You take two bodies and you twirl them into one
Their hearts and their bones
And they won’t come undone
- Paul Simon

Jongin swims just as he always has. He lunges forward, his fingers digging into the water and pulling it apart. The left hand first, then the right. His toes remain pointed, his ankle relaxed, and he keeps moving forward, surrendering himself completely to the water. Getting lost in it. Feeling it consume him as his fingers slice an opening, sliding himself through. The front crawl has always been his favorite ; it’s the one with the least resistance, allowing himself to fully immerse himself in the water. Pull and push until they’re one.

That’s how swimming has always been for Jongin. Nothing beats the sensation of being submerged in water and kicking forward until the resistance lessens and the water accepts him as its own. It’s not so much extra training, he thinks, as much as it is healing after a weary day. When the familiar mosaic tiles pull into sight, Jongin reaches forward, pressing his palm into the solidness before rising.

It really does feel different when he’s in the water.

He glances at the clock and heaves himself out of the pool, pulling his swim cap and goggles off in one fluid movement as he heads for the shower. Water droplets cling on stubbornly to the ends of his hair and he shakes them off vigorously, then sweeps his damp hair back to keep them out of his eyes.

He grabs his towel when he’s done with his shower and dries himself half-heartedly. Even when he’s slipping his pants on, he’s still contemplating diving into the pool once more. He can just take another shower. He always wants to swim one more lap, even half will do, especially now when it’s late and the pool is empty and there’s no one pressuring him into swimming for a gold medal. No one telling him to watch his form, to swim 5 laps in 3-minute cycles, to stay ahead of everyone else. He’s free to swim however he wants and that is something that has been elusive since intensive training for the upcoming tournament started.

His hair is beyond damp but Jongin’s too exhausted to dry it properly. He gathers his stuff and heads for the locker room to retrieve his bag, dragging his feet along until he spots a silhouette in the distance and stops in his tracks. A chill runs down his spine. He stands there dumbly, squinting to get a better view in the dim lighting as his arms tightens around his toiletries and swim gear.

“Hello?” he calls, his voice echoing off the walls. The silhouette shifts and moves through the darkness until he can be seen in the light. It’s a human, that’s the most important fact. He’s in school uniform, the white top and gray pants enough to assure Jongin he’s not going to become a victim of a serial-killing spree.

Jongin’s not so scared anymore.

He notices the stranger holding on to a fancy camera, a DSLR if he can recall briefly from memory, something Chanyeol had once talked about getting during a phase when he was obsessed with photography. It didn’t last very long.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, shoulders relaxing.

The unidentified stranger raises his camera and Jongin waits for him to speak. A few long seconds pass before Jongin realizes that’s all the explanation he’s going to get for now. He takes a hesitant forward. The stranger mirrors his actions and Jongin stays where he is, waiting for the male to come to him. He gets a better view of the outsider when he’s halfway across the pool.

The stranger looked small from afar, but his build is also small close-up and Jongin’s guard dissolves entirely. This guy isn’t a threat, he can take him down if he needs to. The stranger’s gelled up hair draws attention to his wide and bright eyes. Clear skin, friendly eyes, cool camera. Looks just like an average guy.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” are his first words to Jongin. “I thought the pool would be empty by now.”

Jongin scratches the back of his neck, a sudden wave of self-consciousness hitting him. “It’s supposed to be, yeah, I just wanted to do some extra swimming.”

The stranger stops a few feet before Jongin and nods. “I’m Kyungsoo,” he says. His voice is rather low but really warm and a tingling sensation creeps across the expanse of Jongin’s skin. It’s the same feeling he gets when he’s in the water.

“I’m Jongin,” he offers, feeling a little dazed just from the sound of his voice. “I’m um, a swimmer, obviously.”

Kyungsoo nods again and Jongin realizes his eyes aren’t wide open from surprise or fear, they just naturally are. Really wide, and really bright. “I’m from the photography club. I’m doing a project and I wanted some photos of the pool,” he explains and lifts his camera again.

“Oh.”

Jongin doesn’t think he knows anyone from the photography club because he mostly keeps to his own circle of friends, most of them athletes like him. He doesn’t even think he has seen Kyungsoo around in school. A complete stranger.

