finding yunho ❀ yunwoo

❝ one.

Wooyoung didn’t remember much from back in the days when he used to live by the sea. All he knew was that he loved being there more than anything else. He only needed to cross the street and he was already at the beach, enjoying the big waves and the warmth of the sun. He loved going to the beach even during winter although he wasn’t happy that he couldn’t swim because the water was too cold.

He only lived the first eight years of his life by the sea. After that his parents decided this town wasn’t for them. When he grew up a little, Wooyoung understood that at that time his parents needed money to be able to raise him and his brother. But when he was eight that wasn’t something he was able to understand. He simply couldn’t get it through his mind because he was too busy feeling betrayed by his parents for a while. The first few nights after they moved out he couldn’t sleep well. He felt like he was never going back to his home at the beach.

Yet there he was, twelve years later, unpacking his belongings while he was sitting in the middle of the living room of the exact same house that he never stopped missing. Ever since he turned sixteen, Wooyoung started working. He changed a few jobs, sometimes it would happen that he worked two at a time just so he could save up money to repair the abandoned house that his parents never sold. No one was interested in buying it for a long time, so they just gave up and left it like that.

By the time the young boy moved in, the house was still nowhere to being finished but it was good enough for him to live there. He was happy.

Unpacking wasn’t exactly a favorite activity of his. Even if he was excited about moving in and arranging everything the way he wanted, he still got tired easily or distracted by his phone or just by staring blankly into nothing. That was alright, though. He didn’t have anywhere to hurry for.

At one point he got tired of sitting in one place. He got up and got dressed, looking out of the window to know what the weather was like. It was cloudy and a bit windy but it didn’t seem like something Wooyoung couldn’t handle. It wasn’t going to rain that day, according to the weather forecast that he regularly checked on his phone. He could take a walk at the beach before going to the supermarket to get some food. 

He grabbed his keys and his wallet, putting them in the pockets of his jacket before going out. He didn’t find any need to lock the front door. It was a small town full of kind and mostly elderly people, no one would go in to steal anything. But even if anyone did, Wooyoung didn’t have a lot. No one would be interested in stealing from him.

He was slowly walking along the shoreline, his hands stuffed in his pockets. It seemed like nothing had changed. Except that there were suddenly many bars and restaurants all over the beach. Business had flourished there but currently none of them worked because they were out of the tourist season. It was quiet. Only the sound of the occasional waves and Wooyoung’s footsteps over the sand repeatedly broke the silence. 

Being there again was like a dream come true. Sure, Wooyoung and his family have gone to the beach many times before. No other place could compare to this one, though. There was something magical about it – something that made him not want to leave ever again. Of course, he didn’t realize that when he was a child but now, he knew he was connected to that town in a way that he couldn’t explain. He couldn’t even put his finger on what the reason might be. 

He was just destined to be there. 

At one point he decided he could take a short break. Without a second thought, he sat down on the sand and tilted his head back slightly, enjoying the soft breeze even though it was a bit too cold for his liking. His jacket was too thin for that weather but a big part of his clothes was in the still unopened boxes of his belongings. He wasn’t going to need them soon anyways. Summer was nearing and Wooyoung could only wish it became warm as soon as possible. He anticipated going diving more than anything else. Waiting was only making him feel more excited about it. 

Around half an hour passed when Wooyoung finally got up. He headed to the supermarket and bought everything he needed to survive for at least a week. The, he went back home and made dinner, unpacking while eating it. 

That’s how most of his days passed for the next two months – unpacking at a slow pace and going on walks to the beach almost every day. He also found a job at a nearby bar. He was taking only night shifts there and it was pretty convenient for him since he had the whole rest of the day for himself. Of course, a part of his days was being wasted by sleeping but that wasn’t really a problem. Wooyoung didn’t need a lot of sleep to feel refreshed. 

It was already summer which meant it was the perfect time for diving. He went to a more remote part of the beach, one that was out of town, surrounded by huge rocks. People went there so rarely that there were overgrown bushes all over the place. Wooyoung went there so he could enjoy some quality time alone with himself.

 
If he had to be honest, he felt a little awkward when he was doing things alone but there were still people around. It was either him being completely alone or being with friends, there was no third option. Yes, he did have friends and yes, he could invite them to come with him at any given point but honestly no one seemed as excited about diving as Wooyoung did. 

So, there he was, being all alone yet not lonely at all as he was diving deep to collect pebbles from the bottom of the sea just for the fun of it. When he went back up on the surface, he inspected the pebbles. He dropped off the plain looking ones in the water but if a pebble looked at least a little more interesting it was officially considered special and he went out of the water to leave it on a pile of other “interesting” pebbles. 

One of the times he went out on the shore, he heard some weird rustling noise coming from behind one big rock. Wooyoung was looking at that direction for a moment, then assumed it was either just some waves crashing against the rocks or the wind blowing through the weeds. But then he heard it again and it didn’t sound like any of his assumptions. He left his diving equipment on the sand and slowly approached the place the noise was coming from. The closer he got, he noticed someone peeking from behind the rocks – a boy, only the upper half of his face visible. Wooyoung squinted but as soon as he tried to get a closer look, the other person hid again. 

“Hey!” Wooyoung shouted, running over to the rocks and looking behind them only to see there was no one there. There was no possible way he could have imagined that but then again, where did that person disappear? He was looking around the whole place as far as his eyes could reach but he didn’t notice any signs of anyone else but him being there. 

It was getting pretty late already. It was time he went to work but he couldn’t get all that off his mind throughout the whole night. He was a little distracted during work and in a moment like that having so many customers wasn’t in his favor. 

As morning was nearing and Wooyoung had to get off work, he didn’t even think about going back home. He went back to that beach again. He couldn’t erase the image of the stranger’s mint green hair, as if shining under the sunlight, and his big dark eyes.