Monday pulled itself into life's station and screeched to an unsteady halt in front of Youngjae, who reluctantly climbed on board.

He'd made an effort to deliberately miss his usual train. He was sitting around for another hour waiting for the next one, but it meant he missed the frantic crowds. It also meant not seeing Daehyun. The embarrassment of their last encounter still clung to him like the winter chill.

The moon was full and the stars shone a little bit more clearly than usual, though dimmed out by the orange glow of the street lights below. The dark of the night sat more intently at this hour, making each shadow depthless like black paint spilled on every surface. As the next train approached, it seemed like some unfortunate soul fleeing from creatures in the dark, torch in hand for defence, and only slowed when they reached the safety of the city lights.

Youngjae climbed on board, shivering from the cold thankful for the empty carriage as he slumped down on the closest seat.

“Oh! Hey, I didn't think I'd see you on this train! What a weird coincidence.”

He opened his eyes. It wasn't an empty carriage at all. On the opposite side down the other end, sat Daehyun. The other boy was wrapped up in a thick coat and grinning at him like he'd just told a hilarious joke.

“Why...?” Youngjae only half asked, amazed at his own misfortune.

“Those crowds were pretty awful last time. I thought I should give the earlier train a miss and catch the next one. Guessing you thought the same?” He took Youngjae's stunned silence for confirmation and carried on, “Weird how we both did the same thing. I suppose after last time it was the most obvious choice, right?” As he spoke, little clouds of breath formed in front of him.

“Yeah..” Youngjae narrowed his eyes and looked away. He pulled out his earbuds and stuck them in, blocking out any more attempts at communication. Daehyun seemed to get the hint and instead took to tapping on his phone to entertain himself. There was a moment when he glanced up at Youngjae and the back down at his phone, grinning as he typed. Is he talking about me to his friends? Youngjae briefly considered getting off at the next stop and waiting for a different train, but in the end he decided simply ignoring the other boy was easy enough once his music was turned up.

It was always a long journey, but somehow the awkwardness that Youngjae felt towards the other boy made it far longer. Not to mention the seeping cold that steamed his breath and stung his skin. He fixed his gaze on the world outside as huge towerblocks and mazes of streets slipped away into the outer-town suburbs. Eventually all signs of civilisation dissolved into fields that glistened under the light from the train's windows, and distant hills that inkblotted out the starry sky. Not a soul trudged through the icy countryside this late in this evening.

Behind the beats of his music, Youngjae could just make out the tinny voice of an announcement being made. He pulled his earbuds out just in time to hear “...Delayed until further notice.”

The train slowed to a halt, paused in the middle of a track like a child's toy that had been forgotten. Without the trundle of wheels and the wind whipping past, the carriage was eerily silent. He glanced over at Daehyun, who had looked his way at the same time with raised eyebrows. They stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing how to respond to the situation. Then the lights flickered and went out.

The train was almost invisible from outside without the lights to illuminate it's location. The landscape around it turned into a black pool, lit only by the moon that left silvery sparkles on the frost. Inside the carriage, everything vanished from view. The only guidance the two boys had was the windows which displayed clear stars and the full moon. Otherwise, everything was one unclear shape.

“Wow. I wonder how long we'll be stuck like this.” Daehun's voice broke the silence so clearly that Youngjae flinched. He'd almost expected the darkness to muffle sounds as well.

“I hear the last part of the announcement, about the 'until further notice' bit. What did I miss?”

“Not a whole lot. Just saying we were stopping here because of some technical difficulties. Apparently the signal isn't reaching here. I think there's a few trains in front of us as well that are delayed.”

“Jeez...” Youngjae glanced out of the window behind him, tilting his head in case he could see further up the tracks. Everything was as unclear outside as it was inside, only the gentle curve of the landscape giving him any indication of what he was seeing. What he was seeing, wasn't an awful lot.

