“I think I need to leave,” Amber says one night while she lays on Myungsoo’s arm, staring out the rain-speckled window, light shifting as it filters through the water droplets. “I’m tired. Really tired. Tired of being here. Tired of being tired.” There’s this edge of despair in her voice that lets Myungsoo know she’s serious, that she actually plans to leave, and panic rises in the bottom of his stomach. Leave is a word of permanence, like she won’t be back if he lets her go, and the thought terrifies him.

“Then let’s go,” he whispers into her hair, “let’s just pack up and go, we’ll drive until we stop.”

The two of them leap up and unearth Amber’s duffel bag from the bottom of her closet. She packs up all the clothes it’ll fit, grabs her toothbrush and hygiene products, throws it all in and then they head to Myungsoo’s place so he can do the same. Then they pile into Myungsoo’s car, and they drive.

They drive all night and into the next day, and only stop for gas. Myungsoo finally gets tired the next night, so they stop at a small hotel off the highway. Amber showers and feels like a person again before she crawls into bed next to Myungsoo and for the first time in what feels like eons, she gets as much sleep as she needs and wakes up of her own accord.

They repeat the process, drive until Myungsoo can’t keep his eyes open anymore, and then crash at the nearest hotel. Worried calls come in occasionally, asking where they are, and how they’re doing, and they always end in promises of “we’ll be back soon.”

But it’s perfect, just her and Myungsoo and the radio and the hum of the engine. Amber sleeps when she wants, eats when and what she wants, and takes photographs with Myungsoo’s camera as scenery whizzes by outside the car window. She feels alive, more of a person that she’s felt in what she believes to be lifetimes. They pass through Gwangju just to see it, as people who just want to look.

Amber and Myungsoo end up at a beach in Busan just in time to watch the sunset.

“I needed this,” she says quietly as she grabs his hand, “thank you.”

Myungsoo smiles. “No,” he replies, “thank you.”

Note: This story was written by noonanoodle @ tumblr per my request. She has given me the permission to share it with you here.