Seungcheol and Jihoon are both walking back from an afternoon of classes. Jihoon feels like his head is about to implode with all those calculus equations he’s trying to understand and Seungcheol’s head just hurts because it does. They both head into the apartment complex they both share and enter the elevator. Normally they would be talking about everything and nothing, but today they just wanted to go to their apartment and have a good night’s sleep. They have already become comfortable with the silence that has engulfed the elevator, since it’s just the two of them.

Seungcheol yawns as he presses the eighth button that would take them to their floor and Jihoon can’t help but yawn as well, they really are contagious.

“I feel like my heads about to explode,” Jihoon says as he rubs his eyes with his hands. He can’t go to sleep just yet because he still has to finish his lit paper before he turns it in, in the morning.

 “Yeah, me too. I just want to sleep,” replies Seungcheol as he slumps against the elevator and drops his backpack on the ground. The elevator makes a loud screeching noise before it starts going up. Normally the screech would scare the both of them, but this building is old and pretty crappy, so many things don’t function as they are supposed to. Take for example, the elevator which takes a long time just to get to the damn eighth floor.

 Jihoon slumps against the elevator as he waits for the elevator to stop. He turns to look at Seungcheol who’s on his phone. They’ve been friends for the longest and Jihoon can’t help but feel like confessing his love for the other male, but he feels like he’ll be rejected so he says nothing. It’s been like this for years, Jihoon’s reluctance. Usually he’s confident about everything he does, but confessing to Seungcheol is something he just can’t bring himself to do.

 Seungcheol puts his phone away as Jihoon directs his attention away from him. He doesn’t want to be caught staring.

“This is taking longer than usual,” says Seungcheol and Jihoon looks at the screen above the elevator which indicates that they are barley on the second floor.

“It must be-“ but he’s cut off by a loud screech and the elevator comes to a full halt.

“Holy ,” curses Seungcheol as he looks around.

“I think the elevator’s broken,” says Seungcheol

“Yeah, no ,” replies Jihoon as he rolls his eyes.

“What are we going to do?” asks Seungcheol in a worried manner, which makes Jihoon’s demeanor soften.

Jihoon searches for the emergency button and once he sees it, he presses it and expects the elevator to spring back to life, but it only makes a pathetic sound and there’s small movement before it goes back to being a pathetic unmoving elevator.

Seungcheol gasps as he begins to speak. “Oh my god, this is it. We’re going to die and-“but Jihoon puts his hand over his mouth as he hears a faint voice over the telecom.

“Hello?” calls the custodian.

“Uh we’re trapped here” replies Jihoon.

“Yeah, we’re trapped in here,” Seungcheol says loudly as Jihoon once again slaps his other hand over his mouth.

“Okay, I’ll be there shortly,” replies the custodian as the elevator goes back to being quiet.

“See,” says Jihoon.

“There’s nothing to worry about. He’ll be here anytime,” he finishes as he can feel Seungcheol’s breath against his hand and he quickly moves away from him.

 “When?”

“He said shortly,” says Jihoon as he leans against the elevator and waits for the elevator to be restarted.

Apparently the custodian’s definition of shorty is way different than that of Jihoon’s. It’s been thirty minutes and the custodian has yet to come, which is getting on Jihoon’s nerves because he has a paper to finish.

“Jihoon?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t think he’s coming,” says Seungcheol as he paces around the small elevator. Jihoon pushes the emergency button one more time but this time no response comes. He presses it again and he’s met with more silence.

“Are you pressing it?” asks Seungcheol.

“Yes, but nothing’s happening.”

“Then press it again.”

“I am!”

“Then press it harder!”

“I am!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. You come try it!” Jihoon says as Seungcheol makes his way around elevator to where Jihoon is furiously pressing the button. Jihoon moves aside so Seungcheol can take a shot at it, but he’s also met with silence.

“See, I told you I wa-” but Jihoon’s interrupted.

“Hello,” calls an annoyed voice.

“Yeah, hello we’re still here.”

“Who’s still there?” says the voice over the telecom.

“The ones who are trapped in the ing elevator,” curses Jihoon as his headache is becoming worse.

“Who’s trapped in an elevator?”

“Who the do you think is trap- wait who’s this?” Jihoon asks as he notices the voice over the telecom is not the one he was talking to earlier.

“I’m Jin. Who are you?”

“I’m Jiho- never mind that. Where’s the custodian?”

