The Sunchaser - Chapter Four 

By Eiryia

He was fully capable of carrying his bag and the small carry on suitcase back home on his own, but when Mino had offered to tag along as he was going to pick up some groceries that evening anyway had he accepted the offer without hesitation. 

It had been raining all day that Monday, but now it had stopped and despite the cold did it feel refreshing. He could even smell a hint of that smell he was so fond of in the summer, the smell of wet ground after rain. What was the word for it? Petrichor? It didn’t seem very likely that it was that he was smelling because the ground had to be dry before the rain, but anyway he thought he could smell it and it made him happy. 

He was happy that Mino was there too, he planned to ask him to join him for some tea in the apartment once they got there, just so he didn’t have to go up there alone. 

Hopefully he would say yes.

There were several people out and about that evening and walking into his apartment building he was met by a buzz of people gossiping. Everyone had seen the news about the confirmed suicide yet very few seemed to believe it. 

Making his way slowly through the crowd he kept trowing glances backwards at Mino to make sure he was following. He’d been happy that Mino accepted his offer for tea, but now he wondered what Mino made of his neighbors. 

    "What a crowd" Mino said hanging his coat up on a hanger by the door. 

His place was even smaller than Mino’s but because of the high ceilings didn’t it feel that way. With large windows on two sides of the apartment letting in lots of light and the many white walls was it a calm and airy space to live in. He had taken to it since the first time he saw it and up until recently had he enjoyed living there despite the annoyances like drafts that came with living in old buildings. 

    "It feels odd to be back" he admitted. 

    "Because of the fire?" Mino asked while taking a seat on his grey IKEA sofa that his mom had bought him when he moved in. 

    "No, because of the deaths. I don’t think it would have bothered me much if it was just a fire" he explained waiting for the water to heat up. "Why do you really think the police wanted to come in here?" he asked Mino as he started making their tea. 

Mino got up and looked out the window. It was dark now so he couldn’t possibly see much. One side of the apartment was facing the neighboring one while the other faced the front towards the street. 

    "Maybe one would be able to see something happening in the opposite building?" Mino said nodding towards the outside. 

Walking over with their tea he lined up next to Mino and looked out. Because of how dark it was could he easily see into the apartments at their own level in the opposite building. 

    "So you think they saw something and got killed for it?" he asked turning away from the window slowly so as to not let on that he was slightly freaked out by that thought. 

    "Well, I don’t see it as very likely, but still with what little we know it’s not an impossible hypothesis either" Mino said in a low voice before accepting his tea.

Mino then pulled the curtains with his free hand and sat down next to him on the couch. 

    "They don’t think I saw something do they?" he asked Mino enjoying the heat of the tea against his cool hands. 

    "The killer?" Mino asked already sipping impatiently at his tea and probably getting burned in the process. 

    "No, the police" he replied. 

    "You're right, the killer would probably have put an end to you already if that was the case" Mino said thoughtfully. 

    "Don’t say that" he replied, properly freaked out now. 

Mino looked over at him and put down his tea. Then he apologized for having spooked him with his ridiculous theories, because they were just that, ridiculous, Mino had said with a smile while putting one hand lightly on his knee as he spoke. 

He weren’t so sure though, what Mino said made sense to him and that bothered him, scared him even.

They finished their tea and chatted casually about more pleasant things like the flower shop and his studies. He explained that he soon had to submit the hypothesis for his final bachelors thesis and he had yet to decide what he wanted to write about. 

Something local and exciting was pretty much all he had to go on and Mino had made this thoughtful expression when he had said it, but didn’t comment on it any further. 

    "Will you be fine on your own?" Mino asked standing in the door about to leave. The way he leaned casually in the doorway wearing his black leather jacket and his black hair perfectly in place for once he only now realized Mino might have made some effort before coming to meet him today. 

They took a step out into the hall, the building had gone quiet now and standing out there he could still smell the faint scent of smoke that clung to the walls. 

    "Yes, I think so. I can always call the police should something happen" he said absentmindedly as he peered out into the hall not sure what he was looking for. 

