Beautiful Stranger - 1/? (EXO Dragon AU Multi-Shot)
Title: Beautiful Stranger (1/?)
Author: himawarixxsandz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): XiuRis, HunHan, BaekYeol, SuDo
Summary: Beasts bleed too
A/N: I can't believe I just wrote like 5K w/o anyone having sex. omfg.
Prologue // Part 1 // Part 2
Minseok sighs, gripping the steering wheel as the car begins to reach the bumpy gravel that leads into the empty space beside the warehouses that they usually use for parking their cars. He sees Joonmyeon’s car already parked, as well as Chanyeol and Luhan’s cars. He supposes that Kyungsoo probably rode with Joonmyeon, Baekhyun with Chanyeol, and Sehun and Jongin with Luhan-Yixing and Jongdae had been here since the afternoon since neither had lectures today. That means that they’re all here and accounted for, waiting for Minseok, who still is trying to pretend that this isn’t reality.
As a tamer, Minseok rather likes helping rogues-loves being a rider-loved it ever since the first time his father strapped him onto his mother’s back as a toddler and they set off together for a camping trip in the woods. However, there’s a difference between helping rogues like they’re supposed to and venturing off for fun into the woods in the middle of the night to play detective.
He climbs out of his car, slinging his goggles around his neck and holding his helmet under one arm and his jacket under the other. Sehun, Jongdae, Luhan, Joonmyeon, and Kyungsoo are all sitting against the hoods of their respective cars looking more than reluctant to even be here, while Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin are huddled together looking terribly enthusiastic. Yixing throws an arm around Minseok’s shoulders and says, “It’s just for fun-it’s just going end up being some lost rogue who can’t find the center. Or got scared away from the west centers.”
“I was studying for my language final,” Minseok mumbles. “And it’s Friday night-I want to sleep on Friday fucking night. Look at them-half of us don’t even want to do this.”
Yixing shrugs. “I’m kind of excited,” he says. “And for people who don’t want to do this,” Yixing tilts his head at the others, “they all came suited.” He raises his eyebrows at Minseok. “And so did you.”
Minseok gazes into Yixing’s eyes for a moment until the older man ends up breaking into a grin and breaking the staring contest. He shoves Yixing away playfully as the younger man laughs. “You’re fucking excited,” Yixing says, laughter growing.
“’S in my blood,” Minseok shrugs, and the grin stretches against his cheeks until his face nearly hurts.
Baekhyun and Jongin decide to go alone-without Joonmyeon, Jongdae, and Sehun, and also without any riders-since a rogue that unstable is probably terribly weak and lost and sometimes too many dragons at once, and also the presence of humans, scares rogues who’ve just arrived to a country where people actually don’t hate their entire existence. The others wave the two off and mill about in the parking lot in the mean time.
Minseok settles down on the gravel across from Joonmyeon in an attempt to maybe score tips on how to easily cheat his way through the research paper they both have to do for a class they’re both taking, even though in universities opposite each other in the city. Thankfully, Kyungsoo is considerate enough not to distract Joonmyeon and goes off to talk to Chanyeol. A bit farther off, Sehun has his arms around Luhan’s waist as they both laugh into each other-nearly keeling over-at something Yixing has just said.
It’s times like these that engrave themselves most into Minseok’s mind-moments like these where he can’t stop his mind from drifting to how his parents (and he’s sure the others’ parents do as well, whether Jongin’s pure-blood dragon parents to Kyungsoo’s average, Korean citizen parents) constantly remind him of how grateful he should be that South Korea is one of the countries that takes the legends to heart about how it’s far easier to tame a beast if you treat them like a human.
(Because Minseok can’t ever imagine considering Sehun and Joonmyeon and Jongdae and Jongin and Baekhyun as anything less)
None of them expected Baekhyun and Jongin to return in their human forms.
None of them expected Baekhyun and Jongin to return in their human forms looking like they’ve both just seen a ghost-neither did anyone expect Baekhyun to instantly run into Chanyeol’s arms, clinging to the taller man tightly and trembling. Yixing rushes into one of the open cars-Joonmyeon’s-and turns on the headlights, and Minseok bites the inside of his cheek when he sees that there are purple splotches all over Baekhyun’s thin, pale, torso.
It’s less evident on Jongin’s tan skin when Yixing brings him into the glare of the headlights for inspection-Jongin also has more cuts than bruises, and he isn’t as shaken up as Baekhyun. Sehun is the first one to come barreling through his shock, grasping Jongin by the shoulders and staring wide-eyed into Jongin’s terrified expression.
They’re all talking at once-Luhan and Sehun shouting at Jongin with Luhan patting Jongin’s face as though that would bring words from Jongin’s lips, Chanyeol is shouting as he clutches Baekhyun (still shivering) to his chest and continuously asks for Yixing to tend to Baekhyun’s wounds first and someone get Baekhyun some clothes, while Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo sprint towards the warehouse for Yixing’s medical supplies.
Minseok ends up resorting to shoving Luhan into Sehun like dominos so they’re both knocked cleanly out of the way and Minseok can pull Jongin to sit on the edge of the backseat of Joonmyeon’s car. Jongin’s feet dangling out of the car as Minseok pushes the car door wide open and cups the edges of Jongin’s face. He looks straight into the younger man’s eyes, moving past the full lips and high cheekbones and tan skin and heading directly instead for grayish white scales and roaring, sharp teeth.
Jongin is still underneath Minseok’s hands, and the tamer only lets go once Jongin’s pulse is back to normal-once Jongin is breathing evenly again. “Okay,” Minseok says as Jongin closes his eyes and leans to the side against the seat for support. “Can you tell me what happened now?”
Jongin’s eyes open slowly, a weak smile stretching his lips. “That,” he breathes, “is not a rogue.”
When dragons, riders, and tamers reach a certain age-graduate from university and enter the work force-they are considered adults like all other citizens and do what all other citizens did. They married, raised families, maybe enjoyed a flight here and there to show their children what they were. Dragons are no longer used as combat forces clearly ever since the past two world wars. However, since riders most always remained within the same families and dragons and tamers clearly had to remain within the same families, most all families formed teams and owned centers located throughout the outskirts of cities (Seoul, in this case).
