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It was the first afternoon in a week and a half that the sky didn’t cloud over with rain and ruin everything. It was Saturday and the sun was bright and hot and high so Chan and Seungmin took turns recording each other as they skated.
Decided by a game of rock paper scissors, Seungmin went first.
Chan shouted, “Cheater!”
Seungmin stuck out his tongue. “I told you I was doing scissors.”
“I thought it was a mind game,” Chan whined.
“And that in and of itself is a mind game.”
“Fine,” Chan groaned, but he pulled his phone out of his pocket anyways. Unsure of how much memory he had left on his phone, he scrolled through his camera roll and started deleting swaths of old skate vids. He’d probably already posted all the good shit on his Instagram by now.
“Will you follow me to the ends of the earth,” Seungmin questioned.
Chan glanced up and grinned. “With no hesitation.” There was very little he wouldn’t do for Seungmin. Especially if the man smiled at him like that .
“Get me from my good side,” Seungmin said.
Chan seriously asked, “Do you have a bad side?”
Seungmin raised an eyebrow. Then he opened his mouth as if to argue that point.
Chan beat him to it. He took the three steps forward that separated them, leaned up on his tip toes and then smashed their lips together. There was the brief stillness of surprise before Seungmin melted and kissed him back. Chan felt Seungmin gasp for air as Chan legit kissed him breathless. Chan put a hand on Seungmin's shoulder for balance. Seungmin's hand pressed beneath his chin and tilted his head just a touch further back. It was such a fun kiss. Sure, making out could be hot and steamy or whatever but the way Seungmin and Chan kissed was always fun . Seungmin’s mouth still tasted like fresh, hot funnel cake and Chan eagerly lapped at the flavor of powdered sugar and Hershey’s chocolate before he pulled away, breathing hard and laughing. Chan looked up at Seungmin and at the fresh magenta dye in his hair and at the faint, sparkling traces of silver glitter caught in Seungmin’s locks. It all looked a tad uneven. A tad amateur. More glitter on the left side than the right side. Seungmin must have done it all himself that morning.
Chan said, sweetly, “You cut your hair.”
Seungmin shot back, “You finally noticed.” He giggled and then dropped his board to the cement before hopping on. His mismatched socks clashed horrifically with his brightly-colored sneakers. He’d had that pair of DCs for nearly five years now and the damn things were falling apart, the logo decal peeling off, but Seungmin wasn’t about to throw the pair of kicks out. He'd be damned! They were the first thing Chan ever bought for him. Back when they were still just friends. Seungmin slowly rolled away. “And when you post the vid, edit my favorite song on top.”
“This week’s favorite song or last week’s favorite song,” Chan asked him, going back to clearing up space in his camera roll.
“Week before last,” Seungmin decided. He freed two sticks of Juicy Fruit from the pack, unwrapped them and popped them both in his mouth. One stick was never enough for bubbles. He always needed two. Sometimes three.
“Of course,” Chan said. He knew every single one of Seungmin's favorite songs. Could make a Spotify playlist with all of them. Chan knew the difference between Seungmin’s favorite songs and Seungmin’s favorite songs . It was all in the sparkle in his eye when he heard those opening bars kick in on the radio. When his lips parted ever so slightly and he shifted in the passenger seat, ready to sing along while Chan pumped the volume up. It was all in the way he hummed the melody under his breath when he was waiting in line for boba or snacking happily on cool ranch Doritos. Chan had a million of those mini-Min moments stashed away. They piled up quickly but they were surprisingly easy to carry.
Seungmin was already taller than Chan but when he was standing on his board, he was even taller. He rolled in a slow, wide circle around Chan and then slowed down as he passed by to press a kiss to Chan’s forehead.
The cool, damp contact startled Chan’s attention away from his phone screen and he looked up with a gasp to watch Seungmin roll another wide lap around him. “Love you,” Seungmin said easily. Naturally.
“Love you too,” Chan said back. There didn't need to be a reason or an occasion for it. It was just the truth.
This was the kind of afternoon that Chan would remember the most clearly. He could tell. He could feel it in the air. He could feel it in the tingly joy at the back of his head, like he had flipped some special switch in his brain. Fifty years from now, he wouldn’t remember much else but he would remember how good he felt right at this moment with the sun on his back and the wind in his hair and the biggest smile known to mankind on his face.
“That way, that way,” Seungmin pointed. “Let’s take the shortcut.” He kicked off towards the left and Chan scrambled to hit record on his phone and rush after him on his own board.
