[Oh, if he could take everything back - the beach, his own reaction to it, everything that Yoon had reacted to never mind those foolish, incautious words - Kija would have done.
[How (the pain he is used to, though it makes him gasp, makes him close his eyes and grit his teeth, and count his own breaths: he welcomes it all) how is Yoon supposed to just forget what he has told him? How is anyone with Yoon's mind, someone so quick and so curious, supposed not to think about a puzzle like himself? How long would distraction work for and how, oh how could he ever show his face to the boy again, if just to look at him left the boy - left him like this? He would stay away, he would have to stay away... but how could they guard against Yoon's own thoughts?
[Kija opens his eyes for a moment, but he cannot tell if Yoon is looking any worse, any more - call it by name, Kija! - blighted. It looks awful. It probably is worse--
[He starts at the sound of the stranger's voice.]
That will help?
[Please say it will help.
[He clings to it, to the idea that this might still somehow be fixable. Holy water. Yes. Anything. It is on the tip of Kija's tongue to ask the stranger how long it will take him to get that when the world seems to shift--when, just like that, they're sitting in the shade the courtyard of a shrine. He blinks. He glances about himself. He keeps forgetting they can do that.]
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[How (the pain he is used to, though it makes him gasp, makes him close his eyes and grit his teeth, and count his own breaths: he welcomes it all) how is Yoon supposed to just forget what he has told him? How is anyone with Yoon's mind, someone so quick and so curious, supposed not to think about a puzzle like himself? How long would distraction work for and how, oh how could he ever show his face to the boy again, if just to look at him left the boy - left him like this? He would stay away, he would have to stay away... but how could they guard against Yoon's own thoughts?
[Kija opens his eyes for a moment, but he cannot tell if Yoon is looking any worse, any more - call it by name, Kija! - blighted. It looks awful. It probably is worse--
[He starts at the sound of the stranger's voice.]
That will help?
[Please say it will help.
[He clings to it, to the idea that this might still somehow be fixable. Holy water. Yes. Anything. It is on the tip of Kija's tongue to ask the stranger how long it will take him to get that when the world seems to shift--when, just like that, they're sitting in the shade the courtyard of a shrine. He blinks. He glances about himself. He keeps forgetting they can do that.]
Is this it?
[It does not seem to be.
[Just like that, everything shifts again.]