Jongho sped through the desert at a psychotic pace for two more hours. Though his driving improved by the minute and his muscles didn't cramp in his shoulders anymore, Wooyoung breathed a sigh of relief once Mingi suggested a break. They had to check on the fuel tank and no one could have caught up with a speeding vehicle.

When Wooyoung stumbled from the car, his knees were soft. Everything ached after he sat wedged between San and Yunho for too long and he gladly plummeted onto the ground with a huff to catch his breath until his stomach stopped spinning. 

Their surroundings had changed, so everyone took a moment to look around while they stretched their stiff limbs. Gradually, the wasteland blended into what once was a striving forest. Old trees still towered in the dry earth, bare of leaves and any color, but stubborn in their tilted balance. They offered some shade for the fungus to leech off their rotten trunks, and insects crawled eagerly in their absurd quest for food. Their burrows tucked under fallen trunks and the cracked ground, but no sand piled up in the occasional dune anymore. 

Awed, Wooyoung tried to see the end, but there was none. They would have to search for one of the old roads Seonghwa mentioned to find a way through. 

"We are near the border now," Mingi noted as he retrieved the laptop from its place. Jongho rounded the car to help Yeosang, who got stuck in his chains. They sat down together while Yunho dug through the trunk of their car. No enemies loomed in the distance and the adrenaline of the chase evaporated. If Wooyoung had the humor, he would compliment Jongho on his driving and ask him to never do that again.

"It's not far," Seonghwa uttered as he displayed a mirror of the same forests before them, with lush green crowns and berries and soft mosses to roll in. Wooyoung never saw that much green in one space and he wondered if the world would return to this sight once the sky was fixed. If he understood right, the water cycle tied to the sky was its reason.

"Let's get to know our newest addition. Perhaps he knows his way around," Yunho suggested as he tugged some snacks from a bag. Wooyoung groaned as he stretched his legs. His eyes fell on San, who shook out the empty fuel canister into the tank. Slinging his gun over his shoulder, he came up to him. After the last two hours pressed together, he regained the stubbornness he needed for this conversation.

However, the other raider didn't even glance at Wooyoung. He hid behind his bandages and his hair, hands busy even when his task was done. 

Unwilling to let him off the hook, Wooyoung leaned against the car by his side. Behind him, Yunho and Jongho uttered with Yeosang as they tried to open his cuffs.

Yunho had made his peace, now San needed to, as well. He was the only one still brooding to himself and Wooyoung hated being the source of all the lingering unrest.

"A word?" He suggested to his mysterious companion. San brushed him off.

"I'm not interested in talking to you." He turned to stalk away and pretend to be busy elsewhere, but Wooyoung scoffed and came after him.

"You're avoiding me. How did you taunt me for so long and now that we could figure things out, you lose interest?" If he had to discuss it in front of everyone, so be it.

However, San still dodged him. Mingi watched them, smoking while leaning against the car. One ear listened to Seonghwa's instructions, but the other one undoubtedly gathered information.

"There is nothing more to figure out. I had an opening since your boyfriend died, but he is back alive and you are occupied. Let's forget what happened between us," San grunted behind his bandages. He was so gruff, rough as he shouldered Wooyoung out of the way to access the trunk.

Irked, Wooyoung crossed his arms. 

"You didn't give me the opportunity to explain. After doing all that, you can't just back out and pretend it never happened. What about taking responsibility?" It was as if San had completely shut him out. Both as a person he fooled around with and as his team partner. Either part infuriated Wooyoung, but even more so where San refused to cooperate with the mission. Shouldn't he know best, coming from a colony?

"Ask Yunho," San bit back, clearly upset about the third raider back in the picture. But how was there no spirit to persuade Wooyoung, as he usually did? Had he lost all interest after seeing Wooyoung break down?

If they weren't about to enter Anda's historical landscape, Wooyoung would have waved it off. It wasn't his job to deal with San's bitching. But he had it out for Yunho and he hindered the mission. Wooyoung waited long enough for him to figure things out, but enough was enough.

"We'll be back!" He called at the others as he packed San by the back of his sturdy vest. He wore it without the shirt below today, just with the bandages that left not an inch of infected skin in sight. San glared, but he didn't struggle to break free. Whatever he had to complain about, it could wait for some privacy. 

Wooyoung dragged him between the trees and, though he wanted to spend time to marvel at their nauseating height, the heat thrumming through his blood demanded attention first. He shoved San out of sight behind a massive tree and crossed his arms. His ticked brow studied the annoyed raider.

"You make no sense. Did you only get close because I was vulnerable? You acted as if I truly appealed to you," Wooyoung barked. Back in his element, he calculated San's body language, sharply zoned in on the way he scratched at his bandages.

"It doesn't matter now. Things don't work out now that your boyfriend is back. Don't hang out with other men while he is doing our job over there in testing out the new guy you dragged in." Using Yeosang as his excuse, San was ready to depart, but Wooyoung shoved a hand into his solid chest. He grimaced at the sting that shot up his wrist.

