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Hyeongjun has his head tilted back, nearly done emptying his bottle when a firm hand suddenly wraps around his wrist and tugs him to the side, making him spill the rest of his beer all down his chin and neck.
He splutters on his drink and wildly wipes at the wetness on his face. The room spins, and it takes a moment for his vision to stop rocking so he can see who is clinging to his wrist.
Unsurprisingly, Jooyeon is clamped onto him, a crazy grin on his face and the neck of his own nearly-empty bottle clutched in his hand. Hyeongjun blinks, surprised that Jooyeon actually decided to drink tonight—he usually declines alcohol because he’s too picky and hates the taste, but maybe the ambiance encouraged him tonight. He sways on his feet, looking equally as drunk as Hyeongjun, and tugs him again in his direction.
“Follow me!” he shouts over the noise of the speakers blaring a gritty, guitar-heavy rock track, courtesy of the band on stage at the venue they’ve found themselves in.
Venue is a generous way to put it. They’re in Jooyeon’s hometown—well, sort of, they’re on the outskirts of Daegu, bordering on the countryside. Their band has been picking up traction online, but they still struggle to get their foot in the door of a music scene as oversaturated as Seoul’s. They’re here due to one of Jooyeon’s former classmates—he had promised them a stage and a crowd if he ever wanted to come back for a visit, and that is how Hyeongjun found himself performing in a crumbling, defunct power plant on the edge of town, nothing more than towering brick walls and arched windows encasing them. Jooyeon’s friend apparently has connections with other bands local to Daegu as well, and what Hyeongjun assumed would be an impromptu performance has become nothing short of a proper concert, with dozens of people crammed into the abandoned building. Their own set had ended an hour prior, so Hyeongjun had found himself a drink or two—or five—and let his body thrum to the music with an even drunker Seungmin attached to his hip, dancing alongside him.
Hyeongjun jolts as Jooyeon yanks him again, nearly sending Hyeongjun crashing into him. He shouts a complaint that Jooyeon either doesn’t hear or doesn’t care about, and then he’s being dragged through the throng of sweaty bodies and out into the cool night air.
Jooyeon giggles like a kid as they make it outside. His body sways and he has to catch himself on the brick facade of the building, yet his beer is still clutched in his hand, not having spilled somehow. It seems like Jooyeon is suddenly reminded of its existence as he looks down at the bottle in his hand before clumsily bringing it to his lips and tilting his head back, swallowing the last of the liquid left in the bottle. Some dribbles past his lips with his lack of coordination, trailing down his neck and soaking into the collar of his shirt.
Body loose and full of energy from the music, Hyeongjun laughs and gives Jooyeon a shove.
“Why are we out here?”
“C’mon, I wanna show you something!” Jooyeon is already scampering away, speaking over his shoulder and gesturing for Hyeongjun to follow.
Begrudgingly, Hyeongjun follows in suit, jogging to catch up with Jooyeon’s long strides. They follow the wall of the building and round the corner, and it’s so dark Hyeongjun has to fish his phone out of his pocket and turn on the flashlight just so he doesn’t misstep and eat shit. Jooyeon is unbothered, crunching gravel and bottle caps beneath his beat-up boots, walking confidently to God knows where.
Finally, Jooyeon stops abruptly, making Hyeongjun almost crash into him once more. There is a ladder that leads to the roof of the building, made of wrought iron and screws so rusted that Hyeongjun fears they’d crumble under the slightest pressure. Jooyeon clings to a rung of the ladder and grins at him.
With his flashlight still on and pointed to the ground, Jooyeon’s face is uplit in cold, white LED, like a kid telling a ghost story. But even the stark shadows on his face are unable to make his bright smile look scary. Jooyeon can give off a serious or even angry vibe when he’s on stage, but he doesn’t scare Hyeongjun, especially not like this.
“You want me to climb that?” Hyeongjun asks incredulously, words slurred. Not only are the both of them intoxicated, Hyeongjun seriously fears the ladder is compromised. It doesn’t appear in good shape.
“I’ve been up and down this thing a million times, you’ll be fine!”
Hyeongjun eyes him warily. “Okay, but like, when were you climbing this thing? Back when you were still in high school?”
Jooyeon laughs awkwardly, drawing lines with the toe of his boot in the dirt. “Uh, kinda, but I swear you’ll be fine! Here, you go first, I’ll wait for you to get to the top and catch you if you fall.”
Hyeongjun cranes his head upwards. The building is tall, the ladder ascends way up, and he’s drunk off his ass, but he has done far stupider things in his life, and Hyeongjun is anything but a quitter. Steeling himself, he grabs onto a rung at eye-level, and steps up onto the ladder. It creaks under his weight and he swears under his breath, but Jooyeon just cheers him on.
