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The car pulled over to the side of the field, finally giving the engine a break after hours of driving. Sunlight streamed through the windshield, only blocked by the sun visor after several failed attempts at unhinging it from where it was stuck to the holder, and the cloth seats were beginning to feel like a trap rather than an escape, but finally, finally they could take a rest.
A road trip was never in Euijoo’s plans after exams, especially with precious 2003 Toyota Land Cruiser being on its last legs of life after Taki had taken it for a swing without Euijoo’s prior knowledge, but here he was, drumming a random tune on the steering wheel as he lowered the windows down to let the air come in.
The wind blew his hair in every other direction, pushing it until it stood up on end, but Euijoo didn’t mind too much. It was actually quite welcome when juxtaposed with the brutal summer sun that kept Euijoo company for more than half of the drive here, only hiding behind clouds whenever it wasn’t his turn to drive. He had to admit, sometimes it felt as if the weather was against him personally. It had to be a divine grudge or something–how else would the sky open up it’s floodgates right when Euijoo was leaving the library, or when the wind picks up just enough to blow his research papers right out of his hands and no one else’s?
He sighed, raking a hand through freshly dyed red hair. With the car engine off, the heat of the day permeated through the window, intensifying the sun’s rays on Euijoo and his passenger’s skin. Intense up to the last second, Euijoo wouldn’t be surprised if his passenger was sprawled out over the back seats to avoid the never ending supply of golden lighting–or if his hair was sweating red down the back of his neck, but that would be a problem for another time.
A quick glance to the back seats tells him all he needs to know, and more. His beloved passenger was knocked out over the three cloth seats, curled up into himself to avoid gravity rolling him forward whenever Euijoo happened across a stop sign or a set of stoplights. There was a small blanket thrown over his shoulders, barely long enough to cover the full expanse of his near six foot stature, and if Euijoo craned his neck a little more to the left, he could see faint traces of the boy’s pink hair sticking out from beneath the hem of the snoopy patterned fabric.
Gentle breaths blew his bangs in and out of place, further proving how out of it he truly was. They were meant to trade places at the last gas station, and in hindsight, Euijoo probably should have woken him up before then, but alas, he felt bad for waking him up so soon after leaving their hotel. And even now, despite the lack of rattling from the car’s movement, his companion remained still.
“Well, I guess I’ll leave him be.” Euijoo muttered, turning away from the sleeping man and looking out of the windows. He doesn’t exactly know where they’ve stopped–he’d just pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway on impulse without checking the navigation first–but the view out once he meanders a bit away from the car is absolutely worth it.
The field before him was a sight to behold, climbing down the hilly side of the highway and sprawling out into a myriad of purples, whites, and yellows. It went for as far as Euijoo could see, eventually getting engulfed by the tree line opposite to where Euijoo stood, but he paid that particular fact no mind. He could flounder about in the open space for hours on end—there was no need to venture out to the edge of the woods.
The trip down to the field was a rather short one. Euijoo carefully balanced himself over the rocky, almost gravel-like terrain of the hill, walking at a strange angle to accommodate for his center of gravity being a little too out of place. He’s sure that he was quite the comical sight to see from a distance; a six foot something tall man slowly inching his way down a hill in the burning hot midday sun, hoping not to fall face first—or perhaps even ass first—into the watercolor display of flowers at the bottom.
He does eventually arrive at the bottom, carefully treading through the flowers as if they were as fragile as glass. There’s no path to follow through to the center of the field, giving Euijoo a taste of what it was like to be truly untouched by the world outside. Every petal he happened to brush by, every thorn that pricked at his ankles, each and every little bit of the field was flourishing with a life beyond what Euijoo could ever imagine as a mere college student.
Well, Euijoo sighed, he supposes he’s a former college student now. Exam season had come and gone in a whirlwind, draining both him and his companion of the vibrancy of life as they locked themselves in for hours on end, passing highlighters, notecards and translation notes in a combined effort to pass. Mixed Japanese and Korean had been laced with several energy drinks, but they had done it, somehow.
Which left them here: at a random field at least six hours away from their college campus, one of them still reeling from the side effects of not sleeping for two days straight and the other exploring the unknown on his own. Some of the flowers are a bit taller than Euijoo expected them to be up close, almost reaching the top of his head in their stretch for the sun, but that’s really what he gets for only looking at them from afar.
