It is December, still early end when everything slowly turns this way. The snow falls lightly on branches. And it is melting under his shoes. He breathes the cold air slowly, freezing his lungs to the point it feels like ice glace. It is just, in a way, different. It was never snowing here, no matter how cold it’d gotten. It’s been years of winter without them falling, but today is special —the best way of labeling ‘unusual’. But it happens, and despite some people keep talking about it here and there, Se Hun likes to let it be. What if it never snows? Why do some of people stress it that much? It is beautiful, anyway.

And it’s late of night. There are street lamps and lights from warm houses, but it’s still dark and cold out here. And Se Hun still can’t believe that he’s sneaking out from his home, only to wander and find exactly nowhere to go, no direction in head. He just walks and walks, does not thinking about where or why.

Se Hun doesn’t even know what he’s doing there. He can’t tell why either. It’s only an odd feeling slipping into him, and driving him crazy, makes him forget how to sleep, keeps him awake for hours already. He isn’t able to point out a thing. All he knows is that it’s late and there is uneasiness keeps burning his chest, it is burdening, and he doesn’t like the way it’s leaving him hanging, of what, once again, he doesn’t know.

Something is wrong, a voice yelling him in back of his mind. No one knows what it means. And it doesn’t even make sense. So he gives up trying. He decides to go out, he needs fresh air and maybe the chill too, slightly wishing it will help decreasing the stupid burning feeling, even hoping to eradicate it.

And it is when he finds himself ends walking to the bridge near his neighborhood. Nobody is here this late. The bridge itself is usually empty. It’s only one or two vehicles crossing once in awhile. And it is indeed piece. Se Hun isn’t a fan of loneliness but he sometimes finds it relaxing. The world is so loud lately, and his crowded mind needs this.

Then, he hears a whisper, barely audible, just a little bit louder than the sound of breathing. Whose, he doesn’t know, but he manages to hear what it says, “It is about right places, and right times.”

What does it even mean? Se Hun doesn’t really have a time to think about it at all. Because it is what it is when his eyes set on a lone figure stands there, not so close from him, but not too far either. In this place, in this late night, right here, right now.

He sees him, vaguely in the dim of light from the streets lamps due the absence of the moon. His back is facing him so he can’t see his face, and Se Hun hates this. He looks small, but strong. His shoulder is tiny in a way, but seeing the lack of warm clothes covering his body and the cold breeze aims him strongly, and the way it doesn’t seem to affect him in any case, makes him looks strong. The boy stands still, arms on the railing as he leans to the metal surface.

Se Hun stops. He knows exactly that spotting a stranger in the middle of night when nobody’s around is not really hazardless. But he’s sure that the guy isn’t dangerous. How? It’s a question for him too. But the first impression seeing him from this distance is that he looks harmless, and maybe a little bit fragile. And he is usually right.

But Se Hun somehow wonders, what makes him here? What is he doing there? Does he feel lonely? Or is he just like him, try to get fresh air because he can’t sleep?

Everyone knows that only crazy people choose being out in this such of weather. Se Hun will not deny that he’s one of them. Indeed. And the boy can be one too. He might be one of his neighbors. Because homeless people can’t get in this area, they will get kicked by the securities. If so, he really wants to get to know him, he likes being friends with everyone, everywhere. Did he just move in? Because Se Hun doesn’t just recognize the back view of him, and Se Hun remembers everyone’s back appears like, at least those who he’s acquainted to.

Se Hun doesn’t need to think twice to walk closer and approach the other. Now that he can make out the other face clearly, he manages to see a lot of thing. The guy is actually good looking, with midnight dark locks and sad eyes adverting far away.

But no, good looking is underestimating. He’s breathtaking. With the rays of the street lamps hits his face softly, making it looks like his face is the one that’s glowing, the background is water of the river, and the sight is ethereal. Se Hun wants to capture this beautiful scene and looks at it over and over again. But there is nothing he can really do but watching him, relishing everything in, and just simply, enchanted.

Then, the boy suddenly turns to him. And there, their eyes meet.

Se Hun wonders how he doesn’t collapse right there and then because his eyes is real definition of beauty, in every way possible. It’s hard for him to take in all of this beauty on one moment, it is just overwhelming, too much. His breath taken away from him as their  eyes locked. Se Hun almost forgets everything, in some particular seconds he wonders who’s his own name because he is kind of losing it somewhere in between.

But the beauty looks away, eyes moving from Se Hun to the water of the river, eyes still blank. And Se Hun finally gathers back his brain. Now after he got it back, he uses it to think, how is it possible for one to hold ethereal beauty like that?

And who is him to be blessed being one of those who can witness such of beauty in such proximity?

“You are beautiful.” Se Hun blurted out shamelessly, without even thinking. It’s all his tongue to blame, speaking out of his will. Or is it that the boy has the ability to make people say it aloud every time they see him?

