Chapter Text
It’s nerve-wracking, travelling by himself for the first time.
Jake knows that it’s silly, considering that he hasn’t even been gone for two hours yet, but he already feels homesick.
Scrolling through his texts, he smiles at the encouraging messages sent by his parents, attached with a picture of Layla so adorable that it makes him want to turn back around and take the first taxi home.
But he doesn’t— only steels himself with a breath, palms jittery.
Jungwon and Riki would be waiting for him— the two close friends that he had made online over two years ago, and who he promised he would visit as soon as he had scraped together enough money to fly to Korea.
Still, he can’t help but be nervous.
It would just be him and a big, empty airport for the next three and a half hours, and a lonely eleven hour long flight after that. It’s the first time he’s ever been by himself for so long. He doesn’t know how to pass the time.
Pulling his suitcase behind him, a duffel bag tucked under one arm, he wonders if he seems out of place— if he’s doing everything right.
But looking around him, at the assortment of people walking past, all tired and paying no mind to anyone else, he feels slightly better.
This was nothing out of the ordinary.
After checking in, followed by a lot of fumbling and embarrassment, Jake finally makes it through to the other side. Wide-eyed, he roams around aimlessly for a while, staring in awe at all of the shops inside of the airport, before sitting down on one of the seats outside of the boarding gate, three hours much too early.
He’s the only one there.
Quietly, he notes to himself that it’s quite unsettling at the airport, the expanse of white in the floor, walls and ceiling feeling almost clinical.
But with a steadying breath, he nestles into his seat, taking out his phone. Maybe he could try to message his friends for the next few hours or so, just so that he wouldn’t feel so alone.
Scrolling to his twitter DMs, he finds that the group chat has already exploded with messages. He can’t help but smile broadly.
Jungwon:
JAKE HYUNG
I THINK IT JUST PROPERLY REGISTERED THAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY GOING TO BE HERE IN A FEW HOURS
LIKE HERE IN THE FLESH
IN FRONT OF MY EYES????
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT
Jungwon:
HEY WHY AREN’T YOU RESPONDING !! :(
Jungwon:
OH RIGHT, I FORGOT YOU'RE PROBABLY DOING AIRPORT STUFF
ANYWAY IM SO EXCITED I CANT WAIT TO SEE U AHHHHHHH
Riki:
Yes, it’s too late to change ur plans, hyung.
There’s nowhere u can run or hide
Jungwon:
I MISS YOU ALREADY COME HERE QUICKKKKKKKKK
I—
wtf riki
Riki:
Just giving a friendly pep talk x
With a laugh, Jake covers his mouth with his hand.
Jake:
I love you too guys :’) Can’t wait to see you in 14 hours <3
Sending off a quick text, Jake feels a bloom of warmth in his heart, quickly replacing the loneliness from before.
That’s right— he was going to see his best friends soon. This was all going to be worth it.
It was almost strange how close he felt to them, despite only having known them for two years.
He had met Jungwon first, after bonding with him on Twitter over their love of dance, and their appreciation for a lot of the same idols. Then soon came in Riki, a literal dance prodigy who had caught both of their eyes on the timeline.
It wasn’t long before they started up a group chat, and had been inseparable ever since.
It had been difficult at first, with Jungwon living in Korea, Riki in Japan and Jake in Australia— but they had thankfully worked out a schedule and a system that worked for them.
And after Riki had moved over to Korea to pursue an actual career in dance, they knew that they simply had to meet up and make the trio a reality.
Biting his lip, Jake looks down. Having moved schools a lot in the past few years, he often found difficulty forming attachments with people— but Jungwon and Riki were always constants in his life.
Friends that he could always rely on.
It brings a smile to his face, even thinking about it.
As he watches the three little dots show up on his screen, signalling some further messages from the two, he suddenly senses some movement, and looks up.
He immediately loses his train of thought.
Just a few rows down from him, facing towards his direction, he sees possibly the most good looking guy he’s ever seen. An adonis, really.
Thankfully, the other boy doesn’t notice his staring as he sits down— instead, he looks down at his phone with a slightly flat expression.
Even then, he looks good, with pale skin and dark hair, long lashes casting shadows over his cheek. He’s wearing a white long-sleeve button up shirt, tucked into dark slacks, like some kind of idol or young CEO, and suddenly Jake feels underdressed in his simple grey hoodie and jeans.
He swallows, trying not to stare too much.
He can’t really help it though— there wasn’t really anyone else around, and this guy was pretty much the only person he’d seen around so far that was anywhere close to his age.
Not to mention how good looking he was.
Creasing his brow, Jake briefly wonders why the other’s alone at first, and whether they were facing the same situation. Was the boy also travelling alone, feeling uncertain and isolated?
Would it be rude to ask..?
Before he can even finish the thought, the other suddenly receives a phone call, which he picks up immediately with a frown.
Even from a few rows over, Jake can make out the muffled shouting on the other end.
Eyebrows knitting together in concern, he notices that the other only keeps a flat expression, if a little fatigued, and doesn’t really say much by way of argument.
