star chaser and sun keeper

sun keeper

Minho's never gotten used to the cold.

Muscle memory catches up to him like a flame to a wick. The cold, wintry days remind him a lot about his childhood—dirt, mold, blood against the tiles; famished and freezing underneath all the clothes he owned. Having slept outside before, when the icy metal of the playground's crawl tunnel brought more relief to him than the roof of his own house, Minho should have been used to the cold by now.

But he still gets sick easily. Seungmin doesn't like it when he's underdressed—calls it reckless. Minho calls it all he's ever known.

"I can't believe we got dragged out here just to play in the snow like a bunch of kids," Hyunjin complains beside him, shivering in his expensive coat and argyle scarf. Pretty and prim, like all wealthy people. "I thought we were just gonna get coffee."

Minho mutters, "I think I need something more than caffeine but less than cocaine."

"Huh. Usually you'd just go straight for the cocaine—ow! " He jumps away after Minho punches him in the arm. "Hyung, I thought we got past our phase of unnecessary violence. I thought marriage softens a person."

Minho clicks his tongue and resumes blowing into his cold hands. "Marriage? I'll marry my fist to your face."

"I decline! And what's with your lack of get-up, anyway? I thought you got rid of the habit of dressing poorly in terms of warmth and fashion. You're not even wearing the proper shoes. Have you ever heard of a winter coat?"

"With all your yapping, you know you're gonna end up pissing off a possible gang member one day, right?" Minho intones. "They'll find you, gut you open to bleed to death, and your body will become beyond unrecognizable that no funeral will ever be thrown for you because all your loved ones will think you eloped with some person you've barely been infatuated with for an hour."

Hyunjin narrows his eyes at him, unfazed. "I'm beginning to think that you want to be the gang member gutting me open and leaving me to bleed out in a ditch."

"Sure, if it wasn't illegal."

"Stop being mean to me."

Hyunjin puffs up his cheeks out of petulance. Snowflakes are entangling in between the strands of his black hair. For nostalgia's sake, he'd said, when Minho pointed out how he was no longer blonde. Nostalgia, unfortunately, doesn't include learning how to shut up.

The bare branches of the tree they were standing under proves to be useless in shielding them from the falling snow. In the distance, Minho watches Jisung chase after Seungmin while yelling nonsense about revenge. Seungmin tilts his head back in broad, open-mouthed laughter, his cheeks flushed pink in the cold. The warm sound of Seungmin's small happiness could have melted the icy carapace of the earth.

"Be grateful I don't want to kill you anymore," Minho says breezily, "on a good day, that is."

Hyunjin slants him a wary glance. "Um. And should that warrant you a character development of the century award?"

Minho shrugs. He merely steps to the side when he notices Jisung marching towards them with a large clump of snow in his hands. Hyunjin shrieks and backs up with outstretched arms, clearly being targeted.

"Yah, Han Jisung! Don't you fucking dare! I'll kill you! I have the money to hide your body!"

Jisung cackles and successfully dumps the snow over Hyunjin's head. "I'd like to see you try and murder this hot piece of—AGH!"

Minho supposes the bystander effect is acceptable for today, as he watches Hyunjin tackle Jisung into the snow and try to choke him to death.

Minho looks over to where Seungmin was making a snow angel. The snow crunches beneath his feet as he leaves behind a trail of footprints, and he can feel his socks become damp again. When he stops by Seungmin's elbow, Minho crouches down and notices the snowflakes caught in his eyelashes.