He’s thankful that he chose to wear gloves tonight, because even if they’re cut off at the fingers, they’re still protecting his palms from the dirty metal of the rungs. He does not want a tetanus shot in his future.
Hyeongjun sways on his feet when he starts to climb, breath hitching in his throat. The ladder is sturdier than anticipated, which is a relief, but it doesn’t change the fact he’s had plenty to drink tonight. Staring at the crumbling mortar between the bricks, he wills the world to stop spinning, and then continues ascending.
When he gets halfway up, he suddenly feels the ladder jostling beneath him, making him jump and cry out.
Jooyeon’s voice comes from below. “Chill, I’m just coming up behind you!”
“You couldn’t have waited till I got to the top?” Hyeongjun argues, voice shrill. Eager to not have the weight of two grown men on a disintegrating ladder, he quickens his pace and clambers his way up to the rooftop with little grace.
The view of the deserted rooftop that greets him is littered with cigarette butts, beer bottles, and graffiti. Classy.
Hyeongjun slumps to the ground cross-legged and waits for Jooyeon to join him. The bass of the ongoing concert can be felt even up here, vibrating the roof beneath him, but the sound is muffled just enough to allow him to hear the buzz of cicadas.
Jooyeon eventually peeks his head over the lip of the roof, then pulls himself the rest of the way up the ladder. He gazes across the roof, taking in the mess, and bites his lower lip.
“Y’know, it used to be cleaner than this…” he mutters.
Hyeongjun laughs at him. It’s probably been more than five years since Jooyeon has been here, and there’s no doubt all the teens after him have used this as their hangout spot too, but he still seems dejected at the fact it has been trashed. He kicks a seltzer can out of the way and sits down next to Hyeongjun.
“Why are we up here?” Hyeongjun complains, dusting the dirt off his gloves on his pants.
“Someone was talking about the rooftop and I realized I haven’t been up here in forever. I wanted one of you guys to come with and you were the first one I saw.”
Hyeongjun hums and stares at the ground. He’s fairly certain that Jooyeon and Jiseok had been mingling with some strangers together just minutes before he had been swept away. Wouldn’t he have just taken Jiseok along?
Jooyeon’s knee is bouncing, and when he makes eye contact with Hyeongjun, he grins an uneasy smile. Hyeongjun frowns. He wonders if Jooyeon had taken a hit of something—he always ends up anxious and weird with weed in his system.
“It’s nice,” he says, which makes Jooyeon snort out a laugh and hang his head.
“You don’t have to lie, I know it looks terrible,” he whines. “Kids these days don’t know how to take care of their surroundings…”
Hyeongjun smiles incredulously. Jooyeon, only 22, complaining about today’s kids.
They sit in silence for a minute or two. Hyeongjun looks out on the forest and field surrounding them, watching as people drunkenly stumble to and from the building. He’s not looking at Jooyeon but he can still tell that he’s bouncing his leg from the shuffle of his clothes.
“Oh!” Jooyeon perks up as if he just remembered something. “I almost forgot!”
He suddenly reclines back, laying flat on the concrete roof, probably crushing a snack wrapper and cigarette butt while he’s at it. Hyeongjun looks at him, perplexed.
“Lay down, you can see the stars really well out here.”
After brushing dust and litter away, Hyeongjun lays down next to Jooyeon with little space between them. Jooyeon was right—with them being so far out from the city, the light pollution isn’t nearly as bad, and Hyeongjun can see far more stars than he has ever seen in Seoul. Or it could be the fact his vision keeps rubber-banding, head spinning with intoxication, that he sees double.
“Pretty,” Hyeongjun says. He means it this time, the stars are stunning. It makes him wish he could see them this clearly all of the time. He wonders how often Jooyeon did this when he was younger—if he stargazed with friends or just by himself. It’s peaceful, and Hyeongjun wouldn’t mind being out here alone, without a party raging beneath them. Or being out here with just Jooyeon.
The wind crests across the top of the building, and he feels Jooyeon shiver next to him.
“Are you cold? We can go back inside if you want,” Hyeongjun offers, turning to look at him.
Jooyeon, panicked, quickly shuts him down. “No! No, I like it up here. I’m not cold.”
Shrugging, Hyeongjun turns his head to the sky again. He tries to make out the constellations he once memorized when he was back in middle school, when he spent all of his time alone with his nose in a book so he didn’t have to talk to people. He’s in the middle of trying to locate Ursa Major when he feels something touching his hand, the feeling diminished slightly by his fingerless gloves. Looking down, he watches just in time as Jooyeon presses his palm to Hyeongjun’s, linking their fingers together.
Ah. This makes sense now.
