Chapter Text
Yoo Joonghyuk was pissed.
He didn’t often feel this kind of rare rage, but Kim Dokja apparently managed to bring the worst of his temper every time he opened his mouth, and this time, he didn’t even speak, his whole self was simply infuriating. That man always exposed the worst of Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yoo Joonghyuk was standing in front of the crystal with the grooves needed to put the protection symbols.
Maybe he wasn’t just pissed, but he did feel disappointed, he expected much better from someone like Kim Dokja. He thought wrong.
He hated being wrong.
Kim Dokja stepped beside him, and Yoo Joonghyuk felt himself tensing minutely.
“You came.” Yoo Joonghyuk said as monotonously as he could, he was trying to attempt a little civility at least, he owed that guy that much.
“Yes. Unfortunately.” Replied Kim Dokja with that infuriating tone of his.
“It doesn’t matter if you sit this one out.” He said, staring at the groves as if they would answer instead of Kim Dokja, he knew what love felt like with Seolhwa in his last regression, even if he resented Kim Dokja for falling in love, he could give him the courtesy of trying to foster the love between him and that woman. “You have a woman you love.”
“…What?” Responded, Kim Dokja, like the fool he was.
“It’ll be hard.” He said, still without looking at the shorter man. “It could be the last time.”
He was being generous, more than generous if he was being honest, but he could give that rat bastard just a little of his rapidly depleting compassion.
“Yoo Sangah-ssi is nothing more than a friend, I could never see her that way.” At those words, he finally turned to look at Kim Dokja and used his skill.
[The incarnation ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ has used the ‘Lie Detection’ skill.]
[The incarnation ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ has confirmed that your words are true.]
He saw Kim Dokja’s eyes glance to the side as if reading something, just to almost roll his eyes at him. Yoo Joonghyuk squinted at that. Could that bastard read the skill he just used?
“Last night?” Yoo Joonghyuk demanded, he wasn’t about to be fooled by that scammer anymore.
He was waiting for an answer when suddenly a window appeared in front of him. Midday Tryst.
—I was trying to contact ‘The God of Wine and Ecstasy’.
—I needed to go to the Underworld.
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the message for a long time, but instead of speaking to the man in front of him, he sent a message through the Midday Tryst.
—Shin Yoosung’s soul?
The man didn’t even hesitate before responding.
—Yes.
He finally let his body relax after those words. At least the man knew how to keep his word sometimes.
—You got her?
—Not yet, I have to do something for Persephone.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s expression soured, and his eyebrow twitched, but he still nodded and called both teams to them. Kim Dokja began arranging them when a Dokkaebi interrupted.
[Wait a minute. I’m really sorry, but I have an emergency announcement.]
Oh, how he hated those damned Dokkaebis. He felt a vein pop in his jaw, but ignored it to turn to his team, trying to make a quick head count.
Kim Dokja pulled the protection symbols with Nº406 and himself. But, instead of forming four different portals, as it should, only one opened.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s all of Kim Dokja’s fault, he was sure.
When all of them stepped inside at the same time, they all went flying everywhere. He didn’t feel the need to grab anyone—not like Kim Dokja, who was desperately trying to get a hold of his kids.—he didn’t even spare a glance at Seolhwa, she was capable, and they would reunite soon enough when they landed. Just as he was controlling his body to push the nausea down, letting his eyes fall closed to concentrate, he felt someone crash into him, making him instinctively grab their waist as a grunt escaped his lips.
When he opened his eyes, he found familiar raven hair in his field of vision, and a scowl immediately found place in his face. He didn’t have enough time to push Kim Dokja out of his arms when they were crashing on the hard grass-covered floor, Kim Dokja’s weight pushing the air out of his lungs, making him instinctively shove the man out of him.
He turned his head, raising into his forearms to watch, with grim satisfaction—not that it showed on his face—, the man also had the air escape his lungs when meeting the floor.
The man only smiled that awful smile of his and rose to his feet, and having no other option, so did Yoo Joonghyuk.
They were standing at the beginning of a forest with short-looking trees and alarmingly close to the drop of a long hill that ended in a precipice. He had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
Kim Dokja looked like he was going to say something, but out of nowhere, he looked down at his feet. Curious, Yoo Joonghyuk also looked down.
Damn.
A big trope of small people was tying some kind of not-normal-looking rope around their ankles, and before he could kick them, the small people tightened the rope around their ankles, forcing them to crash chest to chest against each other.
He was going to kill that man. Now.
Kim Dokja, apparently, had absolutely no balance whatsoever, and soon he was falling backwards. Yoo Joonghyuk had no other option but to follow, as his ankles were very much still tied and he didn’t manage to catch his footing either.
