Hugo didn't realize in time. The seconds tick by, then swing by again for a second try.

Or: in which Changui falls from the rooftop and into the pasts of some guys he thought he knew.
  Fandoms: Do or Die, Pandora (Elpis)
Rating: T
Categories: M/M, F/M
Characters: Changui-centric, features all other contestants plus a few minor OCs
Relationships: all platonic, but the broshipping is everywhere, man
Warnings: in-depth portrayal of suicide and depresssion, some racism At the moment Hong Changui's feet leave the ledge, time moves as it always does. No slow motion and bated breath. No montage of sunny memories as the laws of physics take him with open arms and the last of chances slips past his fingertips. A false wind picks up around him, and the details rush by. Or not. The details aren't rushing anywhere, to be fair; they're just living on, moving on at their own pace. Changui's the one who's rushing by.

Up above, the sky hangs still, a warm navy curtain humid with spring. It looks no different from usual: Seoul, dinner time, freckled with white. Back on the ledge, he saw spears of blue and orange where the sun tucked itself against the horizon—above him now was just the same old, same old. He wouldn't even photograph this for Instagram.

He couldn't, anyways, since he didn't have his phone. 

He couldn't, anyways, since nighttime photos never do the nighttime justice. He has sifted through thousands of photos taken in a happy haze after alcohol and before sunrise, and there was always something extra or something missing. The red eyes and speckled skin ruin what he vaguely remembers as a kind smile. The television black of night turns into a flat brown with a crudely pasted moon, with no stars surviving the file compression. Fitting, perhaps, since weren't a good chunk of the visible stars dead anyways? Just dead light crashing blindly through space with nothing to go back to... but that's okay, isn't it? Light was meant to travel! They say speed of light, after all, not stillness of light; what would be the purpose of starlight that just stays put until the source gives out and there's nothing left to remember it by?

Speaking of light... it was getting brighter wasn't it? Louder too, some cars and shouts. A couple below, getting louder. One from above, barely there, probably imagined, as a blonde head peeks over the railing he'd let go of... is that Hugo? Wait a sec,


"What the hell, get off me."

Changui blinks to the sight of blue plaid. A sharp, shocked breath fills him with crisp cold of fall-almost-winter, thick with car exhaust and unfamiliar perfume. He staggers back, not sure when or how he got to be upright, mumbling an automatic "Sorry." He could barely hear his own voice over the heavy bass blasting in his ears, mixing with the din of traffic and crowds.

"Ah, a