Notorious ⊷ Haechan

17 ⊷ Towel

Haechan couldn't help but frown. Seeing how Yangyang not only knew a lot but also had strong feelings towards these people - whether that feeling was regret or disinterest - was intriguing. 

So he wondered...

"What about the other brother?" Haechan asked eventually.

Yangyang closed his bag. "Her brother?" he asked. "You know both of them anyway, why are you asking me?"

Surprised, Haechan stepped a little closer. "I know them?"

"Yeah," Yangyang said, "Taemin and--"

There was a loud thud that cut through the air, making both boys turn around. It came from the room right above them, so Yangyang ran outside and upstairs right away, closely followed by Haechan.

When they got to the room, they stopped in front of a closed door. Yangyang knocked against it a couple of times, one hand already on the doorknob, worry covering his face.

"Are you okay?!" he shouted through the door.

However, barely surprised, his worry was only met with a monotonous,
"Yeah, don't worry."

"What happened? Can I come inside?" he urged.

"Yeah," was all she said in return.

Yangyang pushed the door open immediately and entered the room, Haechan right behind him. But while Yangyang walked all the way up to the girl, Haechan stopped not far from the door and looked at the ground.

Because the ground was suddenly incredibly interesting - interesting enough to keep his eyes from the girl that was dressed in nothing more but a towel, sitting on the edge of the bathtub with soaking wet hair.

While Ji-yoon noticed that, she didn't have the time to comment on it before Yangyang again asked what happened.

"I got dizzy and slipped," she explained.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Yangyang asked, still as worried as he was when he came in. However, Ji-yoon merely shook her head, at which he stepped back. 

As soon as he moved out of the way, Haechan took the chance to also quickly look at the girl. She didn't look particularly unwell, yet she was holding onto the bathtub's edge tightly with one hand, her other hand resting on her knee.  

Distracted by her, he almost didn't see the couple of drops of blood that had gotten soaked up by the carpet. 

"You are bleeding," he noted. 

Ji-yoon just raised her brows in confusion, while Yangyang checked her again. He found the same drops of blood on the carpet, followed them up to her arm, where another drop was barely holding onto her elbow. 

Yangyang took her hand, held it carefully as he checked her arm. 

"You have a cut on your shoulder," he then said, scrunching his nose. "It looks pretty deep." 

On her shoulder? 

All of a sudden, she pushed out a low 'oh'. 

"I fell against that cabinet," she explained, pointing at the culprit. She turned her head as far as she could, pushed her shoulder forward and tried to get a glimpse of the wound. "So that's why it was burning." 

"You said you were okay!" Yangyang pointed out. 

"I am," she retorted more calmly. As she turned back to look at Yangyang, she turned her head too fast. Grasping for the bathtub's edge yet again, she let her head fall into her hand.