The Sunchaser - Chapter Three

By Eiryia

Laying awake on the leather sofa he’d given up on quickly going to sleep as he’d hoped he would. 

Instead he was listening to the heavy rain against the roof while watching the light on the wall move back and forth with every car that drove by. The later it got the fewer cars went by and in the end couldn’t the light distract him anymore. 

For a while he thought about everything that had happened with his apartment and at the hotel, but then his mind had begun traveling to Mino and his polar opposite ex boyfriend. Although he was a little surprised Mino was gay weren’t that something that bothered him, quite the contrary, he’d know he himself was gay since his early high school days and his latest crush had been his professor at school who taught photo journalism in their first year. 

It was Jinwoo that bothered him, or well not bothered, but surprised him he supposed. He had seemed so perfectly cheerful, calm and beautiful. Everything Mino was not, at least not at the moment. Well he had to correct himself yet again, Mino was very beautiful, but thats not the word he would use. Handsome? Cool? Charming when he smiled, which he hardly ever did. Mino had smiled at Jinwoo though, for a long time. A part of him wanted Mino to smile at him the same way. Why was that?

Mino had called in his ex to watch the shop so he could surprise him at his apartment. What did that mean? It had probably been pretty obvious last night that he was dreading to go back, but still. 

He fell asleep like that questioning everything, not making any sense at all. 

When he woke the next morning was it to the smell of something burning. 

Jolting straight up into an upright position he looked around startled. It didn’t take him long to spot Mino in the kitchen, smoking and cooking something although he had his doubts it was edible at all judging by the smell. 

    "Morning" Mino said emptying the contents of the frying pan into a bowl on the table. "I made breakfast, eat at your own risk" he continued putting out his cigarette into a leaf shaped ashtray by the slightly open window. 

    "Thought you were burning down the place" he mumbled as he got up from the couch and pulled on his pants. 

    "I think we’ve had enough of that for a while" Mino said, an odd smirk spreading across his lips as he said it. Was he smiling at his own joke? It wasn’t very good, but a smile is a smile even if the joke was bad Seungyoon thought. 

He freshened up in the bathroom before he took a seat by the table. The burnt stuff was bacon he guessed, and there were a few pancakes and some scrambled eggs mixed with herbs too. 

    "I’ve been thinking about the fire" Mino begun just as he took the first bite of the food. It wasn’t bad at all, despite the burntness of it all. "There is a fire in the building, two people dies, one a resident of the building another was from the neighboring building. Then your landlord kills himself. Why do you think?" 

Sipping on a glass of water he thought about it for a while before answering. 

    "If his wife actually was having an affair then I guess thats a plausible reason" he said before taking another bite. They always seemed to get along well to him, the landlord and his wife. 

    "Why would she be up there and die along with the old man if they weren’t having an affair?" Mino asked pouring himself some coffee as he spoke. 

He went on to summarize a couple of reasons he could think of. Some of the older people still paid their rent with checks, if there were complaints about maintenance then one of the two would always come and have a look before hiring people to fix it. He explained about the water leak the previous year as well before taking a break to eat. 

Mino had only nodded silently as he spoke. 

    "Although nothing of this has anything to do with you directly, does it affect you doesn’t it?" Mino said looking out the window. It was another cold spring day and the sun was just rising above the edge of the buildings opposite the street as they ate. 

    "I wonder what kind of things has been happening around me all this time without me noticing" he replied squinting a little as the first ray of sunlight emerged over the neighborhood. He thought about how he would like to attend his landlords funeral if possible and suddenly he remember that Mino just went to one. 

    "I forgot to ask, how was the funeral?" he asked looking at Mino again as he spoke. 

    "Like all funerals. I’m glad I went though. It’s something about saying properly good bye" Mino said the last part more to himself than to him Seungyoon thought. 

He had to leave after that to get to his lecture in time and so he thanked Mino for the meal and hurried on his way. 

Arriving in good time for class he sat down towards the back of the auditorium and read over his notes. It had been quite a while since he had done the reading for this lecture and so he was happy to have some extra time to refresh his memory. 