“He’s on his lunch break,” replies the man known as Jin and Jihoon is fuming.

“Then whose going to get us out?” asks Seungcheol.

“If you’re really trapped in an elevator, you’re going to have to wait until he’s done with his lunch break,” replies Jin.

“What!!” yells Jihoon.

“Hey, don’t yell at me.”

“Then who the is goin-” but Jin has already ended the call and Jihoon is furiously yelling obscenities to no one as Seungcheol slowly puts his hand on his shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay, Jihoon,” Seungcheol says as he smiles confidently. Jihoon calms down, but not before there’s another screech and this time the lights go out.

If there’s one thing Jihoon has learned over the years of being friends with Seungcheol, it would be that he is afraid of the dark, no; he's terrified of the dark.  So it would explain why Seungcheol always has at least one light on during the night.  Normally Jihoon doesn't get bothered by such things, but it seems that Seungcheol has a knack of thinking that he will die in the dark. It’s quite funny listening to the things Seungcheol comes up with when he’s freaking out in the dark.

“Holy , never mind Jihoon we’re going to die!” says Seungcheol as he tries to feel around for Jihoon.

“Stop exaggerating and calm down,” Jihoon says.

“I can’t it’s dark.”

“If only we had a small contraption that can help us make calls and also use as a flash light,” says Jihoon referring to Seungcheol’s phone.

“Oh right,” Seungcheol replies as he takes his phone out and uses the flashlight app to illuminate the darkened elevator. Once he can see, he sighs a breath of relief and smiles at Jihoon. Jihoon can’t help but smile back affectionately.  They both sit down on the floor as they take in the quietness of the elevator and the chill that they feel as their bodies make contact with the cold floor. All that can be heard is the soft breaths that they both take, and on the plus side, Jihoon’s headache is slowly going away.

They stay like that engulfed in silence up until Seungcheol’s battery dies and they can no longer see inside the elevator. Jihoon slowly lifts his head as he can feel Seungcheol’s breaths coming in a fast pattern.

“Seungcheol?”

“Y-yeah.”

“It’s going to be okay. I’m here it’ll be okay,” he says as Seungcheol garbs Jihoon’s hands and tightly grasps it. Jihoon can feel how strong Seungcheol’s grip is but he doesn’t pull his hand away because Seungcheol is scared of the dark and Jihoon wants to be his source of comfort.

He can hear Seungcheol rest his head back but he’s still breathing erratically.

“Jihoon, he’s got to come fast or else I’l-“

“Seungcheol?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Do you trust me?” Jihoon asks.

“Yes, I trust you with my life. Why?”

“Okay because what I’m about to do is so you can focus your attention on something other than the dark okay?” Jihoon says as Seungcheol can feel him shifting and in no time Jihoon is straddling Seungcheol’s thighs and he puts his hands on Seungcheol’s shoulder.

“Do you trust me?” Jihoon says again as Seungcheol can feel Jihoon’s breath against his lips.

“Yeah.”

Jihoon places his lips on Seungcheol’s in a small but powerful kiss. Jihoon’s heart is ramming out of his chest and he feels as if Seungcheol can feel it, which he can. Jihoon didn’t want to outright kiss Seungcheol, but he figured that this way he could blame it on how he was trying to distract him.

The kiss was meant to be a quick peck, but once he’s about to pull away, Seungcheol wraps his arms around Jihoon’s waist and pulls him back for another kiss. This time it’s heated and Seungcheol’s heart is also beating really hard. And for the first time since meeting Seungcheol Jihoon isn’t apprehensive towards showing his feelings to Seungcheol. For the first time Jihoon realizes that Seungcheol feels the same way about him, so he also goes back in for another kiss, but this time it’s not so innocent. This time it’s more heated as Jihoon wraps his arms around Seungcheol’s neck and they don’t notice the noise that’s coming outside of the elevator. They’re too preoccupied with each other’s embrace that they fail to notice the small light that is emanating from as the doors of the elevator that is being slowly pried open.

“Ahem,” they hear a voice say as the jolt apart.  Jihoon scrambles off of Seungcheol as he turns around to glare at whoever interrupted them. He stands up slowly as he smooths out the wrinkles in his sweater and clears his throat.

“Took you long enough,” is all Jihoon says as he grabs a blushing Seungcheol’s hand. They both walk out of the elevator and into their apartment to where they can continue where they left off.