morning?
Steamed Buns and Ungodly Hoursolli. // II
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Two boys stared at the blank, black screen of the laptop. They looked at each other's reflections with completely mesmerized eyes that shone with brightness from another plane of existence. "Studio Ghibli is the best." Joshua grinned and put a mint in his mouth. Hansol turned from the screen to Joshua's face, the tip's of their noses almost touching. "Thank you." He whispered happily, minty cold breath hitting Joshua's lips, causing him to flush.
Despite feeling his heart pound, his eyesight shake, his fingertips quiver, he refused to move. "For what?" He said, his voice wavered ever so slightly. "I was eavesdropping," Hansol turned his face away, and looked a tad embarrassed. "Listen, I overheard you mention Spirited Away and some anime in class to Seungkwan. I googled it because Mingyu, my friend in that class, looked really excited when he heard you say it." Hansol explained quickly, a hiccuped laugh in his voice. Joshua only laughed a little, feeling his heart pound even more at the laugh. He felt himself adoring that laugh more and more each time he heard it. "Oh well, you're welcome." He smiled.
Joshua brought himself closer to Hansol and he realized one thing. He loved the small gap he had with him earlier. It felt so... comfortable? No.. Once again he couldn't find the word he was searching for to describe how it felt being even in the same area as him. He returned from his thoughts as Hansol spoke to him. "You know something you could get a job for?" The younger said, stealing a glance at the Church Boy's lips then his eyes. "A movie critique?" Joshua said then broke the small gap created earlier by moving away. Hansol laughed in puzzlement. "No? Where did that even come from." The elder laughed along. Well, we were just watching movies and I thought I had a lot of comments." He explained.
"No, No. You can be a voice actor." Hansol grinned and pointed at his screen. "A studio ghibli voice actor. Hear me out," He looked determined to explain his side when he noticed the smile of disbelief on Joshua's face. "A lot of the dude voice actors in those movies have a calming voice or like a smooth voice. Like the movie The Secret World of Arrietty, The Wind Rises, Princess Mononoke, you know? You see, I really love your voice so much, hyung." He cast his eyes down. "It's really, like..." He continued speaking, fully aware of how red the latter's face had become. However, instead of smoothly finishing his sentence, he paused to think a while.
The boy began speaking once more but stammered across several words at once. He found that none of those recently stammered upon words were able to describe how Joshua's voice sounded to him. Hansol sighed. "I want to say peaceful, but it's more than just peaceful." Joshua stared at the boy, looking completely aghast, yet he also seemed understanding. He moved his hand to tap the button on his phone to check the time.
"Maybe you can't find the word you're looking for because we spent all night watching movies." Joshua smiled and showed the latter what time it was. Suddenly, they both felt extremely sleepy. It was as if the time contained a sleep spell. 'One look at the time and you'll instantly fall asleep' perhaps is how it was at these hours. "Hey," Hansol cut through the drowsy atmosphere. He pointed a finger at the door with a limp hand. Joshua looked at him curiously, then at the door with an equal amount of curiosity.
"What?" He whispered. For some reason, he felt it was appropriate to whisper. "Cheol hasn't come yet." Hansol replied rather loudly and in the slurred speech of sleepiness. Joshua smiled, mostly to himself really. "You know how music making gets. It's always better in the ungodly hours." The elder moved closer to Hansol. He silently, and without warning, wrapped his arms around his shoulders and pushed his face into his neck.
The word of every emotion the younger felt rushed away from his brain but left only one word. A word that hung thickly in the air with denial surrounding it. Love. Hansol was flushed, but did not move away. Instead, he shut down the laptop, and pushed it as far as he could without leaving the elder's hold. One of the two boys fell asleep almost instantaneously.
The other, however, wondered off into the stats between sleep and reality. But, he could still feel and he. And so, he listened and felt. His ears caught every soft snore and gentle breathe. His body felt every rise and fall of the latter's chest as his lungs worked. In. Out. In. Out. It was a feeling that only a handful of words could explain on their own, but he had temporarily dropped those words. He was working on picking them up one by one. For now, though, sleep was essential. Soon enough, two chests were rising and falling in unison. A beautiful sight witnessed by an intruder who snuck in as quiet as an owl in flight.
