rating: G

genre: contemporary

word count: approx. 1,400+

*this is another follow-up to the kaistal road trip au

Soojung stirred as the soft music of the stereo coaxed her out of a drowsy haze. The humid air drifting through the open windows provided little to no relief as the girl sat up in her reclined seat, groggy and slightly disoriented. She pushed her tangled hair away from her face, her half-lidded eyes still laced with sleep. She doesn’t know how long she’s been sleeping, but she figures it’s been long enough as the sun seemed to have disappeared hours ago. That, and she wasn’t cruising on the highway as she expected to be.

Instead, Soojung found herself parked in a nearly empty rest stop. Other cars were scattered sparsely throughout the parking lot while theirs lied next to the edge near the grassy knolls. (And far, far away from the public bathroom facility, Soojung notes.) The thin crescent of the moon hung solitary in the starless sky, shining brightly yet not bright enough. Beyond the windshield is where Soojung saw him: perched on the hood of the car, Jongin was leaning back against the palms of his hands as he sang towards the sky.

And I could write a song

A hundred miles long

Well, that’s where I belong

And you belong with me

Grinning at the sound of his voice, Soojung unlatched her seat-belt and slid out of the front seat of the car. After turning his head to meet her, Jongin smiled as she sat down beside him, leaning slightly into the crook of his arm and looking somewhat dazed.

“Sorry if I woke you,” he said.

“It’s okay. I was getting cramped in there anyways.” Soojung stretched her arms over her head as if to prove her point. Then she lowered them with a clearly satisfied breath. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere.”

“Somewhere? As in the capital city of I Don’t Know Where the Heck We’re Going?”

Air hissed between Jongin’s teeth as he sighed, exasperated. “I already told you—”

“You have it all figured out, I know,” Soojung said. “But the fact that I trust you implicitly doesn’t give you permission to take me on an extended vacation without telling me where we’re going. I can’t afford to be that stupid, and neither can you. My parents would kill you—and that’s if my sister doesn’t get the opportunity to do it first.”

Though he’s known her long enough to know that wasn’t a necessarily a joke, Jongin could only laugh. “Where do you want to go, then?” he asked.

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. You never actually gave me a chance to decide.”

“Well, I’m giving you the chance now.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really.” Jongin held up two fingers to illustrate. “We can go to one of two places: one, we stay on the original itinerary that I’ve been meticulously planning for several days; or two, we forget all about my special itinerary and go straight home.”

Soojung frowned at him. “Neither of those choices leave much to the imagination.”

“Those are the choices I’m giving you.”

“And I suppose this is your way of being generous?”

“You suppose right.”

“You are such a dictator.”

“Hah—you should meet my adviser. She’s worse than I am,” Jongin said as he threw her a sideways glance.

As his resident “adviser,” Soojung couldn’t help but laugh. “Out of the two options, I know I don’t want to go home yet,” she said finally. “I want to see what crazy scheme you have unfold.”

He raised a challenging eyebrow. “Even if it brings you a thousand miles away from home?”

“As weird as it sounds,” she said, “I think I could be anywhere with you and it’d still feel like home.”

“Wow.” For a moment, he looked genuinely surprised. Then his lips curled into one of those cheeky smirks Soojung wasn’t particularly fond of. “I didn’t know my Soojung could be such a softy.”

“Way to ruin the moment, Jongin.”

“I don’t think I ruined it.”

“But I do.” Soojung wrapped her arms around her knees, shrinking away from Jongin as far as she could without falling off the top of the car. “And if I weren’t still sleepy, I’d probably hit you,” she added threateningly.

“As if you didn’t hit me enough already,” he countered. Jongin did best to hide his smile, but Soojung knew better. There was little he could successfully hide from her without her finding out sooner or later. He followed her with his eyes, observing how the moonlight shone against her hair like a silver halo. Then he slid off the hood and, after grabbing one of Soojung’s hands, tugged her along with him.

“C’mon,” he said.

Soojung raised her head to look at him. “C’mon, where?”

“You’re dancing with me.”

“What?” She looked incredulous, eyes wide and mouth agape. “Jongin, are you crazy?”

“No. Maybe. Only a little bit,” he finally admitted.

“This is ridiculous,” she huffed. Whether Soojung was speaking to him or herself was uncertain; but either way, Jongin thought she was being as silly as he was.