Each of those centers is funded by the government so that when the dragons are ready, their parents can send them off to a center once or twice a week to be tamed by a tamer of the same generation. In turn, the tamer learns how to handle him or herself and the dragon learns how to be a dragon. Untamed dragons, dragons who prefer to be in dragon form rather than live in human form, are no different than-wild mountain lions, wild boars, wild anything.
Centers are centered around the tamer because of how rare they are to come by-tamers can’t be anything other than half-human and half-dragon because the whole purpose of a tamer is to bridge the gap between human and dragon. To be able to fully look as a human and have no risk of exploding into a dragon, but be indestructible enough that if the tamer were to be the first rider a young dragon takes on his first flight and the young dragon turns a little to violently, the tamer wouldn’t be killed in a fall because he or she would have the same skin-destructibility of a pure dragon.
Through the growing process however, dragons, riders, and tamers are responsible for the vicinity around their center. They are in charge of rogues, and any other disturbances that might serve as harmful to nearby hikers, campers, mountain climbers, joggers-any sort of business that citizens might want to carry out in the thicket of nature.
Which is why Minseok is stupidly (incredibly stupidly, he thinks) strapping a helmet over his head and pulling goggles over his eyes as he and Jongdae (who’s already stripped and suited) walk out into the stretch of bare land right before the forest begins. “I can’t believe you’re not just calling another center for help,” Jongdae says.
Minseok rubs at his eyes as he adjusts his goggles. “That makes two of us.”
It’s too late to turn back, however, as Sehun and Luhan, and Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo are right behind them. Minseok would’ve preferred to ride Jongin for this round since Jongin is better at flying at the night than Jongdae is-and Jongdae usually prefers to ride with Yixing anyhow even though Yixing prefers to stay back unless they need him to be there in case of in-flight injuries.
When they reach the first outpost, Minseok turns his head and signals for the other four to step back since he and Jongdae get first shift. He meets Jongdae’s eyes through the goggles and Jongdae takes one step back before setting forward at a run. Minseok feels the adrenaline pump through his body in correspondence to the wind that begins whipping around the entire forested area as swirls of dirt rise up and Minseok catches glimpses of glowing yellow and blue scales. Once the claws are in sight, the shift is near completion enough for Minseok to grab hold of the black saddle that becomes visible through the dust.
Unlike Luhan who needs to board on the landing pad because of his fear of heights, and Kyungsoo who’s still relatively new to all this, Minseok is more like Chanyeol-he can mount in-flight and it’s barely seconds between Minseok gripping the edge of the saddle to Jongdae taking off into the air before Minseok is even fully seated.
They're in the air before Minseok bothers to throw his leg over the other side of the saddle, searching for a brief moment for the other stirrup while Jongdae gains momentum and, behind them, Minseok can hear Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo, and Luhan and Sehun take flight. Minseok doesn't even bother sitting down on the saddle, preferring to ride standing on the stirrups with only one hand gripping the saddle horn.
He reaches up to the side of his goggles and twists the metal knob on the side, turning on the binocular function so he can start scouting through the trees. The tamer also turns on the communication piece and inserts the tiny earphone dangling from the top of his goggles into his ear. He adjusts the volume just up until he can hear Kyungsoo and Luhan breathing at the other ends.
They fly for all of ten minutes due west before Luhan's voice comes into Minseok's ears, bored and restless. "This is exciting," Luhan mumbles.
"So," Kyungsoo says unsurely and Minseok can hear the nervous frown in the other man's voice through the intercom, "we're looking for a dragon, right? One that's not a rogue and not really friendly?"
“Let’s just keep going,” Minseok says, fixing the speaker closer to his mouth. He turns his head slightly, looking back at Joonmyeon and Sehun’s locations behind them. “And fly higher,” he says into the mouthpiece, “that way we can get a better look at the area so we’re not ramming head-on into whatever it is.”
“Higher,” Luhan mutters, “great.”
Minseok taps Jongdae lightly and Jongdae shifts a few meters higher into the air with a quiet roar of affirmation. They fly on for another five minutes and the intercom is quiet for the most part-aside from Kyungsoo’s occasional questions about whether they’re flying too fast and Luhan’s occasional mumbling about how they’re flying too high.
“D’you see anything?” Minseok shouts out at Jongdae.
The large head beneath Minseok shakes from side to side. Minseok frowns, eyebrows furrowing as he strains his eyes to try and locate anything. His goggles are infrared but if there’s nothing to see, then there’s nothing to see. All that’s in his line of sight is forest and more forest, and if they fly any further west, they’ll end up bumping into another center’s vicinity-
Minseok wrenches the earpiece out of his ear.
“You don’t just scream into the intercom, Kyungsoo-ah,” the tamer screams into the intercom, holding the earpiece at arm’s length.
“Hyung-turn east, turn east-!” Kyungsoo’s shout is so loud that Minseok doesn’t even need to have the earpiece in his ear to hear it. Minseok pulls back the saddle horn, and digs his foot hard into Jongdae’s side to get the dragon turning-swerving violently and quickly enough that Minseok nearly topples off to one side. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luhan doing the same with Sehun, as both dragons race towards where Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo are off in the distance. Joonmyeon was flanking Minseok on the east side, which meant that they were farther to the mountain range and-
Minseok flattens his body against Jongdae, fingertips digging into the scales, heels digging into Jongdae’s body until the dragon starts to roar in pain. “I’m sorry!” Minseok shouts. He can’t bring himself to sit back up straight and he knows that Jongdae feels it too-the sudden wave of power, of anger, of a rage so intensely threatening that it chokes them just by the breaths they take. It’s enough that Minseok can feel how Jongdae’s body instinctively already tries to turn right around and flee.
He forces the earpiece back into his ear and adjusts the volume so that he’ll be able to hear it over the noise of the roaring (unfamiliar, foreign, horribly screechy roaring) that’s sounding off from the source of the wind. “You must be,” Luhan shouts into Minseok’s ear, as Joonmyeon suddenly skids through the air from where he and Kyungsoo previously were floating near the mountains, “fucking batshit if you think I’m taking Sehunnie into that.”
Minseok catches Joonmyeon’s eye, full of fear and Joonmyeon rapidly shakes his head side to side-Kyungsoo’s body is flattened against the dragon just like Minseok is flattened against Jongdae. Only Luhan is still upright. “It’s our region still,” Minseok yells back into the intercom, “let’s just get a little closer so we can at least-”
Joonmyeon roars and suddenly backs up behind Sehun and Jongdae, curling in on himself protectively and meeting Minseok’s eyes again warningly and reluctantly. “Fine,” Kyungsoo shouts. “Fine-we’ll go-but Joonmyeon doesn’t want to be in the front-go on-you’ll see why-you go first, hyung, since you’re the one who wants to still go.”
