[Super Junior] Play the Music Low
Play the Music Low
Yesung / Ryeowook
3475 words, PG-13
AU
Summary: Big city music producer Jongwoon escapes the city life to a village and meets Ryeowook whose only dream is city life. They fall in love and dance under the moonlight. (YES, YES THAT’S WHAT THEY DO)
A/N: Okay, so there’s a scene. You know, the kind romance stories have to prove that the lead characters have come to a certain point in their relationship. But I’m incapable of writing anything that isn’t unicorns and fairies. Go figure.
When the moon is low, we can dance in slow motion
And all your tears will subside
All your tears will dry
- “Rhythm of Love” / Plain White T’s
There wasn’t a destination in his mind, only one word - escape. Jongwoon’s been thinking about running away all week; all month, heck, all year. Enough was enough. Without telling anyone, he got into his car and drove as far away from Seoul as he could.
He took the battery out of his cell phone on the expressway. He stopped by a rest stop for coffee and a donut, before continuing his drive.
“Freedom!” he shouted in the car, even if there was no one to hear it. It was just as well. Jongwoon was heartily sick of people.
It was late and Jongwoon was contemplating if he should sleep in his car when he arrived at the beach. After a quick conversation with a grandfather sitting outside a rustic hut, he drove his car up to one of the beach houses. The lady of the house saw him and smiled, beckoning him in.
“You came from Seoul?” the lady asked, and Jongwoon wondered how she could possibly look so happy at the sight of a traveler in the middle of the night, even if it was earning her 25,000 won. “Why on earth would you be in our neck of the woods?” she laughed again, before handing him fresh bedding and telling him that breakfast was at eight in the morning.
That night as he curled himself up with the blanket that smelled of roses and slept under the cover of the mosquito net, Jongwoon put Seoul at the back of his mind and fell asleep.
Jongwoon ate breakfast so fast the lady of the house, Soojin-ssi asked him if they fed him in Seoul. Jongwoon laughingly said, “Oh, I don’t eat,” and she laughed, not knowing how true it was.
After breakfast, she suggested that Jongwoon take a walk down the beach. “We have the most beautiful stretch of sand around here,” she boasted. “And there’s lots to do, now with the traveling carnival in town.”
Jongwoon put on his leather shoes, promising that he would get himself a pair of slippers later and walked down to the beach. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and fanned himself as he stepped onto the sand in the heat.
He was just about to sit down and do something about the sand in his shoes when he heard music from a distance. He looked up, contemplated it for a moment before turning around in the opposite direction. The carnival came into view- game booths, amusement rides and a large multi-coloured Ferris wheel.
Jongwoon had to stop so that he wouldn’t clap his hands in glee.
Thirty minutes later, he was stuffed full with cotton candy, ice cream and hot dogs. He was wondering if he should give the shooting booth a go when he heard several whoops coming behind him. Curious, he walked to see what the commotion was and was amused to see a crowd standing in front of a dunk pool.
“Sir, wanna give it a try? Just 2,000 won, to see if you can get this guy in the water!” the man at the booth cried. Jongwoon turned to the boy, a skinny little thing sitting on top of the water tank and felt the sudden urge to…
“Why not?” Jongwoon nodded. He paid the fee, picked up the ball, aimed and…
The crowd around him cheered as the ball hit its mark and the boy fell into the pool with a loud shriek.
He was standing at the bumper cars arena when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, it took him a moment to recognize the boy from the dunk pool.
“Mister,” the boy grinned. “I’d like to get some revenge.”
Jongwoon grinned. “You’re on.”
The boy was a fierce rider, and Jongwoon couldn’t remember the last time he laughed this hard. He staggered out of the bumper car, holding both arms up in surrender, and the boy grinned, happy at his victory.
“What’s your name?” the boy asked.
“Ye…” Jongwoon started, before he stopped. “Jongwoon,” he grinned. “My name is Jongwoon.”
“Ryeowook,” the boy said, holding out his hand. “If you don’t mind, I can show you around town.”
Jongwoon shook Ryeowook’s hand. “That would be nice.”
The little village wasn’t much. Ryeowook explained that the carnival was the most exciting thing to have happened in the last six months, except maybe that one time when Madam Cha’s dog had run away from her and proceeded to terrorize the rest of the good citizens of the village.
“I’d like to stay in a place like this,” Jongwoon said. It was night, and they had scrambled up onto the roof of the village school (the tallest building in the area). Ryeowook said it was the best place to look at stars. “Where I come from, the sky doesn’t look like this.”
