[Guest Writer: Takenoko] – To Meet the Height of Birds (6/?) – A SKKS fanfic

Ahh, this is so long, it barely qualifies as a drabble! >_> Let me know what you think, I had a hard time deciding how to end this one.

Title: To Meet the Height of Birds (Episode #7)
Genre: General, Romance
Characters: Jae Shin, Yoon Hee
Words: 1250
Summary: …But as the shadows of your fears draw near,

o.o0o.o

In the end, it is Moon Jae Shin who drags Kim Yoon Shik to Professor Jung and demands that the reluctant patient get his hand taken care of. Somehow, in the excitement of winning the archery competition, and then meeting with the king, both he and Lee Sun Joon had forgotten that more important matters had yet to be tended to. The wine they had shared to commemorate their victory was quite strong, enough to dull even the throbbing pain in Jae Shin’s side. He only remembers Kim Yoon Shik’s injury once the three of them arrive back at their room- as the younger scholar lifts a hand to open the door, Jae Shin notices the handkerchief wrapped around his hand is now a deep burgundy red.

He stops Yoon Shik from following Lee Sun Joon into the room and pulls his right hand towards him, holding it up to the waning light.

“Oh-! I forgot it was there,” Yoon Shik says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with the uninjured hand. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, really.”

Jae Shin stops his inspection to stare disbelievingly. “You’ve soaked completely through the cloth. When were you going to get this healed?” His dark glower is at odds with how gently he cradles the smaller hand in his.

Yoon Shik shrugs off his concern with, “Ah, well, it’s just a cut, Sa-hyung. And so much happened this afternoon, it completely slipped my-”

“Were you waiting to bleed to death, you idiot?” Kim Yoon Shik looks down and bites his lip.

Lee Sun Joon pops his head back out at the sound of raised voices and realizes why they are still outside. “Ah, your hand!” He steps forward as if take a closer look.

Kim Yoon Shik withdraws his hand from Jae Shin’s grasp and tucks it back into his sleeve with an exasperated air. “It’s fine. Yes, I know, I know- I need to go get it rewrapped. It’s stopped bleeding, though, so it should be okay for a while yet. Besides, weren’t we going out to celebrate today? Bae Hae Won said-”

“You’re bleeding?!” Another interruption, this time from Gu Yong Ha, who has waltzed in from nowhere to hover with a concerned expression around the three.

“Aigoo, there’s so much blood! Daemul! Are you quite alright?! Ooh, my head… I think I’m feeling a little faint.”

Jae Shin himself feels a headache starting to build behind his temples. Why must this be such a big ordeal?

“I’ll walk you to the infirmary,” he says abruptly and puts a hand on Daemul’s back to lead him away.

The Noron opens his mouth to protest, but Yong Ha must have sensed that Geol Oh was nearing the end of his patience, for he hastily throws an arm around Lee Sun Joon’s shoulders and says merrily, “Excellent! You, then, can accompany me to Banchon.”

“What- but, Sa-hyung,” Lee Sun Joon begins, craning his neck to watch as Kim Yoon Shik meekly follows Jae Shin in the other direction. “Yeorim sa-hyung, didn’t you say you were feeling faint?”

Gu Yong Ha waves this aside with a careless hand as he gallantly manhandles Lee Sun Joon down the path to the village. “But the show must go on! Drinks at Salt of the Earth tonight, remember? The party has already started! Bottles are open, and our admirers are waiting~~”

“Oh don’t you worry about your roommate, Geol Oh will take good care of him,” he continues, with a wink. “We’ll meet you there, Daemul!” he calls back over his shoulder. But the two have already disappeared into the darkness.

o.o0o.o

As they walk, Jae Shin keeps glancing over to look at the shorter figure next to him. Kim Yoon Shik looks subdued and somewhat anxious as he fiddles with a stray thread on his sleeve. He wonders if he’s upset at the way Jae Shin had snapped at him.

“Hey.”

Kim Yoon Shik doesn’t seem to have heard him.

“Hey, Daemul. You listening?”

“Ah, y-yes!”

He pauses and gives himself a mental shove forward. “Sorry,” Moon Jae Shin blurts out, quiet and awkward. “You… bleeding to death, what I said, I didn’t mean it.”

“Oh,” Kim Yoon Shik says, finally with his full attention on his senior. “It’s fine, I didn’t mind, I wasn’t thinking about that at all, actually.”

“What are you so preoccupied with, then?”

“Mmm,” the other responds, hesitantly. “I’m just. Nervous, I suppose. Professor Jung is a wonderful teacher and healer, but he does not think that my body can handle all that I wish it to. So he will most likely lecture me after this injury, about how there must be distinctions made…between individuals.”

“Huh. He will blame you for hurting your hand?” Jae Shin doesn’t think this makes much sense, especially since if anyone should be blamed for Daemul’s injury, it should be him. If he had beaten Kang Moo during his final round, Kim Yoon Shik wouldn’t have had to go head-to-head against Ha In Soo, wouldn’t have picked up the wrong bow, wouldn’t have cut his hand on the glass powder-coated bowstring. Just thinking about it makes him wants to put a fist through Byung-choon’s ugly face- or barring that, any tree will do.

Kim Yoon Shik sighs and fusses with the handkerchief as he replies with a distant, pained look in his eyes, “No, he just will not acknowledge that I’ve proven myself equal to others, in every manner that counts. But,” here he clenches his hand into a fist and draws himself up, “It doesn’t matter what he believes anymore. I went into this competition to prove something to myself, and I did. I do not need anyone else to believe in me, any longer.”

They’ve reached the infirmary, and Jae Shin stops at the bottom of the steps. Daemul takes a deep breath and looks forward, gathering his courage.

Jae Shin squeezes his arm silently and prepares to step back, but something stops him. There is one more thing he needs to say. “Even if you don’t need it,” he says, slowly enough that the words seem to linger in the air between them, “There are plenty of people who believe in you.”

“I know. I’ll see you at the tavern, Sa-hyung,” Daemul says with a crooked half-smile, and turns to walk up the steps.

o.o0o.o

Later, as Jae Shin leans wearily against the wall of their empty room, he recalls Kim Yoon Shik’s words. He finds it hard to believe that anyone, especially Professor Jung Yak Yong, would refuse to see the remarkable tasks his roommate had accomplished.

After all, someone who won Cho Seon’s affections, someone who fought for and earned acknowledgement from His Majesty himself, who learned how to hold a bow and arrow for the first time a week ago and still managed to kick ass at it, is someone to take note of, to admire.

He chuckles as he remembers how his heart had plummeted when Kim Yoon Shik had pretended to reproach him for “ruining my plans,” only to recover a second later when he’d cheekily boasted that this gave him the chance to reveal his “secret technique.”

“That kid,” he thinks to himself (without even a hint of dissatisfaction). “He really will drive me crazy with all these unforeseen ups and downs!”

He may have a knack for surprises, but no matter what Kim Yoon Shik does from now on, he will have Moon Jae Shin’s attention and respect.

o.o0o.o