[SKZ Hyunsung] ENDlife

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It would've been a lie if Jisung didn't admit that his friend, Hwang Hyunjin, was the most beautiful man he knew. Despite the rough beginnings, despite his stubbornness, Jisung understood the definition of "Prince" immediately from the first time he met Hyunjin.

And after becoming friends, there were many sleepovers, enough for Jisung to secretly hope that he'd wake up first so that he could gaze upon his friend's beautiful face the moment he opened his eyes.

Jisung knew he was being cheesy when he first wrote a song inspired by Hyunjin but he didn't care. He found the inspiration for all the words he didn't have before meeting his friend.

Yet, it also didn't take long for everything to be taken away from him.

Hyunjin no longer walked by his side as they paced through the long hallways at school, the two would no longer be chasing after the bus to get to school while arguing whose fault it was that they were late every morning, and Jisung found himself without a muse.

Maybe not waking from the nightmare, escaping into the unknown, was for the best.

* * *

There were noises coming from outside.

The sound of someone chopping up wood early in the morning.

Clunk. Clunk.

The sun was blinding and woke Jisung up.

Jisung didn't think he was going to be able to sleep so soundly in a foreign place but when he opened his eyes and saw Hyunjin's face, still asleep, next to him, he couldn't help but let out a smile.

Good morning, Hyunjin-ah, Jisung almost said it out loud with the urge to trace out Hyunjin's beautiful features with his fingers.

Jisung held back, taking him seconds to realize he was just about to embarrass himself if he took a step further.

And just as he sat up to get out of bed, he heard Hyunjin's usual mumble as he woke up.

"Jisung?" Hyunjin said in a rather raspy morning voice. "Is it morning already?"

"Mhmm. Good morning," Jisung said

Knock. Knock.

"Are you two sleepyheads awake yet?" Changbin didn't even wait a second before barging in after a knock. "Sheesh, if you two were awake, you should've come out and helped me prepare breakfast!"

"Was that you chopping wood outside?" Jisung immediately deduced as he saw Changbin's rolled-up sleeves and sweat dripping from head to toe.

"Yeah. Granny wouldn't be able to survive here alone if she didn't have any firewood to last the colder nights. So, I made sure she would have enough for at least a while. Surprised that it didn't wake you two up earlier though."

Jisung looked at Hyunjin and Hyunjin looked back, both had the same thing in mind and let out a chuckle.

"What!?" Changbin hated being left out.

Hyunjin in this world is just as much of a deep sleeper as me. We're always so bad at waking up, Jisung thought.

The two finally got out of bed after Changbin's aggressive attempt at pulling them out of the room himself. The three Hunters helped the old lady prepare breakfast and even cleaned up the yard for her out of kindness.

Jisung glanced around, feeling a sense of loneliness just looking at how barren the cottage was, both inside and out.

"There isn't much to keep around. I'm already so old. What would hoarding around a bunch of useless things have to do for me?" she sighed over breakfast as she talked with the three of them.