Ryeowook laughed. “Why would you want to stay here? There’s nothing here at all,” he said. “I want to go to the big city!” he held out his arms. “Where it never sleeps and there’s always something to do!”
Jongwoon snorted, folding his arms behind his head and turning to look at Ryeowook’s bright eyes with a wistful smile.
Once upon a long time ago- he was that boy too.
Ryeowook was waiting for him the next morning in the beach house. “Jongwoon-hyung!” he waved happily. The boy was halfway through breakfast, and there were rice bits on his chin.
“Morning,” Jongwoon smiled as he sat down opposite Ryeowook. He thanked Soojin-ssi for his breakfast tray before he started to eat. He ate a lot because here, rice tasted like rice, fish tasted like fish and eggs tasted like eggs. Back in Seoul, everything tasted like sawdust.
“Jongwoon-hyung, we should go swimming,” Ryeowook grinned.
“Swimming?” Jongwoon looked up.
“And then we can head for the carnival again. I heard there’s a bearded lady there. I didn’t get to see her yesterday- you distracted me.”
Jongwoon had to laugh.
When they got ready to leave, Jongwoon belated realised that he hadn’t gotten the slippers he wanted to buy, not did he have anything one would need to go swimming, but Ryeowook was standing at the door with a large bag over his shoulder and a pair of purple and gold slippers in his hand.
“They’d be more comfortable than those,” Ryeowook pointed at the 350,000 won pair of shoes that were now hopelessly ruined. The leather would never be the same.
Jongwoon slipped on the gaudy slippers and wiggled his toes happily.
Ryeowook described a typical day in the village during the drive to the water hole. It started at six, with the chickens. Then there were the chores to be done at home, before he headed to the vegetable fields. “I’m sick of chickens and farms and vegetables,” Ryeowook confessed. “It’s the only thing I’ve done my whole life.”
Jongwoon shrugged. “People in the city aren’t any better off. Sitting at a desk and doing the same thing for thirty years; it’s pretty much the same as you.”
There was no more talk of that as soon as they got to the water hole. Jongwoon had never seen anyone strip so fast- Ryeowook was splashing into the water as soon as he could. Jongwoon laughed and followed at a more leisurely pace. He wasn’t that fond of water, or swimming for that matter.
Concentrating on getting into the water hole, Jongwoon did not hear Ryeowook come up behind him and he went flying in, crying out with a loud splash.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, as he floated idly on the surface.
“Hmm?” Jongwoon asked. The warm rays of the sun on his skin made him sleepy and happy at the same time. He wanted to lie in the water and never get up. Ever.
“Why did you come here?” Ryeowook stood on his feet, splashing water on Jongwoon. It took a while for Jongwoon to realize that Ryeowook was standing just inches away from him.
Jongwoon smiled lazily. He raised a hand up from the water and was about to touch Ryeowook’s face, only to stop just before. His hand flopped back into the water with a small splash.
“Sometimes,” he closed his eyes and leaned back. “We all want to run away,” he said before letting the water pull him down.
Ryeowook refused to speak to him during the drive back to the beach. The younger boy had gotten a scare when Jongwoon had not risen out of the water, diving in after him. Jongwoon didn’t open his eyes until Ryeowook had dragged them out of the water onto a soft spot under the trees, and when Ryeowook was patting his face Jongwoon got up and stole a kiss.
Ryeowook, obviously shocked, had stared at him for a good five minutes before getting up and kicking dirt into Jongwoon’s face, yelling, “I should have let you drown!” before running off as Jongwoon chuckled under the tree. It stopped being funny once Jongwoon realised how angry Ryeowook was.
They got out of the car at the beach; Ryeowook closing the door with more force than what was required. Jongwoon followed Ryeowook as he stalked towards the carnival. Just before they got to the concession stands, Jongwoon reached for Ryeowook’s wrist and grabbed it. “Ryeowook…”
Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon, his face a mess of emotions- anger, confusion and was that some sort of blush on his cheeks? “Is that how you big city people do things?” he managed to choke out. “Kis… do that, to people you just met?”
“No,” Jongwoon shook his head. “No,” he repeated. He needed to get Ryeowook to understand. ‘It was the sunlight, and the trees, and how worried you were calling my name. I… I… couldn’t help it. I don’t…”
Ryeowook stared at the point beyond Jongwoon’s shoulder for a moment, before he turned back to look at him in the eye. “Hyung,” he said. “Now you have to buy me dinner to make up for it.”
Ryeowook ate three hotdogs and a candy apple. Jongwoon considered himself forgiven, but not before marveling at how easily Ryeowook forgave. The boy behaved like nothing had happened between them, instead making a fuss about wanting to go on the rides.
