Daehyun sneezed. He had been since you got on the bus two days ago, and you both only had eaten a little since then, but you wondered if he was sick, but he insisted it was just allergies. You handed him a tissue though and he took it, but he just crumpled it up into his fist and looked out the window at the passing scenery. You had no idea where you were since there was no way you’d normally wander out this far, but Daehyun would point something out to you on the occasion, telling you what event had happened there with a dying look deep seated in his big brown eyes, and you took it to heart that he was scared probably more than you were, because he at least understood that in this concrete jungle it was eat or be eaten, and he was the prey when he was last there.

                Now though, he seemed bigger, but placebos can affect you both negatively and positively. He might stand up for himself now, but that didn’t mean he could beat someone else. He had warned you about seven hours in the day you left that if anything were to happen, just let it happen or you would die.

                “You’re kidding me, right? Just call the police.” you said to him like it was the only possible answer, but he chewed on a bit of skin that was peeling off from his lip and shook his head, placing a hand on your knee and rubbing it gently.

                “It… doesn’t work like that. You don’t just call the police or scream for help, because when I said you could die, I meant it. I mean, I hope we don’t run into anything like that, and as long as we keep moving and we don’t end up in any of the wrong places, and trust me, I know them, we’re going to be fine. I don’t want to be scared.” Daehyun spoke softly, and his hands were shaking. The skin under his thumb was raw and red from him picking at it, biting at it, and his nails were down to the beds as he kept looking out the windows and mutterings things to himself, putting his hands in his lap as to cover himself up from whatever dangers he had encountered.

                “Are you sure you want to do this anymore? You look terrible. I mean, not like, physically terrible, but, like you’re waging a war in your head.” you asked him, and you watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed, and he didn’t say anything. He turned to look out the window again, but not before grabbing your hand and placing it in his lap.

                His own hands had been coated in a sheen of sweat, and he looked towards you sometimes and opened his mouth to say something, probably a story, but then the color in his face would drain and his mouth would slowly shut, his shoulders would slouch, and then he would resume normal position. You almost had to pin him down and force him to eat the first time you heard his stomach growl. He kept his mouth shut, his lips in a firm line as you begged him to eat something, anything, but he said he would eat when he was hungry, and his stomach rumbled again.

                “If you don’t eat, you’re not going to have any strength to fight off the bad guys when they try and take me.” you told him, and he snapped his head towards you and grabbed your wrists, pinning you back against your chair and his breathing was thick. He looked like an animal ready to attack at any second.

                “Stop making light jokes about that , because it can happen, and I don’t want to imagine a life without you. I don’t know if there are any other angels willing to take in someone like me, so you better stop joking about it because it’s not funny. It’s not funny in the slightest and I don’t expect you to understand because you’ve lived a life of relative luxury in my opinion, and I’m not trying to be a about this, but you just don’t know.”

                His grip on your wrists was tight, and you struggled for him to let you go, and after you caught his eyes and he saw in them the fear of him, he let go, muttering an apology and kissing you lightly, saying he was sorry against your lips and skin as he trailed kisses to your neck and let his head rest in the crook. “I just don’t think I could make it out here again if you weren’t by my side. Losing you would be like losing my whole world.” Daehyun said to you, kissing your neck before nipping at the skin, smiling a little when he felt you push his head away.

                “You’re always so serious about me. It’s flattering, but sometimes I’m scared you’re in too deep.” you admitted, and Daehyun shrugged.

                “Do you not feel the same way?” he asked, and you felt the air in your lungs freeze and you had to reach far back into your mind to materialize a lie that he would take.

                “I do Daehyun, I do feel the same way, but I want to be real as well and after this trip, what if we get back in the summer and we get tired of one another?” you asked, and Daehyun shook his head, letting it rest back against the seat now. He sighed.

                “Not possible. We went over this before, and I’ll tell you again, that if you get bored of me, you’re allowed to kick me out. I can buy myself a home, but that’s not going to say if won’t be one of the apartments in your complex. I might move in next to you and come every morning, I’ll be outside your door, singing to you with some Spanish folk guitar in hopes you fall for me again.” Daehyun laughed out, snapping his fingers above his head while the other crossed his chest. “Olé!”

