IC INBOX: INUGAMI

[underlined]

“Uh, hello. You've reached Keisuke... I’m sorry, but I’m not able to pick up right now. Leave me a message and I'll try to call back. Um... thanks, bye.”

[VOICE CALL, TEXT MESSAGING, AND PHOTO SHARING IS ENABLED ON THIS CELL PHONE.]

Comments

:3c

[canoodle]

[ for dal dal, apologies don't exactly come easy to her. nine times out of ten, she is faultless, perfect, immaculate, and the last 10% is probably a mistake anyway, obviously.

or, perhaps, it's more that she's never had to apologize. because she's never really had the kind of friendship that welcomed it. her "friends" back home... moon young... jae gu... even joon gu... her relationships with them are so unconventional, she's stumbling and fumbling along just as much as keisuke. but what she lacks in experience, she tries to make up for in earnestness.

she meant what she said, the first time they met. she'd do what she could to protect him.

even if maybe he didn't really want it or need it. ]

Are you going to be my nurse, Keisuke? [ now her tone takes on that familiar, playful lilt. ]

[underlined]

[She'd stand out in stark contrast of Keisuke, then. He's constantly apologizing, the words of varying degrees of politeness and severity almost always on the tip of his tongue for whatever reason he might dredge up. It had always been something that put Akira on edge, he remembers, but he couldn't just stop. He simply found that he had a lot to apologize for, bumbling as he was.

He feels as though an apology was rare from Dal Dal, though. There was a self-assuredness in her that he recognizes from all of his years near Akira; he imagines it might be just as rare to hear that from her as it would be from him.

Good to know she could roll with the punches and return right to something he might expect of her, something to make him fluster just a tad and stammer out,] W - Well, if you need it, then yeah, I guess so? I'm, um ... [A brief, thoughtful pause.] I'm kinda experienced at that sort of thing.

[Why does he gravitate to these kinds of people... Probably just a natural magnetism to those who had all of the combative nature he lacked.]

[canoodle]

[ her expression sobers up a little, perhaps more so than she would have liked to show. ]

Yeah. I kind of figured you were.

[ she just shifts her hand in his, turning so their palms press, and her fingers can give his a light squeeze. ]

But so am I, dongsaeng. [ is she even talking about her hands anymore? ] So you don't have to worry about me.

[underlined]

[Keisuke was earnest in almost everything he said and did, he had a habit of eliciting the same in people he was around.

He laughs lightly, scratching at the back of his head.] Really...? What gives you that impression?

[It's not a bad thing though, he guesses. He had never minded patching Akira up, especially since the guy seemed to have a self-destructive streak that had only widened in recent years—a sort of dispassionate assumption that some outside force might act on him so he didn't have to.

Dal Dal is different, of course. She did make the effort of wrapping her wounds, even if the bandages had come slightly undone. It was... a relief. He looks down to where her hand turns in his, just enough to take it ever-so-gently. Her hand was small, warm, soft (perhaps just in comparison). He realizes that he might've felt nervous about this sort of thing, the kiss and the link of their hands, but it doesn't feel that way. There was a "likeness" between them now that lulled him away from that type of anxiety.]

Okay, just... let me help, if you can ever find a way for me to. [He likes to feel helpful (he likes to feel needed).

He pauses a moment before looking up to her face, expression and voice soft and curious.] What's that mean? ..."Dongsaeng." [He gives it his best shot, but the pronunciation still ends up a little off.]

[canoodle]

[ any other time, and she might have laughed out loud over his pronunciation, but as it is, the moment only draws out a soft chuckle from her. the fact that he's asking, the fact that he's even trying to say it as well as he can — it's enough to convince dal dal she didn't make a mistake in calling him that.

but hm. how to properly explain it... ]

It means...

[ little brother. family. kin. it means being taken care of, and being watched over, and being protected. it means safety and comfort and home. ]

It means you'll never have to be alone anymore.

[ she releases his hand then, but only so she can slip the hook of her pinky around his. ]

That's unni's promise.

[underlined]

[His smile takes on a slightly more embarrassed shade as she laughs, but she doesn't rebuke him—he's not going to say he had perfectly picked up the intricacies of a foreign language, but at least he tried, right?

Though apparently it meant something that couldn't be properly said in Japanese. He's patient, watching her wrestle with the not-so-small issue of transposing a feeling into a word into another language, but what she settles on works perfectly fine.

Alone. He'd never thought he had been alone before, but it's what had profoundly etched itself onto him ever since he came here—and right before. It was more than a relief to hear her say something like that. It was enough to cause his face to fall, a weight falling in an instant, looking at her with a careful compassion.

His hand is easy to manipulate into the pinky promise, and he returns it in kind, gently pulling their hands close to rest against his chest.] Okay. ...I promise, too.

[And at this point, he doesn't feel the need to ask the meaning for the second word—he feels like he understands.]