Hi! 

A double update for today!

Thank you all for your kind comments and also the subscriptions! ^.^ Love them!

I gather that many of you are craving for more Yoosu... so there will be a little bit of Yoosu 'touch and go' in the second chapter of this update as well as the next update... but no real inappropriate actions on Yoochun's part. Sorry about that. It's not time yet. *bows bows* I will try not to be too draggy... but I can't give up on the details... so please bear with me for now!

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“Jae. You awake? We made dinner…” A weak knock on the door to a silent room received no response from the tenant within. More knocks followed, but the air circulating inside remains sluggish and still, with occasional sounds of a feeble groan. The unheard sounds were trapped within the vacuum-like space, stuffy but chilly.

Placing the dinner tray on the table nearby, the one on the outside, seeking the healer headed over to the window just around the back of the hut and peeped in; hoping to catch a glimpse of the person he is looking for, but the partition is a hindrance.

About to give up attempting to ‘wake’ the ‘sleeping’ person inside, the man decided to knock once more, before leaving the tray in front of the door, Jaejoong has the tendency to ignore people whenever he is in a foul mood, which is rare, even though the healer is seemingly aloof and cold. Junho knows when he needs to stop poking his nose into the other’s business.

Then, just as he expected, he did not get a response as well. Glumly, the man turned to leave, had a muffled sound not caught his attention. “Junho hyung! Don’t leave! Help!” A muted voice is calling for him from inside, sounding strained and drained of all energy.

“Jaejoong?! Are you alright?!” The man’s heart races as he immediately shoves the tray aside and positions his ears onto the lacquered surface of the door, willing the person to speak again.

“Junho hyung! Help!” The person repeated again after a long while. This is the green light giving Junho to knock down the door that separates them and rush to the healer’s aid.

“Babo!! Why did you lock the door when you were feeling unwell!!?!” The general was irritated by the steadfast locks and attachments of the door as he fails to make his way pass the unbreakable structure. Upset, the man decided to trespass through the window instead, breaking the latches that hold the window partially open at maximum.

Bursting in through the narrow crack between panel and wall, the man dashed towards the bed and pulled apart the curtains. Junho is met with an exhausted looking Jaejoong as the man curls up in a bed, sweating cold sweat, body cool and clammy. The man then ran a hand across the smaller man’s forehead to his neck and detects a definite temperature spike. Jaejoong is burning up the bed as he shudders uncontrollably, huddling within the limited warmth of his blanket.

“You are sick! What do I do?!” Junho pulled Jaejoong up against him and wiped the man’s damp forehead with his own sleeve while waiting for the healer to give him instructions. Only Jaejoong can help himself under such circumstances, since he is the only physician within the hundred mile radius.

“The… my cupboard. The packages with the… number… three on top.” The healer groaned again and held his head, trying to recall the medication he had set aside for febrile symptoms some time back. He is naturally a more organized person, so the general will not have a hard time looking around.

“I will get the boys to brew that.” Junho insists on staying by the healer’s side no matter how he was urged to leave. Jaejoong is feeling particularly vulnerable, and wants to be left alone, but Junho isn’t budging either. The places that Yunho once touched still ached, and whenever Junho grazes past them, they would hurt even more. Jaejoong attributes that to psychological causes, since hickeys aren’t suppose to hurt, he then swiftly comforts himself by diagnosing the symptoms as muscular soreness.

Even though his ‘clandestine affair’ with Yunho is not fully consensual and is only valid for one night, Jaejoong cannot categorise it under . He just can’t bring himself to admit that the one night worth of misadventure is the result of his erroneous judgment. He swore to himself never to disclose the fact that he had been shamed, even though Junho and the rest of the guys are being such nice caring friends. He just can’t bring himself to soften in front of them, like how he really wanted to. He does not want them to sense anything different about him.

The sudden onset of the fever is the result of his tumultuous race back to where he feels safest and most secure. Being outside in the wild earlier on, all alone, the healer felt exposed and even fearful, knowing that there is someone out there on the hunt for him. Even though he is surrounded by a trustworthy bunch of muscular chaps, knowing that Yunho still has him under control like he is a finger puppet scared him. Jaejoong does not want to relinquish control of his life to Yunho, even though he now knows the advisor really only wanted to help.

Being independent and always being the one rendering help to others, Jaejoong cannot believe that his life have taken such a drastic change because of Yunho.

The man singlehandedly created the mess he is now stuck in, and there is no way he can find a wee bit of forgiveness in his heart to reconcile with the man. Reminding himself that he is now a presumably dead man, Jaejoong feels even more disheartened. He cannot bring himself to tell Junho that their plans might have to be shelved for the time being.

