Perfect Mistake

I was perched on a chair beside the dining table the next morning with both my legs crossed. Sehun’s phone in my hand kept me occupied while the others continued to eat breakfast. My empty plate sat in front of me and was long forgotten. Sehun’s high score in Temple Run was impossible to beat and mentally swearing at the game didn’t actually help me in any way.

“You guys, how many baby chicks died for us to eat breakfast?” Kris stared at the piece of egg on his fork.

Tao shrugged and answered with the food half-chewed in his mouth. “I don’t know. Like forty?”

Kris sat in silence but nonetheless continued to eat.

“Why are you suddenly so concerned?” Jongdae wagged his utensils at Kris. “I swear you ate chicken wings that were from twenty chickens all at once before.”

“Fried chicken isn’t even my style. I don’t know why I did that.” Kris shook his head.

“What style...” Chanyeol muttered under his breath. Kris took the liberty of deciding not to kick Chanyeol’s leg from underneath the table and instead peacefully continued to eat.

I felt a nudge at my rib. “Sora, could you give me some more ketchup?” Luhan gestured at the bottle of untouched ketchup at my other side while he kept hunched over his food.

“Sure.” Grabbing the bottle, I flipped it upside down before uncapping it and squeezing out its contents into Luhan’s plate. To my dismay, I stared at the watery contents that dripped from the bottle—and no actual ‘ketchup’—that had eventually spread all over his rice.

“You forgot to shake it!” Minseok reminded me. I heard several snorts and giggles go around the table.

I looked at Luhan with an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”

“You’re lucky I like you.” Luhan nonetheless popped the rice in his mouth, chewed and swallowed like he didn’t just ingest some sort of tomato-water that made his meal into soup.

I couldn’t help but hear the significance of his choice of words, because the glint in his eye had told me that he meant it. Every syllable. This was beyond the act. The others continued to eat and I was only reddening in the face by myself.

Baekhyun raised his head. “We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon for the flight?”

“Yup.” Junmyeon confirmed.

“Kyungsoo, can I sit with you? Yixing farts in his sleep after eating the airplane’s snacks,” Tao pleaded.

“No.”

I died for the hundredth time in Temple Run that day. Cause of death: turning into the solid wall. Sehun looked over my shoulder. “Aha, you .”

“Hey! I got to one million this time,” I defended myself.

Sehun probably fought to urge to tell me that one million could be done with only using his feet to play. “Oh, my battery’s at a nineteen percent,” he noticed, pointing at the red battery icon.

“I’ll go practice some more on my phone,” I decided, handing Sehun back his phone. “I think I left mine in the room?” I looked at Luhan for confirmation and he nodded. I pushed myself from the table. “I’ll be back.”

Descending up the stairs and into the room, I had to practically pull the sheets and blankets off my bed before I finally found my phone wedged between the wall and the mattress. Pocketing the device into my jeans, I made a mental note to leave my phone at the bedside table next time instead of falling asleep with it in my hand. My ears picked up the sound of water dripping and my attention shifted to outside the window where the rain was pouring.

Exiting and making a right to the spare room with the balcony that fortunately had the roof stretched over it, I noticed as I stepped onto it, that at least the rain wasn’t as strong as it was the day before. A blue sweater was draped over the railing, I noticed, and had probably belonged to one of the boys. I told myself to remember to take it back down with me later.

The balcony overlooked the side of the villa where the population was mostly trees. Reaching my hand out, I let the rain touch my skin. Catching sight of the swimming pool from around the back of the villa, I unwillingly recalled memories with Luhan. Swimming in it, playing in it, almost—

“There you are. I thought you got lost looking for your phone.” Like he had appeared because I was thinking of him, Luhan was emerging from inside the villa and peeked out at me. "I know this is a big place, but..."

“I have it here.” I patted my pocket. “I just wanted to see the rain.”

His face wrinkled in distaste. “You can see the rain from the kitchen. What are you doing there?”

Seeing the way he hesitated in stepping onto the balcony, I recalled that he was afraid of heights. “The view is a lot better up here though. Come and see.”

Luhan pointed at the railing like it was evil. “You’re going to fall over. It’s dangerous.”

“I won’t, I won’t!” I suddenly felt like a six year old for being scolded. I thought I was at least capable of not flipping over the edge on accident. “Come over here!” I waved him to near me. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”

“...You promise?”

“I promise.”

Luhan appeared to be satisfied with my answer though didn’t move a muscle and remained rigid. Laughing, I had to pull him from his spot and dragged him by the railing. He automatically tensed. “This is bad. You can see the tree tops from here.”

“What do you mean bad?” I held my hand underneath the rain again. “It’s fun up here. Good thing we didn’t stay another night of camping though.”

He agreed with a nod and watched the rain slide off from the rooftop’s edge above us. “I guess you like rain, huh?”

“When it’s not drenching you.”

Laughing, he took the dare to fold his arms on the railing, though didn’t look down at the bottom. “I agree completely.”

The silence that enveloped us was comfortable instead of awkward. Luhan’s presence beside me seemed to calm me more than the rain. We’d never have time for any of this—just staring out into the rain—with our upbeat lives in the city. I wanted to treasure every second of the trip especially since I knew we were returning to Seoul soon. Turning my head to look at Luhan, I had only noticed that he had been staring at me with a small smile on his face. I wanted to shrink away from his gaze.

“What?” I asked. Maybe I smudged part of my breakfast on my cheek.

“Nothing.”  He shook his head. “I just noticed that you have a tiny mole here.” Luhan reached out to poke my temple.

“I knew you had one here a long time ago.” I pointed above his eyebrow