Sunrise, Sunset
Title: Sunrise, Sunset
Pairing: YunJae
Length: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rating: PG-13
Summary: How do you describe a beautiful sunrise to a blind person?
To be quite honest, it wasn’t the boy who first caught Yunho’s eye, but the girl. When he stepped in through the front door, she was hanging onto the counter, almost crawling over it in her agitation, running shoe-clad feet kicking against the wooden surface as she argued with the reception staff. There was a guy standing next to her, face half turned away as he stared out of the glass doors onto the empty side street, looking entirely indifferent behind his sunglasses despite the ruckus going on next to him.
The girl’s gestures were getting wilder and more boisterous as she pushed herself off the counter, gripping the guy’s hoodie and flailing her other arm around. The receptionist appeared exasperated and kept glancing sideways, as if expecting someone to pop up and help him with the troublesome customer. Yunho couldn’t help but to sidle closer, trying to act as inconspicuous as he could. The girl’s antics were making him curious, and he couldn’t help but to wonder what could make her act so riled up, in the reception room of a public bathhouse of all places. Maybe the guy had done something wrong to her, and she was blaming the personnel for it?
Another member of the staff appeared, and the girl instantly turned to him, forcefully pulling the guy along as she started to rave about her case again. Yunho pricked up his ears, casually leaning against the other end of the counter as he listened in.
“-and Jjoongie’s gone in alone many times before, it worked just fine! I cannot see one reason why he couldn’t enter this time, the staff has always been very helpful and showed him all the places he needs to know-”
“As the receptionist already told you we are having a very busy day today, not to mention there’s a greater risk of an accident happening if he enters alone-”
“You mean there’s a risk he’d cause some inconvenience for you! Do you know that not allowing disabled people inside any facility is a crime in this country-”
“We are not saying we won’t allow him inside, we are just requiring a same-sex personal assistant to attend! He obviously will need help with every task and our staff cannot afford the time to help him undress, bathe, enter the hot rooms, to lead him around! Acting as a personal assistant is not part of the services of this establishment…”
The boy turned to face the dispute, his expression still as emotionless as ever as he participated in the argument for the first time.
“I don’t fucking need someone to help me undress or bathe, my eyes are bad, not my hands, thank you very much!” he spat out before resting his hand on the girl’s arm as if trying to calm her down. “Nuna, let’s just go home…” he added in a smaller, fed-up voice.
“Shut up Jjoongie, I came here to bathe and I will too! And so will you, damn it,” the girl snapped, shaking the boy’s hand off her arm. She pushed forwards, palms flat against the counter as she continued to yell at who appeared to be the manager of the place.
“Like I told you before, he has always been able to get the small amount of assistance he needs from the staff and never before has anyone complained that it’s too much of a hassle-”
Yunho straightened his back, stretched his arms once and adjusted the backpack slouching off one of his shoulders before stepping forwards and easily sliding his hand into the boy’s. As expected, the guy jerked away violently, trying to pull his hand back to himself, but Yunho was prepared and he kept his hold firm.
“Hi Jjoongie! What’s up? Sorry I’m late, mom wouldn’t stop nagging at me,” he announced jovially and turned to face the girl who was gaping at him, having forgotten the fight she was in at the moment.
“Hey nuna, long time no see,” he smiled at the girl, giving her a pointed look. “Did you pay already?”
“What- W-Who-” the girl spluttered, eyeing Yunho from top to bottom as she fought to get her speech organs under control again.
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you forgot I was coming too? You can pay my entrance fee too if this is the welcome I get!” he pouted, turning to tug at the flabbergasted boy’s hand. “Jjoongie, you got your stuff?”
The boy nodded slowly, and Yunho could feel his stiff hand slacken in his hold as the other started catching on.
“Let’s go then! So, our towels?” he turned to face the receptionist with a beatific smile on his face. The man was staring, and it took him a few seconds to understand what was being asked of him. He stood still until the manager prodded his side, and then he startled, turning around to pick up the linens. He dumped them on the counter, thrusting two keys and two small pieces of paper into Yunho’s awaiting hand.
“The men’s locker room and sauna are on the right,” he recited with an automatic voice. “Have a relaxing stay…”
“Thank you!” Yunho beamed, scooping up the pile of linens under his arm before turning to face to girl once again. “See you upstairs, nuna!”
The girl was still staring at him, eyes wide. Yunho didn’t wait for an answer as he pulled the boy with him towards the shoe lockers. The receptionist was looking after them as well, but the manager had turned towards the girl, scratching his head, looking miffed and bewildered at the same time.
“You could have just said there was another male coming… The fee for three people is 27 000 won.”
Yunho could see the girl finally turning to the counter, looking as confused as ever. When he reached the threshold of the room, he toed his shoes off, waiting for the boy to do the same before leaning over to whisper in his ear.
“I’ve never led a blind person before, how do we make this look plausible? I need to use both my hands now.”
The boy tugged his hand out of Yunho’s and bent down awkwardly to pick up his shoes.
“Just let me grab your shirt,” he grimaced, stretching his free hand out until it collided with Yunho’s torso. He took a hold of the other’s jacket while Yunho rearranged the stuff in his arms and picked up his sneakers as well.
“What are you doing anyways?” the boy demanded as they shuffled towards their shoe lockers.
“Huh, ensuring you get to enjoy your date at the bathhouse with that hot chick?” Yunho answered absentmindedly as he tried to manage inserting his dirty sneakers into his locker without dropping their linens on the floor. Of course they just had had to give them the uppermost ones.
“That’s my sister, watch what you’re saying!” the boy snarled, pinching his fingers onto Yunho’s side through his jacket.
“Wow, wow, okay I’m sorry, calm down Jjoongie,” he flinched, trying to wiggle away from the abusing fingers. “Gimme your shoes, I’ll put them in the locker, we got the top ones so I don’t think you can reach.”
“Don’t call me that, it makes me feel like a five-year-old,” the boy said defiantly as he handed his shoes over, loosening his grip on the other’s side.
Yunho tiptoed to stuff the boy’s shoes in and turned the key in the lock before grabbing the boy’s free hand and pressing the key into his fist.
“You’ve got the number 261, okay.”
“Thanks,” the boy answered, tracing his fingers over the raised numbers on the keychain before securing the bracelet on his wrist.
“So,” Yunho started as they walked up the stairs leading up to the locker room, “if I’m not allowed to call your Jjoongie, what should I call you then?”
“Kim Jaejoong,” Jaejoong said. “11th grade.”
“Me too!” Yunho exclaimed. “Jung Yunho. What school?”
The boy fidgeted a little, almost causing Yunho to stop to check if he had stumbled in the stairs.
“…Pusan School for the Blind,” Jaejoong answered after a moment.
“Oh.” Yunho understood now. “Wait. Isn’t it right next to Dongshin Middle School? I used to go there!”
“Great,” Jaejoong said wrily. “So you were one of those stupid kids shouting stupid things at us from the sidelines of the sports ground when we had PE class?”
Yunho chuckled, unfazed.
“And you’re one of those disabled people constantly on the defensive mode?”
Jaejoong turned his head away, slightly embarrassed of himself.
“Can’t blame me,” he retorted, “you heard how those people at the reception thought I’m unable to bathe by myself. I’m blind, not fucking bathroom disabled.”
“That new manager is a jackass,” Yunho proclaimed offhandedly. “Just ignore him, he probably still asks his mother to wipe his ass after shitting. Oh, we’re here…”
They’d already threaded through a few aisles of lockers, accurately ending up in front of their own numbers. Yunho saw they’d at least had the tact to give them a lower locker this time, the other one situated right above it.
Depositing all their linens on the floor, he took hold of the hand grasping his jacket and directed it against the right door.
“That one’s yours. Let me sort through these linens… Man, I’ve always said this place has the ugliest shorts ever! What’s with this dirty yellow, seriously… And the girls get pink, of course!”
As he looked up, he could see the appalled expression on Jaejoong’s face. Unable to help himself, he burst out laughing, handing Jaejoong his own pair of shorts, t-shirt and towels.
“No-one ever bothered to tell you how ugly-ass the clothes in this place are?” he asked, drinking in the rather good-looking clothes of the other boy. Either he had a very fashionable girlfriend, or his sister paid more attention in clothing him than herself.
“Well, um, I don’t know…” Jaejoong stuttered, trying to figure out a way to say he was rather surprised by the way Yunho had sounded as if he wanted the pink shorts instead. Not that he knew exactly what pink was like… but it was a girls’ colour, right? More specifically, a little girls’ colour.
“Oh well, now you know. Good thing it’s your sister, not you girlfriend, cause this shade can make anyone look hideous,” Yunho declared cheerily as he started stripping himself of his clothes. He threw all his clothes into his locker in a messy pile, dropping the shorts and the t-shirt provided by the bathhouse on top of them before draping one of his small towels around his neck and grabbing his shampoo and toothbrush. He had never been the kind of person to bring his whole selection of soaps and body washes to the bathhouse; if the place offered free soap and toothpaste, it was meant to be used, right?
Jaejoong was still standing next to him, towels and shorts in his arms, shades sitting on his nose, backpack snug on his back, as he fingered the edge of the door to his locker.
“You alright?” Yunho asked, touching the boy’s shoulder. “Need any more help? Are you coming to the baths too?”
The boy seemed to snap out of some sort of stupor at the touch, managing a small smile.
“Nah, I think my sister will be waiting for me upstairs,” he said, bending his neck to point his head in a random direction.
Yunho gazed at the boy’s form, turned away from him in a slightly awkward and unsure way. The boy was scratching his ankle with his toes, ending up balancing on only one socked foot.
“Alright then,” he drawled, feeling like he was supposed to do something more. “You know where the snack counter is right? I’m sure they can help you if you need.”
“Yeah yeah,” Jaejoong answered a little too quickly. “I’ve been here before.”
“Okay then,” Yunho said again. “I’ll hit the showers now, see you around!”
He gave the other’s shoulder a few friendly pats before locking his locker door and turning to walk away.
Not knowing why, he didn’t walk to the shower room. Instead, he stopped at the end of the aisle, letting a rather plump middle-aged man past him before turning around to look at the other boy. Their own aisle of lockers was empty of people, Jaejoong’s figure lonely in the opposite end of it. The boy was looking after him, or rather had his head turned in his direction; Yunho was well aware he couldn’t actually see him. It was actually kind of unnerving to be looking him straight in the eyes, although he was quite sure the boy didn’t know he had stopped to spy on him. There were quite a few people walking around, and even knowing that blind people stereotypically had better hearing than the sighted, he reckoned it was impossible the other could have detected that exactly his footsteps had halted in the other end of the aisle.
