looking up [kiho, kihyun x wonho]

-1-

Hoseok unlocks and opens the door to his tiny studio apartment and quietly steps inside, surprised to find all of the lights turned off and the entire space still and quiet, bathed in hushed, soft darkness. He's just come back from his Wednesday evening class, advanced physics, and had taken the long walk across campus and down several blocks of the tiny college town to get to his quaint little apartment building. And it's strange, because his...roommate...doesn't like to be alone, much less in the dark, and Hoseok usually gets a warm greeting upon his arrival home each night.

"Kihyun?" he calls out as softly as he can, but his voice still sounds too loud in the silence, "Kihyunnie?"

There's no answer, and it's so quiet that Hoseok can hear his own heart beating loudly in his head, and even the blood pumping through his veins. He wonders if Kihyun can hear it too. Even after the months they've spent together now, there's still a lot that Hoseok doesn't know about Kihyun. In fact, Hoseok really doesn't know much of anything about Kihyun, not really, he's only barely scratched the surface. On the other hand, sometimes it feels like Kihyun knows Hoseok inside and out, like Kihyun knows Hoseok better than Hoseok knows himself.

"Kihyun?" Hoseok calls out again, shutting the door quietly behind him and walking through the small hallway, his steps slow and gentle so as not to startle the other boy, who has proven to be skittish and easily frightened.

Hoseok passes the door to the bathroom and the open kitchen area and enters the living space, carefully moving in the dark, guided only by natural light, by the streams of moonlight coming in from the two large windows on the opposite wall from the door, one over his bed and the other over his desk and tiny sofa.

As he approaches, Hoseok can finally see Kihyun sitting on the single twin bed that they share, curled up in a little ball with his arms hugging his knees, looking out at the night sky through the window, looking out at the stars. Hoseok can see them reflected in Kihyun's wide, beautiful eyes.

"Kihyunnie," Hoseok murmurs, setting his backpack down on the floor and approaching the bed, "it's me. It's Hoseok."

Kihyun finally seems to notice Hoseok's presence, turning his head away from the window to look at him, and their eyes meet in the dark. Neither one says anything, and Kihyun gives a soft little smile before turning back to the window, makes a quiet, breathy noise of acknowledgement, almost like a sigh.

He's sad. Hoseok doesn't know how he knows it, but he just does. Kihyun is devastated about something, his heart aching terribly. And with that, Hoseok sits down on the bed beside him, cautious, wondering what this could all be about.

Kihyun doesn't move as the mattress dips and creaks from Hoseok's weight, and Hoseok can see now that Kihyun is barefoot and still wearing his pajamas from last night. Well, Hoseok's pajamas, technically, Hoseok's clothes, a large t-shirt and pair of boxers reaching about mid-thigh. Everything Kihyun wears is Hoseok's, because when Hoseok found him all those months ago, when Hoseok took him in, Kihyun had nothing, literally nothing.

Hoseok had found Kihyun wandering in the tiny patch of woods behind his apartment building, all alone and stark naked save for a strange black metal collar around his neck, one which he still wore to this day and which seemed to be impossible to remove, seemed to be embedded into his skin. It had been a night much like tonight, Hoseok coming back from an evening class, and Kihyun had been extremely disoriented, scared and lost and confused, weeping, tiny and frail like a child, and so Hoseok had taken him in for the night, thinking he might be a missing person incapable of surviving alone and separated from his caretakers.

It had been a little weird, maybe a little dangerous even, to just let a complete stranger into his apartment like that, especially one who might be mentally unstable, but Hoseok's gut had told him that Kihyun wasn't dangerous, and that he needed help, and so Hoseok had helped him, approached him carefully with a flashlight and taken Kihyun's small, soft, smooth hand in his own, spoken quietly and explained to Kihyun that he could stay with Hoseok for the night, that Hoseok was going to take care of him and get him back home.