Chapter 8 : I'll Protect You

Jong Suk sighs and walks back to the nightstand to grab the box of tissue. Perhaps he was wrong, may be this guy is part of a gang or something. Did he just go back to get his face smashed? He sits next to the almost-unconscious boy on the floor and starts wiping away the blood dripping down his chin. His face looks sort of pale and pinched. It is his first time seen him like this. There is no glare in his eyes that are hardly open. Somehow he looks vulnerable and oddly enough his heart wrenches at the sight.

“What happened to your face?” he asks cleaning off the blood on his face as best as he can. Woo Bin doesn’t answer him; not that he expected him to. But he is curious as to what caused this dinosaur to turn into a bloody smashed state. He stands up again, “I’ll go get the first aid kit,” he says and turns around. But before he could take another step, he is held back by a strong grip at his wrist. He swings around. Even in this state, he still has such energy left, he thinks watching Woo Bin drag himself into a crouching position on the floor.

“I…n—need a…shower,” he mumbles through heavy breaths.

“What?”

“I said!” he pauses to breathe again, “I…need a…shower,” he looks directly into Jong Suk’s eyes; “help me into the…bathroom,” he says, trying to pull himself onto his feet. He can barely stand up and he wobbles, his legs possibly threatening to give out on him. Before he could plunge back to the floor Jong Suk wraps one arm around Woo Bin’s waist and holds him up. His free hand grips Woo Bin’s arm dangling against his body and swings it around his neck. Leaning Woo Bin’s weight onto his body, he drags him into the bathroom.

Jong Suk carefully lowers Woo Bin onto the closed toilet seat and leans him back against the tank. He takes a look at the helpless Woo Bin one last time and sighs before turning the hot water on to fill the bath tub. Do I have to lift him to the tub? Wait—he jerks up when the sudden realisation hits him. I touched Woo Bin! He glances at the toilet, feeling his heart hammering all of a sudden; Woo Bin is staring at him through half lidded questioning eyes. He darts his gaze away. Why am I okay? He wiggles his fingers and toes just to make sure he is not paralysed. He can’t understand how, even after basically having Woo Bin all over his body, his mind is still very clear, he has full control over his body and he is not engulfed into one of those ‘attacks’ again. Seung-hyun’s single breath hissing on his ear could stir the scars he has been trying to erase, but for some reason Woo Bin’s touch doesn’t seem to have that terrifying effect. Is it because he is in a vulnerable state? Yes, that has to be it! He concludes as he steps away from the bath tub, focusing his attention back to the helpless dinosaur boy.

“What on earth happened to you?” he mumbles under his breath, his hands hesitantly reaching for Woo Bin’s shirt.

Woo Bin avoids his eyes. “Nothing much,” he says, looking at his ragged knees; dark patches stand out on his black trouser and they grow wider as more blood spout from his ripped flesh.

Jong Suk raises an eyebrow. “I can see that.” Pure sarcasm. For a moment Woo Bin’s face seems to lose that pinched look, and he chuckles, squirming with pain at the same time as his punched flesh aches with the slightest shake.

“What’s so funny?” He asks as he takes in a deep breath and starts ing his blood stained shirt.

Woo Bin stops chuckling but a smirk hangs onto his lips. Jong Suk doesn’t like the way his grin seems to sneak upon him, it almost feels like Woo Bin can see through him, through those layers of clothe onto his skin; he shudders at the thought.

Woo Bin catch Jong Suk’s hesitant gaze, “I never thought you’d be interested in taking my clothes off,” he chuckles again, and Jong Suk yanks the shirt off Woo Bin’s long arms.

“Aw! I’m already hurt you know…be a little gentle,” he sulks.

“You are talking way too much for a beaten up guy,” he mumbles holding the edge of Woo Bin’s top and pulls it over his head carefully this time as not to get it tangled in his wounded face. He feels his eyes dilate at the bruised chest in front of him. What on earth did you get yourself into…he wonders again, but he doesn’t question anymore. Because he knows it would be just a waste of his own energy; there is no way that Woo Bin would answer his curiosity. He sighs before reaching for Woo Bin’s trousers and ing them.

“Here,” Jong Suk throws Woo Bin’s arm around his neck and grabs onto the ed trouser at his waist “hold onto me and lift your a bit,” Jong Suk says and Woo Bin does as he is told, but instead of lifting his weight, Jong Suk’s body falls on him, unable to handle the sudden weight exerted around his neck. He hears the dinosaur boy hiss at the sudden ache of his bruises when Jong Suk crashed onto his chest. 