                You couldn’t help but to laugh at him, and you leaned into his body and snuggled up into him, feeling warmth radiating from his body and remembering that you did love Daehyun to an extent in the matter he loved you and he kept you warm. You weren’t sure if you were in love with the thought of love or there were genuine feelings whirring around in your heart that he had melted no thanks to his literally and metaphorically hot physique and his bright smile, which you still wondered how he kept so white. He said sand and , but there was no way. What did he use to floss? You didn’t want to think about that at all.

                “Babe?” he asked, and you turned your head to look to him, and he was still looking out the window. “We just passed the house of the woman I told you about. She has a son, you know?” Daehyun said, his voice cracking. He was thinking about extreme measures again, and even though you hadn’t spent so much as a dime yet, he still seemed scared you’d run out of money. Daehyun seemed to live in fear of a lot of things, and he was really bad about hiding it even though he insisted more than thirty times now that he wasn’t, and it almost seemed like every hour, on the hour, he’d repeat himself like a broken record about the rules of the alleyways and how you should never wander off from him, and you asked him why you would do that, and Daehyun’s eyes seemed to sink into his face, giving him a hollowed out complexion.

                “You’re probably going to see me do some things that you’d never want to see me do, and I might have to see the same. I refuse to let you end up dead on my watch.” Daehyun said, bringing his already skinless thumb to his mouth to chew at it some more. Tiny trickles of blood stained his teeth red, but he swallowed it all. He seemed to swallow a lot recently instead of making himself smaller.

                “Would you stop talking about dying? I’m serious Daehyun, it scares me and neither of us are going to die.” you snapped at him, and he looked at you with a stoic expression.

                “Do you know how many times I tried to kill myself out here?” he asked, and all you could do was blink back.

                “What?”

                “Nothing is quite as degrading as begging for death when you have dripping from your mouth because you can’t keep it open or from your , sitting, or rather, laying in your own blood from being beaten and ed and beaten some more. I’m telling you all of this because it’s a reality. This isn’t fun for me, this is a wakeup call for you, and yeah, we’ll have fun times and we’re going to be okay probably, but you have got to remember this is all just negative for me.” Daehyun explained, his tone now a little more gentle as opposed to the cold one he had before. His words were now more a spring shower than a winter’s storm; there was always the treat of something worst, but sometimes, there would be a rainbow that would follow.

                “You two have been back there for a while and you haven’t gotten off yet. Do you have any idea where you want to go?” the driver shouted back to you and him, and Daehyun looked out the window again.

                “Could we go for about twenty more minutes? Just about the outskirts to where we’re almost country, but the city is still within reach but not sight, you know?” he shouted back, and the driver looked up and into the mirror smiling and nodding.

                “Sure do boy. Not a problem.”

                Daehyun smiled back, and he sat back again, running a hand through his greasy hair since the two of you hadn’t showered. You put on deodorant and he did too, but you were beginning to feel gross as the hair grew in on your body, but Daehyun insisted he didn’t mind. He said it was part of the life, and had seen worse, but you wanted to shave.

                “What if we’re getting into it and you touch my leg and it’s hairy?” you asked, and Daehyun laughed out a little.

                “You’re just going to have to be sure I only touch you in the right places then. Remember, I’m a submissive boy, and you’re going to be in control.” Daehyun winked, putting on a show as he spread his legs as far open as he could, panting with his tongue out and making small whining noises, all while your face grew redder and redder as you watched him, but he stopped much to your displeasure and he snickered. “Do you want me that bad? I know it’s been awhile but you want to get back on it already?” Daehyun asked, and you smacked him on the chest.

                “When you’re acting like that, yeah!” you nagged, keeping your voice low so the driver wouldn’t hear you. “Plus, you mostly dominate it seems. Who’s to say I still have an urge to just make you mine, heart, body and soul?” you asked, and Daehyun’s smile was light as he shook his head and his lips, locking eyes with you and his intentions were clear as he hooked a hand and pulled you in by the back of your neck, kissing you with fervor like you hadn’t felt before, but all you did back was push him away.

                “We’re on public transportation Daehyun. I can wait.” you told him, and Daehyun cheekily laughed, kissing you again and then bopping you on the nose.

                “You have better self-control than I expected. I’m impressed, but also .” he said before looking the other way and crossing his legs to hide his moderate excitement. “I swear to god when we get off this bus I am going to have my way with you.”

                “No, Daehyun, I’m going to have my way with you, and you’re going to like it.” you said back, and Daehyun shrugged and nodded.

                “I’m not going to doubt that.”

