A/N: Hello again, and welcome to the penultimate chapter… I think I'll be ending this story off with Chapter 5, which I'll be editing and posting later this week.

Once again, thanks to all of you who left comments! They really inspire me to keep writing. Enjoy!

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CHAPTER 4

It's midday on Yoon's sixth day since being rescued when he realizes something rather embarrassing…

(It's not that he's trying to count the days this time… he's not even sure how he managed to keep track of the number during his captivity— maybe counting them somehow gave his subconscious hope that the situation was temporary, a simple matter of completing the quota of hours and days, and then it would be over.

But then, why is he still counting, even now?)

It's during one of these moments, when he's wrapped up in thought, over-analyzing some element of what has happened in the past fortnight, when he notices it. The embarrassing thing.

He's wearing Hak's cloak.

And has been for several days now, by the look and smell of it. He could kick himself for not noticing sooner— what did he dismiss it as previously, an oddly shaped blue blanket?!

He's outside; maybe the sunlight is what made a difference in his cognitive capabilities. Jae-Ha, who carried him out of the tent, is still here, leaning against the tree beside him, now looking down with interest.

"Why are you suddenly staring at that innocent piece of fabric like you want to throw it in the fire?"

Yoon doesn't bother looking up. "This— this is Hak's cloak." He tugs at the sleeves a little. His strength has been improving these past couple of days. He has trouble walking yet, but wrangling himself out of a couple of cloak sleeves can't be too difficult—

"Ah, so you hadn't noticed before. He has been walking around without it for the past week..."

Yoon can practically hear the raised eyebrow through Jae-Ha's tone.

"Well, I… I— ugh. I wasn't thinking."

To his surprise, Jae-Ha chuckles lightly. "No one expects you to be the kid genius all the time, you know."

"Hm." Yoon doesn't really know how to answer that, and besides, he's busy.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Taking it off, obviously." The process is a little more difficult than Yoon anticipated. Now that he's gotten the sleeve over his hand, his arm's gotten a little tangled up inside— and now, his stupid limbs are beginning to quiver again.

He hisses out a sigh between clenched teeth.

"Hold up." Now Jae-Ha's crouched down in front of him, placing a restraining hand on his shoulder. "As your current assigned watchdog, I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that."

"Oh, shut up."

Jae-ha fakes offense. "Is that any way to treat your betters, kid?"

"My betters?" Yoon scoffs. "Look, just let me take this thing off, and I'll—"

"No can do, I'm afraid. You're supposed to stay bundled up."

"Whose orders?" Yoon scrunches up his nose in annoyance.

"Careful, Yoon, your insubordinate side is showing," Jae-Ha says, still wearing an insincere smile. Yoon just scowls more, and continues struggling with the sleeve— until Jae-Ha leans over and manhandles his arm back into it, then sets both of Yoon's hands in Yoon's lap. He has no choice but to admit defeat.

"You're so ridiculous sometimes."

"But it's Hak's—"

"Hak is just fine without it. Besides, that's not the real reason you want it off. You're just trying to salvage your pride— but if you want my advice: give up now. No one's about to stop babying you any time soon. In fact, I think they're rather enjoying it."

Yoon's fists, still in his lap, clench tighter and tighter with every word out of Jae-Ha's mouth. "You— I— Th— Just— just shut up!"

The sudden rush of fierce anger infuses his limbs with strength. He forces himself to his feet, propels himself forward, away, somewhere Jae-Ha can't follow. What is this? They're enjoying treating him like a baby? Like this helpless, pathetic child who can't do anything? And what happens— what happens when they realize it's true, that he is— he is helpless, he is pathetic— he's useless and they might as well just get rid of him already because he's just a shaking, pathetic whelp, quivering before Scar-face's wretched steel-toed boot, begging for mercy as the cold bites into his flesh and his head pounds and he's on fire, in agony and it's never gonna end cause they aren't coming why would they he's always been alone and he always will be—

"You deserve this, you filthy brat. So just shut up and take it like a man."

"I know, I know, I know, I know, I know," he whispers fervently, as if the chant could drown out the cruel voice tearing into his head. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry..."

"Hey, what are you apologizing for— I'm the one who should be apologizing, I— Yoon, are you listening to me? Can you— can you hear me? Yoon? Yoon?!"

"Agh!"

He feels the briefest sensation of a stake being driven through his thigh before he blacks out again.

"Jae-Ha, what happened?"

"Is he okay? Should Zeno do something? Should Zeno get a doctor?"

"Just be quiet, Zeno. Hey kid, can you hear me?"

"He's completely out."

A long pause.

"What triggered it?"

"He got up, he was trying to walk, pretty fast— I think he hurt his leg."

"Makes sense. With pain that extreme, it's not unusual that he'd black out again."

"But… there's more to it. He… he was upset, something I said made him mad. When he got up, he was muttering to himself— some nonsense, "sorry, sorry" over and over— and when I tried to talk to him, it was like he wasn't there."

"What the hell did you say to him?"

"Relax, Hak— it wasn't anything special… we were just having a normal conversation. Well, he was embarrassed about wearing your cloak all week— tried to take it off but I stopped him. Then I mentioned how everyone's been babying him lately— Oh, I told him to forget his pride and just accept that everyone enjoys looking after him. That's when he got mad."

"Is that so…"

"I wonder what's going through his head right now… Poor Yoon."

"No use crying over it now, Princess. Help me get some fresh bandages and we'll re-wrap his leg."

The voices disperse and fade out…. Yoon sinks into a deeper level of dreamless sleep— but something tugs him back to the edge of consciousness. There's a voice… and the faint press of a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Yoon… I don't know if you can hear me right now, but don't be mad. What I said that upset you— I take it all back. Just focus on getting better, alright?"

The request sounds reasonable enough at his current state of awareness (or lack of). But Yoon can't find the strength of body or will to open his eyes and nod.

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A/N: Sorry to leave things off with more angst and less comfort… but I promise you, resolution is coming!

Until next time!