This stretch of sidewalk was wide and fun. It wound through a park so there were plenty of people around, walking and chatting, but Seungmin was skilled enough to weave around them as he skated, picking up more speed and causing his big, yellow shirt to flutter in the breeze behind him.
His movements on the board were always so clean and precise. He could go pro if he put the time in. Chan recorded Seungmin as he nollied up onto the curb to skirt around a businessman on his phone. At the man’s startled half-scream, Seungmin held up a peace sign, then he did a frontside 180 back down to the sidewalk, barely clearing the businessman’s dress shoes.
Chan stayed right behind Seungmin. He didn’t do the tricks, he would have his turn later, but he kept his speed up and then squatted low on his board to get a shot of all of the stickers plastered to the bottom of Seungmin’s skate deck.
“Did you get that,” Seungmin shouted at him over the roar of their wheels.
“Yeah, you bet,” Chan called back.
Seungmin turned right when the sidewalk branched into two directions. Their ‘shortcut’ didn’t really save any time or distance but going the long way around the park, slipping through the graffiti-covered tunnel and then riding the length of the parking lot was ten times more fun than waiting at the crosswalk to skip all of that. So on they went. Between the trees and past the duck-filled lake. Seungmin tricked and flipped the whole way, using everything he could get his four wheels on. Seungmin was better on the half-pipe than Chan could ever dream. Seungmin could hold his balance down a rail better than Chan could ever hope. But it was because they had such different skating styles that made their videos so popular. It was because they did things so differently that they made such a happy, complimentary pair. Seungmin carved back and forth across the width of the cement to keep his speed up, then he proceeded to heelflip over a set of stairs without popping the fist-sized bubble in his bubblegum.
Chan wanted to capture that freedom--that effortlessness--in the video he was recording. Seungmin was so talented. Their Instagram followers appreciated it.
Near the mouth of the tunnel, the two of them slowed down.
Chan stopped recording and shoved his phone in his pocket and hopped off of his longboard to tuck it under his arm.
It looked like Mister Park was in his usual spot, tucked into his favorite nook between a trashed piano and a stack of rotted tires. He was awake and in good spirits.
“Hey, friend,” Seungmin called out to him. He hopped off his board and kicked it towards Mister Park.
The homeless man, with far more dexterity than you’d expect from a pot-bellied fellow approaching fifty, leapt to his feet and hopped on Seungmin’s board as it passed him. “Hey, Seungmin!” He laughed wholeheartedly. His balance was shit and he kept flailing his arms like a drunkard, but he could carve a decent figure-8 from one end of the walk to the other. “Hello, Chan,” he said, holding up his hand for a high five as he passed.
Chan gave him one. Up high.
They’d known Mister Park since the spring and while the two of them didn’t always have much money to offer him, they could give him mini-skating lessons. Those always seemed to cheer him up. Having people to talk to always helped. Mister Park asked, “How much time do you fellas have this afternoon?”
“Not much,” Chan said, a little remorsefully.
“We’re going to the ends of the earth,” said Seungmin, pointing through the dark stretch of the tunnel ahead of them.
Mister Park only said, “That’s nice.” He was unable to give them a larger response than that as all of his attention was on avoiding a collision with a passing mother and her child.
Chan reached out and touched Seungmin. Just a hand on the small of his back. Brief. Meaningless.
Yet it meant so much. It meant everything.
Seungmin looked over at him, a tiny smile on his lips, then he reached out a hand and touched Chan. Simple, loving contact. Fingers damp and hot on the crook of Chan’s elbow. There and gone. Soft like butterfly wings.
Then they both were looking up at Mister Park again.
“Don’t be afraid to let your heels hang off,” Seungmin guided the man, suddenly serious. “Throw more of your weight back to get sharper turns.”
Mister Park attempted to slide his old shoes closer to the edge of the skate deck but it was clear he didn’t trust the board enough to swing himself that far away from the center of his balance. He nearly rolled right off the sidewalk and into the grass and laughed as he corrected his direction.
Chan pulled his phone out of his back pocket and held it out to Seungmin. “My go. Get my good side.”
Seungmin took the device from him. He traced his thumb over the screen, having the pattern to unlock it memorized. He frowned at Chan’s home screen. “Your hair’s not blue like this anymore. Let’s get another one.” He walked over, pressed their sides together and held the phone out in front of them for the perfect selfie angle.
Chan leaned so that their heads were closer together and fit a bit better in the frame. They looked good like this, Chan thought. Not just because Seungmin looked great with purple, glittery hair. Not just because Chan looked great with his hair dyed in swirls of pink and baby blue like cotton candy.
