There aren’t too many people out on the street this early in the morning, and the few who are up are bundled in thick, fleecy winter coats. Stuck outside in a threadbare jacket and as a warm as a snake in a block of ice, Jonghyun can’t help feeling a little jealous. He shivers and grips his guitar closer, hurrying past dimly lit roads to where the traffic is already starting.

The spot he always ends up at is by a busy sidewalk. On good days, it doesn’t take long before it’s crowded, bustling with people who might care to listen to some early morning music, and if he’s lucky, might even have change to spare. Even at this time of the morning, there is a handful of people milling around.

Jonghyun leans against the well-worn bricks and carefully places his guitar down, the hat he uses to collect money hanging on the head of it. His fingers feel cracked and wholly unable to attempt playing a guitar, and he tries to rub his raw, bitten fingers together for a little heat. Cities make cold mornings even colder, and it was almost near impossible to get his fingers and the guitar strings to cooperate on some days.

Jonghyun breathes on his frozen hands and checks his watch- 6:47. Good. There’s still plenty of time before his shift starts. If things work out today, he’ll be able to scrounge up enough money to buy himself some cheap breakfast and maybe a nice, steaming coffee. Cash always runs low around this time of year, when the gas bills hit the roof and his card is near dry by the end of the month. It would do him no good to fling around what little money he has left.

A few more people are starting to appear on the foggy streets, and Jonghyun puffs out one last warm breath against his hands before picking up his guitar for a some warm-up notes. It sounds screechy and out of tune enough that Jonghyun winces. He fiddles with the strings a bit, coaxes more noise out of it and soothes it with fingers until it’s making sounds that resemble music again. No matter how icy it is outside, drawing music from his guitar always manages to chase a little bit of the chill from his bones.

After that, he idly strums out a couple of simple, easy songs for the next few minutes. His throat feels rusty and tired, and there’s not enough people on the streets for him to muster the energy to start properly singing. It’s cold enough that today that most people won’t even bother walking anywhere, and the ones that do- or have no other choice- will probably pass him by for a warmer place indoors.

People tend to ignore street musicians even more if they’re frowning, so he pulls on a smile, and tries to be a little more enthusiastic about his music. It’s enough for several strangers toss a few coins into his hat. His voice finally picks up after an old woman with a kindly, wrinkled smile drops him a dollar and a friendly nod. It’s easy enough to get lost in it after a while, in the pluck of his guitar strings and rumble in his throat that singing brings along.

A sudden vibration on his wrist shocks him out of the song, and he looks down at his watch to find the alarm beeping. The hands read 8:34 by, and Jonghyun should probably start packing things away for the morning to head off to work. But when he peers down into his measly earnings and there’s just a dollar pressed down into the fabric by a few nickels, Jonghyun decides he could spare one more minute or two out here.

But eventually, a second alarm warns him that he should really be on his way by now. Nobody else seems willing to waste their money, so he stuffs the meager amount into his pockets and drags himself away from the music.

On his way to work, Jonghyun glances at a breakfast menu pasted onto a window, and hurries past it.

-

The temperature drops even lower the next morning, if that’s possible. Frost has clumped up on the windows overnight, and his blankets do nothing to save him from the frigid weather. Jonghyun groans his way out of bed, and considers skipping the morning routine today and just staying at home. But as much as he hates frozen guitar strings and shaking hands, he hates facing that awful pile of bills on his kitchen counter even more.

Making his decision, he stumbles out of his leaky apartment, lugging the familiar guitar in hand. His stomach feels like a gaping, hungry pit, and he almost regrets not grabbing the last slice of bread he has left. Jonghyun tries to ignore it in favor of saving his food until his next paycheck rolls in. He misses the big, delicious breakfasts that his parents always used to make in wintertime. Maybe he’ll buy a train ticket to head home for the holidays this year, once the money isn’t so scarce.

It’s been a long while since he’s seen them.

Jonghyun huffs out a cold breath against his chapped lips and picks up the pace. Dawn has barely started rising, and there’s almost no light but the street lamp lights to guide him to his usual corner. The whole city is more or less empty at this time, save for the occasional stray car that drives past every now and then.

The city looks altogether different when there weren’t any of the usuals- the mothers screaming at their children, the harrowed looking business people, and the tight-lipped teenagers with ridiculously loud music stuffed into their ears.

The pavement is cold to the touch, and he rests his guitar down to scrape his nail across the stone. There’s plenty he could be thinking about, but quite frankly, he’d rather not at the moment. Instead, he just breathes in the rare and almost unsettling quiet.

Jonghyun slumps to the ground and throws the hat next to him, taking the chance to close his droopy eyes.

The biting air prevents him from really being able to doze off though, so he starts loosening the strings of his guitar with a slow, soft song, singing the words quietly to himself as he works the strings.

Light finally breaks over the horizon, and now there’s a few sleep rumpled people around, probably on their way to a café for some coffee. Jonghyun keeps the music gentle and soft, because nobody likes harsh, loud songs when they’re still half-asleep and aching for caffeine.

When the chill seeping through his back from the wall gets to be too much, he drags himself to his feet to continue playing. Despite the cold, the music is flowing surprisingly easy today, all slow folk songs that roll off his tongue and into the frosty morning air with ease. It brings the easy sort of smile to his face, and he thinks this hour that he spends lost in his guitar might be his favorite of the day, freezing weather and all.

Music or not, his fingers are getting a little too stiff to keep playing, and he’s looking forward to leaving a bit earlier to find refuge indoors. But when he sifts through the coins in his hat, it still doesn’t seem to be enough to afford the absolutely phenomenal prices the cafés like to charge for their food here in the city.

Jonghyun sighs and resigns himself to another hungry day at his job.

“You’re really good at singing, you know,” a man not too much younger than him is saying, startling him out of his daydream of a much longed for warm breakfast. “And at playing guitar, too.”

He looks to be about college age, and he’s probably heading out to a shop or something for work, judging by the tag already pinned to his shirt that reads Kibum. Most people don’t say anything to him at all, let alone compliment him, but it’s a simple sort of change that cheers him up.

Kibum digs around in his pockets for a second, before pulling out a ten dollar bill and dropping it in the hat. It’s not the life-changing amount of money one would be staring at in a movie, but it’s quite a lot more than people normally handed out. Enough to get him thinking about a nice, spicy warm coffee. Kibum’s face dimples into a smile when Jonghyun catches his eye again, and he wholeheartedly smiles back.

“It’s nice to hear nice singing,” Kibum adds, and there’s a little snag in his words that suggests he’s from some place out of town. “Especially on ty mornings.”

Jonghyun snorts, and the man breaks into a grin again.

He’s already turning to leave before Jonghyun realizes he hasn’t even thanked him yet, and holds him back with a simple little, “Thanks, by the way.”

Kibum just waves it off with a dismissive you’re welcome sort of wave, before he’s ambling off to wherever corner shop was desperate enough to accept college students. And the whole thing really shouldn't make Jonghyun as happy as it does, because Kibum was probably going to walk off and forget about this in less than two minutes. Hell, it wouldn't take much longer than that for it to slip even Jonghyun's mind. But enough to make him smile, and that's really all it needs to be.

Guitar strap slung around his neck and money safely tucked away, off on his way to a cinnamon flavored coffee, Jonghyun thinks that perhaps winters in the city weren’t so bad after all.