Chapter Text
Jaeyoung wakes up to the birds chirping, which is refreshing, warm, but unusual. Normally he wakes up early as all hell, even before the birds, to the sound of his supervisor ringing a bell down the hallway. It’s a terrible sound, really, but it does wake him up at least. He’s always been a heavy sleeper.
The next thing he notices, after the sounds, is the horrible ache of his legs and arms, and the throbbing pain in his abdomen. Fuck, is he dying? Did he die already and this beautifully lit, though somewhat dusty, room is heaven, for some reason? Why can he feel pain in heaven? And has his mouth ever been this dry?
He tries to sit up, though it takes a few goes and some momentum to get it. He grabs at his waist, groaning in pain. He must've slept wrong too, because his back aches like a bitch.
“Are you awake?” he hears, from outside the closed door. It is certainly not his supervisor.
“Yes?”
“May I come in?”
“I guess.” The voice sounds nice enough. If they're here to put him out of his misery, at least, well. No more misery. Damn, his ribs are really killing him.
The voice opens the door revealing… a guy. Just a guy. A cute guy, even. A cute guy holding a tray of food which smells better than anything Jaeyoung’s had in months. The guy brings the tray over and places it on the bedside table that Jaeyoung is just now noticing. On the table there’s also a candle holder with a candle that clearly hasn’t burnt for very long.
The guy places it down and goes to leave, just like that.
“Hey, um,” Jaeyoung starts, and the guy turns around again, “where am I?”
“My house.”
“Not heaven?”
“No,” the guy answers, straight-faced.
“Okay.” That’s good to know, Jaeyoung supposes. “Who are you?”
“Chu Sangwoo,” he, Sangwoo, says. It’s a fittingly cute name. Jaeyoung opens his eyes a little, waiting for him to continue. He doesn’t.
“And Chu Sangwoo is…?”
“I’m a witch. I found you in the forest yesterday.” Oh, what? Yesterday? What even… oh.
“Oh.”
“Yes. Jaeyoung, I assume you fled from battle, but you must’ve run quite a distance. I couldn’t see the other people. I was surprised you made it that far, given the state of your injuries.” Yeah, tell him about it. He’s realized, in all of his abdomen grasping, the bandage wrapped around his stomach is damp, and he can’t tell if it’s sweat or otherwise, so he snaps his head down to check. There’s only a bit of red, which is probably a good thing. He hopes.
“Oh. Huh.” There's a pause.
“Well, if you’re feeling alright, you should eat. I prepared toast with jam and some fruit.” Speaking of, it smells great. Lightly aromatic and fresh.
“I’ll do my best,” to which Sangwoo nods.
“I will be back soon to redress your wounds.”
“Okay.”
Sangwoo turns to leave and Jaeyoung only remembers to say thank you as the door closes behind him.
The wound redressing is uneventful—from an outsider’s perspective, anyway. Jaeyoung is much more shirtless than he recalls being before he arrived at Sangwoo’s cottage. He was assured that his “uniform” was being washed, and he doesn’t usually call it a “uniform”, but he supposes it is.
From an insider (Jaeyoung’s) perspective, though, it is very eventful. For one, he gets to assess the extent of his injuries and it’s surprisingly less bad than he thought it was gonna be. There’s some smaller cuts around which have already scarred which doesn’t make any sense. There's also of course bruises of various sizes blooming all around, but that's to be expected after any fight. The largest cut, which he guesses came from an unfortunately timed (for him) swipe from an enemy’s sword, runs from just right of his belly button to just above his right hip bone. Normally his scalemail is protective enough but Sangwoo informs him that it got damaged and a portion of it on the right side was cut off. Figures.
For two, Sangwoo reveals to him that he is learning floral magic (floral as in of plants, not as in bouquets, though Jaeyoung does briefly imagine Sangwoo making a floral arrangement), and that’s how his wounds have started to heal so quickly.
Jaeyoung feels much better after eating and truly realizes that what the hell, he’s in a witch’s house? There are for-real witches? He’d always assumed them to be fake, just to scare kids into behaving at the threat of being transmogrified, or something. That’s certainly how his mom talked about them when he was a kid. But this guy, Chu Sangwoo, isn’t scary at all. If anything, he’s kind of meek with a facade of bluntness.
For three, Sangwoo is touching him. He touches him as he’s removing the bandage, but there’s not really a lot of skin-on-skin contact at that point. But then, he’s cleaning the gash on his waist with some kind of antiseptic and a cotton round and Jaeyoung can feel how soft Sangwoo’s skin is. He’d thought it would’ve been rough, given the floral studies and all. He seems like a diligent man.
“Thank you, Sangwoo.”
“You’re welcome, Jaeyoung.” Jaeyoung acknowledges with a hm, and then—wait. His name. Didn't he say it earlier too?
“How do you know my name?”
“It was written on the inside of the collar of your undershirt.”
Jaeyoung nods. It is. He remembers his roommate, Hyeongtak, accidentally putting on his undershirt and having to explain to him that the obvious too-largeness of the shirt is not the only thing that should’ve clued him in about the shirt’s owner. Huh.
“Was there anyone else around when you found me?”
“No. I told you.” Ow. “Why?”
“Well, I was there with a bunch of people and I’d like to think they’re missing me.”
“I can post a letter for you, if you’d like.”
“What, with a carrier pigeon?” he huffs.
“I told you that I’m not a faunal witch. It’d be through the postal service. I can go into town.”
“Can’t do everything, I guess,” Jaeyoung says under his breath.
There’s a lull as Sangwoo finishes reapplying the bandage. Jaeyoung begins to feel a little bit bad about his comment, but, honestly, other than the taking care of him thing, Sangwoo hasn’t been any better.
“If you need anything, I’ll be in the garden today. It’s down the stairs and to the right, out the door.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Jaeyoung says. He notices the numbness starting to take over his abdomen. “Wait, is that supposed to be happening?”
“What?”
“The numbness.”
“Yes. I applied a numbing salve to relieve some of the pain.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. You should rest.” And he should, he is feeling a bit drowsy again.
“Okay.”
Sangwoo leaves, closing the door gently and leaving Jaeyoung all by his lonesome again. He’s glad the sun is out right now, because his bed is nice and warm where it had been shining when he lays down.