11:30PM Saturday

 

30 minutes left.

You’re early again. This time, an entire half hour. But you don’t mind waiting a few minutes more. You’ve already waited an entire six days.

Well, not quite the entire six days.

You still had 29 minutes worth of Saturday.

 

11:31PM

The work week was brutal. Too many tasks to be accomplished in so little time. There were moments you wonder how you manage to pull through, despite the pressure and stress being hurled at you everyday, from every direction.

Then a single face pops in your head.

 

11:33PM

 

You’re sitting on a wooden bench facing a wide river. City lights are twinkling in the distance. A breeze picks up occasionally and causes your hair to tangle and fly all over your face. But you don’t mind. The cool wind feels nice on your bare face. It bites and it stings. It’s enough to keep you awake and alert.

 

11:35PM

 

You put on your earphones and scroll through your phone. Your thumb hovers over the Music icon but then you decide to go to your Messages.

You open a chat, with only a ❤️ emoticon for its name. Nothing else.

You laugh stupidly as you scroll through the chat box. Numerous lines and waveforms, voice recordings, fill the messenger. All from him.

His sending times were erratic during the week. A notification would pop up while you were busy. You’d have to hold off until the evening to listen to them. At times there would be twenty recordings waiting for you. There are moments when he would only send two. You didn’t mind at all. The fact that he would still send something, even if it was just a random sentence was enough to make you fall for him all over again.

You already listened to the recordings for the week. But you couldn’t help but listen again.

“Annyeong jagiya. Sorry I just replied. We just finished practicing. I think I pushed myself hard today. My muscles are so soooore. I need a massage. Or you. I have a feeling you’re the only relief I need. Though, i’ll settle for both*chuckles*. Too bad I can’t get either one.”

“I’m stuck at a part! I had this idea last night and I wasn’t able to write it down! I fell asleep...now i can’t remember what i thought of. Stupid!! I can hear you reminding me to type these things in my phone so I won’t forget them. I should really listen to you often.”

“I miss you. I know it’ll only be a few days before I get to see you again, but I miss you. So much. I’m having thoughts of sneaking out of the dorm and going to our usual place, hoping you’d be there waiting for me. *chuckles* of course you won’t. It’s almost 4AM. It’d be cold as heck. I’d be mad at you if i saw you sitting there, to be honest.

*sighs*

I don’t know. I just really want to see you. You’d wake up to this message so I’ll end it in a good way.

I hope your day turns out amazing. As amazing as you are. You have been one of the biggest blessings of my life and I want nothing but the best for you. You work so hard. Get some rest too, okay? And eat. Please remember to eat.

And of course,

I love you. Always and forever.”

Sometimes, you feel bad for replying way too late. Your recordings would always start with “sorry. I just got home.” Or “sorry, today was a really busy day.”

But you would ramble on anyway. With your phone in hand, you’d let off steam by ranting about how busy you always were. You go off about an annoying colleague. Or an unfair senior. Or how the food you bought didn’t make you feel full. Or how it was abnormally hot that day.

Or how you miss him terribly. Sometimes you stop yourself from spewing all your emotions through the phone. You’d think to yourself, he works harder than me. Than most people I know. He barely gets enough rest and that’s because he wants to improve more and more each day. He has hard times but he never sees them that way. They’re opportunities to learn, he says. Such positivity and energy despite being wrung out since he started chasing his dreams. You had no right to complain.

But, the way you’d drone on about your mundane life away from the flashing cameras and gossip mongers, was soothing for him. It was common ground for the two of you. You would cheer each other on for surviving, chastise one another when you start to do and think about stupid stuff, comfort each other when you’re burnt out and weary. Most of all, your love kept on burning despite the distance and despite the lack of physical presence.

At least for six days of the week.

 

11:45PM

Ten minutes pass quickly as you listen to his voice over and over again.

You sigh and look up at the night sky. The stars are inexplicably bright tonight.

With your head propped up on the backrest of the bench, you listen to the voice playing in your earphones. You scroll through the messages again to a particular date. Your thumb seems to know when to stop swiping. You've been doing this too many times to count since you've always listened to a particular recording of his. A rough version of a song he made for you.

You’d pester him if he was ever going to bring this song up to the other members. But he always refused. It’s a song especially for you so nobody else should listen to it, he always replied.

 

11:50PM

 

After playing the short song a few times, you put your phone away and start walking towards the river. You stop just a few inches away from a wall barrier that just reached above your navel. The wind picks up a bit again, dragging with it the smell of the river crashing against the rocks some 10 to 15 feet beneath you. You hide your hands in your jacket and take a few deep breaths.

It was always like this. Waiting for the exact moment for you to meet. At the same spot every Saturday evening. Even if you were both a few minutes early, you’d still wait at exactly the right time.

You just wanted some form of delineation between the crazy six days and the one special day that was to come. You wanted to leave all the negativity behind. Bury them with the aggravating weekdays. And start fresh. With him by your side. And you wanted it to start at the exact time Sunday starts.

 

11:54PM

 

You close your eyes and sing one of their songs, the one that you inspired or so you’ve been told. You sway from where you stand, fighting the urge to dance like a moron. You finish the song and you laugh heartily. Your eyes still closed.

 

11:55PM

 

You feel a presence stand beside you and feel your heart skip a beat. The wind picks up again, but this time instead of murky freshwater, you smell a hint of men's perfume. You ball your fists in your jacket pockets. You resist the urge to open your eyes to see who it was beside you, even though you already knew.

You calm yourself down. You take out your hands from your pockets. Almost instantly, something brushes the back of your hand. The sensation is familiar. And it goes away as soon as you were able to process it. The longing in the pit of your stomach was beginning to grow. But no. Not yet. .

 

11:58PM

You move so slightly to your side and open your eyes slowly. You stare at the twinkling city lights out in the distance. But at the corner of your eye, you make out a tall figure with a hoodie on. You see that he isn’t wearing a face mask. Too dangerous. It makes you want to look at his beautiful (and exposed) face but you compose yourself.

The back of your hand touches his. You gasp. Little sparks dance from your hand to your arms. The butterflies in your stomach get agitated at the contact.

 

11:59PM

 

His fingertips reach for your hand. He starts in the center of your palm, dancing down to the tips of your fingers. He laces his fingers through the spaces of yours. He grips your hand and squeezes tightly. His slightly bigger hand is cradling yours. His is warm in contrast to your icy ones. Your brain starts going haywire and your breathing hitches.

 

12:00AM

 

Somewhere in the distance, a clock tower’s bells sound. The alarm on your wristwatch ring a familiar tune. It was 12AM. It was Sunday.

 

“Hi.” He says, his voice raspy and low

 

You squeeze his hand in affirmation.

 

“Finally.” You reply.

 

 

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AAAHHH if you're reading this that means you've finished my first oneshot! I've thought about continuing this (might be entitled Sunday because my creativity is at a low point at the moment) and making thirteen versions (one for each member) of the story. Still deciding though!

 

Comments for this oneshot are more than welcome! I'd like to know what you guys think :)

 

Thanks for reading! xx