Hesitant
Take A Step
A/N I apologize for the following spelling/grammar mistakes considering I didn't take the time to proofread. I wrote this in about an hour and now it's midnight and I really need to go to sleep. ;w; I hope you enjoy it anyways, and I'll be sure to make corrections soon! I hope it's not too confusing (especially the end...), and as a note the large gaps just signal a skip through time like most stories go. Please enjoy! ♥
-
The first surprising drop hit his nose.
And then the next few followed the first, until a patter of rain drops crescendoed into a shower.
In the few seconds it took the blonde haired boy to realize it was raining and run under the confines of a bus stop shelter; he was already wet from head to toe.
He kissed his teeth as he attempted to shake off some of the water from his sweater and wiped himself with his bare hands, proving to be of no help.
With a sigh the blonde stuck out his lower lip into a frustrated pout as he slung the backback off his shoulders to dig into it - searching for that umbrella and jacket he was forced to stuffing into his bag earlier that morning. Maybe his older sister's nagging and tendency to check the weather before heading out wasn't as annoying and time consuming as he thought. He made a mental note to thank her for that later.
Pushing aside the books and notes and water bottle cluttering the opening of his bag, his pretty white hands finally found purchase on the black jacket of interest, and then the handle of his portable umbrella. Quickly, he tugged on the handle and instantly regretted it as the books and other things slipped out of his bag instead. His mouth made a string of weird noises as he fumbled to catch some before they landed, but Himchan's reaction time was never quite good, and soon enough they had fell and tumbled away from his reach, outside of the bus stop and into the rain.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. This was proving to be an unpleasant day. Deciding that he couldn't care less, he took a deep breath and calmly took out the umbrella and jacket before putting his bag down and reluctantly lurching for the books and other items now soaked from the rain. Once back under the shelter he stuffed the wet books back into his bag, zipped it up, and dropped it onto his feet.
He shook his hair, watching the water droplets fly about and sighed, wondering why he had risked the appearance of his hair for a couple of stupid books.
After a few moments of attempting to dry his hair with his hands, he gave up and decided on stuffing them frustratedly into his pockets instead.
And the next surprise hit his nose.
Well, not his nose, but more specifically his eyes.
He blinked a few times, ridding his eyelashes of the rain drops, and squinted into the sheet of dropping rain a few steps away from him.
There was a girl.
Her figure cut an outline into the wall of water, and he could see she was soaked completely. He bit his lip in worry as he examined the girl. He found it weird how she could just stand there, glaring blankly at the street in front of her as if there weren't continuous buckets of water pouring onto her body. She could've just walked into the bus stop. But as Himchan looked around, he realized the shelter was packed with other people.
Feeling a bit guilty, he opened his umbrella and rested it on his shoulders, walking out of the bus stop and into the rain. He turned back to look and see if she had made her way into the small space his disappearance would've made, but sighed as he noticed the others that were already in the bus stop simply shifted a bit to make more room for themselves. He turned his attention back to the girl, now only two or three steps to the left of him. She didn't even realize he had moved. She was still looking through the rain and onto the street in front of her.
He hadn't realized how long he was staring until she finally moved from her statue-like state, raising and lowering her shoulders in what looked like an overdramatic sigh before dropping her head and turning he face slightly towards the blonde. She was staring at her feet, letting the rain attack the back of her head instead. He looked away for just a second, scared that she was going to catch him watching her- but his eyes found their way back to the girl when he realized she hadn't noticed him yet.
He didn't know why he was staring at her so hard. Maybe because he kind of pitied the poor thing, stupidly standing in the rain, letting the water drape her entirety. Maybe because he wanted to see how long it took for her to notice. Maybe because the dark red of her jacket kind of matched the nice red of her short wet hair.
And maybe because -now that he could see it- she was really quite pretty. Her skin was nice and pale, with a cute face and gentle hands that clutched at the straps of her soaking backpack.
Realizing how creepy he felt as he stared at her, he finally let his eyes wander away, shaking his head. She should just walk into the bus stop.
As time went by and the bus still didn't arrive and the rain hadn't ceased it's dance, Himchan could no longer keep track of the amount of times he found his eyes going back to the red head girl. With every glance he spared her, the more he was tempted to go out just to drag her in.
