[5]
The Constellation of Unclassified Stars(v. usain bolt girls are still girls)
Looking back, Wonwoo wonders why Soojung had chosen to name them with such a ridiculous name. Really, Cosmic Children? Wonwoo got straight As but he is never obsessed with the things that he learns. Let alone obsess, he only does it out as his role as a dutiful son.
They are twelve now, and they finally grasp the meaning behind the word 'obsess' in their vocabulary, and that is Soojung in Wonwoo's eyes, a science obsessed nerd who spends her days reading and reading and — Well, Wonwoo is exaggerating this point because this habit of hers rubs him in the wrong way. He doesn't like the fact that she's different than him.
A part of him resents that Soojung is able to love something so deeply without hesitation. Her eyes would shine in a different way when she speaks of galaxies and this favourite planet of hers whose name he couldn't remember because he was falling asleep listening to her chatterings.
He still lets Soojung borrow his telescope since he'd rather have her busy looking upon planets and stars than asking him to listen to a such boring subject.
There is a smile that he hides somewhere when he sees Soojung being giddy over such small things, in between the flashes of his blinking tv screen, the gaps of Seulgi's braids, and the laughters resonating from Seokmin's throat.
As a son, Wonwoo is not really obedient, since he doesn't listen to his parents to stop bothering Seulgi, and to never hit girls. Well, he listens to the latter part, but ignore the first because he doesn't see her as one. Despite the fact that Seulgi has her hair braided in a tight, and lithe twin braids most of the time, she rarely acts like one. She has a fast reflex, and she acts like a literal monkey, climbing trees and swinging from one branch to another without no fear. He teases about her ears also, since it pokes out form her hair and it matches her monkey soul (it doesn't sound right, but Wonwoo barely cares). He casts an aura of ignorance that reflects his way of life and thinking.
Well, as far as he can see, any form of knowledge that he earned is to secure the facilities they provide for him. His parents said that if he wants to keep all of his comics and videogames, he needs to have good grades. So there he goes, acing all of his subjects to have it all. Wonwoo will do anything if there is something in return, something that is promised. And that is, somehow a fatal flaw that will harm him one day, if he doesn't realize it by himself.
He's tapping his fingers on his table, waiting for the clock to strike ten, marking the long awaited recess he has waited for thirty minutes. He has finished writing and answering the evaluation page of chapter 3 from their Biology text book. Wonwoo doesn't find it difficult since all of the answers lay in the book, and it's not hard to look it up. The corner of his eyes catch Seulgi beside him, shoulders hunched and her braids hanging low to her notebook, still struggling to do the essay part, biting into the edges of her wooden pencil.
You may say that the two of them fights all the time, and he clearly is just pushing her around for his own pleasure. But Wonwoo still finds it in himself to let out a hiss of, "You're disgusting, Seulgi. Don't bite into your pencil like that," and along the lines, he himself doesn't realize that there is a part of him who cares for her, despite the fact he is not able to show it properly.
Seulgi smirks and stops when she hears this, eager to irritate him more. But the taste of wood between her teeth is making her wanting to throw up, so she continues to write without biting on her pencil, not forgetting to give him a menacing look, whilst he flashes a victorious smile. They barely made a noise since the biology teacher is the strict Mrs.Kim who is Mingyu's mother, and she knows their mothers well.
When the bell rings, Mrs. Kim rises, and when the greetings to close their session are done, Wonwoo turns to his right to see no girl with a monkey soul and a wicked smile.
He growls beneath his breath, as he picks his lunchbox and kicks Seulgi's table along his way out of class (and he hides the hurt in his face when he realizes that a bump will form on the edge of his toe).
Seulgi doesn't realize that she is making small mistakes in disappointing Wonwoo, that he recycles her mistake over and over again, as a fuel to loathe her for no deep reason.
Δ
In their group, the most normal one might be Seungwan. She's the most girlish amongst them all, and she talks with the most sense (until she begins to spout some fairytale stuffs which intrigues Wonwoo, but he doesn't believe that a mere prince can beat a giant dragon. Dragons always win, and it's not because Wonwoo finds villains cooler than heroes).
It's Friday and they are running through the forrest, even though Wonwoo loathes outdoors and plants, and soil and the mention of trees itself is making him shiver. He is a coward before the face of the wilderness, and that's not because of the plants and everything; the insects and small animals terrifies the soul out of him.
"Seokmin, look! It's a ladybug!" Seulgi beams as she hops excitedly in her spot, pointing at a barely seen red bug with black dots over it. Seokmin joins in and stares in awe to the ladybug, his forefinger gently touches upon it.
If there is someone who is similar to Seulgi in some secretive and imaginative ways, that would be Seokmin. Even, his height is able to match Seulgi.
Seokmin is what Wonwoo calls something that is there, yet not quite there. He is intelligent enough to observe and figure people out. If someone were to be blamed, then blame the detective games he tried playing once. It was addicting, and he tries applying it in daily basis sometimes. Just sometimes. It hurts too much if he tries to pay attention for a whole day, his line of vision is bound to be very wide after all, not centered on one person only.
