The school bell echoed in his head as he walked down the empty sidewalks. His mind was flooding at an unbearable speed, faster then the cars he watched race at night. He began wondering where he would be right now, how far away he is, if he'll be caught, and if he'll be caught how much trouble he would be in. At least a firm talking to by the Dean.

Now would be a good time to mention Jeongin was skipping school for the first time.

Jisung laughed at him when he told him what he was about to do, and upon realizing the younger was completely serious about what he said, thought the world was coming to an end. He warned Jeongin that it wouldn't be that easy to get away with it, but he found it was quite the opposite. All he needed was the pretense to convince the nurse he ate something at the beginning of lunch that wasn't sitting well with him, and she gave him the clearance to go home for the day. After all, this was Jeongin that they were talking about. He would never skip school purely for the purpose of self enjoyment.

Only, he did. It didn't stop the horrible feeling from knawing at his gut. This was still wrong. This was still something he would never do. Only, he is. Could he really say that he would never do it, if he was currently power walking down the sidewalk in his uniform during school hours?

Jeongin shook his head in an attempt to rid of the thoughts. He'd worry about it later. For now, as he continued his nervous stroll down the sidewalk, he spotted the silver car parked patiently along the gutter. His steps unknowingly quickened as he approached the car, ripped open the passenger side door, and slipped inside.

"Thanks for answering my texts," Jeongin placed his book bag and his feet, taking no care at all as he tore his uniform jacket off and tossed it somewhere in the back of the car, followed by the uniform tie. Somehow, doing that brought back a familiar sense of deja-vu.

"You're lucky. Caught me before I made plans," Chan muttered. Once the younger buckled in his seatbelt, he glanced over to the older to see why he was so uncharacteristically quiet. He was hanging off the steering wheel, his head resting on the arms he folded at the top of it.

"You look," Jeongin paused as he gave the older a once-over. A messy nest of uncombed hair, an incredibly loose fitting shirt, and pair of jeans that looked like they had just been freshly pulled from the wash, not even bothered to dry off for a few minutes. And the boots. Can't forget the boots he wore everywhere. It was not an unpleasant sight, something that he would never admit to anyone, but it was far from the prim and proper tailor he was so strongly adapted to. He settled on the nicest thing he could think of, "Ravishing."

"Just woke up."

"I see. Will you be alright to drive?"

"Made it this far," Chan said as he pushed himself off the steering wheel and stretched his hands far above his head in an attempt to wake up more, landing them somewhere behind his head rest where he hung on to for a few more beats. He shrugged, "And it's not like we've got much of a choice."

Jeongin crossed his legs as he refuted, mumbling idly into a closed fist he propped on the small strip of windowsill, "We could take a taxi."

"If I'm going to be in a car, I'm going to be driving it," The older finalized as he started up the ignition and guided the car back on the street with a careful hand, driving them farther and farther away from the school and closer to freedom.

Jeongin had half the mind to tell him otherwise but settled on the more pleasant option of not getting into an argument over something as small as that. Instead he focused on the street signs and stop lights outside his window, the people marching by as they were always on a mission to go somewhere, a family happily walking together although the children should have been in school, a world so mundane and normal to the strangers but too far away for him to be a part of. Like a model set, he could see it and admire it, but he could never touch it.

Naturally, his gaze drifted from area to area, first outside the car and then within. Eventually, he found himself peeking from the corner of his eye at the older. A single thought flickered in his mind, is he as far away from me as those people? And if he wasn't then maybe...

Just maybe...

He blurted, "You have nice hands."

Why would you say that?!?! Jeongin mentally kicked himself multiple times.

"Do I? Never noticed," Chan pursed his lips. As they stopped at a stop light, he placed his elbow on the console between them and began inspecting his free hand, turning it this way and that to see what the younger had thought were so nice about them.

There must have been another demon that possessed him. Jeongin reached over and grabed the older's hand in his, bringing it closer to his body to see it in a closer perspective. There must have been another demon that possessed Chan make him let the younger grab his hand and not be weirded out by it. Better yet, be complimented about his hands and not be weirded out by it because Jeongin was fairly sure that wasn't a normal conversation topic no matter who you asked.

Still, he made it this far, might as well keep rolling with it and see where it lead them to. Jeongin lightly traced his finger over the skin, gently pressing down on the protruding veins that danced on the back of his hand, "Do you play any instruments?"

"Used to. Don't have much time for it anymore."

"Your hands are really veiny, I thought it might have been from playing an instrument."

"Take it as a compliment."

"It is," Jeongin muttered to himself, "You must do a lot of manual labor."

"The cars."

He made a small sound of realization.

"Surprised my skin isn't worse, actually," Chan lamented. He paused for a few minutes, now focused on the intersection as the light flipped from the oppressing red to green, and once they were settled back in with the flow of traffic, continued, "Always being in contact with the oils and grease isn't exactly the best."