When he realizes Kyungsoo is still waiting for a fully-formed response, he tries to smile cordially. “Are you done taking your photos?”

“I just started taking them,” Kyungsoo admits. He looks at his camera and then at Jongin, as if waiting for some kind of affirmation. Jongin doesn’t know what to say.

“Do you want to, uh, continue taking them? It’s okay, you know, I just got startled earlier.”

Kyungsoo smiles back. “Yes. Thank you.”

The moment he gets Jongin’s permission, he grabs his DSLR camera and adjusts the lens, lifting it up to his face which disappears behind the device. Jongin’s instinct tells him to stay and so he does, watching Kyungsoo take his photos. For some reason, he just doesn’t want to leave the other male alone here. The pool is his private space, even more so now when it’s supposed to be empty and the moonlight is streaming in through the windows, so it’s only natural that he doesn’t want to leave somebody he barely knows alone in a place so important to him.

No.

That’s a lie.

It’s not because he feels uncomfortable about his private space being intruded by someone he doesn’t know that he’s staying, but because for some reason the photographer standing a few feet away from him gives him a familiar feeling of comfort. His voice is so nice and Jongin doesn’t feel the awkwardness he usually feels around new people. Here is someone who seems to have no problem blending in with the tranquility of this place and Jongin is intrigued— so intrigued he finds himself not minding the fact that he’s here.

When Kyungsoo is done taking his photos, he releases his camera and looks back at Jongin.

“Are you waiting for me to leave?”

“I.” Jongin starts to his eternal chagrin because his mind is a complete blank and he can’t think of what to say. No, he’s not exactly waiting, he’s just… What is he doing? “I.” He tries again, and fails again.

Kyungsoo smiles at him, but it’s one that seems superficial and for the sole purpose of politeness. “I’m done taking them, so I can leave now. Sorry again for scaring you.”

“It’s okay, really.” Good start, he tells himself. How very convincing.

“Okay.”

“Do you um— what kind of photos are you taking?”

It’s getting later with every passing second and Jongin has a pile of homework waiting to be done by tonight but strangely, he wants to prolong this. He doesn’t want to leave just yet.

If Kyungsoo is surprised by his sudden question, he doesn’t show it. “Just a personal project,” he says, “photos of random places.”

“Is this your first stop?”

The questions are coming easily now— Jongin doesn’t have to force any of them. He genuinely wants to know.

“No,” Kyungsoo tells him, and doesn’t reveal more.

He sees Kyungsoo’s gaze flit to the clock and is struck by a sudden anxiousness to say something else, to retain his attention and hear his voice just once more. It’s like the urge he always gets to dive back into the pool for just one more lap.

“If you uh, ever need a model or something, you can look for me. I mean, if you need photos of someone swimming. Since I’m, you know, on the swim team?”

He ed it up. Jongin wants to dive into the pool and swim until he can’t remember what he just did. This is exactly why he doesn’t like interacting with people. He never knows what to say or do and just ends up making himself look stupid. But Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to share the same sentiments as his smile reaches his eyes, more genuine now.

“Thank you for that offer. I’ll look for you if I need anyone. It’s getting late, I think I should leave now.” Kyungsoo slides his fingers against the buttons on his camera as he talks, as if feeling the device beneath his fingertips gives him comfort. “Good bye,” he says, and leaves without a second glance.

He’s too far off when Jongin finally figures out that he wants to tell Kyungsoo he’ll see him around in school, so Jongin keeps it to himself and watches Kyungsoo disappear through the door.

His hair is almost dry now as he wraps his towel around his swim trunks and stuffs them into his bag alongside his toiletries. Kyungsoo. What a mysterious guy. He’s still thinking about him when he steps out of the school compound, the night quiet as his phone lights up with notifications from Jieun.

Jongin ignores those messages until he’s on the bus, and the strange feeling only starts to wear off when the school buildings fade from the background.

-

He had never seen Kyungsoo prior to their meeting at the pool, but now that they’re acquainted, Jongin sees him everywhere. Not that Jongin’s complaining about it because he finds that he really likes seeing him around.

