Christmas things - Soulmate style

It's been getting bitterly cold lately, not that it's really phased Sungwoo too much. After all, he's got clothes that are warmer than he'd ever imagined possible. Pants and shirts and sweaters and a new coat. Hat and scarf and gloves. So many things, things that Ji-woong had insisted he needed. After all Sungwoo is still weak, still bouncing back from the malnutrition and the physical overwork.

Which is true. He still tires easily. Still has stomach issues sometimes, even though it's been months now since Ji-woong rescued him from that awful excuse of an orphanage.

But, that doesn't excuse something Sungwoo has noticed. Which is the terrible state of Ji-woong's jacket. Which is both entirely too light for the weather coming up as well as threadbare in at least one place, with a few holes in it to boot. It's blatantly not enough. Though Ji-woong insists that it is, insists that it's fine. When Sungwoo can tell it's clearly not okay.

Which is why he gets a job. It's not a very good job, considering most places won't hire someone his age without parental consent at the very least, which of course Sungwoo doesn't and can't have. So he finds a seedy gig as a runner. Delivering messages and doing general little chores for a local group that's honestly... not particularly savory. They're not as bad as some though, Sungwoo isn't stupid. He's been around unsavory types enough to know safe unsavory from not safe.

In fact they treat him pretty well all things considering, almost too well. Sometimes Sungwoo wonders if Ji-woong knows. If he'd had a hand in this, but he pushes the thought aside considering he's pretty sure Ji-woong would have pitched a fit and made him stop a long time ago if he'd known. After all, it's not easy work for someone in Sungwoo's condition and it definitely starts to take a toll on his health.

But he gets the money, that's the important part. Even as he finds his appetite waning and his need for sleep increasing. He's so tired. So very, very tired, but he's so close. Just a little more and he'll have enough. Just a little more and he can show Ji-woong a fraction of the kindness he's shown him. The coat already safely purchased and hidden away, but Sungwoo wants to do more. Give more. After all it's Ji-woong and he's worth it and so much more.

But for now it means falling asleep mid dinner, body drooping until his face almost plants into his food.