Memento mori || Jongsang ✓

21| Unscathed

His hands are shaking when they pull away from the knight and he stumbles back in the bed, staring wide-eyed down at Jongho's face which is contorted in so much visible pain.

"I-I-" he stutters terrified while he seems to retrieve his sight back to how it usually is, "What happened.. I do not understand.. Jongho?"

Yeosang glances down at his hand after having placed it down into the bed when he finds an item poking into his palm. Red color is smeared all over the sheets and under his hand, he finds the remnants of his cross, string snapped over to leave the necklace unwearable. He tears his eyes away from the appalling sight and gently leans closer to Jongho with unmistakable blameworthiness writhing in the back of his throat that still tastes of the sweet savory blood.

With slow, blinking eyes, the boy forces himself to glance down at the bloody bite mark he has left on the other's skin - and the sight has him swallowing tight while wandering away to look at the man's face instead. His hands outreach and cup his tear-filled cheeks. Jongho is pulling on air unevenly as his teeth are clenched in agony. Yeosang fears what the eyes will tell him when they finally flicker to look up at him.

"You-your eyes- they are blood-red."

He freezes - no, everything stands still around him.

He whispers: "No, that is not true," but he is aware of the reasoning Jongho's words carry. The knight does not lie.

More tears run in perfect lines down his face and Yeosang's heart bleeds by the sight while he wishes for things he wants to undo. The man winches and lets his teeth sink down into his bottom lip, suppressing a sob from escaping his mouth. "I am so sorry.." Jongho whimpers.

He does not even notice when he cries himself, only the faint feeling of his tears graces his skin where every other sense of him is drawn on the hurt knight, "No, you shall not feel sorry- this can only be my fault," Yeosang insists. Not only his hands tremble now.

This kiss that lands on Jongho's forehead is heart-wrenching and filled with all the care he musters at that moment. He pours his soul into the littlest touches they share, even though he is scared to make the same mistake again.

Yeosang moves his head down to let his lips gently touch upon Jongho's closed eyelid. He kisses the other as well.

"You do not deserve this fate.." the man sniffles and opens his eyes, when Yeosang raises his head, "How can the world be this cruel to you? So unfair.." Yeosang blinks between the blue hue of his one eye to the deep brown one with lips slightly parted as he observes the knight's expressions. This strong soul is flaring in flames, and the boy furrows his eyebrows as he does not understand. Jongho can not possibly have reached a breaking point, he deems, but when he considers the way the tears there still trickle down from his glistening eyes as he can do nothing about it, he feels so unsure about his otherwise strong beliefs.

He sees Jongho draw in an unsteady breath as he clenches his eyes close from the new strong wave of aching that goes through his tense body. The knight lets out a strangled cry as he presses his head further down into the bed's surface, making Yeosang start panicking. Soon Jongho's hands fly up to the wound to press down onto its surface to relieve some of the tension.

"Please, do- do not say that," Yeosang bites his lip as he caresses Jongho's cheeks carefully with one of his hands trapped under the knight's head.

"Yeosang, they will find out about this."

The boy closes his own eyes at the sound of the knight's words. He knows that he is right, but protecting himself from the truthness in his words seems way easier in this stressful situation. Jongho's body feels so much warmer against his cold skin.