001.

“They’ll arrive in minute or two.”

Jongin nods and purses his lips as he props his shovel against the soil truck. The sky looks ominous and the wind is cold. Everything is wrapped up in a blanket of grey,  everything looking dull and melancholic, the light drizzle pelting down and landing cold as ice on the tombstones.

Oftentimes, he wonders if heaven sympathizes with loss, if God and angels and saints understand how it feels when you lose someone, when anguish seeps through flesh and hits you where it hurts the most,  because somehow, it always rains or drizzles when another family has to bury someone beloved.

This is the thirty-second burial he’s attending. He knows because he keeps count. This time, he has to bury a car accident victim, someone who apparently went into a two month coma before giving up the fight.  

Jongin sighs, running a hand through his hair before he fishes out the (now) soggy sandwich he packed beforehand. It’s nothing fancy. Just old hard bread with a few swipes of cheap jam–it’s all he could afford. He needs strength and energy for this and the next two burials. They’ve already managed to dig a clean rectangular hole six feet deep, the lowering machine already set up and at a standby.  

He’s not even halfway through it when Sehun arrives,  a little breathless from running.  

“Jongin! They’re here.”

Jongin nods, giving Sehun a critical look.  

They are both very thin, bordering on malnourished if you ask a passersby. This is a result of being orphans since they were eight, and thus,  having to fend for themselves by getting into jobs.

They both try their best, but what little food they bring to the table is still not enough. They’re dirt poor and prices are high, and Jongin wonders how people find defined collarbones and peeking ribs beautiful.  

Their faces aren’t exactly gaunt, but they’re getting there. They wear their skin on their bones like how extra skinny jeans would fit on a pair of legs, and Jongin watches with that familiar crippling glumness as Sehun’s bony chest rises and falls.

“Here.” He says, handing Sehun the sandwich. “Eat some or you’ll pass out.”

Sehun raises his eyebrows. “But you—“

He shakes his head. “Already ate breakfast. You need it more.”

Sehun stays still for a minute as Jongin fetches his shovel, eyes intent on the slow moving convoy making its way to their part of the cemetery.

“Thanks.” Sehun softly mutters, smiling before walking away.

Jongin sighs when his stomach begins grumbling. But the hairs on his nape suddenly stand on end and he whips around to see nothing but the soil truck behind him.

He shakes his head. “I’m just hungry.” He tells himself, because for a moment there, it felt like someone had been watching.

–

“You’re ing crazy Baek!” Kyungsoo yells as their car runs a red light and they speed through another intersection, heading for the mountains.  

Baekhyun merely laughs, expression gleeful as he eyes the GTR behind him through the rearview mirror and shifts gear. “Stop being such a Kyung!”

He laughs when Kyungsoo’s eyes bug out when he gives him a glance.

“Eyes on the road!” Kyungsoo bellows, clutching on his seatbelt as they make a violent turn, the force throwing him off the seat for a few seconds.

They’re speeding through a deserted road, a trail of electric blue zigzagging through the forest on wet asphalt.  

It is a Friday night and they go through the traditional race with Bae