[6]
The Constellation of Unclassified Stars(vi. enigmas of the children's nature)
Seokmin knows a lot more things about Soojung than she thinks he does. It's not difficult to grasp every little things about her when her mother is a close friend of his. Amongst tea time and biscuits, they would chatter about their children. It seems that, whatever hunger Soojung has for this knowledge about space, has overwhelmed her mother. She's a classic home stay mother, like his, who thinks that everything that is too much should be thrown out of the window.
Of course, he hides all of this knowledge inside his laughters that are the loudest and his jokes that make it seem like observing people is a thought that won't cross his mind. He is more than what meets the eye, and he lets people figure it out by themselves. So far, no one has been able to. Even Seungwan. Well, Wonwoo does even though he doesn't want to pinpoint this thing out.
Not to mention Seulgi. Seulgi, Seulgi, Seulgi. She's the wildest for sure. But they (the mothers) find her buoyantness and adventurous side endearing, still. Even more so than Soojung. He stops listening to their talks when her mother told his how soft Soojung actually is, how her love for knowledge will be refuted as she is a girl, and how she will fall apart when she comes to learn this.
Seokmin thinks that her mother doesn't know her at all. For all he knows, Soojung is persistent toward those who denies her hunger for knowledge and she is always blunt about it. She doesn't let people stop her from doing what she wants to do.
But Seokmin is still twelve, and the young ones always believe in a better tomorrow and see the good in everything. And that is Seokmin. He still doesn't know better where life will toss them in.
They actually have no time for any of this.
Exams are ahead of their noses, but somehow Soojung insisted in wanting to gather under the sycamore tree on the Saturday before the week of the exam. There are lots of rambles coming out of Wonwoo's mouth as always, Seulgi's hand itching to ram it close and Mingyu strangely and silently following along and Seungwan follows in suit as if knowing something is about to begin or end. Soojung had came to each of their houses to collect their presence.
There is a silent acknowledgement that they would follow Soojung whenever she goes, and it's not because Soojung was the one who stamped a label on their foreheads as members of the cosmic children.
She's like the turning point of their world, a north sign in every compass as a source of direction.
"What's with this, Soojung? We got exams on Monday."
"Shut up and don't rain on our parade, Wonwoo. We just want to let our minds loose for a while and Soojung was smart enough to know that we're stressed," Seulgi flicks his forehead as they have their backs pressed to the sycamore tree, and Wonwoo swears if it's not because he still feels guilty about that time he made her cry, he would already strangle her.
"I just want to talk," Soojung muses, hands spread along the tall grass. "It's been a while since we are really talking in a circle like this; us, the Cosmic Children," there is some sense of pride in Soojung's voice as she utters this.
Mingyu cringes and shivers, his eyes begin to twitch. "I still can't get used to it. It sounds so tacky."
Seulgi's eyebrows furrows and she nudges Mingyu on the ribs, sitting on his left. "What better names can you come up seriously? Soojung's idea was awesome enough!"
"We never really needed names. We're not some arrogant cliques and such. Each of us are very different to one and another," Mingyu fights back, his face closes upon Seulgi's face, intimidating eye competition between two exaggerated kids, riled by their emotions.
Seokmin clicks on his tongue. Not Mingyu, not him. He would never dare to hit Seulgi, despite how hot headed she is. "Back off, it's already settled a long time ago, Gyu. What's the point of fighting?"
"I have never thought of us as cliques. We're not cliques, and we don't try to be like them, Mingyu. We are just...us, ourselves," Soojung sighs, tired to nail this fact into his mind.
He settles back on his seat, and Seulgi does the same. Seulgi fixes her t-shirt whilst Mingyu fixes his jacket. Seokmin's probably the mature one here, along with Seungwan.
"We're going to graduate from elementary school soon," Soojung sighs, laying on her stomach as she picks on the grass.
"Everything is happening way too fast," it's closing to autumn, and the sky is splattered in shades of cerulean blue, with white cottony clouds scratched upon the endless firmament, soft and sure, gliding their way through the world. The leaves fade into a shade of brown, and it feels breezy to Seokmin's half -tanned skin. He plays outside a lot, but in his school, he participates in the taekwondo extracurricular. His father said that he needs to know how to protect himself properly, though so far he still can't split a brick into halves.
