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Kim Dokja’s been having some trouble recently.
With the weather getting worse, the Flood was happening more often. That, of course, led to issues with his living space.
Though ‘some’ was quite an understatement. He’d finally made a cozy home for himself beneath the beautiful, healthy crops, tended to by some benevolent human with long, brown hair. He thought he’d be safe here for a while. The crops protected him from those damned birds. And those terrible, biting bugs too. He lucked out finding this spot. It was so much better than the spot he had near the unending gray pathways. Inching along those paths always felt like he were rubbing his entire body on a pile of rocks.
Though, as usual, once things finally went his way, they went awry immediately after.
The Flood forced him to surface for air. Right after he had worked his way into the soft, supple dirt and burrowed himself deep in the earth’s matter. Right after he had painstakingly burrowed around pebbles and soil and roots just to dig a home out for himself.
It was likely the third time this week. The fact that it was getting colder didn’t help either. Not at all. Rather, it made his slimy, wormy body shiver each time he made contact with the water from the Flood.
He had to surface as soon as it hit. He didn’t really want to drown to death, after all. That would be terrible. Even more after he’d finally found a comfortable place to make his home. It really was naive of him to think he’d be gifted a single moment of peace.
He felt himself shake like a blade of grass as soon as his body made it to the surface again. He really would never get used to how cold it was.
A drop of water pelted him on his little wormy head. Then another. Then two more.
“Ouch,” he said.
He looked around him. Nearby, there was a crop. A large one, one that the human tended to very often. Its leaves swayed in the wind, its stem shivering just like him, and he found himself enticed. Under those huge leaves, he’d surely be safe from this tumultuous weather.
He made up his mind—he’d camp there till the Flood ended.
Kim Dokja inched his way there, the rocks digging into his body. A litany of ‘ows’ and all their derivates escaped his mouth as he squirmed and slithered to his destination. Sometimes, he really longed to have those extra appendages those humans had.
Just before another drop of water pelts him in the face, he makes it there. The leaf sways above him, its shadow shifting. Water hits the leaf, but thankfully it doesn’t hit him, now that he’s under it. It sometimes shook scarily as if it were about to collapse, but Kim Dokja chose to ignore it.
Some foreboding feeling hit Kim Dokja. It wasn’t the constant thump of water on the ground. It wasn’t the sound of water draining into the tunnels he painfully dug yesterday. It wasn’t the sound of his wormy tears streaming down his face as he mourned the loss of his home again.
Maybe it was the rumbling that was vibrating under him. Kim Dokja barely managed to dodge as something erupted through the soil, right where his tail was placed. He inched away as quickly as he could, still trying to remain shielded under the leaf. He pondered the risk of burrowing deep down to flee from whatever it was behind him, but he turned around just in time.
He would be able to recognize that unwrinkled wormy skin anywhere. The slime on that damn bastard’s face still glistened as bright as it would on one of those warmer days. His complexion was perfect too, somehow. His skin was a beautiful pink. Yoo Joonghyuk. That motherfucker.
Yoo Joonghyuk was about three inches away from him. He said something, but it was drowned out by the constant plip, plip, plop of the Flood, the thuds wracking through the leaf above.
“WHAT?” Kim Dokja yelled. The Flood was too loud. Either way, whatever Yoo Joonghyuk was trying to say, Kim Dokja doubted he wanted to hear it. This guy was always bad news.
Yoo Joonghyuk then began moving. Kim Dokja first thought he was cold, or had some sort of sickness, but when it went on for more than a few moments, he realized he was trying to communicate something through body language.
Whatever squirmy worm posturing or mating dance that was—Kim Dokja didn’t buy it. Not at all. He wasn’t convinced. Kim Dokja began to mirror his movements, squirming like a madworm, but Yoo Joonghyuk only began to dance harder.
What the fuck.
After three more spins, Kim Dokja nearly collapsed straight onto the dirt. Why the hell was he entertaining this guy? It was time to go closer and see what his problem was.
He inched closer to Yoo Joonghyuk, close enough to see the texture on his unmarred skin. Yoo Joonghyuk truly was the most beautiful worm he’d ever laid his eyes upon in his life. Whatever bullshit he would say would be paid back tenfold just from the image of his sleek elongated body.
“WHAT?” Kim Dokja repeated, right beside Yoo Joonghyuk’s head.
Yoo Joonghyuk bashed his head on the ground.
“Don’t yell,” he hissed.
“Sorry, sorry. You should’ve come closer instead of doing that weird shit.”
Yoo Joonghyuk ignored him like the bastard he was. “I was trying to tell you to group up. I know you’re cold.”
“Yeah?” Kim Dokja didn’t know what he was getting at. This guy never ever got to the point.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s head, covered in dirt, remained still. It was clear he was trying to phrase his next sentence in the most palatable way possible. Or in a way that would piss Kim Dokja off the most. It seemed like no matter the path he took, it would always converge to the latter option. “We… can share body heat.”
“Uh… what?” Kim Dokja didn’t know if he was hearing this correctly. Maybe the water droplets had hit his head too hard. “What?”
“You fool,” Yoo Joonghyuk said. “What do you not understand?”
Instead of waiting for a response, Yoo Joonghyuk took what he thought was the next best course of action. Which was assaulting Kim Dokja.
Though calling it an assault was a bit harsh. It was more like he slithered on top of Kim Dokja. Unluckily, Kim Dokja was startled as soon as he felt the cold, slimy feeling of another slide across him, the weighted feeling even weirder. He began thrashing like crazy.
“The fuck?”
“Stop!” Yoo Joonghyuk cried. His movements stopped, but Kim Dokja’s didn’t. He was swaying faster than a leaf in a windstorm. As soon as he came back to his senses, he realized he was tangled up in some weird worm ball with Yoo Joonghyuk.
“Shit,” he said.
“Kim Dokja. I will strangle you.”
Unfortunately, Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk were still tangled up, even after the rain ended.
Even worse, a human came up, somehow managing to see them both tangled up. Though it was better than being found by a bird, what happened next was arguably worse.
The black-haired human picked their tangled bodies up, inspecting them as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.
Those few moments, as he was lifted up high, higher than he’d ever been—they were terrifying. He wanted to vomit. Was this what birds had to deal with? He felt a little bad for them.
“Kim Dokja, stop screaming.” Yoo Joonghyuk said.
Kim Dokja hadn’t even realized he was. He was too preoccupied with the wind blowing against his face, the human’s fingers spreading an uncomfortable warmth through his tail.
It—the human, said something—Kim Dokja wouldn’t know what, he didn’t speak human, after all—and then released them.
Thankfully, the human was kind enough to place them back down on the soil instead of dropping them from triple the plant’s height.
Unthankfully, the human wasn’t kind enough to untangle them. Kim Dokja wanted to scream again, to get the human’s attention back on them, but Yoo Joonghyuk’s glare(?) stopped him.