Echo of Dusk - Chapter XVI
Title: Echo of Dusk
Author: wild_terrain (ie. fi_chan)
Banner:
Chapter: [16/18]
Rating: M
Genre: AU
Summary: Two men met one cold, winters day. One, a cook's assistant, the other a young lawyer. The year was 1950, when this instant attraction occurred... However, the threat of civil war loomed and the two found themselves faced with the risk of separation. Yunho swore he'd protect JaeJoong at all cost...but sometimes things don't always go the way we want them to. This is the process of two lovers healing each other...
A/N: I kept my promise~. I've baked you some good FLANGST... XD
Btw, sorry if the font is hard to read for the monologue sections...it's only temporary ^^;;
EDIT: Your sadass (but hopefully loveable??) author did a booboo. I had written the YunJae monologues in different font...and only when I was using my dad's laptop did i realise that the fonts don't SHOW properly if the computer you use doesn't support them. And so it turned the monologue font all ugly. SO, I've screencapped what MY computer sees.... so YOU can see the font too........
So in summary, the first half of the story is now in picture format not text, HAHAHA. Yeh I'm a sadass, I know.
OST for the chapter:
Homeless - Leona Lewis (9.03mb) - DOWNLOAD!!
JaeJoong:
Waiting here…for you to tell me that everything's a big mistake
You don't want me anymore
Without your love, I'm homeless…
Hearts Are Hurting [Echo of Dusk ver.] - LoDuca (3.00mb) - DOWNLOAD!!
YunJae duet (No kidding…if this was a musical, this is THE song that would be sung…)
~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~
Changmin was trying to help me stand up. I wasn’t sure if it had been the drugs Hangeng had given me or if it had been my loss of blood or whether it was my fear, but I had become so light-headed that I could barely stand upright. If I moved at an odd angle or breathed too deeply, my stitches would pull and send a sharp jolt of pain shooting down my chest.
I really didn’t want to move but I wasn’t allowed to stay…I had to leave, he was making me leave without even demanding it to my face. He wielded so much power; I didn’t have a hope to fight it. It almost made me angry…
Changmin was assuring me that he had got me, he wouldn’t let me fall. He had even given me his spare shirt since mine had become ruined, but I was so tiny compared to him that I was swimming in it terribly. Oh…how could I bare to leave my Changmin behind…or my Hangeng…?
I didn’t know where Hangeng was now. As soon as Changmin had helped support me to a standing position, I had tried looking around for my doctor but he had left the medical tent for some reason. Was it because he couldn’t handle saying goodbye to me either? But I needed to see him; I needed to thank him for so many things…
But Changmin didn’t know where he was either. I refused to leave without saying farewell to my doctor though! Yunho’s omnipresent commands could not stop me - I didn’t obey orders from the wind!
Changmin and I slowly walked out of the medical tent whilst I tried to get my head to clear. Luckily, soon enough we were able to glimpse the doctor standing nearby a section of the river.
“Hyung!” I called out in relief.
He turned around in surprise, revealing to me a tall figure behind him.
I stared at the tall figure in shock. He mirrored my gaze and neither of us could look away. Looking into those eyes made my head clear up completely.
I was no longer feeling numb…I was feeling pissed off!
He didn’t speak a word to any of us as he suddenly stalked off.
Being fuelled by my anger and completely forgetting about my original intentions, I moved away from Changmin’s grasp and followed him lividly until I once more found myself standing in his tent. He was standing with his back to me.
“Get out.”
I felt my eyes narrowing at his rudeness. He had absolutely no right to speak to me like that!
“Get out of my tent!”
My? What happened to our?
“I’m not leaving this camp, Jung,” I declared coldly.
“Oh yes you are.”
“And why should I? I haven’t been ordered to.”
“Yes you have. I ordered you to leave.”
“No you didn’t. You ordered the wall to leave. I haven’t heard you ordering me. If you were ordering me you would be facing me and telling it to my face.”
He didn’t reply.
“Go ahead, Major. Look me in the eyes and give your order. Until that happens, I don’t see why I should take you seriously,” I challenged coldly.
I held my breath, watching his back intently. But he did eventually turn around once he had collected his nerve and he did make eye contact with me.
“You are to leave my camp and never dare return to it,” the stranger informed me.
