Chapter 10 : His Touches

“Do you want to take a shower?” Jong Suk asks while helping Woo Bin into their room.

“No, it hurts too much to move around,” Woo Bin groans as he sits on the bed. “I just want to sleep,” he mumbles and leans stretched over Jong Suk’s bed. He doesn’t have the strength or the will to climb up to his bed. He clamps his eyes shut and feel a feverish pain aching through his body.

“At least change your clothes,” he hears Jong Suk saying but he is too tired to open his eyes now. Then he remembers that his father is not back yet. They were gone since yesterday and it is the first time his father has stayed away from home for more than one day since his mother left this world. He forces his eyes open and darts his gaze at the slender figure fiddling through the wardrobe.

“When are they coming back?” he mutters.

“Who?” Jong Suk asks without bothering to turn around.

“Your mom and my dad,” That’s the best Woo Bin could think of. He cannot call her mom yet; he doesn’t want to replace his mother with some strange women who he has known for no more than few months.

“She is your mom too,” Jong Suk states, his voice holds slight irritation.

What is there for him to be irritated about? Shouldn’t I be the one hissing? “Don’t even go there,” Woo Bin grumbles. What does this guy know? Calling that woman mother would meaning he is ready to let go of his own mother. And that he certainly isn’t ready—he wasn’t eight years ago, and he isn’t now either—he probably never will be ready to let go of her, unlike his father who has erased the love of his life for another woman in less than eight years. That’s why Woo Bin has sworn never to fall in love. Love is something that is easily forgotten when the person is no longer there, and the thought make Woo Bin sick. He doesn’t want to experience something so cheap, something so easy that it can be thrown away the moment someone else steps into your life. But this boy, the one that crashed into his life out of the blue, has started shaking that promise.

“Do you hate her?” Jong Suk’s quiet voice breaks him from his thoughts. It takes him a while to register the words. Does he hate her? No he doesn’t. The one he hate is not that woman but the man who has easily discarded his own mother’s love and embraced another woman in what feels like so little time.

“No, not that…I don’t hate her…” Woo Bin mumbles, “But I can’t think of her as my mom either,” he doesn’t know how to explain it to him and he doesn’t think he has to explain it either; “Can we not talk about this anymore?”

“Sure,” Jong Suk says after a moment and steps toward the bed with a pair of grey sweatpants and a white shirt in his hands.   “As to the first question you asked, they are staying the night at her aunt’s place in Busan and they’ll come back tomorrow morning,” He places the clothes neatly on the bed and holds his hand to Woo Bin.

“What?” Woo Bin asks eyeing up and down between Jong Suk’s face and his hand.

“Get up so I can change your clothes.”

Woo Bin can’t help a smirk slipping out as he takes the offered hand. He surveys Jong Suk’s slightly reddened cheeks as he leans closer and slips Woo Bin’s jacket off his aching shoulders. He tugs at Woo Bin’s shirt edge, “can you lift your arms so I can take this off?”

“As you wish,” Woo Bin grins. He bites down on his lip as he obeys and Jong Suk pulls it off with less pain than he has imagined it to induce. He throws the t-shirt down on the floor and reaches for one of the loosening bandages around Woo Bin’s torso.

“The tape has come off,” he says looking around; when he doesn’t find what he is looking for, he walks back to his study desk and returns with a safety pin in his hand.

“You have those on your desk?” Woo Bin asks quite surprised that a guy even has such a thing. “Isn’t it for girls?” he thinks out loud enough to earn a glare from Jong Suk.

Jong Suk re-wraps the bandage, tugging and tweaking it much tighter than necessary, causing Woo Bin to groan in pain. He grips tight on to the end of the clean bandage and points the safety pin at Woo Bin’s face, “What is girly about this?” he chides, “Since when did safety pins have gender specificity?”

Woo Bin says nothing, he just keeps his eyes fixed on Jong Suk’s smooth face as he bends down and pins the bandage secure. Woo Bin jolts when his hot breaths blow across his bruised torso, sending a tingle of electricity down his body.

“W—What?” Woo Bin murmurs under his frozen breath when Jong Suk leans closer to his face, those slender hands sliding softly against Woo Bin’s jawline.

“They have missed this cut,” he says pointing at the open scratch slightly hidden under Woo Bin’s jawline. “Wait here,” he says and dashes out of the room. He returns after a minute with the first aid kit in his hands. He inspects the small cut and disinfects it before sticking a plaster on.

“Should we go back to the hospital tomorrow?” he asks, observing Woo Bin’s bandaged body that twitches at the slightest touch.

“For what?” Woo Bin grunts when Jong Suk readjusts one of the loose bandages on his forearm. Jong Suk stops his busy hands for a moment to catch Woo Bin’s eyes. Without a word he pokes gently on Woo Bin’s ribcage earning a loud groan. He drags his finger and pokes at Woo Bin’s shoulder, then his upper arm, his elbow, down to his legs—

“AAARGH!” Woo Bin slaps away the intruding finger, “What are you doing! It hurts like hell!” he screams, his glare never leaving Jong Suk’s face.

“See, this is why. We can go and get your wounds treated at the hospital. They do it much better than me,” Jong Suk says. He grabs the fresh shirt and slides it up Woo Bin’s arms and starts buttoning up.

“It’s nothing. It’ll get better in a few days even with your sloppy treatments,” Woo Bin says. He grins at Jong Suk who is glaring at him while kneeling down.