As it turned out was his lecturer sick and the replacement just so happened to be his old crush. Watching him walk in, lean on the small speakers podium and push up his glasses slowly while taking in the room Seungyoon found himself wondering what he had seen in him back then. It must have been a year since he’d seen him last, but little had changed except maybe the slightly reclining hairline. 

The lecture was just as good as he remembered them, but his thoughts were of somewhere else entirely. 

Being reminded of his old crush made him think of Jinwoo for some reason. That was the kind of guys Mino was into, men who were pretty much more beautiful than women? Maybe Mino was bi.. That would make sense. 

Snapping out of it he forced himself to focus on the lecture. Speculating about his employers uality was hardly appropriate. He was his friend too, kinda, at least he’d begun to see Mino that way, especially since he showed up at his apartment the day before.. and cooked him breakfast today. 

Mino really had been kind to him hadn’t he? He had to think of a way to repay him. 

When the lecture ended had he barely registered a word that had been said. He got another deadline coming up and grabbing a quick lunch and some coffee he headed to the library. Even if he got lots going on couldn’t he afford to slip up on his school work now, only months away from graduating. 

Most of his school had recently been modernized or at least updated, but the library had been kept as it always had been and he loved it there. Parts of it was in stone and on one wall were huge stained glass windows almost like in a church only plainer with blue panes of glass in different hues. 

This blue light created a calming atmosphere which he always felt he benefited from when he needed to focus. 

His schoolwork was on the boring side that day, a study of how article structure had changed over the years and he was pulling out old newspapers from the archives for comparison to more recent ones. 

He started out with the older ones he’d picked out and kept working his way through them slowly. It was past dinner time by the time he got to recent day articles and looking through the news his eyes latched on to one headline in particular. 

    "Man kills himself after wife dies in fire while cheating" did Cynthia go to the news or what? He asked himself before clicking on the headline. Reading it again he thought it was terribly worded, skimming through it he found it to be all speculations and before he reached the end he had given up on it.

Deciding he'd now lost focus so badly he didn’t feel like he could continue his work he packed up his stuff and started on his way back to the flower shop. 

He opted for the bus back instead of the metro because he felt tired and the thought of going under ground kinda bothered him. His mind wouldn’t let the case go, if only the top floor was damaged from the fire, why didn’t they get out? It wasn’t during the night so that the smoke couldn't have crept up on them and suffocated them? What if someone had shut them in so they couldn’t get out? Who would do something like that? Just the thought of the possibility of someone like that being in his building gave him chills.

Walking into the flower shop he let out a small sigh of relief, it felt nice to be back even if he felt the mountain of questions he wanted to ask Mino weigh heavy on his mind. 

Mino was sitting behind the counter looking at his phone. He looked up at him when he walked up, but seeing it was him and not a customer he soon looked down again on to his phone. 

    "Quiet afternoon?" he asked sitting down on one of the stools meant for displaying flowers. 

    "Not really" Mino replied not looking up from his phone. 

    "Okay if I go upstairs?" he asked wondering if there were anything Mino needed help with. Mino seemed to interpret it differently as he looked up almost a little offended maybe wondering if he was doubting his hospitality or something. 

    "Of course" he replied and straightening up in his chair so fast his long dark bangs fell into his eyes. Mino blew annoyingly at them a couple of times before tucking them forcefully behind his ears. They had randomly parted in the middle and now he was looking rather silly with his middle parted hair and a still sort of wide eyed expression. 

Seungyoon couldn’t help but to smile at the sight, his own face felt stiff as me smiled and he realized it was probably his first proper smile since leaving this morning. 

    "What?" Mino asked, his voice sounding even deeper than usual. 

    "You look cute with that hair" he admitted just stating his honest observation and Mino responded by giving him a look so piercing he couldn’t help but to laugh. It might have been a nervous laugh, but even so. 

    "Shoo" Mino said then in a mockingly grumpy way and gestured somewhat dramatically towards the stairs. 

Regretting that he had not thought to pick up dinner on his way home he took a quick shower and changed into a more comfortable outfit consisting out of old grey sweatpants and a loose t-shirt. He then fetched his jacket and wallet before heading towards the stairs to the back yard. 

He had just slipped on his shoes when Mino entered the tiny hall, a big load of wonky looking tulips in his arms eyeing him suspiciously. 

    "Where are you going? Wont you get sick going out i