Chapter Text
His feet hurt, and he's cold.
He limps to the dorm room, shivering as he quietly declines going to the hospital and just pushes his way inside the room.
"There's a first aid kit in the cabinet in the bathroom," Director Yoon says from behind him, her hand hovering over Jeong-yo's shoulder as she guides him through the doorframe. "Take care of the wounds on your feet before they get infected, alright?"
Jeong-yo can't do anything but nod, feeling numb.
The door closes behind him, the room engulfed in the darkness of the night again, only lit up by the shining sliver of light coming from the hallway.
Jeong-yo takes one, two, three steps inside, and then his feet give up on him, and he slides down on his knees on the floor, ungraceful in his fall.
He curls into a ball right there, shoving his head between his arms and holding himself tightly.
His eyes burn with the urge to cry, and his teeth click together in the burning chill of the room and his wet clothes.
It takes him a moment, a long, agonizing moment where time stretches and his fingers feel numb and too cold and his pocket is wet and sticky and too hard to reach inside; but he gets his phone out eventually.
"The phone is turned off. After the beep, you will be connected to voicemail, and-"
He doesn't hear much after the first sentence, his ears ringing too loud for any other voice to register to his brain.
He can't stop himself from crying anymore, tears finding their way on his face as he sobs.
His phone slips from his numb fingers, the battery slowly dying as Jeong-yo stares at the screen through watery eyes.
Dad
He stares at the name flashing on the screen until it goes black.
Outside, he can hear the rain still going strong, hitting the window relentlessly, sending a shiver through his body with every loud, unforgiving crack of thunder.
Jeong-yo isn't sure how long he just lies there and listens to it, long past his phone screen going dark, and the light in the hallway turning off, and his eyes going dry.
Everything hurts.
His face, where he got slapped, his fingers, aching numbly from the cold, his side and stomach, where he got kicked several times, his feet, stinging in pain from running around so much in just his socks.
His heart.
And then he feels it, slowly, barely registering the sensation at first.
Fingers, tapping lightly, pressing gently down into skin. His soulmate is touching his feet.
Jeong-yo almost snorts. He hears a wet laugh coming from his throat.
He always does this; Jeong-yo's soulmate. Whenever Jeong-yo is hurt, he feels his soulmate tapping gentle fingers on the exact spot on his own body, gentle, soft, slow, pressing into the skin there.
You're hurting here. Get it checked. Take care of it.
It's become their little sign over the years.
His soulmate doesn't get hurt as much as Jeong-yo does, but Jeong-yo always makes sure to return the gesture whenever he does.
He does it now too; tapping a gentle finger on his own cheek, where he can feel a small cut on his soulmate's skin, stinging sharply.
And then on his sides, where his soulmate is cold and shivering. He gets the gesture back almost immediately, as if his soulmate was waiting for it. A tap on his cheek, where he can still feel the pain of the hard slap he got, and on his busted lip.
And then his sides.
You're cold and shivering too.
Seems like they've both been left out in the rain tonight. Jeong-yo wonders if his soulmate is close.
Are you here? Walking through the same city? Getting soaked under the pouring rain and hurt in the same streets I did?
He wishes he could ask him.
He taps on his chest instead. Three taps, right over where his heart is beating, longer than the ones they use to signal You're hurt here.
I'm here. You're here. We're here.
It's the only way they can comfort each other.
Jeong-yo smiles when he gets three taps back in response, right over his soulmate's heart, each tap lasting just long enough to be different from their hurt signal taps.
He gets himself off the floor then. He can't ignore his pain when his soulmate tells him to take care of it, can he?
Thankfully, they can't actually feel each other's pain as their own, like Jeong-yo has heard some people can with their soulmates. Shared pain, they call it.
Jeong-yo doesn't want his soulmate to be in pain because of him.
But still, Jeong-yo worries when his soulmate gets hurt. He knows that the feeling is mutual, and he doesn't like to make his soulmate worry.
So he gets up, and drags himself to the door next to the entrance that he guesses is the bathroom.