Jongwoon wanted to go on the chair-o-planes, but Ryeowook dragged him onto the tilt-a-wheel which almost made him throw up after. They rounded up the evening on the Ferris wheel, looking out into the night sky.
“In Seoul, if we were this high won’t we be looking at lots and lots of lights?” Ryeowook had his hands on the window of the car they were in, looking out at the endless darkness of the fields beyond the beach.
“We could,” Jongwoon said. How was he to explain he preferred the darkness and the quiet of this little village to a boy whose only wish was to leave it and go to the bright lights and noise that Jongwoon had grown to hate? “It’s never dark there.”
“You’ll never be lonely in Seoul, with so many things to do,” Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon.
But there was no smile on Jongwoon’s face. “Even in Seoul,” he looked down at his hands. “You can be lonely too.”
The ride had ended. Ryeowook got out of the car first and Jongwoon had just gotten his feet on solid ground when Ryeowook took his hand and they raced off back into the carnival. It was late in the evening, the rides were about to close up for the night but Ryeowook bargained for one last turn on the carousel, sitting Jongwoon on the prettiest white horse as he took the carriage next to it.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, as the carousel started to make it’s last round of the night. “Will you take me to Seoul with you?”
Jongwoon couldn’t say no, but he couldn’t say yes, so he swooped down and gave Ryeowook another kiss, and wondered if he was so dizzy because of the lights from the carousel or the feeling of opening up Ryeowook’s mouth with his tongue.
The next morning Jongwoon woke up to the sound of Ryeowook’s voice. He was in the living area, Jongwoon deduced before shuffling out of the room.
“He’s a big music producer,” Ryeowook was saying. “Kim Yesung! He’s like, a multi-millionaire. I recognize him from the pictures in my magazines.”
Soojin’s laugh traveled past the paper walls. “Oh Ryeowook, not your silly dreams again.”
“They’re not silly dreams,” Ryeowook returned. “I’m going to be the big city to be a singer, just you wait!”
Jongwoon felt bitterness in his mouth as he walked back to his room quickly, closing the door behind him.
“Hyung!” Ryeowook waved, banging on the windows of Jongwoon’s room. “Aren’t we going? It’s the last night of the carnival!”
Jongwoon finally got dressed and said a cheerful goodbye to Soojin as he slipped on his purple and gold slippers. Ryeowook was waiting for him with a bright smile and Jongwoon decided to smile back as they started walking towards the beach.
There was a stage set up near the beach and a band was playing. Ryeowook pulled Jongwoon out to the middle and they danced, barefoot in the sand.
“Do you want to go to Seoul?” Jongwoon whispered in Ryeowook’s ear during one of the dances.
“Eh?”
“I can bring you there,” Jongwoon nodded, taking Ryeowook’s hand and pulling him away from the crowd, back towards the beach house, back to where his car was parked. “I can take you to Seoul, if you’ll…”
Ryeowook barely had time to gasp before Jongwoon had him pressed against the side of the car. They could barely see each other in the darkness, but Ryeowook could feel Jongwoon’s insistence. He let his mouth open when Jongwoon’s tongue pressed against his lips, and Jongwoon was touching him, pressing a knee between his legs, swallowing his gasps…
Then he reached for the waistband of Ryeowook’s jeans.
“Hyung, wait…”
Jongwoon didn’t.
“Hyung…”
“HYUNG!” Ryeowook cried, and with more force than Jongwoon would peg him for having, he pushed Jongwoon back onto the sand. “What are you doing?” he cried.
“You know who I am, don’t you?” Jongwoon asked. “You want to go to Seoul… you want to be a singer, you wanted…”
Ryeowook gasped. “You thought… that I was your friend… that I let you kiss me… because you were a music producer?”
“You said I was a multi-millionaire,” Jongwoon struggled to get up, and brushed the sand off his clothes as he did.
He stood up, and realised it was so dark he could barely see Ryeowook in front of him, not knowing that if he could, he would have seen the look of horror on Ryeowook’s face.
“Good night, hyung,” was all Ryeowook said, before running off.
Jongwoon leaned back against the car and shook his head. “It’s the same anywhere,” he said mournfully.
He left without saying goodbye. He spotted the trucks of the carnival leaving the beach in the direction of the expressway as he pressed money into Soojin’s hand and thanked her for her hospitality.
“Strange that Ryeowook’s not here,” Soojin smiled. “That silly little boy must have run off to daydream again. He really likes you.”
