86400; 첫 번째 길거리에서 키스해 보기

day one: twenty four hours: one thousand forty minutes: eighty six thousand four hundred seconds.

“You said yes, no take backs. No matter how embarrassing I get.”

The smile on Yongguk’s face was a little off today; it wasn’t as bright as it always got. It didn’t hang off the corners of his ears like it was supposed to. (He was dating me, shouldn’t that have been enough for him to be all but radiating?) But he was smiling anyways.

And that was enough for me.

“You’re not embarrassing, Chan.”

As for me, I took that as an excuse, an excuse to be as embarrassing as I goddamn could. No take backs.

Pressing back a returning smile, one less forced than Yongguk’s (he was horrible able the subtle and lying thing), I took his hand, threading it between mine with a gentle squeeze. It swayed between us in a light swing, of course led by me. We were used to holding hands; we’d always held hands. (Our parents had picture proof - blackmail I called it.) But today, today felt a little different. It made my heart run just a little faster. And if it ran anymore, I might’ve even died. Heart attack. And he, Yongguk would have been the one to blame, the one to be put in jail for murder.

“What were you writing earlier, by the way?”

He was watching me.

My Nine Days journal, I’d written it during math class, pretending to scratch up equations on my notes. To be honest, I thought I’d been pretty damn discreet about it too. At least, I’d had our math teacher, Demon Jung Jihoon, fooled - he hadn’t scolded me, anyways.

“You were watching?”

He nodded, blinking twice - exactly twice and puckered his bottom lip, a sure sign of precious thought.

“Mn,” it was a debate whether or not I should tell him anything. It wasn’t mandatory that I did. “Nothing,” I decided. He’d probably tease me if I told that I was writing a day-to-day diary on our nine days. He teased god damned too much (it was a bad habit; he should should it, the kids in America could very much not be as good natured as me and shake it off as a joke). “Something for me to know, and for you to never find out.”

I bet he’d find out sooner or later anyways.

Detective Yongguk was on the case.

The look on his face was hilarious, a mix between a groan and roll of annoyance. Over all, it made me laugh, nudging him on the side. He was such a child. He may have looked like an adult, but he was nothing of the sort; if anything, I could have sworn he was younger than me (and not the other way around).

Holding tight onto his hand, I dragged him out the gates of our school, still shaking in a fit of laughter at his whine and pout. “Let’s go on a date today.” We didn’t have time, like some of the others couples.

“Where to?”

And Yongguk understood exactly my rush.

“Mn, Jonglo. Let’s go down to Jonglo.” With that, we were then on the bus, taking our precious remaining seconds (of our first eighty six thousand four hundred) down to the crowded streets.

That had always been a sort of fantasy for me, to go down the crowded streets of Jonglo with a date, hand in hand. People would stare, rolling eyes and pointing fingers at the PDA, but we wouldn’t care. We’d parade the hell down that street like no one was really even there.

Nothing really mattered when you were with the person you loved, right?

The bus was pretty much stuffed by the time we got on though; my imagined sweet ride was swapped out for being squished against hard seats, some half drunk old man pressing up behind me. Ugh.

Yongguk tried to make me feel better, taking my hand and giving it a subtle squeeze (plus a gummy smile I knew all too well). And I tried to make the hell of it. At least Yongguk was still with me.

Things got worse though, the said drunk man behind me all but breathing stench down my neck. I almost barfed. And for it, I squeezed the life out of Yongguk’s hand, biting hard at my lower lip and chewing back a curse. No need to get myself on youtube: high schooler beats up drunk man.

In a minute though, as the bus pulled up to a stop, a hand pulled me away, pushing me down into a seat. It took a disorientated second and a quick glance up to find Yongguk smiling down at me. He’d pushed me down to a seat, standing just directly next to me to cover me from the mob. And I smiled back.

(I wasn’t a girl, but it was the thought that counted, right?)

Our next problem was getting off. Tangled in the crowd, it took three missed stops and a holler at the driver to squeeze off, yelping apologies for steps to shoes and stabs to the gut. But at least we were out.

