love you later | yeonbin ✓

027

"Hideous, isn't it?"

Soobin frowns at Yeonjun's tone, drags his gaze up to meet Yeonjun's own, and his eyes echo the agony in his voice, the sadness, and the fear that he's fighting so hard to keep off of his face. It hurts Soobin to see him so insecure, reduced to this when Yeonjun is so vibrant, larger than life. It's instinct more than anything else, a desire to chase away Yeonjun's pain, that makes him shake his head before he even has the chance to form a single word.

"It happened when I was a kid," Yeonjun says quietly, rubbing at the empty space on his finger. Soobin watches Yeonjun's hands fidget, wants to reach out again to make him still, give him some reassurance, but he doesn't know if he's allowed.

Because where the ring was resting against Yeonjun's knuckles just moments ago, is now a ring of scarred skin. It's darker, slightly patchy, and Soobin is no expert but he's pretty sure it's a burn scar. It stands out against Yeonjun's soft skin, and yet it's beyond Soobin to ever call any part of Yeonjun ugly. It feels sacrilegious to even mutter those two words in the same sentence.

"I was... maybe nine or ten years old, I'm not quite sure honestly. Remember how I said I had no family?"

Soobin only nods, doesn't want to disrupt Yeonjun when he can tell how deeply he's paying for every single word to make it past his lips.

"Well, my mom was a witch, too. Her magic revolved around soul strings, too. She could help reconnect them, something that is even rarer than my type of magic. But if you'd known her you'd know how much it suited her. So she helped people whose strings got severed, for whatever reason. There's this saying that our magic is an extension of ourselves, that it has to do with affinity more than anything else. And I truly believe that was the case for her." Yeonjun swallows hard, pauses as he bites his lip for a second. When he continues, each word feels even heavier than the one before. "But there was this other witch... I know her name was Chaewon, but I don't know if she's still alive. She could cut soul strings."

"Like you," Soobin whispers.

"Like me." Soobin doesn't like the bitterness that paints the corners of the smile flickering across Yeonjun's lips. It makes him wish he could reel his words back in, that he'd just kept his mouth shut, but Yeonjun just sighs and continues. "She did it carelessly. Would cut anyone's string if they were willing to pay her. She was greedy, didn't waste a single thought on what it would do to people. She didn't care to listen to people's problems, cut strings when it wasn't necessary. A lot of people started to regret their decision when they realized they loved their soulmate, still. Sometimes they were just going through a rough patch or had a really nasty fight. People are careless like that sometimes."

Soobin is hanging on to every single word, feels like things he's been wondering about for so long finally slide into place. Suddenly, it becomes a little clearer why Yeonjun is so careful with his magic, why he won't cut strings of people whose soulmates are still alive.

"My mom used to patch up so many of those severed strings. She didn't mind, but she also didn't like what it did to people, you know? I didn't get it as a kid of course, and when I asked her about it, she said sometimes there are worse things getting broken in the process than just the string itself. And so one day, she confronted Chaewon. Told her that she was being greedy, used her magic for evil. She never liked my mom because she could undo her magic, but that just... tipped things over, I think."

It doesn't escape Soobin that Yeonjun's hands have started to tremble again, that he's avoiding his eyes, how the little tremor in Yeonjun's voice was not completely covered up.

"You don't have to tell me if it's too much."

"No, no, I want to," Yeonjun says, some of the strength seeping back into his voice. "Anyway. So Chaewon was upset at my mom, and apparently, there were some people who demanded their money back or whatever else they paid with after they saw my mom who helped them with no payment. And then she appeared at our home. I don't... quite know what exactly happened. I had heard them fight so many times but my mom always told me to stay away, and I did." He sniffles a little, can no longer mask the tears that are starting to gather on his lower lashline. "I was hiding in my bedroom, tried not to listen, but then suddenly there was this loud boom. And then my bedroom door flew open and there was Chaewon."