Chapter Text
Kim Hongjoong was bored.
The ceiling fan above him spun around lazily, hardly doing anything except keep the room from becoming too stifling to handle, just enough breeze to keep sweat from lingering. His fingers itched for his laptop; tucked away in his bag in the corner by the open window. There were samples he could be working on right now, but what was really bugging him was the lack of internet; Hongjoong desperately wanted to contact his producer about a phrase he wanted recorded in the studio. The island’s internet connection was entirely dependent on a satellite feed however, which had been lost ever since the typhoon that had rolled through a few days ago. The damage had luckily been minimal in the small beach town but some of the radio towers in the mountains had been knocked over in the high winds. If Hongjoong had come here for a break from city life, he was definitely getting it now.
So Hongjoong continued to laze about on his small bed in a rented cottage and watch the ceiling fan spin in endless circles, waiting for Yeosang to return.
Yeosang was one of his good friends from college, they’d spent their first two years together as dormroom neighbours, although their studies had been entirely different. Hongjoong had taken music production and management, Yeosang was into marine biology. It explained how they both ended up here, or at least partly anyway. Yeosang had come here to do some post grad research on the local fish and sea bird populations, and had offered Hongjoong to stay with him for a month after he’d complained in length one day (was it a text message or a novel?) that he needed to get away from the studio. Hongjoong had been kicked out by their head producer after he’d spent a week straight cooped up in the recording booth, sleep and all, citing concern for all their sanity. Hongjoong took up the offer and booked the flight the very next day.
It had only been a week and, storm excitement aside, he was beginning to feel cabin fever set in. There was taking a break, and then there was total isolation, and Hongjoong was starting to feel like this trip had become the latter. He could only make the twenty minute walk into town so many times, and the novelty of the beach had already worn off. So it seemed cat napping had become his new past time.
“Joong?”
Hongjoong slid his eyes open, not sure when he’d dozed off. The sun had travelled across the room, it’s warmth shifting to late afternoon heat.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” Hongjoong said, rubbing his eyes and running a hand throught his flaming red hair as he sat up to look at his friend. “Just thinking.”
“Sure,” Yeosang sounded more than unconvinced.
“See anything interesting today? If you did though, don’t go all science geek on me or I really will go to sleep.”
Yeosang scoffed, setting his backpack and gear down near his own bed against the far wall. “We saw some nesting thrushes but otherwise not really. We’re hoping we can get out on the boat tomorrow if the waves finally die down, it’s still pretty choppy out there.”
“Mmm,” Hongjoong acknowledged, eyes slipping closed again against his will.
“Why don’t you come with us tomorrow? The whole time you’ve been here you haven’t gotten out on the water even once. Better than being holed up here all day.”
Hongjoong waved his hand non committedly, letting it flop back onto the quilt at his side.
“Suit yourself.”
Yeosang puttered around the room some more, putting away his equipment and digging out some fresh clothes. Just before he headed off to shower, he nudged Hongjoong’s shoulder.
“‘Mm not asleep,” he drawled, trying to shake the hand off.
“Good, cause we need some things for dinner, I didn’t have money with me earlier to stop on the way. Can you go up to the store?”
Hongjoong pushed himself up in answer, not really wanting too as laziness bore unto…. more laziness. But he was also starting to get hungry too.
“Just pick up whatever, I’m not craving anything in particular.”
Hongjoong grabbed his wallet and phone (more so for music, his signal was minimal and there was no data plan here to speak of) and headed out the door.
He flipped through his playlists as he walked along the road, gazing out at the ocean only a few hundred feet away. Despite the heat, it was a nice day, but he could see some darker clouds gathering on the horizon. Afternoon storms weren’t uncommon this time of year and usually rolled through quickly. If he hurried, he’d be back before it even started to cloud over.
“Yo, Joong, long time no see!” The black haired boy behind the counter greeted.
“You saw me yesterday, Wooyoung,” Hongjoong laughed. “Hardly a long time.”
Another boy, blond, poked his head out from around an aisle. “When you work here, it feels like a day is forever,” he whined. “You’re only our ninth customer today.”
“It was your idea, San,” Wooyoung shot back. “Let's go have an adventure, he said, and here we are working in a grocery store the size of my garage back home.”
San stuck his tongue out at him mockingly and then darted away when Wooyoung threw a wet rag at him.