The shower has the hottest water Jeong-yo has showered with in years. He can't remember when exactly, but their water heater broke a few years ago, and dad never got it fixed.
And Jeong-yo always had bigger problems to deal with than fixing it himself. Like not starving to death or getting robbed and gutted like a fish in some alley.
He leaves his wet clothes there on the bathroom floor, which looks cleaner than he does right now, if he's honest with himself, and stays under the hot water until his freezing bones stop feeling like stones inside him.
The water pressure is amazing too.
He finds the first aid kit afterwards, taking care of his bleeding feet the best he can and then wrapping them up so he doesn't get his blood everywhere.
More than he already has.
Which is Tomorrow Jeong-yo's problem to deal with.
Today Jeong-yo has already dealt with way too much and would just like to lie in the frankly comfy looking bed and pass out.
There's towels in the bathroom too, and he dries himself as he looks around the room.
There's no clothes.
It's fine. It's whatever. He can sleep naked for now, until his clothes dry.
He wraps himself in the blanket like a kimbap, and curls around himself in the bed, hugging a pillow to his chest and putting his head on the other one.
His soulmate feels much more comfortable now too, his sides no longer shivering with a chill. His cheek has stopped stinging too.
He sends Jeong-yo three taps on the heart, and Jeong-yo sends him three sleepy taps back before he passes out.
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He wakes up a few hours later, blinking sluggishly in the dim, gray bluish light of the early morning coming through the window.
It takes him a moment to remember where he is.
His limbs feel even more frozen than they did last night, and he groans as he shoves his head under the blanket.
They have such a fancy ass building as a dorm but they couldn't afford a heater?
"So this is why there was three blankets in the closet," he mutters, groggy, between the click click of his teeth.
It's like dragging himself up a mountain with glass shreds stuck in his feet, but Jeong-yo eventually gets out from under the blanket to go and put his clothes back on before he freezes to death.
His clothes are thankfully dry, but they're cold from the chill of the room, so he grabs the other two blankets from the closet on his way and then wraps himself in all of them.
Sometime between cursing out how stingy these rich people are and shivering under his blanket cocoon, he falls sleep again, and then jumps up at the sound of a knock at his door.
His first thought is that Mr. Kim's guys found him again, and he scrambles up from under the blankets and towards the window.
He has one leg and his entire upper body out the window before he notices that he knows the voice behind the door that is calling his name.
"Jeong-yo-ya, are you awake? Director Yoon told me she brought you here last night."
That's... that's that guy, the guy that was in the room when Director Yoon said she wanted him in her school, the one who chased Jeong-yo halfway across their school campus like a crazy guy.
Jeong-yo pulls himself back in the room, hissing as his feet land back on the floor.
He was in such a hurry to run that he didn't even notice how much his feet hurt.
He limps towards the door as the guy keeps calling for him, opening it and glaring outside through it.
"Do you know what time it is?" He asks.
Frankly, Jeong-yo himself doesn't. But it's the principle of the thing, okay? It's the ass crack of dawn and he had a long fucking night yesterday.
"It's 9 in the morning," the guy tell him cheerfully, smiling at Jeong-yo like they're tight or something. "I brought you breakfast."
Okay. He can come in.
Jeong-yo opens the door for him, moving out of the way so the guy can come in.
Breakfast, turns out to be soup and rice with a fried egg on top, all still warm. The smell takes over the entire room when Jeong-yo opens the bag, and he nearly faints at the heavenly aura.
He looks up at the guy with stars in his eyes. "You got all of this? For me?"
"I made it," he tells him with another smile. "Sit. Eat."
Jeong-yo does just that, before the guy can change his mind or something.
He's halfway through his breakfast, a full spoon of rice in his mouth when he notices the guy pacing around.
"What?" He mumbles through his full mouth.
"Huh?"
"What are you doing?" Jeong-yo points at him with his spoon. "No, wait, actually... why are you even here? What do you want from me?"
