Chapter Text
Hyunjin was home alone when a man rang the doorbell, let himself into the house, and jabbed his finger like an accusatory madman. “Hwang Hyunjin?”
He’d just made a coffee. He was meant to be going upstairs to take artfully suggestive photographs of himself for men that weren’t worth his time, just because he could, because he was bored, because Felix was still withdrawn and hollowed and haunted like a sad little doll. Hyunjin sighed. If the man pointing wasn’t so attractive, he would have thrown his hot coffee and melted that nice face. “Shoes off.”
The man toed his sneakers off. He was still pointing. “Are you Hyunjin?”
“Yes,” Hyunjin said. Was this how Felix felt when his lover approached him? Detached? Unafraid? Faintly offended by the pointing?
“Pack a bag,” the man said. “I’ll give you ten minutes, okay?”
Hyunjin sipped his coffee and winced. It was way too hot. “If you want something that sells for a lot of money you can just take my dad’s Jaguar. The keys are in the kitchen.”
“No – shit, I’m bad at this.” The man raked his hands through his hair. “Sorry. Sorry, this isn’t – Felix sent me. We’re going, we’re leaving – he said he can’t go without you.”
Hyunjin tensed. “Is this some kind of fucked up joke?”
“No, I’m being very serious, and we are on a very tight schedule,” the man said. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot, but if you want to come then you have to pack a bag and we need to leave. Chan has Felix now, but he – he doesn’t want to leave you here again.”
Throwing his coffee was becoming more tempting. Hyunjin stared at the man and took another sip, more cautious this time. He used the name Felix, which was proof in itself of his honesty. Chan, too, was a name Felix had murmured only a handful of times, mired in his misery as Hyunjin watched, knowing he wasn’t enough to help. He doesn’t want to leave you again. He could have laughed. He could have cried. He sipped his coffee again and found that he was almost used to the burn, but he’d made it too strong. Bitter. It tasted like shit. “Where are you going?”
“So fucking far away,” the man laughed. It wasn’t an amused sound; it was half hysterical. Would he start to pull his lovely dark curls out by the handful if Hyunjin dallied around long enough? “Do you want to come or not?”
It was a risk. What if he was lying, somehow? What if he’d kidnapped Felix and wanted another rich boy to ransom? Did it fucking matter? Not really. “Sure, I’ll come. Ten minutes?”
“Less if you can,” the man said.
Hyunjin wandered upstairs. He took his time and continued to drink his awful coffee. He was a careful packer. The guy could wait for twenty.
-
Texting Felix made it real.
Even if Changbin wouldn’t stop for Starbucks. Even if he looked at Hyunjin with a cautious kind of despair, like he knew he shouldn’t have picked him up. Like he could already see all of the complications Hyunjin would bring to whatever the fuck their situation was. Like he already knew the trouble outweighed any benefit.
“Can I smoke in here?”
“We’ll be stopping soon,” Changbin said. “Can you wait until then?”
“Fine,” Hyunjin replied, anxious and annoyed. He picked at the skin around his nails and tried not to think about his parents returning home and being glad he wasn’t there. His mom had sounded happy when he’d called to say he’d be staying with Jisung. Stay as long as you like, she’d said. She’d been laughing as she’d hung up, like she hadn’t quite pressed the button in time to save him the hurt of her joy.
He messaged Felix again and didn’t get a reply. If he asked Changbin to explain what was going on he’d look like an idiot, so he didn’t do that. He felt his shoulders draw tighter, the back of his neck aching. He wanted to smoke, or paint, or open the door and throw himself out of the moving vehicle. He wanted to see Felix with his own eyes and know for certain he hadn’t just walked into a trap.
As Changbin drove, he fumbled with a glasses case and pulled out a pair of plastic frames. They weren’t tinted, so he just squinted against the harsh sunshine. Hyunjin’s glasses were at the bottom of his bag, beneath hundreds of disposable contact lenses. He didn’t look nearly as nice in his glasses as Changbin did.
As he stared, Changbin’s eyes flickered towards him. He looked away sharply. The things that Felix had explained about his months away could be counted on one hand, and Changbin’s name hadn’t come up. Only Chan’s. It didn’t seem fair, really. Even if it was a passing glance in a grocery store, Hyunjin had always told Felix about every attractive person he saw. He thought Felix was the same. How impressive was Chan, that he’d taken up the entirety of Felix’s mind upon his return? The man Hyunjin pictured was a faceless god, and his stomach cramped at the thought of meeting him. Half fear and half something that felt like envy. He knew he was no longer Felix’s first choice for anything.
