Chapter Text
It was early evening when Seungkwan entered the lobby of his building. His coat rustled as he reached out to push the elevator button and he shuddered because he could still felt the chill of the Artic cold in the folds of his sleeve. As he trudged down the hall and entered his apartment, he thought about what he still had to do. He was bone-tired. Perhaps he could set his alarm and pack in the morning. When he opened the door, it was dark save for the white noise coming from a sound machine outside of Jeonghan's room.
After slipping off his shoes and dropping his bag by the door, he walked across the living room and drew back the curtains and peered out the window. A surprisingly powerful late February winter storm had hit in the late afternoon. Now early evening, the snow was falling heavily. The orange streetlights cast an eerie glow on the sparkling street below as the clumps of snow plopped quickly onto the already thick layers blanketing the trees, cars, street, and sidewalk. He let out a sigh, maybe his early morning flight would be canceled and he would have a reprieve from packing. His sister had already packed his suitcase so all he had to do was pack his toiletries bag. With that thought in mind, he smiled, he would be able to get a decent amount of sleep in before needing to wake up to catch his flight.
Jeonghan was staying overnight at his sister’s so Seungkwan had the place to himself. He let the curtains fall back in place and padded over to the kitchen and peered into his cupboards to see if he had rations. He had several packets of instant buckwheat noodles, a couple packets of pre-cooked brown rice, and a box of instant coffee. Opening the fridge, he surveyed its contents: several bottles of Samdasoo water, a jar of gochuchang sauce and a carton of eggs. Granted he wasn’t sure how old the eggs were but there was a test he could do, right? He visibly relaxed—he would be all right if he was snowed in tomorrow.
After taking a quick shower and brushing his teeth, he quickly put on some moisturizer, too tired to go through the rest of his night time routine. After taking one more peek out the window, he crawled into bed and snuggled into his comforter. Before he drifted off, he remembered his interaction with Mingyu after attending Mingyu’s early morning Inkigayo pre-recording of songs from his solo album. Gyu had wrapped his arm around his waist, pulled him in and gave him a little squeeze while whispering in his ear, “I'll see you soon, Jagiya.” What did he mean, Seungkwan wondered sleepily.
The only time he referred to him this way was when they were both slightly drunk and wandering the streets of Japan late at night. What did he mean by “Jagiya”? That was unusual. And what did he mean by “soon”? Mingyu was flying out tomorrow as well, heading to Europe early presumably to vacation somewhere with his same-age friends ahead of his appearance at Paris Fashion Week. Afterwards, Mingyu would have less than two weeks in Seoul before he would have to enlist. Thinking about all of this made him feel a little anxious so Seungkwan pulled up a playlist to lull himself to sleep. The soft strumming of an acoustic guitar and a soothing voice wafted over, “People scribble on my body. I too was born as a poet’s notebook, I wanted to live a dignified life . . .”