Just Maybe
Our dawn is hotter than dayHe stared, more like gawked, at the scene unfolding in front of him. His friends – his best of friends since middle school – were cozying up to a complete stranger. They were laughing, joking around, and playing as if they weren’t practically strangers just an hour ago. They were talking like old chums! Seungcheol was beyond floored. Even Seokmin seemed to have taken a liking to the stranger!
Well, he was no stranger per se. Seungcheol knew him. They were… acquaintances, schoolmates for lack of a better word. But still, Seungcheol was miffed his friends just had to like Kwon freaking Soonyoung of all people. He somehow felt betrayed.
His gaze zoned in on the now familiar silver haired, trying but seriously failing on pouting.
It was Thursday. The Thursday he and his friends had planned to meet and hang-out. Jisoo and Jun were only a train ride away so they make it a point to meet up every now and then, their busy college lives never hindering the friendship they had cultivated for years. Thursdays were mostly their days. Just the three of them. Just the three musketeers. Just Seungcheol, Jisoo, and Jun. But it seemed like this week was an exception.
They had planned on hanging out at a dog cafe near Seungcheol’s university. It was also convenient for a mini reunion because their friend whom they’ve met from their short trip to Busan, sweet and innocent Lee Seokmin, was also working in that particular cafe. They get to meet up and play with dogs, it’s a win-win situation for everyone honestly. Well that was what Seungcheol thought before seeing the moonlight colored hair he has grown scarily familiar with. He should have known life never really did what he wanted.
Silver locks and crescent-shaped orbs has become a begrudgingly day by day occurrence for Seungcheol. Ever since Johnny’s party, he realised, Kwon Soonyoung has become a part of his daily life – usually without his own volition – and has no way of stopping the guy, whose alias was either egoistical or perfectly descriptive of his persona, to slither in his routine like he had been there the whole entire time. It was aggravating. Really aggravating. Kwon Soonyoung just steamrolled into his life and Seungcheol, poor little Choi, somehow couldn’t say no.
Kwon Soonyoung, a.k.a. the bottomless ball of energy shaped as a human. Or as Seungcheol has fondly called him, the eternal sunshine with a chaotic mind.
**
Soonyoung started to eat lunch with him. Him. He. Choi Seungcheol. Eighteen turning nineteen. Athletic and competitive. Undeniably manly. He gawked like a freaking goldfish.
It started last Monday, just a day after his embarrassing and intense Sunday morning with the dancer and his roommate. He prayed to the gods to not see a sliver of silver - forever was a better option honestly yet Seungcheol knew he couldn’t push his luck. A day or two was already fine – but of course, life just gave him a curve ball, hitting him unexpectedly in the guts. Fate was seriously playing with him now.
He was at the cafeteria, sitting and eating alone at a table by the windows, seeing no hair nor hide from his friends – which was rather unsettling since they always have lunch together as much as their schedules and deadlines allowed them to – when a tray was noisily put down on his left and a dramatic heap of silver and blue slid to the seat beside him. Seungcheol jumped in surprise, his pork cutlets dropping messily onto his plate, and glared. He glared at the culprit, doe eyes meeting almond, who in turn flashed him an apologetic grin.
“Mr. Lee was terrible,” he started to ramble, taking a cutlet from Seungcheol’s tray and eating it, cheeks puffing and pout jutting. Seungcheol, confused and unbelieving of the company he had unwillingly gained, sat and dumbly listened to the rant.
Honestly, all he could think of as flailing arms and exaggerated sighs filled his lunch break was: What the heck is Kwon Soonyoung doing here?
**
Seungcheol and Soonyoung then started to become lunch buddies. Conveniently (note the sarcasm), they had similar schedules.
**
Tuesday’s debacle was less dramatic but still eerily surprising.
Seungcheol was rushing to his part-time job, an observatory just at the edges of the city with an amazing view of stars, city lights, and life. He didn’t need the extra cash, his parents were willingly paying for everything, but the black and yellow and silver flyer he had seen taped to their apartment’s announcement board had somehow reeled him in.
Star light, star bright. For constellations and cosmos, join the team! - it said in bold Arial. The ad was horrible and cheesy and downright garish yet Seungcheol, being the star enthusiast that he was, took the flyer, resume in hand, and joined the team.
He was by the entrance, huffing and coughing despite his strong build and eager stamina. Climbing a hill and numerous flights of stairs without stopping for a breath was no easy
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