"Everything is happening way too fast," it's closing to autumn, and the sky is splattered in shades of cerulean blue, with white cottony clouds scratched upon the endless firmament, soft and sure, gliding their way through the world. The leaves fade into a shade of brown, and it feels breezy to Seokmin's half -tanned skin. He plays outside a lot, but in his school, he participates in the taekwondo extracurricular. His father said that he needs to know how to protect himself properly, though so far he still can't split a brick into halves.
The afternoon has the kind of weather which suits an afternoon nap along with it. Soojung dreams of sleeping under the starry night and dawn breaking in from the horizon, but it seems impossible with how real everything is and how unreal her wish sounds to her mother. Seokmin heard this last week from his room, mothers from their neighborhood huddled close to chat their lives away.
"I want to get to high school soon. I want to see how taller I can get by then," Mingyu grins cheekily, narrowing his eyes to Seulgi. "Let's see who will become midgets by that time."
Seulgi scoffs, her hands swatting flies away from her face. "Are you kidding me? Look at you, you barely reach the height of my shoulders."
"There is something called puberty, Soojung," Seungwan suddenly interrupts, sunflowers in her hand, and she is fondling the petals on her fingers. "These friends of ours are said to be able to tower you when they grow up."
"Well, Wonwoo certainly won't," Seulgi's eyes glint mischivieously, and a sly smirk grows wider on her lips when she sees how it drives Wonwoo to clench on his pants from the corner of her eyes. "Your height growth have already stopped because you are such a prick."
Wonwoo laughs ironically at Seulgi. "That doesn't have anything to do with it. And besides, your brother skipped school most of the times, and I heard he dated a lot of girls in high schoo-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Seulgi lunges forward and begins to strangle Wonwoo between her fingers. He still insists on continuing.
"-and they said that he used them and then le-" Seokmin tries to pull Seulgi away, and she only pushes him back with a glare. Seokmin still tries, because Seulgi is completely not in the right mind. Or perhaps, she is. Seulgi has always seemed a little bit devillish between the six of them, a little bit twisted at times especially to Wonwoo. To most boys, even.
But she is nice around Seokmin, he catches her smiling a lot more around him. She seems more like a girl, calm and easy to talk to with no shrieks and hands flailing to punch boys. He thinks that it's because he's the most neutral amongst all, and how he seems to agree on Soojung and her for most times. Or perhaps because Seungwan is close with him. He can only guess, along the days they spent together.
Seokmin has no time to ponder about Seulgi as Wonwoo is beginning to have problems spitting out words out of his lips.
Well, that's one positive point. But, as the colors begin to run away from his face, Seokmin tries again, but now with the help of Mingyu, as he finally scurries to their side, hands on each of her arms.
Well, that's one positive point. But, as the colors begin to run away from his face, Seokmin tries again, but now with the help of Mingyu, as he finally scurries to their side, hands on each of her arms.
When they are able to rip her deathly wrench around his neck, she trashes wildly, pushing both boys away harshly. Seungwan seems to have dipped herself into stillness when Seokmin looks at her, and Soojung looks terrified with this side of Seulgi. But soon, Seokmin sees that flash of fear die away, and is replaced with a raw and concerned look of a friend. She gets up and shuffles close to Seulgi, a tight grip laces on her arm.
"Stop, Seulgi. Don't do this, Wonwoo doesn't know what he is saying," Soojung doesn't relent even when Seulgi's steel gaze looks back at her. Seulgi appears like a lioness when she is supposed to be a lion cub.
Seokmin turns to Mingyu, who shakes his head disappointingly at something which he can't grasp. Is it to Wonwoo, whose reckless mouth can't filter the words that are appropriate to say? Is it to Seulgi, who can't temper down her emotions? Or is it to Soojung, who can't keep their group together even when she insisted to name it, thinking that with a name, perhaps it will make their friendship stronger?
Or perhaps to himself, that he took a part in riling Seulgi's tempers up? Seokmin can only guess. But for sure, Soojung is trying to keep this group from splitting apart, despite all odds. Even though, Seokmin believes that nothing, nothing can ever tear their bond apart.
"-I can't accept it, Soojung! Seungyoon is family, and I don't like to hear my family being spoken in that kind of way!"
"I don't want us to be like this. This is not what I had in mind when I named our group The Cosmic Children," Soojung lets go of her arm and stand still, looking into Seulgi's eyes that begins to soften. Seulgi just realized that her words hurt Soojung's feelings.
Wonwoo groans as he sits up from the position where Seulgi had him under her, fingers touching to the reddish ring around his neck. But he chooses silence over rebuttal, as if sensing Soojung's disappointment leaking through her fingers.
