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It's hot. So hot.
The land flickers from the heat, blurring the horizon line. Few lonely dry bushes grow in the endless desert of rocks and lost hopes. This and a path, that is the only thing giving direction to a lone traveler, dragging his feet in the burning midday sun. His burnt red skin is covered in small droplets of sweat, who are shining like tiny crystals, reflecting the light. His short hair is sticking to his wet forehead. He won't last long in this hell of a place.
It has been almost two days since Seungmin last had water. Before going on this, his likely last trip, he never thought that a simple error in navigation could end up with his whole group dead. One day they're laughing of their mistake and joking about never getting out of here and dying, another day - well, everyone's actualy never leaving this desert. Almost everyone. One lucky bastard somehow managed to survive. But it doesn't look like it would be long until the latter would join his group, who now explored the neverending clear skies.
Seungmin had passed by two towns alerady. The luck must've stayed with his deceased groupmates, because no one opened the door for him, no matter how much he knocked and pleaded. The dying man didn't know if it's because the people are cautious of newcomers or if there are no people. And so, despite being exsausted and balancing on a line of life and death, he had to keep on walking.
When the sun reached it's peak, the heat probably started messing with Seungmin's head, because at the end of that sad path his eyes caught on something. The same dark silhouetes, not fitting in with the light rocky landscape. Even with his non-existen luck, he still starts running, or rather - tries to run. Stumbling, scraping his knees the desperate man reaches yet another town. First house, first few knocks, as expected - no reply. Four other houses are the same, but Seungmin doesn't lose his hope. There isn't much to do but hope right now anyways.
Alerady half of the village has been checked and still nothing. The traveller slumps down in a shade of one of the houses, huffing. His vision is getting blurry. He can't afford losing any more water from his body, but tears start streaming down his face anyways. Seungmin sobs quietly, his back pressed against the rough wood. He doesn't want his life to end like this. Miles from home, in the middle of nowhere.
Moments from his lifetime flash in his head. Running around with family's dog in their lively town. Going fishing with his brother, only to end up in the lake, giggling, splashing each other with the refreshing clear water. Learning how to ride a horse with his dad, falling into the dust but quickly getting up again, eyes shining. Getting his own horse for the fifteenth birthday and calling him Coyote. Going on his first journey with other men, having dinner under the stars. Falling in love with a beautiful girl from his town and alerady discussing future plans with her. Seungmin remembers exacly what he said back then. "Of course I want kids. Imagine little versions of us running around the village. But at the end, it's your choice, not mine. I shouldn't decide something like that, not when I'm not the one actualy carrying the child." But then, she left the town, promising the lovestruck man to come back. Now he'll never know if she did.
Finally, leaving the town for their longest trip, saying goodbye to his mother. Taking a wrong turn and ending up god knows where. First man of his group dying, just collapsing from exaustion. His father giving him the last sip of water they had, begging Seungmin to leave everyone and try to find a town, a single house - anything, that could help the young man survive. And he found - not one, not two, but three places. And it doesn't seem that any of them would help him.
Seungmin sighs, wiping his eyes. There isn't much to wipe, thought. The tears had already evaporated from the heat. As relaxing as it is to sit in the shade, there still is another half of the quiet town waiting for him to check. And so, he continues.
One house down. Two others also checked. Nothing. As he goes further and further, Seungmin begins losing his hope to find someone who could spare him some water. Three houses left. No reponse in one of them. And the other. Only one building left, the smallest of them all. The man knocks. Again and again. Not a single sound can be heard from the inside. Seungmin keeps on knocking. This can't be it. He can't go any more further. He doesn't want to die here. He desperately bangs on the wooden door, feeling the tears dwell up in his eyes again.
When he swings his fist again, the expected collision with the hard wood never comes. Instead, he falls through the space where the door was supposed to be, hitting the cold floor. With his head ringing, Seungmin looks up. A person is crouched next to him. He can't really make out the person's gender with his vision blurry from the fall, but he ultimately decides that it's a woman, judging from the long dark hair. Of course, men had long hair too, but it was more popular with women, since it protected their faces from the burning sun. Men liked hats more, they didn't get into their eyes like the hair did while riding a horse at a high speed.
"...an you hear what I'm saying?" Seungmin blinks, furrowing his brows. That doesn't sound like a woman's voice.
"Hey, c'mon, just nod if you can." The exausted man nods, feeling the dizzyness slowly going away. He tries to stand up, his mysterious savior immediatly hurries to help him. He flinches as the other person gripped his waist, steadying him. Partly because of the sore muscles, partly because the last time he had any human contact was two days ago from his dying father. With the help of the long-haired person, Seungmin sits down on a creaking chair. He is given water - a lot of water. He drinks the liquid hungrily, like his life depends on it. Probably because it actualy does.