The stranger looks genuinely surprised, his dark chocolate orbs widen in round and his mouth opens and then closes. Se Hun curses himself to the hell. He has just said it and the other obviously heard him, there is no way to escape.

The boy looks terrified. And Se Hun is reminded about the child he found in the huge amusement park, lost, and scared. The boy before him looks exactly the same. His movement a little bit uncoordinated as he tries to distance himself from Se Hun. It is all Se Hun to blame.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Well, you are beautiful, yes. But please, don’t be scared. I mean no harm.” Se Hun tries to explain himself. But there is no change from the boy, he’s still look terrified.

“I live in this neighborhood too! I’m your neighbor, if you are new, you can ask everyone here, all people here know me. If you are staying with your relatives or something you can confirm them I’m not a danger.”

“How can you see me?” the boy asks quietly, he looks down, avoids Se Hun’s gaze, and the question is unexpected, Se Hun frowns. But another thing distracts him easily —and it’s his voice, it’s soft, delicate, and full of tenderness, matching his tiny figure. And Se Hun loves it that way.

“Well, I didn’t mean to. I’m seeking for fresh air because I can’t damn sleep, and I just walk around and I saw you. It’s dark, yes. But enough for me to see just okay,” Se Hun explains further.

The boy opens his mouth then closes it, he looks up, right on Se Hun’s eyes. It’s the second meeting of gaze and the time seems has just stopped.  Se Hun wants to drown there forever, the eyes hold broken twinkles, sad, but beautiful, so much sad and hurt, and even Se Hun can feel it too. There was something stabbing his heart in the moment, but he cherished it anyway. It is short, but it’s also a moment of loud heartbeat, broken cries of crickets, fluttering stomach, and, and, and something more.

The boy suddenly breaks the gaze. Se Hun breathes out, he looks at the tiny figure again and realizes that he doesn’t know his name as he keeps using tiny figure to refer him, and the thought burdens him. So he asks, “Who are you?”

“Lu Han,” is his answer, barely above a whisper.

Se Hun smiles, “I’m Se Hun.”

Se Hun doesn’t get anything in return, but it’s okay.

“Alone?” Se Hun asks, and once second later, he finally realizes how stupid that question is.

“Ah, right.” Se Hun says before Lu Han give him any reply, “You are here alone in the middle of the night, stupid me.”

Lu Han laughs, he sounds relaxed and no longer scared of him. The laugh is beautiful. It’s warm and nice to hear. There are wrinkles near his eyes when he does so, but it makes it even more stunning.

Se Hun joins the laugh, “You know, I know I’m stupid. And hey, what are you doing here this hour actually. Is it that you can’t sleep just like me?”

Lu Han smiles, his eyes doesn’t aims his when he says, “Yeah,”

Se Hun nods.

“Why can’t you sleep?” Lu Han asks back.

“I don’t know. I drank coffee two hours ago but it shouldn’t affect me at all since I drink them every night in the exact same time in the same amount and never having trouble in getting sleep.” Se Hun explains, wondering why he talks this long.

“What about you?”

Lu Han looks up to the ugly black sky, “There is no stars tonight.”

Se Hun follows where Lu Han’s gaze falls, and hums, “Yeah.” Even if he finds the answer have no correlation with his question.

“And the water over there sparks.”

Se Hun eyes move to the water down there, it does spark, reflecting the dim light from lamps. Se Hun smiles, never once he finds it mesmerizing, but Lu Han brings him here. 

They fall into silence again before something hit Se Hun’s head, a realization, or an assumption, just something that some people will say make no sense, and he blurts out a question to confirm it, “Do you usually here this late if you can’t sleep?”

“Oh, no. It’s my first time.”

“Really? Me too. Such conditional, or…”

“Or?” Lu Han wonders, eyebrows are raised.

Se Hun smiles, ear to ear, “Or it’s just our fate? I never been here in this late night and neither do you, but when we do, we meet. It says something, isn’t it?”

There is something changed in Lu Han’s eyes. But Se Hun fails to read what it is saying.

“Yeah, we met.” Lu Han says softly. Just like that.

He thinks that it is how it begins. In the right place, In the right time.

—

It is still December and the weather won’t ever get better, the cold still lingers on the air, everywhere and all the time. And it is really nice to be in his room wrapped by two layers of warm blanket, drinking a cup of hot coffee and watching a new released movie, finishing them in one go. It sounds perfect. But of course, expectation doesn’t just go to reality. And perfect moments seem to never get into his way, anyway.

And it is another ordinary afternoon. The day goes on like how it has always been. It’s only a matter that there will be Lu Han’s ethereal beauty flashing in his mind every time. Thinking of him becomes a routine, despite their short meeting and