                The two of you blushed and ended the conversation after that, but he did seem to sit closer to you now and he wasn’t holding your hand anymore, but his hand was on your inner thigh, just resting there while Daehyun’s fingers drummed away. It didn’t bother you, and it only took a few more minutes for you two be to be relaxed again. Daehyun kept checking the time on his watch and you figured by his urgent look that you were almost to your stop, and Daehyun’s eyes were narrow as he swallowed over and over, his lips, having his pupils expand, then contract, and you went to whisper to him and ask if he was fine, but the bus slowed down, and Daehyun’s hand shifted from your thigh to his bag, and you knew it was then that he was more ready than he would ever be, and if you didn’t step off the bus now, you never would.

                “We’re here.” the driver yelled back, and Daehyun shot up from his seat, his backpack already slung over his shoulder, looking down at you with a bright complexion, urging you to get up as well.

                You did, reaching for your own backpack as well and toting it over your shoulders and Daehyun let you step down the aisle first, his hand on your lower back and pushing you on forwards. When you got to the front, Daehyun told you to get off and wait outside while Daehyun had a few words with the driver, and you couldn’t make out what he was saying, but you did see Daehyun pass him a fair amount of cash and a small slip of paper, and the driver stood up and hugged him, winking at you as well and mouthing ‘good luck’ before Daehyun jumped the steps and was by your side again, waving the bus away and watching it disappear down the road.

                The two of you stood in silence and just breathed in the musky air, looking around you and taking in your new environment, feeling the spring air light on your body, but the feeling in your chest was like an aegis, weighing you down and keeping you grounded. Daehyun took in a deep breath, his chest expanding and his eyes closing as he smiled lightly, the wind ruffling his hair and he just let his arms dangle as his side as he exhaled, looking up towards the sky.

                “Honey, I’m home.” he laughed out, looking over to you with his eyes and winking. “Shall we get going?” he asked, and you looked to him.

                “Where?”

                “Wherever the winds take us. Wherever you take us. Didn’t you say you’d be the wind beneath my wings?” he asked, and you just grinned at him. “Where to then my one and only love?”

                Your heart skipped a beat as you pointed behind you towards a wooded area, and Daehyun smiled, going to grab your hand and then lacing your fingers together again as he set off into a run, giggling when you tripped over your own two feet as he ran like a kid for his first adventure alone outside.

                “You’re a good decision maker, because I have a few old friends who lived back there last time I was here, and I hope they haven’t packed up because they’re a nice bunch!” Daehyun said, his one free arm seemingly flailing beside him as he looked back and spoke. “They’re named Junhong and Yongguk! Junhong is really young and he ran away from his family and Yongguk had a bit of a drug problem and he was high off heroin more often than not, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nice!” Daehyun told you. “Junhong did say there was a few anger problems when I wasn’t camping with them, but, I didn’t see it. I suppose that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen but… hah… I’m out of shape.”

                He slowed down to a walk now that you and he were halfway across the barren field. You noticed that it was eerie and the only things you had seen so far were tramped plants and a couple of stray pieces of litter, but Daehyun looked like he was contented. You recalled him telling you that you had led a relative life of comfort, and you guessed this was the result. You were turned off by the thought of a few bits of litter and meeting someone who allegedly had a drug problem nearly a year ago. He had probably cleaned up and they probably weren’t even going to be there. Daehyun slowed down more when you were about 50 feet from the brush, and Daehyun sniffed the air.

                “Do you smell that?” he asked, and you sniffed too. You let go of his hand and clasped yours over your nose, your eye twitching with utter disgust.

                “What the hell is that?” you asked him, and Daehyun wasn’t concerned as he walked faster again towards the woods, and the scent got stronger. It was like sewage that was coated in sulfur, rotting away and decomposing garbage that had been sitting for days, and it strung at your eyes and you felt like vomiting, but Daehyun pushed on.

                “Something isn’t right here. It’s never smelled this bad.” Daehyun said, taking in a deep breath and then coughing, spitting off to the side and wiping the back of his mouth. “Yongguk? Junhong?” he called out, but nothing called back. It was silent, and even the wind had died down, but the putrid scent still wafted into your nostrils and made you light headed. “They lived kind of near a sewage system, but like I said, this is terrible. Wait here.” Daehyun told you, but you clutched onto the hem of his shirt and shook your head, one hand still covering your nose.