His savior is looking at the traveller with a spark of curiosity in their eyes. It's still not clear whether that person is a woman or a man.
"You sure are thirsty, aren't you." Seungmin raises his eyes to look at the long-haired person. "You'll probably want to wash that sweat off of yourself too." They point to a big bucket in the corner. "There's the washing water. It's not very clean, but I think that it should work for you. It's pretty cold, compared to the outside temperature."
Seungmin hesitates a little before removing his sleeveless shirt, not sure if it's appropriate to do it in front of the other. His uncertainty was quickly noticed, though.
"It's okay, go on, we're both guys. There's nothing to hide. Unless you're secretly a woman, hehe." The long-haired man, it turns out, shakes his head, chuckling. "Sorry for causing the confusion. I should've indroduced myself sooner. I'm Hyeongjun. Locals call me Junhan."
"Seungmin." They shake hands, looking at each other's eyes. The eye contact doesn't last long, as the traveller quicky looks away, getting flustered from Hyeongjun's charming smile.
Another problem comes up when getting off the tight cloth. Seungmin stops halfway, wincing. The shirt scratches the burnt skin, causing immerse pain for the poor man. The sun really did its job and didn't leave not a single uncovered spot the previous colour. Lucky for him, Hyeongjun, the angel sent from heaven in the traveller's eyes, once again stands up to help.
"Hold on, let me see how we could get it off..." The space between them dissapeard as the other man steps closer, gently streching the shirt's armholes and allowing Seungmin to take out his arms without any pain. His finger's brush against the short-haired man's skin, causing the latter to shiver from the contact.
With the drenched cloth down on the floor, the sweaty man can finally rinse all of the dirt and bad memories off himself. Sure, the water is pretty warm and probably not the most fresh, but it's everything he could want right now. The water streams down his toned body, soaking into the waistband of his pants. Feeling much better now, Seungmin lets his instrusive thoughts win and fully dips his head into the bucket, shaking his hair afterwards. Only then he realises that now the walls and the floor are wet as well, getting embarassed. But the snickering behind him quickly calms his nerves.
When Seungmin turns around, he catches the other man staring at him. He follows Hyeongjun's gaze, looking down at his chest, a bit confused.
"What?"
The long-haired man tears his eyes away from the other's body. "Nothing. Just you don't see people with muscles like yours around here. Guys and women from this village can only dream about about men like you. Hey, don't give me that confused look! You're very attractive, you know!"
Seungmin crosses his arms over his bare chest, feeling his cheeks heat up from Hyeongjun's words. "You mean people here don't grow muscles from everyday jobs? Back in my town pretty much everyone has a body like mine! We do a lot of things that require physical work. Like handling horses and bringing water from the well."
"Of course we've got muscles!" The other man flexes his skinny arms, a bump appearing on the upper part. "But it's only muscles. You've got some fat too. Since the food is scarce here we eat just enough to not die from hunger. I guess back in your place you can have more than two normal meals per day."
"Yeah, I guess." Seungmin says, dipping his head. "We've got enough to feed ourselves three times a day."
"No wonder you look like that then." Hyeongjun waves his hand to the chair the traveller had previously sat in. "Come back here if you're done splashing that precious water all over my walls, we gotta take care of those nasty burns."
The process, as expected was painful. The long-haired man tried to do everything as gently as possible, but the burnt skin is extremely sensitive to any physical contact. Seungmin has pretty high pain tolerance, even higher than he had before all of this torture in the sun, but it still hurts like hell. First, water again, this time cleaner, then some special healing cream Hyeongjun found in his basement and finally, soft bandages to prevent any more bacteria from getting in. The traveller couldn't thank enough for the help, but his savior just waved his hand and smiled, saying that "it's nothing". But it really wasn't nothing for Seungmin, who is alive only because of that man.
Now, with all of the biggest problems gone, Seungmin finnaly feels the hunger. Hyeongjun is probably a mind reader, because once he's finished treating the wounds, he brings a good chunk of dried meat, some bread and two dusty bottles of beer on the table. The hungry man's eyes widen at the view of food, saliva starts collecting in his mouth. He touches one of the bottles, immediatly retracting his hand, suprised.
"Holy shit, how do you manage to keep this cold?" He asks, staring at the beer, still dumbfounded by the fact that something in a constant heat like this could still be this cool.
"I have my ways." The other smirks, slicing the meat. Soon enough, both men are feasting under a small oil lamp's light. It's a humble meal, sure, but to Seungmin it is the tastiest and the best meal he's ever eaten. After the food, it's time for the beer and trauma-dumping. Hyeongjun, being the understanding person he is, lets the traveller talk first.
"So that's when everything started going wrong. Y'know, at first we were laughing and everything, thinking that we would come back onto the tracks soon. We didn't really limit the resources, eating and drinking like we normally would. But after two days or so, there wasn't much left from the food and water and still no sing of the familiar lands. That's when the first man fell. And- Yeah... Everything's blurry from that point on."
