stardust | park seonghwa - Chapter 15: Chapter 15

NO matter how loud the radio is, it wont drown out San's words of complaints and whines. He's sitting in the backseats (you probably wont even call it sitting, as he's lying down across the row with his leg hooked over the top of the backrests), occasionally popping a pretzel chip into his mouth. Just a second ago, he was complaining about how Seonghwa's style of music played on the radio sucks and now, all I can hear are his whines about how his shoulders hurt from doing too much after not going to the gym for so long.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Seonghwa clutching the steering wheel so tight it almost turns his knuckles white. You can see an annoyed scowl on his face, ready to slap a piece of duct tape or anything, really, to shut San's mouth closed. I let out a small chuckle seeing him and I dig around my bag to find an unopened piece of gum. I unwrap it and bring the gum to Seonghwa's lips, pressing it against them, catching him by surprise.
"You're annoyed," I grin as I watch Seonghwa bite on to the piece of gum. He pouts while chewing, still keeping his eyes on the road.
"Blame him," he grumbles after a while.
San is now babbling about his uni work now, saying how the professor expects him to turn in so many assignments in such little time. He goes on and on about juggling two different essays with the same hand, while the other focuses on meddling with a group project and how he's stuck with a bunch of people he didn't like.
All through this, I keep my eyes on Seonghwa. I feel the corner of my lips tug up slightly, amused, when Seonghwa chews on the gum harshly.
"San, I swear to God, if you don't shut up I will kick you out of this car," he huffs, cutting his younger cousin mid-sentence.
San laughs teasingly. "Like you can reach your legs back here!"
"But I can throw this box of tissues at you," the man on the driver's seat reaches to my side of the dashboard, pulling out a box of tissues from the little compartment before chucking it to the back seats at a screeching San.
"Hyeshin, Seonghwa is bullying me!" the younger dramatically cries out.
"I'm not taking part in any of this," I simply say, reclining my seat a little further back.
My eyes meet Seonghwa's as San goes on to another very long chain of complaints. The man next to me shrugs with a small defeated smile on his lips. He then simply blows a bubble from his gum. I chuckle, turning back to see that we're now turning into a neighbourhood.  The streets are aligned with sophisticated, modern looking houses — this must be an upper class area. There's a small park several houses in, connecting with the street next to this one and showing the more contemporary styled houses.
I hear San shuffle from behind us and soon, he nestles in between the two front seats. "Hyung, let's go to the store first and get some chips," he suggests.
Seonghwa purses his lips. "We're almost there, San, and plus don't you have like, a stash?"
The younger pauses. "Oh, yeah, you're right," San confirms, "but I think I ran out —"
"— yeah, not gonna happen." Seonghwa ignores San's whine, yet again before he turns the car and we roll into a driveway.
"Hyung!"
"You're such a brat," Seonghwa comments one last time as he parks the car before taking off his seat belt, "I'm going to use your bathroom and get something to eat. Hyeshin, you coming?"
"I..."
"Don't worry, it's San's place, no one's gonna bite you," Seonghwa tells me as he gets out of the drivers seat and before I can call after him, he runs towards the door, holding his crotch before knocking on the door harshly. It opens soon enough and he storms inside, leaving San and I in the car giggling to ourselves.
"Oh so that's why he didn't want to go to the corner store," San comments, the ghosts of his chuckles still lingering in his tone as he unbuckles his seat belt and gets ready to head out. "Seonghwa hyung has a really small bladder tolerance. I hope he doesn't pee himself on the way to the bathroom."
"You know, he's usually the one dragging me to the corner store." He then leans closer to me, whispering in my ear. "Apparently he thinks the cashier girl is cute, she's the daughter of the store owners." I almost choke at what he said. "But don't tell him I told you that, it's supposed to be his secret."
Before I can say anything else, San opens the door and steps out of the car. He groans, stretching his limbs with a loud yawn, one hand scratching his belly. Then he opens my door so I follow him out.
"Anyways, do you want to go to the corner store?" San asks me with a lopsided grin as he pushes the door closed.
I give him a shrug. "Sure, why not?"
The boy's light up eagerly as he quickly laces his arm around mine. He leads me out of the driveway and we walk on the footpath to the end of the street. My eyes glance back at San's house and ignore the fact that we ditched Seonghwa and he probably doesn't know where we're headed.
I may have not spent time with San as much as I do with Seonghwa, but when I do, it's never a boring time. Right now, he swings our arms back and forth, following the rhythm of our feet against the ground. He hums a random tune I hear a lot on the radio but don't know the name of.  San would stop once in a while to talk to me and I'd nod my head, listening to him with a small smile.
Honestly, I think it's cute. How he doesn't seem to stop talking. No wonder he's a friend of Wooyoung's — the two seems to be able to keep up with each other.
