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Seokmin was already out of breath even though they were only on the sixth flight of stairs of the building. His hands were already feeling clammy from gripping onto the railing for dear life. He looked up and saw how Soonyoung was ahead of him by a landslide, clearly in better shape. “How much longer?” he managed to heave out, his voice echoing throughout the stairwell.
Soonyoung stopped in his tracks and looked down from the railing about a story higher than Seokmin’s position. “I’d say about five more,” he replied before his head disappeared from Seokmin’s vision and the continuous sound of footsteps filled the atmosphere as well as Seokmin’s ear canal.
He honestly can’t believe he was still following Soonyoung when he could just take the elevator like a practical person. But he also can believe his current actions. Who else would hopelessly trail behind a night owl who practically parkours around the city skyline at ungodly hours? Nobody. Only fools would.
Seokmin is a fool.
A fool for Soonyoung.
He reaches the eighth floor when his knees are practically wobbling and begging to be amputated from the amount of pressure Seokmin put on them. He wants to apologize, but he also doesn’t have the lung capacity to do so as he was still exhaling heavily. He paused as he reached the nine floor and leaned against the wall. The only thing in his head were footsteps and doubt.
It wasn’t long before he saw a pair of running shoes in front of his converse on the ground. Looking up, he jumped a bit and leaned back against the wall slowly once more when he saw Soonyoung smiling in front of him. Soonyoung grabbed Seokmin’s hand and led him up the flight of stairs. Seokmin squeezed the older one’s hand, as if his life depended on it. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he’s been trying to catch his breath, but he felt breathless whenever Soonyoung pulled that stunt.
(So did Seokmin purposely stop in hopes Soonyoung would come by and take him by the hand to the rooftop? Maybe. Maybe not.)
It was about half past two when they finally reached the rooftop. Soonyoung opened the door to the outside world and inhaled it all: the mixed smell of gasoline, street food, alcohol and smoke; the view of the sky lit with gleaming stars and neon lights near the streets below; and the sound of the drunk people yelling and laughing, the cars rushing and beeping, and the wind blowing gently across the scenery. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Soonyoung sighed as he untangled his fingers with Seokmin’s and moved closer to the edge of the railing.
The younger one weakly followed behind before leaning his elbows against the rail and taking in the view. “It is awfully pretty.” He side-glanced at Soonyoung before looking down at the streets below, thankful that Soonyoung was too distracted to see the blush pigment on his cheeks.
It wasn’t long before Seokmin looked up and grunted to himself how Soonyoung was already climbing down the nearby fire escape ladder down to the nearby building that was about two stories shorter than the one they were currently standing on. (Seokmin was a bit ticked off they didn’t climb that building instead in the first place, but he nudged that thought off his shoulder.)
“Seok, hurry up!” Soonyoung shouted from the rooftop below. “Hao and Sol are waiting for us about four blocks away.”
(Scratch that, why didn’t they meet at that building instead? Seokmin was never one to question Soonyoung’s antics though.)
Seokmin sighed and climbed down the ladder, practically squealing and clinging to the fifth bar as his left foot almost slipped from the dew that was already forming on the rusted iron bars. Fortunately, he managed to stick the landing on the platform before carefully climbing off the edge of it to the next building’s rooftop.
He wouldn’t consider himself a professional like Soonyoung at this, but he’s climbed, fallen, and slipped enough times to call himself more than a novice. As Seokmin caught up to Soonyoung who was leaning against the air vent of the apartment they were on top of, he couldn’t help but take a step back at how alluring Soonyoung looked in such a light setting.
“Need a break?” Soonyoung smiled as he turned his head from the horizon to Seokmin’s direction.
He tried to play it cool and hold in his breath to say that he was fine and that he was ready to jump another rooftop, but Soonyoung laughed as he saw right through that white lie. They sat down, their legs hanging off the ledge. Seokmin was internally panicking from how one slip could lead to his ultimate doom, but the fact that he was with Soonyoung made that thought a bit hazy.
Soonyoung reached into his pockets and pulled out two plastic casings of string cheese he purchased beforehand and nudged the younger one with his free hand before handing one to him.
“Cheese?”
“A bag of chips didn’t fit in my pockets,” Soonyoung joked. Seokmin caved in and took the cheese as they both started eating it while looking around, enjoying each other’s company while drowning into the city sounds.
“You’re eating it wrong.”
“Huh?” Seokmin looked over at Soonyoung baffled.
“The cheese,” Soonyoung pointed out down to the unwrapped string cheese that Seokmin was biting into. “You’re supposed to pull down the cheese into strands and eat it like that.”
“I wasn’t aware there were rules for eating cheese,” Seokmin snickered as he copied Soonyoung’s actions and pulled at the cheese and ate the straid. (To his surprise, it did make the cheese taste better.)
“As much as I love breaking rules, I think that’s the only rule people should follow,” he snickered. Seokmin admired how Soonyoung was rebellious pulling stunts like this while simultaneously being easy going and docile. The elder pulled out his phone and chuckled. “Well, shit, Hao and Sol definitely ditched us. Said we took too long.”
Seokmin pouted a bit. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Nah, don’t be,” Soonyoung smiled as he finished his last strand of cheese and shoved the plastic wrapper into his pocket to discard into a trash bin later. “Hansol has an early class tomorrow and Minghao is a sucker for Sol, so of course he’d leave early for the sake of Hansol.”
“I didn’t know they were a thing.”
“They aren’t. Minghao isn’t admitting anything. Denial, I suppose. Also, Hansol is slow with this sort of thing.”
The younger one nodded in understanding. (He totally understood what denial and oblivion felt like.) “Hm, maybe we should keep going anyway?” Seokmin suggested. “You said you wanted to see how far we could reach until four, remember?”