I stared back at him before wetting my dry lips and dropping my gaze onto the messy ground beside his boots. I didn’t have the energy to speak so instead I nodded.
Trying not to allow my breathing to deepen painfully and apply any more pressure to my stitches, I walked back out.
“Wait.”
I don’t know why he even bothered commanding me - as soon as I had stepped out from the tent I had remained rooted to the ground anyway, unable to walk any further. I had just stood there, trying to ignore the gaze of Hangeng and Changmin on me.
“What am I supposed to do, huh? I’m so confused. I don’t know what the right thing to do is anymore. What do I do with you, huh? I’ve tried everything with you…I’ve tried understanding you but even now you remain to be such a goddamn mystery to me. So you tell me what I’m supposed to do with you!”
I couldn’t answer him. I knew nothing I could say would appease this angry mood of his.
“You don’t like my order?” he continued to rant. “You want me to change my mind? Then tell me this… WHY did you do it!?”
“Because…”
“Because?”
“Because loving you hurts too much,” I shouted, whirling around. “It may have been a stupid idea, but I was sick of feeling upset. I wanted a break from it all so I created a new pain. That is why!”
“Yes, it was a stupid idea,” he fired back. “And what has it done for you now? Nothing. You want to shred yourself up for a brief moment of temporary relief? ‘Thou should'st not have been old till thou had'st been wise!*’” He growled, walking up to me. I was pulled back into his tent to hide us from curious eyes.
“You always do stupid things like that. You never talk to me until it is too late for me to help you!”
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered.
“Just do me a favour JaeJoong and answer me one question. ONE question!” he demanded. “Tell me how you feel! Right now, nothing about the past, RIGHT NOW!”
“I HURT INSIDE!” I yelled back, my voice cracking. I could feel my chest heaving again, irritating my stitches. “Don’t you?”
“Of course,” he helplessly whispered back, his anger finally giving way and dissolving into the sadness I was mirroring. “I couldn’t possibly describe how much my heart is hurting. When I see you so helpless and self-destructive I just don’t know what to do. It’s like that thing is purposely trying to hurt us until we break…and you know how many times we’ve almost reached rock bottom.”
He placed his hands on his hips and looked downwards at the ground, unable to find the words to continue. Moments passed and still he didn’t look back up at me.
“The past few weeks have been tough but…” he fidgeted until his weight was shifted onto his other foot, “…these past few days have been even harder. When you were bleeding over me I felt my spirit dying. I felt my life propelling out of control once more and I was just so scared that I’d lose you all over again.”
“I’m sorry, I just…” I couldn’t continue speaking either. My hands flew upwards to cover the sadness running down my face.
“JaeJoong…” he softly breathed, running his hands over my shoulders and pulling me into him. I couldn’t help but melt into his embrace; he was always so comforting and warm.
He rubbed my back soothingly, not saying a word as I shook with the sobs that had been building up inside me since my capture. I wasn’t just crying a few tears like in the recent past; no…I was getting hysterical. But enclosed in his arms, muffled by his shoulder, I felt safe and I felt vulnerable and I felt deserving of this time to let my barrier fade and just let my sadness out in way that wouldn’t harm me. Maybe if I cried everything out, there would be nothing left to feel pain from.
“Yunnie,” I sobbed amongst the quickening gasps of air, the violent motion affecting my stitches, making me ache. “Please help me. Please tell me how to recover the life that all this misery stole.”
“We’ll find it again. We’re good people; we’ll find it again, mmm?”
He was rocking me to calm me down and I think it was working. His sincerity and faith in optimism suddenly became my pacifier. He was kissing my hair reassuringly and I was closing my eyes.
“I want to give you happiness, I want you to have happiness, I was us to experience happiness… Oh Joongie, I never dreamed that we’d ever be distanced like this,” he forlornly told me. “We’ll get through this. Right now we’ve hit a low, but it’ll get better. It has to get better.”
“How could I hate you?” I whimpered into his shoulder.
“I don’t want anymore barriers to rise between us,” he replied determinedly.
“Yunnie, I was so scared when whenever I looked at you I kept seeing a stranger.”
“I know the feeling. God…our hearts are hurting both the same.”
“All the hurt was tearing me up inside.”
“I know. I was so angry at you for hurting yourself and never confiding in me. I guess all that fury blinded me and made me snap.”