Minseok takes a deep breath, moving his helmet this way and that on his head and now really wishes he’d been able to take Jongin and Chanyeol with Baekhyun because riding with Luhan and Kyungsoo was always tricky when they took on even the easier rogues. It wasn’t that Chanyeol wasn’t protective of Baekhyun and Baekhyun wasn’t careful-but with Luhan’s fear of heights, the fact that Sehun was still relatively untrained, Kyungsoo’s cautiousness, and Joonmyeon’s protectiveness-it was harder for Minseok to convince them to take a risk.
And then there was also Jongdae’s skepticism whether they could get out of anything alive.
“Kim Jongdae,” Minseok yells, “you need to fly forward if we’re going to get anywhere.”
Jongdae irritably growls deep and low, rumbling beneath Minseok, before he shoots forward and Minseok turns his head left and right to look behind him, making sure that Luhan and Kyungsoo haven’t fallen back or Sehun and Joonmyeon haven’t tried to run away in an effort to protect their riders.
They’re flying for barely another minute before Jongdae rams to such an abrupt halt that Minseok has to grip the dragon’s body with his legs in order not to be thrown off. He hears shouts and curses over the intercom as Luhan and Kyungsoo most likely do the same. Once Minseok rights himself, adjusts his goggles, focuses in on what’s below them, however, yelling at Jongdae for braking like an untrained dragon doesn’t even touch Minseok’s mind.
“Fuck,” Minseok mutters.
Sehun roars in panic, flailing through the air and making to back away immediately before Joonmyeon suddenly swerves around the youngest dragon, preventing him from turning back. “You idiot,” Luhan hisses at his dragon and Minseok can hear through the earpiece, “shut up and stay still-you’re going to draw attention to us!”
Minseok doesn’t think that whether or not they draw attention to themselves will matter-the concept of remaining as still as possible in hopes that a wild animal will merely walk away is clearly not the case in this situation. There is no wild animal, as far as Minseok’s knowledge goes, that has the ability to dent the underside of a mountain range as well as clear at least a twenty kilometer radius of forest-shattered trees scattered and stabbing at the earth that makes up the mountains just nearby.
The perpetrator-the same perpetrator of causing Taemin, Jonghyun, and their mothers to nearly black out, the same perpetrator who undoubtedly caused Jongin and Baekhyun’s injuries as well as Jongin and Baekhyun’s now terrified states of mind, stands roaring with four vast scaly feet on the ground-claws digging into the earth as the terribly magnificent (magnificently terrible) long body (Minseok estimates, in horror, probably four school buses end to end, which means twice Jongin and Sehun’s sizes) continues to thrash trees down.
“Minseok-ah,” Luhan says in a tiny voice, “what if he flies?”
“He won’t chase us,” Kyungsoo’s voice pops up quickly, “Joonmyeon and I flew back when we saw him and he saw us-he went into the air for a while, but he didn’t come after us.”
“See?” Minseok says and hates how his voice shakes. “Maybe he’s reasonable.”
When a dragon laughs, the creature’s entire body shakes with a series of tiny snarls, and that’s exactly what Jongdae does at Minseok’s words-only the laughter is painfully sarcastic and Minseok kicks at the dragon. “Shut up,” Minseok mutters, “we’re going to go down and try-okay.” He places the intercom at his lips, “Back me.”
Luhan sighs and Kyungsoo whimpers slightly, but Minseok hears Sehun and Joonmyeon take positions behind Jongdae.
Minseok gives Jongdae a nudge with his foot, “Slow and easy,” he says, leaning forward and pressing himself between Jongdae’s ears. He edges closer up against the back of Jongdae’s head, hands pressed near the dragon’s eyes to grip better. “Don’t scare him.” Jongdae swerves slowly down, his long body curving like a slide as they get close enough to the red dragon to see the pupils of the beast’s eyes.
“Scary as fuck,” Kyungsoo mumbles, “but damn that’s an attractive dragon.”
“I think he’s Chinese,” Luhan mutters and Minseok can tell that Luhan is squinting through his goggles, “I think I see the gold marking stuff on his stomach.”
“Yup,” Minseok says under his breath into Jongdae’s left ear, “see? Like-really-he’s probably just a rogue and Jongin and Baekhyun scared him.” Jongdae snorts and ducks down a little bit more from the air-they’re even closer now, and the red dragon’s roar is deafening to Minseok’s ears (he turns the earpiece volume up further). At this distance, it becomes painfully clear exactly how much larger the dragon is even compared to Sehun-at least twice Sehun’s size, and Sehun is considered fairly large along with Jongin.
Jongdae seems slightly more at ease now so Minseok urges him with a pat to go on and approach the dragon while Sehun and Joonmyeon hover a few meters above them-still above the tops of the trees. “Go ahead and dip down,” Minseok says into Jongdae’s ear, and Jongdae gives a grumble of affirmation, lowering his b-
He hears Luhan and Kyungsoo’s scream in unison into the earpiece, sees a flash of Jongdae’s shocked eyes, a flash of red and gold, and when Minseok is able to open his eyes-is able to breathe again-he and Jongdae are floating shakily in the air, watching Joonmyeon and Sehun taking the red dragon on in the distance.
Jongdae is panting, gasping, and Minseok’s pants are soaked in the blood that’s gushing from Jongdae’s underside. “Shit,” Minseok hisses and yanks himself forward to look into Jongdae’s face-the tamer swings easily over the top of Jongdae’s head and peers down the dragon’s snout. Jongdae’s gaze assures Minseok that the dragon is okay-that Jongdae has to go back and help Sehun and Joonmyeon.
“Yixing’s going to kill me,” Minseok mutters as Jongdae heaves a huge breath before shooting forward, back to the battle scene.
Joonmyeon and Sehun are sporting injuries of their own-bruises and blood seeping through their scales. Luhan and Kyungsoo have their dragons floating in the air, gauging the red dragon’s whipping tail and how to attack next. At closer inspect, however, Minseok detects even more grievous wounds on the red dragon than on Joonmyeon and Sehun, and even Jongdae. Despite the magnitude of this dragon’s size, despite the magnitude of this dragon’s seeming anger and uncontrolled power-it’s all only just that-unskilled and untrained and an idea flashes through Minseok’s mind.
