to his room, he remembered thinking that it was fine. He was improving, he was becoming stronger, and going into the outer city and seeing Heejin didn’t change that. It didn’t make him any less loyal to his family, because she was just… she was…

Friend didn’t seem right. He’d only met her three times, after all. Somewhere between acquaintance and friend Heejin stood, and Baekhyun convinced himself that she didn’t change anything about his loyalty and obligation to his family.

(And if it didn’t, then everything would be fine.)

***

Miran brought cookies again, and Baekhyun didn’t have the heart to tell her that apart from the first one he ate, he hadn’t touched the bag at all. He thanked her, accepted it, and wondered what in the world he was supposed to do with the two bags of sweets he didn’t want, and how he could stop her from bringing more. Then again, Dowon would be back in two days, so the worst outcome would be ending up with four bags of cookies. Maybe he could give them to Dowon.

Baekhyun didn’t bother sleeping, afraid that he’d somehow miss it. Instead, he waited as the sun went down, as the already-quiet chatter of occasional people walking down the street turned into pure silence, and then changed into the clothes he stashed under his bed. He turned to leave, thought about it again, and snatched Miran’s two bags of cookies he’d stored in his drawer and stuffed them into the pocket of his tunic.

After double checking the guards on shift were heading in the opposite direction, Baekhyun slipped out of the house and headed for the garden path.

Ten minutes later, he found himself outside the walls of the inner city, walking down uneven cobble streets. They were slick with water, but the light drizzle from an hour ago had passed, leaving a cold wind in its wake. His footsteps felt loud against the stone, and Baekhyun wondered if he was perhaps early and if that meant he would have to wait for Heejin. Come to think of it, he wondered if her leg was healing alright, because without the powers of those in the inner city, a wound like that would take weeks (and perhaps even months) to heal.

He reached the alley where he’d last seen her in much less time than he calculated. The pile of crates had been straightened, not a single one out of place. The draft made it easier for his power, and Baekhyun managed to catch a particularly strong gust to lift him up. He mounted the crates lightly and flipped onto the rooftop.

There was no sign of Heejin, just an expanse of flat, stone rooftop. He couldn’t tell where the entrance to the tunnels were, because all the stones looked the exact same to him.

Baekhyun knew better to be disappointed, because there were many logical reasons as to why Heejin wasn’t there yet. For one, he was much earlier than usual. For another… well, logical as the possibility was, the fact that she perhaps didn’t want to see him again left a bitter taste in his mouth. Because if Heejin really did want to make herself scarce, then she could easily do so, and Baekhyun could do nothing about it. If Heejin decided that she never wanted to see him again, it was frightfully easy for her to follow through with that decision. If Heejin thought he were boring, or irritating or useless or—

Baekhyun took a sharp breath. Why did he care? He didn’t. The opinion and the decisions of one commoner girl didn’t matter. He was just here because taking a break from training and practice once in a while helped his concentration later on, and what Heejin did—or didn’t do—made no difference to him. He didn’t care.

I don’t care. He sat down on the cold stone and tucked his freezing fingers into his cloak. I don’t care if Heejin comes. I don’t care what Heejin thinks of me. Baekhyun repeated the words to himself, as if he could create a new truth simply by willing it to be so.

There was a noise behind him, and Baekhyun straightened immediately. He whirled around, but there was no one but himself on the roof. Then he heard it again, the faint scraping of something against rock. Cautiously, he picked himself up and peered over the ledge of the building.

He recognized Heejin immediately. She was wearing a cap and had tucked most of her already-short hair under it. Baekhyun had no idea how she was climbing the crates as if she were completely fine given she’d been wounded from doing the exact same thing less than two days ago. He couldn’t quite tell from his angle whether or not her movements were more strained when her injured leg was in question.

“Are you stupid?” he whisper-shouted down at Heejin, who startled at his voice. “You got hurt because you climbed the crates last time!”

“Therefore, I learned to be more careful,” she whispered back, then began pulling herself up again. “It’s fine, I know what I’m doing.”

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow. “Like you knew what you were doing before a crate fell on you?”

Heejin paused again to glare at him. “Not all of us can fly around like you do.”

Before he could think about what exactly he was doing, Baekhyun had straightened to his full height, bent over the wall, and stretched out a hand to Heejin.

Heejin stared at his hand like he was offering her a knife. “Huh?”

Baekhyun was positive his own face had turned red. “I am offering to pull you up,” he said through gritted teeth. “Why are you so dense?”