No matter, Jongwoon thought to himself. No matter, he thought to himself again, when he returned to Seoul. His voice mail was full, the phone at home was blinking with the messages he had missed in the last five days, and his company had called him with every intention of firing him.
No matter, Jongwoon thought as he collapsed onto the expensive leather couch in his living room and glared at his ruined leather shoes. Nothing mattered anymore.
It was three months since his escapade to the beach and Jongwoon was returning to his apartment after a party when he spotted a boy arguing with the security guard.
A very familiar boy, dressed in a white button down shirt, faded blue jeans and a pair of purple and gold slippers.
He parked his car haphazardly, got out and stalked over to them. He reached for Ryeowook’s arm and turned him around. “Hyung!” Ryeowook exclaimed, looking relieved. “I was trying to tell…”
“I know him,” Jongwoon said gruffly. The security guard nodded and paid no heed as Jongwoon all but shoved Ryeowook into his car.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook stammered as Jongwoon drove them into the complex, pulled him out of the car again and up into the elevator, smashing the button for the 16th floor. Ryeowook didn’t say a word as Jongwoon dragged him into his apartment, pushed him up against the wall and started kissing him.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook gasped, once they came up for air. “Hyung.”
“Don’t say anything,” Jongwoon said, as he kissed Ryeowook again and started to unbutton his shirt.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Jongwoon woke up to an empty bed. He stared at the empty spot next to him for a moment before getting up, frantic. He grabbed a pair of sweatpants and pulled them on, charged out of the bedroom and…
There was Ryeowook, sitting at the windowsill, knees up to his chest and wrapped in nothing but a sheet.
Jongwoon swallowed. He took two tentative steps.
Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon, and from the streetlights outside Jongwoon could see there were tears running down Ryeowook’s cheeks. Ryeowook reached up a hand and wiped them away quickly. “I…” he stammered.
“Ryeowook,” Jongwoon knelt down in front of him, taking both of Ryeowook’s damp hands in his.
“I never… I wasn’t going to,” Ryeowook whispered, his voice hoarse and raw from crying. “I was just telling Soojin-noona I recognized you, and that I wanted to be a singer, but I never… I was never…”
Jongwoon understood that. Sometime in the middle of the night, when Ryeowook had given himself to him, he realised that he’d made a mistake but they were too far-gone to turn back.
“It was because I was lonely,” Ryeowook whispered, the honesty so raw in Ryeowook’s voice Jongwoon could feel it stab through his entire being. “I was lonely and you came, and I wasn’t lonely anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Jongwoon whispered. He felt like the world’s biggest ass. “I shouldn’t… It’s just that, I ended up at the beach to escape all of that, and when you said what you said… I thought it was the same. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Ryeowook slid down onto the ground so that he was sitting in front of Jongwoon. Then he reached over for Jongwoon, cradling Jongwoon in his arms and holding him close. “Oh hyung,” he whispered. “You were lonely too.”
Jongwoon held on to Ryeowook and cried.
Ryeowook insisted on having pizza for breakfast. It was something they couldn’t get in the village, so he wanted to eat it in Seoul. Jongwoon shrugged. When he worked overtime in the studios he ate whatever they ordered without bothering, but that morning the pizza they ate was delicious, like the food he ate when he was at the beach.
Everything in Seoul was a wonder to Ryeowook. He peered into store windows, badgered Jongwoon to buy him useless trinkets in the 1000 won shop and had a roaring conversation with the ahjuma at the chicken shop when he realised they spoke the same dialect.
That evening, Ryeowook stared speechless at the skyline of Seoul at the top of Namsam Tower. He watched the skyline as Jongwoon watched him.
Jongwoon thought it was strange- everything in Seoul was different with Ryeowook around. He would never had taken a second look at the park Ryeowook ran through that morning next to his apartment; never would have thought the Tom n Toms where he got coffee every day was special; never would have marveled at how convenient something “two-subway-stations-away” was.
Even the night scene, which he could view every night from his own apartment along the Han River, looked like stars twinkling in the night sky. The city wasn’t cold and imposing; all of a sudden it was warm and familiar. Like home.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight in front of him. “If all I want to be is in the city, and all you want to do is run away from it, what will we do?”
Jongwoon took Ryeowook’s hand. “We’ll just meet in the middle.”
Ryeowook laughed. “Okay,” he said. “Somewhere in the middle. But wherever we are, we won’t be lonely anymore, right? Because we have each other. Anytime we want to run away, we’ll just have to come look for each other.”
Jongwoon nodded. Ryeowook grinned and rested his head on Jongwoon’s shoulder.
For the first time in a long while, Jongwoon didn’t want to run away.
He was right where he wanted to be.