"Eat your food first, then I'll tell you."
Fine. Whatever. Jeong-yo isn't going to complain about getting free stuff.
"Why didn't you turn the heater on?" The guy asks, suddenly, looking at Jeong-yo with a small frown.
"There's a heater?" Jeong-yo asks slowly as he swallows around a mouthful of rice and egg, looking back at him and then turning to look at the room.
Turns out, there is in fact a heater. Jeong-yo tells himself he doesn't feel bad for cursing all these rich people out over nothing.
Director Yoon could've told him there was a heater last night. And she didn't. It's on her, okay?
The guy, Mr Do, as he finally introduces himself, turns the heater on for him and shows Jeong-yo how to do it himself, and how to turn it off.
And when Jeong-yo finishes his food, they sit down and talk about how this whole thing is going to work, and then Mr Do tells him to write down anything he needs so the school can get it for him.
"I'll be here tomorrow morning with your new school uniform and everything else you wrote down, and you'll start classes in a few days when we finish getting you transferred."
Apparently along with his scholarship, they'll also be giving him a small monthly allowance for meals and books and other necessities that he'll need, which is nice.
Mr Do gives Jeong-yo his number after they talk, and then he leaves.
Jeong-yo stays up for a while afterwards, sitting in the middle of his blanket cocoon that he doesn't need anymore, thinking about everything Mr Do told him.
He doesn't exactly trust Mr Do, or director Yoon, even though they're helping him right now. They're practically strangers to him, he met both of them yesterday, and they're both clearly rich and powerful people.
Jeong-yo isn't sure what they want from him, or if he can give them whatever it is they want, but he doesn't really have any other options right now.
He sighs as he lays back down.
"Whatever. I'll think of something later."
His phone is out of battery, and he doesn't have a charger with him, and there's nothing else to do either, so he decides to laze around and just sleep for the rest of the day.
‿̩͙⊱༻☂︎༺⊰‿̩͙
Mr Do shows up with his uniform and stuff at the ass crack of dawn again.
Jeong-yo pushes down the urge to glare at him. The guy is holding a bag of food again.
He doesn't stay long this time, just giving Jeong-yo everything and leaving after making sure he doesn't need anything else.
"Call me if I missed anything," he says, smiling again, and then waves and closes the door behind himself.
"Why does he keep smiling at me," Jeong-yo mutters under his breath as he ignores everything else to open the bag of food.
It's warm, just like it was yesterday, and it smells incredible. Jeong-yo eats it like he's being chased.
He kind of is though.
Mr Kim's guys could jump in through the window at any moment.
He goes through his new stuff afterwards, throwing the new clothes on his bed, shoving some in the closet, grabbing his new books to see what he'll be studying in the new fancy school.
There's a phone charger too.
Jeong-yo has embarrassingly little stuff in here, and the room is also very small, but it takes him a whole ten minutes to find his phone in the mess he's managed to create in just one day.
"Mom would have a fit if she saw this." He shakes his head with a small laugh as he finally finds his phone.
He has nothing better to do, so he just sits there and stares at his phone as it charges. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
He turns it on the second it hits 2%, impatiently waiting for the screen to light up. He has a ton of messages from Mr Kim and some of the other guys who work for him.
Mostly threatening texts, and a few voice mail.
He also has a couple of texts from Hyeon Cheol, worried and a little angry, asking if he's okay.
And nothing from his dad. Jeong-yo calls him again.
It goes to voice mail.
He squeezes the phone in his hand, biting the inside of his cheek as he texts him.
[Where are you? Are you okay?]
Nothing. The texts stay unread.
Tap, tap, tap.
Three long taps on his soulmate's heart, and then a soft tap on his eyes.
Jeong-yo suddenly realizes that he's crying. His eyes are stinging with it, and his heart too.
It hurts.
His hand is shaking as he brings it up to his heart to send three taps back. A thank you this time.
Thank you for being the only comfort I have right now.
The only comfort Jeong-yo has had in a long time.
