Some things are sticky, hard to handle. The way skin prickles like it's frost coated, and the way it trembles when a tongue slides across it.
Hak's hobby is teasing people, but Yona feels like crying. She's not sad or angry though, just uncomfortable in her own skin like a ghost pretending to be a toaster. Something is way off.
And it wasn't that the honey didn't do what Hak said it would, he's always been smart or at the very least knowledgeable and skilled. But he's never been this bad with his jokes before.
It's hard to even look at Hak, let alone breathe, like the memory prickles across her skin, and Yona wants to run and hide.
No matter how many times she plays back the memories of Hak looking after her or risking his life to save her, her skin tingles in rebellion, and Yona has to swallow another boulder sized lump in her throat.
Just how was she supposed to process something so strange and so different? Was she supposed to act just like normal? She startles, almost a full body gasp in reaction, as Hak comes near her.
"I'm sorry." His blue eyes are sad and looking far away from her, "I wasn't thinking." He must have spotted her awkwardness today.
"I'll be okay, that was nothing." Yona tries to fill herself up full with steely joy. "It's fine." She answers when it feels too quiet, and Hak went back to watching her. He sees everything, she swears.
"If you're sure..." There's that quiet almost sadness to his voice, and Yona is still not sure how she caused that.
"I felt uncomfortable." Yona admits, a ghost masquerading as a toaster again.
"I shouldn't have acted that way." Hak responds, as if this uncomfortableness brought out his apology.
"It's okay." Yona answers, "You were just trying to stop it from spilling." Hak's tongue had definitely not felt like a cloth napkin.
"You don't have to pretend." Hak responds, and Yona wonders when the two of them became a two person play.
"Neither do you." And it feels like the air has left their lungs in a whoosh, like the smoke has cleared.
"I'll remember that." And between the sheer challenge of Hak's smile at this moment is a tender realness, like gaining x-ray vision to the heart of Hak.
"Please do." And Yona stands, surprised to see Hak offer her a hand. So she pulls him up too; they'll be okay somehow, because they are still together.