Work Text:
Changkyun knew he was somewhat different from the others ever since his early years.
All of his classmates could go to the beach without worrying if people would stare at their feet. All of his classmates could wear sleeveless shirts without worrying if people would be disgusted by their arms. All of his classmates could go to bed without having to aply more than three different types of body cream, and all of his classmates could enjoy a sunny day because none of them had it.
It began to become suffocating, itchy. One time, Changkyun had thought once, two, five times if it would be that bad just to scratch his feet a little. And he did, and there was blood on his fingers and his desperate mom warning him for the twentieth time that "he couldn't scratch his feet" or it wouldn't heal. It was a lie, though, because it never healed. His feet trapped in his hot school shoes didn't let it happen, and if he switched to sandals, the sun would make everything worse. He was chained to it. So he decided to hide his chains.
He received all kinds of nicknames during high school. Once he was even called abnormal just because he would never take off his coat, even if it was the hottest of the days. On school trips he would love to take it off and let the sun kiss his shoulders and… arms. When Changkyun remembered his arms, his disgusting arms, he would automatically give up on the idea. He could endure his life hiding it, no problem. If no one touches, then it's fine.
He would even face hours under the shower, rubbing his arms with all the exfoliating soaps and lotions and anything else that seemed fucking functional to pluck his skin away from his body and let a new, soft layer grow in place. But it didn't work, and after that his arms were only itchier, bumpier, rougher, horrible.
But eventually Changkyun fell in love. He fell in love with a boy, his college friend, who had soft and pretty and normal skin and smelled exactly like sea breeze. Maybe he enjoyed the beach. Maybe he would hate to date Changkyun, who couldn't enjoy beaches because of his dermatitis. But maybe the boy was also in love with him. And maybe the boy kissed him with so much passion on the lips that he would even forget about everything.
The boy's name was Kihyun.
And Kihyun wanted to touch him.
But how could he let Kihyun do this? What if it made Kihyun disgusted? How would he explain Kihyun that his skin hurt with excessive touch? How would he explain Kihyun that the wounds on his feet couldn't get in touch with the sea? How could he drag his precious Kihyun into the mess he was?
But when Kihyun took off his sweatshirt and stared at the marks and rough skin from his arms and wounds from his feet, he smiled. He told Changkyun how beautiful he was and how perfectly normal his skin was. He slid his palms in Changkyun's arms and showed them to him right after, saying that everything was just fine. He kissed his arms softly and whispered that he was perfect every time he could. Kihyun was not disgusted of his skin at all.
"And you shouldn't be too, Changkyun."