Taciturn
Taciturn
Infinite
Dongwoo/Woohyun | PG | Premodern!AU Angst
1770 words
Silence is a universal language.
A/N: I like torturing Woohyun, don't ask why. Originally it was suppose to be Hoya instead, but Dongwoo seemed much more fitting. Comments much appreciated. ♥
Woohyun sat huddled on the steps, his tattered trousers barely still together, patches of old fabric sewn on, pitifully holding the only pair of pants he has together. It was his favourite spot in town; he could spend hours there, huddled with his dog, just taking in the scenes. A nice lady or two would give him a tiny loaf of bread, or a small, bruised fruit, shaking her head and muttering about the poor child.
Wide expressive eyes watched up, glossy and watery, the footsteps of people in the market drowning the growling of his stomach. Luxury of food was rare for their family, even during festive occasions. They were barely passing by, if it wasn’t for that kind grandmother that would bring Woohyun whatever she could spare, he probably wouldn’t have survived last winter. Woohyun has never been full his entire life.
Holding onto Alexander’s fur tightly, Woohyun nuzzled against his only friend. He still remembers when Alexander was just a puppy, three years ago, when he was five. People were loud and happy in the market, celebrating another successful harvest, streamers and coloured paper floating from the sky. It was beautiful, and Woohyun looked around before he reached out, his tiny hands darting on the pavement, collecting whatever shreds of paper he could. He didn’t know if it was allowed, the paper wasn’t his, but the blues and greens and purples were much too inviting, and he grabbed a few before he huddled against Alex once more, pretending that he had done nothing wrong. He smiled to himself at all the papers he’s collected so far
His mother seemed like an icon, memories of her occasionally slipping from his father, and his father would cry and leave him alone. He still had Alex, but his father was busy trying to survive for the both of them. More often than not, his father shunned away from him. Woohyun never knew the resentment, never understood the underlying hatred.
“Poor child…” Another nice lady murmured, bringing a hand over her mouth. Woohyun hid behind Alex, small fingertips gripping weakly against the golden fur. He hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning, or was it the day before.
“You must be starving…” The lady says again, and Woohyun looks up, nodding, his eyes widening behind long lashes. He smiles, because the lady looks pretty and she smells nice. She looks away and Woohyun cowers back, resting his back against the bricked wall.
“Hi!” A boy steps out from behind the lady, and Woohyun looks shocked before he hides behind Alex. The boy looks confused, a flash of hurt sparkling in his eyes, and he holds out something, spheres and ovals of purple. “Have some grapes, they’re yummy.”
Woohyun eyes the dark spheres, because dark coloured food were usually bad for you. That’s what the old lady told Woohyun. He shakes his head, and the boy walks closer to him.
“Is that your dog? He’s so pretty!” The boy reaches out and touches Alex, and Woohyun glares at him. Alexander didn’t seem to mind, but Woohyun’s small fingertips huddled protectively over his friend.
“Try one.” The boy says again, and Woohyun hesitates before he plucks a grape. It wasn’t mushy, but firm, and it tastes slippery inside Woohyun’s mouth before he bites on it slowly.
“Good, right?” The boy smiles when Woohyun jumps up at the sudden squirt of sweet liquid filling his mouth, and he swallows the small delicacy immediately. He’s never tasted anything so good before. The lady looks back down at them, and Woohyun shrinks away, his hand taking one last grape and cradling it inside his palm. He’s going to bring it home to his father to let him try. The lady’s brow furrows, he’s done something wrong, maybe because he talked with her child, and he was dirty, someone not worth associating with.
“Child, come..” The lady tells him, and Woohyun looks up to see the boy walk away. The boy was nice enough, wide eyes and gentle smiles, unlike some of the other town’s children. “You too, bring your dog too.”
Woohyun sits back down on his step without realizing until the other boy is tugging on his hand, and they’re walking together. The boy jumps from side to side, asking him questions with crinkled eyes and gentle touches, and Woohyun shies away, tucking his head down, his fingers holding tightly onto Alexander’s fur. He shouldn’t have left his steps, but he followed them, his head held hopeful.