And then he looked at the black jacket still in his left hand, and suddenly he felt horrible.
Here he was, tall and gorgeous and safe from the rain, an umbrella over his head and a jacket in his other hand. And a girl all soaked and obviously asking to be sick standing only a few steps away. Here he was, pitying the soaked girl, and he hadn't even thought about giving her shelter himself.
"Should I..." Himchan pondered in his head, clutching the black jacket in his left hand. He shook his head furiously and looked down. "That's weird though. She'll get scared. She'll wonder why this strange guy is sharing an umbrella with her." He sighed and looked up from under his lashes, sneaking a peek back to the pitiful girl beside him. She stood there, eyes closed, staring at her shoes. "The bus should arrive soon, soon she'll be dry." He thought some more, nibbling his lip as he sneaked a few more glances at her.
"I don't want to. I don't know her. What's the point?" He continued to mentally argue with himself. All he had to do was take a step. One step and she would be under his umbrella and she would be okay. One step. Just one step.
And when she sneezed, he could no longer help himself.
In half of a second he had brought himself to her side, awkwardly holding the wide umbrella over the both of them. She had snapped her head up to look at him the moment she realized there was no more rain slapping her neck, and he almost melted with the way her eyes sparkled up at him with confusion.
"You're.... wet." He mumbled down at the girl. She continued to look at him with confused eyes before her face turned a shade of pink and she looked away, laughing a bit.
Himchan looked away as well, mouthing a "WHAT THE HELL" at himself for saying such an obvious and stupid thing. When he turned to look at her again, he was surprised to see her shyly smiling up at him.
"You're funny." She laughed. Her voice reached his ears and travelled in electric currents throughout his body. He gulped at the sudden sensation and brought his hand up to scratch the back of his head, but ended up hitting the girl in the face with the black jacket in that hand by accident. She made a surprised noise and he had brought his hands up to his chest to apologize but lost hold of his umbrella in the process, leaving the both of them back under the attack of the rain.
They both snapped their heads to the umbrella which had flew it's way out onto the street and then trampled on by the wheels of a few passing cars.
After taking in the horrid circumstances, they both looked at eachother again, drenched in rain, and burst out into awkward laughter.
In the midst of misfortune, Himchan remembered his jacket and quickly opened it, raising it over both their heads. He hesitantly moved a bit closer, so their hips were touching and his left arm was around her head, in order to cover her up some more. It didn't make as great of a shelter as the umbrella or the bus stop and it was too late, since he was now as drenched as she was, but hey, at least it did something. And at least now they couldn't see the crowd of people laughing at them from inside the bus stop.
The red head girl ceased her quiet laughing and ran a hand through her wet red hair, grimacing at how cold she was. And then it was silent. Well, as silent as it could be with the rain beating loudly around them.
"I'm sorry." Himchan finally brought himself to say, breaking the awkward air. "I'm clumsy."
Shyly pressing a bit closer to his side, the red haired girl shook her head and smiled. "I'm Suu."
"I'm Himchan."
-
He soon came to learn that she wasn't waiting for the bus.
And after being dragged into her mother's car, he also came to learn that her mother was quite a nice person.
And then he learned that this cafe around the block where her mother dropped them off upon Suu's request made some tasty warm drinks. And he learned that she liked her hot chocolate with a lot of whip cream. And soon he learned that the cafe was also a cozy, peaceful, almost perfect place for just talking.
Which was exactly what the blonde boy had found himself doing at that moment.
And in the next few hours he had learned way more about this pretty girl than he learned about math at school today. And he learned that she liked playing piano, just like him. And he learned that they actually attended the same school. And he learned that she was actually quite an amusing girl, despite how shy she acted. And he learned that her eyes glistened when she listened to him speak. And he learned that she was easily brought into laughing. And he learned that her face went red when he wiped whip cream off the side of .
And when the rain cleared up and they left the cafe and she pointed to the direction of her house, he learned that his heart could flip in weird ways as he watched her wave and scuttle away.
And he learned that he definitely didn't want this to be the last time they met.
But it's okay.
He had learned her phone number throughout their two hour conversation anyways.
-
How long has it been since they've been friends?
