Chapter 13 : He Is Here

Jong Suk shifts uncomfortably in his chair. That pair of eyes has been ogling him for good long twenty minutes now. How long is he going to stare anyways? Isn’t he getting tired of it? Jong Suk doesn’t even understand why he had insisted on coming to school in the first place when his fractures aren’t even healed properly, though he no longer needs to keep his arm in a sling—well, he took that sling off the moment they entered the house after the hospital visit. It’s not like Woo Bin does any studying. All he ever does is sleep during the lessons and he could have done that more comfortably at home. Jong Suk tries to ignore his presence beside him and focuses his attention on the teacher.

Last night Woo Bin had clutched even tighter onto his waist as they fell asleep, almost as if he feared Jong Suk vanishing the moment he loosens his grip. He doesn’t know why, but Woo Bin seems to have become much gentler toward him in the past few days. Then again, he himself has been acting oddly as of late.

Jong Suk stops scribbling down the notes, and shifts on his chair. His right leg is hurting again. He doesn’t understand why that pain is returning now. Apparently it is a psychological thing, or at least that’s what the doctor had said. When those feelings—the fears to be exact—return to him, the pain of those injuries from that time also returns, although the injuries are long healed. He puts the pen down and slides his hand under the table to massage his aching thigh. The pain subsides after a while, but he keeps squeezing his leg muscles gently, hoping the aching will disappear completely.

Jong Suk stifles a yawn and props his chin on his left hand, his free hand, now completely forgotten, lies on his thigh. He doesn’t have the energy to massage it any longer. He wishes he could go home right about now; the image of his soft bed flashes across his mind and the sleepiness invades him easily. Jong Suk jerks when a sudden heat invades his hand. He swings his head around to catch the source of that heat; Woo Bin grins at him from the table and pulls his hand captured into Woo Bin’s under the table. Jong Suk freezes when he realises that his hand is no longer on his own lap but on Woo Bin’s now. He darts his eyes around, but luckily no one is conscious enough under Ms Jung’s monotonous voice to notice them. He turns back to Woo Bin’s face resting against the table his mischievous eyes looking right at Jong Suk.

Jong Suk tries to wiggle his hand out, but his struggles turn futile when Woo Bin’s gip tightens even further. He doesn’t know what has gotten to Woo Bin these days. He has been acting kind of weird lately, with all his suspiciously kind gestures and overly friendly actions. Jong Suk squint his eyes, almost trying to see through Woo Bin’s mind, but he sees nothing more than the playful glint in those sharp eyes.

“What are you doing?” Jong Suk hisses in a low voice, making sure no one will hear them.

Woo Bin smirks, his awfully cheerful smirk that, for some reason, makes Jong Suk feel as if he has been trapped with no escape. “Trying to cure your human phobia,” he says and Jong Suk can feel his thumb starting its friction across his hand.

“My what?” he whispers. What kind of a trick is he trying to pull now? He wonders.

“Your human phobia,” Woo Bin words out, slow and clear for Jong Suk’s ears.

“And what might that be?” Jong Suk asks, struggling to pull away as he is no longer comfortable to leave his hand in this dinosaur’s grip. 

“You are afraid of people’s touch,” he says, clutching the hand slipping out of his grip “so I’m trying to get you used to it.”

“I…” Jong Suk doesn’t know what he should say. He knows his reason isn’t completely untrue, but his gut feeling also says that isn’t the sole purpose Woo Bin is doing this. He spares a suspicious glance at Woo Bin. “Why do I feel that isn’t your sole motivation?” he asks and Woo Bin shrugs his shoulders in return.

He can’t quite figure out Woo Bin’s sudden change of character, and most of all what surprises him is the fact that Woo Bin who had clearly despised him to the point of smacking him the moment he was in sight or shooting daggers with his clod gaze, now has started to somewhat act as if they were actually friendly. He had thought once they were out of that bed in the morning, Woo Bin would wake up as his pissed off normal self, ready to pick on Jong Suk. He had never even spared a thought of Woo Bin initiating any form of friendly physical contact with him, let alone worrying about his ‘human phobia’ as Woo Bin had called it.

He feels Woo Bin’s hand suddenly shifting and for a moment he is hopeful that Woo Bin had gotten tired of whatever teasing he was doing to Jong Suk, but the slight hope vanishes the moment those long fingers interlaces with his own, making the grip inseparable now. Luckily the bell rings announcing the start of the lunch break, but Jong Suk doesn’t have the liberty of escaping the dino-grip and he is dragged out of the class the second Ms Jung disappears behind the door.

“Where are you dragging me?” Jong Suk asks, but his question goes unanswered. After a few minutes, they are out of the crowded corridor and up in the silent rooftop. Jong Suk follows and sits next to Woo Bin on the bench at the end of the rooftop, making sure he keeps a good distance between them.