When he finally hangs up, he takes a breath, before looking down.
He looks so depressed that Jake can’t help but stand up, finding himself already walking over, betrayed by his own body.
Cautiously coming to a stop in front of the other, casting a shadow over the other boy, he rubs the back of his neck.
“Hey, are you alright?” he asks kindly.
Blinking, the other boy looks up, clearly startled, although he works well at smoothing the expression over, keeping his composure.
Up close, Jake can’t help but notice that the guy isn’t just good looking— he’s downright pretty, with a charming mole just next to the slope of his nose, paired with soft lips and dark, questioning eyes that stare up at him like he’s under interrogation.
“Sorry?” the other asks.
Jake smile waivers slightly.
“Ah, I mean…you looked really down earlier and I thought I would just come by and ask if- if you were alright,” Jake stammers, suddenly unsure.
With pursed lips, the other looks down for a second, as if hesitant, before quickly typing something down.
For a moment, Jake lingers around awkwardly, before the other thrusts the phone into his face.
He stares at it cross-eyed for a second, before taking it into his hands.
The page is open on Google Translate.
“Sorry, my English isn’t very good,” the words read back at him.
“Sorry,” the boy repeats apologetically. Jake blinks.
The other couldn’t speak English.
He felt so dumb.
Blushing furiously, he shakes his head, waving his hands about.
“Oh no, sorry for bothering you,” he says, feeling silly, before noticing something on the phone— the words had been translated from Korean.
So the boy was Korean.
Jake’s eyes suddenly light up.
“You’re Korean?” he asks, in slightly rusty Korean.
The other’s eyes widen slightly, as if caught off guard.
“You too?” the boy asks back.
With a slight laugh, Jake gives him an enthusiastic nod, to which the boy’s eyes crinkle slightly.
“My Korean isn’t very good though, so you’ll have to bear with me,” Jake says suddenly.
Truthfully, he had only ever spoken Korean with his older relatives, although he had been practising more recently in order to converse better with Jungwon and Riki— even if their group chat messages were usually a mess of languages to begin with.
“It’s fine,” the other shakes his head.
“So what was it that you wanted to ask me?” the other speaks up again, after a second too long of silence.
“Oh, right! I was going to ask you whether you were okay,” Jake responds, almost having forgotten what he was there for in his excitement.
“Whether I was okay?” the other asks, surprised.
“Yeah, you looked kind of down after your phone call, so I was worried,” Jake rubs the back of his neck.
Pursing his lips slightly, the other boy looks away.
“It’s fine,” he replies stiltedly.
Jake doesn’t exactly know how to respond to that.
Nice one, Jake. You just had to make things awkward.
After an uncomfortable moment of silence, he finally clears his throat, standing up straight.
“Well I guess I’ll leave you alone, then,” he smiles kindly with a nod, before turning to leave.
“Wait!” the other calls out.
Jake turns around, quizzically.
“Um, I…I’m sorry, I’m just not good at talking to people,” the boy says, eyebrows knitting with the most emotion he had seen so far.
Jake pauses.
Someone like him had trouble talking to people? Somehow that was quite unbelievable in his head.
“I don’t really have many friends, so…” he trails off, before looking away again, unable to make eye contact.
Seeing his expression, and the way he so achingly reminded Jake of himself from a few years ago, he makes a split decision— to sit down next to the boy, startling him.
“My name’s Jake. Jake Sim,” he says with a smile, holding out a hand.
Looking down at it, the other boy blinks for a moment, before breaking into a small smile of relief, shaking it. Somehow, the sight reminds Jake of blooming flowers.
“I’m Sunghoon,” the boy says, waiting cautiously as if for a reaction. When he gets none, he seems to relax slightly.
Jake doesn’t know exactly what to make of it, but he decides not to push it. The other would surely tell him in his own time.
“Nice to meet you,” he smiles instead in return.
“How old are you by the way? I’m still not that good with Korean but I try my best to use the proper honourifics wherever I can,” he says sheepishly.
“I’m an ’02 liner,” Sunghoon nods politely, to which Jake’s eyes light up.
“Really? Me too! What’re the chances?” he exclaims with a grin. The other seems surprised as well.
“Feel free to talk to me casually, then,” Sunghoon says, the barest hint of a smile on his face.
Somehow, it feels like a victory.
“Are you here alone by the way? What brought you to Australia?” Jake asks curiously, scooting a little closer.
Surprisingly, the other hesitates slightly, before giving him a vague answer.
“I’m here alone. I just thought Australia would be a nice place to get away to.”
Eyebrows knitting, Jake cocks his head.
“What’re you getting away from?” he asks quizzically.
At the question, Sunghoon looks down, pursing his lips.
Sensing his hesitation, Jake puts on a friendly smile.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me! But maybe you can think of me as a stranger you can vent to that you’ll probably never see again?” he suggests, placing his hand over his heart.
At the words, Sunghoon pauses for a moment, considering. Then he nods slowly.
“Okay. Well, I ran away— not forever, just for a little while,” he clarifies, upon seeing Jake’s startled expression.