“That’s it, we’re taking the taxi on the way back.”

That was a lie; taxis costed too much and was a luxury only made available for the rich kids.

Hands knitting together again, Yongguk coxed a smile back out for me, rubbing his thumb up and down the back of my hands. “Least we didn’t miss by too much?”

I rolled my eyes, bumping my hip against his with a huff. Way to be optimistic.

The world just seemed to be against us that day though. Because it decided to rain. It ing decided to pour down the . And I was god damned close to crying. This close to crying.

It wasn’t anything like I’d imagined. The streets were empty and the street venders were starting to pack up. Sure, we were getting weird stares, but not for PDA as my mind wanted to wrap, but for standing out in the rain and getting soaked.

Yongguk tried to pull me out of the streets, giving little tugs to my sleeve; but when I decided against budging, he just sighed, giving my hand a little squeeze. He knew things weren’t going exactly my way. He was trying to be supportive.

Trying being the key word.

Half way down the street, not yet even to Jonglo yet, I stopped, rubbing furiously at my eyes. There was water, the rain, I was sure, and it was stinging my eyes. I hated this; I hated this so ing much.

“Himchan?”

Yongguk stopped just when I did, moving to stand in front of me, still holding my hand with a worried frown.

Things weren’t supposed to go this way.

We were supposed to walk down the crowded street, getting weird looks from passing adults (clicking something about boys not supposed to hold hands, and I’d smile back in return, sticking a tongue out at them in tease - because stereotypes were so yesterday). Hand in hand, I wanted to show off to the world my boyfriend, even if we were only together for nine measly days.

“I hate this.” I sniffed, rubbing at my eyes, prying my hand away from Yongguk to contribute both limbs to the task. “I hate this so god damned much.”

The world was against me. It’d do anything to make me sad.

A sigh and Yongguk pulled me up, pressing both his large hands around my cheeks, squishing it a little and forcing me to stare up at him, through the tears and all. This was all too cliched.

He shushed me, taking his thumbs to pull the corners of my lips up to a smile. A really forced and deranged looking one. So cliched that I wanted to barf. I was sure he’d seen this one on the big screens once or twice - maybe five times, Yongguk being the cheesy sap he is.

I tried to wiggle out of his grasp, pulling hands to tug at his wrist.

Rather than romantic, this was getting to be a little embarrassing.

“This is whatever, let’s just go home.”

Even the bus stop was empty, the world’s people seeming to have all just suddenly disappeared. And then there was me and Yongguk, both dripping wet and less than pleased. Should’ve just gone home and called it a day. The first date could have happened tomorrow, when it was less raining.

Three minutes of silence and dripping in the sheltered bus stop, and the announcement for the next bus came, raizing back to my feet. I was going to go home and take a long bath. Then I’d get in trouble some by mom for getting all my books wet. Maybe after that, I’d spread my books out around my room floor, turning up the heat in hopes that they’d dry out without sticking or tearing. (And I’d drop my phone in a bag of rice.)

“Himchan?”

Just as the bus came roaring into view, Yongguk pulled me back.

And I readied myself to slap him for being a cliched idiot, when he kissed me.

Right there.

In public.

On the lips.

“Sorry this didn’t turn out quite the way you wanted it to be.”

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a/n: why jonglo? because jonglo’s pretty. and because jonglo. is that not excuse enough? plus, i like jonglo. i thought a bunch of bracelets, rings and necklaces from there. plus a new scarf. is naice.

i'm going to try and post one a day. try being the key word. don't kill me if i don't. otl. and the length of these will vary. by like. a lot. some may be only a few hundred words long, worthy enough to be only just barely a drabble. others may be longer. this one got longer than i expected. lol. going to sleep now. good night. (i wrote this earlier today before i put up the forward - i wrote this before the forward lol - but uploading now because i'mdumb)

i almost forgot to press unhide chapter. goodbye.

word count: 1585