                “I’m going to come with you.” you told him, and you could taste the stench. It stuck to your tongue and it tasted of everything unpleasant in life. It reminded you of soured milk and sometimes the pastries in the coffee shop would turn bad and the center crème was more like chunky, rotten eggs with a bit of bugs, and the guts were mashed by your teeth and got stuck in your gums. Daehyun made a face as he watched you wretch, but he wasn’t persistent on making you stay behind. Something told you he was scared as well as he walked slowly into the bush, pushing aside some branches and getting scraped by thorny vines that hung down from the tree.

                A flock of crows looked towards you and cawed, hopping around and twitching their head precariously, wondering why you were there, and Daehyun coughed again as he stopped and held you back, looking down at a pile of used up needles and a dead animal of sorts, but it was nearly impossible to make out as one of the scavengers ripped off some of the flesh and gobbled it down. You heard the tendons rip and wanted to scream.

                “That’s probably where the scent came from.” you said, but Daehyun shook his head and kicked at the needles with his foot, the glass sound of them clinking together as they rolled down and off of the stack.

                “I’ve been around a few dead animals in my time, and that’s something you’re going to have to learn, but I know this scent isn’t something that an animal would let off. Plus,” Daehyun stopped, taking a tentative step towards the crows, having them squawk and start a riot, flapping their wings and stirring up the fallen leaves around them. Daehyun held back his arms and positioned his body in front of yours to protect you. “The corpse is almost gone. It wouldn’t be this strong if so little is remaining.”

                You didn’t know what to say as Daehyun motioned for you to get closer to the ground as he lowered himself and reached out for a needle and you wanted to stop him and ask him what the hell he was doing, but he shushed you, his eyes on the birds still, watching them like he was one. He picked up a small cylindrical tube and brought it close to his face, pushing the syringe a little and a small amount of liquid came out.

                “These were recently used. Well, maybe up to a week or so ago. There’s a lot too. I wonder if Yongguk had a few people join him or maybe he finally got Junhong hooked.” Daehyun spoke to himself. He sounded worried. “The kid always swore he’d never do drugs, but there were even days when I’d…”

                “You didn’t.” you said, sounding shaken, and you reached out and touched him, but he flinched and you drew your hand back.

                “When you’re high on hard drugs, you aren’t hungry. You are even here.” Daehyun said under his breath, and you let it go as he went to stand again, slowly ascending as to not scare away the crows.

                “Why are you being so quiet?” you asked him, whispering as well, unsure what he was thinking. Daehyun held up a finger though and took a step forwards, bringing his shirt up so it covered his nose and his eyes watered.

                “I’m anticipating the worst.” Daehyun said a little louder now. “Yongguk? Junhong? You guys there? It’s me, Daehyun!” he called out again, and a few of the birds flew off and away from his booming voice. It carried through the woods, and Daehyun cursed under his breath as he took another step towards a large mass of crows, and you grabbed his shirt before he could go on any farther, your hands breaking out into a cold sweat.

                “Stop.” you told him, and he looked over his shoulder at you, fear in his eyes.

                “What?” he asked, and you brought your hand away from your face. He watched as your fingers trembled, and all you could do was point, your face pallid and Daehyun’s color was slowly draining as you moved your lips, hoping to form words.

                “Wh-what is that?”

                Daehyun’s eyes followed your finger, and you watched his composure turn from collected to a crumbled mess as he spotted what you saw. Near the tip of the crows where the crowed thinned out, there was a shoe sticking up with another foot laying off to the side, ankle clearly broken as it hung limply, a beak tap, tap, tapping on the bone, enjoying a meal like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

                “There’s no way…” Daehyun said, voice devoid of emotion. He started to walk again, but you grabbed onto his shirt once more only to have him grab your wrist and throw it off. He was stepping briskly, his breathing heavy, terrified as the sea of birds parted, and you stayed behind as the animals flew up and into the trees, leaving behind their food as Daehyun now stood in front of it, fists at his side, clenching, unclenching, clenching, wipe the sweat away. He took a few steps back and threw up, and now that he was out of your line of sight, you saw what he was looking at too.

                There was a boy, no older then seventeen perhaps, laying there, his face hollowed out to the point that his eyeballs, or, his remaining one, was protruding from his skull and even then, ants crawled over it and were taking out small bits of his brown iris’s, marching away proudly back to their queen and carrying on with their lives as they ruled over the ending of another. Daehyun was stilled hunched over, gripping at his stomach and retching up anything he had previously eaten, and you just stood there in shock.

