She startled awake as she felt a thump against her shoulder. Soojin blinked her eyes repeatedly as she tried to get her bearings. The last thing she remembered, she had been sitting on the couch and watching a movie with Yeonghwan (after pleading and begging for them to sit with her.) She figured she must have dozed off. As her brain slowly started processing her surroundings, Soojin realized she felt an added weight on her shoulder and glanced down. Yeonghwan must have fallen asleep too. They looked so peaceful and she felt a small wave of guilt at forcing them to stay up and watch a movie with her, when she hadn’t even been able to stay awake for it. They must have been exhausted, yet they still gave in to her childish demand. She tilted her head, content at observing how innocent Yeonghwan looked in that rare moment of vulnerability that was sleep. She felt something in her chest warm up and spread throughout her body until she felt warm all over. Soojin shook her head, and tilted it to rest on Yeonghwan’s head, smiling shyly to herself before allowing herself to fall back asleep.
“ So, can you see that constellation ? It looks like a man holding up a shield ? That’s Orion ! He was a a wonderful hunter who once claimed he could kill all the animals on Earth. Mother Nature didn’t really like that so according to legend, she sent a giant scorpion to kill him. After his death, Zeus put Orion in the sky and he put the scorpion too ! But, anyways, the reason I brought it up is because of that star right there. That really bright, red-orangey one ! You’ll never guess it’s name ! Betelgeuse ! Funny, right ? ” Soojin had been enthusiastically sharing the history of almost every constellation in sight for the past twenty minutes before realizing Yeonghwan had barely said a world. “ Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve been talking too much, haven’t I ? ” Soojin bowed her head in an apology before glancing back up at the sky. “ People always think stars are so dainty and pretty. They don’t realize how much power and destruction they have to go through for us to even be able to see their pretty glow. Betelgeuse is like that. And no one knows its fate right now ... Betelgeuse is going to explode into a supernova one day and then after that it could turn into a neutron star or even a-a black hole, ” she murmured, her voice tapering off quietly. “ Sorry. I’m rambling. I just meant to say ... I’m thankful you’re letting me rattle on like this. Most people just want to look at the stars and don’t really care about their stories. I think they’re important. We all have a story to tell, right ? And we need to share them so people remember us when we’re gone. So, I want us to share as many stories together as possible, okay, Yeonghwan ? ” Soojin grinned brightly at them, offering them her blanket.