"I wish I could thank you in person," he whispers, placing his palm over his heart, feeling the beating of his own heart and wishing he could feel his soulmate's instead.
I wish you could comfort me in person.
He can't though, Jeong-yo doesn't even know how old his soulmate is, what his name is, where he lives, if he's even in the same country as him.
The only thing he knows is that he's a boy, and that he's kind. To Jeong-yo at least.
He has a soft touch, and he rarely gets hurt, but his stomach is always tied into a tight, almost angry knot. Jeong-yo's mom had a guess that the knot in his stomach was anxiety.
Jeong-yo hadn't known what she meant, not back then when he was younger and she was still with him.
He knows now. He has felt that tight knot himself through the years without her by his side.
His soulmate has been experiencing anxiety for much longer than Jeong-yo though, almost for all the years Jeong-yo has been able to feel him.
He wonders why. Does he have family problems? Money problems? Is he being bullied? Has he lost a parent or both?
He goes hungry a lot, but not in the way Jeong-yo does sometimes. Jeong-yo goes starved, he gets kicked out of home every few months when his dad is in one of his bad moods again, he has to fend for himself in the streets, begging Mr Kim to take him in every time even though he always tells him it'll be the last time.
His soulmate's hunger feels more... intentional. He eats just enough to not die, but not much more than that.
Or maybe that's just Jeong-yo's imagination. He can't really tell after all, because they don't share feelings.
His phone suddenly starts vibrating in his hand, the screen lighting up with a call.
For a moment, his heart lights up along with, lighting up with hope.
It's not his dad.
It's just Hyeon.
"Ya, you brat! Why haven't you been answering my texts and calls?" He hisses in Jeong-yo's ear the second the call connects.
"My battery died." Jeong-yo sighs, throwing himself on the bed and lying on his back.
He stares at the ceiling as Hyeon chews him out.
"Are you alright? Did you get away safely?"
His feet sting with the reminder of his escape.
No. He hadn't gotten away safely. Bitterly, he remembers the hotel that turned him away, in the pouring rain, in the middle of the night, with no care that he had blood and bruises on his face.
We don't accept minors.
Should Jeong-yo had just gone and died in a ditch? Are minors not people with needs? He just wanted a fucking room.
"Hmm," he hums quietly, nodding even though Hyeon can't see him, "I'm alright."
He hears a sigh of relief from him at that, and he feels a small smile shaping his lips up.
"Good, that's good. Stay away from your house for now and lay low. I made up a story about you skipping town, and Mr Kim seems to have bought it for now."
"Okay," Jeong-yo whispers, "thank you."
"Yeah," Hyeon says quietly, as awkward as ever about handling gratitude. "He has a couple guys watching your house, but if you want anything from there, I can get it for you."
He does in fact need a few stuff from home. Mostly clothes. And underwear. Because he didn't feel comfortable telling Mr Do to buy him things like that.
"Send me a text of the things you want and I'll go get them for you first thing tomorrow. We can meet up somewhere so I can give them to you."
"Hyung-"
"Don't tell me where you are."
Jeong-yo closes his mouth.
He wasn't about to tell him. He knows better.
He knows Hyeon cares for him, but at the end of the day... he has his own life and his own problems. Nobody works for a loan shark like Mr Kim for no reason.
If it comes down it, Jeong-yo isn't sure if Hyeon would choose to help him instead of saving himself. It's not Hyeon's fault, Jeong-yo doesn't blame him, he's barely a few years older than Jeong-yo himself and has no home and no family and his only income is through Mr Kim.
"Let's meet at that food truck you always take me for lunch," he says, not mentioning what Hyeon said.
"You brat. You planning on eating out of my pocket again?"
"Yeah."
Hyeon laughs.
"Are you safe wherever you are? No one is asking you to do anything weird, right?"
"Anything weird like what?" Jeong-yo almost snorts.
"I don't know! Like working in a strip club or flying planes with drugs in you stomach or something!"
"You watch too many weird shows, Hyung."