Minseok leans forward and whispers into Jongdae’s ear. After the dragon nods, the tamer shouts into the intercom and waves frantically at Luhan and Kyungsoo, signaling with his arms as he yells directions into the mouthpiece. He sees Luhan and Kyungsoo’s helmeted heads nod, hears affirmations in his earpiece and then Jongdae takes up higher into the air for a moment so Minseok can make a call on his cell phone.
“Hyung,” Chanyeol’s voice is chirpy and bright, despite the fact that Baekhyun is probably in his arms, sleeping and injured. “You’re not dead?”
“Debatable,” Minseok says. “Is Baekhyunnie okay?” In the distance, the red dragon roars again and Minseok bites the inside of his cheek as Sehun and Joonmyeon rush forward to keep the beast at bay.
“He’s sleeping off the meds,” Chanyeol says. “Jonginnie’s still up, though.”
“Is Jonginnie okay?” Minseok says and Jongdae backs up farther as the red dragon starts to stalk forward on the ground, smacking more trees away to make a pathway as it advances while glaring upward at Sehun and Joonmyeon. Against his other ear, Minseok hears Kyungsoo cry out-Luhan starts to curse again.
“Yeah-more or less,” and there’s a shrug in Chanyeol’s voice.
“Okay,” Minseok says and Jongdae continues back track through the air as the red dragon starts up on a sprint. “Okay,” Minseok says and his voice is unnaturally high to his own ears suddenly, “Chanyeol-ah, I need you, Yixing, and Jongin to open up the cage behind warehouse fifty-six. And if you have time before we get there, add a few more poles to it and stretch it out as far as it can go-use the locks in forty-three.”
There’s a pause on the other end (during which Kyungsoo is now screaming so loudly that it’s audible across the sky and Sehun’s flying is beginning to falter), and then Chanyeol asks blankly, “Wait-but-why-”
“Just do it!” Minseok shouts into the phone, “and fast-have both doors open and ready by the time we come-about five minutes-unless you want every warehouse we have to turn into lumber.” He hangs up before Chanyeol can say anything else, just as Jongdae shoots up in to the air and sharply dives back down-straight at the red dragon.
Minseok clutches onto Jongdae as they’re whipped by the beast’s tail, flying back and only stopped in time when Joonmyeon manages to help steady Jongdae back in the air as Sehun dives back in for another try of his own. It’s slow and painful, but Minseok sees the progress that the red dragon is making forward-the more they irritate it, the more they pretend to futilely attack it, the closer the red dragon barrels towards the center.
(He just hopes that no park rangers will be angry that there’s a line extending from the mountain range all the way towards Seoul filled with knocked over trees and craters in the ground)
By the time the warehouses come into sight, Minseok has sweat gathering in his goggles and it feels like there’s an ocean between his head and his helmet. Jongdae, Joonmyeon and Sehun have all faltered in the air multiple times-nearly losing the complete will to remain airborne as their energies are expended to the ultimate low. Every time they’re whipped back again and again, another bruise, another cut forms (the red dragon’s scales have revealed themselves to serve as knives on its tail), and Minseok, Luhan, and Kyungsoo have to hold on tighter and tighter to prevent themselves from being knocked to the ground.
“Almost there,” Minseok mutters, eyes narrowing as he lies flat against Jongdae’s body while Sehun is thrown back again, nearly crashing into Joonmyeon.
Just as Joonmyeon is lashed back and Jongdae stabilizes the older dragon, Jongin and Baekhyun suddenly shoot into the sky and-
“Fuck-that’s a big dragon,” Chanyeol shouts into Minseok’s ear.
“No shit,” Kyungsoo screams back, slightly hysteric.
Minseok grits his teeth as Jongin swirls around the red dragon, roaring and hissing with Yixing trying to restrain him. “Get behind him,” Minseok shouts into the intercom and waves at Jongin and Baekhyun-the tamer points towards the other end of the red dragon, waving Joonmyeon to follow them. “Get behind him and hit all at once-Jongdae and Sehun are going to open the doors-do it on my count.”
The red dragon is splashing blood every time it moves-there are gashes all up and down its body, while Jongdae, Sehun and Joonmyeon are exhausted but not nearly as injured due to the fact that they managed to remain airborne the entire time while the red dragon only took to the air once or twice (and Minseok has a suspicion this dragon has barely enough energy to stay awake, let alone fly-thus the reason for it acting so angry and defensive).
Jongdae flies towards the left side of the cage while Sehun moves towards the right. The cage is an incredibly vast, stainless steel structure-shaped, formed, and constructed like that of a jungle gym. “One,” Minseok bellows into the mouthpiece, as the red dragon suddenly knocks down the warehouse closest to the forest’s edge-there are no more trees, just empty space and the seemingly soon-to-be destroyed warehouses apparently.
“Fuck-fuck-fuck,” Chanyeol yells, as they start pushing and Baekhyun starts to bleed from the red dragon’s knife-like tail scales.
“Two,” Minseok clenches his teeth as Jongdae gives a last roar to gather enough strength to wrench open the cage doors.
The red dragon is cornered now and it seems to realize that, thrashing wildly with every last spurt of energy it must have left before Jongin-the one with the most energy left, the one who’s been trained the longest-manages to give an ultimate shove, ramming his shoulder against the red dragon’s side and slamming the beast messily through the opening of the cage.
“Close it!” Minseok shouts urgently and Jongdae and Sehun immediately fight to lock the cage in. Minseok is the one to jump off of Jongdae’s back and tighten in the large, metal lock connecting the two doors (coded only for a tamer’s eyes), just before the red dragon snaps its teeth through the bars.
Jongin manages to swoop beneath and catch Minseok on his back before the tamer hits the ground (as Jongdae’s already blacked out, bruises and cuts littering his pale skin as he lies unconscious on the dirt-followed suit by Sehun, blacking out in Luhan’s arms-with Baekhyun flying in, having caught Joonmyeon as he passed out in Kyungsoo’s arms as well).
“Good job,” Yixing breathes, a hand on Minseok’s shoulder as Jongin lands.
Minseok tears off his helmet and goggles, rubbing a gloved hand over his perspiration-soaked face. “Thanks,” he gasps, right before he collapses right there on Jongin’s back.