He tried not to linger on that thought.
“We’re going to rest at a motel until tomorrow morning, then we’ll meet up with Chan and Felix. If we drive fast, we’ll be able to get to the cabin in just under a week. You must be excited to see Jisung, right?”
Hyunjin stopped picking at his bloody cuticles. He stared at his hands and tried to bring them into focus by blinking, but everything remained fuzzy. “Jisung?” he heard himself say.
“Didn’t Felix tell you?”
“No.” He said it in a tone he’d never heard himself use when talking about Felix.
Changbin made a curious noise. “It was one big coincidence. Chan picked up Felix, took him back to Minho’s cabin, and Jisung recognised him right away.”
“Who is Minho?”
Another curious noise. “Felix didn’t tell you much, did he?”
“No, he didn't.” That was becoming more obvious.
“Minho was Jisung’s live-in bodyguard for a while,” Changbin said, tone a little more careful. “You knew Jisung before he left; I’m sure you knew what his mother was like. She expected Minho to help, but he didn’t.”
“Can you pull over please?” Hyunjin asked. His chest hurt.
Changbin pulled over. “You okay?”
Hyunjin let himself out of the car very carefully, then started walking alongside the road. He lit a cigarette and let it burn out between his fingers until it was almost a stub before he remembered to take a drag. It had never been about the nicotine, anyway.
He’d spent the better part of two years mourning Jisung and whatever his mother had done to him. Paris, supposedly. He’d never truly believed it, but only because he knew she’d have killed him before she let him go that far without her. Hyunjin had tortured himself thinking about it. He’d written hundreds of letters, had begged Jisung’s mother to let him send even one. He’d even turned up at her house, hammering on the door, pleading with no dignity just to know Jisung was safe. You corrupted my son, was all she’d said before closing the door on him.
A hand closed around his arm, vicelike, and tugged him so hard he stumbled. The smouldering end of the cigarette fell to the ground. “Careful,” Changbin said. “You were veering toward the traffic.”
He looked behind him and realised the car was pretty far away, hazard lights flashing. Changbin’s breathing was fast and light. He’d tried to give Hyunjin some distance, then, and had started to run when he’d seen where Hyunjin was headed.
The cars shot past them, loud and fast.
Changbin’s grip tightened again, but it wasn’t painful. “Jisung talks about you all of the time,” he said. “He’ll be so excited to see you.”
“Is he happy now?” Hyunjin asked, still looking at the cars.
“He’s happy. He’d be even happier to catch up with you. Don’t you want to see him?”
He felt himself nod, wooden. It was a good thing to know Jisung was safe. Warm and well fed and cared for in the way he’d always deserved. It was good that he hadn’t been alone like Hyunjin had feared. It was good he’d found Felix. They both deserved the happiness their families hadn’t cared to provide. They both deserved to be protected. He’d tried his best, but he hadn’t been good enough.
“Let’s go back to the car, we’re almost at the motel,” Changbin said. He released Hyunjin’s arm but stayed close. His hair mused in the wind, and behind his glasses his eyes were serious.
“Okay,” Hyunjin said, and started walking back.
Changbin fell in line next to him, keeping pace. He made sure to stand between Hyunjin and the cars.
-
He was okay for another hour or so, and the motel Changbin had picked was nice. Nothing special, but no rats, no roaches. The twin beds looked comfortable enough and the small bathroom was clean.
Felix still hadn’t replied.
Hyunjin took a shower, and whether it was the heat that thawed his numbness or the faint noise from the TV through the door, the sound of a woman’s laughter – he felt the first tear drip as he was yanking his brush through his knotted hair. Still wet, it hung just below his chin in blond clumps, freshly cut and freshly dyed in a way that had always helped before, even if the confidence boost only lasted a couple of days. This had barely lasted two. By the time he’d finished detangling, his brush was covered in the hair he'd ripped out, his scalp was tender, and his hands were shaking so violently that when he went to wipe away a tear he poked himself in the eye. It made him laugh a little, despite the sting. He was so fucking stupid.
Changbin knocked at the door. “Hyunjin, do you need anything?”
He didn’t know what to say. I think you should leave me here for everyone’s sake. “Do you know if Felix is okay?”