“I was so angry at you as well for your hypocrisy when you convinced me of your acceptance but then flinched away from me when you got too close in the night. And then when they told me you were casting me out…I was so hurt that you were so quick to get rid of me.”
“I’m so sorry Joongie, I thought that’s what I had to do. I thought it was the only thing left that I could do to help get you out of this terrible environment and ease your suffering.”
“I thought you were abandoning me!”
“I could never do that. God…all this pent up anger and all these mistakes are driving me crazy. But I think I understand now what you need.”
“Hmm?”
“A teddy bear.”
“Say what now?” I half laughed in surprise.
“Something that will always been there, something portable, something soft and cuddly…” he joked.
“I don’t want a teddy bear,” I explained to him. “I just want my big bear.”
“Oh really now.”
“Yeh. I don’t need plushies, I’m not a poonce.”
“No you’re not, you’re a poof,” he corrected, reaching down to spank my bottom.
“Argh…”
“Come come, my lovely,” he instructed, ignoring my contempt and pulling my hand until we were both seated on the bed.
“How’s your booboo?” he softly asked me, reaching out to unbutton Changmin’s shirt.
I let him open the material out, feeling extremely self-conscious as he examined the stitches on my chest, touching around the tender wound with gentle fingertips.
“When did I flinch away from you?” he suddenly questioned quietly.
“The other night…”
“Ah. You were awake. How embarrassing…”
I tilted my head, watching him closely in confusion.
“Babe,” he started to sigh solemnly, stopping abruptly as he looked up at me, chuckling as he imitated my head tilt distractedly. “Wouldn’t you feel mortified if you woke up from a…nice….dream, realising you were subconsciously fondling your boyfriend in his vulnerable, sleeping state?”
I nodded, trying not to blush as I remembered that really I had shamelessly started it all by making him grope me in his ‘vulnerable, sleeping state.’
“You were embarrassed…” I slowly enunciated, playing the scenario in my mind.
“Joongie, I’ve been celibate for a long, long time. It has its embarrassing drawbacks. My self control is pretty weak when it comes to…your…” he was turning bright red. I tried to keep a straight face so as not to worsen it.
“…body.”
“Is that all?!” I exclaimed in laughter. “By the look on your face I thought you were about to say something icky like ‘testicles.’”
His eyes widened in both thoughtfulness and astonishment at my statement. “Well now, those are included but not singled out because then we’d have discrimination complaints from all other parts of your body and that could get hectic for me.”
“Once a lawyer, always a lawyer,” I drawled, secretly basking in the nice warmth that had spread throughout me at Yunho’s subtle compliment of my body.
There was a moment of awkward silence before I reminded Yunho that Hangeng and Changmin were waiting for us outside, most likely biting their nails in anticipation of his verdict.
“Oh Christ, I completely forgot!” he exclaimed. “Well then, shall we have some fun?”
“Yunho…” I sighed, “I think we’ve jerked their emotions around enough as it is.”
“Very true. We’ll have to tell them point blank,” he agreed.
Being extra cautious of my stitches, he lifted me up and waited for me to wrap my legs around his waist.
“Do you think they’d get a clearer idea if we walked out like this?” he teased.
I glanced down at our intertwined bodies and my open, gaping shirt and laughed.
Yunho carried us out of his tent, trying not to get caught in the tent flap.
“Oh my god!” Hangeng exclaimed. “The argument is finished!”
“So it would seem,” Changmin replied, smiling at my peaceful seat on Yunho’s hips. “What made you change your mind?” he added, moving to stare inquisitively at Yunho.
“JaeJoong’s testicles.”
The smile was instantly wiped from my face and I hid my head in shame as the two men in front of us suddenly looked like they were having an Aneurism.
“Private joke!” I heard Yunho explain with a roar of laughter, rubbing my lower back comfortingly as he sensed my utter mortification. “Yes, a private joke about a private’s privates!”
“I hate you!” I hissed against his ear, resisting the urge to laugh at his lameness. Whoever taught him this sense of humour was a cruel, cruel person for now we all had to suffer through it as well!
“I hate you too, babe. But you know you love it!” he whispered cheekily.
I wished I could wipe that smug smile off his face and make him give better reassurance to the others that my actual testicles had not had anything to do with Yunho taking back his dismissal command. What did they think I had done, flashed him my goods in the hopes of reminding him what he’d be missing out on?!
