- a performace by PCY -

“Picturesque.”
“Pastoral.”
“Sublime.”
“Beautiful?”
An unamused snort was heard, “Pff, vivid.”
“Charming.”
“Quaint.”
“Scenic.”
“Exquisite.”
“Good-looking.”
This time, it was a reproachful gasp, followed by a few seconds of silence, “Stunning, superb, magnificent, dazzling, marvellous, delicate—wait, scratch that, splendid, et cetera. And you call yourself a literature student?” with falling shoulders, Kyungsoo crossed his arms above his chest, cocked his head ever-so-slightly to the side and threw shade towards Chanyeol, glaring above the rims of his glasses.
”Okay, point for you”, Chanyeol held up his hands in defeat and sighed.

The boys stood at the feet of the cliffs, still located on the rocky shore, watching the waves break rather violently at the rock formation bordering the cliffs itself.

“Soo, what are you thinking about?”
“Meaning of life?” Kyungsoo glanced towards the taller man over the rim of his glasses, this time no sarcasm lacing his voice.
“42.”
Kyungsoo smirked and continued, “Well, actually about Caspar David Friedrich.”
“Almost the same”, Chanyeol answered, “Which work are we talking about specifically?”
“I’m torn between ‘Rocky Reef on the Sea Shore’ which actually fits very well with the actual scenery right now, but I do feel like the ‘Wanderer above the Mists’.”
“Ah-”
“You have no idea what I’m talking about?”
Chanyeol bashfully scratched his neck and let out a toothy grin. “Well”, he bagan, “You’re not wrong in particular, but I do know the last one.”

Kyungsoo smiled, “Isn’t that one also on one of the book covers in your ever-growing collection?”
“Yes, yes!” Chanyeol’s eyes lit up in realisation and radiated with sunshine, with his mitten-clad hand he pointed towards the cliffs, Kyungsoo could very lively imagine Chanyeol’s index finger stabbing in the general direction of the rocky structure, “H. G. Wells ‘The World Set Free’, speaking of Wells, ‘The Sea Raiders’, the cliffs and the steapy way down here remind me of the initial scene of the book, before the reader encounters the sea creatures for the first time.”

This time, it was Kyungsoo’s turn to have no idea what the giant was talking about.

The morning after, the duo was back on the road. They checked out quite early because today’s stage was one of the longest ones. Six hours to be specific. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo decided to change the driver after three hours each. Kyungsoo already drove his two cents and had two hours to go. The taller one definitely wasn’t a morning person and fell asleep right away, after buckling up. It was still just shortly after seven and the sunrise wasn’t predicted until 7:45.

Coming to a halt, he turned off the engine and unbuckled himself from the seat belt. He brought his thermos mug to his lips and rested those on the rim of the drink opening before he took a sip.

“Soo, why did we stop?” Chanyeol asked with a very sleepy voice, dragging the words, half-lidded eyes and a derpy yet content expression plastered on his face.
“Bascule bridge. We missed the appointed time frame; we’ll stay here for around twenty minutes. You should go back to sleep”, Kyungsoo carefully pushed a strand of hair out of Chanyeol’s forehead, “I’m stepping out for a cigarette.”
“Mh-mhm”, humming, Chanyeol wiggled deeper into the passenger seat and hid his face in the coat he used as a blanket.

By the time they’ll be on the bridge itself, the sun would start to rise over the horizon, the exact thing Kyungsoo intended, that’s why he ‘missed’ the lifting of the bridge on purpose.
He let the Lo-Fi-playlist he chose for hat day playing while he stepped outside. The road was eerily empty around this time, given the fact that it was a weekday outside the holidays and it wasn’t even off-peak season anymore. The bridge crossing had an estimated travel duration from twenty-two minutes, but the elderly woman at the B&B said it’s more like half an hour alone, without the sightseeing effect. And no-one would even think about using this specific bridge as means of transport, too high the risk of an unscheduled ship passing.

The bespectacled boy waited until his glasses acclimated themselves, before rounding the car and propping himself up on a ledge. There wasn’t any wind that morning and the sky was still fairly clear, the horizon was slowly changing gradients. The wave movement was sluggish and rhythmic. Kyungsoo was humming to himself and inhaling the smoke at a decent pace.

Standing still for too long was counterproductive in this cold, the temperature may be above the freezing point, but at the same time dangerously close to it. He moved sluggishly up and down the frozen roadside verge and peered into their car.

Chanyeol’s lips were parted and coincidentally a string of saliva tried to fight gravity. Kyungsoo laughed softly to himself, releasing a cloud of white breath from his own lips. He made his way back to the railing of the bridge.

The container vessel was almost at the bridge. It was one of the smaller ones, designed for the inland marine transport in the canal streets. It was almost empty, regarding the height of the water mark around the vessel itself where the paint was more or less missing. The ship moving at a moderately speed, Kyungsoo spotted a person on deck, presumably a sailor, on watch or just on a cigarette break, otherwise no-one would voluntarily set foot outside.

