The lights of the city were shimmering as brightly as ever. Jinki hadn’t the light, leaving the apartment in darkness aside from where the lights of the city underneath crept through the large windows. He looked out over the sea of lights without really seeing them, his face blank. He remained where he was, back to the room, when the door opened, letting in a sliver of light before the darkness won out again. He remained still when arms wrapped around him and a strong body pressed against his back.

“Hyung.” The word was whispered softly, almost pleadingly.

Jinki closed his eyes and sighed but didn’t turn around. “Congratulations, Minho,” he finally said after what seemed like an eternity of silence spreading between them. He lifted his hand and patted one of Minho’s that was resting on his stomach.

“You don’t mean that,” Minho responded, voice soft as he hugged Jinki a little closer as if afraid the other would slip away if he didn’t.

“Of course I do. You wanted to join the marines and you got in. That’s something to celebrate, is it not?” Jinki asked, the lights of the city reflecting in his eyes as he was still refusing to turn around.

“It’s not something to celebrate if it makes you so upset you won’t look at me,” Minho said, sighing softly as he let go of Jinki and took a step back, his arms hanging limply at his sides.

Jinki sighed as well and finally turned to look at Minho, the lights of the city dancing softly on Minho’s face. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking a step forward to wrap his arms around Minho. “I’m sorry. I know this is what you wanted, I just... have a hard time with it. The regular enlistment would already take you far away, the marines even more so.”

“Hyung, you enlisted first,” Minho argued, the hint of a pout evident in his voice.

“I know. I know I am not being rational. How can I be, my boyfriend is practically going underground the next two years,” Jinki said, resting his cheek on Minho’s shoulder, head turned towards his neck.

“I am not going underground. I’ll still have days off, just... less than you do,” Minho said, wrapping his arms around Jinki as well.

“There’s no guarantee our days off will be on the same days, so you might as well go underground,” Jinki huffed, hugging Minho’s waist tighter.

Minho sighed again and reached up to run his fingers through Jinki’s hair. “I know, hyung,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “But I need this. After Jonghyun... I need to do it this way.”

Jinki pulled away far enough to be able to look at Minho’s face, reaching up to cup Minho’s cheek as his expression soften