Kyungsoo is a common sight now— he is arranging his stuff in the locker when Jongin walks down the hallway, he is sitting at the other end of the cafeteria when Jongin strolls in, long tuned out from the stupid squabble between Chanyeol and Sehun. There’s just something about Kyungsoo’s presence that makes him feel calm. Seeing his face makes his restless soul feel a little more at peace, though it comes in tandem with the urge to dive into the pool and swim through a million sunsets. There’s no other way to explain it. And today, Jongin catches Kyungsoo alone and in the midst of stuffing his books into his locker.

Having Chanyeol by his side makes him feel a little less awkward, so today Jongin waves for the first time and his gigantic friend is flabbergasted.

“Who is that?” he asks Jongin, his long fingers wrapping around his shoulder in a bid for attention.

Jongin tries to shrug off the weight of his hand. “That’s Kyungsoo,” he murmurs distractedly, smiling when Kyungsoo looks at him, stunned, then waves back tentatively.

“No, like who is that?” Chanyeol doesn’t relent, digging his nails into Jongin’s shoulder. Jongin elbows him and swings his arm around his neck, cuffing him.

“Why are you so curious?”

It’s difficult keeping Chanyeol down in a headlock because of the height advantage he has over him but he tries anyway until Chanyeol struggles out of his grasp, laughing obnoxiously

“It takes you forever to make a new friend!”

Jongin glances back furtively. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to have heard anything. He elbows Chanyeol again before replying with a hushed “I don’t know if we’re actually friends”, hoping that’s enough to shut Chanyeol up.

It doesn’t. Chanyeol leans down slightly, his smile so wide it makes him look a little creepy.

“How did you meet him?”
 

Jongin doesn’t meet his eyes. “He came to the pool to take photographs.”

“And?”

“That’s all.”

“Jongin!” Chanyeol calls out dramatically, throwing one arm around Jongin’s shoulders as he fake-sobs into the other hand. “You’re growing up, Jongin. My babies grow up so quickly.”

The coast is clear when Jongin glances back again, worried Kyungsoo might somehow overhear their weird conversation. He takes this moment to reconsider his friendship with Chanyeol. A very questionable friendship just bloomed out of nowhere after Chanyeol decided Jongin would be his siamese twin during trainings, and even though he appreciates Chanyeol’s presence in his life most of the time, today is definitely not one of those days.

“You’re ing crazy, you know that?”

“Nah, dude, I’m just happy seeing you meet new people. You keep to yourself too much. You don’t even talk to people.”

“That’s not true,” Jongin protests weakly, unconvinced of it himself. He pushes Chanyeol into the classroom first in hope that he’ll spot someone else who can distract him, then takes the empty seat in the last row. His friend flops down beside him with a wacky grin and fortunately, doesn’t take the opportunity to make anymore digs at him.

It’s easy to forget most things after that, forget about the stuffy classroom he’s in, forget about Chanyeol’s cheeky smiles and playfulness, but it’s not so easy to forget about his words.

The only reason why Jongin is attached is because Jieun confessed first. He didn’t know how to reject her and his friends were convinced of her sweet nature (read: appearance) at that time, so they ended up dating. Is he in love with Jieun? Jongin still doesn’t have an answer to that, not that it really bothers him now. He is just going with the flow at this point. It’s true what Chanyeol said. Jongin doesn’t know how to approach people, much less try to build a friendship with them. But he has never particularly minded it until now.

He has never been one to approach others first, so why is it that he just wants to talk to Kyungsoo, wants to get to know him, wants to just push forward blindly simply because he feels like it?

He just really, really, really wants to be friends with Kyungsoo. Actual friends.

-

It’s a humid day, the air saturated and Jongin doesn’t know why he’s out on such a warm day. All he knows is that he had somehow let the guilt (and Sehun) talk him into asking Jieun out on a Saturday even though he’s already way behind his deadlines for all of his assignments.

He waits at their usual spot on the bridge, gazing down at the stream and feeling his muscles ache with desire. The temptation to jump over and dive into the water gnaws at him and for a moment Jongin contemplates it seriously. It doesn’t look too shallow and it’s a warm day, what can he possibly lose from doing that? But then he remembers it’s not normal behaviour for people to randomly dive into streams and he’s kinda on a date, so he bids his short-lived fantasy farewell and turns his back to the water.

Strangers stroll past him leisurely, some alone, some with a significant other, and Jongin waits with his hands in his pockets and back against the railings and prays that Jieun will arrive soon. He has learnt to cultivate his patience and people-watching skills as a result of her consistent tardiness, and once again, his life is frozen right now as he watches people come and go before him.

