"Hello!" He announces himself cheerfully.

 

Minhyuk blinks, and pushes himself away from his desktop.

 

A smile pushes behind his lips, he can't help but smile around Kyung, but he only lets a hint of it out. He doesn't know what Kyung wants yet.

 

"What's up?" He scratches idly at his bare chest. "You didn't call."

 

Kyung shrugs, and Minhyuk doesn't push. It's a rare event that Kyung thinks ahead enough to call before he visits. He looks a bit antsy though, he bounces on the balls of his feet and there is of course the tropical novelty balloon he's holding, so Minhyuk hazards a guess that this isn't just a purely casual call.

 

Unsurprisingly, Kyung's next words prove him right.

 

"Do you wanna go up to the roof?"

 

Minhyuk blinks again.

 

"... Why."

 

Kyung pushes his sunglasses up into his soft tangle of orange hair, and his cheeks wrinkle in a grin so bright that Minhyuk mirrors it subconsciously, though more subdued.

 

"Because I bought this balloon here," he wiggles the tree beside him, "-and have nothing else to do. You don't either, I'm guessing, since you're surfing alone in your underwear."

 

Minhyuk snaps his laptop closed.

 

"I'll raid your fridge while you get dressed." 

 

Minhyuk sighs after Kyung wiggles his fingers and heads back out the door. He sees no point in arguing, he'd just as well as signed away thinking logically the first time he'd realized how hard that skinny little rapper made his heart beat whenever he was around. He heaves himself up and steps into a pair of shorts, pulls on a shirt that he'd stolen from Kyung a while ago, the one that hugs a bit too tight to his armpits. Kyung leaves a lot of clothes at his apartment, not on purpose even, just because he's forgetful. He does have a drawer, but all it has in it are condoms and a family of smelly mismatched socks.

 

He claims that its all he really needs, and Minhyuk allows it because he is himself, and Kyung is Kyung.

 

Minhyuk finds him sitting on the single counter in his kitchenette, eating salad lettuce by the handful, holding his palm tree between his knobby knees. 

 

"Ready?" He hops down, shoving the produce bag underneath his arm.

 

Minhyuk almost protests, that bag was brand new and he was trying to eat more of the stuff, but Minhyuk is first and foremost a pushover, and says nothing as they head out of his apartment. Kyung's flip flops slap against his heels as they walk, the plastic palm fronds tickle Minhyuk's elbow. The hallway is a bit muggy, it's warm outside and only the units are air-conditioned, and Minhyuk feels that it might be a bit strange, how dry his throat is at the sight of Kyung's pale skin glistening in the fluorescent light.

 

Kyung has never been on the roof of this building, as far as Minhyuk is aware. But this is Park Kyung, and Minhyuk doesn't think that Park Kyung will ever run out of surprises.

 

When they get to the locked roof exit, Minhyuk is ready to turn back. It was a silly adventure in the first place, and there are plenty of other things that Minhyuk could be doing with his scant free time other than trespassing. 

 

But, like always, Kyung is ten steps ahead of him.

 

When he pulls the key ring from his pocket and jangles it playfully in front of Minhyuk's face, the elder hardly even reacts. Of course Kyung stole the keys, of course he did.

 

"We're too old for this kind of ," he chides, with no real heat.

 

"Debatable," Kyung throws back, and tosses the blow-up plant into Minhyuk's chest to get to the door.

 

Outside is hotter than inside, the air is totally still, and the sun is just a flickering mirage barely peeking above the caps of the surrounding buildings. The roof is a lot less exciting than even Minhyuk had anticipated, but Kyung doesn't seem disappointed in the least; he gestures excitedly towards the various pieces of industrial hardware around them. He kicks at a grouping of lipstick-stained cigarette butts, and walks to an air-con unit to hop up onto it.

 

Kicking his heels, his bird boned ankles as slim as anything, he pats the space beside him, and smiles.

 

The metal is hot beneath Minhyuk's hands, he brushes aside caked bird droppings before handing the palm tree off to Kyung and joining him.

 

Their thighs press flush, dark skin against light, and Kyung knocks their ankles together as he offers Minhyuk a handful of salad. 

 

He takes it and chews languidly on a leaf.

 

The still air pressing humidly in on them carries sound magnificently, Minhyuk is soothed by the impersonal happenings of the city around them. His reveling in the progress of humanity is short-lived, however, as Kyung opens his mouth to speak.

 

"Do you ever think about how you'll die, Minhyukkie?" He asks around a mouthful of lettuce.

 

Minhyuk chokes on his.

 

"No, Kyung, I don't." Minhyuk slaps the palm tree's plastic leaves out of his face as he turns. "Are you okay?"

 

Kyung smiles at him, teeth ivory in the sunset, and Minhyuk feels relieved before Kyung even opens his mouth.

 

"Just wondering, dude. You know sunsets make me philosophical."

 

Minhyuk didn't know that, but it makes sense.

 

He turns back to face the sun.

 

"I hope that I go out with a bang," Kyung continues, speaking more to the city than to Minhyuk. "Something cool. Something that will make people remember me well."

 

"That's respectable, I guess," Minhyuk acquiesces.

 

Silence again, longer now. The two snack on lettuce, and mark the descent of the sun by how many panes of glass it illuminates on the building in front of them.

 

“I don’t know how I’ll be remembered, exactly," Kyung speaks up again, minutes later. "-but stunning is a word that I hope will be used often.”

 

Minhyuk laughs then, not really mocking, just a little bit in love.

 

"I'll make sure that you will be."

 

Kyung nods, assuaged, before he fully comprehends Minhyuk's wording and turns to face him, hitching a leg up onto the unit between them.

 

"Hey, you think that you'll live longer, huh? Why are you so sure? Are you a black widow, are you gonna kill me and steal all my money?"

 

Minhyuk snorts.

 

"What money?"

 

"... That's fair."

 

Kyung turns back to the purple-orange sky, but leaves his leg to drape across Minhyuk's lap. Minhyuk tries to tickle him a bit, nails tripping across the pale hairs on his legs, but Kyung whacks him with the palm tree and he stops. The sun slips down below the horizon as they watch quietly, the only sounds the squeaking of lettuce between Kyung's teeth and the traffic below. Minhyuk puts a hand around Kyung's waist at some point, and Kyung lays his head on Minhyuk's shoulder, and the palm tree stays between them, neon leaves the brightest spot of color in the city.