“Gege.”

YiXing swiped his bangs from sticking to his forehead. Staring down the street, waiting for words to come to mind, only made his eyes weary from the harsh glare reflecting off of the glass, steel, and cement. YiXing blinked a few times before he realized Amber was calling him. It took him a few more seconds to find someone was standing right next to her.

“He’s been yelling at you for a while,” she said, jerking her thumb at the kid behind her.

There were white spots floating around JongIn’s amused face. “Oh, JongIn. What’s up?”

“Nothing. Just walking. What are you doing here?”

“I’m working. I’m also slow roasting. Oh,” YiXing politely gestured, “this is Amber, in case you haven’t introduced yourselves. And this is Kim JongIn.”

JongIn gave a quick bow as Amber swiftly waved her hand and quirked up her llama lips. She pushed her own bangs from her eyebrows as she wiggled the huge camera in her hands. “I’m gonna head back to the office, YiXing-gege. I’m sure the SD card in this has already combusted.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later.”

She bid farewell with another wave and tromped down the sidewalk, quickly hiding under any manner of shade the streets had to offer. JongIn frowned at the sun as well.

“I’m not a big fan of summer,” he muttered. “I sweat a lot. Are you still working?”

“Hmmm.” YiXing returned his gaze to the street. “If work is what you call staring at buildings as nothing comes to mind, then I guess so.”

JongIn looked down the street as well. “What are you trying to write about?”

“‘Streets of Seoul.’ It’s my recurring article. I write it once a year. It’s interesting, I think, because each time I step back to look at the city, it’s completely different.” He s a hand up each arm. “But today’s not my day, I guess.”

“What was that?”

“What?”

JongIn pointed at YiXing’s arms. “What were you doing just now?”

Following his gesture, YiXing stared at his arms for a while. “Oh! That… That’s just a habit I have. Whenever I start writing, I push up my sleeves.” He repeated the motion. “See?”

JongIn stared. “… but you’re wearing a sleeveless shirt…”

“Like I said, it’s a habit.”

“Well, since you’re not coming up with anything to write, let’s go inside somewhere. I’m a freakin’ waterfall.”

The two cruised for a bit before they found themselves underground in a shopping strip hidden from the sun. Other citizens had the same idea as the large area was crowded and bustling with bodies. JongIn found it fit to simply stroll and window shop.

“Now this is interesting,” YiXing commented.

JongIn glanced down. “Hm? You’ve never been down here before?”

Shaking his head, YiXing sidestepped for a young girl as she barreled past. “I’d heard about COEX, but I never remembered long enough to venture down here.”

“Oho? Well, I’ve lived in Seoul all my life, so I pretty much know all of the nooks and crannies there are.”

YiXing grinned. “That’s good to know.”

He stopped to gaze at the window display of a store he’d never heard of. The fashion was loud and eccentric, something that Kim KiBum guy from Archives would probably be into. YiXing’s quiet thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.

“JongIn? Kim JongIn?!”

Both men looked over as the source was swept aside by the crowd. YiXing caught a flash of owl eyes as the voice squawked in surprise. JongIn leapt forward to grab hold of a flying wrist, yanking the person back to where they stood.

“Wah! I thought that was you!” the owl-eyed kid exclaimed.

“KyungSoo-hyung!” JongIn seemed to be beside himself in glee as he bear-hugged the kid in front of him. “KyungSoo-hyung, wow! How have you been? Where have you been?”

“Good! I’m doing job training in Kyoto, but I’m here on vacation.” KyungSoo caught sight of YiXing and quickly bowed politely. YiXing mirrored him. “Nice to meet you…?”

“Oh, this,” JongIn rested a hand on YiXing’s shoulder, “this is Zhang YiXing, a friend of mine. And this is Do KyungSoo,” JongIn added, looking to YiXing. “We went to the same high school, but he’s a year older than I am.”

YiXing extended a hand as he bowed again. “Nice to meet you, Do KyungSoo-sshi.”

