Johnny quietly scrolls through his laptop screen, both legs perched gingerly up his seat, his eyeglasses resting at the bridge of his nose. It keeps on sliding down, and he has to stop taking notes every now and then to push it back up the bridge. He has been trying to research all day, looking for the perfect place to stargaze with Taeil for the weekend. He’s been telling Taeil that it’s “doing great!” but he actually is still unsure about his plans so far. He’s thinking to just find a spot in Seoul but the city is just much too bright to actually enjoy stargazing, plus, the place he’s found has some added perks he’s sure Taeil will love, but it’s kind of far away.

A soft knock interrupts his train of thought and he shuts his laptop right away before answering, “Come in!” he turns to see Taeil peek in a little.

“Are you studying?”

Johnny thought about lying and saying yeah, but he can’t back that up if he had more questions. He also considered telling the truth, but by then, he’d already hesitated for too long that the other figured it out anyway. “Can I see? I want to suggest, too.” he eagerly steps into the room and sits on Johnny’s bed.

Johnny relents and opens his laptop, showing him pictures of a dark farm.

“What is that, exactly?” Taeil tilts his head at him, hilariously confused.

“It’s a firefly farm in Yeongyang.”

“Yeongyang? That’s like, 4 hours away,” he leans forward and rests his elbows on his thighs, and resting his forehead on Johnny’s arm. Johnny smiles at the contact, patting the top of the older’s head with his other hand.

“Seoul has too much light pollution.” The older nods, contemplating.

“There’s this place...” he starts, “I don’t know if it’s still the same, but the last time I went there, there were so many stars, but we couldn’t stay and ever since then, I’ve wanted to come back but never got the chance to.

“Awwwe,” Johnny frowns. “Then we should check it out then. We can make this plan A and we can go on Friday night so we still have time to go to Yeongyang in case there aren’t any stars. Yeongyang will be our plan B.” he suggests.

Taeil lifts his head and rests his chin on Johnny’s arm, looking up at him gratuitously. “You’re the best.”

Johnny scoffs, boasting. “Of course, it’s me.” he tries to say over confidently but he really it actually felt like a herd was trying to break out of his chest, but he tries to ignore the feeling and takes note of their plans in his planner anyway.

“Where is it?” he asks.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” the other ducks his head suspiciously. “It’s this cemetery in Dongjak.” Johnny raises his brows in uncertainty, a lot of people don’t know but he’s sure Taeil knows he isn’t that fond of cemeteries. Well, who is? Sicheng, that’s who. He tries not to get so bitter and not think about that fact. It might just be a coincidence.

“That’s fine,” he assures. “Remind me to take the pickup truck out on Friday, okay?” he scratches Taeil’s chin, and he all but giggles when the other fake purred.

“Also,” he starts pouting. “Can you read to me tonight?”

He’s never turned him down when it came to reading, especially since he’s also been wanting to know what happens next but has just been waiting for Taeil to want to continue himself. Taeil is dyslexic and has been for most of his life but through therapy and practice, he’s managed to learn without any problems as long as they were visual or printed far apart. He’s never made his peace with books, though. One night, Johnny starts to read Aristotle and Dante Discovers the Secrets of the Universe out loud and the other perks up, asking him to continue even when he stopped. “It sounds like it’s going to be nice. Where did you get this book from?”

“From Taeyong, he says it’s nice.” But he didn’t admit that Taeyong lent it to Taeil and not him, but he didn’t want to tell the others when Taeil hasn’t even admitted his condition to them. “Can you keep on reading it? I want to listen.” And from then on, on some nights, when they aren’t jamming together, or watching a movie, or cramming for exams, both of them sat by the balcony, sometimes the living room, and Johnny would read, and Taeil would listen.

“Of course,” he nods. Shutting his laptop down and standing up to retrieve the book from his bedside drawer. When he turned to ask the older where he wanted to read, the other was already opening the door to the balcony. “It’s kind of cool tonight,” he comments. Johnny follows him out and sits on one of the chairs his mom bought for him the year before. He didn’t use balcony furniture that much but ever since Taeil came along, they’ve been hanging out there almost every day that it wasn’t raining.

“Where did we leave off again?” Taeil asks as soon as he has successfully sat back comfortably, hugging a throw pillow he brought in from Johnny’s room.

“The Different Rules of Summer,” he opens it to the bookmarked page. “Chapter 10.”

Taeil relaxes just as Johnny gets ready to start reading. “One night when there was no moon in the night sky,” he turns to Taeil grinning at the appearance of his last name, and Taeil grins back, equally as amused. He continues, “Dante’s mom and dad took us out into the desert so we could use his new telescope…”

--

He tried his best to hide the fact that he actually prepared so much for their mini outing for that night. Taeil said he only wanted to go stargazing after dinner, but Johnny wanted to make it so much better. When he agreed to make Taeil’s life so much more pleasant and much more enjoyable, and that he wanted to fill him with happy memories, he meant it one hundred percent.

“Dude,” Ten places a firm hand on his knee to stop it from bobbing. “You need to chill,” he jokes. Taeil just went to the bathroom and he isn’t sure if he put the blanket at the back of the car last night.

“Taeil hyung will love it,” he assured.

“And you,” Taeyong adds, giggling mischievously. He freezes, as stares at them