Then he sees him.

Jongin doesn’t call out to him instantly. He stares harder at the approaching figure until he is absolutely sure he has the right person, and smiling for the first time since he woke up, yells “Kyungsoo” while waving his hands.

It is Kyungsoo at the end of the bridge. He startles, evidently not having caught sight of Jongin yet, and when he does, his shoulders relax into a slight slouch. He waves back, but doesn’t make any attempt to increase his pace. Jongin takes in the sight of Kyungsoo in a graphic T-shirt and grey Nike sweatpants with the familiar DSLR camera slung around his neck while waiting for him to cross the distance between them.

“What are you doing here?” he asks when Kyungsoo comes within hearing range, and the smaller male lifts his camera again, like he did the first time they met. It was supposed to be a rhetorical question because Jongin didn’t know how else he could start a conversation, but Kyungsoo’s serene face soon made him forget about his lousy technique.

“I think I’m just going to walk around for a bit and take some photographs,” Kyungsoo says anyway. His voice sounds especially warm this morning and Jongin gets the urge to dive into the stream again. He blinks it away, wondering what’s gotten into him all of a sudden.

“Do you come here often?”

“Not really.”

Jongin wants to know more, but Kyungsoo’s standing three feet away in the middle of the path, a hindrance to people crossing the bridge. Despite that, it’s really for his own sake when he reaches out for Kyungsoo’s arm and pulls him in so they’re standing side by side against the railings and Kyungsoo isn’t blocking the way anymore. Otherwise, Kyungsoo might have said goodbye too early for his liking. He doesn’t like it when Kyungsoo looks like he’s about to leave anytime.

Those were the only thoughts on his mind when he made the spontaneous decision to pull Kyungsoo in, so the softness and warmth of Kyungsoo’s arm catches him off-guard when his fingers curls around his forearm. The tingling sensation starts at the tips of his fingers and rushes through his body at full-speed. Jongin vaguely wonders if this is what it feels like to be struck by lightning.

“So what are you doing here?” Kyungsoo’s question breaks his daze and jerks him back to his senses. Jongin blinks slowly. They’re on the bridge, it’s a warm day, and he can’t quite recall why he’s here anymore. Did he come here to meet Kyungsoo? No, that isn’t it.

“I,” Jongin begins, hoping that he’ll remember as he speaks. “I, um, oh right, I came to meet Jieun.” A dreadful feeling fills him when Jieun’s name leaves his lips. It’s the same feeling he gets when he doesn’t meet his coach’s target for his 100m lap and he has to tell him so. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t quite want to let Kyungsoo know that he’s on a date with his girlfriend.

Kyungsoo seems completely unruffled by his answer, uncaring, even. His face is blank as usual. Jongin can’t read him, and it’s what intrigues him the most. What is Kyungsoo thinking?

“Is she late?”

Small-talk. Jongin can only play along. He glances down at his watch though he already knows the answer to that.

“Yeah, a little late. But I’m used to it now.”

What’s different instead is that today, he doesn’t feel annoyed at all. He looks at Kyungsoo and thinks maybe it’s because he has someone to talk to while waiting.

“Are you gonna take photos of the bridge?”

Kyungsoo seems a little surprised by his question. His expression changes, eyebrows raising slightly.

“I guess I can,” he mutters, and decides on it as he lifts the camera to his face. The shutter clicks.

“Do you usually take photos of people or places?”

Kyungsoo takes his time mulling over that question, eyes trained on the scenery before him.

“Places, I guess. I only like taking photos of people when they’re oblivious to the camera. Catching them off-guard. They’re a little different when they’re not posing for the camera.”

They’re on the bridge and he’s waiting for Jieun, Jongin has to remind himself again as his heartbeat seems to dull and slow down a little. It’s humid, the air is saturated, and Kyungsoo’s voice is slicing sharply through it. He has all of Jongin’s attention. Every single ounce of it.

“That’s really cool,” Jongin hears himself say.

Kyungsoo reacts by lifting the camera to his face again, turning to face Jongin, and the shutter clicks before Jongin can react. Kyungsoo’s lips seem to curl slightly as he checks the photo, or Jongin might be dreaming about it.

