Chapter Text
Hyunjin comes to Australia because it’s far enough away to forget himself.
That’s what he tells himself, anyway.
The flight is long, the kind that leaves his body heavy and his thoughts scattered. By the time he steps out into the warm air, it feels like he’s crossed more than an ocean. The noise in his head dulls. The constant pressure of being known and watched loosens its grip.
No one looks twice at him here.
Hyunjin doesn’t realize how tightly he’s been holding himself until he reaches the beach and finally lets his shoes drop into the sand.
---
Felix goes to the beach because it’s where his head goes quiet.
The studio is loud lately. Not with sound, but with expectations. Half-finished songs, artists who want answers Felix doesn’t have yet, melodies that hover just out of reach. The ocean doesn’t ask anything of him.
It just exists.
He kicks off his shoes and lets the sand warm his feet, eyes drifting over the shoreline out of habit.
That’s when he notices him.
The guy is sitting alone, sketchbook balanced on his knees, posture tense like he’s bracing for something that never quite arrives. There’s a stillness to him that feels out of place against the noise of the beach, like he’s trying to disappear in plain sight.
Felix watches for a moment longer than he should.
Lonely recognizes lonely.
Felix approaches without fully deciding to. The closer he gets, the clearer it becomes that the guy isn’t just drawing the ocean, he’s anchoring himself to it.
“Oh sorry,” Felix says when the guy looks up, blinking like he’s been pulled out of deep water. “Didn’t mean to block your light.”
The guy’s eyes are dark and curious and tired all at once.
---
Hyunjin looks up.
The boy standing in front of him is all sun and warmth. Blond hair bright against the sky, freckles scattered across his cheeks like constellations. He looks apologetic, smile already forming, eyes crinkling in a way that feels disarming.
He glances at Hyunjin’s sketchbook. The lines are soft but deliberate, like someone afraid of losing the image once they let it go.
“That’s really good,” The boy adds honestly.
“Thanks…” Hyunjin smiles, slightly guarded.
The boy hesitates, then crouches beside him, curiosity open and unguarded. “You draw like you’re trying to hold onto something.”
The words land heavier than Hyunjin expects.
He lets out a quiet laugh. “Is it that obvious?”
“Maybe,” the boy says gently. “But I think it’s kind of nice.”
There’s a pause. The ocean fills it easily.
“I’m Felix.” He sticks out a hand, then hesitates. “Unless you’re, like, a serial killer. Then we can pretend this never happened.”
Hyunjin takes his hand anyway. Felix’s palm is warm, calloused, grounding. “Hyunjin.”
---
They sit together, shoulders close but not touching, talking about nothing that feels important and everything that somehow is. Felix talks about the studio he works at, about music and how sound can carry memories you didn’t know you’d buried. Hyunjin listens, fascinated by the way Felix’s voice softens when he talks about things he loves.
Felix notices what Hyunjin doesn’t say. He doesn’t talk about home. Or work. Or anything that ties him to a life outside this moment. Felix doesn’t ask.
Some people need to be met where they are.
Felix asks Hyunjin what he likes. What he notices. What made him pick up a pencil instead of a camera or a phone.
Hyunjin answers honestly, because it feels easy here. Because Felix listens like he isn’t waiting for anything in return.
When the sun starts to lower, Felix stands up reluctantly. “I’m usually here around this time,” he says, pretending like he hadn't already planned it. “If you’re still around tomorrow…” he adds, hoping Hyunjin would take the invitation.
Hyunjin’s smile is soft and a little surprised. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Felix’s chest warms.
“Cool,” he says, trying to sound casual and failing just a little. “I’ll see you then.”
As Felix walks away, he doesn’t look back.
He doesn’t need to.
He can already feel it, something beginning, quiet but certain.
Later that night, Felix lies in bed staring at the ceiling, the sound of the ocean still echoing in his ears.
He doesn’t know Hyunjin’s story.
But he has the strange, steady feeling that this meeting wasn’t an accident.
And that whatever this is…
It’s going to matter.