Hwang squints her eyes at him softly, her brows furrowing creating a small 'V' on her forehead. He clears his throat and reach out for the bottle of wine, afraid she's going to read into his last statement or start looking through his head. He sips the wine, trying to only think of what he can see, feel, smell and taste to ground himself.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He hears Hwang ask him tentatively, her voice sounding almost as if it is reaching him underwater.
"No, I don't." He firmly says and he feels her shift slightly on the couch.
They fall into silence again. It's not wholly uncomfortable, though. He sips the wine, and she just sits there. After a while, he glance over at her. She's looking down at the cuffs on her wrists, absentmindedly fiddling with them. She doesn't look like she's trying to figure out a way to get them off, though.
"It's almost nice." She says, apparently aware of his attention.
"What?"
"Not being able to use my powers." She says, looking up.
"You're still loud," Chan Jeol smirks at her as she continues. "But I feel almost... normal again.'
"How did you..." He falter. "Get them? Your powers?"
Hwang sighs and looks at him quickly, obviously checking if he is asking as himself, or as an agent trying to gain information on her. Apparently pleased with what she finds, she looks away and he remained waiting, looking at her profile.
"I was given them, or they were unlocked." She finally says, vaguely.
"By whom?" He asks her, genuinely intrigued. "Myself, I guess." She says and gives a minute shrug.
They stay seated on the couch for what feels like hours, both of them too tired to move.
By now, he decided that Hwang isn't a flight risk anymore, and allows himself to relax. They both somehow made an unspoken agreement to not mention the body of the agent lying in the doorway behind them, I know they must be scrambling at the basecamp, trying to come up with a new plan, now that Hwang knows they're coming, and potentially has a hostage.
They aren't obviously aware she's wearing the shackles, otherwise, he would have expected them to return as soon as they got word of it. He wonders in what state of insanity Seong Min is in at the moment and wonder what Agent Eun Woo and Dr. Minho are up to. It feels odd to admit, but as much as he's in physical discomfort, he's not absolutely hating sitting on the couch talking to Hwang.
The conversation I've had with her is the longest time I've spent with another human in months. He feels oddly out of practice and at ease at the same time. Now that Hwang and he is on level playing fields, it's much easier to see her as just another human being, and the longer pend with her, the more normal she seems. He chuckle as he think back on what one of the agents said when we were debriefing on her case:
"All this for this women? We better be careful, I've heard she's like seriously lost the plot, this one has."
At some point, Hwang dozes off. She's slumped on the couch, still looking pale, but Chan Jeol not too worried; she seems to have regained a little bit of color in her face. He removes an old blanket from the back of the couch and place it on her. The cabin has gotten a lot cooler as the door has been left wide open for hours. Sometime later, he dozes off.
Chan Jeol running fast as he can through an unfamiliar hallway. He don't know why hes running, but knows that if he dosn't make it to the end of the corridor, something awful will happen. The harder he runs, the more difficult running seems to become and the slower he advances. Suddenly a dark figure is standing in front of him and he freezes, paralyzed with fear. He suddenly remember he has a sword in his hand, but as he lifts to point it at the dark figure, Ari is standing in front of him, a dark red hole in her forehead, and blood oozes from it. She tries speaking, but only coughs up blood. He run up to her and grab her just as she collapses.
"Who-"
He feel sweat trickle down his cheeks. He feel pain in his chest. Pain in his arm. His head is pounding. His face is wet. He blinks open his eyes, feeling dazed. Chan Jeol is sunken down slightly on the couch. I'm still in Hwang's cabin. He freezes when he sees Hwang on the opposite end of the couch, looking at him, an expression he can't quite read her face. Embarrassed, he wipe the sweat off his face. She swallows, and looks away from him, giving him some privacy. He sits up straighter, mindful of his ribs as they feel, if possible, worse after my nap than before.
Hwang gets off the couch silently, her sweatpants and sweater stained with dark blood. He dosn't follow her, knowing somehow that she's not escaping off into the Transian wilderness. Instead, he stays glued to the couch, looking straight ahead, as if memorizing each twist and turn of the wooden planks that make up the walls of the cabin. He hears Hwang rummage somewhere behind him, and she returns a little while later with a clear glass of water in her hand. She stops in front of him, looking down at him through thick strands of hair that frame her face. She hands Chan Jeol the glass silently. When he accepts it, she stretches out her other hand towards him, opening it and showing two small, white pills.
He frowns, looking up at her. She extends her hand even more towards him as she explains softly;
"Pain meds."
Chan Jeol takes the pills from her, his cold, clammy fingers brushing against her warm, soft palm ever slightly. He ignores the feeling, placing the pills in his mouth as he washes them down with the softest water he's ever tasted.
He hands her back the glass and looks up into her now dark sky blue eyes.
"Thank you."