It was dark out in the empty landscapes between the cities. Empty fields sparkled under the light of the moon where frost encrusted every surface. The air bit any travellers out late with cold teeth and left them shivering, clouds of breath forming before their faces. The quiet of the evening was disturbed only by a few icy winds.

And then the distant rumbling of an approaching train. It cut through the dark silence like a bullet, carriages thundering loudly along the track and it's bright lights bathing the frosted landscape in gold. Hundreds of faces of hundreds of passengers gazed out as the world blurred past them behind glass windows that had long since steamed up.

The inside of the carriage was packed tight with strangers who were pushed closely against each other. The combined body heat was sweltering and had a number of passengers clinging on to anything for dear life as haziness overtook them. One such hazy passenger was a young man with fluffy brown hair and a thick comfortable sweater that he was starting to severely hate as the journey continued on.

Youngjae hated the holiday season.

Okay, he didn't hate the holiday season, but he hated the train service around that time. Normally this train only had a handful of people when he was trying to get home from college, but when mid-winter rolled around the place was packed as people started frantically shopping. It made travelling between cities absolute chaos.

The train slowed and jerked to a halt, throwing most of the passengers off their feet. Including Youngjae, who fell hard into someone else.

“Ouf! Sorry, sorry about that.” He turned his head a little as he tried to straighten himself up, looking at the person he'd crashed into.

It was him.

It was that guy.

He was roughly Youngjae's age with hair cut into a neat fringe and a sun-kissed complexion. He blinked down at him with soft eyes and smiled, the glint of vague recognition and mild curiosity in his eyes.

They were forced to press against each other as passengers emptied off the train and new ones got on, giving them slightly less room than they had before. Youngjae was parted from his hold on a nearby bar and wobbled unsteadily as the train started up again. The other boy rested a secure hand on his shoulder and Youngjae mumbled out a small thanks, but inside he was thanking fate that the next train stop was his.

They continued on for an uncomfortable few moments of silence as Youngjae tried not to have any part of him pressed against the other, who seemed mostly unaffected by the whole affair. He kept his gaze down in the hopes of getting this over with quickly. If the boy holding onto him got another look at his face he'd spend every evening journey on this train feeling horribly awkward. It was Friday and if he get off with no encounter there would be the whole weekend to forget this happened and Monday would be just a regular day where he'd make sure he wasn't near the other in case this happened again.

The train jerked slightly and he was pushed to the side, stumbling a little. The other boy grabbed hold of him to keep him steady and, forgetting what he'd been trying to do, he glanced at him to thank him once more. Then the recognition set in.

“Hey, you're the guy who's always on this train this time in the evening, right?” the other boy asked. His thick Busan accent did not come as much of a surprise, somehow.

Youngjae cursed every single person on the train who could've been between them but instead pushed them together, “Yeah. Yeah that's me,” Youngjae answered, willing the train to go a little bit faster.

“Thought so. I see you almost every day, you'd think I'd know you sight by now. Guess I'm not as observant as I hoped I was.” He laughed a little too loud for Youngjae's comfort. “Name's Daehyun, what's yours?”

He was reluctant to answer, but Daehyun's expectant grin was too powerful to avoid. “Youngjae,” He replied, turning his gaze to the unclear windows in the hope of judging how far they had to go.

“Glad we're finally introduced. You can't help but get curious about people you see around all the time.”

“Hmm,” Youngjae replied with the most non-committal noise he could manage. He disagreed entirely.

“This is your stop coming up now, right?”

“How would you-” Youngjae began to ask, but the train slowed and jerked to a halt, sending him sprawling against Daehyun again.

“Heading anywhere nice?” Daehyun asked, still smiling as he helped Youngjae straighten himself out.

“Home,” he replied, and forced himself out of the train as quickly as he could and half sprinted along the platform, desperate to put distance between himself and that guy.