Array
(
[text] =>
_______________
“Ow ow ow!” Woo-jin hissed as he dabbled a cotton ball on the wound above his eyebrow. Hyeon-ju was sat on the couch, tea in hand as she watched him let out a whimper every so often.
“You are behaving like a baby” she complained, taking a sip of her tea as she reclined in her seat.
“You say as you sit unscathed” he replied, pausing to shoot her a glare. “So why don’t you come help me juju” he winked. Hyeon-ju’s face shrivelled in disgust.
” One, I told you to stop calling me that and two, you are disgusting” she grimaced, grabbing her jacket to sit somewhere else.
“I’ll have you know, I have women falling to my feet everyday” he replied rather smugly.
”Yeah, trying to get away from your ugliness” she said, her hand waving in front of his face. “If anything, this is an improvement”
He feigned heartbreak. “You are the meanest person in the world. I wonder how Nari puts up with you” he said.
”I wonder the exact same thing about you” she replied and then she was gone.
“They bicker like children” Nari said as she leaned on the table, her hands on either side of her, holding her steady as Geon-woo stood between her legs, lightly dabbing her wound with antiseptic. She winced and he paused before she gestured for him to carry on.
The two of them were behind a bookshelf, out of prying eyes but close enough to hear their friends arguing. Geon-woo had insisted her wounds were drastic enough to be addressed and it seemed she was incapable of doing it herself. Well, that’s the justification the two shared. They’d find any excuse to stay close to one another.
“It is quite entertaining ” he said before gently applying a band aid to her wound on her forehead. He leaned over to grab the bruise ointment and Nari found herself stilling at his presence.
He was so there. In her face. Everything about him was noticeable. He was broad, tall and so much so that when he hovered over her to reach the medicine, he consumed her vision.
Geon-woo turned over the cream in his hand, placing a dollop on his finger before glancing at her, his eyes locking with her brown ones.
His lungs felt as if it had stopped working. The way she was looking at him, so tender and yearning he was certain he shared the same feeling. He was worried his emotions were not as readily hidden than hers and it was broadcasted across his face, in his eyes and shown in the slight shake in his hands. He was so different around her, so nervous. So aware.
Everything about her was in his face. The way her eyes danced across him, Her gaze leaving burning trails until it flickered over his lips before returning to his eyes once more.
God, he loved looking at her.
She was too pretty, that all he could do was stare. He didn’t want to look away and clearly neither did she.
She loved his eyes.
She didn’t understand how someone could hold their every emotion within them. His eyes were the gateway to his soul and he wore it bare to the world. Nari felt the tug in her heart and what she would give to kiss him right there and then.
Her breath died in her lungs as his hand reached her cheek, fingers warm but the cream cold. It was intoxicating, the feeling he had on her. His thumb grazed her cheek, the cream smearing over the bruise and a shiver ran down her spine. She couldn’t look away not even as his fingers gently turned her head to grant him a better view of her bruise. He swiped his thumb, featherlike and tender over it before gently doing the same under her eye.
She did not have a bruise there.
He stared at her as if she was art. Something so beautiful you could not look away. Something that at first glance you couldn’t decipher until you took a closer look, bared your heart out, opened your soul to truly understand the meaning of it. Nari was art, and a beautiful piece at that.
She smiled, a small curl of her lip that sent a thousand waves crashing into him. Her smile, along with her laugh, was one of his favourite things.
His hands brushed against her neck, her chin lifted and soon his touch was gone but his body remained still, close to her and just as alluring.
“You didn’t have to come” his voice was soft, just for her ears to hear.
“I said I’d have your back” she replied, her voice just as quiet. “I meant it”
“It seems all you do is save me” he smiled, eyes flickeing over her face, from the scrunch of her brows to the bruises and bandage. A part of him wished she hadn’t come, it would’ve spared her the pain. Seeing her hurt had shredded him raw. He didn’t like the feeling of her being injured. He couldn’t stomach it and he didnโt want it repeated. He vowed in this moment, he’d do better to ensure she walks out unscathed.