“Chan would have called if he wasn’t,” Changbin replied, making no move to come in despite the unlocked door.
“He isn’t replying to me.”
“Do you want me to call, just to make sure?”
Hyunjin wanted Felix to call, to see if Hyunjin was okay. He knew that was selfish. He knew it was pathetic. Felix was very suddenly back with the man he’d said he’d fallen in love with, so of course he wasn’t spending his time thinking about Hyunjin. Of course he wanted privacy, a different motel and time with Chan. “No,” Hyunjin said, wiping his eyes again, his hands slightly steadier. He cleared his throat. “No, it’s fine.”
Changbin didn’t reply for a moment. “It’s ringing,” he said. “Come out here and speak to him.”
“Why would you ask if you were going to call anyway?“ he demanded, opening the door and releasing a cloud of steam.
Changbin was sitting at the edge of the closest bed, frowning gently. “It’s been hours,” he said. “I want to check on them too.” His expression quickly changed to one of fond exasperation when the call connected and someone immediately spoke. “All good,” he said. “Is Felix okay? He hasn’t been replying to Hyunjin and we’ve both been getting a little concerned. Is his phone working? Oh, you – oh. That makes sense, sure. We were both – yes, Hyunjin is here. Oh, sure. Yeah, that would be good, I’ll pass it over now.” Changbin held out the phone.
Hyunjin took the phone, unsure until he heard Felix’s calming, deep timbre ask, “Hey, is everything okay?”
The tears started to well up again. “Yeah, I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“What’s wrong?”
He scrunched his eyes up. Felix knew – he always knew. Even if it no longer went both ways. “Nothing, nothing, I just – it’s a lot, right? Just leaving like this?” He’d barely tried to comprehend it. He knew that Felix wouldn’t be going back, but thinking about never returning home himself was something else entirely, even if he knew that it was what was best for him too.
Felix sounded close to upset when he asked, “Do you want to go home?”
Hyunjin was the worst person alive. Felix had gone out of his way to bring Hyunjin with him and here he was crying because he felt abandoned. “No!” he exclaimed. “No, I never want to go back! I just – Changbin is nice, but I don’t know him. I don’t know where we are, or where we’re going. You never told me that Jisung was with these guys – I feel like I don’t know anything. I feel stupid.”
“I’m sorry, Hyunjinnie,” Felix said. Hyunjin could picture the hurt on his sweet face. “You’re not stupid. I didn’t know what I should tell you, and then when they came to get me, I just couldn’t bear to leave you again.”
“I appreciate that,” Hyunjin said, honest despite everything else. “I would have been so angry if you’d left without me. I don’t know if I’d have been able to forgive it a second time. It’s just a lot.”
Changbin leaned over and rubbed his arm. “You’re doing great.”
Hyunjin tried to smile for his sake, sure the expression was wet and hideous. “Sorry for complaining,” he said, aimed at both of them. Then, at Felix, “I appreciate that you thought to pick me up. I just – I called you and you didn’t answer, and you stopped replying to my texts, so I got worried. I got in my head about it.”
“I threw my phone out of the window. I didn’t think – I’m sorry.”
Hyunjin couldn’t help but laugh at that. “You really think your dad would track you?”
“No, but I don’t want to take the risk.”
“Yeah, I get it.” He sniffed. He felt idiotic again, in a quieter way. In the way his parents had always said he was. “Sorry for being dramatic.”
“You’re not being dramatic, you’re being a normal, well adjusted person. If you need to speak to me you can use Changbin’s phone and call Chan, okay? And I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay.”
“Changbin is really kind,” Felix said. “Ask him for Starbucks again. If you’ve been crying, he’ll get it for you.”
Hyunjin glanced over to him. He’d started going through his bag, presumably to give Hyunjin what felt like at least a semblance of privacy. “You think so?”
“I know so. Seriously. Ask him for whatever you want, now is the perfect time.”
“Okay, I will. Thank you.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. Enjoy your evening.”
By the time Felix had hung up, Hyunjin was red and chagrined. Embarrassed by his own behaviour, his complete lack of control over his own swinging emotions. He didn’t dare ask for Starbucks despite Felix’s words. He passed Changbin’s phone back with a ducked head, mumbled an apology and appreciation, then hid in the bathroom for another half an hour, pulling the snapped strands of hair off his brush one by one.
He’d reached fifty three by the time Changbin knocked again. “What do you want for dinner?”