After a while, Jaejoong turned his head around, finally unlocking his locker, kneeling down next to it. He lowered all the things on his arms onto the floor, feeling through them, folding them neatly next to each other. He slid his backpack off, setting it on top of the clothes and opening the zipper, rummaging through the things he had with him inside it. He pulled out his cell phone and wallet, tucking a few bills into the phone case before setting it down on his right side. Then he put his backpack into the locker, followed by one of his towels.
Yunho was starting to feel a little creepy, spying buck naked on a guy who was completely oblivious to the eyes on him. He looked around, rubbing his bare arms as he tried to see if anyone had noticed his staring. There was a group of middle school aged boys on the aisle next to them, loud and raucous as they played around, throwing stuff at each other and calling each other stupid nicknames. There were also a couple of fathers helping their young sons change, and a tired-looking business man sitting on a bench, loosening his tie but too exhausted to actually move.
When he looked back to Jaejoong, the boy was already changing, pulling the dirty yellow, extremely baggy t-shirt over his naked upper body. He then pulled off his socks and shimmied out of his jeans, folding them neatly and placing them in the locker before pulling the pair of matchedly baggy shorts up his narrow hips. Feeling around the ground as if to see if he had missed anything, Jaejoong shut his locker and sat in front of it, one small towel on his lap, playing with the cell phone in his hand.
Yunho stood unmoved, ready to bolt if the boy got up, but Jaejoong remained sitting on the floor, leaning his back against his locker as if he was pondering on something. He kept turning his smart phone on and off, the screen lighting up and blacking down again with a small beep.
When nothing happened for a good two minutes, Yunho stepped forwards. He didn’t really have a plan; but he couldn’t just stand there and spy on the sitting boy anymore.
“Yo,” he said, walking closer. Jaejoong’s head shoot up immediately, turning his way. “Hi there again… Will you scoot over so I don’t hit your head with my locker door.”
The boy did just that, inching a few centimetres away with his phone still in his hand. Yunho opened his locker, stuffing his shampoo inside, not really sure what he was doing; when he felt a hesitant touch on his calf.
“You’re not wet,” Jaejoong stated, and Yunho scratched the back of his neck, pulling his boxers out of the locker to slip them on.
“Yeah I forgot something…” he trailed off, starting to dress himself in the same shorts and t-shirt ensemble that Jaejoong was wearing. He was just pulling out his own cell phone when a piece of paper flittered down from his locker, landing at his feet on the floor.
“Oh yeah!” he exclaimed, happy to have found his excuse. He picked up the paper, reaching over to slide it into Jaejoong’s hand. “I forgot to give you your blanket slip.”
“Oh thanks,” the boy smiled, flipping his phone case open to slip the paper inside with the bills.
“How do you use that thing?” Yunho asked, curious.
“My phone?” Jaejoong enquired. “It’s got an app that reads stuff aloud you see.”
“Oh, cool.” Yunho didn’t really have anything more to say. He’d dressed up already, picked up everything he needed, but he didn’t really know how to ask Jaejoong what he wanted to ask. He’d asked if the boy needed more help once already, and the boy had said no; having seen the defensive side of Jaejoong already, he didn’t want the other to believe that Yunho didn’t think he could get by on his own. But the way he was sitting on the floor, it sure looked like he wasn’t getting there.
“Well, um,” Yunho started, “I’m going now then…”
Jaejoong didn’t answer vocally, only nodding and concentrating on his bleeping phone. Yunho stuffed his hands into the pockets of his t-shirt, his feet starting to move slowly, reluctantly.
Just when he was about to gather his courage, whirl around, inhale deeply, and ask away no matter what the response, Jaejoong called out.
“Hey! Yunho!”
“What,” he said, turning around on his heels, secretly happy the other couldn’t see how eagerly.
“You owe my sister 9 000 won, you know!”
Jaejoong had clambered up, resting his palm against the lockers, his other hand clutching onto his towel.
Yunho looked at him, a smile tugging on his lips.
“Damn,” he said in an amused voice, “I thought I’d managed to get away with it and score myself a free place to sleep.”
“Keep dreaming,” Jaejoong scoffed, walking towards him a little cautiously, hand trailing over the lockers. “So you’re staying overnight?”
“Yep, you guys too?” Yunho asked as he walked towards Jaejoong, stopping right in front of the other boy.
“Yeah,” Jaejoong answered, “don’t tell my sister I told you this but she had a nasty fight with my mom and now she’s refusing to go back home. I think taking me here was just a good excuse to get away from there.”
Jaejoong snickered delightedly, covering his mouth with the towel he was holding, and suddenly Yunho had an urge to see more of his face. The sunglasses were still perched up on his nose, and with the towel covering the lower half of his face, there was barely anything visible.
“Such a suffering dutiful brother, aren’t you,” Yunho teased, his mind on something very different than Jaejoong’s sister. “Are you going up wearing those sunglasses?”
“Oh yeah,” Jaejoong seemed to realise something, “I had totally forgotten I was still wearing them.”
Taking the few steps required back to his locker, Jaejoong kneeled down again, feeling for the lock before pressing the key in and turning it. He took the sunglasses off and when he stood back up after locking the door, Yunho was staring at him once again, confused and stunned.
“What are you looking at,” Jaejoong asked amusedly, acting more irritated than he actually was.
“How do you know I’m looking?” Yunho answered his question with his own, stepping closer.
“Cause you’re silent and you never shut up before,” Jaejoong answered a little brattily while securing his key on his wrist.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, though I’m pretty sure I already know what you’re going to ask,” Jaejoong answered carelessly.
“Why do you wear those glasses?” Yunho enquired.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I?” Jaejoong asked, not making it easy for the other on purpose.
Yunho stuttered, not prepared for the counterattack.
“I always thought that, you know… Only people whose… whose eyes are… you know,” he managed to get out, looking down a little shamefully.
“You mean blind people with weird, ugly eyes, right?” Jaejoong exclaimed loud and clear, not sparing the other any embarrassment. “I wear them for other people more than for myself. It’s sometimes easier, for them to understand that I’m blind you see, saves me a lot of awkward situations.”
Yunho grunted a response, hoping it was enough for the other. He thought he was allowed to express some surprise, though; he was almost sure Jaejoong had done it on purpose. He must have known the effect, he must have had people reacting the same way before.
Jaejoong’s eyes were absolutely beautiful. Wide, almost round; and his pupils were large as well, their colour inexplicably bright for the supposedly common shade of brown.
The way they trailed upwards, moving in seemingly random directions, his left eye with a slight squint, took nothing away from their allure.
“Gimme your arm,” Jaejoong said, looking rather pleased with himself, if not straight-out smug.
“Huh?” Yunho was a little unprepared for the hand that prodded his side, grabbing his shirt to pull him closer to the other boy. Jaejoong’s hand slipped around his arm as the boy smiled innocently.
“Have to make sure you pay my sister.”
Yunho chuckled as he started leading them towards the elevator that lead upstairs, where the resting areas and the hot rooms were situated. The door pinged, and when they stepped in, Jaejoong leaned closer, whispering to him in his husky voice.
“Also, I was kind of embarrassed to ask the staff for help because they all think I’m here with you… And I didn’t know what aisle we were in, so I didn’t really now how far away the snack counter was either,” he admitted in a low voice, even though there were no other people in the elevator with them.
“Oh… sorry,” Yunho murmured back. He had known the boy for barely half an hour, but he was already learning a lot. Just how many things a person had to consider only in order to be able to ask for help?
“No no, don’t apologise,” Jaejoong smiled at him, and Yunho couldn’t help but to be rather impressed with the other boy’s honesty. He guessed it came with having to humble oneself so often, with having to admit there were many things one was unable to do alone. “I told you I was okay after all. I could’ve just asked.”
The moment the elevator pinged again, there was a tornado-like force wrenching them out through the sliding doors.
“Jjoongie!” The voice was rather high-pitched, even slightly panicked. “You’re fine?”
“Nuna!” Jaejoong’s defiant voice could be heard, coming from somewhere deep inside the fierce embrace he had been pulled in. He was a head taller than his big sister, but the other had still managed to smother him rather effectively. “I’m okay, alright? What did you even think would happen!”
Jaejoong’s sister pulled back, hands still on her little brother’s arms as if she was reluctant to let go altogether. She tilted her head awkwardly to scratch her ear with her shoulder, the wide sleeve of her pink t-shirt shifting back and forth on her arm.
“You never know,” she proclaimed with her eyes on Yunho, remembering the boy’s rather telling looks downstairs. His haircut already was slightly too badass for her taste when it came to entrusting her precious little brother into someone else’s care. It was sheared short on the sides, left long on the top, falling over his brow untamedly. The Letterman jacket he had worn was all right, she guessed; maybe it meant he was actually a university student.
“Peace,” Yunho said, turning on his charming smile. The girl only glanced at him for moment, turning away utterly unaffected, back to her little brother.
“So he actually helped you out?” she enquired, taking in the shorts-clad figure of her brother. After making the observation he had his cell phone with him and all, she relaxed a little, letting go of her grumbling baby brother.
“Yeah, he actually helped me out,” Jaejoong answered her with a sarcastic tone seeping into his voice. “You’re so cynical sometimes, nuna. It’s really no wonder you don’t get along with mom.”
The girl retorted with a quick, painful-looking slap on his brother arm, seemingly having gotten over her protective fit.
“Shut up, Jjoongie,” she dismissed his words, turning towards Yunho again. “Thanks for helping my dongsaeng,” she smiled genuinely, “he can be a handful sometimes.”
“Hey!” Jaejoong exclaimed from the sidelines. “I’m still here! Just because I cannot see you doesn’t mean I cannot hear you!”
“No problem,” Yunho answered her. The easy relationship between the siblings was making him a little envious; his relationship with his little sister was far from the relaxed, close atmosphere the two were displaying.
“Your entrance was pretty… unannounced, so to say,” the girl continued. “Which reminds me… You owe me 9 000 won.”
“Like brother, like sister,” Yunho muttered, trying to keep his amusement to himself. He glanced at Jaejoong, who had turned away from them, towards a large window wall facing open sea. The view was stunningly beautiful; there was a long bridge crawling over the whole length of the horizon. It had already been lit up, the sky slowly turning dark with the descending twilight. Jaejoong was turning his head slowly, as if taking in the room, all the people inside it.
“How about I buy you guys some snacks?” Yunho offered. “What would you like?”
“Eggs,” Jaejoong answered so quickly his sister turned around to stare at him.
“What,” the boy said defensively at the silence following his words, “he owes us money after all.”