"They can take care of it." Whatever Yeosang needed - probably freedom - he wouldn't harm them now that they helped him out of there. He was disoriented, but no threat loomed in his eyes.

"Yunho and I are friends over being a pair. We figured things out, so you can man up now. You owe him an apology." Even if he lost interest in Wooyoung since he got back on his feet, the protective loyalty Wooyoung harbored towards Yunho would bite at San's ankles until they got along. No unexpectedly soft kisses would privilege him beyond that.

"I'll talk to him. Are you happy, then? Stop stalling, and let's get back to work." San's boots stomped apart dry branches, but Wooyoung still didn't let him go. He came closer to position himself in front of the reclusive raider, unafraid of his peculiar appearance and broader build. Bodily in the way so San would stop running off, Wooyoung tilted his head to face him. An impatient eye studied him and Wooyoung's fingers itched to push back his hair and see his entire face for once. It was always obscured, always hidden, though Wooyoung knew exactly what the fungus looked like, making San's body its home.

"Not yet," Wooyoung demanded. He bested San's impatient stare. "I'll let you off the hook once you and Yunho figured out your petty fight as if I were a piece of meat to own, yes, but what about me? Us?" No vulnerability cracked his voice as he asked with determination. Wooyoung wasn't a damsel in distress and he didn't need special treatment. If San bothered him, he would get butted into the chin with Wooyoung's gun like any other guy.

"What is there to say? It's over," San replied, frosty where Wooyoung's ire was hot. 

"Says who? Did you lose interest? Yunho and I decided to be friends, so I am here, waiting for you."

For a moment, surprise flashed across San's features. He quickly shook himself out of it.

"You aren't going back to how you were?" He asked tentatively before he shook his head to himself. "No, nevermind. It doesn't matter. I'm out of this. I have no interest in getting glared at every time I get near you."

His arrogance was astonishing. As if he had so many people to choose from; as if his fancy for Wooyoung could easily be replaced.

And maybe it could be. After all, he knew many more people than Wooyoung did. 

Regardless, Wooyoung was already locked onto his prey, and he hated letting go without a valid reason.

"Our friendship is more important to us and he understood I am interested in someone else. So you're gonna take responsibility or what?" Huffy, Wooyoung glared up at this hesitant idiot. How was San always so direct and sarcastic, but whenever challenged, he tucked in his tail? Wooyoung swore he was all talk.

San blinked at him owlishly. 

"Why would you do that? What you had with him was so deep and beautiful. We aren't like that. I can't give you what he can."

Perhaps San did listen to Wooyoung after all and finally acknowledged the truth. But at this point, Wooyoung could only roll his eyes. When his hand shot out to pack San by the collar of his vest, the raider let himself be yanked down to Wooyoung's level. 

"I thought I made myself clear," Wooyoung grumbled before he tilted his head and kissed San over his bandages. The fabric was rough under his lips and San stood in wide-eyed silence, frozen into a statue. He didn't move until Wooyoung sneered and shoved him back.

"Maybe you are the one who got boring in those few days. Just so you understand, I picked you and your weird skin over my precious Yunho, so you better make it worth it. I don't have time to waste on a bumbling fool." With that, Wooyoung left him alone. He could tell that San was overwhelmed and needed time to digest this. He probably locked away his emotions similarly to how Wooyoung did when Yunho disappeared. Painfully sealed, they needed patience to be coaxed back out. 

And Wooyoung was down to wait, but he didn't need an empty doll to ride. That was just bland. San had many things to show him and Wooyoung blushed at all the ideas coursing through his head, but he needed the San he first met for that.

Wooyoung was almost out of the forest when San's steps hastened after him. He caught Wooyoung's shoulder and a smirk of satisfaction flashed across his lips when San yanked him around to press him against the steady tree behind him. A wide eye studied him, then San hastened to yank the bandages over his chin. Green and yellow fungi left their patterns over his right cheek and across his jaw, but even with them, Wooyoung could tell how handsome he was. And how much he wanted to kiss those damn scarred lips.

"Wait," San brought out. "Let's try."

When he leaned in, his movements were jerky, as if he were a broken machine. Wooyoung had to grab his chin to guide him in, and his unafraid touch on the marred skin brought clarity to San. He unified their lips, and a sigh got stuck in Wooyoung's chest when he finally felt their softness again. All anger bled out of him as he let San lean his body into Wooyoung's, trapping him against the tree to kiss down on him. 

Since they were still tentative about this, they kept it tame. Wooyoung licked at the seam of San's lips to offer a game, but was refused when San pecked the corner of his lips instead. Only when he pulled back to glower, San chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind Wooyoung's ear. The barest shadow of his dimples got visible and Wooyoung was struck by how attractive he was. His teeth were well-tended to, making Wooyoung curse to himself. San brought out weird urges in him. Like wanting to lick that fungus-rotten skin and getting bitten as a real foul would do.

Perhaps San was the death of him, but not today. For today, Wooyoung gave him a beaming grin.

"Glad you came to your senses," he chirped and took San's hand. Shy, San tugged his bandages back up, hiding behind them as Wooyoung merrily dragged him back to the car so they could seal the deal with Yunho.