Sighing I felt my irritation evaporating. I was just too happy to be back in his arms again to stay mad.
Once more forgetting that we were not alone, I found myself staring down into his beautifully soulful eyes. It felt like it had been so long since I’d been able to gaze back at him like this without feeling fearful. His face was so close…
I lifted my hand up from where it rested on his shoulder to pinch his cheek cutely.
His face screwed up in reflex, troubled that he had no spare hands to slap my mine away. He was acting so adorable, I wanted to shower kisses all over him.
With a content smile I bent down to kiss his nose like he always did with me.
“Okay, okay, get a room,” Changmin melodramatically groaned, grasping his head from a nonexistent pain and pretended to run away.
“Why do they need a room…?” Hangeng asked him, puzzled.
“I believe the correct translation of that phrase, Hangeng-sshi, is ‘go touch each other in private,’” Yunho chuckled, still grinning up at me.
“What makes you so certain that you get the privilege of touching me after almost kicking me out?” I criticised softly, trying to look at him sternly.
“You’re right, you’re right,” he sombrely replied. “I’ve been a very bad man, Joongie, I’ll have to be punished.”
“Oh I’ll punish you!” I promised, pinching both of his cheeks this time with no remorse, before lightly slapping them instantaneously.
“ROOM! NOW! GO!” Changmin yelled in disgust, pointing murderously at our tent.
“Owww!” Yunho exclaimed in annoyance at his tortured cheeks. “…Harder, Joongie, harder!” he added cheekily.
“LA~ LA~ LAAAA!” I heard Changmin singly loudly, covering up his ears.
Rolling my eyes at my mischievous lover, I helped him lower me down so that he didn’t collapse after holding me up for such a long time. I possessively wrapped my arms around his shoulders and leant in again, closing me eyes to concentrate on my heart once more beating in synch with his.
///TBC///
*As quoted by the character ‘Fool’ in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
A/N: Ahhh FLANGST I love thee. Anyways you may have noticed that I've changed the chapter estimation from [/25?] to [/18]. Long story, don't panic that is just referring to the war section of this fic...if that makes sense...
Speak my dear readers! ^__^
Author: wild_terrain (ie. fi_chan)
Banner:
Chapter: [16/18]
Rating: M
Genre: AU
Summary: Two men met one cold, winters day. One, a cook's assistant, the other a young lawyer. The year was 1950, when this instant attraction occurred... However, the threat of civil war loomed and the two found themselves faced with the risk of separation. Yunho swore he'd protect JaeJoong at all cost...but sometimes things don't always go the way we want them to. This is the process of two lovers healing each other...
A/N: I kept my promise~. I've baked you some good FLANGST... XD
Btw, sorry if the font is hard to read for the monologue sections...it's only temporary ^^;;
EDIT: Your sadass (but hopefully loveable??) author did a booboo. I had written the YunJae monologues in different font...and only when I was using my dad's laptop did i realise that the fonts don't SHOW properly if the computer you use doesn't support them. And so it turned the monologue font all ugly. SO, I've screencapped what MY computer sees.... so YOU can see the font too........
So in summary, the first half of the story is now in picture format not text, HAHAHA. Yeh I'm a sadass, I know.
OST for the chapter:
Homeless - Leona Lewis (9.03mb) - DOWNLOAD!!
JaeJoong:
Waiting here…for you to tell me that everything's a big mistake
You don't want me anymore
Without your love, I'm homeless…
Hearts Are Hurting [Echo of Dusk ver.] - LoDuca (3.00mb) - DOWNLOAD!!
YunJae duet (No kidding…if this was a musical, this is THE song that would be sung…)
~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~
Changmin was trying to help me stand up. I wasn’t sure if it had been the drugs Hangeng had given me or if it had been my loss of blood or whether it was my fear, but I had become so light-headed that I could barely stand upright. If I moved at an odd angle or breathed too deeply, my stitches would pull and send a sharp jolt of pain shooting down my chest.
I really didn’t want to move but I wasn’t allowed to stay…I had to leave, he was making me leave without even demanding it to my face. He wielded so much power; I didn’t have a hope to fight it. It almost made me angry…
Changmin was assuring me that he had got me, he wouldn’t let me fall. He had even given me his spare shirt since mine had become ruined, but I was so tiny compared to him that I was swimming in it terribly. Oh…how could I bare to leave my Changmin behind…or my Hangeng…?