He stared at the pile of hair next to the sink. “Whatever you want is fine.”
“Do you want me to get you something and leave it outside the door?”
He frowned. “What?”
“Or I can eat in the car or something.”
Hyunjin opened the door. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“If you want time to yourself, I mean. I can bring you food and eat elsewhere.”
His attitude wasn’t what it had been when he’d first burst into Hyunjin’s house. Despite his frame and his voice, he was surprisingly soft. Surprisingly willing to meet someone more than halfway. “No,” Hyunjin said, voice coming out more petulant than intended. “I don’t want you to do that.”
“Then what do you want? We can order in or go out.”
Hyunjin didn’t want to go out. “Can we eat something here?”
“Sure,” Changbin said easily. He leant against the doorframe and crossed his arms. Hyunjin looked anywhere other than his biceps. “Pizza?”
“Pizza is fine.”
It took twenty minutes to arrive, but it was decent pizza. Greasy and doughy, but the cheese was nice and Changbin didn’t laugh when it dripped down Hyunjin’s chin, he just passed over a napkin.
Things were calmer after that. Hyunjin returned to his awkward self-awareness, despite Changbin settling into a role he’d clearly had before – watching over a mentally unstable rich kid.
Once they were both in bed and the lights were out, Hyunjin asked very quietly, “Is Jisung really okay?”
Changbin didn’t answer for a moment, but his phone screen lit up the room. His bed creaked as he rolled over, and Hyunjin reached a hand out to grab the phone offered across the gap between the beds.
In the photograph Jisung was smiling like Hyunjin had never seen. So wide that all his teeth were on display, his hair messy, the shadow of a huge hickey peeking out beneath the collar of his shirt. A man was slung across his back, smiling just as wide, his slightly crooked teeth charming, his posture relaxed but possessive. They looked entirely wrapped up in one another.
“That’s Minho,” Changbin said. “Jisung’s once bodyguard, now partner. Boyfriend feels too frivolous for whatever it is that they have, considering everything that’s happened. Minho treats him well, though. Very well. Jisung is more than okay.”
“I’m glad,” Hyunjin whispered, staring a little longer. He wanted to sketch Jisung’s smile lines; they were strangers to him. He wanted something to make sure he could remember them, whatever happened.
“He said you helped to save him.”
Hyunjin guessed that meant the time he’d let Jisung borrow his phone to call whoever it was that had abandoned him to his mother’s lack of mercy. It felt strange to finally put a face and name to the figure, and Hyunjin was glad at least that Minho had come back. Seeing Jisung in that state had left him viscerally unwell. “I wouldn’t call it that.”
“What would you call it?”
“Human decency.” Anyone could see that Jisung was suffering; he was just unlucky to be in the kind of crowd that would deliberately ignore it. In the photograph with Minho he looked like an entirely different person. Hyunjin didn’t feel comfortable taking any kind of credit for that happiness.
“Lots of people are lacking it these days,” Changbin said. “You can scroll if you want to. There’s lots of pictures of them.”
Even as Hyunjin started to scroll he asked, “Why do you have so many of them?”
“They’re my friends,” Changbin said, like it said everything it needed to. Maybe it did. Hyunjin could see the love radiating out of each photograph – Jisung planting something in a raised bed, crouched over at the top of a hill, red faced, Minho with his face in the open hood of a car, a man with deep pressed dimples grinning with oil smeared across his face.
Hyunjin held the phone out. “Who is this?”
“Jeongin,” Changbin replied, leaning across the space to squint at his phone without his glasses. “Another friend.”
“Did he help too? With Jisung?”
“No, he was too young. We try to keep him out of these things, like Seungmin.”
“Who is Seungmin?”
“Keep scrolling. He's the one with the messy brown hair.”
Hyunjin kept scrolling. A couple of photographs passed until he saw Seungmin, grinning wide with glinting braces and an unbearable charm. He was holding a humongous fish. “Do you all live in a cave or something? Why are there so many trees?”
“Minho has a rural cabin. When we meet, it’s usually there.”
Changbin didn’t ask for his phone back, so Hyunjin kept looking. He felt like a voyeur watching a perfect family, like when he’d gone to the fair as a child and watched other kids hold their parents' hands. There was jealousy deep down, but also a sense of wonder. These men loved each other so deeply that it was humbling to witness. Jisung blowing raspberries against Jeongin’s cheek, Minho with Seungmin slung over one shoulder, a couple of Changbin too, Jisung on his back and reaching up to grab an apple from a tree, washing dishes with fluorescent pink rubber gloves up to his elbow, carrying a log the size of an entire tree with Minho, kissing Seungmin on the lips. They were like stock photos designed to etch jealousy in your soul. Buy this cabin and find the family you’ve always wanted, no extra cost!
