Thank you for reading~ (*＾▽＾)／ Feedback is greatly appreciated and loved! (ノ*゜▽゜*) I churned it out in a day, inspired by this wonderful tumblr post. Disclaimer: This is purely fictional and has absolutely no relation to the real people portrayed in this story. Touchwood ;;

Death has always been an elusive concept to most. There are many sides to death; I've personally been showed the superstitious face of it most (like how Daehyun chided Youngjae for talking about death so openly) and I believe there are many more faces to it like horror and vengeance. There are just a lot of angles to death, and as a taboo concept in our society (especially more conservative Asian societies which I live in), we never really get to talk about the whole idea of death. Afterlife, reincarnation... All of us think about these things some time in our lives.

This was impulse writing and rushed out so the symbolism is less neat than how I usually do it. But there's one main overlapping concept and it's that Youngjae is sort of otherworldly. The way he thinks isn't like Daehyun or any normal human, and the fact that he is an orphan, portrays that he symbolically doesn't have any roots and is "unearthly". He's not actually an alien, by the way. OTL He just seems otherworldly.

Dying young has the connotations of not being from or not meant for this world, thus the deceased is taken back. Youngjae was "otherworldly" and unnatural, thus his cause of death is unnatural as well. He was killed by man, signifying the inability for someone as different as him to cohabit with all these other normal humans.

I peppered (excessively, I'm sorry) scenes where Daehyun reached out for Youngjae and couldn't catch him. It's meant to emphasise the difference between them two—that Daehyun who is a normal human being cannot ever be with Youngjae who is alike to an extraterrestial entity.

I also brought up very briefly the whole idea of interactions between the living and the non-living. Non-living as in objects, not people who have passed on. After Youngjae's death, Daehyun wondered about what he'd do about their home. Youngjae didn't just make an impact on his friends, he weighed on the non-living things he interacted with too. The environment he lived in had been customised to receive him. It's a weird thought and I don't know how to explain it, so I'm sorry about that.

Youngjae also likes rain a lot. Rain is somewhat like heaven's tears, so it's (this may be uncomfortable for some of you, I'm sorry) as though God is crying for him. The rain connects Youngjae to the realm above the human world. That's related to Youngjae's death wish of wanting to be laid in a boat of roses (bed of roses: comfortable life) facing the heavens to tell God that it's okay, he's lead a good life despite the hardships he's went through.

By the way, the song Daehyun sang (in italics) is bits and pieces from It's All Lies. (ノ・∀・)ノ

I blurted so much, agh. Thanks for reading~ (＾▽＾)