Everything else moves on fluidly around them without interruption. Once Zien took his place in the driver's seat, the car finally advances forward.
Riveting at the current events, the once comfortable and tranquil silence inside the vehicle was now thrown to history and replaced by a dreadful Gehenna, one close to a surge in a winter storm with heavy pressure and wind one cannot resist.
It was nerve-racking, even for a man like Zien who's stunned by the atmosphere when he came in. He reined the appraisal of his raw curiosity to rise as he turned the wheels towards the curve.
Jin stares at the window beside him, and he presses himself more to the locked door on his side, silently calming himself and recalling the seemingly full of unforgettable episodes this day had brought him, his eyes scorching.
Every shop on sight from left to right where he was closely acquainted with move passed them in a wink. In the corner of his eyes, he glances over the driver's seat, where Zien was expertly maneuvering the wheels to their destined location, wherever on earth it might be.
Have they've been here before?
It was as if they have lived here long enough to work their way in.
How come they know his address?
The vacuity in his eyes grew. He was now neither focused on the roads they passed nor the path they are heading. He was staring at his faint pale reflection on the window as every structural building, small or tall, hauls and blurs in the background as the car catches its speed.
Fluttering his lashes numerous times, it brought him back to the 'now'. He then glances secretly towards the man beside him from the glass, his breath hitching at the memories flashing inside his head about their few shared intimacy together, as others may call it. Hiro was also in his own private bubble, his head and gaze fixated on the window to his side, his thoughts unreachable at the moment.
They sat about two arm's length away since his young chauffeur came in and they were swamped by the alarming silence without another word said.
He was beginning to feel carsick of just feeling the car's fluid movements above the road.
He usually hated car rides, but then he learned a way to cope with it, with the help of his mother, who he may say proposed that it was best for him to always stay on the front to counter his unknown phobia, and since then, he'll always head straight towards the front's passenger seat.
Well, today was an exception.
Look how the world is playing with him? He's seating right where it brings out the inborn demons with him.
It makes him awfully queasy.
He thinks fast of a better distraction before he'll throw up and ruin the car's grooming.
"Did you finish the errand you had to do?" Jin's voice was tiny as he was still hesitating. It might be offensive on Hiro's side to throw him personal questions.
He glances to his side, silently praying upon meeting Hiro's now twice as noticeable exhausted eyes above the horrible dark circles on his bag.
There was no sign of offense or transgress . . . only drowsiness.
He relaxes.
Hiro was seated far on the other side with his right leg crossed as he moves his head, nodding back at the little man. Unbeknownst, he was hiding and blocking the wildly growing canopy inside his trouser and boxer. He clenched his teeth, and his maleness painfully pulsed twice as a reply.
Jin frowns, worried sick, "I think you've worked hard enough." Too hard. He looks like hell and he's not even kidding.
Hiro looks far ahead, looking lost, "I had to." He was distracting himself.
And when he set his eyes at Jin again, that lost and lonely momentum he felt vanishes. He was found, caught defenseless by those two amethyst doll eyes of his.
"You sure do have an odd way to kill time." The young fellow shrugs his shoulders. What's bothering a man like him from dawn to dusk?
The wind radically howls from the roof of the car.
Zien nearly chokes on his saliva. Kill time? He coughs painfully from his seat, shivering to hear another word of it.
Jin watched the phenomenon of Hiro tossing swift and deadly glances over the front seat, where Zien was in his best behavior, lips tightly sealed close as if he had been warned through a secret telepathy they shared.
Jin purses his lips. How strange, he was talking a lot about things he can't understand a few long minutes ago.
Well, the conversation was one-sided anyway, it was acceptable that his only role was to be a listener.
"Killing is an assertive word as a metaphor." His glare turns soft. Not that the way he sees it, especially when it comes straight out of that clueless mouth of his.
"Your mother never mentioned you had a brother."
Hiro felt fooled.
Jin glances at the side mirror, trying to see through the tinted black window, and he can see the other black modeled cars had followed them.