He tried to grab something as they fell downhill, a boulder or some raised ground, but he could grab nothing but the slippery grass as they rolled down with a frightening speed. At this point, Yoo Joonghyuk was sure they would roll off the hill and into the precipice without from of stopping.
They, somehow, also managed to knock their swords out of their scabbards. All of this was that man’s fault!!
Finally, Yoo Joonghyuk managed to bury his fingers into the hard dirt to slow their descent enough so as not to fall down the cliff. It was a bit too close, but at least they were still on solid ground.
For Yoo Joonghyuk’s endless suffering, Kim Dokja ended above him, once again. He felt the same vein from before pop on his jaw, and he barely contained himself from shoving the man off him and into the precipice purely by the fact that he was still tied to the guy.
Luckily, Kim Dokja rose quickly into his arms. Unfortunately, he wasn’t grabbing Yoo Joonghyuk’s thigh at all.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s whole body tensed, and in reflex, he rose to his forearms, staring at the fool in front of him—who wasn’t even realizing where he was putting his weight on!!—. He felt his eyes widen, and his pupils shook with shock at the same time his ears got progressively warmer as the fool was still too out of it to pay attention to his goddamned hand.
He opened to say something, anything, when the fool finally looked at him, his words dying on his tongue, but somehow the man still got the meaning of his disheveled state and finally—finally!!—looked down at his hand.
Kim Dokja didn’t say or do anything, but instead, his face got red, and his eyes opened wide before pulling his hand away as if burned in a “surrender” gesture. However, the fool once again lost his balance and fell backwards, making Yoo Joonghyuk follow again, as they slammed into the cold floor.
Yoo Joonghyuk had absolutely no time to observe the flustered and mortified state of Kim Dokja when the ground started crumbling beneath his hands.
If it wasn’t for Kim Dokja’s body-slamming into him to move both of their bodies out of the way, Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t sure he would have managed to pull both to safety with how distracted he was with the man currently tormenting him.
And then, when Kim Dokja was again above him, he didn’t have time to see if he was still blushing or not, since the man moved out of his body the more he was able to.
He didn’t even try to let those thoughts fester and instead spoke with a curt tone.
“Not a word.”
Kim Dokja just hummed, hiding his face in his arms.
“We need to grab our weapons before the small people or someone else attacks us.”
Yoo Joonghyuk sat up to immediately try to snap the rope just as he was trying to snap those awful thoughts of Kim Dokja’s blushing face out of his head. Instead, he managed to pull the rope tighter around their ankles to the point that Kim Dokja began slapping his back, begging him to stop.
“Stop! Stop! Joonghyuk-ah! Stop! It fucking hurts, you goddamn sunfish!”
Yoo Joonghyuk felt himself freeze and his ears warm once again as he turned to stare at Kim Dokja hopping he looked murderous instead of flustered and snapped an:
“What did you call me?” With a strained voice.
Kim Dokja, the fool, visibly deflated as the rope loosened around their ankles, only to tense all over again when he finally processed his words. The man barely turned to look at him, giving him an embarrassed smile as he basically mumbled out an:
“Ah… Joonghyuk-ah?”
Yoo Joonghyuk glared at the man and turned around to stare at the ropes, trying to figure out what they were.
“We have to stand. I don’t think we can roll our way to our weapons.” Kim Dokja said with a slightly strained voice.
“Use the Way of the Wind.” He snapped, because it was obviously the quickest way to get to the swords.
“I can’t, if I use it now, I won’t be able to use it if we get attacked, it doesn’t have a cool down, but I don’t have that much mana.” Said the scammer like he didn’t have coins lying around to swim in.
Yoo Joonghyuk turned his head towards him with a scowl and gritted out.
“Then level it up.”
He heard the man sigh and just knew that he was also rolling his eyes, before he could snap at the man, Kim Dokja raised to his knees, practically sitting on his leg, like it was the most normal thing in this fucked up world.
“I can’t, I need the coins for something else.”
Liar. Thought Yoo Joonghyuk as he narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him.
Kim Dokja looked around, probably looking for something to use to their advantage, when he suddenly pointed to a relatively close tree.
“Hey, Yoo Joonghyuk, if we roll to that tree, we can use it to stand, and then we can shuffle our way to the closest sword.”
Yoo Joonghyuk felt his eyebrows twitch, but said nothing and nodded instead. They held each other awkwardly as they rolled to the tree Kim Dokja mentioned. They somehow managed to stand with the help of the tree, and trying not to spend more time in this awkward situation, Yoo Joonghyuk snapped once again at Kim Dokja.
“Now what.”
“Since you loosen up the rope a little, we can walk to your sword, which is the closest or, at least, I think it is your sword.”
Kim Dokja hesitantly put his hands on the back of Yoo Joonghyuk’s coat, grabbing the belt of the coat as a handle.