Jeongin ran his fingerpad along the details of the hand as a gentle nod occupied his mind. He searched the location, learning his patterns, memorizing the calloused palm until his finger found a long stretch of discoloration expanded on the inside of his index finger. Even though the injury had healed a long time ago, Jeongin didn't have to guess the severity of it, the mark it left told all he needed to know. He asked, "What's this?"

The older gained a vacant smile as he explained, "Got that when I was newer to racing and mechanics. A ring I was wearing caught on part of the engine and gave me that."

The younger lightly traced the scar with the pad of his finger, doing his best to bite back a solemn frown, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Lucky it didn't do more," Chan pulled his hand away. He gripped the bottom half of the wheel, using the placement to spin it as he sent them into a gentle turn. Once it was successfully completed, he turned his attention off the road and back to the younger, motioning with the hand Jeongin previously held to give him something, "What do your hands say about you?"

Jeongin furrowed his eyebrows at the older and turned his own palms up, staring at then as if he had never seen the appendages in his life. He flexed his fingers around, "I've never really thought of my hands in that way."

"Yet you saw mine and decided to analyze them? Not fair. Let me get a chance to be a palm reader too."

"Shouldn't you be focused on the road?"

"Then I won't look and I'll guess. You can tell me how much I get right about you," Chan wiggled his fingers in an intimidating matter, doing his best to motion to the younger, "Now, come on, hand them over."

That pun could be ignored. For now. There were more pressing matters then worrying about puns. Like, for example, the fact that Chan was literally asking for Jeongin to give him his hand and was waiting patiently with his palm wide open. He would be lying if he said his heart rate didn't spike all of a sudden. Mentally kicking himself a few more times, all he could do was hope that his hands weren't sweaty as he reached across and gave him his right hand. Chan barely reacted as began lightly tracing over the imprints like the younger had done before.

Possibly slown down by the fact that he wasn't able to look, the older took a lot longer to study the shape and characteristics of Jeongin's hand. A bit more methodical and not throwing out random guessed as he had done, the car was surrounded by a comforting silence as the gear's in Chan's heads grinded together. He suddenly squeezed the younger's fingers, "Not that I didn't already know and it wasn't obvious, but you're a good student. Do you work on paper a lot? For homework?"

"Yes, more often then not I'm writing my assignments."

"You have a callus on your finger," Chan hummed. He pressed a spot on his ring finger, "Here. Guessing it's from a pencil?"

"That's..." Jeongin paused. He imagined the place he rested his pencil when he wrote, feeling the same callus that the older had mentioned when he ran the pad of his finger over the point, "Correct? I never knew I had one but that is where I rest my pencil."

The older nodded, returning back to his previous task. It didn't take long for the second observation, the question popping up as soon as he ran his finger over the edge of Jeongin's nail, "You bite your nails?"

"Sometimes before tests. It's a bit more rare now but I used to bite them whenever I got anxious," The younger added in, "I'm trying to be better about it."

"No, but there's other things I've seen. Dropping your head down is a big one, you hunch your shoulders," He listed, finally releasing the younger's hand though he didn't make any move to escape from the resting point in his palm. As they came to a stop at another spotlight, Chan hummed, "Sometimes you chew on your lips."

Jeongin leaned away from the older and cocked a suspicious eyebrow at him. He accused, "You must watch me a lot to know my anxious habits."

"I watch you as much as I watch anyone else," The older quickly defended himself from the accusation. He retorted, "Habits like those are easy to see if you're paying attention."

"For you, maybe."

"Why say that?"

"You stare. I can't figure out if you're spaced out when you do or if you're really watching what we do and I wish I knew." Jeongin pulled his hand away from the older, "But I seem to have more trouble understanding you than I do anyone else."

Chan sent him a smile and said with a tone that dripped in pride, "Isn't that what makes it fun?"

"Fun?" Jeongin searched the older's eyes, searched the older's face. For what, he didn't know. He only had a feeling he would understand it when he saw it but it never appeared in his features, never as a flicker or as a permanent teller. Though maybe it was hopeless to get those sorts of answers from gaping at someone who was impossible for him to figure out, someone who he never could understand his intentions. Instead he went for a direct approach, Jeongin tentatively leaned over the center console putting the only barricade between them and narrowed his eyes, "Tell me what you're thinking."

"Getting demanding, are we?" Chan balanced his arm on the console and copied him.

Way too close. Way too close. Jeongin's first thoughts were to back away and bail from their conversation, better yet, bail away from the car and make a run for his house. Though he never did, instead he challenged, "I want to know. When you were staring at me, what did you think?"

"Do you want to know the truth?"

"Yes."

The older leaned back in the driver's seat, putting the distance between them once again. The stoplight turned green.

"Then you'll figure it out."

✘