She stopped looking at his hand and looked at him instead, apparently recovered from her surprise. “A bit shocked you’re offering to help a commoner.”

Baekhyun jabbed his other hand in the direction of the street. “Your loudness is going to attract guards, and if not that, you will probably make the crates fall again, which will be loud enough to attract them either way. That is why I offered to help.”

For a couple of seconds, he prayed that Heejin would not call him out on such a blatant, barely scraped-together lie. She didn’t, but rather, broke into a wide smile and reached up to grip his fingers. Baekhyun tightened his grip immediately.

He could feel the callouses on her palms and fingers, much like his own. Heejin’s grip was surprisingly strong as she reached her other hand out to grip his wrist. Baekhyun tugged her up the wall, over the last crate, and onto the roof.

The first thing he noticed was that the limp was much more prominent now that she wasn’t climbing. At least there was no blood around the wound, but he could see the shape of bandages underneath her trousers. Then he realized that he was still clutching Heejin’s hands, which he dropped like a piece of hot coal the second the thought hit him.

Heejin, too, took a step back from him. “Thanks,” she mumbled, glancing at the side. “Honestly, though, I could’ve done it myself.”

Baekhyun sniffed. “Yeah, right.”

“I’ve climbed those crates hundreds of times.”

“They still fell on you.”

For a moment, they stared at each other. Baekhyun was the first to glance away, feeling stupidly self-conscious for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Heejin toed the ground, then managed, “Why are you so early today? I thought I’d wait for you a little while, but you were already here.”

Baekhyun shrugged. Why was he early? He wasn’t exactly sure. Then he remembered the concern that had been bothering him the entire way. “How is your leg?”

Heejin glanced down. “Got a medic to take a look. It’s… it’s bruised pretty badly, but nothing’s broken, and he said there’s not much I could do except go a bit easier on it. It could’ve been a lot worse, so it’s fine.”

It certainly didn’t feel fine to him, especially because Heejin was very clearly favouring her other leg and the fact that she’d scaled those crates with her wound meant that she wasn’t resting it like the medic had suggested. He tried to figure out a way to point that out without sounding like he was concerned, but Baekhyun couldn’t put the words together in a way that could make him sound like he didn’t care.

He ended up giving up. Instead, Baekhyun settled back down on the cold stone roof and grumbled, “What did you call me out here today for?”

Heejin followed his actions and took a seat next to him, her injured leg stretched straight ahead of her. “I called you?” she asked him. “I just asked you to come. You make it sound like I summoned you, or something.”

Against his better judgement, Baekhyun said, “I am very busy, you know.”

“Oh, yeah? In the middle of the night?”

He glared at Heejin. “Not in the middle of the night. But… still.”

She grinned at him. “I suppose I should be very honoured to be able to be in your presence, then.”

It took Baekhyun a couple of seconds to realize she was mocking him, then a couple more to realize that perhaps mocking wasn’t the right word. Making fun? It felt a bit more lighthearted than that, but Baekhyun couldn't quite put a finger down on why his immediate reaction hadn’t been to bristle.

He still did scowl at Heejin in response. “Why are you here?” Baekhyun shot at her. “Why are you always wandering around the outer city at night?”

Heejin shifted her position. “It’s quieter at nighttime.”

Baekhyun scanned her face, which was set into careful impassivity. She stared straight ahead, intentionally not meeting his gaze. After a couple moments of scrutiny, he leaned back against the wall. “You don’t have to tell me the reason if you don’t want to,” he offered. It felt like a truce of some sort; what kind, he didn’t know.

She let out a small noise, and Baekhyun realized belatedly that she’d laughed. “Yeah. Thanks, Boxian.”

“Whatever,” he replied, then remembered the cookies in his pocket. Baekhyun dug them out. He could tell that they were a little crushed by the running around he’d done, but otherwise, they seemed fine. He offered both bags out to Heejin. “Here.”

She blinked. “What?”

“In case you’re hungry,” he told her as non committedly as possible, as if he hadn’t brought Miran’s cookies while thinking about Heejin. “I don’t like sweets.” At least that part wasn’t a lie.

Heejin finally took them from him. She untied the little ribbon on the top and peered inside. “It’s too dark to see,” she said at last. But these are…”

“Cookies,” Baekhyun broke in, voice a bit snappish. He was already feeling ridiculous for bringing them, and Heejin’s confusion somehow made him feel more defensive. “If you don’t want them, never mind. Give it back.” He held out his palm.