“I think…I was under a lot of pressure back home. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I just booked the first flight to the furthest country I could think of,” Sunghoon says quietly.
It takes a few moments for Jake to think of how to respond.
Because how do you reply to something like that?
“Well you were right, Australia really is quite far. That’s why I’ve never travelled anywhere,” Jake replies sheepishly, opting for a lighter route.
Sunghoon thankfully smiles at that.
“So you’ve never been to Korea?” he asks, changing his tone.
Shyly, Jake shakes his head.
“I think you’d like it. You have a kind of optimism that’s well appreciated there,” the other comments, although a little wistfully.
“More like naivety, but I’ll take it,” Jake laughs.
After a brief pause, he looks up at the other.
“So does your flight back mean you’re ready to go back to Korea now?” he asks curiously.
With a bitter laugh, Sunghoon shakes his head.
“Not even close. But I’ve received a lot of calls from my parents and my coach, and I’m being pressured to come back,” he says.
“Your coach?” Jake asks, eyebrows raising.
“I’m uh…I’m an athlete,” Sunghoon says hesitantly.
“Oh!” Jake blinks back in surprise.
Somehow, he hadn’t expected that of the other.
He seemed too graceful— too delicate, really, almost like a mirage one blink away from disappearing from existence.
“What sport?” he asks, out of curiosity more than anything else.
“Figure skating,” the other finally responds after a while, albeit awkwardly.
“What? Dude, that’s so cool!” Jake’s eyes light up.
Sunghoon blinks.
“There’s not really much of an environment for skating in Australia, so I’ve always been jealous of people who can do it. Also I don’t know much about it, but I suppose I should’ve guessed it when I saw you,” Jake says, grinning.
A look of surprise flitters over Sunghoon’s features.
“Why?”
“Because you’ve got the whole ice prince look going on,” Jake gestures at the other, who stares at him for a few seconds, before bursting out into laughter, eyes crinkled and canines showing.
It’s a pretty laugh.
Jake blinks for a few moments, before looking away with a small smile of his own, face flushing.
“Sorry,” he says, although his smile doesn’t look sorry at all. Sunghoon shakes his head.
“That’s surprisingly not the first time I’ve heard that. But if you can tell that based on just looks, then am I supposed to guess from your sunny looking appearance that you’re good at soccer or something?” Sunghoon asks, slightly teasing.
“Hey, I actually am good at soccer! How’d you know?” Jake asks, wide eyed.
This seems to set Sunghoon off on another round, which Jake soon finds himself joining in on. They end up leaning against each other, laughing, and somehow it feels comfortable.
Like they’d known each other for years.
After a few moments pass, finally calming down, Sunghoon turns to look at Jake, relaxing into a gentle smile.
“You know, you never told me why you were going back to Korea,” he says.
His expression is clear and open, so unlike what Jake had seen before.
Flushing slightly, Jake looks down at his phone.
“Well…I sort of made a few friends over there, and we’re planning to meet up for the first time,” he says, a little embarrassed. He doesn’t know if it’s conventional— to fly all the way to another country for something like that.
But surprisingly Sunghoon only smiles, before knocking his shoulder against the other’s.
“Sounds nice. What’re they like?” he asks.
“Annoying,” Jake admits.
“But they’re my whole world. I’d do anything for them,” he smiles softly.
Sunghoon blinks for a few seconds, before looking away, smile turning slightly sad.
“That’s nice. I don’t really have any friends, so it’s hard for me,” he says quietly.
Confused, Jake looks up. There it was, again.
“Why not? You seem like a nice guy. Anyone would be lucky to be your friend.”
At the words, the other stares back at him for a moment, before looking away again, expression complex.
“I guess I just…never had time for making friends because of my career,” he says, electing not to respond to the last statement. Jake doesn’t comment on it.
“I was always figure skating and going to competitions and missing school, and somehow I just found myself always alone. The only ones I have really are Jay and Heeseung hyung, but that’s only because we’re childhood friends,” he says.
Biting his lip, Jake nods in understanding.
So they were the same.
Maybe too much the same.
“I can actually relate— my dad moves around a lot for work, so I’m always switching schools. Jungwon and Riki are technically the only things in my life that stay the same, but even then it can get kind of lonely,” he says back.
At the confession, Sunghoon looks up, surprised.
“You too?” he asks. Jake can only nod back.
The other pauses for a second, before he slowly melts into a smile.
“So we’re both ’02 liner kids with almost no friends, huh?” he asks.
“I guess that means we have to stick together, you and me,” Jake nods back with a grin.
Suddenly, Jake hears a gurgling sound, and he looks down to see Sunghoon covering his stomach, embarrassed.
“Sorry, I haven’t had any food yet,” he says, apologetically. It’s so endearing that Jake can’t help but laugh.
“That’s okay— do you want to go grab a bite to eat then?” he asks, standing up.
Then he stops, seeing the wary expression on the other’s face.
“That is, if you want me to come along?” he asks hesitantly.
After a moment of silence, the other shakes his head, before standing up as well. He then smiles once, softly.
“No, I do. Let’s stick together, Jake Sim.”