“Why did you come to the school?” Jong Suk breaks the silence between them, “You were supposed to get your wounds dressed, then stay home and rest.”

Woo Bin doesn’t say anything; he takes in an audible breath, his eyes staring into the distant city. “Your mom treated my wounds before she left to work” Woo Bin says, turning to face Jong Suk. But when? Jong Suk is sure Woo Bin never left the bed, because when he fell asleep last night Woo Bin was right next to him, his hands wrapped around Jong Suk’s waist, and when he woke up Woo Bin was still asleep with his limbs all over Jong Suk’s body.

“You were asleep,” Woo Bin says as if he had read his mind.

“But shouldn’t you stay home and rest?” his voice holds concern, though he isn’t really sure why he has been so concerned with this boy.

“Your mother is a doctor,” Woo Bin emphasises, “She said I’ll be fine as long as I don’t do any heavy work,” he adds.

“Still…you could have stayed home and rested properly,” Jong Suk mutters, clearly not very happy with the decision Woo Bin had made this morning. He was the one who was forced to help Woo Bin wash his face, get dressed and even had to feed his breakfast.

“I will be dead from boredom,” Woo Bin mumbles, “At least I can mess with you here,” he adds, that smirk invading back to his face. Jong Suk is sure he had almost empathized with him until the last sentence slipped out from that smirking mouth. No wonder he felt like there was some ulterior motivation behind Woo Bin’s so called helping-rid-of-human-phobia theory. He feels like an idiot for even trusting Woo Bin even for a second. Somehow the thought causes a little pang down his chest. He ignores it and jerks to his feet, ready to storm out of this place, but Woo Bin pulls him back. “Jeez,” Woo Bin mumbles, “What a temper you have for someone so quiet.”

Jong Suk sits back down, snatching his hand off Woo Bin. He inspects the abused wrist to find a fine red mark slightly bruising around it. He glares at the boy while caressing his wrist. Woo Bin lift his unharmed hand up in surrender and mutters an almost inaudible apology. Jong Suk ignores him and rubs away the slight pang around his wrist.

“Who told you to be so fragile?” Woo Bin mutters under his breath, but Jong Suk hears it nice and clear. It snaps him.

“Oh, so it’s my fault now?” he shrikes, his wrist completely forgotten, and his eyes focusing solely on the injured boy in front of him. Woo Bin sighs and inches closer to Jong Suk. He takes the reddened wrist in his hand and gently it with his thumb. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” he says, his voice no longer holds any hint of mischief, “I promised never to hurt you…but I’ve broken it now.”

Jong Suk twitches a little at Woo Bin’s sudden claim. He hadn’t expected to hear anything so sincere from him. Now he feels slightly guilty for over reacting, after all, his wrist didn’t even hurt that bad. More than anything, he is taken aback by the fact that Woo Bin actually had promised to never hurt him. Now that he thinks back, it was that day when Woo Bin had come home injured, asking for a clean shower even in such an awful physical state. He chuckles a little when he remembered Woo Bin’s bruised body staggering into the room, his half-conscious self almost drowning in the bath tub.

“What’s funny?” Woo Bin asks, leaning closer to his eyes and Jong Suk’s giggles disappears immediately. He can see himself in those dark orbs that seem to run deeper than they seem. For some reason his breathing hitches.

“Oh there you are,” the husky voice distracts Woo Bin and Jong Suk snaps his head, darting his gaze at the direction of the voice. Though Seung-Hyun is the last person Jong Suk would want to meet, right now he somehow feels glad that the annoying creature has found his way up here. Seung-Hyun stops by Woo Bin and inspects him up and down. “Wow, seems like he has taken care of you nicely,” he exclaims, crouching down to sit next to Jong Suk, but Woo Bin grabs him by the arm, pulling him down beside him.

“What do you want Seung-Hyun?” Woo Bin hisses.

“Cool down man!” Seung-Hyun says, throwing his arm over Woo Bin’s injured shoulder. Jong Suk sees him wince at the sudden weight. “Your princess is unharmed,” he snickers, nodding toward Jong Suk, “At least you achieved your goal,” he chuckles, his eyes never leaving Jong Suk’s questioning gaze.

Woo Bin swats away the unwelcomed arm off his shoulder and grabs Seung-Hyun by the collar. “What the hell do you want with me?” He groans, breaking the eye contact he had with Jong Suk.

Seung-Hyun smirks, his gaze darting between Woo Bin’s casted arm and his angered face. “You aren’t so lucky today” he says, “Seems like your princess here has no escape left.”

Jong Suk furrows his brows, not really understanding what is happening between these two people.

“He is here,” Seung-Hyun giggles like someone high on opium and Jong Suk can see horror invading Woo Bin’s face.

The metal door slams open to the rooftop and all three of them jerks their heads at the direction simultaneously.