Then a man appeared that Hyunjin didn’t recognise, dark messy hair and a sleepy expression as he poured over paper on a wooden dining table.
“Is this Chan?”
Changbin leaned over to look. “Yeah, that’s him. He doesn’t like being in pictures, so I don’t have many.”
He was handsome, but not the god Hyunjin had expected. Shorter, for one. Broad, but not like Changbin. He looked gentle. Why did they all look so gentle? They didn’t look like seasoned criminals, they just looked like guys that enjoyed each other’s company a little too much.
The next picture was of Chan and Changbin posing in front of a gym mirror. Hyunjin fumbled with the phone and closed the camera roll, passing it back over without a word.
Changbin laughed softly. “Get some rest. You’ll see Felix in the morning.”
He really tried, but sleeping proved to be an uphill slog. He’d left home too easily, he knew. But what alternative was there? He’d experienced months without Felix and it had almost killed him. The rest of his life would have been torturous, a world without sunshine, dark and cold.
Still, it hurt to think about all of the things Felix had kept from him. He still didn’t know what exactly had made Felix run in the first place. He didn’t know how or why these men suddenly meant so much to him. He didn’t know why he hadn’t asked Hyunjin to run away with him the first time. He didn’t know what the plan was, what exactly Felix had in mind for him. How long would it be until his parents realised he wasn’t planning on coming back? How long until they moved past anger and realised they were better off without him?
He felt untethered.
He couldn’t help but feel like he was going to ruin everything for this group of happy people.
-
He must have slept at some point, because the next thing he knew the door was opening and Felix was climbing into the narrow bed with Hyunjin, fully clothed and as close to purring as Hyunjin had ever seen. It was a stark contrast to the last time he’d seen Felix, at home and silent, followed around by the horrible man his father had hired.
Hyunjin pulled him tighter and pressed his face into Felix’s hair. “You got laid, didn’t you?”
Felix nodded and burrowed closer. “Best sex of my life.”
Hyunjin rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on where Changbin was standing. A stranger waved awkwardly, and if Hyunjin had his glasses or his contacts, he probably would have recognised Chan. As it was he just waved back at the blur and held Felix tighter, once again unsure of his part in everything that was to come.
“I’m so glad you came,” Felix whispered.
Maybe the rest didn’t matter, then.
-
Changbin ditched the car he’d been driving – apparently not his own, and not legally taken – and they piled into Chan’s car, Hyunjin and Felix together in the back, Chan and Changbin taking turns to drive for long stretches.
Chan was as gentle as he’d looked in the photographs. He smiled at Hyunjin like he was approaching a cornered dog, which was both kind and insulting. He looked at Felix like Hyunjin knew he looked at Felix, which was good. Felix deserved more of that. All of it.
“What do you think of Changbin?” Felix asked on the third day, sitting on the trunk of the car with Hyunjin as Changbin and Chan checked the gas station store for drinks.
Hyunjin passed his cigarette, but Felix waved it away. “I don’t know.”
“He’s kind, isn’t he?”
“Sure.” He took a drag and held it until his lungs started to burn. He knew he needed to slow down, but he figured once the pack was empty he’d just not buy another. He liked lighting cigarettes, holding them, putting them to his mouth – it stopped him picking at his fingers. One filthy habit for another. He didn’t want to stain his teeth though, so he took another drag then dropped it, only thinking after the fact that a gas station was a bad place to drop lit cigarettes.
“What’s wrong?” Felix asked, voice low. “Hyunjinnie?”
“Why did you leave?” Hyunjin found himself asking. “The first time, I mean. Why didn’t you take me with you then?”
Felix looked away. He’d laughed more in the past couple of days than Hyunjin had heard in years, but sometimes that lost expression returned, blank and searching and vast, like his body was a shell and he’d gone somewhere without it. “You couldn’t have come with me.”
“Why?” Hyunjin pressed, hurting himself. “Why not?”
“Because my plan was to die,” Felix said. He hopped off the car and held out his hand. “Come on, let’s go pick a drink. Changbin will get us water, but I want something sweet.”