The wind blew all around him, blowing shades of purple and yellow into his eyes as he tried his best to not trample any of the smaller, harder to see plants beneath his worn out tennis shoes. He comes to find that it’s quite the challenge to not step on anything while being completely surrounded, but Euijoo makes due, walking deeper and deeper into the floral forest. Pollen and petals cascade down from unknown heights and distances as he plods along, eventually sitting down in the thick of it all, basking in the sunlight and gentle breeze.
Like this, Euijoo is completely hidden from the outside world. The flowers and grasses grow above his head, reaching for a sun they would never be able to grasp, and eventually he finds himself reaching for the nearest bundle of low growing flowers, tangling them in between his fingers as he pulls them up from the dirt. Purple and white easily turn into a beautiful bouquet, tied together by a leftover piece of string in Euijoo’s pocket from his art project just a few days ago.
“Huh. So that’s where that went.” Euijoo mused, holding up his new creation to the sky. The purple and white petals turned transparent against the sunlight, almost like the stained glass windows Euijoo was so used to seeing at their campus’ literature halls, depicting old folk tales and myths from all different generations and civilizations. He remembers the eyes of those windows, peering down at him as if his skin were just as theirs: glassine, transparent all the way to his beating heart and burning soul. They didn’t look at him; no, they looked through him, through his thin mortal flesh and into the blood that ran through his veins.
The thought made Euijoo shiver, and he was quick to unlace the bouquet, determined to make it less reminiscent of something so unnerving. What was originally a simple little project to ward off growing boredom was getting to be a little creepy, and he was not going to let his overthinking qualities ruin what was meant to be a little mindless escape. Not when it took his partner at least three days to convince him to make use of his international driver’s license, and a week to make sure they were all packed for what he claimed to be “the road trip of a lifetime.”
“How do I keep this thing still?” Euijoo muttered, twisting and turning the few flowers he had picked back and forth. The string he had in his pocket was long enough to confine the five to six flowers he had before, but now with a total of at least twenty wildflowers in his grasp, he was struggling to find out which side to use as the front of the bundle.
Unluckily for him, a voice ripped through his thoughts, echoing across the field like a ship’s foghorn in the dead of night. His partner sounded out of breath almost as if they’d run a whole marathon before making it to where they were now, stomping around where Euijoo was previously tiptoeing. He hopes he doesn’t trample too many of the wildflowers, they were too pretty to be squashed into the ground like that.
“Euijoo? Juju? Where did you go?” Nicholas called, his voice surprisingly loud for someone who just woke up from a two hour long nap in the back of the car. Usually Nicholas would spend his mornings barely moving, forcing Euijoo to practically yank him out of bed in a desperate final plea to make it to their early morning lecture on time.
Euijoo smiles cheekily. Thinking back on it now, perhaps it’s time to play a little prank on him, just for the fun of it. If Nicholas made him suffer through all of those early mornings to wrangle him out of bed, then Euijoo found nothing wrong in instigating a little game of cat and mouse. Nicholas would thank him in the end for making him run a little, anyway, after being curled up into a human ball for hours on end. It would help him stretch his legs, if anything.
Euijoo placed his wildflowers back down on the dirt as he pulled his legs into a crouch. He’s still hidden like this, his head perfectly level with some of the mid-height yellow flowers directly to his left, so he has no trouble in projecting his voice upward through the leaves and brush, letting the breeze blowing above carry it to his beloved.
“Wang Yixiang!” He shouted, pausing to listen for any form of response. The heavy footsteps he could hear second before slow to a stop, but other than that, there’s no attempt to shout back. How disappointing. Euijoo would have thought Nicholas to be more of the competitive type than one who preferred to watch from the sidelines, but it’s no matter. He knew how to get him to work.
He took another deep breath, preparing his voice for another unorthodox, out of his vocal range, shout, when a shadow appeared in his peripheral view, rapidly approaching like a snake to its prey. Well, he doesn’t look that scary; his pink hair makes him look a lot more angelic than demonic, but Euijoo digressed. Instead of the words he’d originally planned for his little game, the only thing that escapes his mouth is a strangled string of curses as he shoots up his feet, dashing in the opposite direction of where he’s sure Nicholas is giving chase.
