“Let’s find some beautiful place to get lost.”

He stares at him, the boy with the raven hair and twinkling eyes.

The boy with the soft, adventurous smile who only raises his eyebrows.

“What? Are you afraid of me?”

“Never.”

He takes the small hand in front of him, flashing a daring smile.

“Let’s go.”

---

“We’re lost, aren’t we?”

“Not in a beautiful place, though.”

The shorter boy turns to him, eyes flashing.

“What do you mean? Look at this!”

And with the boy’s husky voice, slowly, slowly, the bustling city transforms into a forest of glass and steel, palaces of bricks, and a fantasy of a dream.

“This is what the city really is,” the other continues, eyes faraway, seeing something else. “A magical kingdom trapped beneath an illusion.”

He runs his thumb across the other’s delicate cheekbone, abruptly pulling him out of his reverie.

“Stop that!” he snaps, brushing the long fingers away. “I was getting to a good part!”

He only chuckles, murmuring an apology.

“Tell me more.”

The dark, soulful eyes sparkle with annoyance.

“No, you interrupted me.”

“Aw, Jongwoonie, come on!”

Jongwoon shakes his head haughtily, black hair settling in a messy halo.

 “You’re not Han Geng,” he declares definitively. “Han Geng knows when not to disrupt me.”

Han Geng pouts childishly, catching Jongwoon’s arm as he begins to move away.

“Jongwoon!” he pleads, walking beside the boy. “Y-you’re not sick, are you?”

Jongwoon only keeps walking. Han Geng’s troubled eyes betray his insecurity.

“I-I’m sorry,” he says a bit breathlessly. “I thought you’d shrug it off like always…”

Jongwoon stops abruptly and turns to face him.

“Do you realize where we are, Han Geng?” he asks softly, with no trace of anger.

Han Geng looks up at their surroundings for the first time, recognizing the smell of fresh grass, the sound of lapping waves, and the twitter of songbirds.

“The Han River,” he says. For a moment, neither of them move, watching the sunset reflecting off the water, turning the river gold.

Then, quietly, almost reverently, Jongwoon speaks.

“I have always noticed you.”

Han Geng meets his dark gaze, finding with a surprise the intense emotion there.

“Even when they made fun of you, even when they told you to go back, even when you would not speak to me.”

Jongwoon lifts his head, and the wind blows the hair back from his face, revealing the silver cross earrings that he always wore.

“I know I’m not the best friend ever,” he says with a soft smile. “But I hope that you’ll always remember me.

“We’re not young anymore, Han Geng. We’ve got to walk our own paths sometime. But I know that you’ll go far, and I only ask that you remember me. Me, pitiful little Kim Jongwoon.”

Jongwoon turns to him with a pained smile and almost pleading gaze.

“Promise me,” he says, urgently. “Promise me that you’ll never forget me.”

“I promise, of course I promise,” Han Geng says, grasping Jongwoon’s cold hands. “Anything and everything.”

Jongwoon retracts his hands with a small smile still playing on his lips.

“Dance for me.”

Han Geng would not have denied him anything that night.

Anything for Jongwoon to laugh and lose that sad, wistful look on his face.

In the end, Jongwoon places a firm hand on Han Geng’s wrist, draws him close, and kisses him, ever so lightly.

Han Geng shivers as Jongwoon’s soft lips barely brush his.

Then, he flashes a quick smile and disappears, leaving Han Geng alone by the lonely banks of the Han River.

---

Three months later

He returns home in the dark, slowly walking past the streetlamps that throw soft orange light onto the ground.

He lifts his eyes to the velvet sky, so dark that they remind him of someone’s eyes.

He traces the twinkling stars in the void, sparkling like the amusement in someone’s eyes.

“I was always a romantic, you know?”

He knows.

And he knows that he would like it.

Right here, right now.

Han Geng stops and lets the tears fall.

He stops and lets his heart break.

He stops, and his mind takes him back.

“Did you know,” Jongwoon had said, eyes curved into crescents. “The starlight you is actually millions of lightyears old? So don’t wish on a star, because you’d be wishing on a potentially dead one.”

“Oh, shut up,” Han Geng had laughed, pushing him. “Let me wish upon my stars, even if they are dead.”

“Mhm,” Jongwoon had replied, eyes twinkling. “Either supernovas or black holes.”

“Just like my soul,” Han Geng had answered with a completely straight face. Jongwoon bursts out laughing and punches him.

After he had calmed down a bit, they lie in silence, listening to each other’s soft breathing, watching the stars.

But Han Geng is instead watching the slight rise and fall of Jongwoon’s chest as he breathes.

And Jongwoon lets his eyes roam over Han Geng’s solid, sculptured body.

“What?” Han Geng asks, softly, meeting Jongwoon’s smoky gaze.

Jongwoon smiles, just a bit, and reaches out to close Han Geng’s eyelids.

“Idiot…” he murmurs, letting his hand linger on Han Geng’s cheek. “Your eyes are small enough as they are.”

Han Geng cannot help but laugh, and he pulls Jongwoon in.

Jongwoon leans his head on Han Geng’s chest, tracing the lines of his shirt.

“Hannie,” he says, calmly, quietly. “I’m dying.”

Han Geng sits up, and Jongwoon’s hand drops.

“You’re joking, right?” Han Geng searches Jongwoon’s somber expression. “Tell me you’re not being serious.”

Jongwoon nods, never taking his dark gaze off of Han Geng’s worried one. “I am, completely.”

Han Geng’s mind whirls as he tries to process Jongwoon’s words.

In the meantime, Jongwoon had sat up and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I promise you,” he says softly. “I will never forget you, so don’t you forget me.”

Then he leaves for the last time.

And Han Geng still misses the straight, proud backside disappearing out his door.

“Come back to me…” he whispers to the cold night sky, breath appearing in a cloud of white, tears freezing on his cheeks.

“Come back to me after your strange journey.”