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The morning warmth of the sun flared on Jiseok’s skin as he meandered out of his front door, taking care to close it carefully, and to lock it even slower. He pushed the door with the lightest touch he could manage, but in the end it did nothing. The door clicked shut with a horrid screech that had Jiseok wishing to vanish off the face of Earth. Damn; so much for getting out of the house stealthily.
He slowly shifted his gaze upward, grimacing at what he saw above his head. The windows to his mom’s and grandma’s rooms were left wide open above his head, as per usual, to allow air to circulate through the cold concrete of their house. If the windows were open, then Jiseok definitely just woke them up with the door hinges’ horror movie-esque scream.
He took a small step back from the door, fully expecting his grandma to pull it open and chuck a pink fluffy slipper at his head for the racket. Perhaps today just wasn’t his day? Or perhaps the door had some type of hidden agenda against him, plotting his downfall in secret over the weekend when Jiseok didn’t have to go to summer school.
Getting up at six in the morning for summer school hours was not a pleasant experience, but Jiseok had done it to himself with his need to overachieve and collect college class credits before even stepping foot on a college campus.
It was something that his mom had ingrained into his head since he was a child: he had to get good grades to survive out in the world around them. He always had to be ahead of schedule to expect what would come up next in their lessons so he could get more study time on certain topics that he struggled with. It was A+ or nothing for him, and he truly didn’t know any better. He never once slacked on his studies, and that held steady until now.
But! He’d never been allowed to be awake this early as a kid, so it had become a habit of his to navigate the early morning with an air of caution— whether it was six in the morning or ten minutes past the hour of the school’s first bell. The weekend gave him a break from his early mornings, allowing him to sit back and breathe freely, but the weekdays were always out to get him. He’d never made it out of the house once without something, and to be quite honest he would like to win against the morning a few times.
However, at the moment, the early morning weekday was winning. He tiptoed away from his door, wincing when he accidentally stepped on a stray cat toy that his mom left out on their steps.
“We don’t even have cats—what?” Jiseok mumbled in confusion, kicking the toy aside and continuing on his merry way.
He sighed as he took his sweet time walking down the carless, cold driveway, dragging his shoes to take up as much time as possible. If he wasn’t raised the way he was, he would have asked his mom to drive him to the school, but he knew better. If he asked now, his mom would be cranky all day at her job, and then come home in an even grumpier, tired state. It just wasn’t worth it in his opinion.
It was rather common for kids to ride their bikes to school in his small neighborhood anyway since it was so close to the school they all attended, but Jiseok’s bike was stored away in a storage shed in their backyard, its rusted bars and chain safely kept out of reach for his own safety.
He laughed quietly to himself as his mind flashed back to the last ride he’d ever taken on the blasted vehicle. The last time he had properly ridden it was back in middle school at a small open park covered in potholes and obtrusive greenery that made it near impossible to keep his balance.
So, as any sane preteen would do, he’d “accidentally” left his bike out in the rainy evening after coming home, and held a perfect poker face as his grandma wheeled the vehicle into the storage shed the next week.
So while he didn’t ride his own bike, that didn’t stop him from finding a different bike, or perhaps even a different person, to hitch a ride with.
It took another few minutes of loitering in his yard before his trusty ride rolled their way down the sidewalk, their brakes squealing with the amount of force needed to stop right in front of him. The wind blew by them as they came screeching to a stop, ruining the careful way Jiseok had set his bangs, and their breaths were panting as they hunched over in relief.
“Holy shit, Ji.” His newly pink haired chauffeur panted, breaking off his words to take a draining sip of the water bottle that clung to the side of his small messenger bag. It opened and closed with a swift click, quickly going back into his side pocket while his friend gasped and started talking again.
“Today was awful, and I’ve only been awake for an hour? Like how the fuck?” They complained, putting their foot down on the concrete and using their now free hands to explain exactly how and why their morning had gone wrong.
It was a bit of a worrying statement, but Jiseok couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face as the person riding the bike shook out their hair, complaining about the wind and the weather and everything that had gone wrong that morning.
Jiseok let his eyes wander while his ride complained, focusing and refocusing as he pleased on their outfit. They wore the school’s standard uniform, a white button up embroidered with the school’s insignia overtop the breast pocket with a pair of neatly ironed black slacks, but that didn’t stop them from looking absolutely ethereal in the early morning lighting. The sun caught their hair in such a way to make it shine and sparkle, and their eyes were practically melting Jiseok with their gaze.
