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The sunset is brilliant.
Pink, purple, blue, filling up the evening sky like a deep breath. Soobin can see the other side of the lake, cut outs of the horizon dotted with trees and hills melting into the myriad of colours. The cool waters reflecting the sky, matching the same pink, purple, blue on the soft waves.
The same waves that are lapping up against Yeonjun’s ankles. He’s standing in front of Soobin, partially blocking his view of the lake. Yeonjun’s outline is all black, no sun means no way of Soobin catching the particular details of his outfit. Even though Yeonjun’s only a few steps in front of him, the materials on his body seem melded together. All Soobin can make out is his silhouette. His damp flattened hair, ears sticking out with his ever so familiar hooped earrings that Soobin loves mentioning every time he sees him. (“Don’t you ever get bored with them? Don’t you ever want change?” “No. I like them how they are. It’s part of my look.” “Your look?” “My look.” “Your idol look?” “My idol look.” “Right.”) His baggy t-shirt, and bare arms, and then his sweatpants which Yeonjun’s currently hiking up to mid-thigh so that they don’t get wet. His skinny legs disappearing into the water, the drawstrings of his pants almost touching the surface. Soobin should say something.
“Your pants are going to get wet, hyung.”
Yeonjun looks down, earrings swinging side to side. “No. I’m holding them high enough.”
“No, your strings. If you take another step they're gonna touch.”
“Oh. Who cares about that?”
And he’s right. Who does care about that. Not Yeonjun, and certainly not Soobin. That’s what he’s learned in his years of friendship with Yeonjun. That lots of things are not worth caring about.
“Can you take a picture of me?” Yeonjun turns around, sloshing the water slightly. His face is dark, Soobin can’t make out his tired eyes and the slight sunburn he managed to get on his nose today.
“For what? For Instagram or for fun?” Soobin asks as he sits up slightly to get his phone out of his back pocket. He opens his camera app. “Or for Weverse?”
“I’m surprised you know what Weverse is.”
“Hey. Don’t. I pay attention.”
Yeonjun huffs out a laugh, maybe a little embarrassed.
“Do you follow me on Instagram?”
“Of course,” Soobin answers back quickly. “I comment sometimes too.”
“Do you really?”
“No, I’m just teasing, hyung.” Soobin smiles cheekily as he hears Yeonjun let out a sigh. “You kind of look silly, with your pants.”
“Not for Instagram then,” Yeonjun pauses as he poses, turning his body to the side, “Or Weverse.”
“For who then?”
“Eomma and appa. And you.”
Soobin grins. He has his ringer on, stupidly, and the click of the camera app shutter is the only noise they can hear over the water. After a moment Yeonjun’s posture sags and he steps forward, bringing a small wave towards the shore. Soobin puts down his phone and watches as Yeonjun comes up to him. His bright red idol hair framing his face. This afternoon it almost hurt to look at it in direct sunlight. (“How many times did you have to bleach it?” “Three.” “Did it hurt?” “Yeah. Do you like it?” “Do you like it?” “Answer the question.” “I like your natural hair better.” “Choi Soobin.” “What?” “So you hate it then?” “No! I just like your natural hair best.”) Yeonjun motions for Soobin to turn his phone around to show him the photos and Soobin does. Yeonjun’s wet forefinger comes up to heart some of the pictures and Soobin’s shocked his one pant leg is managing to stay up.
“Can you send me those?”
Soobin nods and Yeonjun turns back around, hand automatically going back to his pants, wading deeper into the water. Soobin watches from shore, grass staining his palms and a stick nudging against his flip flop. He’s finally dry and wants to keep it that way. That, and it’s getting dark and late, the water’s surely cold by now.
The water’s up to Yeonjun’s knees now and the drawstrings of his pants are underwater but Soobin doesn’t say anything about it. Yeonjun stills and looks up, eyes evidently on the sunset. It’s slipping further and further towards the horizon, the rest of the sky growing a darker shade of blue. Some stars too. And the moon.
Soobin tries to take a picture but his phone doesn’t do it justice. So he throws it onto the grass beside him and watches the sky like Yeonjun. After a while, a mere whisper of the pink, purple, blue is all that’s left in the sky. So Soobin speaks.
“Hyung.”
Yeonjun doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t move.
“It’s getting late.”
Soobin thinks he maybe hears Yeonjun hum. A few more minutes pass before Yeonjun turns and wades back to shore. The slosh of the water disrupts the silence they had earlier but Soobin doesn’t mind. He wants Yeonjun safe on shore with him.
“We should go back in,” Soobin suggests as Yeonjun flops down beside him. His wet leg knocks against Soobin’s and he makes a frustrated noise and grimaces.
