the theory of relativity | heehoon

two.

Heeseung waits at the front steps to the train station, rocking back and forth on his heels as he looks out toward the street for a familiar gray jacket and the familiar boy wearing it. The station is closed, the lights dark in the glass windows.

"Heeseung!"

The time is 11:58PM on the 1st of January 2011, and Sunghoon is here.

"You're late," Heeseung says, slinging his backpack back over his shoulder.

Sunghoon grins apologetically, putting his hand out. "Sorry about that. I had to make sure my parents were really asleep."

The other boy accepts his hand and they walk together, in a roundabout route towards the far end of the station, towards the empty tracks.

"You know, this is quite a bad idea," Heeseung's eyes are wide in all his eight-year-old seriousness. "We could fall onto the tracks and die."

Sunghoon turns around and fixes him with a stare. "What is wrong with you?"

"My mom said I was supposed to take care of you," Heeseung says, not without a hint of pride. "Because I'm older."

Sunghoon gives a sigh. "You are two months older."

"And so I have to take care of you!" Heeseung pulls them to a stop in front of the hole in the old brick wall that opens out to the tracks. The gap is wide enough for both of them to pass through at the same time, lazily obstructed by a shoddy tape barricade.

"You realize we are already in trouble because we snuck out," Sunghoon reasons slowly, brushing his hair back to shake snow off his forehead. "We might as well go to the tracks now, since we're already here. Your mother can't kill you twice, right?"

Heeseung despairs over finding a counterargument to the younger boy's oddly valid point. "You're not exactly wrong."

"I'm usually not," Sunghoon smiles, holding the construction tapes up so he can pass under it. He's barely tall enough for the top of his head to brush the barrier, but he takes pride in pushing it up and out of his path anyway. "Can we go now?"

Heeseung steps under the tapes, and pulls Sunghoon along. "Come on then." The train tracks are a distance from the old train station, far enough away that the streetlamps are mere spots of light in the darkness over the horizon. Snow buries Heeseung's legs up to his ankle with every step, and he takes the time to kick the snow out of the way for Sunghoon to walk easy behind him.

"If a train comes, we need to run away quickly," Heeseung reminds. "They move really fast and they can't see us in the dark."

"Do you think there will still be trains now?" Sunghoon asks in passing, as he draws patterns in the fluff with the tip of a bright-blue snowboot. "It's late. Don't the train drivers need to sleep?"

"My father told me there are trains running even through the night," Heeseung answers. "I suppose some of them will run forever."

The younger boy nods, seemingly deep in thought. "I'd like to drive a train on a track and run forever one day."

"Then I'll drive one right next to you and we'll run forever together," Heeseung says, smiling.

"You'll really run forever with me?"

"Mhm. Anything for you."

They count off eight train tracks running parallel to each other along the length of the station as they walk, spaced out by boarding gates between every pair. Everything seems to take on a different aura in the nighttime; the overhead lighting in each boarding bay is powered off, the metal benches with flaking paint empty, the electronic signaling signs deactivated.

It reminds Heeseung a little of a movie he watched with his parents once, a movie about the last man and the end of the world. He'd never imagined seeing the same kind of desolation all around him, but the emptiness of the old train station around him seemed to cut close.

"It's cold," Sunghoon complains, putting his hands to his neck to warm his fingers. Heeseung sighs, setting his backpack down on the closest bench to unzip the compartment.

"I told you it was going to be cold. You always don't wear enough." He takes a spare jacket out of the bag and smoothes it out over his knee, offering it to the younger boy. "Come on, put it on."

"Are you Doraemon?" Sunghoon says playfully, brightening up immediately as he shrugs the blue fleece jacket on. "Your backpack is your magic stomach pouch."

"I wish it was magic," Heeseung answers dryly. "It's actually a 'I know my best friend well enough to remember what he forgets every single time' pouch. Crazy, right?"

"Ah, I don't know what I'd do without you~"

"You would freeze. Wanna try that now?"

The very far end of the train station, past the furthest track, is fenced with silver wire that stretches as far as the eye can see, and they settle down side by side in the snow. Sunghoon idly plays with the snow beside him, attempting to compress the ice flakes into a snowball with one hand.

"Do you think you'll get married in the future?" he asks suddenly, looking up, eyes bright. "You know, like our parents?"

"Isn't that a long time in the future?" Heeseung counters, thinking. "Our parents are really old."

"Right..." Sunghoon seems to visibly deflate as he considers this latest revelation. "They have to be at least 20. That really is old."

"We'll be 20 in twelve years time. Do you think you'll be ready to marry then, anyway?"

"Maybe marriage is a little scary," Sunghoon agrees. "I think it's okay to date, though!"

"What do you think it's like to date someone?"

"I think dating someone means following them to the train tracks whenever they want, and giving them your jacket when they're cold," the younger boy doesn't meet Heeseung's eyes, drawing curves and shapes in the fresh snow that settled itself around them. "And I think dating someone means loving them with your whole heart."

"You're not creative at all," Heeseung points out. "You just used me to describe the first two."

"Do you think you love me?" Sunghoon doesn't ask the question in the way that requests for a certain answer; he's genuinely curious to hear what the older boy has to say.

"I don't think I know what love is yet." Heeseung says it simply; not sad, not happy, just a fact. "Maybe one day in the future I will."

"Then..." Sunghoon trails off, as if he's wondering if he should continue.

"Hm?"

"Let's date in the future," he says decidedly. "When we both know what love is."

"How long do you think it'll take us to figure it out?"

"Do you think ten years is a long time?" Sunghoon suggests, abandoning his half-completed snowball to lie on his back in the snow.

"Ten years is a long time," the older boy confirms. "We haven't even been alive for ten years."

"Right! Then, in ten years' time. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Promise."

"Promises are for seven-year-olds."

Sunghoon sits back up in indignation. "You were seven years old last year, don't play around!"

"I was just kidding~" Heeseung extends his pinky to the younger boy. "I promise."

The time is 12:25AM on the 2nd of January 2011, the day everything begins.

As they leave that night, Heeseung takes Sunghoon's hand to make sure the younger boy stays on the inside of the pavement as they walk. His arms are beginning to saturate with mild chill on the way home from the lack of the extra jacket he brought, but his heart is full, and he knows he'll be okay.