Author: himawarixxsandz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): XiuRis, HunHan, BaekYeol, SuDo
Summary: Beasts bleed too
A/N: I can't believe I just wrote like 5K w/o anyone having sex. omfg.
Prologue // Part 1 // Part 2
Minseok sighs, gripping the steering wheel as the car begins to reach the bumpy gravel that leads into the empty space beside the warehouses that they usually use for parking their cars. He sees Joonmyeon’s car already parked, as well as Chanyeol and Luhan’s cars. He supposes that Kyungsoo probably rode with Joonmyeon, Baekhyun with Chanyeol, and Sehun and Jongin with Luhan-Yixing and Jongdae had been here since the afternoon since neither had lectures today. That means that they’re all here and accounted for, waiting for Minseok, who still is trying to pretend that this isn’t reality.
As a tamer, Minseok rather likes helping rogues-loves being a rider-loved it ever since the first time his father strapped him onto his mother’s back as a toddler and they set off together for a camping trip in the woods. However, there’s a difference between helping rogues like they’re supposed to and venturing off for fun into the woods in the middle of the night to play detective.
He climbs out of his car, slinging his goggles around his neck and holding his helmet under one arm and his jacket under the other. Sehun, Jongdae, Luhan, Joonmyeon, and Kyungsoo are all sitting against the hoods of their respective cars looking more than reluctant to even be here, while Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin are huddled together looking terribly enthusiastic. Yixing throws an arm around Minseok’s shoulders and says, “It’s just for fun-it’s just going end up being some lost rogue who can’t find the center. Or got scared away from the west centers.”
“I was studying for my language final,” Minseok mumbles. “And it’s Friday night-I want to sleep on Friday fucking night. Look at them-half of us don’t even want to do this.”
Yixing shrugs. “I’m kind of excited,” he says. “And for people who don’t want to do this,” Yixing tilts his head at the others, “they all came suited.” He raises his eyebrows at Minseok. “And so did you.”
Minseok gazes into Yixing’s eyes for a moment until the older man ends up breaking into a grin and breaking the staring contest. He shoves Yixing away playfully as the younger man laughs. “You’re fucking excited,” Yixing says, laughter growing.
“’S in my blood,” Minseok shrugs, and the grin stretches against his cheeks until his face nearly hurts.
Baekhyun and Jongin decide to go alone-without Joonmyeon, Jongdae, and Sehun, and also without any riders-since a rogue that unstable is probably terribly weak and lost and sometimes too many dragons at once, and also the presence of humans, scares rogues who’ve just arrived to a country where people actually don’t hate their entire existence. The others wave the two off and mill about in the parking lot in the mean time.
Minseok settles down on the gravel across from Joonmyeon in an attempt to maybe score tips on how to easily cheat his way through the research paper they both have to do for a class they’re both taking, even though in universities opposite each other in the city. Thankfully, Kyungsoo is considerate enough not to distract Joonmyeon and goes off to talk to Chanyeol. A bit farther off, Sehun has his arms around Luhan’s waist as they both laugh into each other-nearly keeling over-at something Yixing has just said.
It’s times like these that engrave themselves most into Minseok’s mind-moments like these where he can’t stop his mind from drifting to how his parents (and he’s sure the others’ parents do as well, whether Jongin’s pure-blood dragon parents to Kyungsoo’s average, Korean citizen parents) constantly remind him of how grateful he should be that South Korea is one of the countries that takes the legends to heart about how it’s far easier to tame a beast if you treat them like a human.
(Because Minseok can’t ever imagine considering Sehun and Joonmyeon and Jongdae and Jongin and Baekhyun as anything less)
None of them expected Baekhyun and Jongin to return in their human forms.
None of them expected Baekhyun and Jongin to return in their human forms looking like they’ve both just seen a ghost-neither did anyone expect Baekhyun to instantly run into Chanyeol’s arms, clinging to the taller man tightly and trembling. Yixing rushes into one of the open cars-Joonmyeon’s-and turns on the headlights, and Minseok bites the inside of his cheek when he sees that there are purple splotches all over Baekhyun’s thin, pale, torso.
It’s less evident on Jongin’s tan skin when Yixing brings him into the glare of the headlights for inspection-Jongin also has more cuts than bruises, and he isn’t as shaken up as Baekhyun. Sehun is the first one to come barreling through his shock, grasping Jongin by the shoulders and staring wide-eyed into Jongin’s terrified expression.
They’re all talking at once-Luhan and Sehun shouting at Jongin with Luhan patting Jongin’s face as though that would bring words from Jongin’s lips, Chanyeol is shouting as he clutches Baekhyun (still shivering) to his chest and continuously asks for Yixing to tend to Baekhyun’s wounds first and someone get Baekhyun some clothes, while Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo sprint towards the warehouse for Yixing’s medical supplies.
Minseok ends up resorting to shoving Luhan into Sehun like dominos so they’re both knocked cleanly out of the way and Minseok can pull Jongin to sit on the edge of the backseat of Joonmyeon’s car. Jongin’s feet dangling out of the car as Minseok pushes the car door wide open and cups the edges of Jongin’s face. He looks straight into the younger man’s eyes, moving past the full lips and high cheekbones and tan skin and heading directly instead for grayish white scales and roaring, sharp teeth.
Jongin is still underneath Minseok’s hands, and the tamer only lets go once Jongin’s pulse is back to normal-once Jongin is breathing evenly again. “Okay,” Minseok says as Jongin closes his eyes and leans to the side against the seat for support. “Can you tell me what happened now?”
Jongin’s eyes open slowly, a weak smile stretching his lips. “That,” he breathes, “is not a rogue.”
When dragons, riders, and tamers reach a certain age-graduate from university and enter the work force-they are considered adults like all other citizens and do what all other citizens did. They married, raised families, maybe enjoyed a flight here and there to show their children what they were. Dragons are no longer used as combat forces clearly ever since the past two world wars. However, since riders most always remained within the same families and dragons and tamers clearly had to remain within the same families, most all families formed teams and owned centers located throughout the outskirts of cities (Seoul, in this case).
Each of those centers is funded by the government so that when the dragons are ready, their parents can send them off to a center once or twice a week to be tamed by a tamer of the same generation. In turn, the tamer learns how to handle him or herself and the dragon learns how to be a dragon. Untamed dragons, dragons who prefer to be in dragon form rather than live in human form, are no different than-wild mountain lions, wild boars, wild anything.