Yunho chuckled once again. This trip to the public bathhouse was proving to be quite interesting.
“Eggs it is,” he agreed, walking over to the snack counter. It was bigger than the one in the locker room, and Yunho was quite impressed with the variety of instant noodles they carried, not to mention the numerous other foods.
Piling things on the counter, he could hear Jaejoong’s sister draping herself all over her brother, discussing something in a hushed tone. Or rather, it sounded like an interrogation, what with Jaejoong’s annoyed, evasive answers.
After paying, Yunho walked back, thrusting a plastic container of sweet rice drink into Jaejoong’s hand.
“Sikhye,” he explained as the other boy raised the bottle to his face, sniffing at the beverage before sucking one of the strands into his mouth. Yunho smiled at the boy’s appreciative grunt.
“You guys wanna go to the hot room now?” he asked the two siblings. Watching Jaejoong automatically slip his hand around his sister’s arm, he suddenly felt like he’d just lost his job. And not just some shitwork either; but a job he’d actually enjoyed doing.
They walked over to a milder hot room, Yunho holding the door open as the two siblings scampered in, tottering delightfully. The floor was covered in a thick layer of small pebbles, pleasantly warm under their bare feet. The room was dimly lit, a reddish light occasionally lighting up in imitation of the glow of fire.
Sitting down in one corner, Yunho dumped all the snacks he had bought in the middle of their little circle, draping the small towel he had around his neck over his head. The bad thing about his current hairstyle was that the ends always tended to get dripping sweaty every time he went to a bathhouse, plastering against his forehead in a rather comical-looking manner.
Jaejoong was feeling through the food in front of him, the rice drink still in one hand as he suckled on a baby blue straw absentmindedly. When his fingertips bumped into the egg bowl, he let out a small delighted noise, balancing the drink container on the pebbles before starting to peel his egg.
Popping some chips into his mouth, Yunho watched with fascination how his fingers worked nimbly over it, shucking shards of the shell into the small bowl. He’d always been rather impractical with his hands himself, preferring activities that utilised his whole body, such as sports and dancing.
Jaejoong’s sister was playing with the pebbles, trying to pile them up into a small pagoda. She watched as Yunho adjusted the towel on his head, trying to make it cover his forehead without falling over his eyes.
“Jjoongie,” she started, “I think you should teach Yunho how to do the towel sheep head.”
“Mmmh?” the other replied over munching on his egg, face contorted into a pleasured expression over the baked food.
“He’s dripping,” she explained, seemingly more interested in the rocks she was playing with.
Jaejoong swallowed the last lump of his egg, scrunching his face at Yunho.
“Will you get smelly? I’m not sleeping anywhere near you if you stink,” he stated, rendering the other boy speechless.
“…just teach me the sheep head,” Yunho answered him, dumbfounded. The other sure was straightforward, even with people he didn’t know. Yet.
“Alright,” Jaejoong started, pulling his towel down on his lap and folding it neatly. “Fold it three times like this,” he directed, demonstrating with his own. “Then fold the ends over themselves like this. Until it’s small enough.”
Yunho watched him make the ends of the folded towel into two neat sheep ears before pulling the whole thing over his head. Jaejoong’s black hair was cut just below his ears, and the way it stuck out under the fabric looked downright adorable.
“It’s that simple?!” Yunho mused. “I always thought it would be like origami, fold this, crease that, fold back, tear here, sew there…”
“I know right, it’s kind of disappointing, isn’t it?” Jaejoong laughed. “I always thought it would be super hard too, but no, it’s like, fold thrice and that’s it.”
Yunho took his own towel down from his head, starting fold it the way Jaejoong had showed him.
When he pulled the finished product over his hair, Jaejoong’s sister cracked up, dipping over on her back from laughter.
“What, what,” Jaejoong demanded impatiently, “what happened, tell me too!”
“Ha-ha, this guy, just now he was marvelling at how simple it is, but, ha-ha, h-he failed completely,” she could barely catch her breath between her giggles.
“Show me too, show me!” Jaejoong begged, reaching his hand towards Yunho. The boy ducked, grabbing Jaejoong’s wrists to prevent him from touching his sloppily drooping towel hat. Jaejoong grunted disapprovingly, flailing his arms as he began to fight against the other is his enthusiasm to get to the lame attempt of a towel sheep head.
“No way I’m gonna show you this failure of mine,” Yunho denied, bending his knee up between them in order to prevent the other boy from getting closer.
“Unfair, I wanna see it too,” Jaejoong whined as they struggled. Yunho fell over onto his side as Jaejoong knocked him down, leaning against the other boy’s hip, trying to wrench his wrists back to himself.
In a few minutes, the fight had escalated into a full blown pebble war, original cause long forgotten as Jaejoong delighted in thrusting fistfuls of pebbles inside the neckline of Yunho’s t-shirt. Yunho was groaning at each attack, other hand on his towel hat that was threatening to fall off, other seizing warm rocks as he kept throwing them at Jaejoong’s legs, his aim a little askew with the difficult position he was in.
Jaejoong sister stared at the squabbling pair, but when the battle didn’t seem to cease even after ten minutes, more pebbles going in from each hole in their clothes, she stood up, brushing off dust and shaking her head at her supposedly high-school-age baby brother and his new friend.
“I’ll just, uhh, I’ll excuse myself for a minute, I’ll go brush my teeth,” she said, her words going unnoticed as she grabbed some of the empty snack bags and exited the room.
When she came back, Yunho was sitting with his back against the wall, texting in rapid fire on his phone. Jaejoong was lying on the pebbles, head next to Yunho’s hips and the last baked egg held tightly in his hand.
“Did he fall asleep already?” she asked Yunho incredulously. Her brother shifted, bringing his egg hand up to wave it around dismissively.
“M’ not sleepin’,” he mumbled, turning his face further into the warm pebbles, making his shoulder collide with Yunho’s thigh. The boy shifted his eyes from his phone, gazing at Jaejoong for a second before smiling up at the boy’s sister. The girl scoffed, bending down to give her brother’s bum a sounding slap. The boy squeaked, clambering up only to bury his face onto his bent knees, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a string of curse words.
“Trust my lazy-ass brother to utterly exhaust himself with one little fight,” she complained, leaning forwards to add right into his brother’s ear, “that’s what you get from skipping PE class, you hear me?!”
“Fuck off nuna,” Jaejoong retorted, still sounding more asleep than awake. His sister smiled fondly at him, then looking questioningly at Yunho.
“You’re sleeping here too?”
“Yeah,” he answered easily, “shall we go get our blankets?”
Jaejoong’s sister nodded, shaking her brother’s shoulders. The boy still had his head buried in his knees, egg safely inside one fist.
“Come on, Jjoongie, let’s go sleep,” she prompted, and the boy stretched a little, eyes closed. Yunho stood up, pulling the other boy with him by his arm, while his sister collected the rest of their trash. Leading the nodding boy out of the room, they walked into the large resting room. There were numerous people already lying down or huddled in small groups, little children draped over their sleeping parents, eyes closed and mouth open. There was a group of giggling middle schoolers in one corner, sitting on the thin carpets the bathhouse provided, slurping down cups of instant noodles. A little girl in purple shorts was running around, returning back to her sleeping family before setting off for another round. She almost bumped into Yunho’s leg as they walked towards a pile of blankets, lifting the hem of her t-shirt into her mouth as she stared at them. Yunho smiled at the child, showing her his tongue, only causing the kid to gape even more.
“Jjoongie where’s your blanket slip?” Jaejoong’s sister asked, plopping his own piece of paper into a small box sitting on the top of the pile before grabbing two blankets. They were thin like the provided carpets, and of a rather odd size; not quite long enough to cover a person’s whole body, but still big enough to serve as a blanket.
“Inside my phone,” the boy yawned, fumbling for the phone in his t-shirt pocket. He dug the paper out, handing it to Yunho who deposited both of their slips in the box.
After grabbing their blankets, they looked for an empty space, finding one next to the wall in the very end of the large room.
Jaejoong settled down immediately, pressing his head on the small, hard, rectangular pillow, pulling both blankets over himself. In only a matter of minutes he was out cold, breathing slowly, one hand carefully circling the egg and his smart phone that he had placed on the floor next to him.
“Damn I’ll have to make sure he brushes his teeth twice as hard next morning,” his sister grumbled, and Yunho couldn’t help but to chuckle at the big sister’s tendency to full-out baby her little brother. “I’ll keep an eye on your blankets if you want to go,” she added.
Yunho made quick trip to the bathroom, brushing his teeth and splashing his face before taking the elevator back up. Jaejoong’s sister had settled down next to his sleeping brother, fiddling with her phone when Yunho came back up.
“So,” she started when Yunho had lain down on the other side of Jaejoong, “what’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?” Yunho asked.
“You know, quite the actor you were down there. I was really set on making them see how wrong they were about not letting Jjoongie in… But then you came along.”
They were speaking over the sleeping boy’s head, Yunho propped up on his elbow. Jaejoong was laying on his stomach, face directed towards Yunho’s side, the soft puffs of his breathing hitting the other boy’s arm.
“Oh…” Yunho scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “I don’t know, I didn’t really think before I acted…”
“Ha-ha, don’t worry, it’s fine,” the girl assured him when she saw his unsure expression. “Thanks for helping… Though I’ll have to go through with that conversation next time.”
“That new manager really is an ass, isn’t he,” Yunho asserted. “That new rule about middle schoolers needing an adult with them if they want to come in… I mean, where else can they hang out?”
“So true,” she agreed, going back to her phone. Yunho listened to the sounds of her fingers dancing on the touch screen, letting himself lie down completely. Jaejoong’s face was very close to his, looking peaceful, almost serene while the boy travelled in his dream world.
“Can I ask you something? About Jaejoong I mean?” Yunho decided to voice his inner musings, making the boy’s sister glance at him.
“Sure,” she answered, “go ahead. Though you could’ve just asked him you know, Jjoongie really doesn’t mind explaining stuff to people.”
“Yeah, I guess, I mean, I haven’t really met a blind person before…” Yunho trailed off.
“Yeah I think Jjoongie gets that a lot,” Jaejoong’s sister said, a smile tugging at her lips.
“He was born like that, right? Like, can he see anything?” Yunho asked, curious about the mesmerising eyes that were now tranquilly hidden under closed eyelids and long eyelashes.
“Yeah he was born blind… To be quite honest I think it makes it easier for him,” her sister confessed, “there are a couple of really tragic kids at his school… Seriously if you ever feel the need to cry just ask one of them to tell you their life stories.”
“Duly noted.”
