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Yugyeom is half asleep in the kitchen, drinking some water in the middle of the night, when he hears a distinct sound. He walks towards the noise, worried, wondering if the pets are destroying something.
“Ten?”
He barely recognizes his friend under a black hoodie with black sweatpants, like he’s about to rob the living room.
“Go back to bed, Yugyeom,” he says.
Leon and Louis are trailing after him, looking curiously at their dad.
“Where are you going at this time of the night?” Yugyeom asks, doing the opposite of what he was told.
Ten stops in his tracks and turns to him.
“Just go back to bed, I’m fine,” he says.
Yugyeom frowns.
“That’s exactly what you’d say if you weren’t.”
He’s not stupid. He knows Ten enough and he is acting very strangely.
Ten sighs. “I’m leaving. And you can’t stop me.”
He dashes towards the exit. It takes Yugyeom a second to react.
“Wait! What? Leaving?”
“Leaving!” Ten repeats, going over to the door, and picking up the car key from their manager.
Yugyeom’s eyes widen, realizing he is serious, and it doesn’t really matter why, Yugyeom just has to stop him from doing this. He remembers he’s still in his underwear and quickly picks two pieces from the rack they leave in the living room, as Ten is out the door. Yugyeom shoves his feet into his shoes and runs after him, trying to make it to the elevator that closes right in his face.
He starts running down the stairs, putting on the clothes, trying not to fall over his feet. Yugyeom gets to the garage, where he hears the engine turning on. But before Ten can reverse out of the parking spot, Yugyeom stops behind the car. Ten steps on the break.
“Yugyeom! Get out!” he says, eyes visible in the rearview mirror.
Yugyeom leans his nose and index against the glass. “Unlock the trunk.”
Ten looks at him. “Yugyeom, let me go.”
Yugyeom takes a deep breath.
“Take me with you.”
They gaze at each other for a moment. Ten unlocks the trunk and Yugyeom quickly hops in. As soon as he closes the door, Ten is steering out of there. When Yugyeom makes his way to the seat beside him, they are already on the mostly empty streets of Seoul. He feels nervousness settling in his stomach.
They keep silent, Ten focused on the road.
“Ten—”
“Do you want some music?” he interrupts him. “Here, put some.”
He throws Yugyeom his phone, who decides it’s best to obey him, selecting one of the many Spotify playlists Ten has.
They drive for what feels like an eternity to Yugyeom, but they aren’t going somewhere completely strange, he realizes because he can recognize places as they pass them by. This gives him some relief. Still, Yugyeom is wringing his hands or biting his fingers nervously. They stop at a red light and finally, Ten looks at him absentmindedly, twirling his black and blond locks on his finger. He smiles.
“What’s with the shirt?” he asks.
Yugyeom looks down. He realizes he put on a t-shirt that probably belongs to Yangyang or Hendery because it is super small and tight on him. It has a busy and colorful print.
“Fuck,” he sighs. “I grabbed the first thing I saw.”
Ten starts laughing.
“Stop laughing! This is your fault,” Yugyeom complains.
That only makes Ten laugh harder and Yugyeom can’t help himself but join. At least now Ten isn’t ignoring him.
“Tell me where are we going, please?” he asks.
Ten grins. “It’s a surprise.”
Yugyeom sighs.
“Whatever you say.”
Yugyeom rests his head on his seat and tries to relax.
Before he knows it, he’s asleep.
A poke wakes him up.
“Yugyeom,” Ten calls. “We’re here.”
They are parked on a dark empty street.
“Come on.” Ten hops off.
“Where the fuck are we?”
“Get out of the car,” Ten says.
Yugyeom obeys because he really has given up control of the situation long ago. Ten can be stubborn as hell. He tries to pull down the shirt, but it insists on showing an inch of his belly. He also realizes he’s wearing a flashy pair of red shorts that he’s never seen before. He looks absolutely ridiculous. Ten is walking down the street already and Yugyeom catches up to him. They make a turn and Yugyeom finally realizes where they are.
“The beach?”
“Yes.” Ten smiles at him.
A huge, beautiful smile.
The place is dark, empty and silent, apart from the calming sound of the waves. The fresh ocean breeze fills Yugyeom’s lungs. Suddenly, Yugyeom starts giving in. Ten takes off his shoes and pulls his pants up to his knees, walking towards the sea.
“Come on,” he says.
So Yugyeom copies him and follows Ten near the edge of the crashing waves. Soon, one of them washes over their feet. The temperature is pleasant and the touch of water is tender. Yugyeom giggles without meaning to. Ten looks at him, smiling. The sun is finally starting to rise, the darkness receding slowly. They get their ankles soaked. Ten bends over, takes some water in his hands, and throws it on Yugyeom, who yelps in surprise.
“No! Ten, stop it!”
Ten is laughing, splashing droplets on him. Yugyeom dashes towards him and Ten starts running, but eventually, Yugyeom catches him, throwing him over the shoulder and marching back to the water.
“You wanted to go to the beach? Well, now I’ll throw you in the ocean,” he says.