Kyungsoo raised his hand in an attempted greeting and was answered with an enthusiastic wave on the part of the sailor and a shouted greeting. He laughed, showing his heart-shaped smile and shouted ‘Ahoy’ back. Having this small interaction let him feel all giddy on the inside, like a little kid on the morning of holidays. Apparently, the captain looked outside the window to see what the commotion was about, seeing his mate and Kyungsoo waving at each other left him no other option than joining in. After that, the ship disappeared behind the lifted bridge construction and Kyungsoo was alone again.

He went back to the car. Settling back into the driver’s seat, he took out a handkerchief and gently whipped the still present string of saliva off Chanyeol’s lower lip. Upon contact with Kyungsoo’s thumb, Chanyeol’s lower lip slightly trembled and he let out a content hum, leaning deeper into the touch. Well, until he smelled the cold smoke lingering around Kyungsoo, pulling a disgusted face, he retreated back into the depth of his own coat.

“Shawty got me like, woah~, what’s up bebe - you’re so hot babe, diggin’ diggin’ on you~”, slapping Kyungsoo’s thigh rhythmically and drumming his long fingers on the steering wheel, Chanyeol was singing along while driving on the highway. Bobbing his head to the beat, he took a glance in the rear-view mirror and overtook the car before them.

Kyungsoo, on the other hand, was immensely irritated, tapping the tips of his fingers on his kneecap in order to control himself, but his eyelid was already twitching. Chanyeol had too much energy after sleeping for so long, Kyungsoo made a mental note to not let that happen again. He would make sure that Chanyeol would be deprived of his energy and even if it meant a ridiculous amount of alcohol that evening, a hungover Chanyeol was easier to handle than one with too much energy.

Later that evening, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol were sitting in a cozy little pub, but Chanyeol was currently occupied with an intense drinking battle with one of the older patrons.

At first, the two friends just sat together drinking beer, but the locals asked them to join them at the bar, even the innkeeper ensured them that it was perfectly fine and they had nothing to be afraid of, but he didn’t see that coming either. He threw Kyungsoo an apologetic look while standing opposite of him behind the bar, Kyungsoo just shrugged his shoulders, “‘m sorry ‘bout that, but we don’t have youngsters as ye here very often”.
He put down a freshly drafted beer in front of the young man, “On the house.”
Just then, Kyungsoo whipped his phone out and had a smug smirk on and grinned mischievously, “Actually, this just makes my job easier. Hey, don’t give me that suspicious look, it’s just payback for today and being overly energetic, I drove with him in a car, not you.” The barkeeper didn’t looked very convinced until he received a short rundown of what happened. The man just nodded understandingly, producing a bottle of liquor and two shot glasses from under the counter.

“Selfmade?”
“Nah.” Kyungsoo sighed in relief, the elderly man filled their glasses to the brim and shoved one of them gently towards Kyungsoo, “I know how ye feel, every weekend with those lovely gentlemen. Cheers, son.” The man also placed a glass of water down, because he knew Kyungsoo could use it, “A friendly reminder, if ye choose to stay with that, always have water with it.”
The liquor was burning in his throat, but it was a pleasant burn, one that warms you up in a cold winter day, with a pleasing warmth spreading in his stomach area.

Kyungsoo focused his phone on Chanyeol, who was about to do something outstandingly stupid in his state. While starting to record the whole ordeal, Kyungsoo reassured the man, “I’m so sorry, if he destroys something, he’ll pay for it, I’ll give you his contact information.”
“No worries, seen worse”, propped up on one elbow, the man scratched his moustache and just shook his head, “Guess they’re still not mature at that age.”

After sending the video, Kyungsoo almost immediately received an answer.

Sebooty

First was a photo of Sehun and his long-term boyfriend Donghae he met on a after party, unfortunately one of the singer of the song Chanyeol had sung along to in the car earlier that day.

How is he still alive?
We thought he would be dead by now
Looks like we worried too much about you penguin~ <3
	I’m surprised myself, thought the landlord would’ve  kicked us out long ago.
	Donghae, how are you anyway? It’s been some time.
I’m great, thanks for asking, what about you?
By the way, selfpromo? …
	I’m sure it’s great, but Channie was singing it all day long.
	I’m in no condition nor position to give an elaborate feedback.

Kyungsoo sipped his beer and cringed at the scene unfolding before his very eyes; Chanyeol, arm in arm with one of the locals, each of them had a shot glass in the unoccupied hand, roaring out trot songs at full volume.
Kyungsoo was glad to stay the night in this lively and lovable coast town, but at the same time he was glad that Chanyeol had a massive headache and hangover incoming. That would mean just lazing around and taking a walk around town and the coast the next day.