♥
Yesung / Ryeowook
3475 words, PG-13
AU
Summary: Big city music producer Jongwoon escapes the city life to a village and meets Ryeowook whose only dream is city life. They fall in love and dance under the moonlight. (YES, YES THAT’S WHAT THEY DO)
A/N: Okay, so there’s a scene. You know, the kind romance stories have to prove that the lead characters have come to a certain point in their relationship. But I’m incapable of writing anything that isn’t unicorns and fairies. Go figure.
When the moon is low, we can dance in slow motion
And all your tears will subside
All your tears will dry
- “Rhythm of Love” / Plain White T’s
There wasn’t a destination in his mind, only one word - escape. Jongwoon’s been thinking about running away all week; all month, heck, all year. Enough was enough. Without telling anyone, he got into his car and drove as far away from Seoul as he could.
He took the battery out of his cell phone on the expressway. He stopped by a rest stop for coffee and a donut, before continuing his drive.
“Freedom!” he shouted in the car, even if there was no one to hear it. It was just as well. Jongwoon was heartily sick of people.
It was late and Jongwoon was contemplating if he should sleep in his car when he arrived at the beach. After a quick conversation with a grandfather sitting outside a rustic hut, he drove his car up to one of the beach houses. The lady of the house saw him and smiled, beckoning him in.
“You came from Seoul?” the lady asked, and Jongwoon wondered how she could possibly look so happy at the sight of a traveler in the middle of the night, even if it was earning her 25,000 won. “Why on earth would you be in our neck of the woods?” she laughed again, before handing him fresh bedding and telling him that breakfast was at eight in the morning.
That night as he curled himself up with the blanket that smelled of roses and slept under the cover of the mosquito net, Jongwoon put Seoul at the back of his mind and fell asleep.
Jongwoon ate breakfast so fast the lady of the house, Soojin-ssi asked him if they fed him in Seoul. Jongwoon laughingly said, “Oh, I don’t eat,” and she laughed, not knowing how true it was.
After breakfast, she suggested that Jongwoon take a walk down the beach. “We have the most beautiful stretch of sand around here,” she boasted. “And there’s lots to do, now with the traveling carnival in town.”
Jongwoon put on his leather shoes, promising that he would get himself a pair of slippers later and walked down to the beach. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and fanned himself as he stepped onto the sand in the heat.
He was just about to sit down and do something about the sand in his shoes when he heard music from a distance. He looked up, contemplated it for a moment before turning around in the opposite direction. The carnival came into view- game booths, amusement rides and a large multi-coloured Ferris wheel.
Jongwoon had to stop so that he wouldn’t clap his hands in glee.
Thirty minutes later, he was stuffed full with cotton candy, ice cream and hot dogs. He was wondering if he should give the shooting booth a go when he heard several whoops coming behind him. Curious, he walked to see what the commotion was and was amused to see a crowd standing in front of a dunk pool.
“Sir, wanna give it a try? Just 2,000 won, to see if you can get this guy in the water!” the man at the booth cried. Jongwoon turned to the boy, a skinny little thing sitting on top of the water tank and felt the sudden urge to…
“Why not?” Jongwoon nodded. He paid the fee, picked up the ball, aimed and…
The crowd around him cheered as the ball hit its mark and the boy fell into the pool with a loud shriek.
He was standing at the bumper cars arena when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, it took him a moment to recognize the boy from the dunk pool.
“Mister,” the boy grinned. “I’d like to get some revenge.”
Jongwoon grinned. “You’re on.”
The boy was a fierce rider, and Jongwoon couldn’t remember the last time he laughed this hard. He staggered out of the bumper car, holding both arms up in surrender, and the boy grinned, happy at his victory.
“What’s your name?” the boy asked.
“Ye…” Jongwoon started, before he stopped. “Jongwoon,” he grinned. “My name is Jongwoon.”
“Ryeowook,” the boy said, holding out his hand. “If you don’t mind, I can show you around town.”
Jongwoon shook Ryeowook’s hand. “That would be nice.”
The little village wasn’t much. Ryeowook explained that the carnival was the most exciting thing to have happened in the last six months, except maybe that one time when Madam Cha’s dog had run away from her and proceeded to terrorize the rest of the good citizens of the village.
“I’d like to stay in a place like this,” Jongwoon said. It was night, and they had scrambled up onto the roof of the village school (the tallest building in the area). Ryeowook said it was the best place to look at stars. “Where I come from, the sky doesn’t look like this.”
Ryeowook laughed. “Why would you want to stay here? There’s nothing here at all,” he said. “I want to go to the big city!” he held out his arms. “Where it never sleeps and there’s always something to do!”