-----------------------------------
Joshua awoke slowly as he heard loud knocking coming from somewhere. He felt himself being shoved harshly into reality with every knock. His arms felt as if they were holding something, then he finally looked down. In his arms, and nose to nose of all things, he saw Hansol's resting expression peek out from under the thick white covers. He didn't seem bothered by the noise at all and continued his slumber. The knocks stopped, but loud whispering was heard. "Wait, I'm going." A voice that came from neither the whispering ones, or themselves called brightly.
Then Seungcheol appeared from the bathroom with dripping wet hair and only a towel wrapped around his waist. He paused, and contemplated whether or not to open the door with only the towel on. "Joshua, open the door." He finally decided then made his way back to the bathroom. The youth couldn't help but look disappointed to be leaving the warm comfort of the bedsheets (and Hansol's arms.)
He gently removed the boy's thin arms from his body and slowly rose, keeping an eye on the sleeping boy as he did. He did not have the heart to wake him. Hansol shifted suddenly causing the latter to instantly pause all movement. The facial expression of the younger shifted as well. His eyebrows collided into a frown, his lips pressed together tightly. A thin arm slapped the emptiness beside it and finally he opened his eyes.
As soon as they opened, it seemed as if he were searching for someone. Joshua was watching him with such intent that even when eye contact was made he couldn't break it. Neither of them could. At least, not until another knock was heard on the door. "Joshua if you don't answer that I'll kick Hansol out of my dorm." Seungcheol shouted lightheartedly from the bathroom. "I'm on it." Joshua replied, breaking eye contact and rushing to open the door. His eyes widened to see the reunion of people in front of him. Reunion of beagles to be exact, with Seungkwan acting as the lead beagle.
Everyone, inside the room and outside, stilled and became silent. "Why." Joshua said, cutting his eyes at all of them. Jihoon pushed the lead beagle aside, and smiled at the boy. "Well, it's almost 1 pm which means lunchtime and since we don't have classes today then we decided to all get lunch together and why not invite our good friend Joshua." He said. A loud thump was heard from behind the bathroom door and from beside the bed. "WHAT." Two voices merged together to form a yell of disbelief.
Seungcheol loudly opened the bathroom door, nearly running into Joshua. "Brush your teeth, change your clothes!" He practically sprinted to Hansol, lifting him up from the floor and pushing him to Joshua. Without even acknowledging the group of beagles, he rushed straight in to the tidy sanctuary. The elder ran back to Joshua's side, bowed slightly, and grinned. "Good afternoon," He looked directly at Jeonghan first then skimmed his eyes through the ragtag group of friends. "Please wait a little, my so-friend needs to clean up a little."
Everyone smiled back, a bit awkwardly and nodded. "We'll wait by the stairs." Jihoon grabbed Seungkwan by the arm, forcing him to go with him. "Wait wait, Joshua come with us." The Jeju boy threw over his shoulder. "I want to change too, go on without me." Joshua replied and shut the door. "Just take whatever clothes you want, you don't have to give them back. We'll wash your dirty clothes." Seungcheol motioned to the small closet with their clothes. "Just throw the clothes in the bin."
Joshua obeyed and picked out a brown, white, and black crewneck sweater and black pair of ripped jeans. "Um.. Seungcheol.." He said softly. "Oh, OH." The elder nodded in understanding and left the dorm. Joshua quickly undressed and put on the new set of clothes, throwing the rest in the pile. He splashed cologne on his neck, and put on deodorant. Hansol walked out of the bathroom as soon as Joshua finished.
Joshua smiled then shuffled past him to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and splashed his face with water to detach himself from the still drowsy feeling after waking up. After checking himself for any debris, he exited the tidy sanctuary. "I can't believe we slept in so late." Hansol chuckled. "I was so surprised, it doesn't feel this late." He shook his head. "Alright, let's go. I'm really getting hungry."
-----------------------------------
Hellohello! Wowie it's already winter break for me. i'm sorry this chapter seems a little short // and a lil sloppy // i've just had homework but that i dont i think i might be able to update a little more on time. the song melodically goes with this chapter somehow?? i think it's probably because i was listening to it while writing it and it fits the relationship that joshua and hansol have. // in here at least // anyway, i hope you enjoy this chapter!! happy holidays!!
Comments