Don’t ask any questions, just feel it – feel who I am

[singwoo]

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[singwoo]

Sangwoo knew everyone in his tribe and he also knew everyone in Ten's tribe too. It happened on a small island, he knew every friend and every enemy so very well. It just happened. Hence why this was so alarming... he didn't know the man wandering in front of him. He hid carefully, watching with curiosity as the man stumbled through the forest, dressed rather oddly and yelling for someone called Gyungho.

He didn't know a Gyungho either. Concerning.

Keeping his dagger nearby, Sangwoo slipped out from the trees and just started to walk behind the odd man curiously, his bare feet almost silent in the grass. He sniffed the air before Yejoon and frowned - he smelled like flowers.

[seeyoujoon]

"Wha--" Yejoon whipped around suddenly, honestly under the impression that Gyungho might think it funny to sneak up on him. Seemed like something Gyungho would do. Instead he was staring at someone he didn't know and someone who looked dangerous. Wild, strong, definitely not civilised. His first reaction was to want to scream, but no sound seemed to want to come out. He wanted to run, but he felt frozen in place.

Finally he took a step back, but his legs felt so shaky that he ended up stumbling and falling backwards, landing on the ground.

[singwoo]

What an odd creature. He froze like a bunny rabbit, it was quite amusing. Sangwoo's face didn't show his amusement, the downside of having a very neutral face in general, but he was definitely tickled. He dropped into a crouch and watched Yejoon on the floor, studying him carefully before shifting closer and frowning.

Was this why he was stumbling and struggling to stay upright? Someone put something on his feet to make him suffer and humiliate him. Someone was torturing the rabbit. Reaching forward, Sangwoo tugged hard on Yejoon's shoe and after some wriggling, he yanked it free for him.

[seeyoujoon]

"Hey! That's my shoe." And now this guy had it. Why? Yejoon quickly pulled his other foot close, to keep at least one foot safe. With how this forest ground looked, he definitely didn't fancy walking barefoot. Of course the nature man would do it, his soles were probably like leather. "Give it back."

He held out his hand, trying to sound firm, rather than terrified.

[singwoo]

This was such a weird thing, it looked so silly. Sangwoo inspected the shoe and then looked at the bow it had around it. Curiously, Sangwoo undid the bow and held it by it's strings, swinging it around. Huh, it'd make an impressive weapon. Maybe it was one, the strange rabbit seemed awfully protective of them.

Sangwoo looked at Yejoon and crawled closer, still holding his shoe and eyeing up the other. He reached forward and grabbed the sole before Yejoon could retreat, pulling hard again to try and steal the final shoe. If the rabbit wasn't trapped then he was armed. Either way, he needed to unarm him.

[seeyoujoon]

"Stop it!" Yejoon tried to pull his foot free, caught between wanting to stubbornly hold on to his shoe and also using that to shield himself from realising just how terrifying this situation was. He tried to get up, already shoeless, stumbling a few steps away again. Ow! His feet hurt, but he had to get away.

"GYUNGHO!" Where was he? He didn't even know in what direction the camp was right now.

[singwoo]

"What's a Gyungho?" Sangwoo finally asked as he undid the bow on the other shoe and proceeded to tie the laces of both shoes together. He slung the shoes over his shoulder, now happy that he'd unarmed the new man. He didn't trust invaders, they were dangerous. His grandfather told him about invaders before - they tried to ruin their society and take them away.

That'd never happen. "Don't run, I'll catch." Easily, from the looks of it.

[seeyoujoon]

"Leave me alone!" So the man could understand and speak Korean? Yejoon wasn't sure whether that made things better or worse. Right now it certainly didn't ease his fear. He glanced around, trying to figure out what direction he had come from. And then, yes, he did run. He was scared, of course he ran!

His feet hurt with every step, but he had more important worries right now.