“Sorry…” Jong Suk mumbles as he pulls away from the warmth beneath his face. “I…d-didn’t mean to…”

“Aish…”Woo Bin groans, “Why are you such a sissy!”

“Yah!” Jong Suk jerks away from his body. He feels his face burn with anger mixed with a bit of embarrassment. True that he didn’t have enough strength to lift Woo Bin’s weight up, but still calling him a sissy is a bit too much when all he is trying to do is help. “I’m trying to help you here. So be quiet and bear with it, or I am leaving you to do whatever you want by yourself.”

“Alright…help me quickly,” he says, lifting his arm like a little child so that it can wrap around Jong Suk’s neck again. Woo Bin tries to exert less weight as possible onto Jong Suk as he raises his hips slightly off the seat; just enough for Jong Suk to pull down those bloodied trousers. Jong Suk throws the black trouser on the floor next to the shirts he had taken off earlier and crouches down, reaching to remove Woo Bin’s socks. He snorts at the sight of a pair of ‘G-dragon’ socks hugging cutely onto his long feet, but immediately clamps his mouth when a very clearly annoyed dinosaur glares at him. Jong Suk bites his lip and lowers his head as he pulls the socks of. He dumps them next to the pile of bloody clothes and straightens to his height.

The last thing Jong Suk had imagined was himself standing next to a Woo Bin in only his tight boxers, on top of that he himself being the one to undress him. He really doesn’t know what is happening around him anymore; sure he has been isolating himself from the world for more than six years, and true that human touch scared him to death, but here he is standing in a cramped bathroom with non-other than a completely man and helping him take a bath. Sometimes life seems to toy with him bit too much, he thinks while surveying Woo Bin’s damaged body. Even though there are hell of a lot bruises purpling his fine skin, Jong Suk can make out Woo Bin’s toned body, the fine muscles that heave up and down as he breathes. A trail of blood runs down his collarbone and drips down his chest. He watches as it soaks into the waistband of his grey boxers.

“If you are done admiring my y body, will you help me into the bath tub?” Woo Bin’s voice holds a grin and when Jong Suk looks up at him, he sees the amused expression on Woo Bin’s face. Jong Suk’s cheeks flush a little at the sudden realisation that he was observing Woo Bin’s toned body that he lacked. It was envy rather than admiration…he thought, but didn’t word it.

He steps closer to Woo Bin and helps him wrap his arm around his neck, and pulls him to his feet. He is so close to Woo Bin’s chest that his cheek brushes against it, he can feel Woo Bin’s slow breaths blowing across the nape of his neck. “Sorry I called you a sissy earlier,” he says quietly, words shivering down Jong Suk’s neck. He doesn’t like that feeling, because it reminds him of uncanny memories.

He takes a deep breath and sighs. “OK, yeah, I’m sorry too. I guess I should have been bit more careful,” he admits, trying to stay as far away as possible from Woo Bin’s body—if that was even possible given their situation. 

Water spills over the tub as Woo Bin lowers his weight into it. He waits until Woo Bin settles himself into a comfortable position before pulling the plug off and turning the water on full so the blood can wash off.

He is about to walk away when Woo Bin’s hoarse voice halts him; “Where are you going?” Woo Bin mumbles. Jong Suk turns back to observe him leaning on the tub, his eyes shut and face quite pale. Instead of answering he walks out and returns after a few minutes with a new towel in his hands. He places it by the sink.

“Do you need anything else?” he asks without turning to look. There is no answer. “Then I’ll leave now, call me if you need anything,” he says. But still there is no answer. A sudden realisation hits him at the core and he swings around. Just like he thought, Woo Bin is sinking under the water, his powerless body submerging into the depth of the tub. He rushes toward him and pulls him up from under the arms.

“Geeze, are you trying to drown to death now?” he mumbles, trying to hold Woo Bin’s heavy body steady. He is heavier than Jong Suk had expected and he feels his arms give away under Woo Bin’s weight. His body is once again sliding down the tub, his face plunging into the water. Jong Suk pulls him up once again, but he could no longer hold him in that position. Jong Suk frowns. He can’t possibly let him drawn and he doesn’t have the strength to hold him up either. There’s only one solution. He pulls Woo Bin forward and slides into the bath tub behind him. He doesn’t know what he is doing or why he is doing this silly thing, certainly they would both end up drowning if he were to be paralysed after the bodily contact, yet somewhere deep-down he knows he won’t be paralysed. Perhaps it’s because it is Kim Woo Bin, because it is Woo Bin who is not interested in his sinful body, Woo Bin who is vulnerable right now, the dinosaur boy who doesn’t give a damn about touching Jong Suk, perhaps that’s why he feels much calmer when he is next to this boy. He sighs, pulling Woo Bin closer. Holding onto Woo Bin’s half-conscious body, he cleans the blood off carefully.