“Do I look good?” Jongin asks with a chuckle, though his cheeks are heating up and his heart seems to be going into overdrive. He has never been comfortable in front of a camera, and having one in his face so suddenly is way out of his comfort-zone. But since there’s no way to undo what just happened, Jongin can only hope that he looks at least decent in the photograph.

Kyungsoo really smiles this time when he examines his camera screen again. His smile is modest, and Jongin relishes in that sight because it doesn’t come very often. In that moment, he wishes he was the one with the camera instead, so he can immortalize this fleeting moment of beauty. Instead, all he can do is lock it in his memory and hope it stays there.

“You look fine,” Kyungsoo assures him, but Jongin isn’t very convinced.

“Let me see it!”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Kyungsoo swats his hand away when he tries to reach for the camera.

“I don’t—”

“Jongin!”

They turn at the same time to see Jieun brisk-walking towards them, looking fresh and pretty in a dainty yellow dress. She beams brightly at him and Jongin is thinking about how it seems to pale in comparison to the one Kyungsoo had offered him just a moment ago. He smiles back anyway, a reflex.

Then he remembers that Kyungsoo is beside him and looks at him, wondering how Kyungsoo is going to react. Is this where they part? He watches carefully for any change in expression, but Kyungsoo’s face remains absolutely blank. Too engrossed in Kyungsoo’s face, Jongin doesn’t even notice when Jieun grabs his arm.

Their eyes meet.

“I’ll be on my way then. Have fun on your date.”

He doesn’t wait for a response before walking away, just like that night in the pool, and Jongin stares after him until Jieun tugs at his arm, and suddenly it’s not wide eyes and a blank face he’s staring at anymore but sharp features and a pointed nose.

“Who is that?”

“That’s Kyungsoo,” Jongin tells her. “A friend, my friend.”

“He didn’t even say hi to me,” Jieun says with a pout, but it’s obvious she doesn’t really care because her face lightens into a childlike grin right afterwards and she pulls Jongin along with her, starting a long-awaited date.

They’re on the bridge and the person he’s waiting for is finally here, Jongin has to remind himself as he falls into step with her, so why does he feel disappointed for some reason? Maybe because he never got to see the photo, he reasons, and the day slows when Kyungsoo’s face comes into mind. It stays right there, and even when the day explodes into vitality and a flurry of activities, Jongin’s mind won’t stop replaying the click of the shutter and the smile that came after.

At the end of the day when he returns home and collapses onto his bed, exhausted, he can’t recall a single thing he did with Jieun at the park, only the boy behind the camera and his lovely smile.

-

“Nicely done, Jongin.”

Sehun slaps his back as he heaves himself out of the pool, pulling his goggles and swim cap off together. He takes a moment to steady his breathing then checks the frozen digits on the stopwatch, tossing a grin at Sehun.

Covering 100m in barely 49 seconds is indeed nicely done. He lets that compliment seep in. Now he just needs to focus on getting even better so he can win at the tournament.

He shakes his head wildly, flinging off water droplets. Sehun is still watching him after he wipes his face dry.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Jongin sighs. “It’s late. You should go.”

“I heard you made a new friend.”

His voice is b with curiosity. Jongin wraps his towel around himself.

“I did,” he tells Sehun. “Why are you and Chanyeol so obsessed with that?”

“Who is he? Do I know him? How’s he like?”

Kyungsoo’s face surfaces in his mind. He fumbles for the right words, thinking about the tranquility of his presence, the warmth of his voice, and the perpetual blankness of his face even when he’s thinking of a million things like on the day they ran into each other on the bridge. How difficult it is to guess what he’s thinking, to even attempt to. And Jongin realizes he doesn’t quite know how to describe his new friend; he can’t come up with the right words to talk about what he’s like.

“He’s cool,” he settles on that description, aware that Kyungsoo is possibly so much more than just that.

Chanyeol is lively. Sehun is funny. Jieun is pretty. What about Kyungsoo? What is he?

“It’s just that you rarely get out of your shell, you know, we’re proud of you.”

The smug smile slips off Sehun’s face when Jongin whacks him with his damp towel.

