we’re on fire.
@pasonyul
junae is the definition of a small town.
rion knows this. he’s grown up hearing the retelling of their family’s long history going back generations. he’s also grown up beside the children of the same people his parents grew up with, a vicious cycle that seems to never end.
he hated the idea of it at first, dreamt of running away to a bigger city when he was little, it didn’t matter which one. but as the years rolled by, he grew more and more used to the idea that he’s long since grown roots to this place, and as much as he detests it, there’s just something here that keeps calling out to him.
in his daily life, it’s easy to forget just how small junae is sometimes. but little reminders like to pop up when he’s least expecting it.
it starts with a simple encounter in his parents shop. rion typically volunteers his time in the green house, content to spend his days covered in dirt, watering plants, and pulling weeds. but once a month (more than that, really) his mother orders him to man the front counter in the shop, and rion ever the obedient son follows suit without any arguments. it’s mindless and a bit grueling, filling orders and making the same recommendations to the same customers every month.
that’s why he remembers their encounter so vividly. son yul, the vlog host of that show, the one everyone likes to talk about, either loudly or in quiet whispers when they think no one is paying attention. his father thinks it’s a loud of bullshit, someone just amping up the locals and making bank on it. his mother tends to agree, but he’s caught her gossiping about it to her friends over tea in the back garden when his father is out drinking. rion? well he’ll pretend he could care less but even he has caught an episode or two, enticed to hear or see what they’re uncovered in the otherwise boring town.
they barely shared any words that day, rion just helping him pick out flowers for some reason he can’t remember. he writes it off once yul leaves the shop, figures that’s the end of it. but it isn’t.
he runs into him at the grocery store, the library, and a few other places around town, sometimes figuratively and other times literally. the second time in the grocery store, rion had been thumbing through is phone, not paying attention until he was literally ramming his cart into yul’s, scaring the shit out of him and sending a shiver down his spine. rion has learned and quickly, that things are not always as they appear. once is a coincidence, the second time it’s suspicious, and the third it’s definitely planned.
and so after the library, when rion had his nose buried into a thick novel about a murder mystery and a haunting tied together in one neat package, hidden behind a bright red cover, had looked up to see yul entering the mouth of the stack. he had to bite his tongue and resist the urge to snap, to flee. he’s grown used to having his hackles raised, but a few words from yul, a joke, a few questions about what he was reading and rion felt himself relaxing, found himself joking and actually enjoying the other’s company before their time was cut short.
after that, his walls seemed to come down a bit more. junae was a small town, he’s bound to run into the same people over in the same places. and if yul was going to treat him a bit better than everyone else, well rion had no right to complain. sometimes people were just nice, to be nice.
he’s on his lunch break, taking up one of the larger tables in the back of the local coffee shop, table covered in a few large books and a tiny notebook filled with his messy handwriting, practically illegible to anyone else and in shorthand that only he understands, precautions.
busy with his notes, he doesn’t notice when the shop begins to fill up with the lunch rush. and definitely doesn’t notice the other man’s presence until he feels the stinging brush of cold and wet, against the back of his neck, followed by yul’s scratchy laughter and the sight of an iced americano being placed onto the table in front of him.
“what are you studying?” yul asks as he settles down in to the chair across from him, eyes curiously roving over rion’s scrawl getting a good glimpse before rion quickly shuts the notebook and stuffing it into his backpack underneath his favorite hoodie. “nothing.” he says in a rush, hiding his worry behind a carefully placed smile.
“what are you doing here?” rion knows that it’s a loaded question to be asking of yul, there’s a lot of reasons the other could be here, for a drink, to grab a quick bite. but the coward’s way out, hopes the question will do it’s job in distracting him from asking anymore about what he was writing down.