#20190821

He spends a good minute the next morning checking the restroom sign before opening the door. You were already inside with an oversized shirt stuck to your skin from careless drying after your shower. Seungmin might as well have released his morning urine right then and there. 

“Morning,” you greet with a tired smile. “You’re an early riser.”

“Y-yeah.” Truthfully, he wouldn’t mind a few extra minutes of sleep, but his circadian rhythm was out of wack. But now, he might have found another reason to wake up early. “You too.“ 

"I work the cafe’s opening shift,” you explain. 

And that’s when Seungmin decided he would start drinking americanos. 

Being the only occupants of the restroom when everyone else is busy being hungover, the two of you come to know each other pretty quickly. He learned that you were into K-Pop, and you learned he could be your personal subber when JYP neglected their international viewers. 

He learned a few things about you during these mornings. He came to know that beneath your beauty was many more layers of intelligence and wit that matched his. He also learned, much to his displeasure, of your highschool sweetheart who’s attending college in your hometown. However, because of this, he also grew to know and love your compassionate and adorable sides whenever you spoke of him. 

Despite your unavailability, he couldn’t help himself. Whenever he would open that door to the bathroom and saw your silhouette against the orange and yellow of dawn, his breath would leave him. Whenever you greeted him, he would bite his cheek to suppress a smile before being able to return the greeting. 

It became routine. You’d greet him in the restroom and he would return one back with a fluttering heart. Thus, Seungmin knew something was wrong when you didn’t say ‘good morning’ one day. You came exceptionally late too, which didn’t help with his suspicions.

“Hey,” he tried. 

You staggered past him and into the shower with you caddie. He hears the water sputtering on and decided to stick around to see what was bothering you. He opened the front door and let it slam but didn’t exit. Instead, he snuck to the stalls and leaned his back against your door. 

Sure enough, small sniffles sounded over the pittering of shampoo and water. 

“Ah, shoot,” you say at one point with a crack. “Of course. What else could go wrong?”

“What’s the matter?”

You freeze at the voice. “Seungmin?" 

”… Yeah,“ he admits. 

"I thought you left!”

“Well I– That was um uh… I’m sorry; I just want to see what was wrong.”

“Oh well, I guess there’s no hiding it now.” He hears you suck in a sniffle. “I dropped my soap bar down the drain.”

He glitches then replies, “That’s the second thing. What got you down in the first place?”

You let out a dry laugh. “As expected of Seungmin. You’re very quick.”

“Do you want to talk about the other thing?” he asked gently. 

“…”

The more you thought of what happened, the more you wanted to cry. Until you do. 

Hearing your first cough broke Seungmin’s heart. He grabbed the towel hanging on the door and kicked the stall open. He wrapped the fabric around your shaking body that now crouched on the tile floor. 

“It’s okay; you’re okay,” he repeated into your ear while rubbing your back. 

You leaned into his chest, hearing his pounding heart down out the drumming of the shower. It was comforting. It was warm.

“My boyfriend…" 

His body went rigid. 

"Well, let’s just say he’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” he mustered, at a loss for words. 

“He, um, couldn’t take the long distance relationship, I guess. Got lonely, and uh, found someone new.”

“That bastard,” he swore. “I’ll go to–”

“No, it’s fine,” you cut him off. “It’s fine. Can we just stay like this for a little though? Please?”

“Of course.”

And you two do. 

After minutes of shivering, you finally push yourself away from your friend.

“Do you feel better?” he asked softly.

You shake your head and slam back into him. “I still lost my soap.”

He let out a relieved laugh, knowing you were indeed feeling better, and reached into his own caddie.

“Here,” he said, handing you a box.

You take it and pull out a bar of soap from it. The bar was an ombre color that went from red to yellow.

“It’s so pretty,” you gasped. “Are you sure I can have this?”

He nodded. “I actually bought it because it reminded me of you, so I guess it kinda makes sense for you to have it.”

You raised an eyebrow. “Of me? How?”

He turned to the side, face flushed. “Well, um, you’re the, uh, prettiest in the dawn light from the window next to the sinks. Not that you aren’t pretty anywhere else– I mean, I don’t know what I mean. Anyway, the soap is colored like the dawn, so like, yeah.”

He stood up and scratched the back of his head. “Well, I’ll let you finish your shower now.”

You watched him scurry away like a tomato on legs with a small smile. You looked down at the box he gave you. On it was printed the word “Aurora.” Goddess of the Dawn.

Seungmin quickly dried himself off and slung his extra towel over your stall before dashing to his room and curling up with his blanket in embarrassment. After a while, he let out a defeated sigh and rolls onto his back.

How funny, he thought, that he went from being terrified of the idea of unisex restrooms to throwing open the shower door of a girl’s stall. In fact, he was now rather thankful for the restrooms, thankful for being able to hold you, and thankful for being able to be there for you when you needed it. 

While counting his gratitude, he wasn’t foolish enough to forget that he was, of course, most thankful for you, his Aurora.