stardust | park seonghwa - Chapter 29: Chapter 29

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sanii
HYESHIN U TRAITOR
SJHDFSJKJDKHFDSJK
EXCUSE ME I FEEL
I FEEL
AAAAAAAAAAA U DIDNT TELL ME
me
yea hi,,,
hwa and i are dating now
sanii
SMH U FINALLY ANSWER
I FOUND OUT THRU HYUNG'S PRIV IG
WHAT THE HELL MAN
AND WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN????
me
......
...concert night?
ur saying he as a private insta?
sanii
DDD:<<<< !!!!!
SO IVE BEEN 3RD WHEELING THE
ENTIRE TIME??????
me
not exactly?
ur ignoring my question
sanii
BUT STILL!!!!
SKJFDJSG IM UR BEST FRIEND SHIN
THIS WAS A WEEK AGO
me
yeo is but ok
heheh ur his cousin so i didnt know
how ull react👉👈
sanii
whatever
i am: betrayed
u owe me lunch for a week
me
WHAT?
sanii
BBBBAI!!
me
CHOI SAN
IM BROKE
I was just about to continue my long line of spam texts when a huge thud comes from the other side of the room. So I tear my eyes away from the screen of the phone, eyes wide.
On the floor lies Hyekyung, flat one her stomach. As I am about to ask her what's wrong, her bottom lip quivers dangerously and she shuts her eyes tight. The next thing I knew was the loud sound of her sobs.
I stand up hastily from my stool, "oh God, Kyung, what happened? You okay?"
In bursts Park Seonghwa, breathing ragged and forehead glistening with sweat. His eyes are wide, searching the room and when they land on the small figure of Hyekyung on the floor, he gasps.
"Kyung!" he scurries to pick her up from the floor, hugging her tightly. "I told you not to run."
Hyekyung buries her face in Seonghwa's neck. "Thorry... Kyungie wants to see eonnie," she apologises.
My heart swells at the sight. As much as I want to comfort Hyekyung too, watching the two of them from here looks insanely soft and warm. So I say nothing.
Hyekyung traces circles on Seonghwa's back as he pats her. "Are you okay, baby?" he asks her, rubbing her knee with one hand, "where does it hurt?"
My little sister pulls away from hugging Seonghwa's neck and shows him her hands, pouting.
"Oh no, you poor thing," Seonghwa then takes one of her hands and blows on it. Hyekyung giggles in between her sniffles, then continues to snuggle up on to my boyfriend's shoulder.
My boyfriend.
Huh. I bite my bottom lip at the thought to restrain a stupid grin on my face. That still needs some time to get used to, though it makes me feel nice and giddy.
It's been a week since the concert, since Seonghwa confessed - since we both did - and since he asked me to be his girlfriend. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I still have to give my hand a small pinch to make sure this was real. But whenever I turn over on my bed and check my phone to see Seonghwa's name on the top of my notifications, my grin breaks out every time.
seonghoon enthusiast♡
good mooorrning cherry!
and no this is not a dream
And that also gave me hope each morning, puts me in a good mood and I wonder just how he does that so easily. It helps me build the courage to one day ask him about the marks on our shoulders. Seonghwa please, please, please be my star mate.
I snap out of my thoughts and approach the two, leaving my easel behind and rub my hands on the apron to get rid of grey lead stains. Seonghwa turns to me, a big grin on his face.
"What are you guys doing here anyway?" I ask.
"Well... your mum called earlier," my jaw drops and Seonghwa nods, "u-huh, I was surprised too. And it turns out this little pumpkin was looking for me."
"You? Why not me?"
Hyekyung shifts, still clinging on to Seonghwa but looks at me. "Because, eonnie didn't answer Kyungie's call..." she grumbles with clear pout.
"Oh no.. I'm sorry Kyung," I pat her head, straightening stray strands from her face. "You must've called me when I wasn't looking, you know I leave my phone on silent."
"But Kyungie saw eonnie on eonnie's phone!"
"Well... I was checking up on my reference pictures and Sani was spamming my messages, your call probably got buried under all of that. I'm sorry, Kyung."
Hyekyung puffs her cheeks so I poke them with my finger in the attempt to cheer her up, making her giggle. Seonghwa's hand lifts up to wipe the last of her tears away before she nuzzles her face into his neck and her frown becomes a grin.
"What pwoject are you doing, eonnie?" she wiggles out from Seonghwa's arms, hops to the floor and runs to my easel. She seems to forget she fell not even five minutes ago and I hear Seonghwa click his tongue.
