The Sunchaser

By Eiryia

Seconds felt like minutes and minutes like hours. In the distance he could hear sirens as the smell of smoke grew ever stronger. Then he found that he couldn’t wait any longer, he had to go after Mino, who cared if Sarah ran away. 

He’d just made up his mind when the shop door flew open and Mino stepped out carrying a passed out Alexander bridal style, but with a lot less care, his head lolling dangerously close to both the now open door and then the edge of the sidewalk once Mino put him down. 

    "I thought he’d run, but he came right for me" Mino huffed rubbing his face with a slightly bruised lip looking like it had taken the worst of the impact from whatever Alexander had hit Mino with. 

    "What did you do to him!?" Sarah sobbed from beside the broken looking guy now laying on the pavement. 

    "Not much, he pretty much knocked himself out tripping over a garden ornament hitting his head on the fountain" Mino said shaking his head in light disbelief as he went on to take out his phone. He showed them the video tape of it although it was hard to see through the smoke. 

The police had pulled up beside them by then and the fire department along with them. Mino ran over to explain to the fire department what he had seen and they took off to get easier access to the fire from the back street. 

The police had called an ambulance for Alexander before taking his own statement and then Mino returned telling them more of what had happened. They took Sarah to the side too, but she refused to say anything. Mino seemed annoyed by it, but they got the video tapes and the voice recordings which was more than enough evidence. 

It was only because the police had offered to bring her along to the hospital as they were going to interview Alexander there that she had agreed to come along with them. 

And so there they were left on the sidewalk, listening to the faint calls of the firemen at the back of the building. He could see the dark smoke rising from back there now creating a thick dark haze above them. 

    "Is it bad?" he asked stepping closer to Mino while staring up at the smoking facade of the shop. 

    "I think the building can be saved, it’ll probably be mainly smoke damage and the back is pretty burned out" Mino replied shoulders slumping down a bit as he spoke. Seungyoon linked his arm with Mino’s then, letting his hand follow the arm from the elbow down to the wrist until their fingers were intertwined. 

    "If you want it to be this can be a new beginning, we can rebuild" he suggested in a low voice, scared of what he was proposing out of worry that he was imposing himself too much onto Mino’s life.

    "That would be nice" Mino said finally taking his eyes away from the smoke meeting his glance and after a moment smiling a small smile. Seungyoon truly believed in that moment that things would be fine, maybe not right now, but eventually and he thought he could see that same faith in Mino’s eyes although there was a lot of doubt there too. 

They then went around to the back to asses the damages, talk with the firemen and then Mino called his insurance company to report everything. When the firemen left hours later were they wondering what to do with themselves. The investigators would be back to do fact checks and the firemen said they couldn’t go back in until the building had been assessed for safety risks. 

    "This is getting old" he heard himself groan after hearing the words from the firemen. How many times had risky, old, fire damaged buildings caused him trouble lately? Mino looked just as tired and defeated by the situation as he felt and that brought out some hidden reserve of energy in him which soon helped him think of a plan. 

It didn’t require much thinking really, because they already made the plan before all of this happened. 

    "Let’s go to the sea" he said as they watched the firemen drive away up the street. "Just like we planned. We need somewhere to stay anyway" he added hoping Mino wouldn’t be too opposed to the idea. 

Mino looked over at him averting his eyes from the spot where the firetruck had disappeared at the end of the street seconds before. Then he smiled. A beaten up, exhausted smile, but still, a pretty bright smile. 

    "Yeah, let’s go" he replied after a long pause and then turned around, immediately walking towards the alley leading them back to the front of the shop where the car was parked. 

The original plan had been to leave after his interview with Sarah at the coffee shop. Now they were now extremely delayed according to that plan, but it didn’t matter.

Once they were out of town, driving on the winding road through the woods that would eventually take them to the coast he felt calmer and more at ease than he had felt in a long while. There was just something really nice about creating some physical distance between him and everything that had been going on.

Mino had assured him he was fine to drive, but he still snuck a few concerned glances at him when he thought Mino weren’t looking. The weather had been great earlier in the day, but now the familiar evening drizzle had returned wrapping them in a soft mist of grey. 

The sun had begun setting once they reached the other side of the woods and the open landscape begun slanting downwards as they started on the last part of the trip. 

They had reached the coast just in time for the last rays of sunshine to hit the sea creating a vivid color display far out at sea where the drizzle still had not completely taken over. 

    "I feel like we dragged the crappy weather with us" Mino sighed having stopped the car to fill gas. 

    "There is something nice about the smell of wet oceanside sand and flora" he mused in return thinking back to childhood memories of waiting out summer rain after a day at the beach.

    "Thats true" Mino agreed, a small smile playing on his lips before he got out of the car. 

When he returned had he somehow managed to sneak into the tiny gas station and in his hands were two ice creams. 

    "It’s a bit cold for ice cream, but hey after all these fires we prefer the cold right?" Mino said smiling as he handed him one of the ice creams before buckling into his seat. 

    "We can always crank up the heat" he replied smiling back while turning up the temperature in the car a few notches. "Not that we really need the car to do that" he added his previously innocent smile turning into a smirk. 

Mino scrunched his nose giving him a wonky smile before arching his eyebrow obviously liking that suggestion. 

    "Lucky for you this car is rented, or that ice cream would be flying out the window and you’d be joining me in the back" Mino said before taking a big chomp of his ice cream grimacing at the cold.

    "What do you mean lucky?" he responded playing along. Mino just kept chewing aggressively on his ice cream finishing it in record speed. "Someone is in a hurry" he teased as Mino pulled out of the gas station parking spot taking them down the winding road yet again.

After a short while of driving had the sun set completely and navigating became a bit harder. They passed through a small seaside town and he’d pointed out to Mino that they just passed the tiny hotel that was probably the only hotel around.

Mino had replied "I know" with a smug smile and kept driving on an even narrower road following the coast line. Always having adored the sound of the ocean he turned down the radio and rolled down his car window so that he could listen to the sea bellow them for a while.

About ten minutes later and they’d made an abrupt turn around some cliffs and a functioning lighthouse came into view, the rotating lights shining like a beacon in the darkness and he knew at once were they were going.

Once the car stopped had Mino let out a big yawn, stretching dramatically by the side of the car while his own drowsiness had evaporated as he was overtaken by excitement. 

The place they were staying at was a small lighthouse keepers cottage completely made of stone with