“He can see like, the change in lightness though. He does know if it’s dark or not, like if it’s day or night,” she explained to the boy lying on the other side of her brother, “but he cannot see colours or anything like that. I don’t think he can even see which way the light is coming from.”
“I see,” Yunho said, pondering on her words, staring at Jaejoong’s face. He didn’t notice the girl looking at him thoughtfully from the other side of the sleeping boy.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh, 11th grade,” Yunho answered, already a little too deep inside his own thoughts to understand the question immediately. “Actually I used to attend the middle school that’s right next to the school for the blind.”
“Really?” she gushed. “You’re practically classmates then!”
“Ha-ha, I guess so,” Yunho chuckled, “well we did share our science teacher with that school for a few weeks when our own one suddenly quit.”
“You had Mr Jin?” she laughed. “Damn, Jjoongie just wouldn’t shut up about him back then. I swear he had the biggest schoolboy crush on that teacher ever!”
Yunho perked up at that, finding Jaejoong’s sister looking him straight in the eye, as if waiting for some kind of reaction.
“…well, he was pretty damn hot,” Yunho drawled, settling back down on the floor. Jaejoong’s sister inhaled once, suddenly sitting up and gathering her belongings.
“You know I think I’ll go sleep in the women’s sleeping room,” she explained, grabbing her pillow and blankets. “It always gets kinda cold here, and they snore less there too,” she threw a pointed look towards the corner where a father of three was sawing wood, the noise echoing throughout the whole room.
“Good night,” Yunho said, looking at the girl as she started walking away.
“You boys too… Sleep tight,” she answered, a happy skip in her step.
Yunho spent a few more moments looking at Jaejoong’s sleeping face, especially his closed eyes, all kinds of thoughts swimming around his head, before he gave in to sleep as well.
~0~0~0~
Yunho woke up to his cell phone digging nastily against his side inside his pocket. He turned over, groaning, and slowly opened his eyes. Blinking, he noticed it wasn’t quite dark anymore; the sky behind the long bridge was already lighting up, making the sea turn into the loveliest shades of warm orange.
He stared outside in awe. No matter how many times Yunho had visited the same bathhouse, he’d always been too lazy to actually wake up to see the sunrise. Despite the huge window wall facing the sea almost asking for people to come look at the view, Yunho could see everyone else was still sleeping in the room.
Turning around, he rested his hands on Jaejoong’s shoulders, shaking the boy gently.
“Hey!” he whispered. “Wake up Jaejoong!”
The boy whimpered, curling into himself.
“Come on, wake up!” Yunho wouldn’t let up. “It’s sunrise! Seriously! This one’s pretty amazing!”
Jaejoong scoffed, turning his back at Yunho.
“Dun wanna wake up yet,” he mumbled, his brow furrowing as he tried his best to ignore the other boy’s insistent shaking.
“Come on, get up! Now! We have to go look at this.”
“Who the fuck wakes a blind person up at the break of dawn just to see the sunrise anyway? I mean just how stupid can you be,” Jaejoong grumbled silently, trying to pull his blanket over his head, feet sticking out from the other end.
“Oh come on, indulge me,” Yunho whispered, tearing the fabric off the other boy’s body.
Jaejoong sat up, rubbing his eyes with open palms, making Yunho think about how even blind people get sleep-boogers in their eyes. The boy then felt the floor, stuffing his cell phone and egg into his pocket, before reaching over to his other side, encountering an empty space.
“Where’s my sister?” he asked, his confused voice still heavily laced with sleep.
“She crawled into the women’s sleeping room in the wee hours because you were snoring so loudly she couldn’t sleep,” Yunho muttered, earning himself a pretty sharp punch, from a person whose movements were still unsettled by sleep.
“I bet it was you who was snoring, she was just too polite to say it because unlike some people, our parents actually did a decent job raising their children,” Jaejoong sneered, making Yunho snicker as well.
“Wait until you meet my sister before you pass a judgement on my folks. Maybe I’m just the exception to the rule,” Yunho countered, stopping to think about it right away. “Or well. Say what you like. My sister’s the brattiest brat you’ll ever meet.”
The statement made Jaejoong laugh, so loudly Yunho had to start shushing him down between his own chortles. A middle-aged man lying next to them turned over, annoyed, muttering something about bored, wildly roaming high schoolers and how they meant nothing but trouble.
“Is he talking about people or what, or strays or what,” Jaejoong snickered, collapsing into another fit of uncontrollable giggles when Yunho started yipping at him, in the poorest imitation of a matchbox-sized dog Jaejoong had ever heard.
The middle-aged man raised his voice, telling the pair to scram if they weren’t going to shut up in five seconds. Yunho pressed his palm against Jaejoong’s mouth, the other’s eyes still crinkled into two identical half-moons as he fought his mirth.
“Come on,” Yunho urged the other to stand up in a hushed tone, struggling to keep his own voice down as well. “Let’s get up. We can go sit over there in front of the window.”
He led the boy to the spot, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. The sky was already quite light, beautiful shades of oranges, yellows, and pinks fading into light blue, making the familiar form of the bridge look new and almost foreign to him.
Jaejoong settled down next to him, wiggling his toes against the cold glass of the window.
“So,” he began, “how did you plan to make this worth my time?”
“Umm…” Yunho wasn’t quite so sure what he had been thinking anymore. He did have the tendency to act before thinking, after all. “Well, your sister told me that you could see light, last night after you were snoring away already… We can still see the day coming.”
“Gee,” Jaejoong jeered, “that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry.”
“Uhm…” Yunho was starting to feel ashamed.
“Gotta say, your lack of concern over my condition is pretty refreshing,” Jaejoong admitted, leaning down to rest his weight on his elbows, legs stretched straight forwards.
Yunho was hanging his head down, embarrassed over his act. How had he ever thought this would be a good idea? Watching the sun rise with a seeing person could be boring and anticlimactic at worst. He could only imagine how stupid Jaejoong must have been feeling, sitting there in front of the glass with gradually lighting up shades of grey over his eyes.
Jaejoong could sense the other boy starting to get apprehensive, and he decided to relieve him of his most probably unfounded worries. To be quite honest, he was only happy Yunho had expressed the desire to share such a moment with him, even if the idea didn’t exactly make sense. It’s the thought that counts, right?
“You could just describe it to me, you know,” he suggested, trying to sound as amicable as possible. “That’s what people usually do.”
“Oh,” Yunho brightened at the proposition. “Well, the sea is kind of reflecting the sky so it’s like, glimmering.”
“Uh-huh,” Jaejoong made an encouraging noise at the back of his throat.
“And the sky is like pink, and like, orange, and red, and yellow, so the sea is-”
“Oh now that’s so very helpful. I’m sure my sister also told you I can’t see colours… That means I don’t really know what they mean, what they’re like, you know?”
“Give me a break, I’m not used to this okay?” Yunho hissed, seeing the smile dancing on Jaejoong’s lips. Despite his sarcastic tone of voice, it was clear he wasn’t actually mad or even irritated in the least; more accurately, it seemed like he was finding Yunho’s attempts rather cute.
Yunho stared at the Jaejoong’s face, thinking of a way to convey the beautiful sunrise to the other boy. Not being able to just list colours… He guessed using only visible images in general wouldn’t exactly work. How did blind people define things anyway?
Jaejoong’s eyes were finally open, trailing around aimlessly as usual. As the sun climbed further up, its rays hit the spot they were sitting on, illuminating the boy’s face.
He had to use other senses, right? Smell, taste, touch… What the hell did a sunrise taste like?
Yunho smiled shortly at his own thoughts. He had never been the best at expressing himself verbally, just like he had never been the best with his hands.
Jaejoong seemed to have given up, sitting content on his spot with his lips slightly parted, drinking in the room filled with sleeping noises of various people. He let his head fall back, and when he straightened back up on his elbows, he could feel the sun starting to warm up his face. However, the fact that he was actually enjoying the moment, Yunho didn’t need to know that.
Yunho continued staring.
Touch. Touch? How would a sunrise feel like?
Carefully looking around the room, he made sure there were still no other people awake yet. He glanced at Jaejoong, back around the room, and then, with one swift movement, he reached a hand to cup Jaejoong’s jaw, leaning over the half-lying boy to press his lips against the other’s.
It was a chaste kiss, slow and languid like a sunrise. Jaejoong was so shocked when Yunho’s lips landed on his that he made a small noise, pulling his chin down instinctively, but the large hand on his jaw held his head still, effectively persuading him into tilting his face upwards.
When Yunho finally retreated, he stumbled backwards in his awkward haste, almost falling over on his back.
Jaejoong looked as if he was staring at him; his moist lips cracked open, his tongue running over them unconsciously. His beautiful, unseeing eyes asking for an explanation.
“That’s what it looks like, a-alright?” Yunho stumbled through his sentence. “That’s what it looks like.”
The other boy didn’t answer; he just slowly turned his face back towards the wide glass window. Looking at him, being able to study him felt strangely unfair; but Yunho didn’t avert his gaze all the same, watching as an amused smile slowly curved the corners of Jaejoong’s mouth upwards. They sat there for a while, the sun lazily climbing upwards with no one really paying attention to it, with no seeing eyes following the slow but sure ascension.
Moments passed, someone waking up and scuffing past them with his blankets dragging over the floor. The man yawned widely and scratched his belly as he threw his makeshift bedding on top of the pile starting to build up next to the door, disappearing through it.
Yunho inhaled softly, placing his palms flat against the floor and pushing himself up.
“Shall we go to the baths?” he asked, his voice sounding as if it was coming from outside, as if it was someone else’s voice, not his. He closed his eyes, waiting for the other boy’s answer, the telltale butterflies in his stomach deciding it was a perfect moment for a little morning dance.
“…I’ll wait for my sister here,” Jaejoong answered, turning his head away from Yunho.
Yunho was suffocating.
Then he heard a giggle and the sounds of someone standing up. A warm hand bumped against his shoulder, running down his arm before slipping around his elbow.
“I’m just kidding, silly. Yeah, let’s go.”
A/N: Why are all my fics always inspired by either newspaper articles, or stuff I learn at school? o___o Anyways I wrote this after reading an article in a Korean feminist journal, conerning a particular case with a blind woman and disabled people's rights in general.
Also this is a real jjimjilbang I went to in Pusan :D I'm sure everyone knows what a jjimjilbang is? No? And also, the towel sheep head... At least Yunho was wearing that when they recorded that variety show Happy Together years ago :'D I'm sure everyone saw it in many dramas too^^
The view from that jjimjilbang is really awesome, but we were too lazy to wake up to see the sunrise, even though we were supposed to... ;-; Well, at least YunJae got to see it xD Here's a pic~ (not mine) (x)
Pairing: YunJae
Length: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rating: PG-13
Summary: How do you describe a beautiful sunrise to a blind person?