Jongwoon snorted, folding his arms behind his head and turning to look at Ryeowook’s bright eyes with a wistful smile.
Once upon a long time ago- he was that boy too.
Ryeowook was waiting for him the next morning in the beach house. “Jongwoon-hyung!” he waved happily. The boy was halfway through breakfast, and there were rice bits on his chin.
“Morning,” Jongwoon smiled as he sat down opposite Ryeowook. He thanked Soojin-ssi for his breakfast tray before he started to eat. He ate a lot because here, rice tasted like rice, fish tasted like fish and eggs tasted like eggs. Back in Seoul, everything tasted like sawdust.
“Jongwoon-hyung, we should go swimming,” Ryeowook grinned.
“Swimming?” Jongwoon looked up.
“And then we can head for the carnival again. I heard there’s a bearded lady there. I didn’t get to see her yesterday- you distracted me.”
Jongwoon had to laugh.
When they got ready to leave, Jongwoon belated realised that he hadn’t gotten the slippers he wanted to buy, not did he have anything one would need to go swimming, but Ryeowook was standing at the door with a large bag over his shoulder and a pair of purple and gold slippers in his hand.
“They’d be more comfortable than those,” Ryeowook pointed at the 350,000 won pair of shoes that were now hopelessly ruined. The leather would never be the same.
Jongwoon slipped on the gaudy slippers and wiggled his toes happily.
Ryeowook described a typical day in the village during the drive to the water hole. It started at six, with the chickens. Then there were the chores to be done at home, before he headed to the vegetable fields. “I’m sick of chickens and farms and vegetables,” Ryeowook confessed. “It’s the only thing I’ve done my whole life.”
Jongwoon shrugged. “People in the city aren’t any better off. Sitting at a desk and doing the same thing for thirty years; it’s pretty much the same as you.”
There was no more talk of that as soon as they got to the water hole. Jongwoon had never seen anyone strip so fast- Ryeowook was splashing into the water as soon as he could. Jongwoon laughed and followed at a more leisurely pace. He wasn’t that fond of water, or swimming for that matter.
Concentrating on getting into the water hole, Jongwoon did not hear Ryeowook come up behind him and he went flying in, crying out with a loud splash.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, as he floated idly on the surface.
“Hmm?” Jongwoon asked. The warm rays of the sun on his skin made him sleepy and happy at the same time. He wanted to lie in the water and never get up. Ever.
“Why did you come here?” Ryeowook stood on his feet, splashing water on Jongwoon. It took a while for Jongwoon to realize that Ryeowook was standing just inches away from him.
Jongwoon smiled lazily. He raised a hand up from the water and was about to touch Ryeowook’s face, only to stop just before. His hand flopped back into the water with a small splash.
“Sometimes,” he closed his eyes and leaned back. “We all want to run away,” he said before letting the water pull him down.
Ryeowook refused to speak to him during the drive back to the beach. The younger boy had gotten a scare when Jongwoon had not risen out of the water, diving in after him. Jongwoon didn’t open his eyes until Ryeowook had dragged them out of the water onto a soft spot under the trees, and when Ryeowook was patting his face Jongwoon got up and stole a kiss.
Ryeowook, obviously shocked, had stared at him for a good five minutes before getting up and kicking dirt into Jongwoon’s face, yelling, “I should have let you drown!” before running off as Jongwoon chuckled under the tree. It stopped being funny once Jongwoon realised how angry Ryeowook was.
They got out of the car at the beach; Ryeowook closing the door with more force than what was required. Jongwoon followed Ryeowook as he stalked towards the carnival. Just before they got to the concession stands, Jongwoon reached for Ryeowook’s wrist and grabbed it. “Ryeowook…”
Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon, his face a mess of emotions- anger, confusion and was that some sort of blush on his cheeks? “Is that how you big city people do things?” he managed to choke out. “Kis… do that, to people you just met?”
“No,” Jongwoon shook his head. “No,” he repeated. He needed to get Ryeowook to understand. ‘It was the sunlight, and the trees, and how worried you were calling my name. I… I… couldn’t help it. I don’t…”
Ryeowook stared at the point beyond Jongwoon’s shoulder for a moment, before he turned back to look at him in the eye. “Hyung,” he said. “Now you have to buy me dinner to make up for it.”
Ryeowook ate three hotdogs and a candy apple. Jongwoon considered himself forgiven, but not before marveling at how easily Ryeowook forgave. The boy behaved like nothing had happened between them, instead making a fuss about wanting to go on the rides.