“Is… Is this okay?” Kim Dokja asked hesitantly.
Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t want to admit that he was indeed okay with Kim Dokja’s hands on him, so he instead just grunted, putting one of his hands on the man’s shoulder and the other grabbing on the coat’s belt at Kim Dokja’s waist.
They began to shuffle towards the sword, and Yoo Joonghyuk tried not to acknowledge the fact that the fool’s neck was obviously red with embarrassment. He swallowed saliva and decided to stare at his sword innocently lying a few meters from them.
Yoo Joonghyuk tried very hard not think about how their bodies were pressed together, or how Kim Dokja’s smelled, or how his clothes felt against him, or-
He bit down on the inside of his cheek to keep himself in check. He couldn’t distract himself from what was really important, he needed to get them untied as soon as possible lest his mind keep focusing on foolish things.
Finally, after a few minutes, they managed to get to the first sword in the middle of the hill, it was Yoo Joonghyuk’s.
“It’s yours,” Kim Dokja said, nudging the regressor in the shoulder with his own, like the annoying mas he was. “Pick it up.”
Yoo Joonghyuk glared at the man like he was stupid, maybe he was, after hitting his head so many times rolling down the hill, Kim Dokja might have been concussed and indeed being foolish by accident.
“I can’t, if I crouch down, we’ll fall again.”
Kim Dokja frowned at that. Like it wasn’t obvious.
“Then how are you going to pick the sword and cut the rope?”
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at him for a few tense seconds before speaking again.
“You’ll do it.”
“Pardon?” Replied the fool like he didn’t understand.
“You’ll do it. You are slim, and I can keep you from falling with a hand on your shoulder.”
“I could do the same!”
“Even with your strength leveled up with coins, we would surely fall again if I lose my balance.”
“Then don’t lose it!”
“Kim Dokja.” Yoo Joonghyuk growled, his patience stretching thin with how difficult the man was being, and on purpose nonetheless.
Kim Dokja finally huffed and changed his grip on the belt of his coat and slowly lowered himself down into a crouch, lowering also one of his hands to the harness on his thigh, feeling his own thigh tense as the man’s hand held the harness for purchase, and Yoo Joonghyuk tried really hard to think of nothing at the too-compromised position.
He never liked the constellations, but he was insanely grateful they weren’t watching right now, knowing perfectly well how bad this looked.
Kim Dokja leaned to the side and, with a few struggles, finally grabbed the sword and began cutting the ropes bounding them together. It apparently took a few tries since it was sturdier than it looked, but soon enough, Kim Dokja untangled them, and finally they were free from each other.
He watched the man let himself lower himself to the grass to finish taking the rope apart from them, and he waited patiently until the man offered him his sword back. Before now, he would have never wondered what it would feel like being so close to Kim Dokja, but now he knew, and he didn’t know what to do with that knowledge. He felt like he wanted the man’s warm pressed against his body once again, but before that thought could fester, Kim Dokja himself pulled him from that train of thought, offering him some type of balm he didn’t recognize at first glance.
“Did you want some?” Kim Dokja asked, not even looking at him as he applied the cream to his ankles that were burned by the rope.
“No.” He replied easily, turning around to not stare at the little skin showing from the man’s pants. “Did you get the scenario?” He asked instead to stop thinking about Kim Dokja’s skin.
“Yes, I got it when we were rolling downhill, Yoo Joonghyuk.” The man replied dryly, apparently barely controlling the roll of his eyes.
Yoo Joonghyuk shot him a glare in return.
“We should regroup with the others as soon as possible.”
“Why? Aren’t you going to let your group with me and just take Lee Seolhwa to do hidden scenarios?” Kim Dokja sounded bitter as he mentioned Lee Seolhwa and Yoo Joonghyuk turned to face him with a curious, diminutive, tilt of his head.
“Do you resent that?”
Kim Dokja rolled his eyes and stood from the grass.
“I don’t, but I will just accompany them to the little people’s castle. I have my own plans too.”
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at him for a few seconds before turning away and walking up the hill. Kim Dokja lagged behind him for a few seconds when he stopped to grab his sword, but Yoo Joonghyuk waited for him at the top of the hill and at the beginning of the forest, waiting until the man stepped in front of him, staring deeply into Kim Dokja’s universe-like eyes.
That felt like the most beautiful omen waiting to be completed.
“Survive, Kim Dokja, you still owe me.”
Kim Dokja stared back at him, his lips twitching before speaking.
“Don’t give up, Yoo Joonghyuk, I still have to show you the end.”
They stared at each other for a second too long before turning to the forest. There were things to be done and people waiting for them to go back into the mindset necessary to win this scenario.
And they were going to win.