    "You know that you can call me right? If anything happens or you know, nothing happens but you get spooked anyway" Mino said the last part a bit teasingly with a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth, but still he’d said it in such a way that Seungyoon understood that Mino’s offer was a serious one.  

    "Thank you, I will" he said giving Mino a small wave, watching him disappear down the stairs before closing the door shut. 

Walking into his living room he began cleaning up after the tea, he was spooked he had to admit that and a not so small part of him wanted to run after Mino and follow with him back home. 

But he couldn’t sleep on his couch forever, he knew that and so he just had to man up and deal with this just like he dealt with everything else life threw at him. 

When he woke up that following morning was he just as tired as when he’d gone to bed the previous night, but looking out the window at the sunny spring day he immediately felt a bit better about being back. He took a minute to watch the thin curtains dance in the morning breeze filling the room with cool refreshing air before he got up to start the day.

He went on with his morning routine like he always had the past two and a half years and he was soon out of the door on his way to class feeling pretty much like his usual self again. Maybe being back home wasn’t so bad, although a small piece of him felt like it wasn’t home anymore. It didn’t feel as safe as before and he longed to be somewhere else almost constantly.  

School was the same as always as well, but his lecturers had all begun nagging about the coming bachelors thesis and so he felt the pressure of making a decision grow ever stronger as the week went by. 

Mino had asked him to come help out again that Friday and he had somehow counted on it, but before he headed on his way to the flower shop had he gone to the library to do a quick search in the newspaper archives.

Greeted by the soft blue hues of the library and the steady hum of the ancient air vents being filled with air he made his way to his favorite spot in the library feeling motivated to get started on his research even if he had little time.

He’d made a list on his phone earlier in the day during his lecture. He would check his apartment address, his street and his side of town. He was thinking of doing a "the history of" kind of paper for the area unless something more interesting came up. 

As he had expected was there nothing for his address, a tiny part of him was relived too with everything that had been going on. When he removed the building only leaving the street address in the search had it been an entire different story.

Articles labeled "The murder on Hillside Lane" "Third case of disappearance from the Hillside this year" and "Why there had been no new development in Hillside the last 30 years" for any big city this probably wouldn’t have been a big issue, but this was a small rather quaint town.  

He jotted down his findings in his notes on his phone and hurried on his way to work. He definitely needed to look further into this later.

Walking of the metro and making his way up to street level he wondered if Mino knew about this stuff, he weren’t from around here, he knew that because of the funeral he’d gone home for, but still Mino spent everyday in his shop on this street so he might know. 

When he walked into the flower shop did he immediately get the impression that something had changed. Looking around he struggled to pin point what it was. Had some new plants come in? Or had Mino rearranged the displays again? Walking slowly up to the abandoned glistening counter he peeked into the back room to reveal Mino busy at work on a very oversized circular wreath. 

Mino looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back before asking what he was working on. 

    "It’s for the horse race tomorrow" Mino said holding up the wreath for him to see. He was only about half way into covering the steel wires in shiny green leaves he weren’t sure what exactly they were. 

Once he returned to the counter had he realized what was different. Music! A small radio had been propped up in the corner behind the counter playing soft tunes from the last couple of decades thanks to some mellow radio station he’d never heard of before. 

He was about to ask Mino about it when the first customer of the day walked in asking for different colored roses. 

It was only a couple of hours before closing time that Mino had managed to finish all his backroom projects for the day and they were all now neatly lined up ready for pick up in the morning. 

He’d then headed out to buy them a late dinner and some silk bands for his gigantic horse wreath. 

Before Mino had returned had it begun raining again and cursing he threw of his dripping leather jacket and pulled his dark green t-shirt over his head. 

This was the first time he’d seen him undress like that and he wondered how in the world he got that fit from working in the flower shop all day for years. His eyes followed the many tattoos as they wrapped around his sides, up his arms and onto his shoulders. He wanted to ask what they meant, but he got distracted as Mino walked up to him by the counter and pulled open the bottom drawer to fetch a dry t-shirt with the shop logo on it. 

    "I’m so tired of all this rain" Mino then complained grumpily and hung his jacket up to dry on one of the wooden ladders used to display climbing plants of many sorts. 

Mino then