It is an unspoken rule that the rooftop belongs to Sunggyu.

It doesn’t matter where they are, which building they are residing in, the rooftop is always Sunggyu’s place to be. There is no way Sunggyu can explain his affinity for high places except for the fact that it feels so right. To have the world beneath his feet as if he were conquering it, one song at a time, one smile at a day and one dance practice at a time.

 There is an inexplicable feeling behind it – it’s so unexplainable and it hangs heavy on the tip of his mind, edging towards the dark crevasse of his mind; dancing lightly across his consciousness one second and expanding across his thoughts on dark nights when it’s 2:00am in the morning. The feeling of tiredness. The feeling of inexhaustion, like he couldn’t stop. How hard could that possibly be?

Apparently very hard, according to Sunggyu.

And it’s when this feeling begins to surface that Sunggyu seeks the refuge of the dewy morning dawn and the dusky grey of the pale night sky, a million questions laying unanswered.

“I’m going to be up there. Just for second.”

There is a pause as Sunggyu stops to register his own words; barely realising he had even spoken them. Hoya shrugs and Sungyeol nods. They understand. Each and every one of them has their own way of setting themselves free. Myungsoo reads. Sungyeol drinks coffee. Hoya dances – he dances. All of them have their own roads leading away from their heart where they don’t have to be INFINITE, where they can be just Howon and not Hoya. They all do, except for Woohyun who doesn’t understand his own boundaries, the edges of infinity and the limits of endlessness.

Dongwoo tries to explain it to him, tries to tell him that INFINITE doesn’t have to exist every second of the day. It won’t go away when they turn to look at something else. Because infinity is always there, lurking in the dark spaces of fatigued bodies and in the vast expanses of the sky – limitless and never-ending.

But Woohyun still doesn’t understand because he has so many questions. He doesn’t understand why Sunggyu likes rooftops so much and he doesn’t understand why Sungjong will go for days without talking to them at a time. Sometimes he wonders whether he truly understands INFINITE. The concept of infinity or the group itself. He’s tired too, but not in the same way as the others, because he hasn’t reached his breaking point just yet.

Singing is a dangerous pastime, and the dark shadows under Sunggyu’s eyes and the weary way he gives orders for them to go through the dance routine one more time can attest to that. Time escapes from their fingers, easily escaping through the gaps and cracks that infinity causes, and before they know it, they’re standing on the stage covered in glitter and make-up and pure artificiality under the bright stage lights. Sunggyu smiles. Hoya grins. Woohyun blows a kiss. Off the stage, the masks come off, and boundlessness becomes nothing more than a faraway concept.

They seem to be running on and on, legs pounding, chests heaving and voices cracking under an insurmountable number of dedication, heading on the road that leads to nowhere. Their own determination and stubbornness weighs them down. They have to win the next stage, they have too.

“We’re not good enough.” Sunggyu whispers against Woohyun’s chest, the fear clear in his voice, and the uncertainty hidden well, because even after a year and a half of gruelling and mentally strenuous hard work, they are still nowhere near to capturing the city. Woohyun murmurs and his hair, thinking that Sunggyu focuses too much on the what ifs and not enough on now.

Sometime the road gets tough, but Woohyun doesn’t know why. He conjures up the thought of being gone. Would he be afraid? Or would he too far gone to mind? But then, Sunggyu’s there to reassure him, to calm him down, to whisper gently that yes, they are INFINITE and infinity is boundless and never-ending, and because of that Woohyun is limitless.

And then at times, Sunggyu retreats back to the rooftop, a border of stairs and walls and an overwhelming amount of unspoken words and heavy dreams separating him from the road to infinity where the other members are waiting. And it’s during these times that Woohyun will start up the flight of steps, considering, contemplating the thought of joining Sunggyu up there. But he always stops a few steps shy from the door, still not ready to face the city in its entirety. There’s never any time anyway because within a few minutes their manager will come running for them as always.

“Not tonight, Hyun” Sunggyu murmurs as he turns his back to Woohyun, “I’m tired.” Woohyun wants to protest. Sunggyu is always tired. But he can’t complain because he knows why. Sunggyu wants to belong to himself, to have the reassurance that some things are still under his control, still be able to conceptualise his future and all the things in it that certainly don’t fit in with the concept of infinity. So Woohyun doesn’t say anything, but he still wraps his arms around his leader and rocks him to sleep until the first break of dawn washes into their too-small room and another day begins anew.

Woohyun can always tell when Sunggyu is tired. His eyes glaze over and he starts to nod instead of speaking, and unconsciously he’ll start to let his eyelashes flutter, tempted to keep them closed. So when Sunggyu announces that he’s going up to the roof for a while, Woohyun is tempted to argue but he keeps his lips shut in a thin hard line. He finds Sunggyu sleeping later on the roof, a serene smile and look of relaxation, washed over his tired face, and it’s when Woohyun decides that Sunggyu is really beautiful and totally complex and full of mysteries he has no way of ever uncovering. He thinks that the he doesn’t have to understand the maze that is Sunggyu’s heart and he doesn’t have to understand rooftops, as long as they are together on top of the city. It doesn’t matter and there is no limit to this – it’s infinity after all.

“Think about it,” Woohyun whispers as he presses a feather-light kiss against Sunggyu’s lips, “this point in time belongs to us and only us,” and Sunggyu can’t help but agree as Woohyun caresses his cheek lightly and the first golden rays of dawn burst over the dusky horizon illuminating them in iridescent amber light.

“It’s our city.” Woohyun breathes.