Freeing himself from Junho’s grasp and burying his head within his sheets, the sick man wanted to sob, with the myriad of emotions eating him, bringing tears to his eye no matter how he tries to keep them at bay.

“Jae… what’s that on your neck?” Jaejoong was wiping his nose when he felt Junho’s fingers tracing along the right side of his neck, towards his pinna, scratching as if trying to scrape some sort of stain off. Gasping at the stinging pain, Jaejoong shoved Junho away, turning left lateral to conceal whatever he couldn’t clean off during the bath.

Junho would not relent without elucidating the origins of the ugly purple marks littered all over Jaejoong’s mandible, extending to his jugular notch, becoming more visible as time goes by. Grabbing Jaejoong’s good arm and heaving him up, the man tossed aside his sheets roughly, tugging off Jaejoong’s top from the shoulders. His facial expression reflected something much darker. Jaejoong wanted to scream for Junho to get off his back, but the face the other is making scared him. That man is not the usual Junho.

With nostrils flaring slightly, the man huffed and breathed like a maddened bull as he scrutinizes the purplish blotches, marring the healer’s fair skin. The purpura like formations shouted ‘love-bites’, and Junho cannot ignore them. Proceeding to grab Jaejoong by the feet despite the other’s hushed protests, the man rolled up the healer’s loose sleepwear all the way up to his thighs and inspected the skin there as well.

“… …” Junho wasn’t saying much, but numerous thought were running through his head as he links Yunho, Yunho’s horse, Jaejoong’s disappearance, Jaejoong’s sudden reappearance, and the hickeys together. The puzzle is solved as he finally receives the missing piece. The love bites which Yunho had no intentions of leaving out had the sole purpose of marking his territory, on Jaejoong.

“BRING ME TO HIM!!!” Lugging the sick man out of bed, the general did not even bother to allow the healer to straighten his crumpled garments. Half ambulating, mostly crawling, Jaejoong protested fiercely as he tries to loosen the other’s tight grip around his good hand, with his injured one. He failed, since his affected arm isn’t as strong as how it was before. Junho noticed.

“WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU?!!!” The man yelled at the top of his lungs as they stop halfway out of Jaejoong’s bedroom door. Squatting down menacingly beside the wreckage of a person on the floor, Junho pushed up Jaejoong’s overly long sleeves to reveal a long drying scab which used to be the gash Yunho made on Jaejoong’s mid-arm. The scarring is bad, with a pinkish raw keloid forming, indicating deep tissue damage that never got to heal properly.

“WHAT!?!! WHAT HAPPENED?! TELL ME!!!” The general shouted into Jaejoong’s ears as the man looks away stubbornly. Then to Junho’s dismay, the usually tough and undaunted Jaejoong is at the verge of tears. The heat produced by the fever is stinging the healer’s eyes, making his tear ducts patent and overflowing with salty liquid. Junho is heartbroken.

Cramming Jaejoong’s shoulders between both arms, the man looked intently at Jaejoong’s face for a long while as the healer fights back the tears, long lashes fluttering ceaselessly. No one spoke as both sat on the sandy ground.

“I’m going to kill the both of them!! BOTH OF THEM!!!” Junho’s pent up frustration is egging him to perform some really dangerous stunts, and there is no stopping him.

Leaving Jaejoong’s side on the floor, Junho drew his sword and charged out of the house like a madman, headed for the stable. “SLAUGHTER THAT HORSE AND SEND IT’S HEAD TO THAT JUNG!! I DECLARE WAR!!!” The man hacked off the rope tying the stallion to the wooden post and wields his sword at the terrified animal.

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POV from Junho’s comrades

This is bad! We think he is losing it!

Ever since that day he returned for his fortress trip looking like crap, polishing off every single vat of wine we have in our store… he hadn’t really been himself.

He did eventually recover when Jaejoong returned… but his calm didn’t last very long. The normal him just disappeared again. He never told us what is going on either. Not before, not now.

We asked, but he would just grunt at us, or tell us things like he does not want to talk about it.

The next thing we see, he is jumping at the bastard advisor’s horse, trying to slaughter it like that creature is a representation of the enemy.

We can’t help him if he does not want to say anything. We are lost without a leader too. Even Jaejoong is looking so unusually exhausted and weakened. It’s as if his energy is dry from his body, and he is hurting. His initial confident just dwindled into nothingness. He doesn’t even slink like he used to.

Both our leaders are torn and tormented by something… yet we can’t do anything to help… since they would never reveal anything to us.

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“STOP IT JUNHO!!” A hoarse airy voice ordered as the source emerges from the house, hands clutching his blanket around his obviously shivering shoulders.

“WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!! HELP ME KILL THIS CREATURE!!!” Junho ignored the healer and took another swing at the horse as it struggles violently against the tangled ropes.

“DON’T!!! YOU IMPULSIVE MEATHEAD!! HE CAN’T KNOW WHERE I AM!!!” “DECLARE WAR AND HE WILL FIND ME!!” The person half screamed half begged as he held onto Junho’s armoured hands, trying to stop the crazed man.

“WHY ARE YOU SO AFRIAD OF HIM?!! WHAT CHANGED?!! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!!!” Junho abandoned his still burnished sword momentarily and redirected his frustration at the other person instead. The person’s eyes widens as the rest of their comrades tries to break up the impending brawl.

“NOTHING!!! I’M NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING SO STOP ASSUMING EVERYTHING AND ACTING LIKE A BRAINLESS BRAWN!!!” The healer scoffed at Junho’s allegations, sounding more like he was squeaking instead. The general is provoked even further.

“DENY DENY!! ALL YOU EVER DO IS DENY!!!” “KIM JAEJOONG!! HE DID YOU DIDN’T HE?!” Junho ended up humiliating the healer in public, before an entire group of full grown man surrounding them. Hearing horrified gasps and angry murmurs coming from the crowd, Jaejoong wanted to burrow a hole in the ground and stick himself in it, but he is too egoistic to stomach Junho’s indirect insult.

“YOU IDIOT!! HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!! WHERE DID ALL THOSE RIDICULOUS IDEAS COME FROM?!!” Jaejoong countered fiercely, stumbling backwards a little as he steadies himself on one of the man standing nearby. The light headedness is getting to him, and he can barely feel his legs on solid ground anymore. The fainting spells is working on him, but he bent on disallowing Junho to bring back poignant memories of what happened between him and Yunho.

“HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS THEN?!!” “HE BIT YOU!!!” “HERE!! HERE!! AND HERE!!” Junho continued with his insensitive show and tell, even ripping the blanket off Jaejoong and exposing the scandalous ‘trademarks’, disgracing him. The crowd is stunned. Every man with experience can tell what type of marks a night of passion will leave behind.

“HE DIDN’T!!” Jaejoong tried refuting again, hauling his covers back over his shoulders weakly. “DON’T SAY HE DID!! HE DIDN’T!!!” He sounded more like he was whining.

“YOU are in a HOPELESS state of denial!!” “HE WILL PAY FOR WHAT HE DID TO YOU!!” Junho forced Jaejoong’s hands off his own and reaches to picks up his sword again, pushing the other away while he tries to disarm him.

His shove was so forceful that it send the healer staggering back a meter, crumpling painfully to the ground, landing not too gently. Jaejoong never got up after falling. Lying still and unmoving, Junho finally realises what he just did.

The crowd went wild, rushing forward to check on their second-in-charge. A few of them were lifting Jaejoong up and busy ferrying the unconscious man back to his room while Junho stood dumbly, in a daze. “Junho hyung!! Did Jae tell you where to get the medicine!?” A few of his comrades were trying to bring him out of his trance, snapping their fingers beside his ears, calling his name, but the man is deaf to his surroundings.

“Junho hyung!!”

“The package with the number three written on top.” Junho answered finally, still wearing the same blank expression.

Trudging back to his room, the man hurled his sword into the corner destructively, breaking the vase nearby with the impact. Then, turning to kick and punch the wall behind him, the man hit the stony structure so hard that the dried cement-like substances chipped together with the wooden lamina. Even though he ended up ripping a hole in his once intact wall, the man did not stop.

Everyone outside can hear that Junho is throwing fit inside his room, but no one dared stop him. It is usually Jaejoong who will stop him, reprimanding him for damaging their property, but with the healer out cold, they are helpless. They can only hope for him to sort his thought out without creating too many craters everywhere.

“JUNG YUNHO!! PARK YOOCHUN!! BOTH OF YOU ARE GOING DOWN!!! FIRST MY BROTHER!! THEN JAE!! YOU BEASTS!!!” The sudden yell shook the walls as the people outside cringed.

With the door is finally thrown open after a whole hour, the man emerged, still flushed and panting like he just participated in a marathon.

“Get my horse!! WE are kidnapping Junsu!!”

Eyes widened upon hearing that name. “Junho hyung? You know where he is?” Many eyes sparkled with hope, and mouths grinned widely when the man nodded his head, wearing a murderous expression, filled with determination.

“I will NOT allow those two beasts to live happily ever after!!” “Let’s see how much they will hurt when I separate them from their prey!”

TBC

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