“You owe me big time,” he mumbles though he knows Woo Bin probably won’t even remember this.

After he has finished, he pulls Woo Bin out and dries him off before dragging him back to their room. He pauses by the bed and looks up; no way he can bring Woo Bin into his bed. Having no other choice, he dumps the dinosaur boy onto his bed and tends to his wounds. He puts a new pair of boxers on Woo Bin’s body before tossing the towel away and tucking him into Jong Suk’s blanket. 

Jong Suk spreads a blanket on the floor and rests his aching body. He hasn’t worked himself this hard in a long time and perhaps that’s why sleep hugs him the second he hit the pillow.

***

Woo Bin flatter his eyes open; he feels like he has been without water for days. The worst thing is that his thirst doesn’t distract him at all from his pain. He can see the shifting of a police siren light patterning the bedroom wall as it passes by the road. He recalls his damaged body stumbling home with nothing but the urge for a clean bath to rid that awful stench of blood mingled with sweat off his body, he remembers seeing Jong Suk’s expanded brown eyes and asking for a clean bath that he doesn’t remember ever taking. Woo Bin rubs the weariness off his eyes as he sits on the bed.

He hurts—but words cannot convey the depth of his agony. Fire stabs through his right side, it burns hotter and more horribly with each breath he takes. He has had broken ribs before, and he is sure he has them again. Faint images of the previous evening flashes his mind; he doesn’t know how many, but a bunch of feet stamps on his fallen body, they kick on his ribs like kicking a football, punches lands on his groin, his stomach takes more damage than he can handle. At some point all the pain numbs away when it becomes unbearable for his body. He was an idiot, he thinks, how could he even think about taking on him when there’s dozens of men protecting him. They sure have done a great job fracturing his right ribcage; it aches like it has never before. His left hand throbs, and when he tries to move it, his fingers doesn’t respond very well. He feels like someone had jumped on it until the bones gave away and grinded themselves into a pulp. Daggers of pain shoot deeps in his thighs; his lower leg throbs as if they had swollen beyond the capacity of the flesh to stay together. He sighs as he eyes at the round clock hanging on the wall; 5:20 it glows. He assumes it still dawn judging by the darkness in the room. He needs the aid of some painkillers to get through this awful state and more than that he needs to gulp down some water to sooth his sore throat.

He slides off the bed; trying to remember where he has kept the aspirin tablets. It must be on the study table…but before he could get to his target he squashes on something.

 “AARRGH!”  

Woo Bin jumps at the sudden animalistic scream. “What the…!” he stumbles upon the bundle on the floor but manages to steady himself against the bed. What on earth is this? He squint his sharp eyes to capture the moving bundle on the floor; he pokes it cautiously with his toes, earning a light groan. A head peaks through the gap in the bundled up blanket.

“What on earth are you doing down there?” Woo Bin asks when he sees Jong Suk sitting up.

“Oh, you are very welcome,” Jong Suk’s sleepy voice mumbles, “Whose fault do you think it is that I had to give up my warm cosy bed and sleep on this freaking cold floor?”

Woo Bin lowers his aching body back to the bed; he doesn’t know why the boy is sleeping on the floor, or now that he realises, why was he sleeping on Jong Suk’s bed?

“I don’t remember ever asking you to do that,” Woo Bin mutters, but loud enough for Jong Suk to hear. Jong Suk jerks to his feet, his hands on his hip as he levels his eyes with Woo Bin’s. For a moment, the sight of him dissolves the pain away. He hasn’t seen this timid boy on the verge of been swallowed by anger before, but now that he can see, even when he is angry he still looks cute—like a hissing cat.

“Then I assume you don’t remember almost drowning to death in the bath tub,” he states as he points a finger at the bathroom.

“I…what?”

“Let me kindly remind you then,” he says giving a good kick to the blanket tangled around his ankle. It flies off and lands by the nightstand. “You came home covered in blood and asked me to clean you off and being the kind soul I am, I did and I even helped you take your freaking bath and dressed your wounds and even put some clothes on your body and I ev—”

“You put clothes on my body?” Woo Bin asks in a husky voice, wording his sentence carefully. He sees Jong Suk blushing at the sudden realisation. He averts his eyes and stares at the floor like a child caught misbehaving. Woo Bin takes this moment to catch a glance at the state of his body; he is wearing nothing but a single pair or black boxers that hugs his groin tightly. “Then why am I only wearing this?” he points at his almost completely self.