"The corner store first opened when I was six," the boy next to me tells me matter-of-factly, suddenly cutting off his singing. "At first, they only sold lollies and spicy water but now —"
A laugh escapes my lips. "S-spicy water?" I splutter, looking at him in bewilderment.
"Yeah, spicy water," San repeats and returns my gaze with a funny look, "don't you know what a spicy water is?"
"Don't I not know?"
San stops his steps abruptly, his lips forming a large 'o' as they make a silent gasp. "You don't know what a spicy water is?" he crosses his arms across his chest, "uncultured swine!"
"Please enlighten me as to why I am?"
"Spicy water is the water that tingles your tongue, like spiciness — how do you not know this?"
I giggle, amused. "So you mean soft drinks?"
"Spicy water! How are 'soft drinks' meant to be 'soft' when they...." San twists his face, "bleugh... sensation in your mouth?"
"Alright then, spicy water. Now what were you saying about it?" I urge him to continue, pulling his hand and walk ahead of him who still seems to find me ridiculous.
San gives me one last distrustful, side eye before continuing on. His arm is now back to being encircled around mine and his little excited skips return to his walk.
"Now they sell a lot of things, much like a convenience store and probably the closest thing we'll get to that in this area," he explains, "Seonghwa hyung and I are pretty close to the owners. They would get what we request sometimes — when I was eleven my dad won't let me buy hair dye at a store because I wanted to dye my hair green so I asked the corner store owners if they could get it in for me and they did!"
"That's nice of them," I comment, "I bet the whole place existed because of you guys."
"More or less..."
Then San jumps up and down, squealing excitedly and making the dimples on his cheeks show. "Let's re-dye my hair!" he exclaims. "This hair is getting boring, don't you think?" San lifts a strand of red on his head and blows it away in disinterest.
"Should we go for a blonde, then?" I discreetly suggest. San nods enthusiastically and once we get to the corner store he's been talking about, he quickly pulls me into the building and leads me to the beauty isle.
Leaving San alone to pick his hair colour, I wander off alone. The interior of the store is simple, designed almost old style. It only has one air conditioner and it looks old, explaining why there are two big fans whirring loudly. There's an ice cream fridge, the prices of the iced goods stuck on the glass and two drink displays. There are only three isles in the store, most are filled with lollies, snacks and random beauty supplies (which San told me most were as of his request). And he also told me the slushy machine near the cashier was what he wanted when he was twelve.
As I reach for a packet of Cheetos, there's a gasp behind me and suddenly I'm met by San's alarmed eyes after he's turned me around and almost pushes me against the fridge. He places his hands on my shoulder, eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"San, what's wrong?"
"What's today's date?" he asks.
"The twentieth, why?"
San frustratingly rubs the back of his neck and sets his hair dye on the shelf behind him. He quickly takes off the jacket he's been wearing to tie it around my waist. "Ew! San! Get your sweaty jacket off me!" I try to swat his hand away but he manages to do it first.
"When was the last time you had your..."
"Had my what?"
"Your... thing?"
I tilt my head to the side. "What thing?"
San sighs. "Your time of the month?"
I feel my head switch into a state of panic. That's right. It completely slipped my mind. "Don't tell me..." I brace myself at San's careful nod.
"Since when..?"
I backtrack my mind, remembering what I did today. When I had class with Wooyoung, it definitely didn't come yet. Maybe when I went to Seonghwa's studio — nah, if it did then Seonghwa must've said something. It can't be when we ate lunch, he could've said something then too.
"The car?" I guess, "oh my God, I hope I didn't stain his seat..."
"Oh my God," San bites his bottom lip to figure out what to do. His eyes scan the shop and nods. "The bathroom is at the back, just around that corner. Wait there, I'll get you some pads or something. We need to stop it from getting a lot worse, then you can change into something else when we get to my place, kay?"
When I nod at what he said, something inside me flips at the tone of the care of his voice. As I walk towards the bathroom, I turn my head back to look at San waddles to another isle and picks out a small packet of something before going up to the front counter. Then I feel the cramps slowly coming in and I almost groan. Maybe that's why my shoulders were so sore earlier.
I hate this, why now?
A knocking comes not long after I enter the bathroom cubicle. "Hyeshin! I don't know what you use so I hope these are fine..." his voice calls out from the other side of the door. My heart warms at his efforts, opening the door slightly to let him hand the plastic bag to me.
I come out soon after with my face still slightly flushed. I can breathe a little easily now even though my mind is still at Seonghwa's car and whether or not I've stained it. But with San's arm wrapped around my shoulder as he pulls me close, telling me to be careful next time and watch the calendar, I soon focus on trying to figure out how to calm my racing heart instead.
I was right, it's never a boring time with San.