jeong jaehyun/kim minkyung

(skinny love)

the warm air of summer is more than comforting, a little bit of home. jaehyun thinks he could hear the wind singing.

"there you are," a mellow voice greets him in between dazed daydreaming and closed eyes, tuning a smile across his lips. the sensation became familiar with the sudden presence in a form of a jet black haired girl standing by his side under the old plane tree - the only living being residing on top of the hill, asides the two of them. perhaps the oldest being in the campus area; well and alive.

the closer she gets, the softer his breathing goes, and she stops, just right beside him. sharing under the same shade of the tall, old plane tree with silence then engulfs them. soft, two breathing adolescents.

his eyes slowly flutter open, only to see another pair of eyes staring back at his. blooming brown irises, dark and matured. smiling lopsided and roseate cheeks, in an unspoken meaning only they know, being shielded from the sunbeams, little rays falling between the branches of leaves. almost reaching to the brinks of their eyelashes, casting faint shadow under their eyes, noses, and even lips.

"how did you know i was here?"

he asks in whispers as if he's afraid anyone would hear their little secrets. like peter pan and wendy trying to sneak to neverland. careful to not let the world know, afraid he might wake up the sleeping adults. it sounds ridiculous, but the girl doesn't think that way. the hem of her floral dress lightly dances across her thighs.

along with her once dark copper tresses are pushed back to the shoulders. the dark hue has faded time by time, washed away to the roots before she decided to get her hair back to black. gingerly, lovely; he's going to miss it, but black really suits her. suits her into somewhere like his ideal girl.

tilting her head slightly, a pout appears across her lips, "why do you make it sound like i've only known you yesterday?"

jaehyun laughs when she replies in an equal pure whisper. minkyung and her unsullied wittiness that have never failed to amuse anyone with her spontaneous remarks. his eyes crinkle in a moony manner, grinning widely.

the girl would always find him anywhere (he's escaped from a small after party after winning a friendly basketball tournament against the science department). maybe, she has a mind of an atlas. a gift to find people (or maybe, just him in particular) but he'll never know how she knows him better than anyone else here. she finds him in the bright and even dark.

somehow, he wishes to be alone. not wanting to be found, but someone has found him, which is minkyung. he wouldn't mind at all (while not knowing how she just had to ditch the party and everyone before she bikes here in her summer dress just to find him).

perhaps, minkyung is right. it's not like she has known him yesterday. it's been almost two years. outlining real memories throughout the time they're in college with their other friends (kyungwon, seokmin, mingyu and minghao). jaehyun is more than thankful to meet them (especially minkyung), to at least make his college days less painful than they should have been.

and there's her, reaching her hand out for him. "it would be nice if we could bike down the hill for some gelato," and he takes her hand almost instantly into his as he stands up from the grass.

he has always noticed how their hands seem compatible together; fitted for some odd reasons as if they were meant to hold each other's. his cheeks almost blush at the wonders of holding her hand with the absence of platonic (it's already happening except he chooses to pretend it wasn't).

the thought of gelato on a sunny evening altogether sounds so nice. his favorite is mango and minkyung's is bubblegum. except he doesn't have his bicycle with him right now.

but he's with minkyung, which everything sounds so possible.

the time pauses for a moment when they're about to reach down to where she has parked her bicycle. swinging hands side by side, intact. minkyung animatedly talks about how mingyu almost freaked out seeing his longtime crush (mina, a girl from their literature class with soft features and from japan) congratulated him for the winning.

jaehyun can't help but chuckle. imagining how mingyu would be punching his fist up in the air of victory inside his head for winning his chance to make the said girl notice him since orientation week. typical kim mingyu.

inevitably his eyes drop from hers to her moving lips. as if a gravity force is pulling his sight down to those peach coral lips. head goes haywire momentarily, losing his composure before his hand slightly squeezes hers by accident, gaining her attention.

you okay, she asks in concern as she stops mid-sentence and his eyes involuntarily follow each move her lips are making.

pressing soft against each rosy petal coated with her favorite peach lip balm. from her lips back to her eyes; he curtly nods with a small smile.

(jaehyun is transparent, minkyung muses. he's totally staring at her lips. the way his cheeks have suddenly turned ruddy than usual isn't because of the sun. talk about how his eyes quiver; flickering nervously, almost forced when he retracts his eyes away from her lips. boys will always be boys, kyungwon once said to her. well, it's not like she minds. she really doesn't.

god, he isn't the only one. it's just her who's better in hiding and chooses to be oblivious. after all, what makes them now? what label should they use? best friends who refuse to acknowledge their feelings for each other because they're afraid that everything will change? maybe.

her train of thought vanishes when jaehyun lets go of her hand to reach over to her fringe. fixing the strands of hair away from her sight like he always does, fingers gently brushing against her skin adoringly.

it's her turn to blush.)

she smells like black vanilla shampoo, freshly mowed grass, and indefinite summer as she bikes down the hill with him. long hair swaying along. her blue bicycle pedals to another street, somewhere adjacent to the art department building. the old plane tree slowly looking so small from where he is, even smaller as she pedals further and further away.

and even before he realizes, it looks like an oil painting canvas of sun-drenched field, with a lone, old tree in the middle under the vast blue sky, void of clouds, with the almighty sun.

the grip of his fingers on her dress stay put as his fingertips against the fabric of her cotton dress tighten. the bicycle strides a smaller road and jaehyun wonders where the clouds go.

wondering what it feels like to place their lips on each other when they are finally brave enough to speak their feelings up. only time could tell. who knows?