[singwoo]

It didn't take long to catch him, Sangwoo was right. He shot after him, tackled him down onto the ground and sat on his back, putting his face into the earth and smirking. That was fun! Like catching deer. "You're new. You shouldn't be here. Trespassers die."

Well, they didn't but it was good to scare people. It really reminded them of how to behave. Leaning forward, he couldn't resist a tease. "We eat soft boys like you."

[cutedevil]

"Hey, hyung!"

Ten came up to where Minjun was sitting and just sat down in the grass in front, smiling happily. He had jewels on, a shiny shirt that caught the light and tight pants that couldn't be practical. He liked to be hot and pretty - not really practical. "So, you called? What's up, hyung? My dad seemed kind of worried so I assume something is up."

[cuminjun]

"There's outsiders on the island. Sangwoo met two of them, so did I. Three in total. So far we have two hot ones, one worrisome." Minjun flashed a smile, his hands busy with his hair. He had to change it for tomorrow and it was, frankly, a lot of work. So far he had mostly just managed to get the extensions out, only his natural - if dyed red - hair left, apart from a few strands.

"Whoever comes tomorrow, I don't want to see jewels. That's what they are here for. Maybe not all of them, but some. They are greedy."

[cutedevil]

"So I can't look pretty for them? Pfft." Well, he supposed he could dress down for a day. "Why are people only ever coming here for jewels? There's so many better things here. Did they not see the waterfall? Heh, TaeTae jumped off it today, he's getting good at conquering his height fear." He loved little TaeTae with all his heart. He didn't ever want war, not really, not between any of them again. He'd lose so many dear friends.

"Are jewels worth much?" Ten cocked his head to the side, considering Minjun curiously. "To those kind of men, at least. Do they also need them to give as love tokens?"

[cuminjun]

"They are worth a lot. From what I understand, in their world, they use it to get whatever they want. It makes them rich." Minjun wasn't sure how to explain, given he barely understood it himself. For them, jewels had value as a thing of beauty and for ceremonial reasons, nothing else. They couldn't be traded, they had to be gifted.

"I think all they want is power and in many places, being rich means having power." He shrugged, looking at Ten with a smirk. "More importantly, Sangwoo stole the sandals from one of them and I am pretty sure he has a crush."

[cutedevil]

"If he has a crush then why did the dope steal his sandals?" Sangwoo was such a dumb boy. He knew he shouldn't be shocked but he always kind of was. "He's so bad at seducing boys he actually likes, isn't he? He's good at flirting but you give him someone who's his type and he becomes such a caveman." He remembered the last time Sangwoo did that - he literally covered himself in mud and presented the guy a slaughtered deer.

It did not worth. "Maybe deter him from going full huntsman on the cute outsider, yeah? Is he cute? I imagine so, that's his type."

[cuminjun]

"I haven't seen him, but I'm sure he is. Apparently his feet got hurt just from standing on the floor without the sandals on..." It was pretty funny, just the whole situation. "You try getting through to Sangwoo. I've given up stopping him, now I just wait, watch and laugh."

Served Minjun better, was really entertaining. "There is a scholar with the outsiders. He is beautiful. Today he sat with me for hours, learning all he could. I wanted to kiss him."

[cutedevil]

"Oh no, what a delicate boy." Ten had to laugh, it was pretty funny. These two used to laugh about how soft his feet were when he whined while running through the beach and around broken shells. Didn't seem so wussy now. He was bare feet today because he was too lazy to find his sandals. After all, he had hyung to see.

Smiling excitedly, he shuffled forward on his butt. "Really? Woah! Did you kiss him? Is he that pretty? What's a scholar?"

[cuminjun]

"A scholar is someone who watches and learns. He can read and write. He is here to get to know more about the world." It was interesting, meeting Gyungho, learning his profession, his life. "I didn't kiss him. I was prophet the whole time."

Which, yes, technically he was always prophet, but there was a difference to him in full ceremonial garb and him right now, just sitting around with his friend. If he was properly dressed as prophet, not even Ten would talk to him so casually. "But he is really pretty. He looks like a statue. Like a perfect man."