                “Is… that a dead body?” you asked, and it was obvious. The smell was undeniable and you stared down at it, pinpointing the rotting teeth that beetles had made home in and chunks of the kid’s flesh was being eaten away by bacteria and birds. You could see some inners and his blood congealed into a jelly like substance from what it looked like, and you thought for a minute about what to do, but Daehyun was back to standing and he seemed a lot more calm this time as he approached it, kneeling next to the corpse and almost touching it, but he flinched away when there was a shift from some skin falling off and hitting the dirt.

                “Junhong… who did this to you?” he asked, and you were beside him now, pointing to the opposite arm and the needle sticking out of it, a rubber strip tied tightly around now leathery flesh. The veins still were bulging and you wondered how long he had been laying here, dead.

                “We need to call the police.” you said finally, voice barely audible. You were shaking worse than you had ever before in your life, and Daehyun was as well as he reached out again and this time, he did touch the boy. He touched his hair and he said it still felt soft as he remembered to himself, and you could only guess their relationship, but he looked back up at you and shook his head.

                “No. I know this is going to sound bad but… we need to find someplace dry to preserve the body from any more decomposition.” Daehyun told you, but you eyed him, unsure of where he was going with this.

                “Why? Why can’t we call the police? You’re acting like he’s a piece of meat.” you said to him, and Daehyun swallowed again, reaching over the body and yanking out the needle that was stuck into his skin.

                “I want to keep cautious. He might as well be if we run out of food…” Daehyun said back, and your eyes matched Junhong’s now; damn near popping out of your head as he stood back up, and you grabbed him by the shoulders.

                “You’re ing insane! You aren’t seriously considering eating another human being if we run out of food! We haven’t even been off the ing bus for a day and you’re already telling me we might have to resort to cannibalism!”

                “It’s not that uncommon out here!” Daehyun yelled back, and you stepped away.

                “I want to go home.” you said to him, but Daehyun was already looking around the area and was picking up sticks into his arms, telling you to do so also, and even though you couldn’t believe this was happening, you trusted him. You followed suit and picked up the biggest and sturdiest ones you could and toted them back to beside the body, which now looked a lot less daunting as you examined it.

                “He was a really lovely boy when he was alive.” Daehyun said to you, putting down one of his loads and kneeling again, touching his face where it was intact. “He and I were really close friends, and he was one of the few people who didn’t even have interest in doing anything with me. He just wanted to talk while Yongguk would indulge in him and me on some night more often than not. At least Yongguk was gentle. He wasn’t rough like his appearance would seem. I wonder where he is now…” Daehyun told you, looking behind his shoulder and motioning for you to follow.

                You stepped over the body and lagged behind him as a trail became more and more exposed, and Daehyun seemed like he was looking for something, but you were just looking over your shoulder over and over again to be sure you weren’t being watched, because something still didn’t feel right. It wasn’t long down the path until you bumped into Daehyun, and he had a wide grin on his face as he spotted apparently what he was looking for. You peered over his shoulder and craned your neck to see what he was so excited about.

                There was a metal barrel that was in the middle of a clearing, most likely used in the past for bonfire, but it looked burned down and rusted now as it sat in the open from the elements. He insisted you to follow him now and you did, feeling anxious as he ran towards it. You refused to break past a brisk jog.

                He walked up to the drum, kicking it before he even dared to look inside, and when nothing shifted, he looked in, a sigh of relief breaking past his lips as he touched it, feeling the paint flake off and onto his fingers, the rust staining his hands an ashen red.

                “Help me carry this back to where Junhong was, because there’s no way we can carry his body this far without it falling apart.” Daehyun said to you.

                “Are you sure it’s just because you don’t want to lug around a dead body?” you asked, and Daehyun laughed for the first time in a while, nodding and shrugging.

                “Part that too, but anyways, come on.” he urged persistently, gripping the lips of the barrel and going to lift it. You could see his muscles strain in his arms, and you now picked up the pace and went to lift the other side with all your strength, able to dislodge it from the ground and you had to grit your teeth to ignore the flood of spiders that poured out from beneath it that crawled across your shoes and tucked into them, tickling your feet, but not for long. After the first couple of steps, their bodies were crushed under your weight and their guts stained your shoes as Daehyun and you lugged the barrel back to where the boy lay. He looked peaceful you noticed now that you were over the initial shock, and you wondered if death was going to be like that for you as well.