KyungSoo did the same, clasping his hand in YiXing’s. “You too, again. So you’re… Chinese? You live in Korea?”

“Yes, I’ve lived here for about three years.”

“Oh, your Korean’s not bad.”

Amidst courteously thanking KyungSoo, YiXing’s attention was drawn to the giddy expression plastered on JongIn’s face. He watched as the two conversed, bringing up random anecdotes and catching up on the lives the other had missed. He barely noticed as KyungSoo raised a hand to bid farewell.

“Your number is still the same, right, KkamJong? I’ll text you later with my new number.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

When KyungSoo swiftly disappeared in the sea of people, JongIn turned to YiXing and was instantly wary of the airy expression on his mentor’s face.

“What’s that for…?” he asked cautiously.

“Hm?” YiXing hummed. “Oh, nothing. He’s cute.”

JongIn’s eyes grew wider. “He’s straight.”

“What! I just said he’s cute! I wasn’t going to ask for his number. Besides, how long has it been since you last saw him?”

The eyes darted upward to think. “I think… almost three years.”

An impish grin spread on YiXing’s face. “Remember what I said about threes? Things could change.”

“Yah! Don’t turn my friends into unicorns!”

“I’m not,” YiXing replied, laughing.

It wasn’t until after the two had journeyed from one side of the mall to the other and resurfaced to ground level that YiXing’s phone buzzed in his pocket. As they strolled the sidewalks in the late afternoon looking for inspiration for dinner, YiXing swiped his thumb at the screen.

< Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~~~~????? > Amber had texted.

YiXing tapped out a quick < What? >

< 可愛 > was what she replied.

YiXing frowned. < What?? > he texted again.

“Oh.” YiXing lifted his feet up to rest on the chair that sat at the opposite side of the small table. “I thought you were doing Canadian things.”

“I just got back home.” YiXing could hear YiFan grunt as he – probably – plopped himself down on the sofa. “I didn’t realize we had so much living-room space.”

“See? It’s not just my mess MinSeok-ge had to deal with.”

“We may have the same level of mess, but you didn’t even clean up after yourself when you left to go back to work, punk.”

“Yeah, well…” YiXing trailed off as he tentatively brought his mug to his lips. He quickly changed his mind when the steam rising from his tea roasted the tip of his nose.

“What are you doing?” YiFan suddenly asked.

“Hm? I’m sitting in my apartment, drinking tea, with my feet up on a chair. I’m still wearing what I wore to work: manly, faded jeans and a deep blue shirt. However, I have respectfully taken off my shoes and left them at the door.”

“Wow. TMI, bro. Nowhere in my question did I insinuate that I wanted to know what you were wearing.”

YiXing chuckled. “I just thought I’d share because I know you secretly love it.”

“This is why I’m the societal analyst, and you’re the unicorn with a keyboard at its hooves.” The faint sound of the TV could barely be heard on the other side. “How’ve you been lately?”

“Well, you’re the analyst. You tell me.”

YiFan snorted into the phone. “I prefer to not bring my work home with me.”

“… was that sentence even grammatically correct?”

“You shouldn’t bring your work home with you, either.”

A chuckle caused ripples to bend the surface of YiXing’s tea. He sipped at it slowly, gauging the temperature with the very tip of his lips. It wasn’t so bad.

“Well,” YiFan sighed, “you sound fine, I guess. Content. I shouldn’t be worrying over you anymore.”

“Oh? You worry about me? That’s cute.”

“That’s gross. I could hang up on you.”

“You won’t, though, because you want to hear my voice for just a little bit longer, enough for the mellow timbre to echo in your dreams.”

“Wow, bro. No.”

YiXing suddenly switched gears. “Actually, I’m thinking about visiting home sometime soon.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that?”

“Do I need a reason to come back home? You don’t want to see me?”

“After all the weird stuff you’ve been saying over the phone… no.”

“You’re mean,” YiXing whined, a smile still creeping along his face.

“I’m the best.”

“I love you, gege~”

“Wow. No.”