To be quite honest, it wasn’t the boy who first caught Yunho’s eye, but the girl. When he stepped in through the front door, she was hanging onto the counter, almost crawling over it in her agitation, running shoe-clad feet kicking against the wooden surface as she argued with the reception staff. There was a guy standing next to her, face half turned away as he stared out of the glass doors onto the empty side street, looking entirely indifferent behind his sunglasses despite the ruckus going on next to him.
The girl’s gestures were getting wilder and more boisterous as she pushed herself off the counter, gripping the guy’s hoodie and flailing her other arm around. The receptionist appeared exasperated and kept glancing sideways, as if expecting someone to pop up and help him with the troublesome customer. Yunho couldn’t help but to sidle closer, trying to act as inconspicuous as he could. The girl’s antics were making him curious, and he couldn’t help but to wonder what could make her act so riled up, in the reception room of a public bathhouse of all places. Maybe the guy had done something wrong to her, and she was blaming the personnel for it?
Another member of the staff appeared, and the girl instantly turned to him, forcefully pulling the guy along as she started to rave about her case again. Yunho pricked up his ears, casually leaning against the other end of the counter as he listened in.
“-and Jjoongie’s gone in alone many times before, it worked just fine! I cannot see one reason why he couldn’t enter this time, the staff has always been very helpful and showed him all the places he needs to know-”
“As the receptionist already told you we are having a very busy day today, not to mention there’s a greater risk of an accident happening if he enters alone-”
“You mean there’s a risk he’d cause some inconvenience for you! Do you know that not allowing disabled people inside any facility is a crime in this country-”
“We are not saying we won’t allow him inside, we are just requiring a same-sex personal assistant to attend! He obviously will need help with every task and our staff cannot afford the time to help him undress, bathe, enter the hot rooms, to lead him around! Acting as a personal assistant is not part of the services of this establishment…”
The boy turned to face the dispute, his expression still as emotionless as ever as he participated in the argument for the first time.
“I don’t fucking need someone to help me undress or bathe, my eyes are bad, not my hands, thank you very much!” he spat out before resting his hand on the girl’s arm as if trying to calm her down. “Nuna, let’s just go home…” he added in a smaller, fed-up voice.
“Shut up Jjoongie, I came here to bathe and I will too! And so will you, damn it,” the girl snapped, shaking the boy’s hand off her arm. She pushed forwards, palms flat against the counter as she continued to yell at who appeared to be the manager of the place.
“Like I told you before, he has always been able to get the small amount of assistance he needs from the staff and never before has anyone complained that it’s too much of a hassle-”
Yunho straightened his back, stretched his arms once and adjusted the backpack slouching off one of his shoulders before stepping forwards and easily sliding his hand into the boy’s. As expected, the guy jerked away violently, trying to pull his hand back to himself, but Yunho was prepared and he kept his hold firm.
“Hi Jjoongie! What’s up? Sorry I’m late, mom wouldn’t stop nagging at me,” he announced jovially and turned to face the girl who was gaping at him, having forgotten the fight she was in at the moment.
“Hey nuna, long time no see,” he smiled at the girl, giving her a pointed look. “Did you pay already?”
“What- W-Who-” the girl spluttered, eyeing Yunho from top to bottom as she fought to get her speech organs under control again.
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you forgot I was coming too? You can pay my entrance fee too if this is the welcome I get!” he pouted, turning to tug at the flabbergasted boy’s hand. “Jjoongie, you got your stuff?”
The boy nodded slowly, and Yunho could feel his stiff hand slacken in his hold as the other started catching on.
“Let’s go then! So, our towels?” he turned to face the receptionist with a beatific smile on his face. The man was staring, and it took him a few seconds to understand what was being asked of him. He stood still until the manager prodded his side, and then he startled, turning around to pick up the linens. He dumped them on the counter, thrusting two keys and two small pieces of paper into Yunho’s awaiting hand.
“The men’s locker room and sauna are on the right,” he recited with an automatic voice. “Have a relaxing stay…”
“Thank you!” Yunho beamed, scooping up the pile of linens under his arm before turning to face to girl once again. “See you upstairs, nuna!”
The girl was still staring at him, eyes wide. Yunho didn’t wait for an answer as he pulled the boy with him towards the shoe lockers. The receptionist was looking after them as well, but the manager had turned towards the girl, scratching his head, looking miffed and bewildered at the same time.
“You could have just said there was another male coming… The fee for three people is 27 000 won.”
Yunho could see the girl finally turning to the counter, looking as confused as ever. When he reached the threshold of the room, he toed his shoes off, waiting for the boy to do the same before leaning over to whisper in his ear.
“I’ve never led a blind person before, how do we make this look plausible? I need to use both my hands now.”
The boy tugged his hand out of Yunho’s and bent down awkwardly to pick up his shoes.
“Just let me grab your shirt,” he grimaced, stretching his free hand out until it collided with Yunho’s torso. He took a hold of the other’s jacket while Yunho rearranged the stuff in his arms and picked up his sneakers as well.
“What are you doing anyways?” the boy demanded as they shuffled towards their shoe lockers.
“Huh, ensuring you get to enjoy your date at the bathhouse with that hot chick?” Yunho answered absentmindedly as he tried to manage inserting his dirty sneakers into his locker without dropping their linens on the floor. Of course they just had had to give them the uppermost ones.
“That’s my sister, watch what you’re saying!” the boy snarled, pinching his fingers onto Yunho’s side through his jacket.
“Wow, wow, okay I’m sorry, calm down Jjoongie,” he flinched, trying to wiggle away from the abusing fingers. “Gimme your shoes, I’ll put them in the locker, we got the top ones so I don’t think you can reach.”
“Don’t call me that, it makes me feel like a five-year-old,” the boy said defiantly as he handed his shoes over, loosening his grip on the other’s side.
Yunho tiptoed to stuff the boy’s shoes in and turned the key in the lock before grabbing the boy’s free hand and pressing the key into his fist.
“You’ve got the number 261, okay.”
“Thanks,” the boy answered, tracing his fingers over the raised numbers on the keychain before securing the bracelet on his wrist.
“So,” Yunho started as they walked up the stairs leading up to the locker room, “if I’m not allowed to call your Jjoongie, what should I call you then?”
“Kim Jaejoong,” Jaejoong said. “11th grade.”
“Me too!” Yunho exclaimed. “Jung Yunho. What school?”
The boy fidgeted a little, almost causing Yunho to stop to check if he had stumbled in the stairs.
“…Pusan School for the Blind,” Jaejoong answered after a moment.
“Oh.” Yunho understood now. “Wait. Isn’t it right next to Dongshin Middle School? I used to go there!”
“Great,” Jaejoong said wrily. “So you were one of those stupid kids shouting stupid things at us from the sidelines of the sports ground when we had PE class?”
Yunho chuckled, unfazed.
“And you’re one of those disabled people constantly on the defensive mode?”
Jaejoong turned his head away, slightly embarrassed of himself.
“Can’t blame me,” he retorted, “you heard how those people at the reception thought I’m unable to bathe by myself. I’m blind, not fucking bathroom disabled.”
“That new manager is a jackass,” Yunho proclaimed offhandedly. “Just ignore him, he probably still asks his mother to wipe his ass after shitting. Oh, we’re here…”
They’d already threaded through a few aisles of lockers, accurately ending up in front of their own numbers. Yunho saw they’d at least had the tact to give them a lower locker this time, the other one situated right above it.
Depositing all their linens on the floor, he took hold of the hand grasping his jacket and directed it against the right door.
“That one’s yours. Let me sort through these linens… Man, I’ve always said this place has the ugliest shorts ever! What’s with this dirty yellow, seriously… And the girls get pink, of course!”
As he looked up, he could see the appalled expression on Jaejoong’s face. Unable to help himself, he burst out laughing, handing Jaejoong his own pair of shorts, t-shirt and towels.
“No-one ever bothered to tell you how ugly-ass the clothes in this place are?” he asked, drinking in the rather good-looking clothes of the other boy. Either he had a very fashionable girlfriend, or his sister paid more attention in clothing him than herself.
“Well, um, I don’t know…” Jaejoong stuttered, trying to figure out a way to say he was rather surprised by the way Yunho had sounded as if he wanted the pink shorts instead. Not that he knew exactly what pink was like… but it was a girls’ colour, right? More specifically, a little girls’ colour.
“Oh well, now you know. Good thing it’s your sister, not you girlfriend, cause this shade can make anyone look hideous,” Yunho declared cheerily as he started stripping himself of his clothes. He threw all his clothes into his locker in a messy pile, dropping the shorts and the t-shirt provided by the bathhouse on top of them before draping one of his small towels around his neck and grabbing his shampoo and toothbrush. He had never been the kind of person to bring his whole selection of soaps and body washes to the bathhouse; if the place offered free soap and toothpaste, it was meant to be used, right?
Jaejoong was still standing next to him, towels and shorts in his arms, shades sitting on his nose, backpack snug on his back, as he fingered the edge of the door to his locker.
“You alright?” Yunho asked, touching the boy’s shoulder. “Need any more help? Are you coming to the baths too?”
The boy seemed to snap out of some sort of stupor at the touch, managing a small smile.
“Nah, I think my sister will be waiting for me upstairs,” he said, bending his neck to point his head in a random direction.
Yunho gazed at the boy’s form, turned away from him in a slightly awkward and unsure way. The boy was scratching his ankle with his toes, ending up balancing on only one socked foot.
“Alright then,” he drawled, feeling like he was supposed to do something more. “You know where the snack counter is right? I’m sure they can help you if you need.”
“Yeah yeah,” Jaejoong answered a little too quickly. “I’ve been here before.”
“Okay then,” Yunho said again. “I’ll hit the showers now, see you around!”
He gave the other’s shoulder a few friendly pats before locking his locker door and turning to walk away.
Not knowing why, he didn’t walk to the shower room. Instead, he stopped at the end of the aisle, letting a rather plump middle-aged man past him before turning around to look at the other boy. Their own aisle of lockers was empty of people, Jaejoong’s figure lonely in the opposite end of it. The boy was looking after him, or rather had his head turned in his direction; Yunho was well aware he couldn’t actually see him. It was actually kind of unnerving to be looking him straight in the eyes, although he was quite sure the boy didn’t know he had stopped to spy on him. There were quite a few people walking around, and even knowing that blind people stereotypically had better hearing than the sighted, he reckoned it was impossible the other could have detected that exactly his footsteps had halted in the other end of the aisle.