                Daehyun told you to stop walking as soon as you were next to Junhong again, and he let it down carefully on his side, and you followed his example, and when it was finally back on the ground, Daehyun wiped his hands on his pants and sighed out. His face looked ashen again as he looked down to the person who was once his friend and you could only imagine how he was feeling. Daehyun didn’t cry at all, but you guessed he probably learned to not cry when he was out on the streets. Feeling much of anything this day in age was seen as weakness, and Daehyun was anything but weak as he sighed out again.

                “You know, there’s an old saying that says if you sigh too much, your soul will escape.” you said to him, and he ran a hand though this hair.

                “I think it’s long gone if that’s the case.” he whispered bitterly before picking up a few sticks and lining the bottom of the barrel with them. You didn’t help him out this time. Instead, you sat down in the dirt and decided to fix up Junhong’s body, feeling a little disgusted with your actions, but nonetheless, he looked terrible. You tried to get most of the leaves off of him and shooed away the bugs as well, but it didn’t deter from the fact that he had holes in his body and that bones were broken, and surely just a heroin overdose wouldn’t have done this. Daehyun had said that Yongguk had a violent streak, and that’s what you assumed went down here, and since he killed the poor boy, he was on the run. This time, it was you who started to tear up, and Daehyun couldn’t hear you sniffle over the bangs of the wood hitting the bottom of the barrel.

                You looked up at him though, and he didn’t react to your tears. He shrugged, but his eyes showed his inner turmoil and how broken up over this he was. Daehyun kept swallowing, presumably to keep his cool as he dusted off his hands and huffed.

                “Help me out with him. I don’t want to batter his body any more than it already is.” Daehyun said. His voice sounded cold as he went to pick up Junhong from under his knees and behind his shoulder blades which dug into Daehyun’s skin. Even though he was dead, he was still heavy because of his height and his bones were bigger than most. You guided his legs into the barrel first and the rest was going to have to be situated later. You heard his feet hit the bottom, and it was hard to lower the rest of him in because of the loose ankle that was only hanging on by a few tendons. Daehyun was bending over the lip of it to lower down Junhong, and then he let go, letting him drop the few last inches. Daehyun huffed out again, going back in and putting the kid’s body into a ball; his legs pressed to his chest and his head resting on the kneecaps. He looked like he was sleeping.

                “Help me put some more sticks over him so he’s dry. I can find a tarp or a blanket later if I need to and we can come back and check on him.” Daehyun said, and you just kind of looked at him blankly.

                “Why are you treating him like he’s alive all of a sudden?” you asked, and Daehyun wasn’t looking at you anymore as he talked. He was picking up sticks and positioning them around the body and trying to make something like a roof or a small enclosure. He looked all around him for something to fill in the cracks as well.

                “Junhong and I were friends, and I think he deserves enough respect for me to want to treat his remains well.” Daehyun said.

                “So respect is telling me that we’re going to preserve him not because it’s the right thing, but because we might need to eat him.”

                Daehyun this time did look at you. He had dropped the remaining wood in his arms to the ground and grabbed your arm, getting in your face and he was breathing hard. He looked livid, and his fingers gripped around you and you grew fearful.

                “You don’t get it! He and I had said we could depend on one another for survival and if I have to eat his head body I hope he’d understand! Out here, out on the streets there is so much that goes on that never gets reported or seen. Cannibalism happens! trafficking! Drug trade! It’s not all just people living in rags under the overpasses who push around carts in the cities! We’re not in the city if you couldn’t ing see already! Country homelessness is something entirely different and I had to work my off to make it to the city. You don’t… you’ll never get it. I hope you never have to.” Daehyun told you, letting go. You held your arm to your chest and he looked like he was sorry, but he just went back to work.

                “Then why are you preparing me for it?” you asked him, and Daehyun shrugged.

                “Because I refuse to be naïve in the matter, and I want to be sure you and me, out here, we survive and depend on one another because this was about soul searching and becoming closer.” Daehyun said, adding in the last of the sticks you and he had gathered. “Tonight, let’s walk to some place nearby and wash our hands and maybe have a little something to eat? There’s a place not too far away from here, maybe a two hour walk that’s lovely at night. The stars shine brighter than ever.”