He's like a sponge and he enjoys listening to people, that's what he notices. He tolerates Soojung, and he gets along better with the girls than Mingyu and Wonwoo ever was. And not to mention that he's particularly close with Seungwan.
Wonwoo sits by the rock after dusting all kinds of insects in it, watching from the side with crossed arms. "You know, the two of you look stupid,"
"Well, says the idiot who is afraid of bugs," Seulgi butts in from the ground, laying on the surface of fresh green grasses, scrunching wildflowers and weeds beneath her to sleep. She inhales every air of nature around her and lets go, feeling serene at the sound from the rustling leaves, the sun filtering through the frighteningly tall trees into them, putting a limelight above their heads.
"Seulgi, you will dirty your clothes-" Seungwan frowns, her brows knitted and she tries pulling Seulgi from the ground, and her whiny voice begins to jumble out of her lips.
"No, Seungwan, you should lay here beside me instead-" she nags with a high pitched voice that is starting to grate on his ears, as Seulgi's lower lip sticks out into a pout.
Wonwoo still sees her as a little monkey. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up-"
"What are you staring at, Soojung?" Wonwoo turns his attention away with palms on his ears, trying to forget that Seulgi is getting on his nerves. Mingyu stands beside Soojung, and her head is angled up to the sky, the sun seemingly in love with every feature of her face as it swallows her eyes, the right side of her lips in its scorching light.
It's summer and he hates it just because the sun is hotter and he sweats more than he usually is. It's summer and he notices that Soojung is a beat slower than she usually paces.
"Didn't you see migrating birds just now, Mingyu?"
"No, Soojung. No birds are flying up there," Mingyu's forehead furrows in confusion, puzzled by her question, her bangs blown by the wind to his eyes that seems like sharpened knives, though still not so sharp with the softness in his face. "What's wrong with your eyes, Soojung?"
She sighs, a blue butterfly that inhabits her shoulder for awhile escapes when her shoulders deflate. "Nothing. Perhaps, if I ask Seungwan, she will understand."
Mingyu turns to look at Wonwoo, but he only shrugs it off, confused by her sudden aloofness and passiveness.
Seulgi is running in circles around this small fish pond, wanting to catch the blue butterfly with the help of Seokmin, and Wonwoo also notices how active Seulgi has become, how her feet no longer able to stop moving now, wanting to run, dash, anything that involves of moving. It almost looks like some sort of panick in his eyes, because this amount of intensity for movements is strange for him, especially since Seulgi is never the one to push herself so much.
Last track running competition, she fainted after she finished her run on the second place. She didn't bother to answer his teasings back that time, and he stopped when he saw tears visible in her eyes, right after he poked her about not winning the first place under the sycamore tree. He expected her to explode and tell him that he won't understand since he's sitting in a throne above them all, but Seulgi was silent.
She kept her silence for a while, then she climbed up to a place he couldn't reach. Always, Seulgi escaped from the world to that certain sycamore tree.
Sometimes, Wonwoo loathes Seulgi because she is making him follow her unconsciously, to places that she herself could only reach. And he dislikes the idea of not bothering her constantly, it becomes his entertainment to watch Seulgi answer his teasings.
That's why, now Wonwoo trips Seulgi in her feet as she runs, and when she falls, Seulgi is also silent.
What surprises Wonwoo, is that Seulgi is crying. But it seems that she herself doesn't realize that for a moment, until she begins to clutch into her knees, whilst whimpering, "It hurts, Seungwan, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurst-" for countless of times as they scatter around her in panick.
"This is too much, Wonwoo," Wonwoo is looking at Seulgi's face covered in tears, and he assumes that it will be Seokmin to say this, but it's Mingyu, his closest friend.
"Wait, what Mingyu? What did you just tell me?"
"You're crossing the boundaries, Wonwoo. Seulgi could have hit her head," Mingyu looks stern as he is up face to face with Wonwoo. Wonwoo is his bestfriend, but there are limits to everything. For Mingyu, he crossed the line that Mingyu has drawn transparently, to judge whether his friend's actions are tolerable or not.
"She's still a girl, Wonwoo. Have you forgotten about that?"
He looks at Seulgi, her dirt covered braids, her red nose, trembling lips, her hands clasping and unclasping on the scratched part of her knees, red and seemingly painful, to her small shoulders, her skinny and thin legs, her tears which seems unending and her sunkissed skin-
And that is the one thing Wonwoo regrets for the first time after a long time for treating Seulgi that way, and for the first time, he sees that Seulgi is just like other little girls around her age, easily hurt when she falls without notice. Especially, when it's caused by the ones that she sees as her precious ones.
Δ
"Wonwoo, you'll attend a school in the city for your middle school studies."
"You'll live with your aunt, Wonwoo. How do you feel?"
"Whatever that makes you happy, Mom, Dad." Wonwoo shrugs off casually that time, even though a feeling of uneasiness rises inside of his heart, silently disliking the idea of separation with his friends.
is starting to go down btw, tell me your opinions about it guys ^^
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