[seeyoujoon]

The prophet, priest, whatever it was called, he looked fascinating. All black and feathers and the mask he was wearing looked like a beak. Unsettling, Yejoon had difficulty seeing him the way Gyungho had told him about. Either way, some talk and ceremony was happening, and since he wasn't a senior member of their expedition, Yejoon had been sent outside to wait. He looked around, wondering whether it was true that the people here had riches somewhere.

It just seemed like a beautiful island, not some secret treasury. Yejoon watched the tree, seeing a bird that shimmered in so many different colours hop from one branch to the other. He had to smile. He really did love it here, the scary things aside.

[singwoo]

Sangwoo didn't know how to do this, he knew he had done bad and Minjun had explained - several times - where he went wrong. So now he had to fix it. He had to say sorry and return the cool shoes he stole. He walked over to Yejoon, barefoot and silent, standing behind him once more and watching him curiously. Oh, he was watching the birds.

What a sweet boy he was. He seemed so soft, he liked that in a boy.

Sangwoo awkwardly cleared his throat and gently prodded Yejoon with his shoes to get his attention. "Shoes." Wait. No. He needed more words. "Your shoes. Here."

[seeyoujoon]

Yejoon turned when he was prodded, his eyes widening. He took a step back and he really wanted to call out for help, but no. The man didn't seem to want to threaten him. He was just holding out his shoes. Returning them.

He wasn't quite sure how best to react, so he just bowed for now, trying an uncertain smile. "Thank you?"

He held his hands out for them.

[singwoo]

"I put rocks in them. To ward off evil spirits." And they were really heavy so when Yejoon took them, it was hard to miss that yes, he had indeed put rocks in them. "My hal-abeoji told me that if you leave sandals outside of your tent then spirits get into them so I kept them safe." He just wanted to let him know that so he knew to do it as well. It was the best thing for protecting shoes.

He looked around and then smiled as best he could at Yejoon.

"We don't eat people. It'd be gross." Just to clarify. "Why eat people when you could eat deer? We have loads of them to hunt so... that was a lie."

[seeyoujoon]

"It's a mean lie," Yejoon told him, scolding just a little bit. Mostly because the sudden weight of his shoes had been so unexpected that he'd immediately dropped them and that had been embarrassing, so he felt like lashing out. Just a little. He was still too scared.

He bent down to pick the shoes back up, unsure what to do about the stones. "Thank you for keeping them safe." He would have rather he hadn't taken them, but hey. At least he had them back.

[singwoo]

"I thought they were why you walked funny so I wanted to help. Turns out they're fancy sandals. I don't own sandals so..." He didn't know. He shrugged his shoulders and then smiled, hopeless and awkward, trying to be less scary but he was bad at that. "I needed to scare you so you'd tell. I didn't know strangers were in the woods."

It was quite a shock to suddenly have new people in his safe haven. It was hard not to react violently. "You're very different from what I know." He stepped closer, trying to be friendly. "You smell good."

[seeyoujoon]

"...thank you. I bathe." He had a feeling that Sangwoo did not, but he supposed that was to be expected. He was looking off to the side to not accidentally make eye contact and then when he turned his head again, suddenly Sangwoo was right there. His eyes widened, his heart bat faster and he edged away a little, hoping it wouldn't be too noticeable. "We want nothing bad here. I'm Yejoon. I'm just an assistant. I help the others."

[singwoo]

"I'm Sangwoo. I hunt, I protect and I provide." Sangwoo informed Yejoon as he edged with him, not sure what they were doing but Yejoon was such an odd, twitchy little bunny that he just followed him. He wasn't sure if the movement was voluntary or not. He smiled, cocking his head to the side. "You're funny, I like that."

Well, he did. Honest. "You're like a rabbit I caught once. He moved the same as you." He also twitched in the same oddly indignant way. "Rabbits are cute."