I didn’t know where Hangeng was now. As soon as Changmin had helped support me to a standing position, I had tried looking around for my doctor but he had left the medical tent for some reason. Was it because he couldn’t handle saying goodbye to me either? But I needed to see him; I needed to thank him for so many things…
But Changmin didn’t know where he was either. I refused to leave without saying farewell to my doctor though! Yunho’s omnipresent commands could not stop me - I didn’t obey orders from the wind!
Changmin and I slowly walked out of the medical tent whilst I tried to get my head to clear. Luckily, soon enough we were able to glimpse the doctor standing nearby a section of the river.
“Hyung!” I called out in relief.
He turned around in surprise, revealing to me a tall figure behind him.
I stared at the tall figure in shock. He mirrored my gaze and neither of us could look away. Looking into those eyes made my head clear up completely.
I was no longer feeling numb…I was feeling pissed off!
He didn’t speak a word to any of us as he suddenly stalked off.
Being fuelled by my anger and completely forgetting about my original intentions, I moved away from Changmin’s grasp and followed him lividly until I once more found myself standing in his tent. He was standing with his back to me.
“Get out.”
I felt my eyes narrowing at his rudeness. He had absolutely no right to speak to me like that!
“Get out of my tent!”
My? What happened to our?
“I’m not leaving this camp, Jung,” I declared coldly.
“Oh yes you are.”
“And why should I? I haven’t been ordered to.”
“Yes you have. I ordered you to leave.”
“No you didn’t. You ordered the wall to leave. I haven’t heard you ordering me. If you were ordering me you would be facing me and telling it to my face.”
He didn’t reply.
“Go ahead, Major. Look me in the eyes and give your order. Until that happens, I don’t see why I should take you seriously,” I challenged coldly.
I held my breath, watching his back intently. But he did eventually turn around once he had collected his nerve and he did make eye contact with me.
“You are to leave my camp and never dare return to it,” the stranger informed me.
I stared back at him before wetting my dry lips and dropping my gaze onto the messy ground beside his boots. I didn’t have the energy to speak so instead I nodded.
Trying not to allow my breathing to deepen painfully and apply any more pressure to my stitches, I walked back out.
“Wait.”
I don’t know why he even bothered commanding me - as soon as I had stepped out from the tent I had remained rooted to the ground anyway, unable to walk any further. I had just stood there, trying to ignore the gaze of Hangeng and Changmin on me.
“What am I supposed to do, huh? I’m so confused. I don’t know what the right thing to do is anymore. What do I do with you, huh? I’ve tried everything with you…I’ve tried understanding you but even now you remain to be such a goddamn mystery to me. So you tell me what I’m supposed to do with you!”
I couldn’t answer him. I knew nothing I could say would appease this angry mood of his.
“You don’t like my order?” he continued to rant. “You want me to change my mind? Then tell me this… WHY did you do it!?”
“Because…”
“Because?”
“Because loving you hurts too much,” I shouted, whirling around. “It may have been a stupid idea, but I was sick of feeling upset. I wanted a break from it all so I created a new pain. That is why!”
“Yes, it was a stupid idea,” he fired back. “And what has it done for you now? Nothing. You want to shred yourself up for a brief moment of temporary relief? ‘Thou should'st not have been old till thou had'st been wise!*’” He growled, walking up to me. I was pulled back into his tent to hide us from curious eyes.
“You always do stupid things like that. You never talk to me until it is too late for me to help you!”
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered.
“Just do me a favour JaeJoong and answer me one question. ONE question!” he demanded. “Tell me how you feel! Right now, nothing about the past, RIGHT NOW!”
“I HURT INSIDE!” I yelled back, my voice cracking. I could feel my chest heaving again, irritating my stitches. “Don’t you?”
“Of course,” he helplessly whispered back, his anger finally giving way and dissolving into the sadness I was mirroring. “I couldn’t possibly describe how much my heart is hurting. When I see you so helpless and self-destructive I just don’t know what to do. It’s like that thing is purposely trying to hurt us until we break…and you know how many times we’ve almost reached rock bottom.”
He placed his hands on his hips and looked downwards at the ground, unable to find the words to continue. Moments passed and still he didn’t look back up at me.