Jongwoon wanted to go on the chair-o-planes, but Ryeowook dragged him onto the tilt-a-wheel which almost made him throw up after. They rounded up the evening on the Ferris wheel, looking out into the night sky.
“In Seoul, if we were this high won’t we be looking at lots and lots of lights?” Ryeowook had his hands on the window of the car they were in, looking out at the endless darkness of the fields beyond the beach.
“We could,” Jongwoon said. How was he to explain he preferred the darkness and the quiet of this little village to a boy whose only wish was to leave it and go to the bright lights and noise that Jongwoon had grown to hate? “It’s never dark there.”
“You’ll never be lonely in Seoul, with so many things to do,” Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon.
But there was no smile on Jongwoon’s face. “Even in Seoul,” he looked down at his hands. “You can be lonely too.”
The ride had ended. Ryeowook got out of the car first and Jongwoon had just gotten his feet on solid ground when Ryeowook took his hand and they raced off back into the carnival. It was late in the evening, the rides were about to close up for the night but Ryeowook bargained for one last turn on the carousel, sitting Jongwoon on the prettiest white horse as he took the carriage next to it.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, as the carousel started to make it’s last round of the night. “Will you take me to Seoul with you?”
Jongwoon couldn’t say no, but he couldn’t say yes, so he swooped down and gave Ryeowook another kiss, and wondered if he was so dizzy because of the lights from the carousel or the feeling of opening up Ryeowook’s mouth with his tongue.
The next morning Jongwoon woke up to the sound of Ryeowook’s voice. He was in the living area, Jongwoon deduced before shuffling out of the room.
“He’s a big music producer,” Ryeowook was saying. “Kim Yesung! He’s like, a multi-millionaire. I recognize him from the pictures in my magazines.”
Soojin’s laugh traveled past the paper walls. “Oh Ryeowook, not your silly dreams again.”
“They’re not silly dreams,” Ryeowook returned. “I’m going to be the big city to be a singer, just you wait!”
Jongwoon felt bitterness in his mouth as he walked back to his room quickly, closing the door behind him.
“Hyung!” Ryeowook waved, banging on the windows of Jongwoon’s room. “Aren’t we going? It’s the last night of the carnival!”
Jongwoon finally got dressed and said a cheerful goodbye to Soojin as he slipped on his purple and gold slippers. Ryeowook was waiting for him with a bright smile and Jongwoon decided to smile back as they started walking towards the beach.
There was a stage set up near the beach and a band was playing. Ryeowook pulled Jongwoon out to the middle and they danced, barefoot in the sand.
“Do you want to go to Seoul?” Jongwoon whispered in Ryeowook’s ear during one of the dances.
“Eh?”
“I can bring you there,” Jongwoon nodded, taking Ryeowook’s hand and pulling him away from the crowd, back towards the beach house, back to where his car was parked. “I can take you to Seoul, if you’ll…”
Ryeowook barely had time to gasp before Jongwoon had him pressed against the side of the car. They could barely see each other in the darkness, but Ryeowook could feel Jongwoon’s insistence. He let his mouth open when Jongwoon’s tongue pressed against his lips, and Jongwoon was touching him, pressing a knee between his legs, swallowing his gasps…
Then he reached for the waistband of Ryeowook’s jeans.
“Hyung, wait…”
Jongwoon didn’t.
“Hyung…”
“HYUNG!” Ryeowook cried, and with more force than Jongwoon would peg him for having, he pushed Jongwoon back onto the sand. “What are you doing?” he cried.
“You know who I am, don’t you?” Jongwoon asked. “You want to go to Seoul… you want to be a singer, you wanted…”
Ryeowook gasped. “You thought… that I was your friend… that I let you kiss me… because you were a music producer?”
“You said I was a multi-millionaire,” Jongwoon struggled to get up, and brushed the sand off his clothes as he did.
He stood up, and realised it was so dark he could barely see Ryeowook in front of him, not knowing that if he could, he would have seen the look of horror on Ryeowook’s face.
“Good night, hyung,” was all Ryeowook said, before running off.
Jongwoon leaned back against the car and shook his head. “It’s the same anywhere,” he said mournfully.
He left without saying goodbye. He spotted the trucks of the carnival leaving the beach in the direction of the expressway as he pressed money into Soojin’s hand and thanked her for her hospitality.
“Strange that Ryeowook’s not here,” Soojin smiled. “That silly little boy must have run off to daydream again. He really likes you.”
No matter, Jongwoon thought to himself. No matter, he thought to himself again, when he returned to Seoul. His voice mail was full, the phone at home was blinking with the messages he had missed in the last five days, and his company had called him with every intention of firing him.