                “Two hours is a short walk?” you asked him, and Daehyun nodded, going to grab your hand, but he stopped himself. He looked at his palms and grimaced feeling the dirt on them and they reeked of literal death. He opted to put them into his pockets and tilt his head into the direction you needed to walk.

                “For me, yeah, it kind of is. Plus, if we talk, time will pass by quickly, right?” he asked. “Come on, we should get there before it gets too dark to walk. The place were going to is really safe, and I can promise this.” he told you, and believing him, Daehyun and you walked side by side away from the woods and back out into the clearing, making your way across the field and back to the road. It stretched in front of you dauntingly, and even if you looked back in direction from which you came from, there was no sign of the city. Daehyun had really brought you out into a rural area and he seemed to be fine as he walked on, leaving you to trail behind.

                Daehyun’s tanned skin made sense now and the whole ruggedness of his look did too. He always did smell like sunshine and danger in your opinion, but when he moved in with you, it was just peaches.

                “Do you know of any farms around here?” you asked, and Daehyun looked over his shoulder and fell back in line with you.

                “Why do you want to know?” he asked, kicking at some of the cobble on the road. You smiled a little and eyed him.

                “You always chose peach scented shampoos and stuff when you were with me. You still are with me, but we’re out here now. When you came here, if you don’t mind me asking, did you eat a lot of them? Peach grow in abundance around here and something tells me they’re a comfort food to you.”

                Daehyun’s face for some reason turned a rosy red as he looked off in the opposite direction, grinning some and this time, he did bring his hand out from his pocket and wrapped it around your waist, pulling you closer to him. He didn’t let his hand linger like it normally did though now that his hands were unclean. He put it back into his pocket, but you smiled a little knowing he wanted you to be closer to him.

                “The place we’re going has a peach tree growing near it, and I hope there’s some on there, because they’re the best damn peaches I’ve ever had. Some lady lives nearby and I don’t know if she’s there anymore, but she used to cook me on the occasion some peach pie and we’d have chicken and dumplings. I told her I was from the south in Korea, like, not South Korea, but, well, yeah, South Korea, but… you know. Country south.” he stumbled. You nodded, laughing at him lightly. “She said that southern American food was all about comfort and she said I looked like I needed comfort, so, she would cook for me whenever she saw me around.” Daehyun said.

                “I assume you were around a lot then?” you asked. Daehyun shook his head.

                “I didn’t want to burden her. She reminded me a lot of how you are now, except you’re a little brasher and you invited me to stay. She never told me I could, but she offered it. She hinted at it I guess is the best way to put it.” Daehyun said, looking around the area and pushing you off to the side some so you weren’t on the road. He told you to duck and you did. A car drove by and he was just standing there, frozen. When it was gone, he offered you a hand and helped you up. “But anyways. When we get there and if she’s still around, I’ll introduce you to her.”

                You smiled at him and nodded. You didn’t want to meet someone in his past life who potentially did more for him than you have, because truth be told, it made you jealous. Daehyun was yours now, and the idea of someone else feeding him, seeing his wide smile, enjoying his warmth and his presence in general; it made you angry. You now walked closer to his side again and you kissed his cheek from out of the blue. He glanced over at you with his eyes wide, lips shaped into a small ‘o’.

                “What was that for?” he asked, and you shrugged.

                “Can’t your girlfriend kiss you?” you asked back, and Daehyun smiled, pulling his hands from his pockets and swallowing as he set them on your shoulders and faced you.

                “Let me know if they reek of a dead body, okay?” he asked, and you giggled as he leaned in and kissed you gently, his soft lips working against yours for a brief moment before he pulled away. He started walking again now, but his hands were free, and you took that as an invitation to grab one and lace your fingers once again.

                “Remember, I touched him too.” you said to Daehyun under your breath, and Daehyun just nodded, swallowing again and letting out a quick sigh.

                “I’m so sorry this had to start out like that.” Daehyun said, running the inside of his thumb over the knuckle of your pointer finger. “I can’t promise that it will get better from here on out, but I can assure you this much: I’ll be with you every step of the way. I know what to do and where to go, and if things get too rough, I can and will risk my very being for you. I love you too much to see you endure the pain I had to go though. I will die for you.” Daehyun said, and with his free hand, he ran it though his hair, pulling out a few strands.

                “And if I have to, I will kill for you as well.”