Chapter Text
Hyunjin’s eyes are heavy, threatening to close as he watches the scenery flicker by outside the window- not that there’s too much to look at. Fields, gently sloping hills, the occasional cluster of trees, little herds of livestock roaming wide pastures; he doesn’t mind that it’s not much, rather likes the simplicity, actually. The sky is a clear blue, dotted with wispy clouds and showing just a tinge of orange as the afternoon turns to evening.
The only other person sitting near him is an old woman, fast asleep despite the noise of the train, knitting project abandoned in her lap. It’s a peace unlike anything he’s known for a long time. He’s tempted to pull out his phone and take a picture of the stunning visuals outside, but somehow he thinks he’ll ruin it if he does.
The soft whir of the wheels churning beneath his feet is enough to keep him awake, though the fast, nervous pace of his thoughts is enough to keep him up too.
He isn’t really not looking forward to the rest of the summer- he loves his aunt, used to love coming out here all the time- but it’s the prospect of living out here for so long that scares him. He’s far, far away from the rest of his friends, from anything familiar at all, and Hyunjin isn’t the most social butterfly or anything, though he’s not like, a hermit caterpillar either, but he’s- he’s a little shy. So it makes him anxious, the idea of meeting new people, having to make new friends in a new place (“ There’ll be other boys your age,” his parents had reassured him, “don’t worry ).
He tears his eyes away from the view outside and checks the time briefly- it’s six, so he’s almost arrived- and begins to double check his things, pulling his bag out from under his seat as he prepares for his stop. So he almost misses it, when something appears outside his window, interrupting the continuity of the serene horizon.
His eyes widen when he spots him at first, his mouth falling open in a sort of awed surprise- there’s a boy out there, riding a horse, keeping steady pace with the speed of the train.
Silhouetted magnificently by the slowly setting sun, golden rays of light catching in his horse’s honey-colored mane, Hyunjin can’t describe him as looking anything other than free. The pair seem to move fluidly, as one, as they race the train, the horse’s ears perked forwards, the corners of the boy’s mouth turned up in the smallest of smiles.
The boy turns his head, and all of a sudden he meets Hyunjin’s eyes, and Hyunjin realizes all too late he’s been caught staring, (but who wouldn’t stare), though he doesn’t seem to mind at all- the boy’s grin seems to widen just a little when he catches sight of Hyunjin through the window. And Hyunjin is too stunned to move, maybe wave? ( No, that’d be weird, you creep ).
And then with some unspoken communication between boy and horse, the pair peel off, and Hyunjin is left with nothing but the oddly warm memory of his grin before he’s swallowed up by the horizon.
The train station is small, only a few people standing about or occasionally coming in and out. He blinks, clutching the handles of his duffel bag tightly as he searches for a familiar face, because they should be here, they said they’d be on time to pick him up. There aren’t really too many people, this is a pretty small town after all, but the train ride was five hours long and he’s sleepy and hungry and can’t really seem to concentrate on anything besides a smile made of sunshine burned into the backs of his eyelids, and-
“ Hyunjin! ” That. That is his name, but where’s it coming from? And the voice doesn’t really sound like his aunt at all, it sounds young, but okay- “ Hwang Hyunjin? ” He finally catches sight of a boy, jumping up and down and waving his arms frantically- Hyunjin would think it was sort of endearing, if it weren’t for the fact that he is most definitely not my aunt but he knows my name? But after a moment’s hesitation he walks over to him anyways, and is rather relieved when he stops shouting and yelling his name.
“Uh- who are y-”
“You’re Hyunjin, right?” The boy cuts him off, eyeing him suspiciously for a moment.
“Um- yeah? I-I’m Hyunjin, but who are-”
“Han Jisung,” he says, a bright smile now plastered on his face, sticking his hand out for Hyunjin to shake. He does, confused and taken aback but mostly confused. “I’m here because your aunt couldn’t make it, some farm stuff to tend to, I dunno, something about a loose animal? Serious stuff.” Hyunjin, now vaguely concerned about this loose animal, doesn’t really know how to respond, but Jisung doesn’t really wait for him to anyways.
“So anyways, me and my brother are here to pick you up and we’ll drive you home- my brother’s name is Younghyun- we live a couple houses down the road from you, actually, so maybe I’ll see you again after this. I think you and him will get along, you kinda remind me of him. . .” Hyunjin begins to lose focus on Jisung’s rambling after a while, even though he’s decided that he’d probably die for the boy in a heartbeat (he’s adorable, okay), and instead on his surroundings.
They’re outside now, shoes crunching on the gravel of a worn-looking, small parking lot; the evening has progressed further now, streaks of pink and orange running like rivers through the sky. He wonders if the boy he’d seen earlier lived close to his grandparent’s house- if he’d ever see him again. The breeze has lost some of its daytime warmth in exchange for the cooler bite of a summer night, and he’s glad he wore a hoodie.
They eventually stop at an old, dusty pickup truck, the paint job faded and scratched- Hyunjin wonders if it was once bright red, though now it’s pale, worn away from years of work in the sun. There’s a logo drawn roughly in the corner of the back windshield, something that looks like a stylized six made to look like a target, with the word DAY6 scrawled beneath it.
He passes his bag to Jisung, who throws it into the bed of the truck, and then gestures for him to get into the backseat; suddenly, he’s apprehensive, a little mistrustful of Jisung and his brother. Somebody pokes their head out of the driver’s seat window, craning their head around to look at Hyunjin and Jisung. A boy, at least a few years older than Hyunjin, looks between him and Jisung skeptically, and he can immediately see the resemblance between the two, though this boy has more sharp edges and angles compared to Jisung’s softness.