Heejin held the cookies out of his reach protectively. “Nope, don’t touch them. You gave it to me so it’s mine now.”

Baekhyun rested his hand back onto his lap. “I do not like sweets,” he repeated just as Heejin dug her fingers into the bag and pulled out a cookie. She popped it into . “And it felt like a waste throwing it away.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Really. I figured you folks in the inner city just threw away the food that you didn’t want to eat.”

Baekhyun winced. “Not… not always.”

“Not always,” Heejin echoed around the cookie, “but usually? Sometimes? Wow, these cookies are really good.”

He bristled. “I do not know.”

She eyed him for a couple of seconds. “I’m not accusing you of anything. I just assumed that’s the lavish lifestyle all of you have.”

Lavish. Baekhyun wanted to laugh. If lavish could be a word to describe training until he could barely move, the wounds inflicted during it, some too deep to heal without scarring, the schedules and rules and rigid structure of everything—

He broke off from the train of thought, confused at the feeling of anger that had welled up. The inner city was not short of material luxuries, and the harsh training served a purpose. Baekhyun had gotten through years of it, and he could go through years more if he knew what the end goal was.

“Those in the inner city do not just enjoy luxury,” he corrected Heejin. “We train and learn how to use our powers as children so we can serve our family in the future.”

He hadn’t known her eyebrows could go even higher. “So all of that’s for your family.”

Baekhyun thought of his father, sitting behind that giant desk, regarding him with cool eyes. “Yes. It is not something just anybody would understand, so I do not expect you to.”

Heejin ate another cookie. “Is your ultimate goal in your life just to serve your family, then?”

A little nonplussed, he stared at her. Yes, he wanted to say, to make my father proud. To become powerful enough to be the next family leader—for him to trust me enough to make me the next family leader. It was an easy answer, albeit one he knew he wouldn’t share with Heejin, because it gave away too much about his identity. Part of him knew, though, that confidentiality wasn’t the main reason the answer refused to come out, and Baekhyun couldn’t understand why. It was a perfect answer, one he had clung onto all his life, so why was perfection feeling so wrong?

“Well?” Heejin prompted him. “Don’t you ever want to, oh, I don’t know, explore? Have a family of your own later on? Maybe there’s something out there that you really like to do?”

“I can still do that.”

She gave him a look, one that Baekhyun wasn’t sure how to interpret. Pity? He couldn’t understand what exactly she’d pity him about, especially when she’d just been prattling on about their so-called ‘lavish lifestyle’. Baekhyun chose to ignore her expression instead.

“Well,” Heejin finally said when he remained silent for a while too long. “I don’t know what life is like for you in the inner city, so I guess I shouldn’t assume. But…” She hesitated, then ate another cookie. Baekhyun waited impatiently for her to finish chewing to hear the rest of the sentence, but it never came.

“But what?” he asked when she went for her fourth cookie.

“Never mind,” Heejin replied around a mouthful.

“Never mind?” he demanded.

She shrugged. “I forgot what I was going to say.”

Baekhyun stared at her incredulously. “Your memory is that faulty?”

“Not all of us have perfect memory like you. Speaking of which, it's pretty insane that you managed to find your way around the inner city so easily. You can remember your way around although you’ve only been there once?”

It was his turn to shrug. “I guess.”

“I guess,” Heejin echoed. “Must be really nice to have such a good memory, then. Convenient. Is it just you, though? Or all members of the Byun family?”

Baekhyun was pretty certain it wasn’t his entire family and Dowon had told him once that he had much better memory than most of his siblings. He had to remind himself that he couldn’t reveal too much to Heejin, so he ended up replying, “Not sure, but do not particularly care.”

Heejin snorted nicely. “I’m jealous,” she said, crunching on her cookies. “Well, I promised to show you around last time, and I can today. Only a bit, if you want.”

Hoping his initial reaction—which was apparently to perk up at the suggestion—wasn’t too obvious, Baekhyun schooled his expression into something much more neutral. “I would not mind,” he told Heejin.

She eyed him for a couple of seconds. “Remember not to tell anyone about this, alright?”

“I don't really have anybody to tell,” Baekhyun admitted.

Heejin was silent for a little while. Then she nodded, tied up her bag of cookies, and dropped it into her pocket. “Follow me, then.”

_____________

so um

looking for an apartment shafted me so hard i've been hallucinating the past week istg but here's a chapter !!!