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‘That fool should be-’ Just as You Joonghyuk reached the rooftop, there stood the man in the white coat he’d been looking for. He was giving him his back, his head hunched looking down at something he was holding. As Yoo Joonghyuk drew closer he could see the familiar light of the smartphone casting soft shadows over the man’s face. Yet his face remained always vague enough to be forgotten the moment you looked away.
“Kim Dokja”
The other didn't answer. When he finally reached his side, just as he was about to call out again, he stopped.
‘Oh, he’s like that again…’— he sighed inwardly—’this fool…’
The taller thought while looking down at the blank expression on Kim Dokja's face as he stared at an equally blank notepad, slowly scrolling down with his thumb every now and then. Yoo Joonghyuk had gotten over the weirdness of the blank screen a long while ago, it was pointless even bothering to understand what the weird guy was even looking at. However it was unusual for him to be so unaffected by it, Kim Dokja could make very annoying expressions— enter his enraging little smirk— but he was also often reserved about his thoughts or feelings. That wasn't the case when he looked at his phone, those rare times that Yoo Joonghyuk had caught him he was always wearing some very heated or bothered expression.
So when Kim Dokja got like this…
It wasn't often, and it had happened only during peaceful periods, but it was troublesome since he was defenseless.
The taller one settled right beside him, not even bothering to shake the other from his trance-like state, he’d already tried and it didn't help. The breezy air swept through his hair, it was a calm night and the sky was clear. Thousands of stars shone down on the Earth, but Yoo Joonghyuk’s restless eyes only ever settled on one. Tonight it seemed dimmer than usual, perhaps because…
He glanced at the man next to him out of the corner of his eye, he was still swiping away mindlessly, Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes only rested on him for a moment before looking back up as if afraid that the star would disappear again.
After several minutes of silence and contemplation the door to the bare rooftop opened again. Yoo Joonghyuk suppressed an eyebrow twitch as he didn't even need to turn to tell who it was.
Light, but decisive steps beat the cold stone.
“Oiii, ugly squid, the kids have been worried sick looking all over for you”
Han Sooyung soon reached them, still talking. “Oi! It’d be nice to have an answ-”. She too, seemed to realize, just as she faced the man wearing the white coat. She looked between the two of them, before settling back on Kim Dokja.
“Again, really?” She grumbled, waving a hand over the phone's screen and then flicking the man on the forehead, receiving no response outside of a blank stare that lasted short of a few seconds before he got back to what he was doing. Whatever that was.
The woman huffed, her eyes narrowed and hands on her hips. “There really is no way of getting him out of that…”
It wasn't clear whether she was expecting an answer from Yoo Joonghyuk, as she followed up with another question, finally turning to him.
“Are you going to just stand here ‘till the idiot gets back?”
He nodded, she sighed then plopped onto the bench a few steps behind them. For someone who affirmed they couldn't care less, Han Sooyung made very contradicting choices. At least that was what You Joonghyuk had come to notice.
Kim Dokja, despite his weird state, had apparently taken notice of this action and had decided to copy it. Which wouldn't have been a problem, if only his depth perception was good. He’d slightly miscalculated and almost fell as he sat down, thankfully Yoo Joonghyuk had expected something like this and had caught him in time to help him settle properly in his seat.
Han Sooyung chuckled with a feline smirk, but she'd also shot her hand out to keep the robotic Kim Dokja from falling. The man took out his phone again, as if nothing had happened.
The woman shook her head in disbelief, even while in this state, the idiot wasn't able to let go of his beloved webnovel. Then her eyes moved to the other man in a matching black coat, who was still hovering in a quite unsettling way.
“Are you just gonna stand there for the next several hours? He doesn't look like he’s coming back any time soon” Han Sooyung muttered, poking Kim Dokja in the cheeck; earning, once again, little to no reaction.
Surprisingly enough, Yoo Joonghyuk heeded her words, sitting on the other end of the bench, setting his sword against his crossed legs. He looked up at the starry sky in silence.
Han Sooyung’s eyes remained for a couple more seconds on that perfect profile, briefly wondering what might be going on in that thick skull of his, before giving up. Her eyes instead dropped on Kim Dokja again, his empty gaze frozen on the screen.
Minutes passed and she soon couldn't bear the still atmosphere. That's when she remembered. She reached into her pocket taking out a ball-point pen she'd stolen from Sangah-ssi, just to bother her. She crouched in front of the older man, gently tilting his chin upward.
Yoo Joonghyuk noticed whatever she was doing, but didn't move to stop her nor tell her off. He stared as she drew two smooth, curling lines over Kim Dokja's lips. She tilted his chin again, to admire her art work and snickered under her breath.
Then she sat back on her side of the bench, with a knee up against her chest. It didn't take long for her to get bored again. She rested her head against her knee, looking sideways at the still absent man. A pout had formed on her face. The words Lee Seolwha had said came back to her, it had been when every member of the company had teamed up to ask the doctor about this issue. She'd said she'd heard about a similar disorder, although she couldn't tell for sure since she wasn't well-versed in the field of psychology.
“What do you think is going on in that messy brain of his?” She asked out loud, both to herself and to the only other person who could hear her. She softly poked Kim Dokja in the head, still earning nothing.
