“Are you carry-able?”

“Am I what?” Yugeom stared at him.

“Are you carry-able?” he repeated.

“Like, can you pick me up and carry me?” his friend continued incredulously.

He nodded, “Are you carry-able?”

“Yes?”

Satisfied, he leaned back on the bench.

A moment of silence stretched between them until Yugeom, unable to contain it any longer, sat up and asked, “Wait, how did you even come up with that?”

“The bricks,” he answered matter-of-factly.

Yugeom simply blinked a few times and gestured for him to continue.

He sighed, “There’s bricks on the wall.”

“So?”

“Bricks are carry-able.”

“Yes, you can carry bricks.”

“So, are people carry-able?”

Yugeom put his head down.

The sweat from his palms was making him slip a little, “Are you sure about this?”

“You’ll be fine.”

“Do I have to?” he tightened his grip on the bar.

“Just do what we taught you and it’ll be okay.”

Slipping… slipping… He tried to adjust himself but promptly stopped when the action made him dangle back and forth.

“It’s now or never, Jonguppie.”

Jongup bit his bottom lip and looked skyward for a moment before casting his gaze down at the very real, very hard ground, very far below him. He let go.

Yugeom looked up at him from the phone, “Yukwon says he’s here already… But where?” he looked around and brought the phone back up, “Yukwon, where are you? We don’t see you?”

Jongup was stretching when a stream of curses from the other boy made him look up.

“They changed it from last year. We’re at the wrong gym.”

He straightened up abruptly and his eyes widened, “Wrong gym?”

“It’s not at this gym.”

“No, I know,” Jongup took a deep breath, “What time is it?”

Yugeom pursed his lips, “We have about ten minutes.”

“How far is it?”

“We can make it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Jongup took a running start before leaping onto the low wall by a building. From there, he jumped, caught a window ledge, and pulled himself up before climbing up the fire escape ladder.

“It’s that one over there,” Yugeom’s arm came into his field of view.

He squinted a little, “The white one?”

“That’s the one.”

They looked to each other, nodded and took off together.

Five… no, six more steps. Foot down right on the edge. Now jump.

He went flying into emptiness, body outstretched over the gap between the two buildings. His legs came forward to hit the roof of the next building and his knees bent to absorb some shock before he rolled to further dispel the force of landing.

Jump over this. Why are there plants on the roof?

Jongup cast a glance at the pots of flowers and decided not to question it for the moment.

Another building, lower this time. Should I go ground-level now? Nah. He continued running.

“How about this distance?”

“Do you think I can make it?”

“Probably.”

“I guess I could try… ?”

He watched his upperclassman give the two on the ground a thumbs up, “Alright, Jonguppie, whenever you’re ready.”

Jongup backed away a few steps and held out his hands to help judge the distance. He backed away some more.

“Is he gonna go or not?” he heard someone call.

“He better not be running away,” another voice joked.

“He just might, actually.”

Jongup crossed his arms and gave the other boy an exasperated look. He cupped his hands around his mouth, “I’m gonna jump!”

“Dude, just come on already!”

The muscles in his legs tensed and coiled before he began sprinting. About four more steps… three… two… one… Jongup launched himself off the edge of the roof.

For a split second, he was suspended in midair, body fully outstretched, wind in his face and threading through his hair. He brought his legs up to his body and the surroundings spun around him in a whirlpool of color on either side as he turned an aerial somersault. His legs straightened back out to meet the ground that was now rushing towards him.

The world was zooming by in a blur save for Yugeom who was racing along next to him. Jongup didn’t notice the other dark form that had joined them from another direction until he heard Yugeom’s shout.

“Yixing!”

The older boy grinned and gave them a jaunty salute before flipping over a ceiling window.

“Are you late too?” Yugeom vaulted over some pipes.

“I left my belt at home,” Yixing’s cheery voice rang out.

Jongup heard Yugeom choke on a laugh, “You left your belt?”

“And then I forgot my mp3 player.”

“Did you remember your headphones, though?”

“My headphones?” Yixing stumbled slightly before catching himself.

Jongup slid down the next fire escape ladder and rolled on the asphalt of the area in front of the building.

“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you guys?”

He looked up to be greeted by Yukwon, mouth twisted in a frown that was struggling to stay on his face.

“Come on, Yukwon, there’s still a few minutes left,” Yugeom sprang up from the ground, having followed Jongup’s route down.

The other boy crossed his arms, “Three.”

“So, we’re on time, right?” Jongup looked between the two, confused as to what the dispute was. They had arrived with a some time to spare… so what was the problem?

Yixing came flipping over a bench presently, having gone home to retrieve some of his forgotten belongings, “Are we late?”

“Nope.”

“Almost.”

Yixing blinked and looked at Yukwon and Yugeom, who had both answered at the same time.

“Whatever,” Yukwon threw his hands up in the air, “If we stay out here any longer, we will be late.” He took a few steps and stopped, “How was getting here, by the way?”

Yugeom grabbed their team captain by the shoulders and began pushing him in, “We can talk about that later, Yukwon. Let’s go inside first, the taekwondo tournament’s about to start without us.”

Yukwon, finally tired of holding his frown in place, broke out into his trademark grin, “Of course.”

A thought suddenly popped up in Jongup’s mind and he ran after them, “Wait.”

The two boys turned around, surprised. “Wait for what?” Yukwon raised an eyebrow, “Just get over here.”

“Yukwon, are you carry-able?”