Private Court Thread

[protension]

[ There aren't a lot of empty places around the Court, and definitely not many good ones to lock up victims to torture without being overhead. That's the only thing that has kept Kitae even remotely safe, and even then safe is a subjective term... None of his bones have been broken (yet), though he has been hit several times. The bruises on his body that were finishing the healing process are now going to replaced by a new set thanks to Insik.

Insik... Kitae glances at Insik pacing across the small floorspace of the abandoned hut he'd managed to find. It won't be adequate for long, and Kitae can only imagine that Insik plans to drag him back to Seoul. He doesn't know how easy that would be to do, but he doesn't want to stick around in this shack long enough to find out.

It's been a long, long night from having been ambushed by Insik, to having been dragged here. He can't imagine it'll be too much longer until the sun is up, and he knows that the following day will be the best chance he has to get away and get help. Insik didn't want him around people, which means Kitae needs to put himself smack dab in the middle of the largest crowd he can find.

There are people at Court who are stronger than any human has the right to be, and those people are the desperate hope that Kitae clings on to as he glances between Insik and the door while he bides his time. ]

Comments

[pushier]

[ At first it's kind of a hard thought to understand. Suah has always bounced back from everything in her life. Even if she threw a fit after having lost a match or something, it was limited to a short burst of intense emotion before she just smoothed it over again. The idea of something making you unable to go back to how everything was before feels.. weird.

But she kind of understands it. Not just because she knows - much more than she'd want to, really - just how extreme Kitae's circumstances were, but also because Suah feels the same way right now as well. She hasn't been the same since that day Kitae disappeared, and it doesn't feel like she'll just be able to brush this off as well and go back to how she used to be in the future. Losing Kitae is the first thing that upset her world that badly, and the shock has changed her to a certain degree. Like the foundation was suddenly pulled out from under her life, and she doesn't know quite yet what to rebuild it on - and even if it'd be rebuilt, it wouldn't be the same.

So.. "for me", huh? Kitae really is an idiot if he thinks that Suah could just go back and smile and be loud like she has always been when most of her life was spent hanging around with him. As if she could forget all about him so easily. Idiot Kitae... ]

... I get it.

[ The tears that were forming in her eyes before are definitely falling now - although it's no kind of loud sobbing. She's just silently letting them drop, her throat feeling tight. ]

So we're just screwed.

[protension]

[ As angry and bitter as he is about the perceived betrayal even now that he knows he was wrong this whole time, he doesn't want her to be affected by him this way. The Suah he knew before Insik ruined him is the Suah he loved and adored. it's not that under different circumstances he couldn't learn to love this new Suah who had been formed after his disappearance, but their relationship would never be the same as they were before everything that happened.

So yeah... it's true, it's not just him.

He hesitates for a moment, before lifting up his hand and dropping it on the top of her head. It doesn't feel natural the way this act used to, but it doesn't feel as awkward as he thought it would either. There's something almost comforting about it, like a ghost of familiarity creeps into the gesture.

But it's not strong enough to properly bring back a real feeling of nostalgia.

The words he tries to force out take a lot more work, however. ]

It's not like I'm an optimistic person or anything...

[ And he really never has been. ]

But I'm not as screwed as I was before at least. And at least you can tell people I'm not dead.

[ A small laugh through his nose. ]

If anyone else cares.

[pushier]

[ The touch of a hand on her head does feel stranger than all of their physical contact used to. Suah was so quick to jump onto Kitae and cling to him, to kiss him all over his face like it was nothing - she never thought much about it, all of it just came natural to her. But even though there's something vaguely comforting about the contact between the two of them now, it still definitely does feel.. off. Like it's just not the same as before.

And it will never be. It kind of hammers the point home even more. It's also what keeps Suah from instead getting determined to find a way to stay here or anything like that.. it wouldn't be the same anyway between the two of them. So then it doesn't matter whether they're apart or together.

Her tears are still silently dripping - Suah has always been too much of an emotional cannon to just stop them that easily. ]

Mom would think I'm crazy if I told her I went to some otherworldly place and saw you alive there.

[ The tears leave her voice softer than usually (especially by Suah standards) but at least she manages to force out the words with a very, very wry irony sort of amusement in them. ]

[protension]

[ If Kitae could make things just like the were before he would do it in a heartbeat. He hates what happened to him, and no matter what good things he finds in his life in the future (assuming he even does), he would trade any of them away in an instant just to get back the life he used to have. He'd take back the alcoholic bastard he was forced to call father, and the timid useless waste of space of a mom just to have his friends back, to have his life and his potential future back too.

He wants to tease Suah, and kiss her like there's nothing about two close friends kissing on the lips. He wants to make carelessly rude comments about their classmates as they buy cheap street food despite the fact that Suah could easily afford to buy her own restaurant if she wanted.

He can't have that back though. It hurts, but it's true. All he can have is this moment, and it's not nearly enough, but at least he was allowed to have that. It's not enjoyable at the moment, but it will mean everything to him looking back on it in the future.

As for her comment about not being believed... ]

Tell them I'm in another country. I went to China...

[ He considers carefully for a second. ]

I can write a letter for you to show people. If I'm lying, and it's in my handwriting then there's no reason they shouldn't believe it.