Chapter Text
It was late at night, too early in the morning.
Tonight—today, the stars shined joyfully from above. Clouds giving way for the night to be lit up with bright dots along with a large grey orb casting it's glow upon Earth, the shadows formed from the subtle touch of the everlasting night within the lonely streets of Seoul danced along with the hushed whispers of the midnight breeze, humid air ghosting on his damp skin.
"Fuck summer." Pants filed from his chapped lips, heaving his suitcase up the slope and to his apartment complex, the rolls of his suitcase rumbling against the jagged surface of the cement.
Besides the swift race of the midnight's cold touch passing by in hushed murmurs, the random ruckus of objects getting slightly moved, fallen from high surface, or just a couple cats fighting in a random alleyway, a dog barking inside someone's apartment presumably caused by the arrival of it's owner, even a couple arguing behind the mesh curtains on the third floor of the building he just passed, their location failed to be hidden as a warm lamp lit up their room and their shadows had danced through the windows.
All of these within the duration of this lonely evening, or dawn, perhaps? He doesn't know, nor is he eager to know how much time to sleep he has left before the school bell rings.
The soft humming of the small tires reverberated across the town disturbingly so, Seungmin wanted to go hide in a narrow corner and melt into a puddle on the side of the road so that stray cats could lick from his liquid sorrows. He would be joyful that something can benefit from his suffering.
"Fuck this, fuck you!" He points to the bird minding his own business, peacefully chirping by the railings before Seungmin startles the poor animal away.
Yeah, fuck this!
God should've put up a warning on the gates that led to this hell stimulator when he made us live life.
Feet leading him up to his apartment complex's glass doors from the PWD lane beside the stairs because...well, it's easier to go up into a building with a suitcase that way. Seungmin would thank god for the disabled, unfortunately he's an atheist.
Entering the already open elevator with his head ducked down, the faint scent of smoke lingers in the air, resulting in him scrunching his nose and puffing out what he inhaled, as if it would completely filter out the smell. Angrily staring at the ground and grumbling about how he needs new shoes, new pants, a new suit case, a new pair of lungs, a new pair of eyes, and heck he needs a new life!
Without missing a beat he tries to stab the numbers of his floor, lips tugged into a pout as he misses the buttons entirely. Leaning closer to see the buttons clearly without the help of his glasses in this low lighting, sighing as he shakes his head at the economy.
Didn't this country have a glow up? Ugh! Even the lightbulb can't keep up with the requirements.
Frown deepened as he squinted at the numbers. Moving aside so that his shadow doesn't cover the numbers, he bumps into a tall obstacle in the middle of the elevator. Before knows it, he hears a yelp and the sound of ice cream plopping down the floor beside his fat ass.
"Fuck me." He mutters, twisting his body to stare up the tall obstacle, his face drops comically. Meeting the kind gaze of a set of happy eyes and a friendly smile offered to him, Seungmin finds himself with a loose jaw, losing himself under the presence of the epitome of ethereal. Straight from the depths of hell, coming to take his body and extract his soul like vanilla.
Why? Because angels don't look beautiful. They're genuinely horrendous, I'm talking about the biblically accurate ones. Look it up, I'm not kidding. Lips moving as he tries to find the right words, but none came out. Trapped under the gaze brimmed with innocent fondness, all Seungmin can think of was... damn.
Sandy strands frame the stranger's face, falling from where the stranger tucked them behind. Rebellious in nature, he wonders if the man was like that too. Waving a hand at him, bitten lips move so swiftly, so goddamn pretty. Sucking his dick dry right then and there sounds so illegal, Seungmin compares it to molesting a statue.
"Hey..?" Another wave, this man is really gracing him with his presence. Is he trying to say hi? Is he trying to get a high-five? Is he trying to take Seungmin to bed by flaunting his veiny hands? Who knows.. who knows?
"Are you okay bro?" Bro? You fucking straight man, get away from me!
Snapping out his gawking trance, Seungmin blinks slowly as the man crouches down to his level. A hint of tangy tartness mashed with sweet caramel slithering past Seungmin's sensitive nose and fogging his sense of dignity, strawberries, he deems. Smiling ear to ear at him like he's some idiot he can easily hypnotize, no, that man is the idiot for being so breathtaking for no reason, that's just stupid. His kindness must be fraudulent, a beauty like that cannot have goodness inside him, Seungmin refuses to believe otherwise.
Is this the part where I skedaddle my way into the abyss?
"I, uh.. I didn't know someone was here with me." Hands twitching on his sides, all Seungmin wanted was to peel his skin and yank his skull out along with his spinal cord.
"Sorry about that.. let me get you a new one right away." Finger pointing to the smashed scoops of what he assumes is strawberry ice cream on the floor, cringing as he squints to see it properly, eyes darting everywhere but the stranger's eyes that were trained on him, avoiding the burning gaze that melted Seungmin inside out, ears radiating a beautiful, glowing, shade of red.
"Sure, sweet thing, but first you gotta get up." The man replied, standing up and lending his hand to Seungmin, and who was he to deny holding a god's hand?
"You new here?" The man asks as Seungmin proceeds to patting off the dust from his pants, that elevator's a naWzSTy bitch.
"Oh yeah, just moving in."
"Me too! I just moved in a few weeks ago, and I'm still adjusting to the place." Seungmin chuckles at that, before putting on his serious face, he steps closer (not close enough to invade the man's personal space but enough to satisfy Seungmin's craving for being close to him) to the man and whispers a question.
"Be honest, does this place have ghosts?"
"Depends, do you mean the cries of a woman howling as her lover bangs her passionately at three in that morning or are we talking about supernatural shit?"
