Work Text:
Minhyung walks through an endless field of sunflowers beneath a pitch-black sky, his path illuminated only by the gentle glow of the red string around his pinky.
He walks down a street paved with thorns and wakes with feet torn and bloodied.
He walks across oceans and skies, through cities and forests. He never knows the time when he wakes; the curtains are always drawn and his phone is always face down on the nightstand.
(“Even if you found him, you couldn’t bring him home with you,” Renjun says. But Minhyung knows. He just wants to see his face once more.)
His bedroom grows cluttered with remnants of his dreams. The glimmering tip of a fallen star, the jagged edge of a broken heart. And sunflowers, always sunflowers.
It’s obvious, in the end—like finding your keys in your pocket after you’ve searched every nook and cranny of the house. Donghyuck is on the beach. The sand is pure white and he’s golden where he sits against it.
“You can’t bring me home with you,” Donghyuck says.
“I know,” Minhyung says.
And they look upon each others’ faces.
Donghyuck twists the ring on his finger. “I’m selfish,” he confesses. “I was going to give it to you, to remember me by. But now I want to keep it.”
“You’ll need it where you’re going,” Minhyung agrees. “Give me a kiss instead.”
The touch is soft, almost incorporeal. But Minhyung is a dreamer, and it’s enough for him to tuck away. To bring home. They link their pinkies and let the ends of the red string meet.
“I have to go now,” Donghyuck says. The sun is sinking fast into the ocean. “Promise me I won’t see you again for a long time.”
“I promise,” Minhyung says.
He wakes with lips tingling and sand slipping through his fingers.