How many times have they met at lunch, or pushed eachother in the hallways, or waited at the bus stop, or went to watch a movie, or hang out after school, or stress over tests and projects, or spend a weekend playing video games, or take a walk in the park together? How many times did he find himself outside her door with a grocery bag of icecream tubs to cheer her up? How many times has she fell asleep on his shoulder on the ride home? How many times have they shared those special moments, touched hands in the popcorn bowl, looked up at eachother at the same time just to quickly look away? How many times did this red head make the poor boy's heart skip a beat?
How long has it been since he's realized his undying attraction towards his so-called best friend?
Kim himchan could no longer keep count.
And as he spent another Friday night sprawled on her couch while he watched her cutely bang her head on the table, trying to remember another math formula, he finally made a decision.
The only thing he'd be counting would be the days it'd take him to make her fall for him too.
And when Suu looked up at him and her hair fell around her face and she realized he was watching, that pretty shade of pink crept it's way to her cheeks again.
And Himchan couldn't help but wonder if maybe he didn't have to count. Maybe she already did.
But he wouldn't know just by sitting here.
He decided to take a step further.
-
"I.... like you too." She spoke in almost a whisper, her eyes planted to her lap, and the red tint of her cheeks redder than Himchan had ever seen it.
Never has he ever felt a feeling like this, as his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He would've stood up and began jumping around like the dork everyone knew he was, but they were currently in the confines of a small ferris wheel cart hanging in the deep red sky, and his fear of heights didn't really help his desire to jump around.
He couldn't stop the wide smile that spread across his face as he took her hands confidently in his own and made her look up at him. The sunset seemed to reflect on her eyes, the pale tone of her skin seeming to warm up under the orange light. She was beautiful.
"I've liked you for so long." Himchan stated, shyly looking into her eyes, and he felt her soft hands squeeze his a little tighter in response. He could see how flustered she was getting by having such intense eye contact, and wasn't surprised when she bit her lip and looked out of the ferris wheel cart and down at all the amusement park's lights below them.
The cart slowly and silently made it's way to the top of the wheel until it rested to a stop right at the peak. A breath was taken by the both of them as they swung slowly in the sky and the two of them watched, hand in hand, as the sun finally dipped below the horizon.
And as the twinkling stars began to dot the purple sky above them, Himchan's lips had found his way to hers.
When they reached the bottom again, they exited as an official couple, and they couldn't help but blush as Himchan's arm found it's way around her waist, pulling her closer.
-
"Daddy! Daddy! The bus is here!"
The little girl's tiny hand tugged at his bigger ones, and he looked at the direction her little fingers were pointing at.
"Oh! You're right!" He smiled, squeezing her hand reassuringly. He squatted down so that he was face to face with his daughter. Her brown hair fell straight past her shoulders, her cheeks chubby, and her eyes sparkling, just like her mother. She wrapped her small arms around his shoulders and then moved to Suu, standing right beside him.
"You're going to be fine." Suu smiled before picking her daughter up and twirling her around.
The school bus came to a halt in front of them and made a swishy noise as the doors swung open in front of her.
"Good morning!" The bus driver waved, kindly beckoning the little girl to make her way in.
"It's her first day in first grade." Himchan explained, walking her to the door and helping her take a step inside. His daughter turned to him with a shaky smile, and he bent over to kiss her on the head one last time.
"You can do it!" He whispered, before she took a small breath and disappeared into the bus.
"Wait, where's your brother?" Suu questioned, spinning around to find the other blonde boy, now in his early teens, leaning against the bus stop, eyes closed with his head phones on and the music fully blast.
Himchan laughed and made his way to his son who didn't notice his father's approach until he was caught in a head lock. The younger boy jolted at the surprise and desperately tugged on his father's arms, squeaking out a "Dad! Stop!"
With another laugh Himchan let go, watching as the younger stumbled back a few steps, grumbling under his breath and hands immediately flying to fix his hair.
"Just like your father." Suu scoffed and crossed her arms. The younger boy's face flushed a bit before he fixed his collar and coolly walked into the bus.
"Take care of your sister, okay?" Suu called out after him. Himchan made his way to his wife's side, arm slinking around her waist, pulling her close. They watched as their son saluted unenthusiastically and took a seat next to his little sister at the window. Her little head peeked out and she waved again. They waved back until the bus was out of sight.
