Wonwoo has never thought that out of all the places in the world, he would meet Mingyu here, at the ungodly hour of 02.15 AM, in the small alley beside his uncle’s restaurant, a 3 hours 42 minutes KTX ride away from Seoul in Wonwoo’s hometown, Changwon.

Mingyu, well, looks Mingyu, just like how Mingyu looks in daily basis, with his long legs folded as he sits down, his hair mussed up in a flattering manner. Just for today, he has cigarette dangling in between chapped lips as he blows puffs of gray smoke into an empty can of beer. He reeks of alcohol, yet still looks sober, so in Wonwoo’s deduction it’s certainly not his first can, maybe his second or third.

Wonwoo quirks a brow, both hands still occupied with black trash bags filled with restaurant waste that is begging to be thrown away. His uncle’s shop is the kind of typical shop that you see in dramas- serving grilled Korean beef and pork belly with soju at the side. Like any other type of late-night shop, it has just been through a gruesome Friday night. Wonwoo himself can swear inside one of these black bags, lies at least one of the guests’ DNA in the form of puke.

As for why Wonwoo is here? Wonwoo, his younger brother and his parents went to visit for the long weekend, and somehow Wonwoo got caught into helping the restaurant during rush hour- which has just finished a few minutes ago. Wonwoo is about to wrap up his session by throwing the trash out, and he’s done for the day until he sees Mingyu.

He scans Mingyu with unfazed, yet focused eyes, half expecting him to hide a bong or suspicious white powder behind him just to find none. To be completely honest, Wonwoo had expected him to get high or something, resulting Wonwoo with trouble deciding whether he should be relieved Mingyu is not stoned or he should be disappointed that his previous deductions are proven to be wrong.

Mingyu looks straight at Wonwoo through shocked lidded eyes, obvious effects of the substance he had been consuming. As much as he admits he started the staring contest, he does not like being stared at, especially under Mingyu’s stern gaze that even under the influence of alcohol is still capable of stripping Wonwoo to the point he feels like he’s the one that’s caught smoking. Wonwoo is not that timid, nor he has fear of making eye contact, but with the absence of his glasses, he can't help but feel even more insecure. So, Wonwoo drops his view to the ground, meeting Mingyu’s limited edition vans that are ripped in all the wrong places.

“Nice shoes,”

Wonwoo says nonchalantly, his tone perfectly neutral. If it's not the fact that they are in the middle of a cold Changwon night, the conversation could really pass as a normal conversation held at school where Wonwoo spotted Mingyu wearing the newest Yeezys. Except, it will never occur that Wonwoo would be commenting on Mingyu's shoes, because they barely know each other.

For a moment, silent fills up the space between them, letting the chilly air bites down Wonwoo’s skin through his thin hoodie. Until Mingyu exhales a short snort, which soon erupts into a full blown laughter.

“Is that supposed to be a proper reaction seeing a high-schooler smoking?” Mingyu catches the cigarette in his fingers skillfully, patting it so its ashes drop down to the ground like tiny flickers of fireworks. Wonwoo can’t help but cough a little at the act, but keeps his cool as he calmly drops the trash bags into the dumpster, a deep breath to calm both himself and his raging snot before facing Mingyu.

Wonwoo shrugs, “You don’t look high school.”

It’s true. Belive Wonwoo it’s true. Mingyu does look youthful in their school’s standard uniform, but today, Mingyu is nothing but it. He’s wearing a white wife beater, with black skinny leather jeans that pressed up his legs nicely, accentuating the curves of his muscles. On top of his attire, he has a bulky warm-looking leather jacket that Wonwoo suspected used to be worn over the wife beater, not covering him in a blanket-like manner like how he’s wearing it now. Because, who’s stupid enough to wear only a wife beater during pre-winter?

There are piercings all over his ears, that’s a fact Wonwoo knows even in middle school, but today he wears twice the amount of earrings, marking his flushed flesh with dots of sparkly jewels in different kinds of designs: one of them is a pretty shape of a cross.

Not only piercings, there is also tiny black ink visible on his right side, a mark of a simple rose. Usually this tattoo stays hidden under his uniform, but under a wife beater, it peeks daintily. About the existence of this tattoo, Wonwoo recalled Soonyoung mentioning about this sometime in the past, when they were watching their school’s basketball team compete in a championship. His 10:10 eyed fellow claimed to have seen something similar of ink on Mingyu’s tan skin when he was pulling up his shirt to wipe his sweat (Wonwoo at that time cared more about Mingyu’s nasty hygiene rather than his tattoo, commenting ‘ew gross’ instead of ‘what tattoo’).

Mingyu, in his current state looks more believe-able to be someone that has just sold molly to a college girl, or someone that has just banged ladies in a nearby love hotel. He looks too far off the clean, studious, pure, pristine, intellectual image that high school students possess. Rather than a high school student, he looks like the type of boys that mothers told daughters to stay away from.

At Wonwoo’s innocent comment, Mingyu explodes into another round of laughter as he the tobacco, letting nicotine invade his lungs before exhaling with even more smoke than before. Though it looks like his problems have escaped together with the smoke, Mingyu’s eyes remained empty, if not even more than before.

Now Wonwoo gets it. Why Mingyu, despite being the resident bad boy is also one of the members of acolyte in their church. Maybe Mingyu needs something to repent his sins, to feel unadulterated even if he knows deep down he is not. What he’s doing is just a way to repay, to give reassurance, to cleanse him after rounds of being engulfed in smoke. To give him faux comfort that he is good even when what he’s doing is wrong.

After Mingyu’s laughter dies down, Wonwoo continues, “So how do you want me?”

MIngyu chokes at Wonwoo’s stoic, dead-fish eyes when he said that particular line that could mean so many things. He sets down his cigarette and leans back, his eyes darting above to nothing, “I don’t know? Freak out? Go tell teachers?”

Mingyu drops his gaze to scan Wonwoo, scrutinizing his fuzzy sight to make Wonwoo’s face familiar to his memory. “You’re from my school, right?” 

Wonwoo blinks, quite amused that Mingyu actually knows they go to the same school.

Mingyu waves his hand in dismissal, “Just do whatever you want, I don’t care.”

At Mingyu’s very resolving response, Wonwoo softly shakes his head, “I won’t do all of those.”

Wonwoo crouches down to Mingyu’s height before gently draping Mingyu’s jacket over the taller’s broad shoulders. As he stands up, he manages to sneak a small pat to Mingyu’s shoulder, said shoulder firm under his touch.

“You were born with good physique. Better return them good too,”

With that, Wonwoo ends their first encounter by heading back to his uncle’s shop sleepily, leaving Mingyu alone, dumbfounded, and most importantly, lost.

a/n: thank you for reading :333 these first two chapters had revolved more around Wonwoo's take, but in later chapters I'll try my best to alter from Mingyu's too. :DD