ballerina on ice.

scouting new medics technically isn’t his job, but he does it anyway, because the recruiters pretty much always fuck it up, and chanyeol can’t stand recruits who don’t understand what’s going on. not that he would ever say that. actually, chanyeol thinks as he stuffs his hands into thick coat pockets, he doesn’t say much of anything.

except, of course, a loud “shit!” when he trips over snow boots and lands face first into an uncomfortably tall mound of snow. 

let it never be said that he enjoys baeksol, or recruiting competent doctors, because he doesn’t, and the grumbled expletives as he extracts himself from the snow should be enough to prove it.

someone is staring at him. 

it’s comical, except it’s not, how quickly he shuts up and his snow covered face turns crayola crayon red. 

"um," he starts off, unsure whether to apologize for his behavior or whine out something sarcastic and biting because did she really have to stand there and watch him flail and curse and become his own circus act. 

And Irene’s right again, or at least she believes so. Looking at a male stumbling, losing his balance, and later kissing the ground in the most unexpected, unpleasant way, the girl can not hold back her chuckles. She just laughs. And she also hears his swearing followed after.  

Irene would have just continued standing there, trying to get her silence back if he didn’t begin the conversation with an apologise. She’s surprised, and even asking herself whether he’s talking to her. Probably he’s noticed her laughing and gets aware of her presence. She wonders if he takes her attitude as rude or something bad.

“Umm.” It’s her turn to hesitate. Answer him. You should at least answer him. Her mind speaks.

Woohyun waits for her to speak in silence. Irene is obviously a bit anxious, and this reflects on him. When she speaks, he is waiting for the worst already.

“What?” The news isn’t exactly bad; she’s right, this is good for her. He’s already of that, though his reaction was maybe more hostile than necessary.

“You’re getting married? Seriously?” Maybe he should park somewhere now, driving in this condition isn’t safe. He stops in front of an unknown house (he felt guilty for that) but he really needed to look at Irene with shock and confusion. “What- when that happened? Since when you were going out with him?”

Her observation concluded that he seemed to be uneasy more than genuinely happy. Irene totally understood. As for herself, she had been so perplexed when hearing it for the first time at the Baeksol Palace. Woohyun was the type of person who always carried doubts within him, so the news was unlikely something delightful to hear.   

“Yes that’s true. The marriage is the truth.” Irene confirmed with a timid nod. He gave her so many questions, just as much as Irene once asked herself. She was calmer at the moment though. Irene could still answer her friend yet she could tell the words would not come out confidently. She wanted to avoid giving him the feeling that he had been left out. Actually such thing had never happened and it surely wouldn’t, but this was Woohyun. He became anxious faster han anyone she knew. Hurting him, either unintentionally or not, was just bad.  

“I know it doesn’t sound convincing at all but we haven’t been on a date yet.” Irene laughted softly and then took a pause. She waited for Woohyun to say something else, something more. The curve of her smiling lips started to fade away.

Just as he was about to walk away and turn his attention to another nearby shelf Tox noticed Irene open the bottle and he cringed slightly and felt the hair on the back of his neck bristle. Resisting the strong urge to swat the bottle out of Irene’s hand and sending it flying across the room he snatched it out of her hand noticing the act Irene was putting up. Quickly corking up the bottle Tox was going to stay true to his words, “What the fu—I’ll be taking that! This shit really is that fucking strong, you’ll end up the fucked up version of sleeping beauty in a few minutes flat if you drink the whole thing, smelling the vapors will have you falling over instantly”.

Placing the bottle back on the shelf before scooting it safely away from the edge Tox eyed the ice skater warily, had she actually smelled it and fallen over he really would have nudged her with his boot considering his personal space issues. Adding in the fact that Irene didn’t know about his mutation he wasn’t planning on bringing it up in some awfully scripted damsel in distress scene seeming to unravel before him. “I meant what I said, you fall over and you’ll get a thoughtful nudge with my boot but that’s about it”. Tox didn’t mean to sound like a complete asshole but he wasn’t trying to kid anyone when it came to him actually being nice, he only hoped Irene could somewhat understand.

“Anyway, I got it.” Her nod showed that she understood. She gave in. Better not irritate him any more. Irene couldn’t help imagining a furious Tox. She believed he would look extremely scary at that moment.

He doesn’t like seeing Irene like that at all. His observant eyes catch hints of dark circles under her eyes that her makeup can’t hide and her posture make her look smaller than she is, as if she is too tired to stand properly. Nothing compared like the majestic skater she is on ice.

“I can buy something for you to eat, or something for me to cook for you. But have in mind that my place is still dusty.” Sure it is. He lives in the Brotherhood base now. There is still an attempt of his part to clean his house whenever he is in Baekseol, though.

“Ah. You know I’m bad at choosing things.” There is no cheery tone to his words. They’re finally leaving the street where they are right now, but the cars ahead of him seem busier with finding a place to park than making Woohyun’s life easier.

“Actually, I’d love to have something cooked by you to eat.” She giggled. A meal prepared by Woohyun would be nice, but it’d take up his time indeed. As they were both busy, it seemed there weren’t many choices.  “… but well, just pick whatever at your convenience. I’m not really hungry.”

The girl could predict that Woohyun would be indecisive (again). He was always that kind. “Alright.” She trailed away the short response before a momentarily stop. Irene herself was pretty hesitant. She tapped her fingers on the seat. As she had already mentioned, it wasn’t something really delightful. Not completely bad, yet not totally pleasant.

She checked his expression. A bit of anxiety had already shown. “Good news first, yeah?” Okay let’s just face it. Irene bit her lower lip, ready for revealing her secret.

In the middle of the old and odd feeling shop Tox had to admit he did feel a little at home, frankly the shop then were in was one of the better, more legitimate establishments he had stepped foot in recently. Tox was so at home he almost didn’t realize Irene had used his name to stop him from his seemingly endless chatter. 

“Is it that strong?” Irene held the bottle closer for further observation. “I mean, really just one bit of the vapour and I’ll be passing out then?” She kept it up to her nose, pretending she didn’t believe him much. She was holding her breath actually. Irene remembered Tox making a statement that he would not catch her if she fell. Okay let’s see.