Suu smiled, pleased as she leaned against her husband's chest.
"It feels like it's been forever." She commented, bringing her right hand to his, and intertwining their fingers.
"It really does." Himchan replied, and pressed a sweet kiss on her wife's cheek. "Forever isn't as bad as I thought, as long as I have you."
Suu gagged, pulling away from her husband's grasp and laughing. "It's been so long and you're still as cheesy as ever."
Himchan laughed as he grabbed her by the waist again and touched her cheek. "It's been so long, and I still love you."
Suu raised herself up onto the tips of her toes to kiss Himchan's lips once. "And I love you more every day."
And then the first surprising drop hit his nose.
And then the next few followed the first, until a patter of rain drops crescendoed into a shower.
In the few seconds it took the blonde haired boy to realize it was raining and run under the confines of a bus stop shelter; he was already wet from head to toe.
The boy had tried pulling his umbrella out of his backpack, only resulting in having a few of his books fall out into the rain and outside of the shelter. Once he retrieved his items he shook his hair, watching the water droplets fly about and sighed, wondering why he had risked the appearance of his hair for a couple of stupid books.
After a few moments of attempting to dry his hair with his hands, he gave up and decided on stuffing them frustratedly into his pockets instead.
And the next surprise hit his nose.
Well, not his nose, but more specifically his eyes.
There was a girl.
Her figure cut an outline into the wall of water, and he could see she was soaked completely. He bit his lip in worry as he examined the girl. He found it weird how she could just stand there, glaring blankly at the street in front of her as if there weren't continuous buckets of water pouring onto her body. She could've just walked into the bus stop. But as Himchan looked around, he realized the shelter was packed with other people.
Feeling a bit guilty, he opened his umbrella and stepped out of the shelter, hoping to make some space for her. When he turned around, the space he had made was quickly taken up by the other people shifting to make space for themselves, leaving the poor girl still drowned in rain beside him.
"Should I..." Himchan pondered in his head, clutching the black jacket in his left hand. He shook his head furiously and looked down. "That's weird though. She'll get scared. She'll wonder why this strange guy is sharing an umbrella with her." He sighed and looked up from under his lashes, sneaking a peek back to the pitiful girl beside him. She stood there, eyes closed, staring at her shoes. "The bus should arrive soon, soon she'll be dry." He thought some more, nibbling his lip as he sneaked a few more glances at her.
"I don't want to. I don't know her. What's the point?" He continued to mentally argue with himself.
And in the midst of the arguement he had found himself fantasizing over everything that could happen if only he took a step.
He would share his umbrella and then he'd drop it because he's clumsy and then a car would trample over it and he'd have to share his jacket instead. And on that same day he'd meet her mother and learn all the small things about her in a cafe just a block away from where she lived. And soon her house would become something like his own considering how much time they end up spending together and in a short while they'll find themselves becoming the best of friends.
And as the time goes by he'll find himself falling in love and she will as well. And on a magic summer night on top of a ferris wheel they'll confess and have their first kiss, the perfect kiss, under the fireworks. And life will go on and they will get married and maybe one day they'll find themselves at this same spot, hand in hand, waiting for the school bus with their son and daughter. And they'd kiss eachother when the bus disappeared and reminisce and express how much they loved one another. They'd spend the rest of their lives together and everything would be great, even through the ups and downs, they'd still love eachother.
It didn't sound too bad.
He shook his head out of the weird fantasy and judged himself for being able to think up such strange things over a girl he didn't even know. Again, he glanced up to look at her.
All he had to do was take a step. One step and she would be under his umbrella and she would be okay. One step. Just one step.
But he didn't.
And before he could even regret it, a car pulled up, and the cute girl ran her way towards it, pulling the door open and slamming it shut as she slid into the front seat.
Her eyes met his through the car's windowshield, and Himchan quickly looked away, embarassed for staring.
In a matter of seconds the car drove away, the soaked girl safe in it's confines.
Somewhere in his heart it felt strange. And the fantasies he conjured crept it's way back to his mind, leaving him with something like a pang of regret. He smiled to himself and shrugged it off, before turning to look out into the street, the umbrella over his shoulder.
He couldn't help but wonder what really could've happened if he just took a step.
One step.
/end
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