#hpjmoon

Nostalgia isn’t a far-fetched notion for him, regardless of how sentimental, of how rarely he allows himself to indulge in the bittersweet. 

He takes the detour by pure chance, the same curves and bends down the road, traced in by memory. The building falls into sight along the way, mostly unchanged. Hard to believe, even now, that several months prior he’d been in a bit of a crisis, pigeon-holed into a rooftop apartment in shambles. Funny how time seemed to have taken care of everything in the aftermath—fast forward to the present, and he’s seeing, doing better. 

Despite himself, there’s a part of him that almost misses it; maybe no man’s an island by pure default, but the near-absolute isolation he’d found isn’t so easy to have, let alone in a city like Seoul.

One more look, and Kikwang continues on without so much of another pause. The streets only get busier—louder—by the hour, the sound of people making their way around, with places to be; defined and with direction, there’s no time to lag behind. He hurries his pace, steps a little faster in hopes to escape the emerging crowd, only to end up bumping shoulder-first against a guy who’s far more familiar than he realizes. 

@hpjmoon

maybe it’s the repetitive rock music playing in the background, or the humid early summer atmosphere, or the way that street lights and shop signs throw light on a dark evening sky, but something instills in jongin the general fervor of feverishness that encourages him, for some god-awful reason, to start speaking to moon before he’s finished chewing even half of the fish cake tossing around in his mouth. “not to pick your brain, or whatever,” jongin scrunches up his nose. “but don’t you think there’s a very fine line between healthy skepticism and uh, unwholesome skepticism, and you’ve not only crossed it but run several kilometers at usain bolt speed to the other side?”

he stuffs the rest of it into his mouth and tosses the paper cup ( “curry!” ) into a nearby trashcan. “i know that corruption scandal must’ve really pushed your buttons, but you can probably somewhat relax now. moon jaein used to be a human rights lawyer, for god’s sake.”