CHAPTER NINETEEN

City of Flower

“Stop fidgeting. She’ll be here. Her friend is sending her.” Stuck in seemingly endless thread of thoughts, Minghao jolts out of his subconscious mind and returns back to reality where Mingyu snaps at him. “I am not fidgeting. What gives you that impression?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” The taller male rolls his eyes to emphasis his sarcasm, “You’ve been waving the train tickets in your hand and keep on looking at the entrance and your phone for the past few minutes. Your classmates are starting to worry but I’m the only one that is kind enough to approach you.”

“Whatever.” Minghao shortly scoffed, pushing two out of three tickets in his hand to Mingyu who merely chuckles at the respond. “Anyway, who are you sitting with in the train?”

“You, obviously. As if I have a choice. I barely know any of the other guys aside from you, Jungkook and Shinyoung. Unless you want to sit with her.” His brows wriggle upon saying the last line, trying to joke around with the lad while they wait the rest of the Cinematography students to settle the final bits.

Most of them are actually still waiting for their advisor to be there since he is planning to tag along instead of driving. Boxes of equipments are already transferred to the location via faculty’s lorries and all they are bringing are their DSLR cameras to take photos of the shooting process for the individual reports later. Truthfully, none of them even noticed Shinyoung missing until they catch her figure sprinting towards their general direction.

“I can’t believe the traffic is so bad at time like this.” The girl spoke in between her heavy breathing once she stops in front of her group-mates (or friends which she should start addressing). “I thought Soonyoung sent you here.” Mingyu stated as matter-of-factly. What is the point of twisting the situation though?

“He planned but he has to rush over to his class because apparently, he too, unfortunately late.” Shinyoung lets out a sigh after she stands properly on her two feet. “At least I am here now. Say, where’s Myungho? I thought you guys came together.”

“He’s here- wait. I swear he was here.” The boy assured her and turns around in a circle to search for his friend yet not only Minghao is gone. The rest of the class is not there too. Already metres away from the two friends, Mingyu and Shinyoung break into a quick jog to catch up with them. Luckily, their two tickets are with him. It is as if Minghao already predicted this to happen.

The whole group occupies the last coach and the pair immediately keeps an eye on vacant seats for the two of them. If it is a possibility, they will just sit together since that sounds like the best plan. However, Mingyu seems to have another plan and boy, he is easily distracted as soon as he finds Jungkook’s hand waving an empty spot by his side.

Helplessly glancing around the area, Shinyoung lets another elongated, thankful sigh out of her system when her eyes landed on an unclaimed seat, four rows after Jungkook’s and is more than happy to know her seatmate turns out to be Minghao himself.

He is already comfortable by the window seat, gazing on the scene of the train station with earphones stuck in his ears. Since he appears to be in his own bubble, she lowers herself carefully, not wanting to disturb his calm appearance. His head is leaning against the window as soon as the train moves and only then he looks to his side.

“When did you get here?” Minghao uttered more towards himself rather than Shinyoung who smiles at the question. From the way he slowly takes out the right earphone, she can tell he is genuinely surprised to see her all of the sudden. “Like five minutes ago. You seem pretty preoccupied so I let you be.”

“Ah,” He shyly turns his attention away from her eyes to have it stuck on the window again. It is strange. It is very strange of him to be so self-aware of the situation stuck on him. At least she does not force a conversation onto the two of them because honestly, they always wrapped by this shockingly comfortable silence once they were done with that one group assignment.

“You’re listening to Night and Rain?” Shinyoung’s ears perk in interest when the recognisable music played from his phone. It is displayed on the screen and she has less than a minute to admire the cover art that she recognises to be Jungkook’s design. Or she is planning to witness the mentioned boy’s design. Instead her eyes find an unfamiliar squared picture set for the song. “Hey, I don’t remember seeing this cover art on my computer when Soonyoung played it. Is it new?”

It is. At least, that is what Minghao wishes to answer. He got bored during his Screen Editing class and his eyes were getting tired of snipping and combining videos. So there he was, booting the latest version of Photoshop on the laboratory’s computer and sneakily made the cover. And unexpectedly, it turned out to be decent. So for fun, he switched them. Not that Jungkook’s design is not good. He adores his friend’s design too. Hence, he only changed his solo song instead of the entire discography.

“It’s pretty. I like the way the white paint drops. It sparkles like stars with that dark blue background.” The girl observes the picture from afar before he lifts his phone up for the two of them to view it closer. Only then he tells her how he got around making it from scratch. She is immediately blown away.

“Quick question, is there anything you’re not good at?” She laughs at her own question which brings a tiny curve on Minghao’s lips. “I’m sure there is a lot more that I cannot do.” He humbly said. A light shade of blush rushes to his face. He thought he already got used of receiving compliments already. Maybe it is due to the one who told it this time.

Shinyoung exhales knowingly before retrieving her set of earphones and decides to spend the next hour of travel listening to her own playlist. Compared to Minghao, she has her glance remains on the view of the on-going scenery while he takes the time to drift into a short nap. Nonetheless, her gaze triggers him a little.

“Do you want to swap seats? I’m going to sleep until we have to switch train later.” He offered in a hush, seeing that the ones around them are already in their respective dreamland. Either that or he is just truly tired to talk aloud. She cannot sense which weighs more so she simply accepts the offer. It is a win-win situation since she has always prefers to stay up during a journey. And it does not even come often.

Familiar scenery of their town gradually disappears as the train moves forward. Judging on the lines of trees moving, she reads the scene in a positive vibe, softly smiling at the way it waves at her. Buildings are less dense and there is a couple of darkness here and there when they have to pass through tunnels. Besides the couple of boredom when the sight is taken away, she feels the seat besides her constantly shaking from time to time.