YiXing slowly finished off his mug. “YiFan-ge.”

“What?”

“Thanks.”

“How did you get this job, anyway?”

The beverage of the day was water, once again. YiXing had contemplated adding various ingredients to make the water more interesting, but the only fixings within reach were table salt, raw sugar, and sweetener. There was what seemed to be honey, too, but it had crusted and frozen over.

“My major in university was creative writing,” YiXing explained. “Just as I was graduating, I got the job offer from my current boss; apparently, throwing out drabbles on the internet works. And then… I got the job. That’s about it.”

JongIn stared curiously at YiXing for a while without speaking, and YiXing unwaveringly stared right back.

“You know,” JongIn finally spoke up, “I happened to meet BaekHyun-sshi the other day.”

“Oh? That’s nice. Did you two chat?”

“Kinda. He was meeting ChanYeol-sshi, and I just happened to be passing by from the market.”

“Oh…?” YiXing waited because obviously this train of thought had to be leading somewhere.

JongIn paused for a beat. “I was curious… since you said when you first met me, I was blank. But then I thought about it and realized it’s the same thing with you. I don’t exactly know much about you.”

YiXing pondered this. “What do you mean?”

“Like, I know you’re from China, and you’ve lived here for three years, and you write for a cultural magazine, and you’re severely addicted to coffee. But that’s all surface stuff. I don’t really know about you.”

“Why do you want to know about me?”

JongIn seemed to ignore his question. “So I kinda asked BaekHyun-sshi about it… and he said the same thing. Even though he’s known you for so long, he doesn’t exactly know you.”

Most of the ice cubes in YiXing’s cup had melted, so there wasn’t much moving as he habitually swirled the contents. “What makes you think there’s anything to know about me?”

“Your face. There’s this expression you get whenever you start talking about some point in time in your life or when you start talking about a certain subject. Like a mask.”

Some point in time. A certain subject.

“YiXing-hyung…?”

Some point in time. A certain subject. I’ve been trying to suppress it.

“Hyung?”

Right behind his temples ached. His windpipe felt raw as if he had been choking on water, and something heavy near his sternum pressed against his lungs. YiXing blinked and looked up. JongIn was staring at him, a confused expression on his face.

“I’m sorry,” YiXing muttered. “What were you saying?”

One brow twitched. “You spaced out pretty hard just now…”

“I heard I do that.” With an uneasy hand, YiXing took a swig of his water, the melted ice leaving a disgusting taste in his mouth. “Have you ever been to a different country?”

A bit thrown by the sudden change of subject, JongIn had to shake his head before he could reply. “I’ve never even been outside of Seoul, never mind out of the country.”

“Oh, really? That’s no good.”

“Why…?”

YiXing hadn’t even thought ahead for what he said next. “I’m going back home to China for vacation in a few weeks. Do you want to come?”

The brows jumped up and disappeared under JongIn’s heavy fringe. “Wha… Is that even allowed?”

“Well, do you have a passport?”

“Never mind that! I meant you taking me out of the country!”

YiXing innocently tilted his head in confusion. “It’s not like I’m smuggling you with the intent of never bringing you back. It’s just a vacation. I’m sure if we had your aunt’s consent, it would be fine, right?”

“But the money… I mean… Is that even allowed?!”

A/N: Another chapter...

Guys... I hate being this person...

But like ( _ _ ; ) I feel like no one's reading this... I started off writing it for my friend, but she got all addicted to who knows elsewhat, and she never reads even though I bother her to the ends of the earth...

And I know I have subscribers...

But the silence is killing me ;A;

Please drop a comment ;A; Just to tell me how the latest chapter was, even if it and you're bored of reading it.

Cuz I feel like if no one is reading it, then why am I writing it .-.

I hate being that person that screeches at people to leave comments, but I've been lonely lately .-. IRL, too, so I think it's been spilling over into my internet life.

So uh... help me out m(_ _)m I just want to know that people are reading and enjoying (hopefully).