After a while, Jaejoong turned his head around, finally unlocking his locker, kneeling down next to it. He lowered all the things on his arms onto the floor, feeling through them, folding them neatly next to each other. He slid his backpack off, setting it on top of the clothes and opening the zipper, rummaging through the things he had with him inside it. He pulled out his cell phone and wallet, tucking a few bills into the phone case before setting it down on his right side. Then he put his backpack into the locker, followed by one of his towels.
Yunho was starting to feel a little creepy, spying buck naked on a guy who was completely oblivious to the eyes on him. He looked around, rubbing his bare arms as he tried to see if anyone had noticed his staring. There was a group of middle school aged boys on the aisle next to them, loud and raucous as they played around, throwing stuff at each other and calling each other stupid nicknames. There were also a couple of fathers helping their young sons change, and a tired-looking business man sitting on a bench, loosening his tie but too exhausted to actually move.
When he looked back to Jaejoong, the boy was already changing, pulling the dirty yellow, extremely baggy t-shirt over his naked upper body. He then pulled off his socks and shimmied out of his jeans, folding them neatly and placing them in the locker before pulling the pair of matchedly baggy shorts up his narrow hips. Feeling around the ground as if to see if he had missed anything, Jaejoong shut his locker and sat in front of it, one small towel on his lap, playing with the cell phone in his hand.
Yunho stood unmoved, ready to bolt if the boy got up, but Jaejoong remained sitting on the floor, leaning his back against his locker as if he was pondering on something. He kept turning his smart phone on and off, the screen lighting up and blacking down again with a small beep.
When nothing happened for a good two minutes, Yunho stepped forwards. He didn’t really have a plan; but he couldn’t just stand there and spy on the sitting boy anymore.
“Yo,” he said, walking closer. Jaejoong’s head shoot up immediately, turning his way. “Hi there again… Will you scoot over so I don’t hit your head with my locker door.”
The boy did just that, inching a few centimetres away with his phone still in his hand. Yunho opened his locker, stuffing his shampoo inside, not really sure what he was doing; when he felt a hesitant touch on his calf.
“You’re not wet,” Jaejoong stated, and Yunho scratched the back of his neck, pulling his boxers out of the locker to slip them on.
“Yeah I forgot something…” he trailed off, starting to dress himself in the same shorts and t-shirt ensemble that Jaejoong was wearing. He was just pulling out his own cell phone when a piece of paper flittered down from his locker, landing at his feet on the floor.
“Oh yeah!” he exclaimed, happy to have found his excuse. He picked up the paper, reaching over to slide it into Jaejoong’s hand. “I forgot to give you your blanket slip.”
“Oh thanks,” the boy smiled, flipping his phone case open to slip the paper inside with the bills.
“How do you use that thing?” Yunho asked, curious.
“My phone?” Jaejoong enquired. “It’s got an app that reads stuff aloud you see.”
“Oh, cool.” Yunho didn’t really have anything more to say. He’d dressed up already, picked up everything he needed, but he didn’t really know how to ask Jaejoong what he wanted to ask. He’d asked if the boy needed more help once already, and the boy had said no; having seen the defensive side of Jaejoong already, he didn’t want the other to believe that Yunho didn’t think he could get by on his own. But the way he was sitting on the floor, it sure looked like he wasn’t getting there.
“Well, um,” Yunho started, “I’m going now then…”
Jaejoong didn’t answer vocally, only nodding and concentrating on his bleeping phone. Yunho stuffed his hands into the pockets of his t-shirt, his feet starting to move slowly, reluctantly.
Just when he was about to gather his courage, whirl around, inhale deeply, and ask away no matter what the response, Jaejoong called out.
“Hey! Yunho!”
“What,” he said, turning around on his heels, secretly happy the other couldn’t see how eagerly.
“You owe my sister 9 000 won, you know!”
Jaejoong had clambered up, resting his palm against the lockers, his other hand clutching onto his towel.
Yunho looked at him, a smile tugging on his lips.
“Damn,” he said in an amused voice, “I thought I’d managed to get away with it and score myself a free place to sleep.”
“Keep dreaming,” Jaejoong scoffed, walking towards him a little cautiously, hand trailing over the lockers. “So you’re staying overnight?”
“Yep, you guys too?” Yunho asked as he walked towards Jaejoong, stopping right in front of the other boy.
“Yeah,” Jaejoong answered, “don’t tell my sister I told you this but she had a nasty fight with my mom and now she’s refusing to go back home. I think taking me here was just a good excuse to get away from there.”
Jaejoong snickered delightedly, covering his mouth with the towel he was holding, and suddenly Yunho had an urge to see more of his face. The sunglasses were still perched up on his nose, and with the towel covering the lower half of his face, there was barely anything visible.
“Such a suffering dutiful brother, aren’t you,” Yunho teased, his mind on something very different than Jaejoong’s sister. “Are you going up wearing those sunglasses?”
“Oh yeah,” Jaejoong seemed to realise something, “I had totally forgotten I was still wearing them.”
Taking the few steps required back to his locker, Jaejoong kneeled down again, feeling for the lock before pressing the key in and turning it. He took the sunglasses off and when he stood back up after locking the door, Yunho was staring at him once again, confused and stunned.
“What are you looking at,” Jaejoong asked amusedly, acting more irritated than he actually was.
“How do you know I’m looking?” Yunho answered his question with his own, stepping closer.
“Cause you’re silent and you never shut up before,” Jaejoong answered a little brattily while securing his key on his wrist.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, though I’m pretty sure I already know what you’re going to ask,” Jaejoong answered carelessly.
“Why do you wear those glasses?” Yunho enquired.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I?” Jaejoong asked, not making it easy for the other on purpose.
Yunho stuttered, not prepared for the counterattack.
“I always thought that, you know… Only people whose… whose eyes are… you know,” he managed to get out, looking down a little shamefully.
“You mean blind people with weird, ugly eyes, right?” Jaejoong exclaimed loud and clear, not sparing the other any embarrassment. “I wear them for other people more than for myself. It’s sometimes easier, for them to understand that I’m blind you see, saves me a lot of awkward situations.”
Yunho grunted a response, hoping it was enough for the other. He thought he was allowed to express some surprise, though; he was almost sure Jaejoong had done it on purpose. He must have known the effect, he must have had people reacting the same way before.
Jaejoong’s eyes were absolutely beautiful. Wide, almost round; and his pupils were large as well, their colour inexplicably bright for the supposedly common shade of brown.
The way they trailed upwards, moving in seemingly random directions, his left eye with a slight squint, took nothing away from their allure.
“Gimme your arm,” Jaejoong said, looking rather pleased with himself, if not straight-out smug.
“Huh?” Yunho was a little unprepared for the hand that prodded his side, grabbing his shirt to pull him closer to the other boy. Jaejoong’s hand slipped around his arm as the boy smiled innocently.
“Have to make sure you pay my sister.”
Yunho chuckled as he started leading them towards the elevator that lead upstairs, where the resting areas and the hot rooms were situated. The door pinged, and when they stepped in, Jaejoong leaned closer, whispering to him in his husky voice.
“Also, I was kind of embarrassed to ask the staff for help because they all think I’m here with you… And I didn’t know what aisle we were in, so I didn’t really now how far away the snack counter was either,” he admitted in a low voice, even though there were no other people in the elevator with them.
“Oh… sorry,” Yunho murmured back. He had known the boy for barely half an hour, but he was already learning a lot. Just how many things a person had to consider only in order to be able to ask for help?
“No no, don’t apologise,” Jaejoong smiled at him, and Yunho couldn’t help but to be rather impressed with the other boy’s honesty. He guessed it came with having to humble oneself so often, with having to admit there were many things one was unable to do alone. “I told you I was okay after all. I could’ve just asked.”
The moment the elevator pinged again, there was a tornado-like force wrenching them out through the sliding doors.
“Jjoongie!” The voice was rather high-pitched, even slightly panicked. “You’re fine?”
“Nuna!” Jaejoong’s defiant voice could be heard, coming from somewhere deep inside the fierce embrace he had been pulled in. He was a head taller than his big sister, but the other had still managed to smother him rather effectively. “I’m okay, alright? What did you even think would happen!”
Jaejoong’s sister pulled back, hands still on her little brother’s arms as if she was reluctant to let go altogether. She tilted her head awkwardly to scratch her ear with her shoulder, the wide sleeve of her pink t-shirt shifting back and forth on her arm.
“You never know,” she proclaimed with her eyes on Yunho, remembering the boy’s rather telling looks downstairs. His haircut already was slightly too badass for her taste when it came to entrusting her precious little brother into someone else’s care. It was sheared short on the sides, left long on the top, falling over his brow untamedly. The Letterman jacket he had worn was all right, she guessed; maybe it meant he was actually a university student.
“Peace,” Yunho said, turning on his charming smile. The girl only glanced at him for moment, turning away utterly unaffected, back to her little brother.
“So he actually helped you out?” she enquired, taking in the shorts-clad figure of her brother. After making the observation he had his cell phone with him and all, she relaxed a little, letting go of her grumbling baby brother.
“Yeah, he actually helped me out,” Jaejoong answered her with a sarcastic tone seeping into his voice. “You’re so cynical sometimes, nuna. It’s really no wonder you don’t get along with mom.”
The girl retorted with a quick, painful-looking slap on his brother arm, seemingly having gotten over her protective fit.
“Shut up, Jjoongie,” she dismissed his words, turning towards Yunho again. “Thanks for helping my dongsaeng,” she smiled genuinely, “he can be a handful sometimes.”
“Hey!” Jaejoong exclaimed from the sidelines. “I’m still here! Just because I cannot see you doesn’t mean I cannot hear you!”
“No problem,” Yunho answered her. The easy relationship between the siblings was making him a little envious; his relationship with his little sister was far from the relaxed, close atmosphere the two were displaying.
“Your entrance was pretty… unannounced, so to say,” the girl continued. “Which reminds me… You owe me 9 000 won.”
“Like brother, like sister,” Yunho muttered, trying to keep his amusement to himself. He glanced at Jaejoong, who had turned away from them, towards a large window wall facing open sea. The view was stunningly beautiful; there was a long bridge crawling over the whole length of the horizon. It had already been lit up, the sky slowly turning dark with the descending twilight. Jaejoong was turning his head slowly, as if taking in the room, all the people inside it.
“How about I buy you guys some snacks?” Yunho offered. “What would you like?”
“Eggs,” Jaejoong answered so quickly his sister turned around to stare at him.
“What,” the boy said defensively at the silence following his words, “he owes us money after all.”
Yunho chuckled once again. This trip to the public bathhouse was proving to be quite interesting.