The girl turns to her right side where she sees the boy’s head is threatening to fall off the headrest. The shaking came from him as he tried to maintain his head on the same spot whilst the train vibrates which causes him to quietly curse to no one in particular. She swears he does not even realise his own action at the moment. The sight almost makes her chuckle, realising how adorable his attempts look.

So Shinyoung purposely pushes her body upwards instead of sitting in a slump. She will not force him but with the train constantly shakes, his head slowly lands on her shoulder as planned. Satisfied at the impromptu plan, she continues to look at the window with a smile widening after passing by more beautiful panorama of soon-to-be the city of flower.

“Myungho. Seo Myungho,” He heard Shinyoung’s voice entering his drowsy self. When his eyes are fully open, Minghao’s head snaps off her shoulder and is it possible for his eyes to open even wider? Because that is exactly what he feels like. He lets a yawn off his system and then he finds Mingyu and Jungkook already snickering in his direction.

“Great, I will never hear the end of this.” Minghao mumbled and glances at Shinyoung who is apparently waiting for him to get out of his seat. “Oh, sorry.” He springs up and trailing behind him is the girl who is busying herself checking on the empty seat to make sure she is not leaving anything behind and joins him.

They spend the next train trip without their earphones this time around. There is no use of it since everyone actually reenergised by the small amount of nap they had in the previous one. Claiming the four chairs (two actually but they are facing one another, conveniently), Shinyoung and Mingyu paired together with Minghao and Jungkook on the other side, the group chatted. Or what it seems to be a chat.

“It feels good to get together like this again. It’s like our tie cuts off almost instantly after the presentation was done.” Jungkook said frankly which is responded by Mingyu right that instantaneously. Bobbing his head, the fellow continues, “We should really do this more. I mean, Myungho and I always sees each other at our apartment complex, right, Myungho? Hey!”

“Huh?” His friend spoke shortly as his attention was clearly not with them. He is more keen to see the view right outside the window since he never been out of his neighbourhood before. The past few shooting sessions were nearby their campus areas for easy access so he is interested of the trip.

“You’re not even paying attention.” Mingyu uttered in dismay before picking up the same silence on his side. “Are you two even with us right now or it is just Jungkook and I here?” When he questioned it, he glances and worry splashes on his face when he witnesses the sight of Shinyoung holding on her head with her fingers slowly rubbing her temple.

“Are you alright, Shinyoung? You don’t look good.” Jungkook threw the question when Mingyu pats her arms and by then the three boys’ stick their whole attention on her. “Wait, you’re feeling sick, aren’t you? Do you want to switch seats with me?” Her fellow classmate immediately moves forward but Minghao already beats him to it.

Jungkook carefully catches her figure when Minghao does the sudden change. Her face is still in a twisted mess yet it does look like the strategy works. She is probably feeling sick from having to sit with the outside view going the opposite side instead of forward. Aside from that, she has yet to have any decent meal before the trip. Thankfully, Mingyu packed some biscuits in his bag.

Upon arriving at the location, the train sickness vapours in a blink of the eyes. It is not a surprise seeing that the place is very scenic and simply beautiful. The girl is in awe without realising one of her friends is waiting for her to move.

Flowers are blooming healthily through the seasonal change. Though it may not be their dominant season of the year, the lush atmosphere is apparently all they need to escape the crowded city. Picked a shooting area a distant away proven to be best idea their Cinematography students ever agreed on.

Ilsan’s Lake Garden.

“Our equipments are already under the tents.” Jungkook announced to his fellow mates and a group of them immediately rushes towards – mostly the Cinematography majors, leaving the minors confused at the whole scene. “I guess the faster we start the quicker we finish for today?” Mingyu questioned, his focus is still on the pile of students that are already situated around the equipments.

“Are you feeling better already?” Shinyoung cranes her head to get a glance of the owner’s voice. After a second, she turns her entire body. “Yeah, thanks for asking, Myungho.” The boy easily puts a smile.

“Then, you can bring this. It’s the lightest thing I can get you to carry.” He held out three different coloured light reflectors instead of the typical white styrofoam they tended to use during an outdoor shooting. “That’s not exactly the case but that’s a legitimate reason.” Jungkook joined as he and Mingyu chose to take the lighting stands.

“Come on. Our first scene will be somewhere by the lake. We need to be fast or the others will steal our spot!” The tallest boy among the group of friends hollered, dragging along his buddy who jerks forward at the sudden force. “Kim Mingyu!”

“Do you reckon this will work? This sounds very extra.”

“Hate to break it up to you. You’re extra and everyone knows that already.”

The dancer and music major sit out of the practice once the night session comes along. Their presence is much needed in case of their expertise is called for. As soon as Soonyoung finishes listening to Jihoon’s sentence, he glares.

“I still think it sounds too sudden for someone this extra.” The fellow said his opinion, still remaining solid on the current discussion they are on. The other lad wants to snap some sense out his friend yet he figures the boy needs his legs to dance and work in the near future. “There is nothing wrong with that offer, Kwon Soonyoung.”

An offer and it is not just an offer. It is an invitation which will cause a massive turn in his life. He would talk to Shinyoung about this but the girl is not within his sight to share the information. Also, he never thought ditching her at the last minute resulted this given to him. A shocking episode indeed.

“I’ll decide once I’m done with Rose Quartz…”

“What if Rose Quartz is not flopping like how we’re seeing? Will you still truly leave? I mean, do you even have a choice?”

Will he really leave Rose Quartz and Serenity family for another?

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