Centers are centered around the tamer because of how rare they are to come by-tamers can’t be anything other than half-human and half-dragon because the whole purpose of a tamer is to bridge the gap between human and dragon. To be able to fully look as a human and have no risk of exploding into a dragon, but be indestructible enough that if the tamer were to be the first rider a young dragon takes on his first flight and the young dragon turns a little to violently, the tamer wouldn’t be killed in a fall because he or she would have the same skin-destructibility of a pure dragon.
Through the growing process however, dragons, riders, and tamers are responsible for the vicinity around their center. They are in charge of rogues, and any other disturbances that might serve as harmful to nearby hikers, campers, mountain climbers, joggers-any sort of business that citizens might want to carry out in the thicket of nature.
Which is why Minseok is stupidly (incredibly stupidly, he thinks) strapping a helmet over his head and pulling goggles over his eyes as he and Jongdae (who’s already stripped and suited) walk out into the stretch of bare land right before the forest begins. “I can’t believe you’re not just calling another center for help,” Jongdae says.
Minseok rubs at his eyes as he adjusts his goggles. “That makes two of us.”
It’s too late to turn back, however, as Sehun and Luhan, and Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo are right behind them. Minseok would’ve preferred to ride Jongin for this round since Jongin is better at flying at the night than Jongdae is-and Jongdae usually prefers to ride with Yixing anyhow even though Yixing prefers to stay back unless they need him to be there in case of in-flight injuries.
When they reach the first outpost, Minseok turns his head and signals for the other four to step back since he and Jongdae get first shift. He meets Jongdae’s eyes through the goggles and Jongdae takes one step back before setting forward at a run. Minseok feels the adrenaline pump through his body in correspondence to the wind that begins whipping around the entire forested area as swirls of dirt rise up and Minseok catches glimpses of glowing yellow and blue scales. Once the claws are in sight, the shift is near completion enough for Minseok to grab hold of the black saddle that becomes visible through the dust.
Unlike Luhan who needs to board on the landing pad because of his fear of heights, and Kyungsoo who’s still relatively new to all this, Minseok is more like Chanyeol-he can mount in-flight and it’s barely seconds between Minseok gripping the edge of the saddle to Jongdae taking off into the air before Minseok is even fully seated.
They're in the air before Minseok bothers to throw his leg over the other side of the saddle, searching for a brief moment for the other stirrup while Jongdae gains momentum and, behind them, Minseok can hear Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo, and Luhan and Sehun take flight. Minseok doesn't even bother sitting down on the saddle, preferring to ride standing on the stirrups with only one hand gripping the saddle horn.
He reaches up to the side of his goggles and twists the metal knob on the side, turning on the binocular function so he can start scouting through the trees. The tamer also turns on the communication piece and inserts the tiny earphone dangling from the top of his goggles into his ear. He adjusts the volume just up until he can hear Kyungsoo and Luhan breathing at the other ends.
They fly for all of ten minutes due west before Luhan's voice comes into Minseok's ears, bored and restless. "This is exciting," Luhan mumbles.
"So," Kyungsoo says unsurely and Minseok can hear the nervous frown in the other man's voice through the intercom, "we're looking for a dragon, right? One that's not a rogue and not really friendly?"
“Let’s just keep going,” Minseok says, fixing the speaker closer to his mouth. He turns his head slightly, looking back at Joonmyeon and Sehun’s locations behind them. “And fly higher,” he says into the mouthpiece, “that way we can get a better look at the area so we’re not ramming head-on into whatever it is.”
“Higher,” Luhan mutters, “great.”
Minseok taps Jongdae lightly and Jongdae shifts a few meters higher into the air with a quiet roar of affirmation. They fly on for another five minutes and the intercom is quiet for the most part-aside from Kyungsoo’s occasional questions about whether they’re flying too fast and Luhan’s occasional mumbling about how they’re flying too high.
“D’you see anything?” Minseok shouts out at Jongdae.
The large head beneath Minseok shakes from side to side. Minseok frowns, eyebrows furrowing as he strains his eyes to try and locate anything. His goggles are infrared but if there’s nothing to see, then there’s nothing to see. All that’s in his line of sight is forest and more forest, and if they fly any further west, they’ll end up bumping into another center’s vicinity-
Minseok wrenches the earpiece out of his ear.
“You don’t just scream into the intercom, Kyungsoo-ah,” the tamer screams into the intercom, holding the earpiece at arm’s length.
“Hyung-turn east, turn east-!” Kyungsoo’s shout is so loud that Minseok doesn’t even need to have the earpiece in his ear to hear it. Minseok pulls back the saddle horn, and digs his foot hard into Jongdae’s side to get the dragon turning-swerving violently and quickly enough that Minseok nearly topples off to one side. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luhan doing the same with Sehun, as both dragons race towards where Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo are off in the distance. Joonmyeon was flanking Minseok on the east side, which meant that they were farther to the mountain range and-
Minseok flattens his body against Jongdae, fingertips digging into the scales, heels digging into Jongdae’s body until the dragon starts to roar in pain. “I’m sorry!” Minseok shouts. He can’t bring himself to sit back up straight and he knows that Jongdae feels it too-the sudden wave of power, of anger, of a rage so intensely threatening that it chokes them just by the breaths they take. It’s enough that Minseok can feel how Jongdae’s body instinctively already tries to turn right around and flee.
He forces the earpiece back into his ear and adjusts the volume so that he’ll be able to hear it over the noise of the roaring (unfamiliar, foreign, horribly screechy roaring) that’s sounding off from the source of the wind. “You must be,” Luhan shouts into Minseok’s ear, as Joonmyeon suddenly skids through the air from where he and Kyungsoo previously were floating near the mountains, “fucking batshit if you think I’m taking Sehunnie into that.”
Minseok catches Joonmyeon’s eye, full of fear and Joonmyeon rapidly shakes his head side to side-Kyungsoo’s body is flattened against the dragon just like Minseok is flattened against Jongdae. Only Luhan is still upright. “It’s our region still,” Minseok yells back into the intercom, “let’s just get a little closer so we can at least-”
Joonmyeon roars and suddenly backs up behind Sehun and Jongdae, curling in on himself protectively and meeting Minseok’s eyes again warningly and reluctantly. “Fine,” Kyungsoo shouts. “Fine-we’ll go-but Joonmyeon doesn’t want to be in the front-go on-you’ll see why-you go first, hyung, since you’re the one who wants to still go.”
