#feyxiaojian

he laughs again. “doubtful, though, that any spots i’d find would be any new to you. you didn’t scare me away with the hike, though, so maybe it would be fun for you to make me get out more. save me the potential trouble of getting lost.”

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ —

yujin laughs quietly, feeling like the sound spills out and gets lost within the surrounding nature, and he’s always felt like coming out here sometimes is a way to let things go. for nature to take it all, for yujin to feel like he can let something go.

“when it gets later like this, it does feel a bit like a secret place. since no one really makes the walk here this late. during early mornings, too, it tends to feel like you kind of.. stepped through a door into a little pocket that you can have to yourself for a little while. so.. if you can come here to read, i think it would be a good place. though— you might need a blanket or something. probably would be pretty nice,” he suggests, and wonders why he’s never done the same for himself before. usually he sits on this fence, which isn’t very conventional, but he usually comes out here at random.

he’s bouncing his knee, spinning the rings on his fingers, and he looks over as xiaojian answers his question, hair falling into his eyes. “nothing wrong with that. maybe you could show me that library sometime if you’d like?” he offers, and though it is more of a quiet place, at least he can distract himself there with the books, getting lost in words instead of the idle chatter of others around him like he usually does at bars or parties.

yujin’s laughing a little with him. “i think you should give yourself a little more credit. but.. if you wanted to come with me on some more adventures, i wouldn’t mind it. we could find other new places, too. i mean, i’ve probably been all over this city, but i don’t think i’ve seen all of it,” he’s looking out at the city now, just thinking about all of the places he probably hasn’t touched, wonders what’s waiting.

“plus, if we get lost, then at least there’s two of us lost. that’s like twice your chances of getting back home then if you went walking around alone,” he says with a bit of grin crooking the edges of his lips, and he finally jumps off the fence, shoving his hands in his pockets and gently nudging a rock with his boot.

“do you want to go and see the flowers? i’m sure they look just as pretty even with the sun down,” he murmurs, a little shrug of his shoulder in the direction of the path that leads to them, the opposite of the one that they climbed up.

“wow...” his reaction comes from deep within—a quiet laugh follows soon after at the involuntary nature of his astute observation. “it’s... gorgeous. you weren’t kidding. i didn’t think anything like this even existed.” xiaojian’s eyes are bright, the lights of the distant city reflecting there, though they’re also bright with their own expression of wonderment. his lips are curved into a permanent smile.

“how did you even find this place?” he finally tears his eyes from the view to look at yujin, though his wide-eyed, surprised expression stays.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ —

“i didn’t really know that it existed, either, but there’s something about wandering around at three am, taking random buses until you end up places.. you tend to find quiet spots like this,” he explains, breathing in the clean air, feeling pleased that xiaojian seems to like it, too.

“i like finding spots where i can think. i have quite a few actually, if you want me to show you another time. or maybe i scared you away with the little bit of a hike,” yujin tells him, laughter on the edge of his voice, looking from the view of the city to xiaojian, smiling just because he looks so full of excitement. yujin imagines he looked the same way when he first found this place.

“actually, if you take this trail down to the other side, and walk for just a little bit, there’s this tiny field of flowers that have sprouted up all on their own. a bunch of mismatched ones and unkempt grass, but it’s nice to see that even there, flowers would grow,” he tells him, letting out a quiet sigh and straightening back up, tilting his head up, looking towards the sky, now, to the stars blinking in and out of focus, the other steady lights, so far away, yet it’s so close to touch.

“i seem to specialize in small, forgotten places. even if i’m somewhere that’s really crowded, i like to find somewhere that’s not as busy. empty hallways, an errant bus stop, a little corner restaurant that has really good tea. it’s nice to check in every once and awhile, sometimes i think that by me finding them, maybe they aren’t as lost,”

yujin explains, and he kicks gently at the rocks underneath his feet, watching the pebble jump and skip to another little pile. “so if i show them to others, they’re becoming discovered even more. i mean, even if you never come here again, at least you were here once. i’d like to think that’s better than not having been here at all,”

“i know it’s a little late already, so we don’t have to stay for very long, but i’m glad that i was able to show you. maybe if you do end up coming back, i hope you can find as much peace here as i have,” he says, sliding his hands into his pockets with a small smile.

it’s all that he could hope for, in the grand scheme of things. maybe to spread a little bit of good, even in the tiny ways that he can, in the hopes that someday, it might outweigh everything else.

a star winks and all yujin can think is that it’s yet another coming home.

“do you have any favorite places in the city?” he asks, and this time, he sits on the small fence lining the pathway, having to jump over it and settle on the other side, anything to get a closer view. there’s two solid beams of wood, so he’s able to sit on the top and tuck his feet under the other, and he did jump over it just because he didn’t want to walk the whole way around, but it’s easy enough for him.

he casts a gaze over to xiaojian, smiling after he’s done it.

@feyxiaojian

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ —

there were few places in the city that yujin came to think, where he came to be quiet and reflective, and this was one of them. it is a bit of a walk but not much— and in his own opinion, he figured the exercise was worth it.

to be able to see seoul glittering down below, the city lit up with pinpricks of light, gleaming trails of cars and buses, evidence of everyone making their way to somewhere, all reduced to small glimmers from the lookout point that yujin had taken xiaojian to.

it had been something he had mentioned on one of the many nights yujin had frequented the bar he worked at, enough to make small talk, enough to mention the little things that yujin does to feel like he can escape for a little while, conversation eased by the drink in his hand xiaojian had slid over to him.

a familiar taste, a familiar feeling of melancholy, he had been waving his hands around as he had spoken, voice pitched a little louder over the background music and chatter, “i’ve been there when the sun rises, when it sets, when the stars were out. it’s almost.. magical. maybe it’s just because the city looks so small and everything is so quiet, but.. it’s nice. i could show you sometime, if you wanted,”

and here they were, yujin knocking dirt from his boots and going to the edge of the railing, leaning on it with his forearms and staring out at the distance, at everything. the night air was cool and carried with it a sense of calm, and yujin pulled his leather jacket a bit closer to him, rings digging into his fingers.

“it’s not the most exciting thing to see, but it’s really beautiful. sometimes, when i’m down in the city, i get lost really easily. lost in the lights, in the people, in what i'm doing. everything feels like it’s just constantly on fast forward around me, and i’m going through the motions,” he explains, tap tap tapping his fingers against his arm, never able to sit still even if he tried.

“but seeing things like this? it’s like laying back and looking at the stars on a clear night, no clouds, just the dusky gray sky and how one star blinks into focus one after another as it gets darker and darker, if you sit there long enough, you get almost.. dizzy. the sky is so much larger then it feels when you’re not looking up at it for so long,”

yujin lets out a sigh, trying to catch his breath, from the walk, from his thoughts, from being all of the way up here and feeling a little bit lighter because of it.

“i know it’s a bit of a walk, but,” he chuckles a bit, looking over to him and offering a bit of a smile, even in the dark.