Euijoo supposed that he was lucky that he saw Nicholas when he did. His boyfriend was quite athletic, having done sports that required a much higher level of athleticism than fencing ever required from Euijoo, so if he had seen him even just a few seconds later, Nicholas would have caught him right around the waist. Now, that wasn’t to say that Euijoo didn’t enjoy being held like that–he couldn’t count the amount of time he’d fallen asleep in Nicholas’ arms in their shared dorm room–but it wasn’t really what he was going for at the moment.
Right now it only mattered that Euijoo knew how to run, and fast. In their little game of tag, Euijoo was absolutely the one at a disadvantage, having been the one driving for most of the time they were in the car and absolutely not near as well rested as Nicholas was, but still he gave it his best, laughing between gasps for air as he sprinted through flowers tall and small. There was no telling how strange they looked–Euijoo giggles a little at the use of the word strange, the word having taken on another meaning after a slightly drunken midnight bout of craziness and an obnoxious amount of rosy pink blush in the artificial golden light–two grown men with unnatural colors in their hair, chasing each other around in a watercolor display of wildflowers.
They ran each other in circles, using the flowers between them as shields before dashing off to the next bunch like little kids on the playground around the metal diggers and seesaws. Euijoo didn’t exactly know how he did it, but he managed to avoid Nicholas for a good long while, dancing out of his grasp seconds before Nicholas’ hands could close in on him. The flowers around them seem to dance along with him, swaying in the breeze as the two of them blow by, crushing clovers and weeds alike beneath their sneakers.
Of course, they can’t run for long. Euijoo took one glance over his shoulder to gauge exactly how far Nicholas was from him, and then they were both rocketing to the ground, the leaves and roots of the plants enveloping them as they crashed. Soil coated Euijoo’s arms as they slid to a stop, one of Nicholas’ hands beneath his head while the other wrapped around his waist to ensure they didn’t land too harshly.
“Shit, are you okay?” Nicholas asked, his eyes wide in concern. He was quick to climb off of Euijoo’s chest, scrambling back as if the very sight of Euijoo under him physically burned him. Euijoo blinked back in response, trying to regain his breath after practically running for his life and then getting the wind knocked out of him, but it only seemed to make Nicholas more worried, his hands floating all around Euijoo’s body to check for imaginary injuries. “Euijoo. Byun Euijoo, are you still with me? Blink twice for yes and don’t blink for no–”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Euijoo interrupted, laughing a little as he reached for the hand closest to his own. He interlaced their fingers as easily as ever, slotting their fingers together like puzzle pieces and pulling Nicholas close. “It was really fun, playing around like that.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nicholas nods, the smallest of all frowns appearing on his lips. He swung their hands in the air, batting at the flowers closest to them as if they had personally done them wrong. “But people don’t usually stop in the middle of running full speed either, Juju. That was dangerous.”
“Please, I can handle getting tackled every once in a while.” And, in reality, it was true. Euijoo wasn’t feeling all that different. After the initial shock of getting taken down like a rugby athlete, the only thing that remains in Euijoo’s system is the slightly hysteric need to laugh, and some excess adrenaline that manifests in his shaking hands and stuttered breathing.
Maybe it was the way Nicholas was looking at him, all worried and scared, or maybe it was a side effect of him using up all of his energy in their earlier chase, but Euijoo was in top shape, if not a little shaky. Damn, if he was this exhausted after simply running, then he really should have taken up Fuma’s offer to go to the gym. He probably needed it after being holed up in his room for so long, anyway.
“If you say so.” The frown on Nicholas’ face never truly went away, but Euijoo was happy to see a bit of a smile begin to pierce through the boy’s naturally pouty lips. He scooted closer to Euijoo, resting his head on Euijoo’s shoulder as the wind blew around them once more, cooling them off from their less than civil escapades.
