“You’re crazy.” Himchan grumbles, huffing and trying to hold onto a piece of thick root so he wouldn’t fall off the mountain terrain. I look back at him, and laugh. He look so funny. There’s a dry leaf sticking out of his black hair that is so clearly covered in mud and dirt, and he has ten stripes of orange earth on his chin, on top of a red, itchy mosquito bite that he had been complaining for the past ten minutes.

He struggles to strap his backpack on his shoulders properly and I feel so sorry for him. I pause, and crotched myself down, holding tight to a branch.

“Want me to carry that for you?” I offered with a smile, but he looked up and made a nasty face, scrunching his nose.

“I am not a .” He hissed. I stood up shrugging. “Suit yourself. It’s not that far.”

Kim Himchan and I, met quite recently.

We both moved out to the city to work, both typical country bumpkins, except for that he didn’t look like one. Neither of them are much. We met where we both work as lucky interns of a boring bank. He’s twenty four and I am too. We had rented out places across the street and it came to us naturally to hang out.
He was a crazy one, but we got along.

Christmas break comes up and I start to pack like a mad man because I had a knack for hiking and Himchan could never grasp the concept of it. He kept asking what’s fun in that, until I decided to come out clean.

He was accompanying me for me to buy things to spend a tent-night in the mountains, and I sighed, turning around to face a very unamused Kim Himchan.

“Do you know what black is like?”

My question took him by surprise and his lips fell apart like a breathing gold-fishes. He could snap back and forth between angry and cute and I don’t quite know how he does it. He then, raised a brow.

“Are you about to tell me something weird?” He asked, and I chuckled. I grabbed few packets of ramen packs from the shelf and dumped it onto the basket he was holding. Mine was already heavy with water bottles and a small frying pan.

“I’m going to see black.” I confessed.

He was silent for the next ten minutes and I was glad that he was actually trying to give my words some thought. He probably could never crack the code, but he’s silent and that, I appreciated. During the time we had started to befriend each other, I was glad that he was outgoing and comfortable and would always strike a pleasant conversation.

He only stops his chatter for very short periods of time and I’ve come to treasure those few moments of silence.
I loved him when he wouldn’t stop talking too; but when he’s silent, I kind of feel special. It’s a side of him that he doesn’t let many people into, and I think he’s comfortable with just staying by me and not having to talk to feel involved.
Kim Himchan problem no. 1 was that he always felt obliged to keep people involved.
It was cute.
The world needed more of that.

On our way back, at the end of which I had completed out my supplies entirely to leave, and gave up with a long, desperate sigh.

“I don’t get it.” He flattened his face and said.

“The night, Himchan. I’m going to see the night. From the mountains. The forecast says it’ll be cloudy; so I’ll miss the stars, but there’s a charm in black, Na mean? No matter how many curtains you’d pull in your room it’d still be bright in the city”

Himchan actually paused in his tracks, and I had to stop too, to look back at him.

“I think that’s the most you’ve said in a single breath, ever.” He admitted his inner thoughts, and I just had to laugh.
He’s really cute.

The next day morning he shows up at work and the first thing he tells me is: Take me with you. I refused for five days, and gave in, ultimately. I wasn’t looking forward to taking a complete rookie for hiking with me for a mountain terrain that’s’ 16Km long to reach just the top. Especially while I’m targeting the nightfall. But he just wouldn’t take no for an answer. He came up with a hundred different reasons. I’d get to know more about you. We can bond! I want to hike and it’s your fault so you should take responsibility. I’ll fund the entire journey. You’re such a sore-. Don’t you consider me even remotely as a friend? Yongguk, I really want to go with you.

“Ugh fine!”

-and that’s how we ended up here.

It’s a beautiful mountain, blue and full and rich in life. I kept tossing snails away from the trail because Himchan cried after he stepped on one and killed it. There was no limit to his heart, apparently. But once I accidently bounced one onto a tree trunk and it hit Himchan in his eye.
That time he wasn’t crying; he claimed.

We had to stop and I had to clean his eye from dirt.

“Can you hear that?” I asked, perking up my ears at the sound.

“Water. The blog said the top’s only few feet from the streamlet that crosses the trail. Come on Himchan! We’re close!” I couldn’t help the excitement in my voice. I spared Himchan a glance over my shoulder, and he was no longer scowling.

A smile spread on my lips.

Himchan wanted to stop at the water, but I couldn’t contain myself. I gave him five minutes to wash his precious face, as he called it himself, and clutched him by his hand and dragged him off to the top.
You see, that was what’s most beautiful about the mountain.
The