“I don’t see what you’re so wound up about,” he said, laughing. “It’s not like anybody is gonna watch us.”

“The cicadas beg to differ.”

Rolling his eyes, Jongin leaned forward and took Soojung’s second hand. He leveled his gaze with hers, his expression trying for a compromise. “Please, Soojung? Before the song ends and I look even more ridiculous to you than I do now.”

Soojung bit her lip, smiling at him in exasperation as if thinking, What am I going to do with you? Then she pushed herself off the hood and let Jongin pull her a few paces away from the car. “You lead or I lead?”

“I lead.” Jongin stopped walking and pulled Soojung’s arms over his shoulders. “We both know how horrible your sense of direction is.”

Soojung raised her eyebrows, laughter getting tangled in . “My sense of direction?”

“Shhh.” Then he circled his arms around her waist, clasping his hands at the small of her back. “Don’t distract me while I’m leading.”

As soon as he embraced her, Soojung melted into his chest, her arms wrapped around his neck and the lower half of her face pressed against his shirt. He smelled distinctly like himself; like faded laundry detergent mixed with wind and a little bit of the car’s apple-scented air-freshener. Swaying in slow circles, Jongin crouched slightly so that his body molded against Soojung’s. He covered her with the length of his arms and rested his chin on the dip of her shoulder, eyes closed and lips still moving to the melody of the song.

Though there were several instances in which Jongin proved himself careless and unreliable in the past, Soojung found an indescribable comfort and sense of security in his arms. The whole world could have been set on fire and burned to ashes, and she wouldn’t have noticed it at all because she felt as if she was where she wanted to be—where she needed to be.

What with his impulsiveness, brash personality, and rather inconvenient inability to admit defeat whenever he was wrong, it was clear that Jongin needed Soojung to balance everything out. And likewise, Soojung needed Jongin to do the same thing. They’ve been so closely intertwined for so long that she can’t imagine seeing one without the other.

But that’s how soulmates were supposed to be, right? Two halves, flawed and imperfect on their own, yet fitting perfectly together when brought side by side. Soojung filled in as much of Jongin’s inadequacies as he filled in hers. She lived life at a relaxed pace; he preferred moving at least twenty-five miles above the recommended speed limit. He was the one who frequently got his head stuck in the clouds; she was the only one who could bring him back down. She never overlooked his carelessness; and he always heeded her carefulness. The two of them functioned as a team, unmatched by anyone else in the world because they already matched each other so well.

And for that, Soojung was happy. Because wherever Jongin was, she knew that’s where she wanted to be. Wherever Jongin was, that’s where Soojung belonged.

As the song eventually drew to a close, Jongin murmured the rest of the lyrics into Soojung’s mess of hair, grinning as he felt her smile against him.

Oh, the streets you’re walking on,

A thousand houses long,

Well, that’s where I belong,

And you belong with me.

author's note: Before you guys assume the best, Jongin and Soojung still are not a couple. They might read like a couple, but they aren't a couple.

Not to say that they don't like-like each other, of course -- because clearly, they do LOL. But the reason why I'm not including a straight-up confession is because I like the idea of unspoken comittment between two best friends. Like there's no butterflies, no blushing, no heavenly choir singing in the background -- there's just a boy and a girl on a summer road trip, enjoying each other's company just because. And even though there's an implied romance, that isn't as important as the sense of loyalty Soojung feels towards Jongin. And she isn't loyal to him because she wants a boyfriend; she's loyal to him because they're best friends. So the possibility of them becoming boyfriend-girlfriend doesn't add or subtract to their relationship at all, and I like that a lot :)

If I keep whipping up pieces for this road trip, I just might have to make another collection of multi-shots for it xD I can't think about that now, though, because exams are THIS WEEK and that's why I haven't been writing that much -- or at all. My mind's not really in the right place at the moment, but I hope this update makes up for it somewhow. I hope you all are having a great Memorial Day weekend (in the US, at least), and I'll see you again at the next update. - Ella

post note: The song I used in the drabble was "Swallowed In The Sea" by Coldplay. It doesn't 100% apply to the story, but I feel like parts of the song went well with it. It's definitely one of my favorites, and you can never go wrong with Coldplay, so feel free to give it a listen if you're feeling adventurous!