“I—I…couldn’t….” there, that timid self is back.

“Wait, are you saying that…you saw my body?”

Jong Suk throws his head back when the sentence sinks into his ears. “I…no…I mean…” he stammers and Woo Bin grins.

“So did you like it?”

“W—What?” Jong Suk feels his heart starting to race, this Woo Bin, this smirk on his face, this cheesiness in his voice, none of that seems like the Woo Bin from last night. This isn’t the Woo Bin he wanted to help, not the Woo Bin he was confident in leaning on his grasp.  

“Are you blushing?” Woo Bin chortles. “Wow, how beautiful! No wonder all those guys want to get a piece of you.”

Jong Suk’s stomach knots.

He freezes at those words, everyone wants him? Was everyone looking at him that way? All they see is his body? He feels like his heart has just stopped. He can still hear a snigger, but it no longer belongs to Woo Bin; that voice, that smell, that touch it is all from his nightmares—dreams that he tries so hard to run away from, words that reminds of his reality, touches that sneaks upon him every now and then plunging him into a deep dark well with no way to escape. A picture flashes in front of his eyes then, as if he is looking at a movie screen. A thick build body steps out of the dark corner, his hands reaching closer and closer…soon they will reach Jong Suk’s face, soon they will ogle over his lips, soon they will—

“…Jong Suk! Lee Jong Suk!” Woo Bin yells at him as Jong Suk’s eyes continue to drip with tears. This isn’t the Jong Suk he recognises; not the one shyly blushing at little teases, this isn’t the Jong Suk timidly backing away from Woo Bin’s path and this isn’t the Jong Suk hissing like a cat. The Jong Suk standing in front of him now is suddenly and terribly scared: pale as the blood drains away from his skin, his eyes, dry and sunken beneath the swollen lids, still staring directly at Woo Bin. But they hold no light; they seem haunted, dead as if all the light has been out, as if the pain was too much to handle his eyes seems to have him hidden behind them. This is a Jong Suk that Woo Bin doesn’t really know.

The pain, the fear in Jong Suk’s eyes is too real and it makes Woo Bin’s heart beat hard. He pulls Jong Suk into his arms and holds him tight to his bruised chest while most of his attention focused on trying to come up with something to ease this boy’s pain, to pull him back to his senses.

He wants to say ‘Everything is going to alright…no one is going to hurt you because I’ll protect you’ but he doesn’t think those words will hold any meaning coming from him right now, because he is the one who threw Jong Suk into this state though not on purpose. He rubs his broad hand up and down Jong Suk’s back in an attempt to calm him and he feels Jong Suk’s tensed body relax onto his chest. He know this isn’t the first time something like this happened, he has seen Jong Suk falls into such a petrified state before, but his eyes never held this much hurt back then. He wanders what shoved this boy into such a state. What caused him to be so scared suddenly?

“I’m sorry…” Woo Bin whispers as he continues to hold him, worried his husky voice might worsen this boy’s pain. “I’m sorry Jong Sukie…”

Jong Suk twitches when he hears the way Woo Bin calls his name. It has been a while since he heard someone call him so dearly; other than his aunt there has been no one to call him that in almost eight years now.

A sniffle. A muffled Sob breaks out from him.

He feels Woo Bin’s grip around his waist loosen slightly and he pushes Jong Suk back, just enough to look into his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says, his voice sincere, “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” his thumb brushes away the tears rolling down Jong Suk’s cheeks, “please don’t cry. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

When he realises that Woo Bin is no longer sniggering, relief washes over him. He doesn’t know why, but Woo Bin’s soft voice seems to calm him down, almost makes him believe…believe  that his promise is real, that he will keep that promise.

Jong Suk scoots away from Woo Bin when he sees patches of redness soaking into the bandages sealing away Woo Bin’s ripped torso. “Y—You are bleeding again!” he almost screams.

“Oh…” the muffled sound leaves Woo Bin’s mouth when he realises his wounds have reopened.

 “I—I’ll get some new bandages!” he says and runs out of the room before Woo Bin could say anything. He takes few minutes to calm his hammering heart before stumbling toward the living room in search for bandages.

AN: Argh! why do i feel like I screwed up this chapter? Anyway after some hesitation I thought  I'll just uploead this. Hope you guys enjoy this!