Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

17 Blood

Akira stares at the dried red patch which has spread on Seonghwa's shirt on his chest area, which makes her grit her teeth as she lands a punch on the latter's chest.

"Ah," Seonghwa whimpers as he rubs a hand over it.

They remain crouching on the floor behind the kitchen island, with her breathing heavily as she looks at her husband.

Seonghwa looks sheepish as he says slowly, "It's not blood-"

"Then why are you lying down on the floor with this red patch on your chest?" she interjects, frowning.

"It's red dye," he pouts.

She exhales as she puts out a hand, grabbing the part where the dye has made a splotch, almost perfectly mimicking the nobleman's blood. For someone who would only look at him with one glance, they could have mistaken it for blood; which Akira almost certainly did before she took a closer look. She stares at him again, as he refuses to look at her in the eyes.

"Explain," she says, hard. "You're lying on the kitchen floor, with a red patch over your chest after you just let out a scream. Tell me why I shouldn't be worried."

He pinches the fabric of his pants, mumbling, "I wanted to bake you a cake."

Her face changes at this, her gaze gradually softening as she forgets her initial intention to nag him for making her worry. She utters, "You didn't have to." Despite not knowing the reason, her demeanour changes.

"I wanted to apologize," he replies, "for acting childish."

"Take off your shirt first," she utters, which makes him widen his eyes as he stutters.

"Right- right here in the kitchen?"

She nods, face serious. "Take it off."

"What are we doing?" He blinks.

"Nothing of your fantasy," she says as she grabs the hem of his shirt without warning before she lifts it up, sliding it over his head before his hair plops down again as he sits there shirtless. She eyes his torso, but she remains expressionless. "Huh."

He slowly puts his arms over his abs. "Why-"

"You'll give people heart attacks if you walk around the palace wearing this shirt just like you did to me." She crumples the shirt up in her hands. "So you're not going anywhere with this."

"I think," he says slowly as his eyes dart to her, "not wearing any will give people heart attacks the same."

"Better to die seeing something amazing than die seeing something scary," she says casually while chuckling, standing up as she helps him.

Only when she's seen that Seonghwa wasn't in a situation she had fearfully expected, does she realize the condition of the kitchen island and counter. If he were to say that he was attacked while trying to bake a cake, she would believe him.

Flour and icing sugar dusted the marble tabletop, looking like snow had fallen through the roof. A ceramic bowl decorated with rabbits wearing red winter scarfs was upturned, some kind of a mixture of cracked eggs and vanilla essence leaking from under it. The bin where he had thrown used materials and egg shells in were tilted to the left, spilling its contents on the floor. A bowl of white frosting sat pitifully beside a smashed bottle of red food dye, which she assumed was what caused the frenzy on his shirt.

She looks at him, expecting an explanation.

"I tried baking a cake," he starts with his explanation. "But am left with no baked cake, a whole dollop of white frosting and a red splotch on my shirt." After a thought he adds, "Which is now in your possession and I'm left naked." When her eyes travel to the lower part of his body he quickly reiterates, "Half."