BRIDGES. － a.yt + j.ws

13: crushed rubies

"You're here."

Wooseok's heart twitched with surprise.

"Of course I am," He replied, words lilting with slight befuddlement.

He had yet to sit beside the other but Yuto had known it was him, dead gaze set upon the running water, shoulders hardly rising with his timid breaths. Wooseok looked at him as he lowered himself onto the ground, patting out the fine layer of snow around him for a lack of anything to do that would spur on a conversation.

He had so much to ask, so much he wanted to know, but when his irises drank in the sight of glowing skin and bleeding lips, all thoughts temporarily seized.

His pulse quickened, oddly fearful of speaking and ruining whatever tranquil state they had instantly found themselves in: a state of static, the constant hush of the river becoming white noise to ears that scarcely listened.

"You －" He lifted a hand, tapping his index finger against his own bottom lip, chapped from the brisk wind, "You're bleeding."

Wooseok tried his best to not appear hurt when Yuto turned to him as if his presence had already been forgotten, bleak pupils meeting those that dilated, his movements mimicking those of the other and touching his mouth, only to remove his hand and glance at his pale, trembling fingertip stained with a ruby red.

He looked at the pearl of blood with a disinterested stare prior to proceeding to lick it off with a quick swipe of his tongue, seemingly uncaring of Wooseok's marginally furrowing brows. The taller watched in silence as Yuto licked at the cuts in his lip again, lapping away any trace of blood until his flesh was merely a shade redder than usual and glistening as though studded with gems.

"I bite my lips a lot," He eventually said, voice languid and monotonous, "The cuts get worse with the cold."

Wooseok hummed, though after a moment of hesitancy, and then shifted upon the ground, feeling the wetness of the snow seep through his jeans and chill his skin, causing a pain akin to that of countless needle pricks going into his thighs. He ignored it, looked to the motionless brunet at his side and then to the moon.

He steeled himself, gloved hands in his lap clenching around each other.

"Did you stop writing letters because of me?" He attempted a furtive glance at the man but hurriedly snapped his sight back to the comfort that was the starred sky when he found Yuto to be already staring directly at him. "To the － To the moon, I mean."

Wooseok felt that his diffidence was quite pathetic, and it only increased when the silence prolonged. His teeth went to gnaw on his lip just as his right hand lifted to tug at the scarf around his neck, but his actions were halted when a whisper drifted towards him, faint and feeble, but there.

"Don't," Yuto said, tired eyes strained on Wooseok's mouth that was dangerously close to being abused, "You don't want to end up like me. It hurts."

At the words of warning, Wooseok apprehensively obeyed, shutting his jaw and roughly sniffing as an excuse to break away his held gaze with the male. Yuto's eyes were vacant, an abandoned home in a city of ghosts, but they were terrifyingly intense, enough to hold Wooseok's heart in an iron grip and cause a tsunami of ineffable sensations to override his every rational thought. Wooseok couldn't comprehend whether he was scared or intrigued by the other; possibly both.

"Then why do you do it?" He forced out, almost rebelliously.

He never received an answer to either of his questions, so he casted a sideways look to the brunet who blinked at him with a deadpan expression, features stitched into nothingness. Yuto then peered down at the river, almost as if it were a new sight and one of curiousity.