᧔♡᧓

well if the power of visualization had any legs to it, right now, he wasn’t doing himself any favors. yes, he had started the fire by first putting into words the notion of him dropping her; but he’d argue she was the one who poured gasoline onto the flames by… threatening him? was that a threat that he heard in her voice? or was it a thank you? either way, the threat is what rings louder in his ears, and he’s now ‘visualizing’ a disgraceful tumble to the ground, which he imagines will be accompanied by more embarrassment and the judgmental snickers of those around them than any real physical pain.

on her cue, he gets up in one swift motion. he wonders if this is how horses feel, and suddenly feels a bit bad for them. it’s easy at first, and he quickly swells with confidence — enough so that he dares to mess around a bit, intentionally wobbling a little bit just to sike her out. maybe he takes it a bit too far, because there’s a split second in there where he genuinely feels as if he’s losing balance before he pulls it back together. he wonders if she notices, but of course has no way of reading her expression. he supposes she’s shooting dagger at him anyways. “well, i suddenly have an increased appreciation for your teammates,” he taunts out loud, not really sure if she can hear him.

feeling her tap on his arm again, he drowns out the ambient crowd noise and tunes his ears to her voice. when it’s her asking if he’s okay (with unexpected sincerity in her voice), the corners of his lips twitch, threatening a smile. he could just freely smile — not like she can see him — but he doesn’t. turning his head back just a tad, he responds. “yeah, i’m okay,” he assures her. “i’m not hurt. just perpetually crippled.” it’s sarcasm, though he quickly realizes that sarcasm may not convey as well without the facial expressions as accompaniment, so he follows up with a thumbs up in the air for avoidance of doubt.

she can’t help it that she has a tall “friend” and is resourceful not above manipulating people to do what she wants. no, the rest of the crowd just needs to be as clever as she is.

it takes a couple of songs for her to realize that trying to enjoy a show on someone’s shoulder is not the most comfortable; other than fist bumping like a frat boy and nodding her head to the beat, how else is she supposed to dance? she supposes not being able to dance freely is what she must sacrifice to get an unobstructed view. at least at this height, she can scream her heart out and not worry about potentially deafening someone.

admittedly, the thought of checking in on jinyoung only occurs when woodz take a small water break and talks with the crowd. reaching down to tap his arm (though it ends up being more of a jab), she waits for him to look at her (and if she has to hold back her giggles because she’s enjoying having him up at her, no one needs to know). “you know, if the football career doesn’t work out for you, i’m happy to give you a spot on my team. it’s as if you were made to hold me up in the air.” she teases, though she knows with certainty he would firmly reject the offer.

if you asked yohan who he thought he'd be spending his saturday night with, seolran would've been close to dead last on the list. and yet, here they were. against all odds, they were spending a weekend night together willingly. well... sorta. the small group that yohan had come with had sorta dispersed to do their own thing. him and seolran had just run into each other by chance, and the rest is history. maybe he's just in a good mood because of the festivities (and maybe she was too), but... he was having a nice time. she wasn't bad company, actually— not that he'd ever admit that.

they'd even managed to snag themselves a telescope despite the small crowd. now, he was no stranger to laying out and stargazing, but these things were nuts. you could literally see saturn's rings if the focus was just right. they'd been told not to touch it, only to look through the eyepiece, but... well, he wasn't really good at following directions. whoever adjusted the focuser on this thing sucked at it— they definitely needed to pay more attention in astronomy club meetings... and he wanted to see the damn rings! it was a recipe for disaster, and he knew it, but he touched it anyways, slowly turning the little wheel to see if he could get a clearer image.

