Rotten.

It had been days since Yoona woke up and she found out that she was now the prime suspect for the bombing on The Gilded Siren. The cuts that were littered on her face and the deep gash that was on her forehead were starting to heal already. If it wasn’t for the abnormal heart rhythm the doctor’s have noticed on her tests, she would have been turned over to the state right now.  The steady beeping of the heart monitor that was attached to her almost lulled her to sleep. It was the time of the day where no one came into her room and the wizard would have to find ways to entertain herself. It was also the time of the day where her thoughts were the loudest. 

Right now, she doesn’t feel any worry about herself. She doesn’t care if she’s going to end up in prison or if she will even reach the safety of a prison cell. The bookkeeper’s mind was addled with thoughts of her fellow Aegis members. The situation must be harder for them than it was for her. Yoona hated herself for bringing such a big problem to the gang. She knew from the start that she shouldn’t have gone to the Gilded Siren that night. She should have ran away as fast as she could upon catching the whiff of gasoline. 

The heart monitor beeped loudly signalling a rise in her heart rate. Not wanting to worry Jiyong who was keeping an eye on her, she subtly removed the wires that were connected to her. She’ll place it back once she’s calm enough and her heart rate is normal again. Yoona shivered at the drop of temperature in the room. She was about to reach for the thermostat when a voice she had greatly missed called out to her. 

“Baek Dongchul,” Yoona whispered as she took in the djinn’s appearance. “Dongchulie!” The wizard grinned, crossing the room in a few strides and flung herself towards Dongchul. “I missed you so fucking much.” she cried out against his chest, tears spilling out of her hazel eyes. She couldn’t believe that the djinn was right in front of her, that she could actually see his face again. “What are you doing here?”

The hug took him by surprise, he had to admit that much. So much so, it rendered him stunned, standing in place as he computed the fact that just weeks ago they bickered and got on each other’s nerves. But now? Now, he was just happy she was up and moving around. Happy to hear her voice. Happy to know she was physically okay.

Listening to her voice made Dongchul smile. Finally, his arms wrapped around her and pulled the wizard closer. He could feel something warm and wet on his shirt but he ignored it, just happy to see her in person again after all this time. 

Clearing his throat after a moment passed, he straightened up pulled back to guide her back to the bed. “What do you mean?”

“Covet is a strong word. I suppose I covet a sense of family. I didn’t really have one before, had one for a little bit and then lost it. So, I covet a family.”

So, he’s got a lot of them. The biggest pet peeve he has is when people aren’t getting to the point. Beating around the bush really annoys him to no end and the fastest way to get him to not care about what you’re talking about is to just talk in circles. 

Among the other pet peeves he has:

People who walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk

His food touching on his plate

YOLO

Talking business when he’s trying to relax and not work

Revving an engine with no muffler (will literally make a dick comment without being asked when that happens)

@maneoyoona​

Sitting around and waiting for news about anything going on was a painful experience, almost akin to the burns he received as he sat there for hours with silver chains on him all that time ago. It wasn’t a pain that was fleeting nor was it something he could get used to. This was a pain that lingered. It was powerful enough that it would knock him breathless every once in a while if he considered it for too long but not so much that it was debilitating. Being in the dark metaphorically never went over well for someone like Dongchul. Which is why he was using his night off to do something a little more proactive.

In better circumstances that would’ve required poking at the hornets nest just on the other side of sector five while inquiring what was going on with Amaranthine who were supposed to be allies. However, tonight, that’s not the proactive step he was taking. As he stood outside the hospital they sent Jiyong to in order to keep watch on Yoona, he stood there with his eyes closed. This could only work with an empty mind. It was a spring night, warm and humid, a perfect time to do something like this He’d done it enough to know it wasn’t a simple task, but he was familiar enough that it shouldn’t take him long at all. Checking his phone one last time to be sure of her room number, he slipped it into his pants pocket and inhaled deeply. Dongchul cleared his mind, ignoring all the sounds of the bustling city below the outdoor deck he now stood on somewhere on the sixth or seventh floor. He focused until all he could hear was his own heartbeat and the air filling and vacating his lungs in its usual pattern. Now, all he had to do was think clearly of his intention and the water molecules in the hair. His body would do the rest naturally. The mixture of moisture in the air and his body coalesced into a cloud of steam and he allowed wind to help propel him from one side of the building to the other.

As he steadily rose, not wanting to rush anything and break his concentration, he floated further until he found her room. Wafting toward the window, he found a small hole in the caulking. And with all the purpose and determination, he allowed physics to do the rest. The air conditioning blared so strongly that just pressing lightly into the hole in the caulking ended up sucking him into the room. And once he confirmed this was indeed Yoona’s room and he counted correctly, he began to slowly materialize, becoming a solid body once more.

“Yoona...” he whispered out.

All the power ebbing through his veins and yet he still felt powerless.

Ever since Friday night, the marid djinn was limited to sitting around and waiting. Waiting for any updates on Yoona; waiting to hear any word from their leader on high. 

He’d never been a patient person, more used to doing things on his own schedule and his own way, even after all the years he’d been in The Aegis. Sitting back and letting things develop was just an impossible task for him. Yet he tried with all his might to do just that this time around. He’d clearly stepped on some frayed nerves with the leader for snooping around the Amaranthine border with Yoona a few weeks ago, despite there being an order to keep a friendly distance from it. 

But now? With all the bullshit going on? When he really couldn’t just sit still and keep quiet? His hands were tied. The magnitude and scale of the implications if he stepped too far out of line were too great. The proof was in Yoona’s confinement to a hospital bed surrounded by police officers. 

Running a hand through his thick, black locks, hair brushing along the tops of his shoulders as he let out another loud curse, he let his foot connect with one of the stools at his breakfast bar, watching the metal chair topple and slide across the marble floor of his apartment. There was a sense of guilt that ate at Dongchul. He should have gone with her to The Gilded Siren. Or talked a couple of enforcers into tailing her just to be sure. That’s what teammates did for each other. Yet, the last texts he’d sent to her were...

You’re going to miss me for a whole day, I just know it, she’d sent.

His dark eyes moved over the screen before settling onto his very last text message to Yoona.

I won’t, so don’t worry.

He was such an asshole, he thought to himself as he threw his phone against the kitchen counter and ran his hands over his face. No new texts meant no new news. The dark circles under his eyes gave away how little sleep he’d gotten over the last two days as he desperately waited for any piece of information from anyone. And even worse than that, his attitude declined drastically since that night too. He wasn’t a dream to deal with before, but now he just seemed to be a surlier version of himself. He didn’t speak when spoken to, he bumped into everyone without so much as a glance or apology offered in response and he clearly didn’t even give a shit about his work at the border at the moment. With disdain and a flaring anger that was barely containable, he watched nightly as they conducted shift changes and patrolled that shared border with their own fiery gazes pinned to his pacing form. 

Dongchul was aware he needed to trust the process, trust in his organization and his leader and Yoona’s capabilities to get through this, but he was falling apart quickly. In such an alarmingly short span of time, somehow the djinn was missing one of the most rote parts of his day: arguing with Yoona. She was about the only one who would challenge him or say anything remotely snarky just to get a rise out of him and he’d play into every time because why not? It passed the time and kept him entertained for the little bit of time it transpired. Somehow, someway, he was genuinely missing that energy right now. Things would’ve been so much easier to bear if he had someone to argue with.

“Yoona,” he whispered out as he fought the urge to slam his fist into his kitchen counter top, “you’re such an idiot to get caught like that.”