flower boy | seungjin

32

"Do you think we're the only ones?"

Shaking his head, Hyunjin keeps his eyes trained on the stars above them, speaking back to the boy laying beside him. "No." That must be impossible, right? That the living beings on Earth are the only things in the entire universe? "We can't be. The universe is infinite."

Seungmin shakes his head. "It's not, though. It's still growing."

"How do you know?"

He points upwards, "Because the sky gets darker at night. There's not enough stars or galaxies to fill our sky yet... our universe is still young and somewhere out there there's a sky that's never dark."

Hyunjin sucks in a breath, "Imagine that."

"Yeah," Seungmin sighs. "It's a shame we'll probably never see it." He stares into the sky above him, scattered with specks that shine brightly, unmasked from up here as it is when looking from the city below them. For a moment, Seungmin closes his eyes. When he opens them again, the sky is suddenly below him, as if any second he could start falling and never stop.

"It's beautiful up here," he whispers. 

Hyunjin hums. "Jisung, Dad and I used to along the cliff quite a lot at night," he falls silent, suddenly choked by a memory that once didn't bother him but now he'd rather forget.

Seungmin notices his abrupt end, but doesn't comment on it. "I wish there was somewhere in New York like this," he says instead. "I miss seeing the stars."

From the tone of his voice, Hyunjin gets the hint of Seungmin's old house - before he left his parents. "Where did you live before?"

Seungmin smiles while the thoughts and memories make a return. "Out in the countryside. The sky was clear almost every night and Chan, Felix and I used to spend most nights on the beach and have a campfire." His face falls. "I should go see them before we go back... my parents too, if that's fine with you."

Hyunjin chuckles lightly, "You're not tied to me, Seungmin. This is your home too, if you want to go somewhere then I'm not stopping you. But..." he sighs, quickly realising that this is the last chance he'll get - any later and this conversation will only cause more pain. "I need to talk to you about something." Hyunjin pushes himself to sit up with his legs dangling over the cliff edge. Seungmin follows, attention completely on him. "I-" Hyunjin begs his voice not to give up, and he quickly takes a deep breath to continue. "I can't come back to New York with you."

Seungmin doesn't say anything, but he feels his heart plummet with his gaze, suddenly becoming hypnotized by the grass beside his legs but soon enough his hands are trembling fiercely. He hears Hyunjin take a deep breath, and even that is enough for Seungmin to collapse into the elder's side and wrap his arms around his waist, burying his head in Hyunjin's neck.

"I'm sorry," Hyunjin mumbles defeatedly.

As much as he expected himself to, Seungmin isn't crying. To be honest, he was half waiting for this. Unfortunately New York has as many shitty memories as good ones for both of them - and unlike Seungmin, Hyunjin has no obligation to return. Hyunjin whispers another apology in his ear, but Seungmin shakes his head. 

"Don't be sorry Hyunjin," he says. "I get it." He turns his head and watches the city below them, seeing a place he can call home easier than he ever did New York. "I just wish I could stay too."

"But you can't," Hyunjin reminds him. "You have a degree to get and a better life to live. Staying here would slow all of that down. And you're not going to leave Jae all on his own, are you? He'd fly over here himself and decapitate me."

Seungmin nods, a smile rising to his lips. "I know, although he does have Younghyun now." He draws away from Hyunjin's embrace and looks at him. "So... we only have a couple of weeks left, might as well make the most of it, right?"

Hyunjin nods, grinning.

"Right."

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a/n: thoughts?