The lady tells someone to prepare him new clothes, and tells another to prepare a warm bath for the two of them. Woohyun stands there, looking around, and the other boy is already taking off his clothes and going into the steamy water. He stiffens until one of the ladies start to pull at his rags, nearly ripping it in the process and Woohyun makes a small incomprehensible noise. The pieces of coloured paper dance their way to the floor, rays of purple and blue shimmering in dim candlelight, shuffled about on marble tiles. The lady steps on a few, her slipper pushing away whatever else
He lets out a sigh of content when the hot water soothes his aching body. He’s never washed with hot water before, whatever firewood they had was conserved, sometimes even sold to other families when supplies were low. Shrivelling up, he remained where he first entered the water, his fingers starting to rub gently on his wrist, up his forearm, behind his elbows. He cautiously looks up, the other boy blowing bubbles while one of the maids scrubs suds into his hair. He scowls, craning his neck around to see another lady doing the same, her face soft and gentle, until a torrent of warm water douses his head, washing the suds away. He makes an incomprehensible noise, water and shampoo getting into his eyes, and it stings, burns, sending Woohyun into a string of coughs. Woohyun’s crying now, tears and water leaking from his eyes as they try to adjust to the sharp pain.
“You okay?” the other boy swims over, a hand warmly on his shoulder. Woohyun opens his eyes, the stinging getting worse and he closes them again, whimpering but he catches a flash of concern in his eyes. “Wash it out, it’ll feel better!”
They finish soon, the other boy getting up and the lady dries him off with two towels. He naturally does the same, standing up when he suddenly wishes he can just stay in the lukewarm water forever, because he’ll never have the chance to wash in warm water. The lady from before smothers him with a soft towel, the light blue fabric wavering in front of his eyes while another larger towel is wrapped around his thin torso. He’s given a fresh change of clothes, and the other boy tugs his hand, presumably wanting them to leave the steamy bathroom, but Woohyun clutches tightly on the towel. The lady gives an exasperated sigh when his fingers refuse to let go of the towel; she gives up soon enough and Woohyun lights up, taking the soft fabric and holding it against him. He’s never felt something so soft and warm before.
The smidges of dirt on his face is gone; his hair looks clean for the first time in ages, not oily and greasy. He’s wearing a simple blue shirt with white ruffles, and expensive looking trousers, strikingly similar to what the other boy had been wearing before. He’s given a pair of black shoes which snugly fit, and he experimentally taps them together twice.
“I’m Dongwoo!” The boy smiles again as he appears beside him, shocking Woohyun slightly and he takes a step back, tripping over the towel that had been dragging along the polished floor.
Alex. Where was Alex? Woohyun looks around, exasperated, almost scared. Alex was gone, he wasn’t there anymore, he knew it was a bad idea, letting the lady take him away and now Alex wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The boy looks at him curiously before he realizes that those were tears on his hollow cheeks.
“Why are you crying? What’s your name?” Dongwoo asks in a soft voice. It doesn’t register as Woohyun opens his mouth, letting out a faint whimper. There’s a bark in the distance, and his dog charges at him, almost tackling him to the floor and Woohyun is relieved. His dog is back and nothing else really matters.
“Oh, you were worried about your dog.” Dongwoo says again. He seems really incessant on getting attention. He leans forward and scratches Alex’s ear, and while Woohyun’s grip on his dog’s fur slightly eases, he’s still wary. The lady from before comes back with a brown bag, similar to what people put their food in when they buy it from the market.
“You poor child…” She says to him and hands him the bag. There’s two loaves of bread, a lump of cheese, fruits, bits of meat, everything in the market that were never attainable. Woohyun wants to thank her, but he knows he can’t, so he settles to bow against her feet. The lady makes a face and pulls him up by his wrist, a little too harsh on his frail body, and she goes into the kitchen once more, emerging with another handful of food items, an apple or two, small citrus fruits, another hearty loaf of bread. She sighs, putting the food down, and comes back with a bit more meat, sausage if Woohyun wasn’t mistaken, and a small bag of coins.
“I wish you could be my friend.” Dongwoo pops up again with a small stuffed bear in his hands. Woohyun gives him a soft smile, nodding as he sighs. He places all the food the lady gave him in his towel and wrapped it up nicely, it was almost half his height as he held it tightly.
The boy, Dongwoo, taps his shoulder just as he was leaving, and hands him the stuffed doll. He doesn’t speak, partially because he doesn’t need to, or maybe he’s realized that Woohyun can’t speak either, but the sparkle in his eyes is more than sufficient. The resulting smile was the most genuine Woohyun’s ever smiled, a burst of warmth as he takes the doll, tipping his head. Dongwoo bounces over to open the door, smiling as he bids farewell.
He walks back home to the town with Alexander, parcels of food wrapped in the soft towel, the bear resting safely inside as well. Opening his mouth slightly, Woohyun tries to speak again, he hasn’t tried since he lost his voice when he was a small child. Do-Dongwoo. Nothing but a small whimper comes out, but Woohyun’s still smiling as he treads back into town.