Minseok takes a deep breath, moving his helmet this way and that on his head and now really wishes he’d been able to take Jongin and Chanyeol with Baekhyun because riding with Luhan and Kyungsoo was always tricky when they took on even the easier rogues. It wasn’t that Chanyeol wasn’t protective of Baekhyun and Baekhyun wasn’t careful-but with Luhan’s fear of heights, the fact that Sehun was still relatively untrained, Kyungsoo’s cautiousness, and Joonmyeon’s protectiveness-it was harder for Minseok to convince them to take a risk.
And then there was also Jongdae’s skepticism whether they could get out of anything alive.
“Kim Jongdae,” Minseok yells, “you need to fly forward if we’re going to get anywhere.”
Jongdae irritably growls deep and low, rumbling beneath Minseok, before he shoots forward and Minseok turns his head left and right to look behind him, making sure that Luhan and Kyungsoo haven’t fallen back or Sehun and Joonmyeon haven’t tried to run away in an effort to protect their riders.
They’re flying for barely another minute before Jongdae rams to such an abrupt halt that Minseok has to grip the dragon’s body with his legs in order not to be thrown off. He hears shouts and curses over the intercom as Luhan and Kyungsoo most likely do the same. Once Minseok rights himself, adjusts his goggles, focuses in on what’s below them, however, yelling at Jongdae for braking like an untrained dragon doesn’t even touch Minseok’s mind.
“Fuck,” Minseok mutters.
Sehun roars in panic, flailing through the air and making to back away immediately before Joonmyeon suddenly swerves around the youngest dragon, preventing him from turning back. “You idiot,” Luhan hisses at his dragon and Minseok can hear through the earpiece, “shut up and stay still-you’re going to draw attention to us!”
Minseok doesn’t think that whether or not they draw attention to themselves will matter-the concept of remaining as still as possible in hopes that a wild animal will merely walk away is clearly not the case in this situation. There is no wild animal, as far as Minseok’s knowledge goes, that has the ability to dent the underside of a mountain range as well as clear at least a twenty kilometer radius of forest-shattered trees scattered and stabbing at the earth that makes up the mountains just nearby.
The perpetrator-the same perpetrator of causing Taemin, Jonghyun, and their mothers to nearly black out, the same perpetrator who undoubtedly caused Jongin and Baekhyun’s injuries as well as Jongin and Baekhyun’s now terrified states of mind, stands roaring with four vast scaly feet on the ground-claws digging into the earth as the terribly magnificent (magnificently terrible) long body (Minseok estimates, in horror, probably four school buses end to end, which means twice Jongin and Sehun’s sizes) continues to thrash trees down.
“Minseok-ah,” Luhan says in a tiny voice, “what if he flies?”
“He won’t chase us,” Kyungsoo’s voice pops up quickly, “Joonmyeon and I flew back when we saw him and he saw us-he went into the air for a while, but he didn’t come after us.”
“See?” Minseok says and hates how his voice shakes. “Maybe he’s reasonable.”
When a dragon laughs, the creature’s entire body shakes with a series of tiny snarls, and that’s exactly what Jongdae does at Minseok’s words-only the laughter is painfully sarcastic and Minseok kicks at the dragon. “Shut up,” Minseok mutters, “we’re going to go down and try-okay.” He places the intercom at his lips, “Back me.”
Luhan sighs and Kyungsoo whimpers slightly, but Minseok hears Sehun and Joonmyeon take positions behind Jongdae.
Minseok gives Jongdae a nudge with his foot, “Slow and easy,” he says, leaning forward and pressing himself between Jongdae’s ears. He edges closer up against the back of Jongdae’s head, hands pressed near the dragon’s eyes to grip better. “Don’t scare him.” Jongdae swerves slowly down, his long body curving like a slide as they get close enough to the red dragon to see the pupils of the beast’s eyes.
“Scary as fuck,” Kyungsoo mumbles, “but damn that’s an attractive dragon.”
“I think he’s Chinese,” Luhan mutters and Minseok can tell that Luhan is squinting through his goggles, “I think I see the gold marking stuff on his stomach.”
“Yup,” Minseok says under his breath into Jongdae’s left ear, “see? Like-really-he’s probably just a rogue and Jongin and Baekhyun scared him.” Jongdae snorts and ducks down a little bit more from the air-they’re even closer now, and the red dragon’s roar is deafening to Minseok’s ears (he turns the earpiece volume up further). At this distance, it becomes painfully clear exactly how much larger the dragon is even compared to Sehun-at least twice Sehun’s size, and Sehun is considered fairly large along with Jongin.
Jongdae seems slightly more at ease now so Minseok urges him with a pat to go on and approach the dragon while Sehun and Joonmyeon hover a few meters above them-still above the tops of the trees. “Go ahead and dip down,” Minseok says into Jongdae’s ear, and Jongdae gives a grumble of affirmation, lowering his b-
He hears Luhan and Kyungsoo’s scream in unison into the earpiece, sees a flash of Jongdae’s shocked eyes, a flash of red and gold, and when Minseok is able to open his eyes-is able to breathe again-he and Jongdae are floating shakily in the air, watching Joonmyeon and Sehun taking the red dragon on in the distance.
Jongdae is panting, gasping, and Minseok’s pants are soaked in the blood that’s gushing from Jongdae’s underside. “Shit,” Minseok hisses and yanks himself forward to look into Jongdae’s face-the tamer swings easily over the top of Jongdae’s head and peers down the dragon’s snout. Jongdae’s gaze assures Minseok that the dragon is okay-that Jongdae has to go back and help Sehun and Joonmyeon.
“Yixing’s going to kill me,” Minseok mutters as Jongdae heaves a huge breath before shooting forward, back to the battle scene.
Joonmyeon and Sehun are sporting injuries of their own-bruises and blood seeping through their scales. Luhan and Kyungsoo have their dragons floating in the air, gauging the red dragon’s whipping tail and how to attack next. At closer inspect, however, Minseok detects even more grievous wounds on the red dragon than on Joonmyeon and Sehun, and even Jongdae. Despite the magnitude of this dragon’s size, despite the magnitude of this dragon’s seeming anger and uncontrolled power-it’s all only just that-unskilled and untrained and an idea flashes through Minseok’s mind.