“You really should go,” Jongin says as firmly as he can, staying rooted to where he stands three feet away from the pool with his goggles and swim cap still dripping wet in his grasp. He’s thinking about being alone in the pool and swimming without having to care about winning. He just wants to be in the water.

Sehun yawns widely and nods, stretching his arms as he walks towards the locker room in his T-shirt and shorts. He has never been one to stay after training hours for extra practice.

“Thanks for today, dickhead!” Jongin shouts after him affectionately. Sehun raises a middle finger at him when he reappears with his bag in tow and leaves, taking large strides towards the door.

Jongin, now alone, regards the pool. The glistening water casts restless shadows on the walls, an artwork that’s very much alive. It’s nights like this when he feels at peace with his soul; when the world is quiet and there’s no one else who can reach him the moment he dives into the water. He wants to feel it wrapped around him, but then he realizes there’s another way he can do that, with another comforting presence he has found only recently.

The sound of his footsteps is a jarring contrast to the splash he thought he would hear diving into the pool after he’s alone again. He wrings his swim cap dry and takes a quick shower, falling into the routine of washing up after training. Then he locks up the place.

It’s late and he really shouldn’t be expecting the person he’s looking for to still be around, but all the thoughts streaming through his mind are beyond his control as he jogs down a flight of stairs and walks down the hallway, steering left, and arrives before the photography club room.

The door is shut before him, but there’s light filtering through the gap underneath and Jongin’s palms are clammy when he locks his fingers around the doorknob. He waits until his hesitation spools loose enough for him to twist it open.

He has never been in the photography club room, and it’s an unfamiliar sight that grazes his eyes; whitewashed walls and tall stools, a DSLR camera sitting at the edge of a rustic wooden table and developed photographs strewn across its surface. Kyungsoo’s familiar face is a pleasant change and his eyes are wide with alertness as he absorbs the sight of Jongin in a hoodie and sweatpants, hair still damp from his hurried shower.

“Hi,” Jongin breaks into a smile, his body heavy with exhaustion all of a sudden and he leans against the doorframe for support.

“What are you doing here?”

There it comes again. The wave of his voice. The warmth. The comfort. The quietness. Everything comes together to make him feel at peace with the world at this moment.

“I was um, passing by and I saw the light still on so I thought I’d come and say hi.” He’s at lying and his only hope of salvation is not giving Kyungsoo enough time to unravel his messy little lie, so he continues quickly with “what are you still doing here?”

There’s no way Jongin could have possibly been just passing by when the club room is located all the way at the end of the desolate hallway. Is that what Kyungsoo has figured out? Jongin watches him nervously, wondering what’s going through his mind. He can read most people easily, some because they’re an open book, others because Jongin is just sensitive about things like that, but Kyungsoo is completely shut off from him. He’s like a cordoned off area, and the more distant he is, the more Jongin wants to find out what’s behind this boy who spikes his interest.

Even if Kyungsoo has figured out he’s lying, he doesn’t expose him. “I’m just tying up some loose ends.” There he goes again. Answering questions, but barely. Toeing the boundaries. Addressing the surface, but not really covering what’s essential.

Jongin makes a show of looking at his watch. “It’s almost 9pm.”

Kyungsoo shrugs loosely, a picture of disinterest. “I live nearby, so it’s fine if I leave a little later.” He drops his gaze, fixating his attention on whatever he has at hand. Jongin tiptoes in an attempt to get a better view because he doesn’t know if it’s polite to go in right now when Kyungsoo hasn’t really extended an invitation to him, and he sees Kyungsoo hunched over an A3-sized paper covered with splotches of colours.

All he wanted to do was come and see if Kyungsoo was around⸺ he didn’t think of anything beyond that, not considerations like whether he’ll find him alone or if they’ll have anything to talk about. Now that he’s here, he realizes these considerations are due more importance than what he offered.

In the end, it’s Kyungsoo who saves him. “What about you? Why are you still in school at this time?”

“I was swimming,” says Jongin. The adrenaline from breaking his personal record earlier rushes through him again at the memory of it and he’s feeling a lot braver when he steps into the room, no longer concerned about politeness and decorum. Screw that. He has a better view of what Kyungsoo is doing now. His fingers are caked with dried paint, an iridescent mess of colours on the palette before him. “What is that?”