Hongjoong smiled, grabbing a basket near the cash. He’d only met them a week ago but they already felt like fast friends. He’d learned that both boys had come here on their semester break. San’s uncle had a vacation home in the mountains and let them stay there in exchange for working at his store.
“Yeosang stopped by earlier and bought some ice cream,” Wooyoung said absentmindedly as he organized the till.
“That little…. He told me he didn’t have money with him so he made me come!”
“Probably just to get you out of that cottage.” San popped up again behind him, leaning on the handle of a mop. “Said you barely left the place.”
“It’s paradise here, you should get out more,” Wooyoung joined in. “Have an adventure!” He looked pointedly at San.
“Yeah yeah,” Hongjoong shrugged them off then went searching for dinner items.
He got enough food to fill two bags in hopes of not having to make another trip again tomorrow, and then began the trek back up the road towards the cottage. Wooyoung and San were right. The island was beautiful and lush, the beach a vibrant blue with soft white sand. It’s amazing there weren’t more tourists here. There were a few resorts on the other side of the island but this side was largely just locals and vacation home owners. A small gem in the middle of the Pacific.
As if in realization of this fact, Hongjoong veered off the road and through the low grass until he hit the sand, walking along the beach instead. The breeze had picked up, still warm, but with the scent of ozone in the air. The clouds in the distance had gotten closer and were looking rather angry; not typhoon level again, but a decent thunderstorm was on the way. Within another few minutes, the first raindrop hit his cheek.
Rather than return to the safety of the road, Hongjoong continued through the sand. He’d slipped his sandals off, enjoying the way the trapped warmth of the sun wrapped around his feet as rain drops plopped on his head. The increasing sound of the crashing surf and the energy in the air finally allowed his mind to wander beyond just his work. This was so different from his daily life, the hubbub of a busy city, the constant sound of construction, traffic and people. There was just no space back home, nowhere to think. Now it was just him and the earth and he finally felt the cloud of jumbled thoughts and worries fading into the background.
By the time he reached the end of the beach proper, when sharper rocks and shells started poking into his feet, the rain had gotten thicker. Hongjoong’s clothes were soaked and clung to his small frame but it felt good after such a hot day. He set his bags down to put his shoes back on, then shook the water from his hair.
There. White.
Something caught Hongjoong’s eye in an outcrop of rocks. He squinted, thinking it was just a crashing wave, white foam. He took a step closer. No, it was certainly something there in the rocks, a downed bird or perhaps a beached animal. Yeosang would want to know.
Hongjoong set his groceries down beneath a larger rock, hoping they wouldn’t get more wet than they already were, and then carefully made his way towards the thing. The rocks were slick from rain and sea water and an alarm bell went off in his mind, but he needed to know what he saw.
His foot slipped and he caught himself, a sharp rock slicing the palm of his hand. Hongjoong gasped. Just turn back, don’t be so stupid.
Was that…… a foot?
Hongjoong’s stomach dropped. A body, it was a body. Leave right now.
He inched forward, stinging hand clenched in his shirt.
It was indeed a body, tangled in seaweed, pale from cold.
“Shit,” Hongjoong breathed. “Shit shit shit …”
He stumbled back. The body moved, breathed.
The rain was still coming down so Hongjoong didn’t see it at first, he thought it was just more seaweed, but there, at this…. person’ s waist, was a jagged gash, blood running onto slick rock.
Against everything in him telling him not to, Hongjoong moved forward, carefully navigating the rest of the way over the rocks to them. They needed help.
He was naked. Hongjoong realized that as he got closer, but the adrenaline pumping in his veins kept him from really thinking about it. It was a man...boy? His skin was smooth, wet hair covering closed eyes, he looked young, but his features were strong. It was perhaps the most beautiful face Hongjoong had ever seen.
“Hey,” Hongjoong called out over the noise of the storm. It really was getting worse. “Hey, can you hear me?”
They made no answer.
Hongjoong crouched, reaching out his good hand to brush away their hair, and then he wasn’t sure what else. Check for a pulse? Breathing?
Something slammed into him so hard that his lungs shook, breath knocked from him and stars bursting in his vision. A hand was around his throat.
Hongjoong’s senses were overloaded, pain everywhere, no air. He tried to breathe, gasp, anything at all. The pressure around his neck released and he inhaled hard, dizzy from the impact. Eyes the colour of seafoam peered at him.
And then the wave hit.