The long-haired man listens, a symphatetic look on his face. "You said your father lead the group, right? Did he also?.."
Seungmin nods, feeling a lump forming in his throat. "Yes. I- I haven't seen him actualy passing away, though... He told me to go search for something... someone, that could help me."
Hyeongjun furrows his brows. "Didn't you say that you came from the east? There are two towns on the way to this one, no way you didn't notice them!"
"Of course I did. I knocked on every house in both villages, but there wasn't any answer from any of them. I was starting to think this one was gonna be the same, but then you let me in." The traveller gives the most genuine smile to the other. Hyeongjun's face heats up. He turns his eyes away, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart.
"The people were probably hiding from the heat in their houses. And I know that a lot of them are afraid to open the door on the hottest days, because the only things making sound at that time could either be coyotes or blood-thirsty outlaws. Lone travellers aren't very common around here." The flustered man responds after few moments, still not being able to look at the other.
Seungmin hums, pretty oblivious about Hyeongjun's state. "So there are other people here. Hm, makes sense, I also wouldn't want a wild animal or a robber getting into my home."
He takes a swing from the bottle, looking at the long-haired man. "Thank you for letting me in, despite the possible danger. Is it crazy that I'm pretty happy that no one before helped me? I wouldn't have ended up here, with you. You're one of the coolest people I've ever met. And one of the most gorgeus too, to be honest."
Hyeongjun, who had just recovered is struck again, left with no words and blushing like crazy. He was pretty confident before, staring at Seungmin and telling him that he's very attractive. But now, the tables are turned and he can't say anything back to the other's casual compliments. Alcohol is supposed to give you confidence, not take it from you! Under Seungmin's immerse gaze, Hyeongjun feels helpless.
The silence is broken by the traveller's yawn. Sleeping on the rocks probably doesn't really give you the most amazing sleep. The long-haired man manages to quickly collect himself, to once again fufill his guest's needs.
"Let's go, I'll show you where the bedroom is." He stands up, the other following him to a smaller, darker room. A small wooden bed is standing in next to the wall. "You can sleep here. I'll lay on the floor right there, in case you'd need something."
Seungmin shakes his head, furrowing his brows. "Wait wait wait, why are you the one sleeping on the floor in your house? I can take the floor, you alerady had done enough!"
"It's less tiring for me to sleep on the ground than to listen to your complains about sore muscles and hurting skin in the morning." Hyeongjun replies, shutting off the other man. "So please, get into the bed before I put you there myself."
"And how are you planning to do that?" Seungmin teases, but eventualy sits down on the bed. "Can't we just sleep together here? It's enough space for two people, in my opinion."
"I- Uhh- I mean, if you're okay with that..."
"Of course, it's okay!" The short-haired man scoffs, making space for Hyeongjun next to him. "Just- come here quick. I'm actualy getting cold in this room. I never thought that I'd get cold in this rock desert." Hyeongjun nods and tosses his shirt on the floor, climbing in next to him.
The two men lay on the matress, an akward silence between them. The room is almost pitch black, the only light source being the moon, shining trough the small window. Seungmin turns his head to look at the other. He studies his facial features, noticing things he hadn't noticed before. The peaceful downturned eyes, giving Hyeongjun this extraordinary charm, a mole under his eye, mirroring Seungmin's. His hair is nothing the traveller has seen before, poofed up like a cloud. He almost reaches his hand to touch it, to see if it's as soft as it looks, but at the last moment he stops himself.
"It is pretty cold here, I gotta admit." Hyeongjun's voice snaps the other out of his thoughts. The long-haired man slightly opens his eyes, looking back at Seungmin with a sleepy gaze. They both stare at each other for some time, no one daring to say the thing that is spinning in both of their heads. Eventualy, Seungmin collects the courage to break the torturing silence.
"Well... I remember, my mother once said that one of the best heat sources are the human bodies, so maybe- we could hug... each other... or something... to share the heat, you know..."
Hyeongjun hums, scooting closer to the other man, his face getting red again. Now they're just inches apart, close enough to feel the heat radiating from each other's bodies, but still too far to actualy get warmer. And the akwardness settles again.
After another ten minutes of staring at the boring ceiling, Seungmin's patience runs out and he closes the small gap between them, now fully pressed to Hyeongjun. Both of their hearts are jumping out of their chests, but atleast they know that the feeling is mutual. They're in a bit of an uncomfortable position right now, so Seungmin moves up a little bit, letting Hyeongjun lay on his chest, their arms instinctively wrapping around each other. Now the cold definitely isn't a problem anymore. The pleasant warmth between them relaxes both men and so, they both quickly doze off.
That night, in the other man's embrace, Seungmin has the best sleep of his entire life.