Hyunjin took the hand, reeling. He didn’t let himself linger, too scared that Felix would pull away before Hyunjin could grab him.
-
That night he left the room while everyone was sleeping, Changbin in one of the twin beds, Chan and Felix wrapped up together on the futon. He made his way to the outdoor pool, and with the air still warm, he took a seat on a sun lounger and stared up at the stars.
Felix had explained a little more later in the day, but never in front of the two other men. The man his father knew, the club, the drugs – Hyunjin’s suspicions confirmed, finally, that what had happened wasn’t an accidental overdose.
“Do you hate me now?” Felix had asked, surprisingly steady.
“No,” Hyunjin had replied, just as steady. “I’m glad he’s dead.”
He’d meant it. Any old man that thought it fair to drug and extort someone deserved whatever happened, in Hyunjin’s opinion. Even if he had a wife and kids. Maybe especially because he had them.
He’d known about some of Felix’s bad decisions, but it was becoming clearer just how much he’d missed. Namgil, too, made sense. The way he’d crowded Hyunjin after Felix’s first departure, attention so obvious that looking back, Hyunjin couldn’t help but think of when Jisung had rejected Nathan, and smarted, Nathan had asked Hyunjin, “Does being second choice to Yongbok ever get old, or do you enjoy the certainty of it?”
He looked at the sky and wondered if he should shave his head, or rub bleach into it until the strands melted away and everything felt like burning. He wondered if anyone would care if he got up and started walking and never came back.
I’m so glad you came.
He clung to that, to the hand that Felix had held out.
“Can’t sleep?”
He looked over as Changbin took the lounger next to him. He’d remembered his glasses. Hyunjin hadn’t. “I guess.”
“If it helps, you’re doing way better than I expected when I first picked you up.”
It wasn’t exactly a compliment, but Hyunjin still sat up a little straighter. “In what way? Just how low was your first impression of me?”
Changbin smiled. In the dim light, with his hair mused from bed and his wrinkled shirt, his shorts, he looked scarily welcoming. Hyunjin shifted slightly, a little further away. “Well,” Changbin said. “It wasn’t a bad impression, just a stressed one. I was more than half convinced that Chan was being chased by whoever Felix’s father sent after him, and I figured they’d be coming for me too. You didn’t know, so you took your time – that’s not your fault, I did a bad job at stressing the urgency.”
Not true in the slightest, but Hyunjin didn’t want to interrupt.
“Felix looked like a stray cat when I first met him,” Changbin said. “And don’t get me wrong, but you looked like a housecat. I wasn’t sure why you’d want to come with us, and I wasn’t sure if you’d take it seriously. I knew you’d helped Jisung so there was no way I’d leave you if you did want to come, but –“
“You were worried I’d see it as a fun road trip.”
“Yeah,” Changbin said. He settled back, leaning on his arms to look at the sky. There was a small scar on the underside of his chin. It almost looked like a dimple in the low light. “But Felix’s father hasn’t sent anyone after him yet, and Jisung’s mother has been wrangled back, so I need to get a hold of myself and stop worrying about that and start focusing on what’s important.”
Unbidden, Hyunjin thought of the photograph of Changbin and Seungmin kissing, backlit by a campfire, melting marshmallows on sticks between them. He wondered who’d taken that photograph. “What’s important?” Hyunjin asked. Then, “To you, I mean?”
“The people I promised I’d care for,” Changbin said simply. “Just because the chase is over doesn’t mean things will be easy going forward. We’ve done bad things, and it’s a dangerous world out there.”
Hyunjin was painfully aware that he didn’t know the depth of it yet – the bad things or the dangers. He was still untethered.
I’m so glad you came.
He looked at the sky again and thought of Jisung’s smile, Felix's laugh. “At least the stars are out.”
It took a while for Changbin to reply. When Hyunjin glanced at him, Changbin was already looking at him, something unreadable in his expression. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Pretty.”
They were. It had been a long time since Hyunjin had seen stars without smog, and he watched them a little longer as they sat in companionable silence.
“Hyunjin, let’s go back.”
He opened his eyes, not having realised they’d closed. “Hm?”
“It’ll be dawn soon. Let’s get some sleep.”
“Why’d you stay out with me?” he asked, climbing off the lounger with unsteady legs and no grace.
“No reason,” Changbin said. As they walked back to the room, he kept himself between Hyunjin and the pool.