They just looked good together.
Seungmin set the new shot as Chan’s home screen and then opened up the camera.
“And be sure to get plenty of establishing shots,” Chan instructed him. He dropped his board to the cement and kicked off towards the tunnel.
“Yeah, yeah,” Seungmin whined. “I know you like making our videos pretty .”
“I won’t hold you two up, then,” Mister Park announced. He had to slow down considerably before he felt confident enough to hop off the board and kick it towards Seungmin. It rolled towards him swiftly and accurately, some foreign brand logo emblazoned on the surface.
Seungmin took a running start and then hopped up onto the board like it was second nature to him. Like it was easier for him to do this than it was to walk. He waved goodbye to Mister Park and then followed Chan into the dimness of the tunnel.
The tunnel was poorly lit with only dim orange bulbs spaced too far apart keeping the shadows at bay but it was still a cool place to get some shots. The lighting cast Chan’s frame into a sick as hell silhouette and the neon color of graffiti in the background gave the footage that grungy edge. Chan hit a few dorky poses on his board, even lifting up a leg and standing on one foot in a proud display of balance and control. Seungmin couldn’t help the soft, fond grin on his face as he tapped the screen to keep the camera in focus as Chan kicked forward on his board, faster and faster.
Then they were out of the tunnel and back beneath broad daylight.
On either side of them, the world became a blur of blue sky and green trees. A flock of birds took off into the air, chirping. A stray cat darted off the path into the bushes.
Chan chained a heelside carve into a toeside carve and then back into a heelside carve. Keeping his momentum up, he put one foot over the other, walking forward from the tail end up of the board up to the nose without slowing or wrecking his S-carve. Then he stepped center and spun in a slow circle, arms outstretched, practically dancing on top of the board before walking backwards from the nose to the tail.
Chan felt the most free like this. Skating was all about expression and he expressed his joy and love through every hop and twirl and kickflip. His longboard moved like it was connected to him, flipping and spinning beneath his chunky, checkered Vans.
Seungmin squatted low on his own board to capture everything from the best angles. He zoomed out to more properly show how fluid Chan moved and danced on top of the board. Chan stepped forward and turned like he was performing ballet, almost, and his cotton candy hair fluttering in the wind reminded Seungmin of all of their dates to the amusement park. All of the evenings spent under the twinkling lights, pockets full of tickets and mouths sticky from candy apples and caramel-drenched popcorn. They had some of their sweetest moments on nights like those, drifting through space at the top of the Ferris wheel, brains fizzing like carbonated soda from all the adrenaline and kisses and sugar and love.
Chan spun around on his board to look at Seungmin and give the camera a dimpled grin and a wave. Even that movement was full of grace. Seungmin was sure to zoom in on Chan’s smiling face. On his dangling, swaying earrings. On the sunlight reflecting off his deep brown eyes. On the colorful Hello Kitty bandages that covered the cuts and scabs on Chan’s knees and elbows and forearms. His dark cargo shorts and black AC/DC shirt just made the pink splotches of sunburn stand out all the more on his pale skin. And yet... Chan was beautiful like this. When he was only thinking about skating. When he was only thinking about where to put his feet next to bring the way he felt inside of his body to the world outside of his body. Seungmin made sure to capture all of the minute details and focus the camera on the way Chan bobbed his head and snapped his fingers to the beat in his head. Probably to one of those catchy pop-rock songs they always jammed to in the car.
The path ended. They came to a halt on the old, narrow boardwalk.
It wasn’t as busy out here as Chan expected on a day like this but that was perfect.
More space for the two of them.
Seungmin tricked off of his board but fucked it up and sent it sliding across the cement on the side that didn’t have wheels. “Dammit,” he hissed, but he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Better luck next time,” said Chan, coming to a far more controlled stop. Then he hopped off his deck to prop his elbows on the boardwalk’s metal railing.
The wind was always strongest here because there weren’t any buildings or trees to block it.
At last, they had reached the ends of the earth.
Well, the two of them joked around and called it that because it was the place where the land stopped and the ocean began.
The white sand beach stretched from one end of the horizon to the other and, beyond it, there was nothing but blue.
Seungmin draped an arm around Chan’s waist and sat his chin up on Chan’s shoulder. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He just let his eyes droop closed as he inhaled the mingling scent of the sweat-salt on Chan’s skin and the salt on the ocean air.
“Thanks for making today perfect,” Chan whispered, so softly that the wind immediately snatched his words away.
But, based on how Seungmin leaned even further against him and let out a content sigh, Chan was positive that he heard.