BRIDGES. － a.yt + j.ws

16: paper bridges

"You're here."

Wooseok beamed, incapable of containing the sheer joy that overcame him at seeing the mildly up-turned edge to those bleeding lips.

"Of course I am," He replied, and for an instant he thought back to when they'd met for the second time, and he came to realise that somehow everything had changed between them, morphed into something else.

Yuto wasn't sitting that night, rather he was crouched by the the river's edge, forearms on his knees that were pressed to his chest and head now swivelled to the side to watch as Wooseok drew nearer.

It was with a frustrated sigh but a shard of concern in his stomach that Wooseok expressed his disapproval at the other's state: a ratty black zip-up, ripped jeans that seemed old enough to be genuinely torn and the same cracking sneakers that Yuto always wore. His slender neck was bare, his sharp, thin figure scarcely able to fight off the chill, his ankles purple and blue, fingers matching in colour and trembling.

"I told you to dress better," Wooseok almost grumbled, despite the way his heart leaped at the way Yuto's eyes glimmered looking up at him.

"I told you I don't really feel the cold."

The younger ignored the reply, proceeding to slide off his own thick gloves as those vacant beads of black watched in silence.

"Take them," Wooseok said, bending down and taking hold of Yuto's dry hands. They felt to be made of marble, stiff and cold, and upon noticing that Yuto could hardly bend his joints at all, Wooseok held one glove in his mouth as he fit the other down the older's right hand.

Yuto remained silent throughout the action, eyes blinking in bewilderment, flickering from his now gloved palm to the eyes that were intent on him, watching as fingers worked the second garment on with some struggle. Once both were in place, Yuto tugged his hands away and flipped them around before his eyes, as though they were a novelty and rare to see on his person.

Wooseok, however, had decided that they were not enough and gradually began unravelling the hefty scarf from around his neck, briefly shivering at the immediate loss of heat and comfort that it provided, but proceeding to drape it around Yuto's own nonetheless. It was only when the softness of the material had come into contact with frozen skin that Yuto had jerked out of his stupor, head snapping to look back at Wooseok's soothing smile as he worked the scarf around the older's neck.

Yuto didn't dare blink, sight fixated on the other's red-tipped nose and strawberry-tinted cheeks, waiting for the moment he'd reciprocate the stare. When Wooseok did, time seemingly fell still, static encasing them in a bubble of their own world, and then the brunet exhaled, and the cloud of his breath danced along Wooseok's flushed skin, warm and delicate.

"Do you feel better now?"

Yuto instinctively gave a nod, despite only having vaguely processed the words uttered to him.

"It smells of you."

He regretted allowing his tongue a mind of its own when he saw the younger dip his head, the scarlet on his flesh deepening and growing impossibly vibrant. Belatedly he dropped his sight away, letting it fall to the sparkling river, unbeknownst to him that the action made a spark of jealousy appear within Wooseok.

"How about we walk around?" He spoke up, almost desperately wanting Yuto to pay attention to him, "It's too cold to just sit still."

Yuto gave a low hum, eyes flickering to the moon and then to the stars in the younger's irises. He swallowed.

It was an odd feeling, something that sent a vibration of fear along his vertebrae and a tingle of excitement to his fingertips, and it would happen whenever the two of them would meet one another's gaze. Their sights would lock and form some sort of bond that was incredibly hard to break the longer it was held, and so with somewhat panic, Yuto tore himself away.