"Don't touch it, Kyung!"
With a frown, she backs off from the easel a little. "Okay!"
A hand makes its way around my waist and soon, I am facing Seonghwa. I feel my pulse beat against my chest as he smiles down at me and places a quick kiss on my forehead. "Hi."
"Hey," I reply. "How did my mum know your number?"
Seonghwa rubs his hand on his nape sheepishly, "she might've asked for it last Christmas..?"
Huh.
"And you gave it to her?"
"Well, I couldn't say no," he answers, "your sister is smart; you didn't pick up and so she asked your mum to look for my number and called me instead, demanding for ice cream."
I roll my eyes, knowing that Seonghwa wouldn't and didn't say no to Hyekyung. "How did you know I'm here?" I lead him back to the direction of my easel where Hyekyung was still staring at the nearly completed sketch on the canvas.
"Eh, just had a feeling."
When he tries to peek at my work, I shield it behind my back. I turn his head away to stop him from looking at it and he whines in protest. "Why can't I see it?" Seonghwa still tries to dodge my hands on his cheeks.
"It's a surprise!" It's not exactly a lie either — I really didn't want him to see until I'm completely done.
"Just a teensy weensy peek?" he bargains, connecting is index finger and thumb together to show me what he meant by 'teensy weensy'.
"No," I sit him down at the stool on the other side of my easel so he wouldn't see.
Hyekyung makes a sound of approval from where she stands, seemingly deep in thought. "This is pwetty, eonnie," she tells me. I can sense her walking a little closer to the canvas.
"Kyung! What did I tell you?" I scold her. From this side, the top of her head disappears and reappears as she bounces up and down. I can see glimpses of her cheeky smile as she hops.
Sighing, once I sit Seonghwa down and pat his head, I make my way to Hyekyung (who has her little finger so close — a little too close — to the canvas) and I almost cry. Sure, there was no paint on it yet but it doesn't make it any less frightening to have her hand so close. And after eating ice cream too.
"You'll sit with Seonghwa, okay, baby?" I wrap my arms around her belly and heave her off the floor, a small grimace on my face. She shrieks, squirming in my hold while I move her next to Seonghwa.
After taking out a stool from a nearby easel stand, I place her on top.
"Stay there, you two, don't even think of coming close," I point to their spot with my fingers and go back to my painting.
The two of them giggle amongst themselves. From the top of my canvas, I give them one last glance and finally start on mixing paint on my wooden palette.
As I mix reds and yellows and blues together, Seonghwa and Hyekyung talk to each other in semi-hushed conversations. I snicker at their exchange, shaking my head sometimes.
"Kyung, what did you see?" I hear him ask.
"Wellll....." Hyekyung drags out. I imagine her leaning back a little on her seat, legs stretched out and gazing at the ceiling. "There was ciwcles... and swirly things."
"Really? What were they?"
Hyekyung hums. "Kyungie don't know," she simply states in a bright voice, "it looks messy, but a pwetty messy."
"What were the colours on it?"
"Eonnie haven't coloured it in. I wanna help — Kyungie is good at colouring!"
"You are! I saw your drawings when I went to your house, Kyung."
"Oh Kyungie worked hard on them," she boasts. "Kyungie going to be like eonnie!"
Seonghwa sounds like he was about to speak again but is interrupted with Hyekyung hopping down the stool. Soon, I find her tugging at my apron and her hand pointing at the tables.
"Eonnie, can Kyungie draw? Kyungie wants to show Hwa!" she wiggles her pointer finger at the tables a little further in the room. "Oooh! What are you doing..?
She reaches out to poke her finger in the blobs of paint I have on the palette. But I'm faster and catch her wrist just in time. "You know where the papers are, Kyung, take some and make something pretty for Hwa, hmm?"
"Okay!" she chirps, grinning widely before running off to the stack of old scrap paper on one end of the room and picks up a small tub of markers from the other side.
Sighing, I continue to mix the paint with my palette knife.
Seonghwa chuckles, "she's so adorable. Can I steal her?"
"She's a handful," I scoff, "but I guess she can be adorable sometimes."
"It's cute, she wants to be just like you," he continues. I peep my head from the side of my easel and see that he has a small smile, gazing fondly at my sister who is climbing up the tall stools to get up to the desk.
When Hyekyung almost misses her foot, Seonghwa immediately gets up on his feet. "Kyung, do you need help?"
"No! I'm big girl!"
Seonghwa and I let out a chortled laugh. "Okay, Kyung," he sits back down on his stool.