“The past few weeks have been tough but…” he fidgeted until his weight was shifted onto his other foot, “…these past few days have been even harder. When you were bleeding over me I felt my spirit dying. I felt my life propelling out of control once more and I was just so scared that I’d lose you all over again.”
“I’m sorry, I just…” I couldn’t continue speaking either. My hands flew upwards to cover the sadness running down my face.
“JaeJoong…” he softly breathed, running his hands over my shoulders and pulling me into him. I couldn’t help but melt into his embrace; he was always so comforting and warm.
He rubbed my back soothingly, not saying a word as I shook with the sobs that had been building up inside me since my capture. I wasn’t just crying a few tears like in the recent past; no…I was getting hysterical. But enclosed in his arms, muffled by his shoulder, I felt safe and I felt vulnerable and I felt deserving of this time to let my barrier fade and just let my sadness out in way that wouldn’t harm me. Maybe if I cried everything out, there would be nothing left to feel pain from.
“Yunnie,” I sobbed amongst the quickening gasps of air, the violent motion affecting my stitches, making me ache. “Please help me. Please tell me how to recover the life that all this misery stole.”
“We’ll find it again. We’re good people; we’ll find it again, mmm?”
He was rocking me to calm me down and I think it was working. His sincerity and faith in optimism suddenly became my pacifier. He was kissing my hair reassuringly and I was closing my eyes.
“I want to give you happiness, I want you to have happiness, I was us to experience happiness… Oh Joongie, I never dreamed that we’d ever be distanced like this,” he forlornly told me. “We’ll get through this. Right now we’ve hit a low, but it’ll get better. It has to get better.”
“How could I hate you?” I whimpered into his shoulder.
“I don’t want anymore barriers to rise between us,” he replied determinedly.
“Yunnie, I was so scared when whenever I looked at you I kept seeing a stranger.”
“I know the feeling. God…our hearts are hurting both the same.”
“All the hurt was tearing me up inside.”
“I know. I was so angry at you for hurting yourself and never confiding in me. I guess all that fury blinded me and made me snap.”
“I was so angry at you as well for your hypocrisy when you convinced me of your acceptance but then flinched away from me when you got too close in the night. And then when they told me you were casting me out…I was so hurt that you were so quick to get rid of me.”
“I’m so sorry Joongie, I thought that’s what I had to do. I thought it was the only thing left that I could do to help get you out of this terrible environment and ease your suffering.”
“I thought you were abandoning me!”
“I could never do that. God…all this pent up anger and all these mistakes are driving me crazy. But I think I understand now what you need.”
“Hmm?”
“A teddy bear.”
“Say what now?” I half laughed in surprise.
“Something that will always been there, something portable, something soft and cuddly…” he joked.
“I don’t want a teddy bear,” I explained to him. “I just want my big bear.”
“Oh really now.”
“Yeh. I don’t need plushies, I’m not a poonce.”
“No you’re not, you’re a poof,” he corrected, reaching down to spank my bottom.
“Argh…”
“Come come, my lovely,” he instructed, ignoring my contempt and pulling my hand until we were both seated on the bed.
“How’s your booboo?” he softly asked me, reaching out to unbutton Changmin’s shirt.
I let him open the material out, feeling extremely self-conscious as he examined the stitches on my chest, touching around the tender wound with gentle fingertips.
“When did I flinch away from you?” he suddenly questioned quietly.
“The other night…”
“Ah. You were awake. How embarrassing…”
I tilted my head, watching him closely in confusion.
“Babe,” he started to sigh solemnly, stopping abruptly as he looked up at me, chuckling as he imitated my head tilt distractedly. “Wouldn’t you feel mortified if you woke up from a…nice….dream, realising you were subconsciously fondling your boyfriend in his vulnerable, sleeping state?”
I nodded, trying not to blush as I remembered that really I had shamelessly started it all by making him grope me in his ‘vulnerable, sleeping state.’
“You were embarrassed…” I slowly enunciated, playing the scenario in my mind.
“Joongie, I’ve been celibate for a long, long time. It has its embarrassing drawbacks. My self control is pretty weak when it comes to…your…” he was turning bright red. I tried to keep a straight face so as not to worsen it.
“…body.”
“Is that all?!” I exclaimed in laughter. “By the look on your face I thought you were about to say something icky like ‘testicles.’”
