he settled down onto the makeshift bed consisting of a worn-out mattress and a few battered jackets. he gave a groan of exhaustion and a huge sigh, sprawling himself out once his back touched the soft ground.
 
“now this is what I’m talking about,” he muttered, a husky voice that resonated in the night.
 
the girl standing before him only stares, with a cringed face and an appalled expression. she takes a few steps back and shakes her head, though unseen by the boy with closed eyes. “there’s no way I’m sleeping on that… thing,” she responds, gesturing to the makeshift bed he was on.
 
his eyes flutter open and he looks at the surface below him. “hey, this took me ages to set up!” there was a playful edge of accusation in his voice, accusing the girl of not appreciating his effort put into this whole set-up. then he grinned, ridding the sad pout that was on his face just a while ago. “and it feels really good, so you’re going to regret it if you don’t come here now.”
 
“actually, I already regret this whole thing. when I told you I wanted to run away, I didn’t mean an escape to the forest or park or wherever this is, or to sleep in a freaking open tent and this… bed thingy.”
 
he laughed and sat up, “I figured that if we wanted to run away, we might as well make it a real adventure for the both of us. so come on,” he motioned for her to come to his side, “just stay beside me and everything would be great.”
 
the tension in her muscles faded away when she heard this. she couldn’t deny that it was true, because everything did feel great when she was beside him. or when he was beside her. whatever.
 
the point was that she had no legit reason to shun away his company, even if it meant being in close proximity with the dirty, insect-infested grass and the bacteria in the air and the dangerous animals lurking around.
 
“fine. but if the grass or the air or the animals here piss me off, you’ll get it from me.”
 
he laughed again. but this time, he didn’t need to say anything, and there she was already climbing into the tent and into his reach.
 
the air around them was still peaceful, undisrupted even by the commotion set off just a while ago. she lay awkwardly beside him, hearing their heartbeats attempt to drown the other out.
 
then an arm pulled her closer from one side so she was now shoved into the side of his frame. she heard him smiling (don’t ask how she did) and frowns. “yah, this isn’t comfortable for me.”
 
then she felt him letting go. “make yourself comfortable, then! do you need to climb onto me?”
 
she smacked him in the abdomen, earning a tiny yelp of pain. “no, thank you.” again, she settled into the space beside him and this time, wrapped her own arms around his frame.
 
“I believe you’re comfortable now?”
 
she nodded, head buried into his chest.
 
while it had taken them half a day to get out of town and run away to this desolate area, plus a few dozens of buckets of sweat spent on maneuvering their way into this forest-park-area-thingy, he still smelt good. one of the many, uncountable reasons why she liked him.
 
there were many other reasons, some of which, like the smelling good one, made her sound like a creeper, but one thing she knew for sure was these reasons didn’t need to be listed nor counted. she liked him enough not to care.
 
(she thinks she loved him, now that she looks back at it.)
 
he laughed, the third time of the night. “hey, I can hear you smelling me.”
 
stunned, her intake of oxygen stopped, and she held her breath as she tried to shift her eyes somewhere else and not on his chest.
 
“it’s okay, go on, at least I know I smell nice enough for you to do this.” giving an even louder laughter, this prompted her to smack him once more, albeit with a much larger force.
 
“shut up.”
 
the laughter halted.
 
without any other place to set her eyes on, she shifted her body so she was now facing the dark sky. it was a portrait of black with several tiny specks and one bigger ball of white.
 
she tried to connect the tiny specks like a game of connect-the-dots, and she swore she saw the image of two people embracing each other in a way that was similar to them right now. subconsciously, she smiled.
 
“do you think we can stay like this forever?”
 
she waited for his answer, but got none. expecting the worst, a wave of disappointment washed over her as she felt her once-happy mood being dashed like a sandcastle being ruined by the incoming water.
 
she tried to console herself by telling herself that he had fallen asleep, or something. but he wasn’t snoring.
 
“yah! what is this? is it a ‘no’?”
 
once again, no answer. she clucked her tongue and sat up, prepared to give him a huge lecture. “yah!”
 
when she turned, she only saw him staring at her through eyes that had a lot to convey, but his lips were pursed so tightly they were turning white. amused, she laughed and smacked him again. “what are you doing?”
 
he mumbled something through his tightly-shut lips and she finally understood. “open your mouth and talk!”
 
“well you told me to shut up just now, so…”
 
“you always take my words too seriously…”
 
“but you might get angry, or get violent on me, or—I don’t know…”
 
“well, now you can talk. what’s your answer?”
 
he sat up, supporting himself with his arms as he leveled himself with her sitting position’s height. then he wrapped his arms around her and set his chin on her shoulder, his chest to her back. his legs were sprawled in another direction, and as uncomfortable as it might have, it felt just great to him.
 
she was now facing the sky again, where he had pointed just a while ago before sitting up.
 
“will those stars ever disappear?” he asked, his voice a quiet whisper that entered her ear immediately.
 
“I think I read about it once in astronomy class that yes, they do die after a long while, like after a really long while…”
 
“okay, then let’s be like the sky.”
 
she eyed him peripherally. “what?”
 
“we’ll be like the sky,” he repeated, smiling gently as he guided her hand to point at the sky, “and we’ll watch all these stars disappear, together.
 
“we’ll watch them disappear till all of them disappear, and that’s when we’ll disappear.”
 
“doesn’t that mean we’ll still disappear?” she retorted.
 
“yeah, of course we will. no one lives forever. but the thing is, we’ll disappear to-ge-ther.”
 
“…and to think all I asked you was if we’ll stay like this forever.”
 
“yes, sooyeon,” he finally answered, this time in direct relevance to her question. “it’s a yes.”
 
then they kissed and sat like this till they both fell asleep and landed on the mattress, their hands still together and their fingers still intertwined.
 
and astronomy became sooyeon’s favorite class, no matter how many Fs she got.