Soonyoung looked over surprised. “I said that two weeks ago… You still remember that?”
“Oh…” Seokmin blushed. “Yeah, kind of… I just have a good memory.” He slid back from the ledge and put his feet on the roof ground before stretching his arms and letting out a deep sigh. “Well, shall we keep going?”
“Actually,” Soonyoung began as he hopped back onto the roof flooring, “let’s take the alleyways back home… Junhui is going to scold me if I stay out past five and Mingyu usually worries about his roommate not being there when he wakes up for his night shift, right?”
Seokmin blinked before nodding slowly, following Soonyoung down the stairwell of the building, quietly enough so that they don’t disturb the residents who may call the police on them for disturbing the peace. (It’s happened once, their friends never let Soonyoung live it down for almost being jailed for arguing aggressively with an elder lady.)
They definitely scaled a few more roofs before eventually climbing down another apartment’s fire escape ladder down to an alleyway. Seokmin was a bit nervous, one with the nearby lamp post light flickering on and off in the dimly lit setting, the nearby doorway though sounds like it’s creeping open, and the rush of the automobiles that pass the by on the streets so quickly and loudly. Soonyoung elbowed Seokmin who let out a squeal at the gesture.
“Scared, Seok?” Soonyoung snickered.
Seokmin blushed. “N-no…”
“No need to lie,” the elder teased as he calmly shoved his hands into the pocket of his pants after adjusting the hood over his head and walked towards the flickering light. Seokmin trailed behind before walking next to Soonyoung. “It’s pretty down here too, don’t you think?”
The younger one looked around at the sight. It was probably almost five in the morning—meaning that Soonyoung was about to get scolded by Junhui—and saw how the atmosphere still displayed the darkly coloured sky only to be illuminated with the street lights that were still lit up. “Yeah, it is pretty.”
“Nothing beats the lights from the roofs though.”
They kept taking the back routes through small alleyways, small one-way local streets, and the occasional convenience store that was still blindly lit with a sleepless employee behind the counter. “Do you have work tomorrow?” Seokmin asked to stimulate the quiet atmosphere.
“Off tomorrow. I’m on PTO for a week. You?”
“I work from home, so I can start whenever I want.”
“Lucky,” Soonyoung chuckled. “Guess that means we can go out again tomorrow—or rather later on tonight, huh?”
“I’d like that,” Seokmin smiled. They bowed to an elder lady who walked past them. (Thankfully, not the one who almost snitched on Soonyoung or else Seokmin would be in the middle of a rock and a hard place.) The sun has still yet to rise as they were nearing Seokmin’s apartment.
Soonyoung blinked when he felt Seokmin grab his hand and squeeze it. “Seok—”
“Let’s go to a roof,” Seokmin suggested, running towards the nearest building—an office that had yet to be opened for the morning— and picked at the lock before opening the door and leading Soonyoung up the stairs.
“Seok, what are you doing? What if we get caught?” Soonyoung had never been on this side of the table as he kept his hand intertwined with Seokmin’s and followed him up the stairs of the stairwell that seemed to echo louder than any other stairwell they’ve climbed. He noticed the look on Seokmin’s face, the way his lips curved into a slight crescent while a slight hum from his lips escaped and gently decorated the atmosphere. Though unknown why, Soonyoung couldn’t help but be in awe of the sight.
They reached the top of the stairs, which was thankfully just five stories, before opening the door to the rooftop. Both gasped at the sight of lawn chairs and a coffee table in front of them before they rushed over and sat down, sighing as they both relaxed.
“What was that for?” Soonyoung asked as he folded his hands against his stomach and began twiddling his thumbs together as he observed Seokmin on the other chair. “Usually I’m the one who does that to you.”
“Guess I thought we could switch roles for a bit,” Seokmin smiled. He looked at his watch before resting his hands back behind his head. “I wanted to watch the sunrise with you,” he confessed. “It’s supposed to be in an hour.”
“Junhui’s going to go off on me when I return home.”
“We can leave if you want.”
“I didn’t say no,” Soonyoung smiled as he moved his chair over so that he was sitting next to Seokmin. He copied his younger friend’s action and grinned at him. “Maybe after this, we can get breakfast?”
“Yeah,” Seokmin nodded. “Or we can cross a few more buildings until we reach my place so that Mingyu can cook breakfast for the both of us.”
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude…”
“I’m inviting you. Plus, I already told Mingyu you’re coming over, so he already planned the ingredients before we headed out.”
They chuckled together before their conversation trailed off to talking about their roommates and deciding what to do later on tonight. The sun began to rise just in the nick of time and Seokmin used his left palm to cover the light that was aiming directly at them.
“Wow, it’s so bright,” Seokmin smiled. “Not what we’re used to, huh, Soonyoung?” He looked over to see Soonyoung passed out on the chair, tilted so that his head was facing Seokmin while his hands were hidden in the sleeves of his sweater. Seokmin leaned over and zipped up the older one’s hoodie all the way up before leaning back in his own seat sighing in relief. “Man, I cross roofs for you, put my life at risk for you, sacrifice my sleep for you—” He looked over and snickered when he heard Soonyoung inhale a large amount of air before snoring it out.
Seokmin looked around to see the birds starting to fill the sky. A few landed by the railing nearby while others settled for the telephone poles around the surrounding area. The sound of bustling cars and people greeting each other began to fill the atmosphere as well. He scooted his chair closer to Soonyoung’s until the arms touched. Daringly, he lightly rested his head on top of Soonyoung’s before smiling to himself for being so gallant.
“I’ll wake him up in ten,” he muttered to himself before he slowly started humming to himself again as he enjoyed the early worm atmosphere with his resting night owl.