seolran had even given it a shot too, so really, how bad could it be? it's not like they were actually moving it. honestly, it seemed like they were figuring it out. slowly but surely, the rings were coming into focus. they were definitely headed in the right direction— he was, at least. yohan stood up from where he was crouched down to look through the eyepiece and watched as seolran turned the focuser counter-clockwise. "dude!" he whisper-shouted, not wanting to draw attention to the fact that they were doing exactly the opposite of what they'd been told. he goes to lightly swat her hand away, twisting the wheel in the other direction. "it's this way. you're literally undoing all of our hard work." (jury's out on whether he was actually correct about that or not— probably not. yohan doesn't know one thing about telescopes).

she’s content with her major and future career path now, but that does not mean her interest and love for the field have disappeared. so when the university announced that the astronomy club was going to bring out their fancy telescopes for the official afterparty, seolran immediately knew she had to get there early to ensure she could claim a telescope for herself.

things did not go exactly as planned because she somehow ended up having to share one with kang yohan of all people. it’s not like they’ve had any major conflicts; seolran’s just sure that neither of them likes the other all that much. but she’s ecstatic to get her hands on a fancy telescope, so she’s not even that upset. (the general festivities also help.) even yohan’s stubborn insistence on seeing saturn’s rings and completely brushing off her attempt to help adjust the focuser could not put a damper on her mood. or, at least she thought so. the moment he flung accusations that she broke the machine, seolran feels her mood drop, eyes turning sharp as she shoots him an annoyed glare.

“did you hit your head before coming here or something?” the glare is now gone, replaced by a sickly-sweet expression, though her words reveal her true feelings. “if so, we need to get you checked out. i think you’re suffering from short-term memory loss.” she gestures at the telescope with a small nod to her head. “there’s no way i broke the machine. “ her hand comes up to her chest as she talks about herself. she leans in closer, letting her mask fall off—they’ve spent enough time together at ophiuchus meetings to know that the innocent and sweet image she’s portraying is false. “you were the last one to touch the thing.” she whispers, trying to not attract attention to the two of them, lest they want someone from the astronomy club to come and find out his screw up. (as though her arrogant ass didn't also try to fix the telescope).

all this is to say, jinyoung does somewhat pay attention to who shows up at games. at least if there’s family or friends in attendance, it’s nice to know where they are sitting; may even greet the diehard regulars or the season ticket holders. sometimes there might even be a celebrity in attendance, or an exceptionally pretty girl in the first row (that the entire bench will somehow immediately start whispering about…), or some big-shot pro scout or national team rep. and really, that’s yet another reason he suspects that she’s not really as big of a fan as she repeatedly claims to be — because from the many matches in the past few seasons combined, he maybe recalls seeing her a whopping one time.

well, at least her response to his ‘career aspiration’ question was novel and certainly more convincing. for some strange reason, his algorithm last month was co-opted by chiropractor tiktok — the type of videos where people look like they’re getting their necks broken but somehow are relieved of a lifetime of pain — and he couldn’t stop thinking about it, about how amazing it looked. not quite the same thing (in fact, not at all), but he presumes ‘real’ doctors could have similar sway and pull online. “hmm,” he hums with an actual sense of intrigue, head nodding slightly as he weighs the notion and deems it worthy. “okay. interesting.”

and what about him? honestly her question makes him lose whatever appetite he has left, despite it being one he’s gotten a thousand times over. ‘legacy talk’ was unavoidable in sports — how many championships or medals you win, how many goals you score, who the ‘g.o.a.t’ is, etc.. it used to be an obsession of his too, until at some point, all he could think about before any game was wondering if it could possibly be his last. and for whatever reason today, he doesn’t feel like regurgitating to her his normal stump speech (agent and team approved) about ‘all i care about is winning’ and ‘championship or bust’.

though, given his history (what little she knows about it at least), she’s not surprised this would be a sore topic.

she shakes her head, brushing off his apology with a small smile. “no need to apologize. you didn't say anything that isn't true. if anything, i should be the one saying sorry.” she pauses, as if she’s thinking about what to say next. “seems like i brought up a touchy subject. wasn’t my intention, but my apologies anyway.” the words are accompanied by a hand placed on her chest and a deep bow of her head, as if she were genuinely sorry.