“Hah, this is funny. Last time we were on a train that was so packed I could barely breathe, but the train was moving. Today we're on the emptiest train I've been on in years and we're come to a dead stop. Good thing we both got on this one. Imagine being alone on this train? How spooky would that be?”

Youngjae closed his eyes and considered putting his earbuds back in. He could've had a nice quiet train journey home, just him and his music. He probably could've done some work towards his assignments since there'd be no one around to bother him. But instead he was stuck with this chatty Busan kid.

“Full moon. No one else around for miles. No idea how long we'll be stuck here. It's like a horror film.”

Youngjae felt a cold chill run up his back. What was this kid implying? Was he going to kill him? Was Youngjae's mediocre college student lifestyle going to be cut suddenly short by a creepy over-talkative guy on the train?

Something hit the glass suddenly and he let out a shriek, falling off his seat. The dazed bird flapped against the glass, apparently just as startled as Youngjae was, and managed to flap away. When the shock wore off, Youngjae realised Daehyun was howling with laughter.

“At first I thought you'd been jumped by someone but then I saw the bird all confused on the glass. Oh wow! Where are you? Come on, I'll help you up.”

A pair of hands batted against Youngjae's face and he reached up and grabbed Daehyun's wrists. There was an awkward struggle as they both tried to work out how to get Youngjae standing again without Daehyun losing his balance in the darkness. Eventually they were both stood steadily, still grabbing hold of each other's arms.

“You okay now?” Daehyun asked.

“Yeah. Thanks for helping me up. I can't see a thing.” Youngjae replied, hoping he was facing Daehyun properly.

There was an awkward silence as they both stood there, holding onto each other still and blinking at the darkness.

“We should probably sit down. If the train moves and we're standing we'll both end up falling over. Then who would help us up?”

“The lights would probably come on by then, because if the train is moving then the power will return to the lights.”

“Ah! Good point. But we might be blinded when the lights come back on and fall over anyway.”

“Whatever,” Youngjae sighed, and pulled a hand free to feel for a chair. He patted the cushioned seat and lowered himself onto it, letting go of the other boy completely.

“Wait, don't let go. I don't know where you are now. Where did you sit?”

“I'm down here,” Youngjae replied, rolling his eyes, “There's empty seats everywhere, just pick one.”

“I can't even tell where the divides between the seats are, hang on a sec-” Daehyun was halfway through his words when he tripped over Youngjae's legs and sprawled across his lap.

“Oh my God! You had an entire carriage of empty seats and you managed to end up in the only one I'm occupying. Get off!” He gave Daehyun a shove, and felt him scramble off his lap.

“Sorry!” Daehyun's voice spoke from somewhere to his left, gasping with laughter, “How did I even manage that? I'm worse at this than I thought- considering I walk home in darkness all the time!”

“What's that got to do with anything?”

“Well... I don't know. I thought my eyes might be better?”

“Are there street lights when you walk home?”

“Yes...”

“Then you can't have magically better eyesight in the dark if there are lights leading the way. There's no light here so obviously neither of us can see at all.”

“Oh! I have an idea!”

Before Youngjae could ask, Daehyun was fumbling with something and suddenly the blinding white light of his phone's torch filled the space between them. Youngjae flinched back and closed his eyes until the blue spots in his vision faded, then cracked an eyelid open until his eyes got used to it.

Daehyun was beaming at his idea, tan skin washed out by the bright light and eyes glimmering.

“We could have used our phone torches this entire time...”

“Yep!”

“As in, we could have used our phone torches instead of stumbling around in the dark and you falling all over my lap.”

“Um. Yes. Yes we could have.” Daehyun's grin dropped a little, but only for a moment before another grin tugged at his lips and he started to laugh.

Youngjae watched him disdainfully, but the other boy's laughter was far too infectious and before long he was barely stifling his own sniggers. They sat and laughed together, their laughter forming white clouds between them that shone under the harsh phone light. When they settled down, Youngjae skimmed through his own phone and turned the torch on so they had better lighting.

