DANYOK: AFTER THE STORM

The Conversation: Dan and Yok 🤝🏻

Yok continues walking a few steps behind Dan, he watches him carefully and silently, despite being the same, something in Dan is different.

They head towards Dan's favorite park. A place full of paintings on the walls, some of which he made himself. They would even eat, but none of them are actually hungry and just want to talk and listen to each other.

Something noticeable about him is that he's a little thinner since the last time Yok spoke to him in person, but somehow less anxious, calmer...

When they arrived at the place, the two stopped and watched the paintings for a while, Yok didn't contemplate the place for long and then turned his attention to Dan, who continued looking at the paintings in absolute silence.

Until at one point he turns around and looks into Yok's eyes, who patiently lets him start the conversation at the moment he sees fit.

Dan: How have you been Yok?

Dan's question took Yok by surprise, he hadn't expected such a formality.

Yok: Are you seriously asking me that?
Dude you've been missing from the map all this time. How are you? Or rather, where have you been all this time?

Dan: Well, it's not hard to deduce, I was caught by the police who are allied with Tauí. In fact I was innocent thinking that I had lost them, they were actually watching me the whole time. Even when I met you again. They might even be keeping an eye on us right now

Yok: Are you serious? And what happened? Did they try to kill you?

Dan: That was not the objective, they were suspicious that I and you were planning something against Tauí again.
So they interrogated me for days, checked everything on my cell phone and made me tell my parents I was fine. I even think that the option of disappearing with me may have crossed their minds for good, but as Tauí is under the attention of the people and the whole scandal in the police environment is great, if another disappearance of a policeman who gave up his role was reported. , it would be more suspicious for him

Yok: So you've been hiding all this time under his full control?

Dan: Yeah, plus they forged a document that said I have an intellectual disability, as well as a back problem and that's why I retired from the police career. What career not?

Dan uttered those words wearily like someone who was fed up with it all.

Yok: You didn't have a choice, did you...

Dan: They indirectly threatened my family, you... I just wasn't in a confrontational position, I couldn't do much, as usual. The more I try to clean myself, the more it seems to throw dirt on me, it's something that never ends

Yok: But how did you get out?

Dan: They had a period in mind and after that, as they didn't find any strange movements from my family, you and my cell phone, my former chief of police had the final say.
He talked to me and assured me a retirement salary telling me to start over, he also sold the place where I slept and left my paintings

Yok: I can feel what you've been through, the uncertainty you'll make it out alive... I felt it when I was put in that van. You've suffered Dan, you're thinner and thinner

Yok approaches Dan and puts his hands on his face, he caresses and squeezes him as if he needed to prove that he was really real in front of him.
He leans his forehead against Dan's and is silent for a moment to hear his breathing.

Yok: All this time I fought my own thoughts and held on to a thread of hope that you would come back, I don't know what I would do if you were gone forever and it's even worse because it seems like it could always happen if we continue here

Dan: It will never end, not in this place, making plans seems naive on our part.

Yok: I... I got an internship proposal abroad, but I'm not going anymore, I can-

Dan: go

Yok: I don't-

Dan: You must go, it's your future, yours and your mother's, you have to think about yourself and her. You're talented Yok, and the world needs to know that

Yok: I don't want to not see you again, I've had enough of this and if something happens to you while I'm gone, I'll never forgive myself

Dan: My choices and my misfortunes brought me to where I am today, I'm not proud of much. And I'm not going to sit in a corner feeling sorry for myself, I'm going to take the consequences whether they are fair or not, and you Yok, you deserve this opportunity and I would be extremely offended if you turned it down.

Yok: But what about you? What do you intend?

Dan: I've always heard that we can start over at any time in life, if there's air to breathe, then there's a new chance.
I like this place but I don't have anything else to do here, so I'm moving with my family to another state, starting a new job, going to college that I like... Living

Dan looks again at a painting in front of him, he points towards it and Yok follows his eyes with his pointing finger.

The drawing shows two young men crouching by a fountain of water with fire around them as they look at each other.

It didn't take even three seconds for Yok to recognize that it was them, the night they met. It felt like a long time ago and at the same time it was like yesterday.

Yok: When did you do that?

Dan: two days ago, I did it to show you, thanks for the nude drawing you did of me

The two boys chuckled at each other for a brief moment.

Yok: I liked it but, you still need to improve... And paint me again

Dan: Like when?

Yok: In more than two years maybe

Dan: Two years?
I can wait

Yok: I'm sure so.

Yok puts his right hand on Dan's neck and pulls him straight into a warm and intense kiss.
It was strange and also beautiful to notice that they also cried while kissing, it was something they could not control, because after all, that kiss had much more meaning than just a simple momentary desire to feel. It was feeling, time, joy and sadness, fear and hope, all rolled together in ways they couldn't explain in words. Only in one action.

Yok: I will never leave you, I will never stop thinking about you. I am yours.

Dan: You have my heart, take your time, I know you are mine.

To be continued...