and though there’s still so much more she would like to ask, seolran knows the conversation is dying.  it doesn’t take a genius to see that he’s clearly done with their interaction. she reaches into her bag, fiddling around until her fingers clasp around her phone and pulls the device out. “well, i should head out now.” she says, as she unlocks her phone. “i’m already taken too much of your time.” (it hasn’t been that long since she’s actually sat down, though she supposes to him, she’s definitely overstayed her welcome.)

she props her phone down in front of his tray, screen showing the page to add a new contact. she blinks expectantly at him, a cheeky smile on her lips. “can i get your number though? you know, since we’re friends now.”

she thanks her parents for blessing her with such a pretty smile as he enters his number. once the phone is returned, she quickly gathers all her belongings and stands up from the chair. “i’ll text you so have my number later tonight.” she gives him a little finger wave as she walks off. “here’s to a new, and long-lasting friendship.”

she sighs a little as it seems seolran is leaving and she looks at the door forlornly. she doesn't even really want to be here, so technically she could just ... head home, right?

but then the olive branch is extended and jiahn is not the type to ignore divine intervention when it comes shining into her face.

"oh, if you don't mind, i would much rather ditch this party," she says, laughing a little, also a bit sheepish. she's not too tired just yet, so she guesses it would probably be better for her to go get some food than to go home and toss and turn in bed. or end up working on something when she's technically on a break for yeonchella. didn't want to burn out when it came to her business, after all.

it doesn't take long for her to fall into step next to seolran, feeling pleased that they had ended up in a better situation than getting drunk on the roof. now that they're leaving, jiahn's not even sure why she had agreed to go in the first place.

she doesn’t make it a habit to eat so late at night—not particularly fond of how puffy her face gets the morning after a late night meal. she already knows that she's going to have to spend thirty minutes in the morning using ice to depuff her face, but that will be a later problem for her.

besides, it's problably best that she actually does eat, lest she wants the hunger to keep her up tonight. her stomach already feels like it’s genuinely eating itself. that’s what she gets for skipping meals in all the excitement of yeonchella. “tteokbokki sounds heavenly right now,” seolran says with a longing sigh. “or maybe some mandu. at this point, all food sounds good to me. what about you?” she says, lips curving up into a small smile.

the loud bass from the stereos was rather deafening, and as much as she tried her best to find a space in the entire apartment that allowed her to hear her own thoughts, all of harumi's attempts were unsuccessful. she also wasn't sure which made things worse: how tightly packed the place was with the never ending lines of people strolling in at every hour or the fact that she's somehow managed to lose sight of any of her friends. the same friends that convinced to going out with them as an end of the semester hurrah. they knew very well that harumi wasn't the partying type, but she did have trouble with saying no to others. harumi also told herself that maybe this time would be the time she would have lots of fun! granted, she always found fun in anything (for the most part at least) but there was no harm in a little party kind of fun.

except this wasn’t a little party. why she ever thought it would be, beyond her. but now, harumi was stuck in the corner of what she believes to be the living room, surrounded by strangers. she’s even sure that there were people there that never attend a class at yeonhwa. whoever the party host was must have big connections, she figures.

harumi takes in a deep breath of courage and steps out of her comfort corner to scramble her way through and out the front door for some well needed fresh air. with the standard red plastic cup in her hand filled with (by now diluted) tequila, she dips, dodges, and weaves her way between everyone in her path. from the “drunk of out their minds and were now dancing way off beat” group of friends and the…wait, was that couple actually trying to do the deed out in the open like that? harumi shudders at the realization, but quickly brushes it off. it wouldn’t be the first time something as scandalous as that were to occur at a party such as this. regardless, she managed to get through all kinds of clusters and groups of people with such skill and grace, it wasn’t long before harumi found herself…right back in the corner she started.

