Like Night and Day

Gears in Motion

"It's just a sport. A hobby. What are you going to do with soccer?"

"I can play pro--"

"You think you're going to make any money by trying to go pro? The chances of you making it doesn't exist. It's a pointless profession. It isn't a career. It's a hobby. This is just a hobby, nothing more. Don't let it get to your head."

-

-

His room had never felt so dark. Even closing his eyes threw a tarp over him with a much lighter shade of black than his plain and boring rectangular room. Frowning, Kyungsoo glanced to his left, the screen of his phone illuminating the corner of the bedstand. He felt the throbbing of his head, his headache making simple tasks like reaching over a hassle. But he forced himself to do so anyways.

Squinting his eyes against the cell phone's brightness, Kyungsoo clenched his jaw, swiping from the lock screen to pull up the message sent to him. The sender came to no surprise, though it was bitter seeing it written in plain text right before his own eyes. Growling, he rubbed his eyes before pulling up the keyboard to respond.

"Let's go on a walk."

Darting his eyes to the time, Kyungsoo drew his brows together. It was eleven thirty-six, but he's hardly the early sleeper and, to him, eleven thirty-six wasn't late. If he truly wanted, he could. They'd done it before. Late walks off in directions Kyungsoo would sometimes be familiar with and wore him out, often leading to events that ended with his face crashing into his bed and waking up the next morning feeling refreshed, but jarring late in terms of his usual morning schedule.

Slowly, he began typing a rejection, but paused in the middle of his brief message. His vision blurred as his mind wandered elsewhere, bringing back a face that he knew well from memory. For a moment, Kyungsoo kept still, listening to the silence, being hyperaware of his solo existence in that room alone. Baekhyun wasn't with him. The brunet wasn't beside him, sleeping soundly or whimpering from nightmares. The soft edges of his face weren't there, illuminated by moonlight, and Kyungsoo's bed was cold except from the warmth of his own body.

Baekhyun was a memory, faded and gone. His existence in that room belonged to the past, and the silence was the reminder.

Erasing what he had begun, Kyungsoo sent a simple word and pushed the cover off his body. The floorboards were cold, but he ignored the sensation as he walked to the window, pushing aside the curtains and pulling down the blinds.

Underneath the street light stood a figure, and it took no more than a second for Kyungsoo to roll his eyes and turn around. Throwing an old sweatshirt over his shirt and replacing his pajama pants for regular sweats,

-

-

They kept a distance between each other, though Kyungsoo knew it wasn't on purpose. It was just how they were, naturally repelled from one another like polar opposites bound to be apart. Cold, Kyungsoo had folded his arms, the cap on his head doing nothing to protect his reddening ears from the damning air.

Raising his head to the sound of the latter coughing, Kyungsoo scrunched his nose before turning his head forward, ignoring the way Jongin rubbed his face with the sleeve of his jacket. "If you're sick, it would've been smart to stay home."

"I couldn't sleep."

"And you thought that appearing outside my house would be the alternative to your little case of insomnia?" Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, pursing his lips. "It was on your stroke of luck that I was still awake, finishing paperwork."

"Paperwork for what?"

Kyungsoo shrugged. "Confidential material within the student body. Nothing that concerns you--technically."