"I meant the supernatural shit but how are you holding up? Personally, as an atheist, I would probably learn the rosary just to knock on their door with a cross and recite that every night until I successfully exorcise them from this place." Oh no, he's over sharing again. Welp.
"Heeeeeeell yeah! If I had a choice I would've picked a better apartment, but this place was the only one that fit my budget since being an art major is really expensive, unsurprisingly." How does this dude have so much energy at two am? I feel like he's about to burst into confetti any second now.
They keep chatting along the way to the convenience store, Seungmin doing most of the yapping, a wide grin stretches his pink lips, replacing his usual pout. That man will laugh at anything you tell him, he even laughed at the way Seungmin walked and the boy didn't know whether he was fascinated or offended. For a second he panics, remembering that he left his suitcase on the nasty elevator floor but the man softly assures him by laughing and showing his left hand, where Seungmin's suitcase was.
Apologizing for having to trouble the man, trying to snatch the suitcase back but the man tsked at him and blocked the poor puppy like he would while guarding a b-ball. In defeat, Seungmin offers to buy more than just ice cream out of gratitude, the blonde just shakes his head and laughs it off. "Don't worry about it, you've already paid my service with your pretty smile."
Hmmmm, bro's acting suspicious.
They enter the convenience store with a polite greeting, walking directly towards the ice cream aisle. Seungmin scratches his nape as he awkwardly stares at the blonde, who was busy gaping at the ice cream options as if he wasn't there a few minutes before a gorgeous brunet accidentally bumped his ice cream off of his grip. Seungmin attempts to stifle a giggle to himself, unaware of how the blond had changed the subject of his adoration, eyes glimmering as he takes in a brief second of the brunet giggling while drenched in the baby blue hue of the glass top freezer.
Flinching back to the ice cream options as the brunet meets his eyes for a split second, nodding to himself and pretending to point to different flavors and judging which one would be great. Mumbling nonsense, "Yeah, that's a good one, oh but thi—this one's good too! Oh! Cookies with cream! Woah!"
Seungmin, not noticing, yawns and scrunches his nose. The blond physically restrains himself from whipping his head around, trembling knuckles turning pale on the sides of the fridge as Seungmin has another yawn filing out of his pink lips, grateful to see the phenomenon through the reflection on the glass.
"Take anything you want," Seungmin says mindlessly, already tired from travelling from his home town. The blond takes a while to pick a flavor, arguing how he must find a flavor he really desires to devour. Seungmin can't argue with that, if it's free food he'd pick the best flavor too.
They place three different ice cream flavors on the counter, two for the blond man since he can't choose between the two and Seungmin would rather spend more money than to stand for another hour watching the man stress over what tasted better, and he also took a mint cho' for himself, man loves ruining his sensitive throat. Seungmin pays with his card, they leave the store with a tired Seungmin and a beaming blond carrying the paper bag containing the ice cream that's slowly melting the paper as the sudden temperature change from the shivering AC of the store to the damp night air introduces itself, he hauls the suitcase behind him all while holding a strawberry cone for himself to snack on.
The walk back was peaceful, Seungmin humming to a song he heard a long time ago. The blond, surprisingly quiet, strolls beside him with a soft lift on the edges of his plump lips, subtly leaning closer to listening to the brunet's voice.
"Here," The dude hands a confused Seungmin a folded piece of paper after they reach the elevator and punch in their floor number. Eyeing the blond, Seungmin unfolds the paper only to see the stranger's number on the crumpled material, he chuckles, simpering at the man, feigning confusion.
A smug grin braced his lips, saying, "Call me when you need anything."
Seungmin no, he probably just wants a new friend.
After typing in "bro (could've been my ho)🧍🏻" as his contact name and making sure he had the number on his favorites, glancing up to catch the man averting his gaze after obviously gaping at him.
"Here's mine." Handing him his phone, showing him his number. Seungmin grins as the man starts to palm his gray sweat pants and takes his phone out, the smirk no more as it was replaced with a shy smile on his plush lips, typing the digits into his contacts with much excitement.
"Do you always carry this around?" Waving the piece of paper, a mocking look greets the stranger as he looks up from his phone.
"Nope! But I had the feeling I'd need it today. You know, in case I meet some cute boy along the way."
Cute boy? That's very gay, bro.
Before Seungmin could respond, the elevator dinged. Staring at each other with small smiles and nods, the man hands him his suitcase and paper bag. It took him a second to process that he never asked for his name, so with sleepy courage he blurted out, fluttering his tired eyes toward the blond man. "Don't you have a name I can call you by?"
"Oh! Forgot I didn't tell you my name, I'm Hyunjin by the way, Hwang Hyunjin. I'm a 2000's baby." Nice, a 2000's baby, maybe I can be your baby.
Ew, what the fuck?
"Well, Hyung, nice to meet you, I'm Kim Seungmin."
"See you around!"
Metals doors slowly inching closer to a shut, the man, Hyunjin, apparently. Hyunjin salutes him with two fingers and ducks to tap his floor onto the buttons, winking at the last possible moment, Seungmin stood there speechless.
And just like that, the humble scent of strawberries and cigarettes fade out as the elevator lowers down. Sleepily gazing as the numbers reduce. Down, down, down. Halting on three.
Oh?
Seungmin ignores that funny twist in his stomach.
Unlocking his door after fumbling a couple times with his keys, as soon as he gets in he kicks off his shoes and places them on the side, he can't sleep with the thought of a dirty entrance. Tossing the paper bag with ice cream in the fridge mindlessly, he waddles to the supposed living room. The flat was fairly empty, besides the things he already shipped here, he takes out a futon and a pillow from one of his boxes and bags, and knocks out as soon as he hits the makeshift bed.