Jooyeon doesn’t look at him, doesn’t move, Hyeongjun wonders if he’s even breathing, and just keeps staring above. The corners of Hyeongjun’s mouth curve up at how silly Jooyeon is.
He had a feeling this was coming. The more of himself Hyeongjun chose to share, the closer Jooyeon got, the further he crawled his way in. As much as he tries to be nonchalant and cool, Hyeongjun has had an inkling that he flusters Jooyeon, that he wants to get even closer but fears Hyeongjun’s guarded nature, and he can’t say that he blames him. He knows Jooyeon likes him, and has known for a while, but never wanted to admit it to himself. Hyeongjun struggles when people get too close, when things get too real.
Jooyeon hasn’t looked Hyeongjun’s way once, but their fingers are still interlocked. Hyeongjun squeezes his hand and finally he meets his gaze.
“Hey,” Hyeongjun whispers.
“Hi.” Jooyeon looks terrified.
“Are you gonna kiss me, or did you just bring me up here to hold my hand?”
Jooyeon’s eyes widen. His expression is so funny that Hyeongjun can’t hold himself back from laughing.
“Did—Are you, like—Do you want me to kiss you?” he stutters.
Hyeongjun rolls over, an elbow propped beneath him as he rests on his side and looks down at Jooyeon, still wearing that nervous expression.
Is it bad that Hyeongjun isn’t nervous? Shouldn’t he be feeling butterflies? He can’t determine what he’s feeling, but he peers at Jooyeon’s parted lips and decides that yeah, he does want to kiss him.
In lieu of a verbal response, Hyeongjun leans down and presses their lips together. Jooyeon squeaks and tenses beneath him, but when Hyeongjun threads their fingers together again, he relaxes into the kiss, finally reciprocating.
Jooyeon’s body is warm pressed against his own, and his lips taste like alcohol. Maybe Jooyeon can taste the beer on his own tongue. If he dislikes the taste, he doesn’t voice it, and just swallows down Hyeongjun’s kisses. Perhaps this is why Jooyeon chose to drink tonight—for liquid courage.
A warm hand winds around his neck and cups the back of his head, fingers threading into Hyeongjun’s coarse, bleached-three-times-over hair. He sighs into Jooyeon’s mouth, body going lax atop him, one hand linked with Jooyeon’s and the other clutching the lapel of his jacket. The roar of the music below isn’t enough to silence the smack of their lips. Hyeongjun drinks in all of Jooyeon’s little noises between them.
Feeling bold, Hyeongjun snakes his hand down Jooyeon’s torso and finds the hem of his shirt, dipping his fingers underneath to touch the bare skin of his abdomen. The other man shudders beneath him and pushes up into his touch, then quickly reigns himself back in and gives an embarrassed whine. The booze has loosened Jooyeon up a little too much.
Hyeongjun pulls back to get a good look at him. Jooyeon’s platinum hair is haloed around his head, his eyes half-lidded and dazed, and he’s sure that if the moonlight was just a bit brighter, he’d be able to make out some pink on his cheeks.
He leans back in to press kisses to Jooyeon’s jawline, relishing in the way he causes his breath to hitch. Wet, open-mouthed kisses trail down Jooyeon’s neck, and Hyeongjun can feel his throat bob beneath him when he swallows heavily at the sensation. Jooyeon is just so cute, and Hyeongjun feels so powerful for having the ability to render him to such a state.
Little unbidden noises escape Jooyeon’s mouth and increase in frequency when Hyeongjun brings his teeth out, biting the elastic skin of his throat. He’s eager to take the flesh between his lips and leave a pretty mark on Jooyeon, but his head is suddenly pushed back, and he sits up on his elbows above Jooyeon and quirks his head.
“No marks…” Jooyeon’s voice is quiet and breathless. “I don’t want the others asking questions.”
Hyeongjun just shrugs and slumps down, resting his head on Jooyeon’s chest. The alcohol in his system is reaching the point that makes him sleepy. He closes his eyes and lays content on top of Jooyeon.
With his head to the side and his ear pressed right to Jooyeon’s chest, he can hear his heart thundering behind his ribs. Hyeongjun bites back the urge to laugh, entirely endeared.
“Your heart is beating really fast,” he observes.
Jooyeon clutches Hyeongjun in his grasp. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my life.”
”Cute,” he replies sleepily. Yawning, Hyeongjun just curls into him further. “You’re making me feel special.”
He half expects Jooyeon to say something cringe like You are special, but he keeps mum. Hyeongjun wants to kiss him more, but he’s also quite comfy at the moment. Maybe Jooyeon will want to kiss him again when they’re sober. Maybe Hyeongjun will want that too. The cold breeze returns, raking over the both of them, but their bodies pressed flush is more than enough to keep the both of them warm.