Silence falls over them, and Euijoo casts his eyes up to the sky. It was a bit hard to focus on the blue, with the sun doing its best to provide light to the world below, but Euijoo squinted at the passing clouds with determination to win. He vaguely remembers the weather forecast for today being partly cloudy–thank you Nicholas for turning on the TV at ass o’ clock in the morning–but it doesn’t seem very partly cloudy at the moment. In fact, the sky is nearly clear, the clouds reduced to mere wisps of white against the vibrant blue.
It reminded Euijoo a bit of the sea he’d seen as a child, walking close to his mother as they toured the Busan shorelines. The water then had been cold to the touch, washing over his ankles in gentle waves, but even then it was still the purest shade of blue Euijoo had ever seen. From the deep water out in the distance to the waves that pushed lines of white foam over the beach’s shores, it was beautiful. Even now as a grown adult, far away from the Busan beaches, he wished he could see it again, wished that he could bring Nicholas along to show off the beauty that he’d seen, to show him all of the places Euijoo had loved, to one day be shown the places Nicholas had loved, and learning to love them just as much as hi lover did.
A gentle rustling drew Euijoo’s attention away from the royal blue above, forcing him to blink the sunspots out of his eyes when he looked back down at the ground. Nicholas is still leaning most of his weight on Euijoo’s side, but his hands had long let go of Euijoo’s own, leaving them a little cold compared to the overwhelming warmth that spread through Euijoo’s chest when they were interlaced, palm to palm. His head was also no longer on his shoulder, gently knocking against Euijoo’s own whenever Nicholas had to get a different angle of…whatever he was making.
Instead of holding Euijoo’s hand, Nicholas seemed to be occupied with a handful of flower stems, weaving them in one by one. Each flower was a different size, a different color, but that didn’t stop him from adding more and more to his amalgamation, eventually creating small clusters along long strings of stems.
“What’re you making?” Euijoo asked, curiosity taking his full attention as Nicholas weaved in another white flower, squeezing it between two larger purple blooms. The stems were beginning to curl now, turning in to face itself instead of flaring out like Euijoo was expecting. “Nicho?”
Nicholas held up a hand in response, apparently too deep into crafting to even formulate a response to Euijoo’s question. His full focus was on the fragile thing in his hands, and if Euijoo truly wanted to get Nicholas’ attention, he knew that all he would have to do was ask. But it felt wrong to pull the boy from the task he’s roped himself into, something that he was spending so much time to make perfect despite the amount of snapped flowers that were beginning to pile up at his feet.
Oh well, Euijoo was content to simply watch anyway.
Euijoo didn’t know when Nicholas deemed his creation wearable, but within the next few minutes, Euijoo was alerted to his boyfriend reaching up past his face, gently placing his creation on the crown of his head. The flowers weighed almost nothing when placed on his head, only heavy enough to press down the stray pieces of hair that flicked upward in the wind, but still it felt a little strange to have something weighing down his head, even if only by mere milligrams.
“How do I look?” Euijoo asked cheekily, bringing up his hands in a flower shape beneath his chin while Nicholas looked on. He was staring, hard, and it only served to make Euijoo laugh, taking in the stunned look in Nicholas’ eyes. “Does the purple and white clash with the red in my hair?”
“No.” Nicholas said, almost a little too fast with his honesty. He reached up once more, turning the creation to face a different cluster of flowers outward. There was something so gentle about him, the slow way he lifts the flowers up, the focus on his face as he turns it around, and then way his eyes raked over Euijoo’s face when the flowers were settled in the exact way he wanted; it’s almost too much for Euijoo’s overflowing heart to handle.
Nicholas looked at him as if he hung the stars up in the sky. He looked at Euijoo as if he were one of the statues ripped out of Ancient Greece, his eyes filled with adoration and wonder and enough love to knock down the strongest of barriers. The way his hands come to rest over Euijoo’s cheeks, brushing away the stray pieces of hair that fly into his face from the wind, cradling his face as if it were the same as a flower’s petals, fragile and so, so pretty.
“You’re beautiful.” Nicholas whispered, that infuriatingly soft, lovelorn smile taking its place back over his face. He took another step forward, the space between them no longer existent as Nicholas closed in. “So beautiful, Euijoo.”
Euijoo can feel his face light up, whether in embarrassment or whatever he doesn’t particularly know. He attempted to turn his face away, a little too embarrassed to be standing there while Nicholas was looking at him as if he were the most expensive painting at a museum's auction. “Stop that.”