“No, please, have mercy,” Ten begs in between his fits of laughter. “I didn’t bring a change of clothes.”
Yugyeom pretends like he’ll swing Ten in the water once, but stops and puts him down. They gaze at each other with carefree smiles. Ten’s hair is a mess, so Yugyeom combs his fingers through it.
“The sun is rising!” says Ten, excited. “Let’s sit down and watch.”
They sit side by side and watch the orange glow appear on the horizon, in silence. Once the sun is visible and the sky has turned shades of yellow and blue, Yugyeom gazes at Ten. His skin is glowing under the dawn in a beautiful way, leaving Yugyeom mesmerized. He doesn’t realize he’s been staring until Ten notices.
“What?”
“N-nothing.”
Ten blinks a couple of times, resting his head on his knees.
“Why did you do this?” Yugyeom asks, hoping to finally get an answer.
Ten sighs.
“I needed to get away. To disappear,” he answers. “So I just left.”
Yugyeom gets it, even if it seems like something only a crazy person would do. Ten lies down on the sand, and he pulls Yugyeom to lie down beside him.
“But why in the middle of the night?”
“I just didn’t think twice about it,” he explains. “We’re always following a schedule, always working, and I like that but… I needed something different today.”
“You don’t think our manager is gonna get mad?”
“He doesn’t need to find out.” Ten arches his eyebrows.
Yugyeom chuckles.
“Okay.”
They stay there, lying on the comfortable sand, hearing the sound of the waves crashing. Yugyeom closes his eyelids.
Thunder.
Yugyeom sits up, disoriented. He’s been asleep for a while. Long enough for the sky to turn from blue to dark grey.
“Ten,” he calls him, shaking his friend. “Wake up.”
Ten groans and opens his eyes as the rain starts pouring on their heads.
“Shit, let’s hurry,” says Yugyeom, getting up and pulling Ten to his feet.
They are about to put back their shoes when lighting strikes too close to where they are.
“We have to get out of the beach,” Yugyeom says over the noise of the storm.
They start running barefooted, soaking wet already, as the wind howls against their ears violently. Another close lightning has Ten jumping beside Yugyeom, grabbing onto his arm. The two run in the middle of the empty street until they get back to the car. Ten starts patting his pockets looking for the keys.
“Shit, shit, shit,” he mutters, hands trembling.
When he finally finds them, an explosion goes off, or at least that’s what it feels like. They scream and Ten drops the keys. There’s the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Yugyeom catches the keys and opens the sliding door, pushing Ten inside and following him.
They are dripping all over the back seat, shaking from cold and probably nerves. Yugyeom takes off his shirt and shorts and hangs them on the passenger seat in front of him.
“Let’s get the heater on,” he suggests.
Ten does as he says. The rain is swiping at the windows drowning the noises from outside.
“Take off your clothes,” says Yugyeom.
“What?”
“You’re freezing. They are gonna take longer to dry like that” he explains. “And you can’t afford to get a cold, we start promoting SuperM next week.”
“Fine,” Ten concedes.
He dresses down to his underwear, leaving his clothes on the driver's seat. Meanwhile, Yugyeom is in the last row of seats, getting them down. He looks out the back window.
“I think a utility pole fell down.”
“What?!”
“Come sit here with me,” says Yugyeom, after clearing all the junk they forget in the car and pushing the seats down.
“Why?”
“Because I can see your chin trembling from there and I found Xiaojun’s blanket.”
Xiaojun usually runs cold, so when they leave for stages and sets where the AC is constantly on, he takes a soft comforter with him.
Ten hops off his seat and gets under the blanket beside Yugyeom, back resting on the trunk door.
“My God, you’re freezing,” Yugyeom says, feeling Ten’s body next to his. He puts his arms around him and starts rubbing some warmth into Ten.
Ten chuckles.
“Thanks,” he says, looking at Yugyeom. “Well, that was unexpected.”
“Maybe we should have checked the weather forecast.” Yugyeom smiles.
“That would have defeated the purpose,” says Ten. “You weren’t even supposed to be here.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“I don’t mean it like that,” he explains. “I’m just saying, life is unpredictable.”
“Especially when you’re out of your comfort zone.”
“Exactly!”
Right then, another thunder rumbles so hard it makes their vehicle shake.
“I guess we are gonna fucking die out of our comfort zones,” Ten says.
Yugyeom bursts out laughing and Ten joins him. Soon they are both holding their stomachs, unable to stop, while the storm rolls on. Yugyeom wipes tears from his eyes.
“God, I don’t think I tell you this enough, but I love your brain.”
“You love my brain?” Ten asks, face flushed, eyes lidded.
“I do.”
Yugyeom brushes Ten’s bangs out of his face, a simple gesture that he has done multiple times, but for some reason now it sparks something in Ten’s eyes that wasn’t there before. And it sparks something in Yugyeom too, deep in his gut. A craving. Ten must feel it too because his breath picks up immediately, and his pupils get wide.
With courage that probably comes from being stranded in a crazy unlikely scenario, Yugyeom leans in and touches their noses. Ten lets out a little adorable gasp that makes Yugyeom smile.