They set the phones between them on the seats like a campfire. Despite what he'd felt earlier, Youngjae was thankful for Daehyun's presence. Being alone on an empty train at night, broken down in the middle of nowhere, would probably have had him in hysterics by now. Though he didn't shut up once he got started, his positivity kept Youngjae in a good mood despite the circumstances.

“So, you know when I get off my stop. How much longer are you on the train for?” Youngjae asked.

“Oh, I'm on until the end of the line.” He let out a laugh at Youngjae's stunned face. “If you think that's bad, I get on at the second stop.”

“You must be on this train for... Wait a second let me work this out.”

“Thee hours. Half an hour before you board, an hour after you alight.”

“You- Why do you know that?” Youngjae narrowed his eyes.

“Because I pay attention!”

“That's really weird, Daehyun.”

“It's not weird! When you share a train with someone for ages you just start paying attention to these things.”

“Did you just miss seeing my beautiful face that much?”

“Wha- No, I- I'm-” Daehyun's face went visibly pink.

“Why are you getting so flustered? I was joking,” Youngjae sniggered.

Daehyun's eyes widened and he scrunched his face into a pout, “That's not funny!”

“But it really was, though.”

Daehyun puffed his cheeks out and huffed. “It's actually because I like to know what hours I'm free from seeing you so I can appreciate those moments.”

“Oh shut up! You're the one who's been throwing themselves all over me.”

“Helping you out is throwing myself all over you? Next time I'll let you fall to the ground when the train is full and laugh at you.”

“Hey I am never getting that train again, it's way too packed for me. Anyway you were just all over my lap.”

“Only because your big feet got in my way!

They continued like this back and forth teasing and banter while they waited for any sort of development on the train. Soon enough the nonsense turned into light conversation as they started talking a little bit about their lives.

“You commute from one city to another just to study?” Daehyun asked, amazed.

“It's the best place I can study without paying ridiculously high rent. It worked out cheaper to get the train every day than actually live near it. Besides, my family help out a little in exchange for me doing chores. What about you? You go three hours, what for?”

“I commute to work. Similar to you but just a longer journey.”

“Work?” Youngjae asked, blinking with surprise, “How old are you?”

“Nineteen. Why? How old are you?”

“I'm eighteen! How do you have a job?”

“It's nothing big or fancy. Okay it's kind of fancy. There's this high end restaurant that has live music and I sing there during the afternoons.”

“You sing... In a fancy restaurant... At the age of nineteen.”

Daehyun grinned shyly and scratched the back of his neck. “It's a bit embarrassing, right?”

“No? It's not embarrassing at all. That's so cool. I feel like my entire college class is worthless now.”

“Why, what do you study?”

It was Youngjae's turn to be embarrassed as he looked away. “Musical theatre,” he mumbled.

“Wow! Are you going to be on stage?”

“Maybe...”

“Ah! Definitely tell me when you're performing. I'll come and see you and be like 'Hey, I know that guy. That's the guy I stopped from being trampled to death on a train one time' and everyone will be really impressed.”

“That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard,” Youngjae snorted, turning his gaze away to hide the grin that was spreading across his face.

“No it's not. Come on, you have to get me free tickets. Train-pals benefits!

Youngjae snorted. “Fine but only if you get me a nice seat and free food at your fancy restaurant on a day you're singing.”

“What? That's way too much for-”

He was cut short as an announcement spoke over the speakers, stating that the train would be moving again. With a roar of the engines and a flicker of the lights, the train was back to full power.

“Hey!” Daehyun grinned, “We're moving again!”

“Very perceptive of you, I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.” Daehyun shot him a look and he grinned back. “I'll take it as a sign. You now have to get me free food some time.”

“You college students always asking for free things...”

“Hey, when I'm rich and famous and on Broadway I'll get you free tickets.”

“Fine. But I'm holding you to that.”

The two boys chuckled at their strange agreement and spent the rest of their journey together talking. When Youngjae reached his stop, he made Daehyun promise to catch the later train again so they could accompany each other on the journey once more.