It was crisp outside, the chill slowly sifting into Daniel’s paper-thin clothes. It was moments like that; sometime around two to three in the zenith of the morning; solitude had decided to wrap him up in its hands of icy desolation.

Daniel jerked awake then, frowned at the bitter hollowness of his chest. It was cold, too cold.

He was in bed, had slept for over an hour or so, as the glaring numerals of crimson displayed on his digital clock indicated.

He had forgotten to shut the door to his balcony; wispy tendrils of breeze weaving in through the dense air. It was not a full moon out but somehow close to it, the glow still very subdued, spilling across the coverlet like watery silk.

Daniel rose from his warm sheets, padded across the palatial space of his bedroom. Perched his hand at the edge of the sliding glass. Let the wind slither through his hair.

He was deadly tired, darkened highlights painted underneath his eyes. He knew tomorrow- today, really- he would be all sore during work. He would be tired. His joints wooden stiff as he typed something away on his computer. His lips compressed, his orders frank and pinched and resounding through the air like a bullwhip. The workers would scuttle and try their very best not to raise their voices. Jisung would be kept mum. No witty quips and lame jokes in the office.

And yet the protagonist itself would still manage to emerge so flawlessly: meetings aced, clients pleased and each report submitted on due time like a perfect bullseye- the list running taut from case to case like pearls strung on thread. They would wrap up early.

But right now, Daniel could feel his bones shake, yawns tumbling out his mouth endlessly like Niagara Falls. He could head back to bed- clock out for a few more hours before his alarm would ring, or go make himself a steaming mug of coffee and stay wide awake till whatever goddamned hour of time, he didn't care. He was used to it.

It was still cold, but for some reasons, it was not the cold of the loneliness that enshrouded Daniel's form. He had found it comforting then, almost impenetrable. He shifted his gaze upwards, eyed the clump of stars bleeding into the void of the night.

Seongwoo's birthmarks. How similar. Breath-stoppingly beautiful, gorgeous. Intriguing.

Daniel turned away, shut the balcony door. He scuffled back to bed, and buried himself within the mountains of pillows and linen- willing, no, forcing himself back to sleep.

He had then remembered yesterday, nine in the morning, with Jaehwan-

"Jaehwan, if it was you-”

Jaehwan looked at him. Waited. Smiled, even.

Daniel swallowed harshly. He didn't even know why he was asking. Suddenly, it seemed like it was an illogical thing to voice between them, into the typical lethargic Monday forenoon- into a world carrying on with its usual business. Into a world with much bigger problems.

"If it was me,” Jaehwan shrugged, then swiftly sheared his words off, all clean-cut. "No, I’d rather not say. It isn’t me. This isn’t something anybody else can give you advice on. Everyone has differing opinions, and I may not be the right one to provide for what you want to hear. I don't have someone I love who ran away, I'm not searching high and low for said person, and I'm definitely not feeling as if the world has ended on me. This is all up to you, Daniel. Not me.”

"So you wouldn't search for him, if it was you?"

"I didn't say that, but... I wouldn’t, actually. I'm someone who would let fate play around with things. If you're supposed to meet whoever this is, you are bound to coincide one day. If not, well, I don't know. Like I said, you should be the one making the choices here.”

Daniel's throat worked soundlessly, trying to process through the ache blossoming in his lower abdomen. A damp stung in his eyes and he had to furiously blink it back before it gathered to masses.

"Okay,” Daniel ducked his chin, agreed. "Okay.”

Fate.

Fate was an utter devilry then.

~

"Daniel."

"Daniel, wake up."

There was a hand insistently shaking his shoulders, and Daniel cracked open his eyes to a flood of lights. He groaned, squinting to adjust his peripherals better.

He had half-expected to wake up to an infuriated teacher looming over his desk, demanding why he had been snoozing off in class instead of paying attention to properties of cycloalkanes and functional groups he didn't at all bother about.

Instead, he was met with Seongwoo's sunshine smile and perfect, perfect face.

"Daniel, finally. I've been calling your name for the past minute or so and Jesus- are you drooling?"

Daniel immediately shot his head up from his desk, a trail of saliva dribbling off his chin and landing onto the fluorescent-inked pages of his Chemistry textbook.

Seongwoo swooped in with napkins he produced from his pockets, wiping at the damp spot on the paper without so much of a flinch. He shut the book and scrunched up the used tissues when he was done.

"Seongwoo hyung?" Daniel asked, voice concentrated with sleep. "What are you doing here?"

Seongwoo was a year above Daniel. They had different classes and different schedules. Different friends, too. They weren't supposed to meet within the school compounds with purpose until dismissal, where they walked home together.

Daniel was aware of the stares and the discreet whispers behind palms then. He knew what his classmates were murmuring about- Ong Seongwoo, the valedictorian and the pretty-faced senior of the school, was friends with the rebellious, good-for-nothing badboy Kang Daniel? Since when? Why even?

"Oh, nothing much. Do you want to head to lunch with me? I've got free period and I know Mrs. Lee is absent for today so your Biology class is canceled. You're basically exempted as of now."

"Since when do you know my timetable?"

"Since you told me, dummy," Seongwoo grinned, all million-watt. "So, what do you say? Lunch?"

Daniel sighed, and slowly nodded. "What would you do if I had said otherwise?" 

Seongwoo's lips broadened under the half-light, hands reaching out to tug at Daniel's arm. A wing-tip touch at first; gone just as quickly as one's breath; before he enveloped Daniel's calloused palm in his, and pulled the other to his feet.

Daniel felt his heart stammer, skipped a beat. There was a warm feeling.

"I wouldn't do anything, but you wouldn't have a single taste of my mother's fine culinary skills then. Your loss." Seongwoo gestured towards a miniature tower of Tupperwares stacked on the table then, encased in a plastic bag.

"Your mother packed lunch?"

"Duh. It's not like I can manage a kitchen without setting something up in flames. So yes, of course. Naturally." 

Seongwoo led Daniel out of the class still embraced in soft applauses of mutters and quiet judgments, not even a hint of regard distorting his facials. He walked them past bustling corridors and halls, up flights of spiraled staircases, and through doors after doors.

Eventually, Seongwoo waltzed into the backdrop of an open terrace, his form small against the limitless baby blue sky and ivied rooftops. From there, Daniel could see over the landscape of the school and past the crooked telephone lines, onto the space that was so unreachable to him. A space that was nothing more but filled with crumbled hopes and dreams. A space filled with trances of Seongwoo.

The latter urged Daniel to sit on the floor, and so he did. They settled close, thighs brushing, containers clacking as it was unceremoniously deposited onto the cracked concrete ground. Seongwoo looked bright as he excitedly unboxed the food; lunch boxes filled to the brim with kimchi stew, bimbimbap and tteokbokki; a myriad of home-cooked meals with a touch of mother's love.

"Thanks." Daniel said, as Seongwoo handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks. Somehow, his voice didn't come off as enthusiastic as he willed it to, and Seongwoo was studying him then. Daniel ignored it, instead bringing a piece of rice cake into his mouth.

"Hey, you okay?" Seongwoo inquired, jaw locked. Eyes harder.

Daniel looked up, furrowed his eyebrows. The food lodged against the insides of his cheeks tasted stale as Seongwoo kept his unwavering expression.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"No, it's just- well, you don't look okay," Seongwoo replied at last, concern lacing his tone like a sheen of ice. "I don't know what's bothering you, but you know you can confide in me anytime, Niel-ah."

Daniel's stomach lurched, and it was not because of the food.

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