“Eggs it is,” he agreed, walking over to the snack counter. It was bigger than the one in the locker room, and Yunho was quite impressed with the variety of instant noodles they carried, not to mention the numerous other foods.
Piling things on the counter, he could hear Jaejoong’s sister draping herself all over her brother, discussing something in a hushed tone. Or rather, it sounded like an interrogation, what with Jaejoong’s annoyed, evasive answers.
After paying, Yunho walked back, thrusting a plastic container of sweet rice drink into Jaejoong’s hand.
“Sikhye,” he explained as the other boy raised the bottle to his face, sniffing at the beverage before sucking one of the strands into his mouth. Yunho smiled at the boy’s appreciative grunt.
“You guys wanna go to the hot room now?” he asked the two siblings. Watching Jaejoong automatically slip his hand around his sister’s arm, he suddenly felt like he’d just lost his job. And not just some shitwork either; but a job he’d actually enjoyed doing.
They walked over to a milder hot room, Yunho holding the door open as the two siblings scampered in, tottering delightfully. The floor was covered in a thick layer of small pebbles, pleasantly warm under their bare feet. The room was dimly lit, a reddish light occasionally lighting up in imitation of the glow of fire.
Sitting down in one corner, Yunho dumped all the snacks he had bought in the middle of their little circle, draping the small towel he had around his neck over his head. The bad thing about his current hairstyle was that the ends always tended to get dripping sweaty every time he went to a bathhouse, plastering against his forehead in a rather comical-looking manner.
Jaejoong was feeling through the food in front of him, the rice drink still in one hand as he suckled on a baby blue straw absentmindedly. When his fingertips bumped into the egg bowl, he let out a small delighted noise, balancing the drink container on the pebbles before starting to peel his egg.
Popping some chips into his mouth, Yunho watched with fascination how his fingers worked nimbly over it, shucking shards of the shell into the small bowl. He’d always been rather impractical with his hands himself, preferring activities that utilised his whole body, such as sports and dancing.
Jaejoong’s sister was playing with the pebbles, trying to pile them up into a small pagoda. She watched as Yunho adjusted the towel on his head, trying to make it cover his forehead without falling over his eyes.
“Jjoongie,” she started, “I think you should teach Yunho how to do the towel sheep head.”
“Mmmh?” the other replied over munching on his egg, face contorted into a pleasured expression over the baked food.
“He’s dripping,” she explained, seemingly more interested in the rocks she was playing with.
Jaejoong swallowed the last lump of his egg, scrunching his face at Yunho.
“Will you get smelly? I’m not sleeping anywhere near you if you stink,” he stated, rendering the other boy speechless.
“…just teach me the sheep head,” Yunho answered him, dumbfounded. The other sure was straightforward, even with people he didn’t know. Yet.
“Alright,” Jaejoong started, pulling his towel down on his lap and folding it neatly. “Fold it three times like this,” he directed, demonstrating with his own. “Then fold the ends over themselves like this. Until it’s small enough.”
Yunho watched him make the ends of the folded towel into two neat sheep ears before pulling the whole thing over his head. Jaejoong’s black hair was cut just below his ears, and the way it stuck out under the fabric looked downright adorable.
“It’s that simple?!” Yunho mused. “I always thought it would be like origami, fold this, crease that, fold back, tear here, sew there…”
“I know right, it’s kind of disappointing, isn’t it?” Jaejoong laughed. “I always thought it would be super hard too, but no, it’s like, fold thrice and that’s it.”
Yunho took his own towel down from his head, starting fold it the way Jaejoong had showed him.
When he pulled the finished product over his hair, Jaejoong’s sister cracked up, dipping over on her back from laughter.
“What, what,” Jaejoong demanded impatiently, “what happened, tell me too!”
“Ha-ha, this guy, just now he was marvelling at how simple it is, but, ha-ha, h-he failed completely,” she could barely catch her breath between her giggles.
“Show me too, show me!” Jaejoong begged, reaching his hand towards Yunho. The boy ducked, grabbing Jaejoong’s wrists to prevent him from touching his sloppily drooping towel hat. Jaejoong grunted disapprovingly, flailing his arms as he began to fight against the other is his enthusiasm to get to the lame attempt of a towel sheep head.
“No way I’m gonna show you this failure of mine,” Yunho denied, bending his knee up between them in order to prevent the other boy from getting closer.
“Unfair, I wanna see it too,” Jaejoong whined as they struggled. Yunho fell over onto his side as Jaejoong knocked him down, leaning against the other boy’s hip, trying to wrench his wrists back to himself.
In a few minutes, the fight had escalated into a full blown pebble war, original cause long forgotten as Jaejoong delighted in thrusting fistfuls of pebbles inside the neckline of Yunho’s t-shirt. Yunho was groaning at each attack, other hand on his towel hat that was threatening to fall off, other seizing warm rocks as he kept throwing them at Jaejoong’s legs, his aim a little askew with the difficult position he was in.
Jaejoong sister stared at the squabbling pair, but when the battle didn’t seem to cease even after ten minutes, more pebbles going in from each hole in their clothes, she stood up, brushing off dust and shaking her head at her supposedly high-school-age baby brother and his new friend.
“I’ll just, uhh, I’ll excuse myself for a minute, I’ll go brush my teeth,” she said, her words going unnoticed as she grabbed some of the empty snack bags and exited the room.
When she came back, Yunho was sitting with his back against the wall, texting in rapid fire on his phone. Jaejoong was lying on the pebbles, head next to Yunho’s hips and the last baked egg held tightly in his hand.
“Did he fall asleep already?” she asked Yunho incredulously. Her brother shifted, bringing his egg hand up to wave it around dismissively.
“M’ not sleepin’,” he mumbled, turning his face further into the warm pebbles, making his shoulder collide with Yunho’s thigh. The boy shifted his eyes from his phone, gazing at Jaejoong for a second before smiling up at the boy’s sister. The girl scoffed, bending down to give her brother’s bum a sounding slap. The boy squeaked, clambering up only to bury his face onto his bent knees, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like a string of curse words.
“Trust my lazy-ass brother to utterly exhaust himself with one little fight,” she complained, leaning forwards to add right into his brother’s ear, “that’s what you get from skipping PE class, you hear me?!”
“Fuck off nuna,” Jaejoong retorted, still sounding more asleep than awake. His sister smiled fondly at him, then looking questioningly at Yunho.
“You’re sleeping here too?”
“Yeah,” he answered easily, “shall we go get our blankets?”
Jaejoong’s sister nodded, shaking her brother’s shoulders. The boy still had his head buried in his knees, egg safely inside one fist.
“Come on, Jjoongie, let’s go sleep,” she prompted, and the boy stretched a little, eyes closed. Yunho stood up, pulling the other boy with him by his arm, while his sister collected the rest of their trash. Leading the nodding boy out of the room, they walked into the large resting room. There were numerous people already lying down or huddled in small groups, little children draped over their sleeping parents, eyes closed and mouth open. There was a group of giggling middle schoolers in one corner, sitting on the thin carpets the bathhouse provided, slurping down cups of instant noodles. A little girl in purple shorts was running around, returning back to her sleeping family before setting off for another round. She almost bumped into Yunho’s leg as they walked towards a pile of blankets, lifting the hem of her t-shirt into her mouth as she stared at them. Yunho smiled at the child, showing her his tongue, only causing the kid to gape even more.
“Jjoongie where’s your blanket slip?” Jaejoong’s sister asked, plopping his own piece of paper into a small box sitting on the top of the pile before grabbing two blankets. They were thin like the provided carpets, and of a rather odd size; not quite long enough to cover a person’s whole body, but still big enough to serve as a blanket.
“Inside my phone,” the boy yawned, fumbling for the phone in his t-shirt pocket. He dug the paper out, handing it to Yunho who deposited both of their slips in the box.
After grabbing their blankets, they looked for an empty space, finding one next to the wall in the very end of the large room.
Jaejoong settled down immediately, pressing his head on the small, hard, rectangular pillow, pulling both blankets over himself. In only a matter of minutes he was out cold, breathing slowly, one hand carefully circling the egg and his smart phone that he had placed on the floor next to him.
“Damn I’ll have to make sure he brushes his teeth twice as hard next morning,” his sister grumbled, and Yunho couldn’t help but to chuckle at the big sister’s tendency to full-out baby her little brother. “I’ll keep an eye on your blankets if you want to go,” she added.
Yunho made quick trip to the bathroom, brushing his teeth and splashing his face before taking the elevator back up. Jaejoong’s sister had settled down next to his sleeping brother, fiddling with her phone when Yunho came back up.
“So,” she started when Yunho had lain down on the other side of Jaejoong, “what’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?” Yunho asked.
“You know, quite the actor you were down there. I was really set on making them see how wrong they were about not letting Jjoongie in… But then you came along.”
They were speaking over the sleeping boy’s head, Yunho propped up on his elbow. Jaejoong was laying on his stomach, face directed towards Yunho’s side, the soft puffs of his breathing hitting the other boy’s arm.
“Oh…” Yunho scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “I don’t know, I didn’t really think before I acted…”
“Ha-ha, don’t worry, it’s fine,” the girl assured him when she saw his unsure expression. “Thanks for helping… Though I’ll have to go through with that conversation next time.”
“That new manager really is an ass, isn’t he,” Yunho asserted. “That new rule about middle schoolers needing an adult with them if they want to come in… I mean, where else can they hang out?”
“So true,” she agreed, going back to her phone. Yunho listened to the sounds of her fingers dancing on the touch screen, letting himself lie down completely. Jaejoong’s face was very close to his, looking peaceful, almost serene while the boy travelled in his dream world.
“Can I ask you something? About Jaejoong I mean?” Yunho decided to voice his inner musings, making the boy’s sister glance at him.
“Sure,” she answered, “go ahead. Though you could’ve just asked him you know, Jjoongie really doesn’t mind explaining stuff to people.”
“Yeah, I guess, I mean, I haven’t really met a blind person before…” Yunho trailed off.
“Yeah I think Jjoongie gets that a lot,” Jaejoong’s sister said, a smile tugging at her lips.
“He was born like that, right? Like, can he see anything?” Yunho asked, curious about the mesmerising eyes that were now tranquilly hidden under closed eyelids and long eyelashes.
“Yeah he was born blind… To be quite honest I think it makes it easier for him,” her sister confessed, “there are a couple of really tragic kids at his school… Seriously if you ever feel the need to cry just ask one of them to tell you their life stories.”
“Duly noted.”
