we are inevitable | jakehoon

eleven.

"Hey, what flavor of ramen do you like?"

Sunoo looks up from Macbeth and takes his glasses off to rest his eyes. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Ramen," Jake repeats, waving his phone screen at the younger boy. "I got a friend running a mass order right now. I don't know if he's trying to start a college ramen cartel or what, but he promised us first pick of flavors and discounted prices."

"Whoa, really?" Sunoo heads over to Jake's table and rests his hands against the edge to read off the words on the screen. "Chicken, seafood, spicy, kimchi, hey look at this! They've got crab and some fish roe flavor and whatnot-"

As promised, Heeseung faithfully delivers. He brings the expected cargo over about a week later, looking forward to seeing Jake in person for the first time since he left for college.

"Ayo Jaeyun, what's good?" He's weighed down by a large cardboard box which he dumps on the ground on Jake's side of the room. "I can't believe you're still playing football, by the way. If I didn't know you straight aced your first semester, you'd fit the dumb jock stereotype through and through."

"At least I make valuable contributions to the college, you twat," Jake shoots back, laughing. "You wave a stick around in front of instrument players, so sit down!"

"Let's grab lunch somewhere," Heeseung offers. "Been long since we caught up, I miss having kids to bully."

"You couldn't bully me even if you wanted to and you know it-"

Jake apologises to Sunoo for the disturbance as he shoves Heeseung out the door, and the younger boy gives him a little smile and an 'it's alright' wave as he leaves.

"Your roommate's cute," Heeseung drops casually as they head down the corridor to the dormitory stairwell.

"Hyung, don't you have a girlfriend?"

"We're not that serious, honestly-" Jake shoots him a look and he puts his hands up, laughing. "I'm kidding. Bora and I aren't dating, we're just playing around. And don't act like you haven't noticed he's cute either. What's his name?"

"No, I'm gatekeeping him from you," Jake answers immediately. "Find your own cute roommate."

"So you have noticed he's cute?"

"I should just go back to my dorm now, honestly."

─

Jake doesn't know exactly when he falls asleep, but he sure as hell knows when he's awoken. Sunoo shakes at his shoulder with some measure of rising panic in his voice, and it takes him a second to place the dull ringing that drills into the back of his head.

A fire alarm.

He sits up, in a hurry to shake the sleep off him, rushing to put his shoes on. He deliberates over whether to bring a jacket before realising all too quickly he's running out of time. The corridor outside is already beginning to fill with the commotion of a crowd, muffled only by however much the door can give.

Jake holds the door open for Sunoo and they join in the throng of people, dragged along in the general direction of the stairwell. He's descending the first flight when he realises his fingers are still latched around Sunoo's wrist and he moves to let go, only for the younger boy to pull tighter.

"Don't let go of me," Sunoo says, barely audible over the buzzing volume of sheer crowds. "I don't have my keys if we get separated."

"I won't."

There are no fire drill practices in college, but anyone with common sense in a fire would search for higher, open ground, and Jake is glad to know two hundred freshmen in the dead of night still have enough logic to head for the lawn blanketing the front of the dormitory. The crowd thins out as it settles, people fanning out around the lawn in pairs and threes and groups, and Jake can finally loosen his death grip on Sunoo's wrist.

"I wonder where the fire is," Jake says, craning his neck to see around the other side of the dormitory building. "It must be in one of the West-facing rooms, along the back. Do you think-"

"Jake, look."

"Hm?" He breaks off his train of thought to focus on Sunoo. "What is it?"

Sirens wail in the distance, cutting through the low hum of people talking amongst themselves, loud in the stillness of the night.

"Look up."

Jake looks up.

It is not scientifically possible for the night sky to be empty. Stars lie in the ecliptic, which means a sky full of them should be visible from every possible trajectory on Earth that the sun can be seen to rise and set in.

But tonight, it sure looks like it. The expanse above him is empty, a fresh indigo canvas, as if even the moon had ducked behind its cover in a show of deference. All empty, save for one.

A singular star and two golden strings bisect the night sky.

Somewhere between two and three in the morning college faculty arrive to relocate the two hundred odd displaced students to the campus library. The crowd dissipates as they enter the library, and Jake and Sunoo occupy a window seat by the courtyard-facing side where the facility overlooks the rest of the grounds.

They talk about everything they can think of. Jake tells him he had no idea Sunoo wasn't straight. Sunoo asks him which straight boy majors in college-level English Lit, to which he has no good answer.

"I had no idea you weren't straight," Sunoo counters. "You dress like you are."

"What do you mean!"

"Boy, your college varsity jacket is your outfit staple. Don't argue with me."

Their conversation flows unbroken till the announcement is made, close to morning, that their dormitory building is declared safe to reenter. A list of rooms affected by the fire is read out over the speaker system. Room 309 isn't one of them.

Everyone present at the library is given the rest of the school day off to head back and rest and promised replacement lessons to make up for the lost content, and Jake and Sunoo join in the mass exodus to return to their dorm room, thankfully untouched apart from a lingering smoky scent.

"So, what does this mean now?" Jake asks. He's lying on his bed, as is Sunoo on his own, except this time he's facing out, and they're facing each other across the room.

"We could give it a try," Sunoo ventures, and the older boy laughs.

"A try...as if there is a chance we would fail."

"There is always a chance," Sunoo answers cheerily. "The fault, dear, Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

"...Is that Shakespeare?"

"Yes. Shall I explain it to you?"

"Shall I explain the formula of vector calculus to you?"

"Okay, point taken. Goodnight."