Brother? "That's because I don't have one," he replied, amused at seeing the other car drivers had turned their eyes towards them, confused and curious at the same time, but not as much as him who's trapped inside.
He then leans away and glances back at Hiro, grinning sadly at a loving memory he holds dear to his heart, "It has always been just my mother and I, until . . . your father came into the picture." His agonizing smile slowly fades like it was never there before.
Intrigued Hiro couldn't keep his eyes away from him.
"You're against it?"
Kai bites and secretly chews on his bottom lip in anticipation, a new hobby that came handy whenever he's too agitated. He then stops, his tired and aching eyes burning.
Too tired.
Jin faced him, studying the perfect structure of his face, how he wished he could, but he wouldn't.
He slowly shakes his head. He's not that cruel. He loves his mother too much to hurt her.
And of course, that lip bite of his was a total distraction on his side.
"I don't want to think about it." Both his mother's situation and his appealing flare.
He picks out something in his bag and slowly moves closer towards him, who's from another island, another universe perhaps.
"How did you know I was in the university?" Jin asks, shaking something between his thumb and forefinger in front of him, offering him the last strawberry mint candy he had left.
Hiro blinks, "My instincts."
Slowly, Hiro lifts his hand and spreads his palm open and Jin immediately places the strange small looking wrapper in pink on his grip. Hiro's eyes studied it curiously, and he noticed the letters were in Nihongo.
"I needed to see you," and if he had kept his phone with him, it would have been a world apart easier.
This little sprout oath to keep it with him at all cost and that simple disobedience might just be the end of him.
Jin was supposed to scoot back over to where he was seating, but Hiro stopped him by placing a hand on his knees, squeezing him gently. He looks at him with questioning eyes and the man replied to him with a silent and pleading look. He sighs, defeated.
"Alright," he places his bag on the spot where he was seated minutes ago then rests his back on the cushioned seat.
Well, it looks like luck had favored him. Sure, a man like him trusts his instincts way too much.
If he and Jihyuk had left early, he wouldn't have been there to applaud his dramatic entrance.
Jin tried straightening his back more to earn some height, but to his disappointment, the tip of his head could barely match and pass the man's shoulder.
"So I'm guessing he's your comrade? Acquaintance?"
Jin looks away, mumbling his height complaint, and after a while, he rests the side of his head against Hiro's sturdy shoulder, secretly pursing his lips. Hiro stiffens in return, not a single sight of him missed.
"Jihyuk?"
So the pest has a name, "Who might he be?"
"He's a close friend of mine. I thought you two know each other?"
Hiro's other hand secretly crumpled and turned into a ball of fist above his thigh.
"No," and never will be. The curve between his brows grew worst, his knuckles turning white. He never met a person who had an early death wish.
This Jihyuk will surely be on his watch list.
"Will you still go see and check on your phone?"
It's a marvel for him to see this little sprout was starting to feel comfortable around him, not to mention the arrays of questions he has.
It's worth the deal, "That's where we're heading."
Jin's once calm brow furrowed in disturbance.
Hiro knew where he left his phone?
He didn't remember telling him though.
One more problem, "Your friends, you're not bringing them over to my house, wouldn't you?" Glancing at the side mirror once again, he was horrified. They're too many. His mother would freak out.
"So eager for information," Hiro grins, his drowsiness momentarily forgotten. He rest his elbow on the window from his side, bent his arm, and rest the side of his head to his palm, amused and glancing down at him.
On the second thought, friends? He doesn't have any, "But supposed your mother has an extra plate to serve one person."
"We have plenty," Jin replies, rather too soon and he flinches in realization, gaping at him.
Hiro trails his fingers up towards Jin's inner thighs and the little fellow squirms under his touch and presses his knees together.
What is he—
He shuts his eyes close and restrained his voice down, "You're coming over for dinner?"
The man's playful grin grew wide, entertained at his reaction as he smiles in victory, "Indeed I am."
He leans in, "I'd like to finish what I started."