Yoo Joonghyuk stayed quiet, still looking up at the sky, had he even heard her?
She huffed, great company that arrogant protagonist was.
“Not good things” He finally answered after some time. Han Sooyung was surprised he'd even bothered with a response, despite it being a quite obvious one.
“Yeah, well, that's for sure” She mumbled back, she leaned forward in her seat, to peek past Kim Dokja at the man wearing the black coat. His face was as impenetrable as Gong Pildou’s fortress, so it was his default expression, but he seemed more thoughtful than usual. If Han Sooyung had to guess, using her author skills, then he was probably thinking about his own experience with the regressor depression.
Well, it was pretty similar, they both agreed. Yoo Joonghyuk watched the man from the corner of his eye, wondering if something like that would've happened to him had he kept on regressing. He'd suffered the first symptoms of the regressor depression and he’d also understood that if he kept on regressing it would've just gotten worse with each round. Would he have ended up having moments similar to this?
‘... probably’ He thought, inwardly sighing again before looking back up at the night sky. The star was still much dimmer than the others all around it, but he never took his eyes off of it. A part of him, a rather foolish one, couldn't help but wonder what sort of experience had caused Kim Dokja to develop this… protective mechanism, Lee Seolwha had called it so. The older man felt empty, a soulless shell whose insides had either left the body or had hidden somewhere deep within it, where no one could reach. That's what it looked like to Yoo Joonghyuk from outside at least, so in a conceptual way, he could understand it, if this truly was similar to his regressor depression.
Still, it was bothersome, having to look after that defenseless shell, not knowing when Kim Dokja would come and take control of himself back. Yoo Joonghyuk would say he was a patient man when it came to the right things, but… when his companion got like this, it was unnerving. He couldn't exactly tell why, or maybe he could but didn't want to. Perhaps because he didn't want to admit that a small part of him whispered… ‘What if he doesn't come back this time?’
He shook his head, that fool was making him think about foolish things. Still, he kept his eyes trained on the star, he looked almost anxious as if it could disappear out of thin air again.
Hours passed, between silence, Han Sooyung's bored grumbles and her cheekily scribbling all over Kim Dokja's face. She had even made an attempt at staining the protagonist’s perfect face but had earned a glare and almost found a blade pointed at her throat, talk about friendly. Well, it's not like Yoo Joonghyuk was in a much different state than the man sitting next to him, he was also quiet and never seemed to stop looking up at the sky as if something important would change or get lost if he did. Han Sooyung too tried to understand what exactly he was staring at, but gave up after several minutes. It was hard to find something in the limitless sky when you didn't know where to look. You could lose yourself for eternity, if you didn't know what you were looking for.
Some ideas even came up into her mind as she took out her own phone to write on her notepad. She sat there, masterfully stringing words together with her back pressed against Kim Dokja's side and her legs against her chest. Suddenly she felt a flinch against her back. Yoo Joonghyuk, whose shoulder brushed against the other man's, also felt it. He finally tore his eyes from the sky to see the shorter man blinking hard, his narrowed eyes scanning his surroundings in confusion. Only after a few seconds did he seem to register the two bodies pressing at his sides.
“God, you're finally awake? Took you long enough sleeping beauty” Han Sooyung commented sarcastically, sitting up properly.
“Sleeping beauty? I wasn't…” The confused look on Kim Dokja's scribbled face was so priceless that the woman didn't manage to suppress her smirk. Kim Dokja had, mostly, understood what had happened, but now he was confused again. He looked beside him at Yoo Joonghyuk's serious face then back at Han Sooyung's snickering one.
“What did you do?”
She didn't answer, her smile only turning into a full on grin. Yoo Joonghyuk had stopped paying them any mind and got up from his seat, sliding his sword back in place in his belt. Kim Dokja was back, so there was no need for him to remain any further. As he got up the other man grasped the corner of his sleeve to get his attention. He had a serious look on his doodled face, to which Yoo Joonghyuk masterfully kept a stoic expression.
“What did she do? Do I have something on my face?” He asked in a grave tone, pointing at his face. Yoo Joonghyuk simply nodded and walked away as Kim Dokja already turned enraged toward the mischievous woman. Indirect messages started flooding the space between the two. Only fueling one’s rage and making the other's excuses less and less believable.
“Just what did you draw?”
“Does it even matter? All you need to know is that you look even more ridiculous than usual”
“Is this what you do when I'm not present to myself? Can I even trust you with things anymore?”
“It's your fault, it took you so long to come back I got mortally bored! Do you want me to die or something?”
“I definitely don't want you messing with my face!”
“It's not like there's much to ruin, you're already ugly”
The two went back and forth, grabbing at each other's collars and hair. They looked like siblings arguing over petty things.
Yoo Joonghyuk turned one last time before heading down the stairs. His eyes quickly caught sight of his star again. Now it shone brighter, in his eyes, even brighter than those around it. It lit up the two arguing idiots, still in that heated quarrel of theirs as light blue messages exploded between them.
He silently observed the scene. That foolish part of him spoke up again from the back of his mind. He knew it was highly unlikely, impossible even, but he deeply wished for the star to reach the end of this story with him.