“Don’t. I don’t want to get wet again.”
“Baby,” Yeonjun teases, but he moves his legs away, crossing them and extending them out flat in front of him. He’s shivering.
“Let’s wait until it’s completely dark,” Yeonjun suggests and Soobin hums. Sure. It’s not like they have a curfew, they can do whatever they want out here. Yeonjun especially can do whatever he wants out here.
“Good day?” Soobin prompts and Yeonjun nods, turning his head to look at him. Soobin catches his eye, bashfully. It was a really good day and he hopes Yeonjun can be afforded more of them in the future.
“Really good.” He brings a fist up to scrub at his eye. “I don’t want to go back,” he moans. He sounds genuinely upset. Soobin doesn’t quite know what to say. He never knows how to talk to Yeonjun about his job.
“It’ll be alright,” Soobin says after a while. “You always know what to do.”
“Are you coming to my concert?”
“Are you inviting me to your concert?” Soobin shoots back. He reaches out and brushes Yeonjun’s hair away from his forehead. Yeonjun doesn’t flinch, he just purses his lips and fixes Soobin with a glare.
“I always do.”
“Right. When is it?”
“The 28th. You can sit in the VIP section.”
“With all your other idol friends?”
It’s meant to be a joke, Soobin’s just teasing, but Yeonjun’s eyes drop from Soobin’s face and he shrugs. “I don’t know who’s going to show up.”
“Is it a weekday?”
“Yeah, a Wednesday.”
“I’m off then, so, sure, yes, I’ll be there.”
“Don’t sound so excited.”
“Shut up. Can I get merch too?”
Yeonjun laughs and Soobin feels like he’s glowing. “What do you want?”
“A picket. I lost my other one I think.”
“Cute,” Yeonjun mumbles, more for himself than for Soobin’s benefit.
“Are you nervous? About the comeback?” Soobin asks tentatively. Driving up, Yeonjun had to get on a call with a manager and it didn’t sound like the nicest of conversations. Everything seemed to be going wrong.
“Not really. I just want people to like the song and me. If they like the song, I hope they can like me too. Does that make sense?”
It doesn’t to Soobin, but he nods anyway. There’s always a certain disconnect about Yeonjun’s own self when he talks about being a celebrity. As if he sees himself as a separate entity when he’s performing.
“Sure. I think everyone wants to be liked.”
Yeonjun goes quiet and Soobin’s scared he’s said the wrong thing. The last thing he wants to do is make Yeonjun feel like he’s not doing a good job. With all the work he puts into it, Soobin hopes he feels some level of satisfaction about his accomplishments.
“I want to be liked, but I want to be liked for being me. For being Yeonjun.”
“I’m sure the title track will show people that.”
“Shut up. You haven’t even heard it.”
“Yeah, well, you described it, and it–” Soobin falters, “It sounds nice. What you said about the lyrics. If it’s important to you I think your fans will realize how important it can be to them.”
“Wah, Soobin-ssi, when did you get so wise?” Yeonjun nudges his shoulder into Soobin’s arm with an insistence.
“I’m just trying to be nice,” Soobin explains. “Your job seems so scary sometimes.”
“Yeah.” And then the conversation seems to end. Neither of them want to say anything more on that.
It’s dark now, completely and utterly dark. Soobin tips his head back and stares up the stars. If he knew anything about astronomy he might be looking for something in particular up there, but he doesn’t, so he just fixates on the vastness of it all.
“Soobin-ah.”
Soobin’s head falls and he turns to look at Yeonjun. Yeonjun leans closer to him, so close Soobin can see his face clearer now. Eyebrows slightly pinched, and he has a few grains of sand near his eye. It’s still too dark to see the sunburn. His lips are dry, tongue peeking out as he figures out what to say next.
“Thank you,” Yeonjun finishes with. And then he presses a kiss to the corner of Soobin’s mouth, cradling Soobin's jaw in his hand. Not searching for anything more, just a gesture of thanks. Sometimes that’s normal between them, sometimes it’s not. Soobin just nods and knocks their foreheads together. A lot of the time being friends with Yeonjun is just making sure he’s doing okay. And after today, Soobin feels like he is.
“Look up,” Soobin instructs. He watches as Yeonjun tilts his head back, licking his lips. His eyes grow a little wider and then Soobin looks up too, mirroring him. Together they watch the sky. The black, indigo, grey. And right in front of them the water reflects the same darkness down into the lake.
The waves are kissing the shore softly and Soobin moves to put a hand over Yeonjun’s knee, spreading a little bit of warmth onto him.