dream a little dream of me ; seventeen oneshots

ii. thousand miles or so [verkwan]

3,438 words - rating: general - warnings: none

Every time the hollow ding-dong of the announcement speaker sounds around the busy train station, Seungkwan's head will snap up and he'll wait in agonizing anticipation for: "Train 17 from Incheon arriving on platform 12" to crackle out. And every time it didn't, Seungkwan will sigh with his heart sinking faster than the flow of Niagara Falls.

It had been two weeks since Seungkwan had picked up his phone to the hip-hop beat of Hansol's familiar ringtone and heard the other exclaim through the phone with glee: "Baby, I'm coming home for the holidays!"

Seungkwan honestly could've screamed he was that excited, but he refrained for damaging his vocal chords with a screech was too apparent, and ultimately settled to choking out an excited laugh and expressing his happiness via words (and some gross kissing noises, but no one had to know about that).

His next fourteen days passed with pretty much the same kind of routine:

Seungkwan would wake up, roll over and feel a dwell in the momentary sadness as the space next to him on the soft yet small single bed was still unoccupied. He'd contemplate the feeling of Hansol's fingers dragging through his scruffy fringe, his strained morning voice and endearing sleepy eyes before sucking up the bittersweet absence and dragging himself from his mattress, muttering some sleep-affected phrase about how was only one day less with every frosty morning that passed.

Thirteen more days, twelve more days, eleven more days...

He'd trudge to the kitchen of his box-like apartment (which was kind of just a proportion of wall next to the sitting area lined with cupboards and appliances), fix himself either a bowl of Frosties or grab a piece of fruit (toast was a special-occasion-morning kind of breakfast) and gulp down a full mug of hot, milk and two sugar coffee. He'd wrap himself up in his warm winter coat, and slip his feet into his cozy snow boots, double checking his bag before setting out to work, making sure all the lights were turned off and his door was firmly locked.

Ten more days, nine more days, eight more days...

" Only a week?" Seungkwan squeaked into his phone, his brow furrowing as Chan across the table flinched and exclaimed in surprise before he shushing him to not speak so loud.

"What do you mean only a week ?" Seungkwan did lower his voice, but clearly not low enough for Chan's liking, who physically cringed and twisted in his seated to mouth apologies to the other lunch goers around them.

"I know, I know," Hansol sighed dejectedly on the other end of the line, "but my dad wants me to also visit home again this year, and winter break is only two weeks. I have to fit everyone in."

Seungkwan didn't want to argue with that - he knew Hansol was a very family oriented young man, and to put forward that he'd rather have his boyfriend visit him over his parents would be absolutely dreadful, not to mention selfish and totally embarrassing.

"I would try and sway him, but you of all people should know how stubborn my dad can be, Seungkwan.."

"I know," Seungkwan sniffed, rubbing his nose on the sleeve of his coat (winter weather had gotten to him, he guessed). "I just hoped we'd get longer together this year," he slumped back into the solid cafeteria seat and ran his finger around the rim on his polystyrene cup. "It was only a weekend last year and a whole week before Christmas day at that. Do you know what it's like having to spend Christmas at Seungcheol's? I mean, of course, I was thankful to him for letting me stay, but I have never seen a more grossly loved up couple than he and Jeonghan. You thought Seokmin and Soonyoung were bad, you should've seen those two - my God . I'm all for some Christmas lovin', but sometimes too much is just too much." He paused for a breath. "And don't even get me startedon Seungcheol's cousin. Jihoon was by far the saltiest human being I have ever met. Like, thank the Lord Jisoo was there to keep him tongue every time he tried to make a snarky comment he had cooked up in that condescending brain of his--"