"Guys," Soojung starts, her voice falling with a hint of bad news, pushing blackness of straight strands unbraided and untied away from her face. Seokmin sees Seungwan clenching on to her pink skirt, and Seokmin doesn't want to hear this even when he already heard from both Seungwan and her mother.
Seokmin also catches Mingyu looking at the ground, his head shaking again. He knows.
Soojung sighs again. Seokmin counts how many times Soojung sighed for the last few moments. Three, or four. "I'm moving out after graduation."
In life, some things are so precious that they are meant to be kept in a glass tube, or a metal vault to be protected from harm. Our heart is one of those precious things, and our body becomes the shell to protect it from the world outside. Despite of that, Seokmin can hear something crashing before him when Seulgi bolts away like a thunder, her sunburnt skin and twin braids fade away as her legs carry her far from the sycamore tree. Soojung sinks to her knees.
"Seungwan, I knew it, Seulgi will never be ready to listen," tears begin to fall and Seungwan leaves the flowers to tend Soojung, collecting her in her small arms. Wonwoo looks down for the first time, seemingly not knowing what to do.
"Just let her be for a moment. Seulgi-she will understand. She's a fool, but she's your friend," Mingyu's sudden words of comfort draw four sets of eyes towards him. Including Soojung. Seokmin has to step back for a moment to see if this is the Mingyu he knows all these times.
"What? I can't be kind for once?" he shrugs it away, but the stares remain. Seokmin still remembers how Seungwan told him that Mingyu made Soojung cry one day. Seokmin can only guess what kind of friendship Soojung and Mingyu have with them being neighbors, and the guess is vague, because he never imagined Mingyu to say these kinds of words.
Wonwoo stands up then, breaking away and brushes his pants ofd dusts and any form of dirt. "Are we done here--"
"You're as insensitive as ever, Wonwoo," Seungwan hisses as if engulfed in anger, but even the kind of anger that seems to drip from her voice only sounds like a warning. Seungwan is the kind who doesn't shout or explode when she is upset. She just lets it slip away quickly, not letting it stay in her heart to rot. Perhaps that's why Seokmin is the closest to Seungwan than the most of them, even when he is bound to be closer to Mingyu and Wonwoo. She makes him listen, and she drives his attention away from the chatters that he heard from his mother's friends, filling his head with fairytales from another world.
"No, I'm not being insensitive here. As you can see, Seulgi, a friend of ours is a very foolish and reckless one, and even a prick like me admits that. Why are we only standing here? Who knows what things Seulgi might run into with a head like that," This is something that Seokmin loathes and at the same time admires about Wonwoo. He can never predict Wonwoo's actions and words.
Sometimes, Seokmin thinks that Wonwoo contradicts himself to most things. How he seems to like studying, when in fact he hates it. How he seems to dislike Seulgi so much, when deep inside he cares about her. How Wonwoo seems so careless about things when there are times this sensitive side of his shows. It just shows that Wonwoo has never taken most things to his heart, even with Seulgi's sharp and heart cutting words that reeks abhorrence and immense dislike.
Wonwoo begins to move. "Won't you all come with me?" Nobody shifts in their spot, as if a sign given to Wonwoo to fix the mistake he had inflicted. Perhaps, if Wonwoo didn't talk that much, Seulgi would still accept Soojung's leave calmly. Right then, Seulgi must have felt that the world betrays her. It's both adorable and heartwarming, really, how passionate these youngsters feel about each other.
"Well, if that's the case, I will go on my own."
"Don't hate on me if Seulgi comes back running and scolding you all for not coming to her," Wonwoo laughs for the last time, even though it's unnecessary, and he breaks into a run that is slower than Seulgi, halfway to the main road, he falls into a stride.
Mingyu chuckles. "That kid tried to act tough, and it's a funny sight to look at."
"Aren't you strange also? Blurting out words like that?" Seokmin presses, nudging his side playfully and Mingyu only moves away with a tickled smile.
"I was trying to be nice."
Seokmin doesn't notice that Soojung is still weeping, and Seungwan only rubs her back soothingly. When he notices, he can only wonder if the six of them are the puzzles that complete Soojung's life, how big would her jigsaw be in Soojung's puzzle? From the looks of Soojung affected self, it must be big, to have herself hurt over a denial of her bestfriend.
Well, that's longer than the usual ^^ Thank you for reading, and leave feedbacks and thoughts about this chapter guys! It means a lot to me, and you see how this chapter is longer than the others since Seokmin doesn't really appear much in the latest chapters ^^
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