“You’re not listening are you?” They pouted, kicking out their legs and barely missing the end of Jiseok’s pant leg. “Jiseok! You’re meant to listen to these things!”
“Good morning to you too, Seungminie.” Jiseok laughed, completely cutting off Seungmin’s grand tale of expired milk in his cereal and mismatched shoes in the darkness of his living room.
Seungmin pouted at the interruption, but Jiseok kept talking before he could start his engine again. “Glad you survived the cereal’s murder attempt, you doof.”
“You better be happy I survived that, Kwak Jiseok! Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to make it to your precious advanced chemistry class on time, loser.” Seungmin pouted, leaning most of his weight on one leg to keep the bike still. “I’ll tell you more on the way there.”
“There’s more?” Jiseok asked incredulously, snickering as Seungmin put a hand over his chest in faux pain. Seungmin may seem calm on the outside, but Jiseok knew that the other boy had always had a flair for the dramatic. That didn’t mean Jiseok didn’t enable him, of course.
“Of course there’s more! Get on, already!” Seungmin complained as he waved Jiseok onto the back of the two wheeled vehicle, brushing the nonexistent dust off of the two person attachment as Jiseok climbed on. The bike teetered to the side with the added weight, but Seungmin had no problem righting himself and taking off down the sidewalk at a steady pace.
They both knew that the extra seat on Seungmin’s bike wasn’t dusty—Jiseok rode on the back of Seungmin’s bike more than Seungmin’s younger brother did, actually—so there was no need to brush the dust off, but Jiseok let Seungmin act cool anyway.
The boy had to keep up his image somehow.
They slowly sped up, gaining speed at the downhill that eventually spat them out at the sleepy intersection at the end of Jiseok’s street. The light practically never changed at that stoplight, allowing kids to just breeze through it without any consequences.
Jiseok wrapped his arms around Seungmin’s waist out of habit as the other boy sped up even more, barreling through the intersection without a second thought.
There were never any cars that early in the morning, so it made the trip to school much more interesting in Jiseok’s humble opinion.
He was able to lean his head on Seungmin’s back, feeling the warmth of his skin permeating through his button up and absolutely drowning in the cologne that he sprayed around the collar of his uniform. Houses fluttered past his view in red blurs, eventually blending together with the plants and becoming meaningless in comparison to the heartbeat he could hear echoing through Seungmin’s chest.
“You good back there, Jiseok?” Seungmin asked, slowing down ever so slightly as they came to a turn in the road. They were right by the school by now, if the tall concrete walls and overgrown ivy weren’t enough evidence of that, but Jiseok never wanted to leave his place on Seungmin’s bike once they got to this point. “You have to get off soon, Ji.”
“I know, I know.” Jiseok responded, squeezing tight around Seungmin’s torso one last time before Seungmin came to a complete stop at the corner of the school wall. “Can we wait just a bit longer?”
“Your class starts in five minutes.”
“Five—! Fuck, Seungmin!” Jiseok exclaimed, hurriedly letting go of Seungmin and leaping off of the bike. He stumbled a little when his feet hit the ground, but quickly retained his balance and began to run with what little time he had left.
By the time Seungmin’s feet were completely on the ground, Jiseok was already thirty feet in front of him, waving frantically over his shoulder as he sprinted into the school campus. He wouldn’t be late. He couldn’t be late.
He spun on his heel to smile at his closest friend, eyes catching on the way the wind gently blew Seungmin’s pink hair to the side and out of his eyes, and the way his smile grew soft right before Jiseok turned the corner. It made Jiseok’s breath catch in his lungs, forcing him to take in a choked breath as he scuttled further into the building, taking the fastest route to his class while his mind reeled.
Seungmin looked ethereal. The image of his friend standing against the clear, blue sky with the early morning light shining on him like his own personal stage light was engraved in Jiseok’s mind, and he didn’t think that it would leave it anytime soon.
Could that be an indication of something Jiseok had been pushing down for a long time? Quite possibly. But did Jiseok want to confront his own emotions? Absoultely not. He genuinely would rather go take an exam a month early than try to talk to his best friend about things that have been building up in his chest for years and years.
He would man up one day, but until then he would sit in his high level classes, grinding out mathematical equations like a human calculator, and wait out his days.
Seungmin would be waiting for him after his classes end, already sitting on the seat of his bike with his uniform jacket slung over his shoulder, waving Jiseok down all the way from the gates. And Jiseok would sit on the back of his bike like he always did, wrapping his arms around Seungmin’s waist, and smelling his cologne on his collar.
Until the day Jiseok decides to confess, these moments would be the serenade for his heart.