“I wanted to make a nice background for my photos but I don’t think it’s going very well.” And then Kyungsoo actually laughs. His lips stretches and his eyes lift into shimmering crescents. “Oh well.”

“It looks great to me,” Jongin tells him, referring to both his background and smile.

Kyungsoo just shakes his head. “Never mind. It’s probably time I start packing up too. I totally lost track of time.”

Silence dominates them after that as Jongin derives entertainment from watching Kyungsoo bustle around, stacking his materials and dumping his palette into the sink Jongin hadn’t noticed was at the corner. He looks around the room. It’s rather lacking in space, but there’s a window right beside the sink and it doesn’t feel so enclosed with the night breeze streaming in and Kyungsoo moving around in this little room with colourful fingers and his uniform all rumpled.

“It’s a nice place,” he ends up blurting out.

“It is,” Kyungsoo agrees. “I mostly have it to myself now.”

“Why?”

“There aren’t many people left in the photography club,” says Kyungsoo, but Jongin wonders if he should say anything about that— then decides against it because Kyungsoo doesn’t seem sad about it anyway. “And the members rarely use this room anyway, so it’s pretty much all mine.”

“You’re lucky,” Jongin tells him and takes another step forward, trailing his fingers along the table. “I wish I had the pool to myself all the time.”

Then silence falls between them again. The noise of the running tap fills that gray space as Kyungsoo tries to scrub his palette clean. Jongin watches him struggle, not really minding the lack of conversation between them because it’s nice like this too. He looks at the photographs before him, of trees and empty streets and buildings. These must belong to Kyungsoo. It would be a lie to say he can fully appreciate them because Jongin has never really been into photography, but even to his inexperienced eyes, the good quality is undoubtable. He tries looking for the one Kyungsoo took of him on the bridge, but it must be somewhere else instead (he hopes it hasn’t been deleted). Maybe he’ll ask him about it another day.

It’s been a while since he’s been in the presence of anyone he feels like he has to constantly talk to, so Kyungsoo’s natural quietness isn’t all that unwelcomed. In fact, Jongin finds comfort in not having to think about what to say when they’re not talking, especially right now when it’s been a long day and he’s tired.

When Kyungsoo has finished packing all of his stuff, he looks at Jongin.

“I’m sorry about the pool. You can come over here if you want to.”

It surprises Jongin who hadn’t been expecting any response to that statement. “I’ll take you up on that offer,” he chirps, maybe a little too enthusiastically, because Kyungsoo stares hard at him before looking away.

“It’s nothing,” he mutters.

“Do you want a ride home? I drove to school today.”

“It’s fine, my house is only 10 minutes away.”

Jongin follows after him and waits until he’s done locking up before trying again. Because Kyungsoo is so difficult to read, it’s virtually impossible to tell whether he’s just trying to be polite or if he genuinely doesn’t want it.

“It’ll still save you some time.”

Any pain of rejection is washed away by the sight of Kyungsoo smiling at him as they fall into step, strolling down the dim hallway that would have looked like something straight out of a horror movie if he was alone. It doesn’t seem so dim anymore with Kyungsoo smiling beside him.

“It’s really okay, I like walking home.”

Jongin doesn’t ask again. They leave the building together, talking a little about school and random stuff, and the carpark is too sickeningly near— their goodbyes come a little too quickly for Jongin’s liking. Even though it was all small-talk, he really enjoyed talking to Kyungsoo against the soothing backdrop of the quiet night.

“See you soon,” Kyungsoo tells him, gives him a little wave and the side-gate has the pleasure of possessing his attention afterwards. Jongin walks as slowly as he possibly can to his car so he can watch Kyungsoo until he vanishes from sight.

The engine roars into life when Jongin jabs his key in. He sinks into the backrest of his seat and slowly shuts his eyes, a long sigh easing through his lips as he does. A couple of minutes pass in his stillness and when he has rested enough to take on the world again, he hums the entire journey back home. The gates swing open and he stops right outside the entrance instead of parking in the garage, illuminating the walls with the headlights. His dad might yell at him for parking there tomorrow but he can’t bring himself to bother right now.

All he can think about is the euphoria of breaking his personal record today even though Sehun was the only one around to see it, as well as the way he ended his night. He flicks the headlights off, and the world goes dark when he thinks about colourful fingers and tight smiles.