His eyes widened in both thoughtfulness and astonishment at my statement. “Well now, those are included but not singled out because then we’d have discrimination complaints from all other parts of your body and that could get hectic for me.”
“Once a lawyer, always a lawyer,” I drawled, secretly basking in the nice warmth that had spread throughout me at Yunho’s subtle compliment of my body.
There was a moment of awkward silence before I reminded Yunho that Hangeng and Changmin were waiting for us outside, most likely biting their nails in anticipation of his verdict.
“Oh Christ, I completely forgot!” he exclaimed. “Well then, shall we have some fun?”
“Yunho…” I sighed, “I think we’ve jerked their emotions around enough as it is.”
“Very true. We’ll have to tell them point blank,” he agreed.
Being extra cautious of my stitches, he lifted me up and waited for me to wrap my legs around his waist.
“Do you think they’d get a clearer idea if we walked out like this?” he teased.
I glanced down at our intertwined bodies and my open, gaping shirt and laughed.
Yunho carried us out of his tent, trying not to get caught in the tent flap.
“Oh my god!” Hangeng exclaimed. “The argument is finished!”
“So it would seem,” Changmin replied, smiling at my peaceful seat on Yunho’s hips. “What made you change your mind?” he added, moving to stare inquisitively at Yunho.
“JaeJoong’s testicles.”
The smile was instantly wiped from my face and I hid my head in shame as the two men in front of us suddenly looked like they were having an Aneurism.
“Private joke!” I heard Yunho explain with a roar of laughter, rubbing my lower back comfortingly as he sensed my utter mortification. “Yes, a private joke about a private’s privates!”
“I hate you!” I hissed against his ear, resisting the urge to laugh at his lameness. Whoever taught him this sense of humour was a cruel, cruel person for now we all had to suffer through it as well!
“I hate you too, babe. But you know you love it!” he whispered cheekily.
I wished I could wipe that smug smile off his face and make him give better reassurance to the others that my actual testicles had not had anything to do with Yunho taking back his dismissal command. What did they think I had done, flashed him my goods in the hopes of reminding him what he’d be missing out on?!
Sighing I felt my irritation evaporating. I was just too happy to be back in his arms again to stay mad.
Once more forgetting that we were not alone, I found myself staring down into his beautifully soulful eyes. It felt like it had been so long since I’d been able to gaze back at him like this without feeling fearful. His face was so close…
I lifted my hand up from where it rested on his shoulder to pinch his cheek cutely.
His face screwed up in reflex, troubled that he had no spare hands to slap my mine away. He was acting so adorable, I wanted to shower kisses all over him.
With a content smile I bent down to kiss his nose like he always did with me.
“Okay, okay, get a room,” Changmin melodramatically groaned, grasping his head from a nonexistent pain and pretended to run away.
“Why do they need a room…?” Hangeng asked him, puzzled.
“I believe the correct translation of that phrase, Hangeng-sshi, is ‘go touch each other in private,’” Yunho chuckled, still grinning up at me.
“What makes you so certain that you get the privilege of touching me after almost kicking me out?” I criticised softly, trying to look at him sternly.
“You’re right, you’re right,” he sombrely replied. “I’ve been a very bad man, Joongie, I’ll have to be punished.”
“Oh I’ll punish you!” I promised, pinching both of his cheeks this time with no remorse, before lightly slapping them instantaneously.
“ROOM! NOW! GO!” Changmin yelled in disgust, pointing murderously at our tent.
“Owww!” Yunho exclaimed in annoyance at his tortured cheeks. “…Harder, Joongie, harder!” he added cheekily.
“LA~ LA~ LAAAA!” I heard Changmin singly loudly, covering up his ears.
Rolling my eyes at my mischievous lover, I helped him lower me down so that he didn’t collapse after holding me up for such a long time. I possessively wrapped my arms around his shoulders and leant in again, closing me eyes to concentrate on my heart once more beating in synch with his.
///TBC///
*As quoted by the character ‘Fool’ in Shakespeare’s King Lear.
A/N: Ahhh FLANGST I love thee. Anyways you may have noticed that I've changed the chapter estimation from [/25?] to [/18]. Long story, don't panic that is just referring to the war section of this fic...if that makes sense...
Speak my dear readers! ^__^