Minseok leans forward and whispers into Jongdae’s ear. After the dragon nods, the tamer shouts into the intercom and waves frantically at Luhan and Kyungsoo, signaling with his arms as he yells directions into the mouthpiece. He sees Luhan and Kyungsoo’s helmeted heads nod, hears affirmations in his earpiece and then Jongdae takes up higher into the air for a moment so Minseok can make a call on his cell phone.
“Hyung,” Chanyeol’s voice is chirpy and bright, despite the fact that Baekhyun is probably in his arms, sleeping and injured. “You’re not dead?”
“Debatable,” Minseok says. “Is Baekhyunnie okay?” In the distance, the red dragon roars again and Minseok bites the inside of his cheek as Sehun and Joonmyeon rush forward to keep the beast at bay.
“He’s sleeping off the meds,” Chanyeol says. “Jonginnie’s still up, though.”
“Is Jonginnie okay?” Minseok says and Jongdae backs up farther as the red dragon starts to stalk forward on the ground, smacking more trees away to make a pathway as it advances while glaring upward at Sehun and Joonmyeon. Against his other ear, Minseok hears Kyungsoo cry out-Luhan starts to curse again.
“Yeah-more or less,” and there’s a shrug in Chanyeol’s voice.
“Okay,” Minseok says and Jongdae continues back track through the air as the red dragon starts up on a sprint. “Okay,” Minseok says and his voice is unnaturally high to his own ears suddenly, “Chanyeol-ah, I need you, Yixing, and Jongin to open up the cage behind warehouse fifty-six. And if you have time before we get there, add a few more poles to it and stretch it out as far as it can go-use the locks in forty-three.”
There’s a pause on the other end (during which Kyungsoo is now screaming so loudly that it’s audible across the sky and Sehun’s flying is beginning to falter), and then Chanyeol asks blankly, “Wait-but-why-”
“Just do it!” Minseok shouts into the phone, “and fast-have both doors open and ready by the time we come-about five minutes-unless you want every warehouse we have to turn into lumber.” He hangs up before Chanyeol can say anything else, just as Jongdae shoots up in to the air and sharply dives back down-straight at the red dragon.
Minseok clutches onto Jongdae as they’re whipped by the beast’s tail, flying back and only stopped in time when Joonmyeon manages to help steady Jongdae back in the air as Sehun dives back in for another try of his own. It’s slow and painful, but Minseok sees the progress that the red dragon is making forward-the more they irritate it, the more they pretend to futilely attack it, the closer the red dragon barrels towards the center.
(He just hopes that no park rangers will be angry that there’s a line extending from the mountain range all the way towards Seoul filled with knocked over trees and craters in the ground)
By the time the warehouses come into sight, Minseok has sweat gathering in his goggles and it feels like there’s an ocean between his head and his helmet. Jongdae, Joonmyeon and Sehun have all faltered in the air multiple times-nearly losing the complete will to remain airborne as their energies are expended to the ultimate low. Every time they’re whipped back again and again, another bruise, another cut forms (the red dragon’s scales have revealed themselves to serve as knives on its tail), and Minseok, Luhan, and Kyungsoo have to hold on tighter and tighter to prevent themselves from being knocked to the ground.
“Almost there,” Minseok mutters, eyes narrowing as he lies flat against Jongdae’s body while Sehun is thrown back again, nearly crashing into Joonmyeon.
Just as Joonmyeon is lashed back and Jongdae stabilizes the older dragon, Jongin and Baekhyun suddenly shoot into the sky and-
“Fuck-that’s a big dragon,” Chanyeol shouts into Minseok’s ear.
“No shit,” Kyungsoo screams back, slightly hysteric.
Minseok grits his teeth as Jongin swirls around the red dragon, roaring and hissing with Yixing trying to restrain him. “Get behind him,” Minseok shouts into the intercom and waves at Jongin and Baekhyun-the tamer points towards the other end of the red dragon, waving Joonmyeon to follow them. “Get behind him and hit all at once-Jongdae and Sehun are going to open the doors-do it on my count.”
The red dragon is splashing blood every time it moves-there are gashes all up and down its body, while Jongdae, Sehun and Joonmyeon are exhausted but not nearly as injured due to the fact that they managed to remain airborne the entire time while the red dragon only took to the air once or twice (and Minseok has a suspicion this dragon has barely enough energy to stay awake, let alone fly-thus the reason for it acting so angry and defensive).
Jongdae flies towards the left side of the cage while Sehun moves towards the right. The cage is an incredibly vast, stainless steel structure-shaped, formed, and constructed like that of a jungle gym. “One,” Minseok bellows into the mouthpiece, as the red dragon suddenly knocks down the warehouse closest to the forest’s edge-there are no more trees, just empty space and the seemingly soon-to-be destroyed warehouses apparently.
“Fuck-fuck-fuck,” Chanyeol yells, as they start pushing and Baekhyun starts to bleed from the red dragon’s knife-like tail scales.
“Two,” Minseok clenches his teeth as Jongdae gives a last roar to gather enough strength to wrench open the cage doors.
The red dragon is cornered now and it seems to realize that, thrashing wildly with every last spurt of energy it must have left before Jongin-the one with the most energy left, the one who’s been trained the longest-manages to give an ultimate shove, ramming his shoulder against the red dragon’s side and slamming the beast messily through the opening of the cage.
“Close it!” Minseok shouts urgently and Jongdae and Sehun immediately fight to lock the cage in. Minseok is the one to jump off of Jongdae’s back and tighten in the large, metal lock connecting the two doors (coded only for a tamer’s eyes), just before the red dragon snaps its teeth through the bars.
Jongin manages to swoop beneath and catch Minseok on his back before the tamer hits the ground (as Jongdae’s already blacked out, bruises and cuts littering his pale skin as he lies unconscious on the dirt-followed suit by Sehun, blacking out in Luhan’s arms-with Baekhyun flying in, having caught Joonmyeon as he passed out in Kyungsoo’s arms as well).
“Good job,” Yixing breathes, a hand on Minseok’s shoulder as Jongin lands.
Minseok tears off his helmet and goggles, rubbing a gloved hand over his perspiration-soaked face. “Thanks,” he gasps, right before he collapses right there on Jongin’s back.