For a while, all I can hear are the soft scratches of the markers Hyekyung are using against the papers she's scribbling on as well as the small tapping sound I make against the wooden palette. It's nice. I don't know what Seonghwa is doing exactly, but by the way the air didn't feel tight (in fact, it feels so warm and comforting) I can tell he's very much enjoying himself.
My eyes are focused on my canvas. Once I finally get the colour I want, I let a soft brush paint light strokes of dark blue on the surface. I've been thinking of it for a very long time, and since I'm working on them right now, I decide to throw every negative thoughts out of my head and finally say something about it (especially since the Wooyoung situation happened — and I haven't told him yet).
"Hwa," his name rolls off my lips smoothly.
"Yes, Cherry?"
I roll my eyes at the name. "Don't call me that."
"Okay, retry," I hear Seonghwa clear his throat, "yes, Raspberry?"
"Do you have a thing for fruits or something?"
"They taste great," he nonchalantly tells me. "I know you secretly like it anyway."
I curse at the fact that he's right, pressing my slightly cold hands against my ears to cool them down.
"Anyways, darling, you were saying?"
I almost chuck the brush in my hand at his head but recollect myself, deciding that he doesn't need a bruise on his forehead. For all I know, he might look even better with the bruise so it wouldn't be a downside for him. Plus, he could get really clingy and act like he lost a limb or something.
I take a deep breath, bracing myself.
"Hwa, what do you think about star marks?"
Seonghwa doesn't answer immediately. The half-expected half-unexpected silence turns the atmosphere a little awkward as I wait for his answer. I try to shake it off my continuing to paint on my work.
"I think..." he begins, "I think they're beautiful."
I nod slowly. "Yeah?"
"Of course."
"Although, when I was little, I thought it was kind of unfair how we were tied down to one person we don't even know..." he laughs quietly to himself, "now, I think of it as a 'at least when I meet them I won't die an old crusty lonely man', you feel?"
I nod, feeling a small smile on my lips. How does he manage to joke around while I'm trying to talk seriously.
"Do you think star mates can hate each other?"
"No," his answer is quick this time, sounding so sure. "No, I don't think they can."
"Hyeshin, is something wrong?" it's Seonghwa's turn to question me this time.
"No it's just..." I accidentally press the brush a little harder than what I intend to, "did I tell you about Wooyoung..?"
"What about Wooyoung?"
"He found is star mate at the party."
"That's great then!" he exclaims but then halts, "who is it?"
"Yeji," I reply.
Seonghwa takes a sharp inhale. "Oh?" he simply says. "Oh. That's... unexpected."
"Wooyoung is kinda not wanting to talk to Yeji because of what she did," I add in a much quieter voice, the strokes I make on the canvas slowing down. "She actually came to me about it, said she's scared about Woo hating her. So I talked to Woo... and now Woo's still ignoring me in class."
"Well, I still think star mates can never hate each other," he states, "they're made from the same star; it's almost impossible. It's probably just a small grudge or something, but Shin, why is Wooyoung ignoring you?"
Okay, I've seen this coming but I was definitely not ready for it.
"Wooyoung... he..." I take a deep breath, "he might've said something that was kind of a sensitive topic to me and it kind of... hurt? It was just a little too close to something I didn't feel too comfortable talking about and he did look like he was about to apologise but still, what he said was true."
"Ah..." I hear Seonghwa from behind my easel. "If you don't mind me asking... what was it that he said?"
"Not that you have to!" he added quickly, "you did say it's a sensitive topic but... maybe I can help? You guys are both important to me, even though Woo is like, the younger brother I never asked for because honestly, San is a handful already. And you, I don't want you to think about it too much — I can tell you've been stressing about it."
"Well.. you definitely can but..." I trail into silence.
"So you think Wooyoung wouldn't be able to hold the grudge forever?" I ask instead.
"I'm surprised he can hold it for this long," he then sighs, "apparently not being on good terms with your star mate can literally kill you."
"That's what I told him!"
"I just hope he doesn't come to a realisation on his deathbed," I hear him slap his cheek right after and tut to himself; something he does when he says something wrong, or something worded wrongly, "I mean, I hope he doesn't realise it too late, you know what I mean?"
"Yeah..."
Seonghwa, are you my star mate? I hear my inner self asking him but my tongue is tied and no sound comes out of my mouth.
Instead, I hear shuffling from the other side of the room and the sharp creak of the metal stool on the floor.
"Eonnie! Hwa! I'm finished!"