“He can see like, the change in lightness though. He does know if it’s dark or not, like if it’s day or night,” she explained to the boy lying on the other side of her brother, “but he cannot see colours or anything like that. I don’t think he can even see which way the light is coming from.”
“I see,” Yunho said, pondering on her words, staring at Jaejoong’s face. He didn’t notice the girl looking at him thoughtfully from the other side of the sleeping boy.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh, 11th grade,” Yunho answered, already a little too deep inside his own thoughts to understand the question immediately. “Actually I used to attend the middle school that’s right next to the school for the blind.”
“Really?” she gushed. “You’re practically classmates then!”
“Ha-ha, I guess so,” Yunho chuckled, “well we did share our science teacher with that school for a few weeks when our own one suddenly quit.”
“You had Mr Jin?” she laughed. “Damn, Jjoongie just wouldn’t shut up about him back then. I swear he had the biggest schoolboy crush on that teacher ever!”
Yunho perked up at that, finding Jaejoong’s sister looking him straight in the eye, as if waiting for some kind of reaction.
“…well, he was pretty damn hot,” Yunho drawled, settling back down on the floor. Jaejoong’s sister inhaled once, suddenly sitting up and gathering her belongings.
“You know I think I’ll go sleep in the women’s sleeping room,” she explained, grabbing her pillow and blankets. “It always gets kinda cold here, and they snore less there too,” she threw a pointed look towards the corner where a father of three was sawing wood, the noise echoing throughout the whole room.
“Good night,” Yunho said, looking at the girl as she started walking away.
“You boys too… Sleep tight,” she answered, a happy skip in her step.
Yunho spent a few more moments looking at Jaejoong’s sleeping face, especially his closed eyes, all kinds of thoughts swimming around his head, before he gave in to sleep as well.
~0~0~0~
Yunho woke up to his cell phone digging nastily against his side inside his pocket. He turned over, groaning, and slowly opened his eyes. Blinking, he noticed it wasn’t quite dark anymore; the sky behind the long bridge was already lighting up, making the sea turn into the loveliest shades of warm orange.
He stared outside in awe. No matter how many times Yunho had visited the same bathhouse, he’d always been too lazy to actually wake up to see the sunrise. Despite the huge window wall facing the sea almost asking for people to come look at the view, Yunho could see everyone else was still sleeping in the room.
Turning around, he rested his hands on Jaejoong’s shoulders, shaking the boy gently.
“Hey!” he whispered. “Wake up Jaejoong!”
The boy whimpered, curling into himself.
“Come on, wake up!” Yunho wouldn’t let up. “It’s sunrise! Seriously! This one’s pretty amazing!”
Jaejoong scoffed, turning his back at Yunho.
“Dun wanna wake up yet,” he mumbled, his brow furrowing as he tried his best to ignore the other boy’s insistent shaking.
“Come on, get up! Now! We have to go look at this.”
“Who the fuck wakes a blind person up at the break of dawn just to see the sunrise anyway? I mean just how stupid can you be,” Jaejoong grumbled silently, trying to pull his blanket over his head, feet sticking out from the other end.
“Oh come on, indulge me,” Yunho whispered, tearing the fabric off the other boy’s body.
Jaejoong sat up, rubbing his eyes with open palms, making Yunho think about how even blind people get sleep-boogers in their eyes. The boy then felt the floor, stuffing his cell phone and egg into his pocket, before reaching over to his other side, encountering an empty space.
“Where’s my sister?” he asked, his confused voice still heavily laced with sleep.
“She crawled into the women’s sleeping room in the wee hours because you were snoring so loudly she couldn’t sleep,” Yunho muttered, earning himself a pretty sharp punch, from a person whose movements were still unsettled by sleep.
“I bet it was you who was snoring, she was just too polite to say it because unlike some people, our parents actually did a decent job raising their children,” Jaejoong sneered, making Yunho snicker as well.
“Wait until you meet my sister before you pass a judgement on my folks. Maybe I’m just the exception to the rule,” Yunho countered, stopping to think about it right away. “Or well. Say what you like. My sister’s the brattiest brat you’ll ever meet.”
The statement made Jaejoong laugh, so loudly Yunho had to start shushing him down between his own chortles. A middle-aged man lying next to them turned over, annoyed, muttering something about bored, wildly roaming high schoolers and how they meant nothing but trouble.
“Is he talking about people or what, or strays or what,” Jaejoong snickered, collapsing into another fit of uncontrollable giggles when Yunho started yipping at him, in the poorest imitation of a matchbox-sized dog Jaejoong had ever heard.
The middle-aged man raised his voice, telling the pair to scram if they weren’t going to shut up in five seconds. Yunho pressed his palm against Jaejoong’s mouth, the other’s eyes still crinkled into two identical half-moons as he fought his mirth.
“Come on,” Yunho urged the other to stand up in a hushed tone, struggling to keep his own voice down as well. “Let’s get up. We can go sit over there in front of the window.”
He led the boy to the spot, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. The sky was already quite light, beautiful shades of oranges, yellows, and pinks fading into light blue, making the familiar form of the bridge look new and almost foreign to him.
Jaejoong settled down next to him, wiggling his toes against the cold glass of the window.
“So,” he began, “how did you plan to make this worth my time?”
“Umm…” Yunho wasn’t quite so sure what he had been thinking anymore. He did have the tendency to act before thinking, after all. “Well, your sister told me that you could see light, last night after you were snoring away already… We can still see the day coming.”
“Gee,” Jaejoong jeered, “that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry.”
“Uhm…” Yunho was starting to feel ashamed.
“Gotta say, your lack of concern over my condition is pretty refreshing,” Jaejoong admitted, leaning down to rest his weight on his elbows, legs stretched straight forwards.
Yunho was hanging his head down, embarrassed over his act. How had he ever thought this would be a good idea? Watching the sun rise with a seeing person could be boring and anticlimactic at worst. He could only imagine how stupid Jaejoong must have been feeling, sitting there in front of the glass with gradually lighting up shades of grey over his eyes.
Jaejoong could sense the other boy starting to get apprehensive, and he decided to relieve him of his most probably unfounded worries. To be quite honest, he was only happy Yunho had expressed the desire to share such a moment with him, even if the idea didn’t exactly make sense. It’s the thought that counts, right?
“You could just describe it to me, you know,” he suggested, trying to sound as amicable as possible. “That’s what people usually do.”
“Oh,” Yunho brightened at the proposition. “Well, the sea is kind of reflecting the sky so it’s like, glimmering.”
“Uh-huh,” Jaejoong made an encouraging noise at the back of his throat.
“And the sky is like pink, and like, orange, and red, and yellow, so the sea is-”
“Oh now that’s so very helpful. I’m sure my sister also told you I can’t see colours… That means I don’t really know what they mean, what they’re like, you know?”
“Give me a break, I’m not used to this okay?” Yunho hissed, seeing the smile dancing on Jaejoong’s lips. Despite his sarcastic tone of voice, it was clear he wasn’t actually mad or even irritated in the least; more accurately, it seemed like he was finding Yunho’s attempts rather cute.
Yunho stared at the Jaejoong’s face, thinking of a way to convey the beautiful sunrise to the other boy. Not being able to just list colours… He guessed using only visible images in general wouldn’t exactly work. How did blind people define things anyway?
Jaejoong’s eyes were finally open, trailing around aimlessly as usual. As the sun climbed further up, its rays hit the spot they were sitting on, illuminating the boy’s face.
He had to use other senses, right? Smell, taste, touch… What the hell did a sunrise taste like?
Yunho smiled shortly at his own thoughts. He had never been the best at expressing himself verbally, just like he had never been the best with his hands.
Jaejoong seemed to have given up, sitting content on his spot with his lips slightly parted, drinking in the room filled with sleeping noises of various people. He let his head fall back, and when he straightened back up on his elbows, he could feel the sun starting to warm up his face. However, the fact that he was actually enjoying the moment, Yunho didn’t need to know that.
Yunho continued staring.
Touch. Touch? How would a sunrise feel like?
Carefully looking around the room, he made sure there were still no other people awake yet. He glanced at Jaejoong, back around the room, and then, with one swift movement, he reached a hand to cup Jaejoong’s jaw, leaning over the half-lying boy to press his lips against the other’s.
It was a chaste kiss, slow and languid like a sunrise. Jaejoong was so shocked when Yunho’s lips landed on his that he made a small noise, pulling his chin down instinctively, but the large hand on his jaw held his head still, effectively persuading him into tilting his face upwards.
When Yunho finally retreated, he stumbled backwards in his awkward haste, almost falling over on his back.
Jaejoong looked as if he was staring at him; his moist lips cracked open, his tongue running over them unconsciously. His beautiful, unseeing eyes asking for an explanation.
“That’s what it looks like, a-alright?” Yunho stumbled through his sentence. “That’s what it looks like.”
The other boy didn’t answer; he just slowly turned his face back towards the wide glass window. Looking at him, being able to study him felt strangely unfair; but Yunho didn’t avert his gaze all the same, watching as an amused smile slowly curved the corners of Jaejoong’s mouth upwards. They sat there for a while, the sun lazily climbing upwards with no one really paying attention to it, with no seeing eyes following the slow but sure ascension.
Moments passed, someone waking up and scuffing past them with his blankets dragging over the floor. The man yawned widely and scratched his belly as he threw his makeshift bedding on top of the pile starting to build up next to the door, disappearing through it.
Yunho inhaled softly, placing his palms flat against the floor and pushing himself up.
“Shall we go to the baths?” he asked, his voice sounding as if it was coming from outside, as if it was someone else’s voice, not his. He closed his eyes, waiting for the other boy’s answer, the telltale butterflies in his stomach deciding it was a perfect moment for a little morning dance.
“…I’ll wait for my sister here,” Jaejoong answered, turning his head away from Yunho.
Yunho was suffocating.
Then he heard a giggle and the sounds of someone standing up. A warm hand bumped against his shoulder, running down his arm before slipping around his elbow.
“I’m just kidding, silly. Yeah, let’s go.”
A/N: Why are all my fics always inspired by either newspaper articles, or stuff I learn at school? o___o Anyways I wrote this after reading an article in a Korean feminist journal, conerning a particular case with a blind woman and disabled people's rights in general.
Also this is a real jjimjilbang I went to in Pusan :D I'm sure everyone knows what a jjimjilbang is? No? And also, the towel sheep head... At least Yunho was wearing that when they recorded that variety show Happy Together years ago :'D I'm sure everyone saw it in many dramas too^^
The view from that jjimjilbang is really awesome, but we were too lazy to wake up to see the sunrise, even though we were supposed to... ;-; Well, at least YunJae got to see it xD Here's a pic~ (not mine) (x)