“One word and I can pretend I never did this,” says Yugyeom.
Ten chuckles.
“Shut up,” he says and joins their lips.
Ten’s mouth is soft and sweet. Yugyeom holds him closer instantly, the feeling of his lite body under his hands so good. Ten doesn’t take long to straddle him, hands clutching his hair. They kiss and nibble and lick, letting the heat build-up in them. Suddenly, the cold has left their bodies completely.
Maybe it’s the feeling of adventure that has been pervading their minds since the middle of the night, or being under a heavy storm, but Yugyeom feels like he’s in a movie. His skin and lower belly are thrumming with excitement to kiss his bandmate, something he never really considered doing. It’s like they aren’t idols, but young people doing young people things. No responsibilities.
They keep kissing and holding each other tight and the car windows become totally fogged up. Eventually, they lie down in each other’s arms as Yugyeom traces soft patterns on Ten’s naked back.
An insistent knock startles Yugyeom.
“Ten, wake up.”
“W-what?”
“There’s someone… outside” he whispers.
Another knock.
“Sir, are you alright in there?” calls a woman's voice.
Yugyeom and Ten look at each other in panic.
“Y-yes,” Ten answers.
“I’m Officer Kim. Can you exit the vehicle, please?”
“Just a moment,” Ten says.
Yugyeom dashes forward for their clothes, throwing Ten his shirt and pants. They get dressed in the damp pieces and get out of the car without shoes. Up the street, where the utility pole fell down, there are a couple of people around and a police car.
“Good morning,” says Officer Kim. “Can I ask what you were doing in the car?”
“We got caught in the middle of the storm,” Ten explains. “And fell asleep waiting for it to pass. We’ll be on our way now.”
“I see. Well, stay safe,” she says. “Monsoon season can be dangerous.”
“Yes ma’am.” Yugyeom nods.
When they get back in the car sighing with relief, Ten turns the key to realize that it won’t start.
“Fuck. It ran out of battery,” he says. “Where is my phone?”
Yugyeom finds it next to his foot.
“It’s off too.”
They look at each other.
After a ride to the precinct with Officer Kim, Ten and Yugyeom call Kun explaining the situation and begging for salvation. Yugyeom can hear Kun on the other end clearly unhappy.
They both sit down on the couch in a waiting room, with warm matcha teas in hand and blankets thrown over their shoulders.
“So,” Ten speaks first.
“So.”
“We kissed in our manager’s car,” says Ten.
“We did.”
“The one we all use to drive to work.”
“Yeah.
“We can never tell them.”
“They can never know.”
Both chuckle at their synchronicity.
“We should probably never mention this again,” says Ten, reluctantly.
“It was the heat of the moment,” Yugyeom agrees.
“The thunder.”
“The rain…”
The conversation trails off.
When they meet Kun, he has both hands on his hips, ready to lecture them.
“I already sent the tow truck to pick up manager-hyung’s car,” he says. “You are lucky if we are able to keep this under wraps.”
“Thank you for saving us Kun-ge,” says Ten.
They don’t get scolded as badly as Yugyeom imagined they would. He guesses the rain wasn’t really their fault and Ten could produce a disarming pout very easily.
After a shower and eating—they were starving—Yugyeom still can not believe what happened. It was like something out of a movie, and not real life. He and Ten driving the streets in the middle of the night, playing at the beach, running under the thunderstorm, kissing in the car. It was crazy. And nothing like he ever experienced before.
At night, Yugyeom is lying on his bed, tossing and turning. He can’t sleep or focus on anything. He decides to get up and see if there’s anyone up in the living room, maybe watching some tv. Yugyeom finds Ten and a passed-out Hendery on the sofa.
“Hey,” he smiles, decided not to make things weird. They can’t afford that. “He’s out?”
“Like a light.” Ten regards Hendery curled up on the couch, Louis sleeping close to him.
Yugyeom sits beside Ten.
“I failed that,” he whispers. “What’s up?”
“I was watching a movie but lost my interest in the middle of it,” Ten explains.
“Cool.”
Silence.
“Today was…” Yugyeom starts.
“Fun.”
“Wild.”
Both talk at the same time.
“We almost…” says Yugyeom.
“Died,” Ten completes.
They giggle, trying not to make too much noise.
“I’m glad we didn’t but it would have been an epic way to die,” Yugyeom admits.
“Thanks?” Ten tilts his head to look at him.
“But we didn’t,” Yugyeom adds. “We get to live another day. Maybe even have more days like this.”
Pause.
“I’d like that,” says Ten.
Yugyeom senses the implication behind that.
“You… would?” he checks.
Ten nods with a smile on his face. Yugyeom slides an arm around his shoulders and pulls him close. Ten grabs him by the nape and they seal their lips together. It feels just as good without the storm or the car or the dampness. Yugyeom strokes Ten’s cheek.
“We can start now,” Ten whispers.
Yugyeom smiles.
“Okay.”
They get up and Ten guides Yugyeom into his room, locking the door behind them.
CONTINUES ON
THE MAGICIAN
THE WORLD