nytis
jihoon blinked his eyes. sitting in front of him was a crackling campfire. the orange and yellow flames danced lively in the night making everything within a meters radius glow a pale yellow.
where was this? where was he?
warm.
"here jihoon, take this." a pair of hands from the side handed him a bowl of steaming soup. the boy blinked his eyes and looked up. seungcheol was the one standing beside him. "go on, take it."
"thanks cheol." he said, transferring the bowl to his lap. he watched as seungcheol walked to the fire and threw a piece of wood in it before heading to the opposite side where jeonghan was sitting.
there was something odd about seungcheol that jihoon couldn't quite grasp. what was it... what was it- walking. seungcheol was walking. no crutches, no wheelchair not even a limp.
"hey ji, are you okay?" chan was here too. suddenly jihoon realized that there were a lot of people here. seungcheol and jeonghan talking quietly about something from across the fire, chan sitting there shoveling soup into his mouth, minghao was there too. he was lighting a small branch on fire and staring at it until the tiny flame went out then repeating the entire process.
"i.. why is seungcheol walking?" jihoon asked, "did his legs heal?"
"what's up with you, ji?" seungcheol laughed, "what are you talking about? my legs have always been fine."
"no-
"this is so fun!" kitae grinned, interrupting his sentence. "we should do this way more often!"
"we should, shouldn't we jihoonie?"
that voice threw him off. looking around, jihoon's eyes stopped at the spot beside him. soonyoung was rocking back and forth on the ground smiling at him. soonyoung was here. sitting beside him. nothing about him had changed. his hair was still that silver colour and still slightly messy. cute slanted eyes were the same and the corners still pointed upwards he smiled. "s-soonyoung! you're here, how are you here?"
the boy looked at jihoon with a puzzled expression in his face, "what do you mean? we started planning this trip two weeks ago. this is our third day outside. tomorrow is our last day and we're all going to the ocean!"
"i-i don't understand," jihoon stammered. suddenly everything seemed warmer, hotter. "what about everything that happened?" turning back around, he noticed that everyone was gone. there was just a fire left.
"this... is a dream, right?" he asked weakly to soonyoung even though he already knew the answer.
"i think you already know," soonyoung smiled but didn't look nearly as happy as earlier. lunging forward, jihoon attempted to grab soonyoung but as soon as he touched his hand the prince dissolved into a large cloud of smoke.
jihoon reeled back, coughing from the burning sensation the smoke caused.
"wake up. quickly."
lurching up, the boy gasped and looked around. it was so dark. where was he? as jihoon calmed down he remembered that he was hiding in a cart. he was safe, it was fine.
taking a deep breath, jihoon scrunched his nose in disgust. he was still able to smell that awful smoke from his dream and the heat from the campfire as well. jihoon paused and sniffed the air again.
smoke.
again, he could smell smoke. it was warm too. jihoon's heart skipped a beat. he listened closely and could hear commotion from outside. there was muffled yelling and laughter as well.
he was told not to leave or move until jeonghan gave him the signal but the smell of smoke was getting stronger and stronger and jihoon was getting increasingly worried by the second.
there was a fire nearby and he had strong feelings it wasn't a campfire like in his dream. shuffling around, jihoon moved boxes and bags out of his way. he found chan in one of the corners of the cart curled up into a tight ball asleep and seungcheol with his head on his knees, in dreamland as well.
"chan.. chan!" jihoon shook the boy harshly, forcing him to wake up.
"what..." the younger mumbled sleepily.
"chan. wake up. right now. or i will slap you. something happened outside, i think it's a fire. you wake up seungcheol and i'm going outside to check."
now chan was awake, "ji!" he whispered furiously, "you can't go outside! we have to wait for jeonghan to knock three times on the cart! what if there's guards outside? if you get caught, they're never gonna let you out of that stupid castle!"
"no." jihoon bit back, "jeonghan's outside. i will never forgive myself if he gets hurt, if any of you get hurt. listen, if the inside of the cart gets too smokey, take cheol and leave. to where? i don't care. just leave with him. and no chan, you will not argue with me."
not waiting for a response, jihoon quietly headed outside. the first thing that he noticed was how incredibly hot it was outside. no august night should be this hot. it was so hot, it was burning. no literally. the small bakery jihoon spent so many days of his life in was now fuel for a fire.
jihoon watched in horror and utter shock as flames leaped around inside the building, engulfing everything sitting inside. and that's when it hit him.
jeonghan.
jeonghan was staying in the bakery.
jeonghan was inside.