“Sung, what’s taking so long? I have practice tonight, you know Sungjin’ll kick my ass if I’m late again .” Hyunjin assumes this is Younghyun, Jisung’s older brother. “Oh, and clarification- you’re not a loser, Hyunjin, just Jisung. Don’t worry.” Jisung looks offended, clutching a hand to his chest in exaggerated pain.
“ I’m the loser here? And that’s coming from somebody who writes love songs for his own bandma -”
“ Hey! ”
“-and he doesn’t even know that they’re about-”
“Ji sung! ”
“I’m not wrong. ”
“You’re. . .” Younghyun’s playful snarl dissipates into something more somber, “no, I guess you’re not.”
Hyunjin is confused. The silence hovers in the air for a moment, heavy with something that seems to drag Younghyun’s shoulders down into a slump.
Hyunjin is confused, yes, but he feels oddly safe with these people; he pulls open the door and hops into the truck, onto squashy seats covered in worn, cracked leather paled with dust. There’s something that makes everything about Jisung and Younghyun feel familiar, as if they’re not total strangers to him- it’s oddly comforting, he thinks, as Jisung beams at him and goes on about the best things to do or the coolest places to go- and so after his moment of hesitation, he lets himself relax.
The mood lightens significantly once Younghyun pulls out of the lot, wheels kicking up dust that seems to shimmer in the last rays of sunlight. Curious about the exchange about Younghyun’s love life, even though it’s not really his business ( tea, sis ) he’s not really sure what to say. The two brothers fall into easy banter again, and Hyunjin is content to listen.
Again, he watches the scenery pass by as the truck snakes its way down long, winding roads, because it’s much easier to focus on the cows and sheep grazing in grassy meadows than to think about the inevitable arrival at his grandparent’s house. He doesn’t mind spending the summer here, he really doesn’t, but the problem is that he also misses home.
More specifically, he misses his best friends, their loudness and laughter and comfort - they knew him inside and out, they didn’t expect anything of him besides himself. He didn’t want to meet new people, have to open himself up to them little by little, page by page, hoping he doesn’t get torn in half by the end of the summer. Because that’s what Hyunjin is- fragile, thin as paper, easily creased and ripped, easily hurt.
He can’t help it.
Hyunjin loves much too easily, and so he burns easily.
Just like paper.
But he shakes that thought out of his head, coming back to the present just as the truck pulls into a long driveway, one that he recognizes, and comes to a stop. The sun has just vanished behind the trees lining the horizon, last tendrils of light slipping through the branches.
“This is your stop, Hyunjin. You want us to walk you up?” Younghyun turns around in the driver's seat, and Hyunjin feels a little bad for zoning out for most of the ride- he’s nice, Jisung’s nice, they could be friends-
“I will! She loves me,” Jisung cuts in, “you aunt, I mean. She used to babysit me and Younghyun when we were little- wow, I’m surprised we haven’t met before, actually. You’ve come here before, right?”
“Sung, do you ever shut up- ”
“Be quiet, Brian -”
“A few times, yeah.” Hyunjin’s voice is quieter than the other two, even though he’s inwardly amused by the banter. Again, he doesn’t really know what to say, how to join the conversation- he doesn’t know either of them well enough yet.
Yet.
Maybe he will make some friends, after all.
“Well, I know you now! But honestly you look kinda tired,” Jisung says, softening his voice a little, cocking his head to the side (a bit like a puppy- a squirrel, maybe?) as he observes Hyunjin. “We’re so obnoxious, I’m so sorry- c’mon man, I’ll bring you up- they’ll want to know we made it home alive too, probably.”
Hyunjin smiles at him. “Thanks,” he says, getting out of the truck just as Jisung does, and catching his bag when the other boy tosses it to him. “And thanks for the ride,” he says to Younghyun as he passes, though the older boy has his phone halfway to his ear as if he’s just gotten a call.
As they walk up the driveway, Hyunjin sees Jisung roll his eyes as he passes his brother. “It’s probably Jae,” he says without further explanation.
The front door opens as they walk up the stairs, revealing the familiar face of his aunt. She’s young, younger than his mother, maybe even around Younghyun’s age. She smiles when she sees him, and maybe smiles even wider when she sees Jisung next to him, but one thing he’s already noticed is that it’s hard not to smile when Jisung’s smiling, which he’s sure he’s doing now. He just has some genuine quality to him, like he’s got a bit of sunshine itself in his soul or something.
“Hyunjinnie! Oh, come here,” she says, pulling him into a tight hug that makes him drop his bag on the deck; she feels warm, her perfume smells like home- he feels a little better, being with somebody he knows. “How have you and your family been? It’s been so long,” she exclaims, pinching his cheek.
“We’ve been fine,” he says, unable to hold back his smile at all. She turns to Jisung.
“And Jisung? How have you been, it’s been a while since the last time we saw you as well?” Jisung beams at her.
“We’re great! Hyunnie’s in his truck talking to a friend ,” Jisung says, and Hyunjin doesn’t miss the emphasis he puts on the last word- honestly, Hyunjin is so invested in Younghyun’s love life and it’s been like one hour- and his aunt nods conspiratorially, understanding.
Once more, Hyunjin is confused.
“You’ll have to come over for dinner sometime soon, Hyunjin’ll need some friends his age, I’m much too boring. Get back to your brother, it’s getting late.” She smiles at Jisung again, and with a wave he’s running back down to meet Younghyun in the truck.
Hyunjin’ll need some friends his age.
She’s not wrong.
But he’s still a little scared; he’s not too good at making friends, he thinks. Somehow though, making friends with Jisung doesn’t seem so intimidating.