“Hm, you know how pretty you are.” Nicholas teased, and when Euijoo turned his head back around to face him, Nicholas was already looking him in the eye, patiently waiting for Euijoo’s response. “Come on, pretty boy. Can’t you offer me one kiss, spare me one of those life sucking, skin tingling—ack!“
Nicholas tasted like strawberries, something Euijoo had discovered long ago when they were first getting together, sharing kisses in the shadows of the alleyways between classes. It was a byproduct of the strawberry lip balm he always carried around—of which he was planning to throw away after so many years of using it—but Euijoo had loved it so much that Nicholas just never changed it out. He kept buying the same tube, the same artificially flavored strawberry, over and over again just so Euijoo could keep tasting it on his lips.
That wasn’t to say that Euijoo didn’t like kissing Nicholas without the lip balm, though. He loved kissing Nicholas, from the early morning risings to the late night dates along the walking path, Euijoo would always enjoy the sensation of his Nicholas’ soft lips on his own.
He would always take the chance to lace his fingers through the hair at the base of his neck that just kept getting longer and longer—the soft sighs that fanned over his face, the cute way Nicholas had to tiptoe whenever Euijoo’s shoes were just a little too high, the newfound push and pull of their lips together when they’re sitting side by side like this, Nicholas crawling close, almost in Euijoo’s lap—Euijoo can’t help but desire it all and more. He would want and want until Nicholas had no more to give, lips swollen and hair mussed up into a mess.
“Ah, it’s crooked.” The boy of Euijoo’s everlasting affections pouted, running a hand through his own hair before he readjusted the flowers on Euijoo’s head. “I should’ve brought some pins or something to keep the crown in place.”
Euijoo blinked, reaching up and feeling the flower crown atop his head. There was nothing to secure it down to Euijoo’s head, yes, but then again, Euijoo wasn’t exactly planning on doing any extreme movement anytime soon—not when something so precious was still atop his head, anyway.
“Wait, did you make one for yourself?” Euijoo asked, looking all around them for a hint of a similar circlet like his own. And when none appeared, he turned back to a rather embarrassed looking Nicholas. “You didn’t, did you?”
“They take a long time.” Nicholas tried to appeal, holding up his hands in surrender. He didn’t look very convincing, at least not after all that running and heat exhaustion. “I wanted you to have one, anyway.”
“Wait—wait a second.” Euijoo held up a hand, reaching down and plucking a handful of purples and whites. The flowers easily come together in his palm, creating a small bunch in less than a minute.
He could feel Nicholas hovering over his shoulder as he added more flowers, picking another few whites to break up the clusters of big purple blooms at the very center, and didn’t hesitate to drop another kiss on the boy’s lips as he worked in tying it all together. The red of Nicholas’ ears made it worth it, after all.
“There, now we match.” Euijoo smiled, tucking the bundle behind Nicholas’ ear. The pink of his hair shined in the sun, perfectly complimenting the smattering of purple and white Euijoo had forced together.
The wind was kind today, Euijoo mused, taking in the breeze that fixed the mess of Nicholas’s hair. Some of the stands mix with the blooms, creating a pretty mix of pink, purple, and white that made Euijoo heart yearn like a high schooler all over again. “Cute.”
“Please, you’re cuter.” Nicholas retorted, waving his hand in the air. And Euijoo is content. His heart is full with a warmth that he never knew could fill his chest, overflowing to the very tips of his fingers, and the soles of his feet.
They stay there for just a bit longer, letting the sun travel a little more over the sky before they eventually have to set off again. Euijoo laughs at the purple stains on Nicholas’ white t-shirt—and Nicholas returns the favor by pointing out the yellow stains on the hemline of Euijoo’s shorts.
A road trip was never in Euijoo’s plans after exams, but now as Nicholas drives away from the field, flower crown perched on the dashboard and flower bundle still stuck behind his ear, Euijoo can only think of the warmth that was yet to come. The outside world was nothing scary, not when Nicholas was at his side, ready to help him through any hardship he should ever have the luck to encounter.
He loved Nicholas, and Nicholas loved him back. And for Byun Euijoo, that was enough.