Heo Youngsaeng

The times with you, I think about keeping them all, but they’re all scars.

Wriggling in his seat, Yejun giggled happily as the Fat Friar told him about a disaster many years ago that had led the different houses being turned into their mascot animals and ending up running riot around the school, Yejun’s feet tapping rapidly against the chair he was sat in as he giggled, head full of amusing images of  lions, eagles, badgers and snakes overruling the corridors. It had been so long since he’d laughed so much, Youngsaeng had often made him smile and chuckle in his own special way, yet this felt so different, so refreshing and as much as it made his head hurt, Yejun didn’t want to stop, especially as his laughter slowly started to infect the spirit until they were both rolling happily in their seats laughing loudly and uncontrollably.

And it was beautiful. Enrapturing and innocent, and dripping with something that one might equate with joy. Awestruck and mouth slightly agape, he allowed himself to slide down against the railing so that the cool stone pressed between his shoulder blades as he listened. Not once in his time with the younger male had he heard such a noise being emitted from the Hufflepuff's mouth. It took his thought process away, rendered him speechless, and spread down to his own core until a soft smile danced on the edges of his usually stoic lips.

“Don’t we all,” she murmured, more to herself than to the Slytherin, her thoughts going to her friend who was a year behind that she would be leaving behind, and she could feel her heart squeeze. Showing a brave face was easy for her though, and Dasom shrugged. “The offer stands.” Pasting a smile onto her face, she nodded, raising a hand with index and middle finger out, she saluted him, an inside joke of theirs from way back. “Nice seeing you, Saengie.”

[2012.07.07] Heo Young Saeng - Twitter photo 

“I know,” she replied softly. “I’d still help either way,” she added, though she knew he wouldn’t take up her offer even if she was holding a knife at his throat and forcing him to. Dasom sighed, once he opened his eyes. The moment was over. Time had stopped for them both for a second, even if it was just a second, and she was sad to see it speeding up again, rushing at them from all angles. They were graduating. There was nothing they could do about it, and it would soon be over. “I’m going back to Japan for a few months,” she stated, wondering if he would pick up what she was implying. If he didn’t, she would pass it off as a random comment about their futures.

"What if" was a tricky game to play. In his mind he could see the same streets they used to wander, smell the same food they used to share, feel the same sense of freedom lingering in the pit of his stomach. But here, in this very castle he had responsibilities. He was responsible for someone other than himself and as much as he would have liked to think he'd been responsible for Dasom at one point, she had always been her own person. "I have responsibilities here."

This new Youngsaeng, she couldn’t say improved being as she definitely liked the one she had dated better, was too different. Out of all the guys she had dated during her rebellious phase in Kyoto, he was the only one she had had slight feelings for. “Cuz, you know, I’d help.” She couldn’t believe she was actually feeling nostalgic, her mind flickering to those nights in Kyoto where they would both sneak out of their respective houses and visit the stands and stalls of the night life of Japan. Dasom didn’t know what she’d do to help him pick up the pieces of his old life, but she knew that she wanted to.

"I'm going to try," he said sincerely, suddenly reaching out to take her slender hand in his own, surprised at the way it felt so familiar. Pausing, he thought about his words carefully. He was never one to ponder over goodbye's much but he needed the closure. "One day, one room," he murmured, closing his eyes for a moment to remember the way it felt to stand beside her beneath the stars,palms touching and hearts content. "I walked out of that room that night and I can't go back, we can't go back." As much her offer tugged at his feelings, it wasn't right to ask that of her. It wasn't their time anymore.