perhaps she would actually enjoy herself if her friends had stayed by her side (like they promised), but it only took them fifteen minutes after arrival to ditch her to do who knows what. they swore that they would come back, after all, there was someone they were dying to introduce to her, but seolran has a sinking suspicion that their words would remain a broken promise.

she kept herself busy by exploring the apartment and striking up conversations with the people around her, only to excuse herself after ten minutes by saying that she needed to refill her drink. (she wonders if any of them noticed that she never took a sip from her cup in the first place.) at this point, all she wants to do is go home. the only thing holding her back is the promise she made to head out with her friends. she could break this promise, much like she assumes they'll break theirs to her, but her annoying conscious won't let her leave in case something happens.

seolran tucks herself into a corner of the room, arms crossed, as she continues to observe the partygoers and their various antics. she's in the middle of taking a sip of her soda when harumi approaches. it takes a second for her mind to register that she's being spoken to, but she quickly nods in response. "yeah," she says breezily, eyes scanning the room once more before settling on the younger. seeing the warm smile, seolran reminds herself to play nice. she's bored and irritated at her friends, but she shouldn't take her feelings out on someone else.

today, however, he is not so lucky. it was really only a matter of time, and he intends to skip out of the booth early today to see baekyun and baek yerin, so it's really only fair, too. the booth is busy, and before he knows it they're pulling up another easel and tagging jiyul in.

he probably could say he really didn't want to do it, but this is jiyul, who can't say no to much of anything. so he takes a seat in the chair, smiles, close-lipped and polite as their "customer" sits down, and then turns his attention to the blank canvas in front of him.

he recognizes seolran, of course. he remembers her name, too, but he doesn't bring it up because he figures it's not relevant and she probably doesn't remember him.

much to his surprise, she does remember him, though. he offers a more sincere, albeit shy, smile in response. "yes," he replies, soft-spoken as always. "seolran...?" now that he says her name aloud, he's worried that he's wrong. no, it's fine. even if he is wrong, mistakes like this happen all the time. surely she won't think too badly of him if he got her name wrong.

"ah, um..." he looks from the canvas to the girl and back again, trying to determine what will be easiest for him to draw. "whatever is most comfortable for you, i think...i'm...kind of a slow artist." he smiles sheepishly. hopefully she doesn't expect to be in and out too quickly. he can't take too long, though. and she says adorable, clearly expecting something impressive.

i'm not really that good, he wants to warn her, but he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable and feel obligated to reassure him that he's probably fine. and he is probably fine. he's just not nearly as artistic as his brother or mother. slightly above-average at best, he'd say.

the yeonchella air has left her feeling more docile (considerate), so she’s mindful to turn her excitement down a notch. also, it is probably best that she conserves her energy for the rest of the day. the last thing she wants is to crash before she can see the top three acts she’s been dying to see.

“alright,” she says, significantly more calm compared to her previous statements moments ago. “i’ll just sit like this.” seolran relaxes her shoulders, sinking back further into the chair. her hands are clasped together in her lap. however, they don’t stay connected that long. she lifts them up to wave off his concern for being a slow artist. she doesn’t mind waiting longer if it ensures that she gets a cute memento.

“it’s okay, you can take your time. i don’t mind waiting if it means the caricature turns out cute. also, i’m not in a rush right now.” she’s not entirely telling the truth—she has to meet up with reiko in an hour, and she does want to grab a bite before the concert. tut one little white lie never hurt anyone. “i’m ready when you are,” she adds as an afterthought.

she allows their conversation to be consumed with silence for the next minute or so, despite the burning urge to say something. as a cheerleader, she’s used to having multiple pairs of eyes on her at all times, but there’s just something unsettling about being gazed at when all she is doing is sitting. after another minute, seolran decides to break the stillness. She trusts that he will tell her to stop speaking if he truly needs her to remain quiet so that he can maintain his focus.

half-ignoring seolran, though he had heard everything she said, he opens his phone. he checks his texts; to his surprise, he had texted hyunwoo asking if he could crash at his place, but the text never went through. either way, he would've been an unwelcome guest. he's not sure if it's better or worse that he'd shown up at seolran's instead.