“You can find someone else to treat you then,” Jong Suk rants, “Someone who isn’t sloppy,” he says gripping at Woo Bin’s waistband. “Lift up a bit so I can slide your pants off.”

“You are so eager to pull my pants off eh?” Woo Bin teases him as he shifts up slightly, enough for Jong Suk to pull his pants down. He can see that irritated look been replaced by a tint of discomfort on Jong Suk’s face. Woo Bin curses himself for his careless words. He clamps shut his limitless tongue from slashing anymore unnecessary words and watches Jong Suk starting to thread his legs through the sweatpants.

“Okay up one more time and you are done.” Jong Suk instructs as he stands back up. Woo Bin eyes him hesitantly for any sign of bad feelings but finds none. He does as he is told and soon finds he is dressed.

“It hurts!” Woo Bin hisses while struggling to lift his arm that feels like someone has smashed it with a rock.

“Stop being a baby,” Jong Suk fixes the shirt over the bandage before heading to the bathroom.

Woo Bin listens to the pit patter of the shower for long twenty minutes before he sees the pale skinned boy waking back to the room fully dressed in a grey t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

“What do you want to eat?” he asks Woo Bin who is leaning of his side, facing the wet haired boy.

Woo Bin sits up; his pain has subsided a bit after taking his medicine. “Come here,” he waves at Jong Suk and pats the edge of the bed. Jong Suk gives him an uncertain look before obeying.

Woo Bin scoots closer and snatches the towel hanging around Jong Suk’s neck and starts drying his hair dripping with water. “You’ll catch a cold if you leave it wet like this,” he mumbles, liking the soft brown hair that brushes against his hand.

“Why do you care?” Jong Suk asks.

Woo Bin’s hands pause halfway. Why do I care? He questions himself. He doesn’t like the answer that comes to his mind, so he says “If you get sick who’s going to take care of me?”

Jong Suk swings around and hold Woo Bin’s gaze. “Cheap!” he pouts and that’s all it takes for Woo Bin’s heart to skip a beat. He clears his throat and swallows down the lump stuck midway. Somehow looking at Jong Suk so closely, his slightly wet hair falling messily over his small soft face, the lips glistening in red, fill his mind with the urge to capture those pouty lips and devour them until his want disappears from his hammering heart. He quickly shakes away the uninvited thoughts and tosses the towel over Jong Suk’s face to cover it.

“You do the rest,” Woo Bin mutters and slumps back down on the bed. That felt weird being close to him like that, he could still feel the tingles of electricity flowing through his hand where Jong Suk’s hair had touched it, and he could still smell his sweet scent wafting from his body.

***

Jong Suk had fixed them dinner and they ate in silence. Woo Bin went to bed as soon as the red glow of the setting sun was completely swallowed by the darkness.

“What are you doing?” Woo asks when Jong Suk starts spreading some blankets on the floor.

“Making my bed,” he answers.

“There is a perfectly fine empty bed there,” Woo Bin points up at his bed, “It’s clean you know.”

Jong Suk chuckles a little. “It’s not because I’m worried about it being dirty,” he says throwing a pillow down, “I can’t sleep in high places. I’ve nightmares and I often fall off the bed,” he states reaching for the nightstand. He screws the cap off and taps a tablet of Woo Bin’s medicine onto his palm and hands it to Woo Bin along with a glass of water. “I don’t want to break my bones.”

He screws the cap back on and waits until Woo Bin swallows his medicine and hand the empty glass back to him. He places it on the night stand and turns around but Woo Bin grabs onto his wrist and pulls him down. Jong Suk gasps when he stumbles at the sudden tug and slumps onto the bed.

“What are you doing?” his surprised voice holds discomfort. He tries to wiggle out of Woo Bin’s gasp, but a pair of strong arms wraps around his torso, pulling him down to lay on the bed.

“Don’t worry,” Woo Bin’s gentle voice assures, “I won’t do anything to you. I promise,” the arms around his torso loosen a little but never leave him, “I don’t want you sleeping on the floor because of me.”

“No…that’s completely fine,” Jong Suk quavers “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor at all,” he says trying his best to wiggle out of Woo Bin’s grasp. But the attempts only tighten the grip.

Jong Suk panics when his heart starts hammering in that familiar uncanny way. Beads of sweat start popping up and he can feel the world around him starting to swallow on him.

“Stop freaking out!” Woo Bin’s loud voice pulls him back from that world, “I’m not doing anything to you! Calm down Jong Sukie…”his gentle voice soothes his hammering heart a bit and he can feel his breathing slowing down as he stops struggling in Woo Bin’s arms.

“I won’t hurt you,” Woo Bin whispers into his ears “Never.” He pulls Jong Suk closer onto his chest and puts his lips to Jong Suk’s neck, just where it joined his shoulder and breathes deeply through his nose, sending his hot breath blowing down Jong Suk’s neck and back. It somehow calms him down, soothes his scared mind and erases those uncanny feelings. It is strange though, how this person’s touch has this soothing effect while other men’s slightest whispers plunges him to a world of horror.

Jong Suk somehow doesn’t doubt it. He knows he can believe those words and perhaps that’s why he isn’t scared of Woo Bin’s touches. Those words belong to Woo Bin and he will not hurt him. It’s Woo Bin…this is not him, this is Woo Bin…Jong Suk repeats in his head and soon enough he finds himself being comfortably snuggled in Woo Bin’s warmth.  

AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this ^_^