No matter, Jongwoon thought as he collapsed onto the expensive leather couch in his living room and glared at his ruined leather shoes. Nothing mattered anymore.
It was three months since his escapade to the beach and Jongwoon was returning to his apartment after a party when he spotted a boy arguing with the security guard.
A very familiar boy, dressed in a white button down shirt, faded blue jeans and a pair of purple and gold slippers.
He parked his car haphazardly, got out and stalked over to them. He reached for Ryeowook’s arm and turned him around. “Hyung!” Ryeowook exclaimed, looking relieved. “I was trying to tell…”
“I know him,” Jongwoon said gruffly. The security guard nodded and paid no heed as Jongwoon all but shoved Ryeowook into his car.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook stammered as Jongwoon drove them into the complex, pulled him out of the car again and up into the elevator, smashing the button for the 16th floor. Ryeowook didn’t say a word as Jongwoon dragged him into his apartment, pushed him up against the wall and started kissing him.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook gasped, once they came up for air. “Hyung.”
“Don’t say anything,” Jongwoon said, as he kissed Ryeowook again and started to unbutton his shirt.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Jongwoon woke up to an empty bed. He stared at the empty spot next to him for a moment before getting up, frantic. He grabbed a pair of sweatpants and pulled them on, charged out of the bedroom and…
There was Ryeowook, sitting at the windowsill, knees up to his chest and wrapped in nothing but a sheet.
Jongwoon swallowed. He took two tentative steps.
Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon, and from the streetlights outside Jongwoon could see there were tears running down Ryeowook’s cheeks. Ryeowook reached up a hand and wiped them away quickly. “I…” he stammered.
“Ryeowook,” Jongwoon knelt down in front of him, taking both of Ryeowook’s damp hands in his.
“I never… I wasn’t going to,” Ryeowook whispered, his voice hoarse and raw from crying. “I was just telling Soojin-noona I recognized you, and that I wanted to be a singer, but I never… I was never…”
Jongwoon understood that. Sometime in the middle of the night, when Ryeowook had given himself to him, he realised that he’d made a mistake but they were too far-gone to turn back.
“It was because I was lonely,” Ryeowook whispered, the honesty so raw in Ryeowook’s voice Jongwoon could feel it stab through his entire being. “I was lonely and you came, and I wasn’t lonely anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Jongwoon whispered. He felt like the world’s biggest ass. “I shouldn’t… It’s just that, I ended up at the beach to escape all of that, and when you said what you said… I thought it was the same. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Ryeowook slid down onto the ground so that he was sitting in front of Jongwoon. Then he reached over for Jongwoon, cradling Jongwoon in his arms and holding him close. “Oh hyung,” he whispered. “You were lonely too.”
Jongwoon held on to Ryeowook and cried.
Ryeowook insisted on having pizza for breakfast. It was something they couldn’t get in the village, so he wanted to eat it in Seoul. Jongwoon shrugged. When he worked overtime in the studios he ate whatever they ordered without bothering, but that morning the pizza they ate was delicious, like the food he ate when he was at the beach.
Everything in Seoul was a wonder to Ryeowook. He peered into store windows, badgered Jongwoon to buy him useless trinkets in the 1000 won shop and had a roaring conversation with the ahjuma at the chicken shop when he realised they spoke the same dialect.
That evening, Ryeowook stared speechless at the skyline of Seoul at the top of Namsam Tower. He watched the skyline as Jongwoon watched him.
Jongwoon thought it was strange- everything in Seoul was different with Ryeowook around. He would never had taken a second look at the park Ryeowook ran through that morning next to his apartment; never would have thought the Tom n Toms where he got coffee every day was special; never would have marveled at how convenient something “two-subway-stations-away” was.
Even the night scene, which he could view every night from his own apartment along the Han River, looked like stars twinkling in the night sky. The city wasn’t cold and imposing; all of a sudden it was warm and familiar. Like home.
“Hyung,” Ryeowook said, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight in front of him. “If all I want to be is in the city, and all you want to do is run away from it, what will we do?”
Jongwoon took Ryeowook’s hand. “We’ll just meet in the middle.”
Ryeowook laughed. “Okay,” he said. “Somewhere in the middle. But wherever we are, we won’t be lonely anymore, right? Because we have each other. Anytime we want to run away, we’ll just have to come look for each other.”
Jongwoon nodded. Ryeowook grinned and rested his head on Jongwoon’s shoulder.
For the first time in a long while, Jongwoon didn’t want to run away.
He was right where he wanted to be.
♥