"um, i don't know... what to say," he admits belatedly, sliding his phone back into his pocket. admittedly, this is a new low for him - recently, it seems he's been subconsciously conducting an experiment on just how far he can push his luck.

the whirring of the blender stops, allowing room for a ringing silence to take its place. he approaches the kitchen, one unsure foot in front of the other.

"thanks for... letting me in...?" though he isn't certain how much control she'd really had in the situation. she could have called the cops on him, though, so he's grateful that she hadn't. he doesn't say as much in case he's viewing the disturbance as a worse situation than she is.

he should leave. he should turn down her offer and get the hell out of her apartment. he knows that he should, but he's staring wide-eyed and hopeful at the blender. he's never really been one to turn down a handout.

she brushes off his thanks with a soft, yet unamused hum. it’s not like she could have left him outside, banging on her door for the entire night. not when it meant she would get shit for bothering the rest of the floor. she supposes she could have just called hyunwoo herself, to get him to drag mouse to his apartment, but she wasn’t even sure if he would be awake that late.

she sets the blender down, using her now free hands to gesture at him to take a seat at the (pink) barstool across the counter. “so, what do you remember about last night,” she questions, as she busies herself with preparing his drink. (twelve ounces of liquid, slightly sweetened, exactly seven ice cubes, a glass cup, and a glass straw—the ultimate drink aesthetic of those social media influencers.) she slides the cup over to him once she’s finished, bringing her own drink up to her lips to take a small sip.

another thing about jeongmin is that his phone is almost always on do not disturb, and he does not share his focus status. only his family, some friends, the mail app and calls from saved contacts are set up to bypass the notification silencing, the rest can definitely wait. 

it’s finally when the call comes in that jeongmin finds his peace disturbed. putting his book face down on his bedside table, he reaches over to grab his ringing phone, face frowning as he reads the name of the person calling him. what ever could im seolran possibly need from him that she can’t talk her way into obtaining somewhere else?

rolling her eyes, even though she knows he can’t see her, she replies, unamused. “thank you for the information, you encyclopedia. however, this must be a new spider who moved in, considering i’m always at home and awake at this time.” she pulls the phone away from her ear, clicking on the phone screen so she can see the time. only a minute has passed since she called him, but she finds herself impatient. the faster they deal with the spider situation, the faster they can go back to their regular program of not acknowledging each other.

“don’t be greedy now, i’m not made of money.” it’s not technically a lie; her parents fund her lifestyle, but it’s not as though they give her free rein with their riches. “unless… you’re saying that because you want to spend more time with me one-on-one at a fancy restaurant?” she jests, turning up the sweetness in her voice to annoy him. serves him right for wanting more from her. she already said please, is that not enough? she’s about to make another annoying comment, but she’s interrupted a knock on the door. hanging up before he can respond, seolran rushes to the door (of course, not before glaring up at the spider.)

“sweet corn café?” she echoed, thinking for a moment about which café it actually was before nodding her head, navigating to the place in her mind. she had been there many times during her first year attending yeonhwa — she didn’t even like their coffee, only agreeing to go there since seolran wanted to. she nodded again and let seolran lead the way to the café, her mind already trying to think of ways to entertain the older during the ten or so minute walk.

“don’t stress over buying me something next time” next time. she insinuated there was a next time. sora’s smile didn’t fade the more she thought about it, the feeling of acceptance making her dopamine skyrocket. “i’m sure we can buy for ourselves or something, i don’t want to take too much from you.”

a silence fell between them as sora trailed behind seolran, unconsciously making sure not to speed up or take longer strides to match the older’s pace.