“I’m a superhero in disguise” she teased and he felt like puddy all of a sudden, he swayed and Nari jumped to steady him, thinking he was about to faint for completely different reasons.
“Shoot, you should’ve let me tend to you first” Nari lightly scolded as she switched their positions.
”I am okay Nari” he assured, his eyes not leaving her as she gathered everything she needed.
“You look the furthest from it” she said, briefly glancing at him before she paused and suddenly and rather sheepishly her gaze darted to the floor. ” You need to take off your shirt”
He didn’t hear her the first time, too absorbed in his thoughts about how cute she looked flustered. She never failed to tease him about his inability to stay composed around her, but she bore her embarrassment well.
“Geon-woo please”
He blinked and her request finally registered in his brain. His ears flushed but he didn’t say anything as he gently lifted his shirt, fingers lifting the hem of the material but he winced at the pain in his ribs and shoulders.
“Here” she said gently as she came close and helped him rid himself of his bloodied shirt. He exhaled in relief once the material was gone but Nari’s gasp was loud in his ears.
Her eyes were trained on his bare upper body. Bruises, coloured in various shades of purple, yellow and green decorated his skin. Blood was in places the bruises were not. She was too distracted by how wounded he was to be concerned on the fact that he was shirtless and half naked in front of her.
“It looks worse than it feels” he tried to reassure as she scrambled for the antiseptic.
“You are a terrible liar” she told him before making quick work with trying to attend to his wounds without allowing him to see her trembling hands.
But he did not care, he just simply watched her work and fret over him, and he relished it. He enjoyed how much attention she devoted to him, and he came to realise just how much he actually liked Byun Nari.
He didn’t realise when she had finished tending to his body, fresh bandages were wrapped across his midsection, over his collarbones and he found himself struggling to move but it felt a lot better than when he first walked in.
“Almost finished” she said before she stepped in between his legs. She leaned over to grab a new piece of cotton, a mirror of his actions. She reached, her fingers stretching and she almost had it before she felt two warm hands on her waist. She pulled back when the cotton was in her hands, her thoughts went out the window and her stomach was in her knees, but the hands did not waiver. She had been so close to him that had she leaned forward she would’ve fallen, his hands kept her grounded.
He didn’t say anything much less move their position as she addressed the cut on his lip. She cleaned the blood from his face, with a tender grace he didn’t even feel it. But he did supress a grimace when she poured the antiseptic on. When it was done, her thumb gently ran over the side of his lip making sure it was okay before she realised how compromising their position was. Her hand was against his cheek, her thumb over his lip with his hands were over her waist. His head was tilted up to allow her to work but it was the way that he was looking at her that sent her heart on a rampage.
He looked at her as if she was an angel.
Her breathing felt laboured and all she could think about was him. The way he felt in her hands. How he looked at her, his hands, his smile, his vulnerability, his care. It was as if nothing else mattered, it was just the two of them. Byun Nari and Kim Geon-woo.
“Nari-” her name was so soft on his tongue that had she not been so close she may never have heard it. She realised that she loved hearing her name in his mouth. “I-“
The seemingly blissful air around them shattered at the shrill and sudden deafening cry of Geon-woo’s phone. Nari jumped, startled and increasingly aware of her surroundings. She had never been so enamoured, so detracted like that. She blushed in embarrassment, quickly taking a step out of his reach and wanting some air from how stuffy the room suddenly felt.
Geon-woo glanced at her, for a good long moment as he too had to ground himself after being so readily conceded in his stupor. A sinking disappointment filled his chest but he turned away to glance at his phone. He raised it without much care, swiping the accept button as he brought it to his ear. Nari couldn’t look at him without wanting to kiss him, so she turned away to get her jacket,
He was startled when he heard Mr Choi’s voice. His tone was anything but friendly with his instruction for them to return to his home immediately.
It seemed troubled awaited them at every corner. He wasn’t so sure how much more he could take.ย
Just kiss already ๐
[text_hash] => a72ede1d
)