When Kai first sees Kei in the woods, he doesn't have time to think about what he can see. He can't worry about that now; he has to get Kei away from the people who want to do who-knows-what with him. No one else is going to do it, so the responsibility falls to Kai (even if Kei abandoned him when they were younger; that doesn't matter now, there are lives on the line).
When they eventually get going, he has some time to think about what he saw. He had only seen Kei that morning, but he had changed in a way that Kai couldn't quite place. It's so frustrating that he has half a mind to yell at the aj—human—on the back of his bike and demand that he tell him what had changed in the hours that they had spent apart.
When they stop because Kei has to take a piss, in a way, Kai is so relieved that he can't put it into words because this basic need alone should prove that Kei is a real human, not whatever monster the media portrayed the ajins to be. But when Kei's back is turned and he's walking into the bushes, Kai can see something on the back of his neck and he wonders when Kei had the chance to get a scar.
Then they're attacked and Kai wishes that this would all just stop because don't they know that Kei's already died? Don't they know that there's only so much of this that he can take? And then they get away, but just barely, and they get away with two more reminders that the rest of the world will never view Kei as a human again and Kai doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what's going on because since when did Kei have so many scars?
And just when he thinks that there can't possibly be anything worse that could happen today, they're attacked again and Kai nearly dies but he can't worry about that right now because Kei can't die and if there were ever a more cruel fate than death then the ajins would know, wouldn't they? But then Kei's leg is broken and Kai's prepared to carry him until either of them dies and he's just about to get their attacker's bike so he can do just that until he sees Kei grab the knife that the attacker threw on the floor and his heart runs faster than his legs and his eyes are wider than his mouth when Kei gets up and walks to the bike Kai had abandoned for him and he wonders when Kei's throat had the time to scar.
They get to the place in the mountains where Kai plans on hiding Kei while all this blows over (but he's starting to doubt that it will blow over at all and nothing scares him more). It's the first time he's had a chance to properly look at Kei and he almost falls over in shock.
There's a large scar on Kei's neck, right over where his windpipe would be; there's scars all up and down his arms, totally random, but each one scaring him more than the last; there's a huge scar on his face, taking up the area around his mouth, his right eye, his right ear, all along his forehead; his right eye is faded and blind and Kai can't help but stare in horror at what he can see.
Kei walks to the sink and the mirror and looks in his own eyes like nothing's wrong but there's so much that's wrong and Kai doesn't understand why Kei can't see that since the last time they had seen each other his body has been through so much pain, so much suffering, and he's sure that all these scars he can see are ripped right through Kei's very being and Kai would love it so much if he could take some of that pain away but he knows he can't and that kills him.
And when Kai wakes up in the morning and Kei isn't there, he can only hope and pray that when they meet again, he can't see any more scars.
He's wrong.
(A/N: I drew what Kai sees when he looks at Kei. Hope my drawing skills are satisfactory! 😸)
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