“so, do you have any favourites on the menu? i haven’t been there for a good few months,” she asked as they got closer to the café, already stressing in her head over what to order and fearful that she would choose something that might bring some sort of judgement upon her.

the overthinking came so naturally to the younger that she wasn’t even fazed by it in her own mind, finding her reasoning behind each action completely logical — seeing the desire for your senior’s approval as a given, not just for her, but for everyone.

her eyes landed on the sign of the café as they approached it, and she let out a mental sigh of relief at the lack of the crazy crowds she’d seen in recent weeks — a busy café only meant a bad experience, and she needed wanted seolran to have a good time. it was necessary (to her, at least). next time wouldn’t happen if they didn’t enjoy themselves, and she already felt like she was taking up far too much of the woman’s time just by asking her out to coffee.

she takes the nods as a cue to begin walking, letting herself take the lead during the walk. she does not mind the silence between the two of them—choosing to spend the newfound peace mentally organizing everything she had to do for the next couple of days. she has both a physical and virtual calendar, but engraving it into her brain does not hurt either.  

“i’m partial to corn, so i enjoy most items on their menu.” she answers, humming softly afterwards. “the corn cheese bun is good… oh, and their curry pan. i don’t really drink coffee though, so i get their corn matcha latte. ah, they also have this really good watermelon ade during the summer. it's fresh watermelon juice and sparkling water. not many ingredients, but super tasty” she adds as an afterthought.

once they reach the café, seolran holds the door open and uses her head to motion the younger to answer. she lets out a small, pleased smile when she sees how many empty tables and chairs there are.

the smile fades away in confusion at her next response. four what? his brows raise and lips part in desire to clarify, but she’s already moved on to give her next answer, which really turns out to be a question for him in return. is he having fun? “umm… no? not really?” seemingly gives her an honest response for once, but perhaps he’s lying to himself to some degree. there’s not much time for more introspection, because it’s onto the next.

“genie. would top the charts, even if it were released today.” answered with zero hesitation and a single firm nod. “and please, no. you really shouldn’t be so kind,” he rejects with a sarcastic tone of formality, eyeing the water bottle with a whole lot more suspicion now that he knows what it might truly cost.

and then at last, a question that manages to shut him up for a few seconds. in contrast to the rapid back and forth that preceded it, the few seconds feel like an eternity — at least it does for him. “i— well— babies don’t choose anything.” it’s a weak attempt at an escape dribble, and he knows it too; but it’s not fully fluff. there was never an affirmative ‘choice’ he made to play, per say; he just never chose to quit. and maybe that wasn’t much of a choice either. “some people are born into fates. i accepted mine. very superhero of me, i know.” the sarcasm lives on, but his tone is somehow more serious at the same time. “but sure. i guess i’d do it again. hopefully i'm better next time." his last statement is vague, but truthful in more ways than one; not that she'd know. he just wants to move on.

“yes, truly. i think you are yeonhwa’s superhero. i’m surprised they didn’t throw a gigantic celebration when you decided to come here.” she says, tone perhaps a little too saccharine. she claps her hand together in excitement, shooting him another faux sweet smile. “they probably should have, i mean... you helped us beat our sworn rival. but, maybe i’m just being biased because i’m such a huge fan.”

she readjusts her body, leaning forward in excitement at his question. call her arrogant, but one of seolran’s favorite things to do is talk about herself. the shift to asking her about her dreams and aspirations has her mind racing with so many thoughts that she can’t contain. “oh heavens no,” she says, raising an eyebrow at his suggestion as though it were silly. “i mean, nothing against people who have those aspirations, but that’s so… typical. i want to be a social media doctor.” there’s a brief pause as she reconsiders her words. social media and doctor aren’t usually used in the same sentence. “i don’t mean those people who make armchair diagnoses on the internet,” she says, her tone suddenly serious. “i want to be a practicing doctor who has a social media presence to provide accurate information about diseases and actively dispel misinformation.”