stardust | park seonghwa - Chapter 30: Chapter 30

THE day is Friday and not too long ago I just finished a pretty long session in the painting studio. Honestly, I didn't expect Yeosang to even come at this hour since he'd usually sneak into my apartment (when he comes over on a Friday night) later in the night.
"Hyeshin, open up!" I hear his voice from outside as he bangs on the door.
"Wait!"
"Hurry up! I gotta tell you something!"
"Okay, okay!"
I look through the peephole and see that Yeosang is jittery on his feet, eyes sparkling.
He bursts into the hallway as soon as my door opens. It looks like he ran here, judging by the way he's panting and the way a random strand of hair stuck out from his head. Which is considerably weirdmas Yeosang will never run unless there's chicken in the kitchen. I'm sure he wouldn't even run if the house caught on fire because he's that lazy. ("We are told to conserve energy, Shin," he told me one time, "it's what I'm basically doing.")
So whatever got him to run, at a time so early in the evening too (it was five and Yeosang never arrived before eleven if he decided to stop by), was either something bad (something like his goldfish Alfred died) or something extremely good (in example Yeosang getting accepted at a famous cooking school despite his shitty cooking skills).
"What is it?" I find myself asking as he dives on to the couch, landing face first against the plush surface.
He turns around and props himself on his shoulders.
"I felt it again," he announces. Yeosang sports his grin, the one where his eyes crinkled and where his cheeks puff up.
It's one of his rarer smiles, the one you'd find when you willingly buy him a box of chicken or when you've been boasting that you've been practising Mario Kart and he beat you instead.
"Huh?"
"My mark!" Yeosang giggles excitedly, "I felt it again! They wrote 'don't be sad'!"
"Oh?"
Not going to lie, a small part of me is bubbling up in green jealousy. My star mate has never done that. Then again, I'm not sure if our star can even do that as Yeosang said, it's different for every pair though it doesn't cut the fact that I just somehow wish my star mate would do something similar.
Another part of me is happy for him. Kind of. I'm not sure. I should be happy, right?
Okay, maybe the small part of jealousy isn't as big as me being happy but I'm still... glad. He mentions that it's been a long time since he felt anything and he was starting to worry so much he thought about tracing words on the mark himself. So it must've been comforting to him to know that his star mate is still there.
"Did you write anything back?" I ask.
"I tried," he admits, "but my message was probably too faint to notice. I already pressed against my mark as hard as I could but sometimes it just doesn't reach them, I guess."
"How did you know it's too faint?"
"They didn't write anything back," Yeosang shrugs, "but it's okay. At least I know they're alive and they've not completely forgotten about me."
"Forgotten about you?"
"Yeah, 'cause, you know, there's still a possibility of them having a boyfriend or a girlfriend currently," he tells me, "or maybe they're busy? They must be a relatively busy person if we bumped into each other at the rush hour."
I nod.
"Now that you mentioned rush hour, do you ever wonder how old your star mate is?" I chortle a laugh, "for all you know it could be a middle aged man on his way off from work... or a freshly graduated high schooler with like her diploma... or maybe even a pageant queen?"
"You're wild."
"The possibility of all of these possibilities being possible is just another possibility that can possibly happen," when Yeosang raises his brow at me, I sigh. "Mark Lee from History of Arts, two-kay-nineteen."
"Just how the fuck did you memorise that?"
"When Mark Lee sits next to you and recites that in your ear every time exam season comes around, you'll learn," I simply say, "but can't say he's wrong, right?"
"No, guess not," Yeosang lies flat on his back.
"But, yeah, sometimes I do," he continues, "for all we know, it could be anyone."
I laugh, "imagine if it's secretly me and I've been hiding it from you for years."
"I won't say I'd be disappointed but we've been friends since forever, I basically know you inside out already. What's the fun in that?"
I make a face at Yeosang, deciding to plonk myself on top of him and we both lay as a messy heap on the couch while we watch old childhood tv series.
"By the way, did your classes end early?" I ask him, "you usually don't finish 'til like seven."
"Nah, we're all working on our showcase things right now and I got sick of mine and got nothing better to do," he flicks a random piece of plastic off my couch, "you?"
"Eh, just did more painting," I simply say, "and had lunch with San. Earlier this week he was like 'Hyeshin you owe me food' and since I'm a nice person, we had a pretty good lunch."
"Why do you owe him food?"
"You know..." I mumble, picking at a string of thread on the couch. "Because I didn't tell him about Hwa and he got annoyed because he knew about it through Instagram or something so he wanted free lunch."
Yeosang snorts and for a second a thought comes into my mind about how my best friend will probably huff out a "typical" or a "dumbass" or a "he could've gotten his own lunch, tch". My jaw drops, however, when Yeosang speaks.
"I also could've gotten free food but the idiot didn't even invite me along," he clicks his tongue in disbelief, "why didn't you tell me you were going to have lunch with San?"
A cushion is thrown at his face and Yeosang gives me a grin, chucking the cushion back at me. "You hardly get me food nowadays," he comments, "it's sad, I'm your best friend."
I give him a look. "Don't you dare ―"
"― so you owe me food too!" he cuts me off, quickly shielding his head for another incoming cushion.
I groaned, faking a cry.
"I'm going to be broke soon," I whine, kicking Yeosang's legs. Then I remember the amount of money I spent today on just food alone. "Or maybe even broker than I already am!"
"Whatever, you can't say no because I'm staying here for the night," Yeosang says in a teasing tone, sticking his tongue out at me. "Therefore, we get breakfast at the roastery tomorrow morning!"
"You're staying here?"
"Yep!" the boy swings his legs off the couch and gets up. He pads over to his bag, pulling out his stripey pink pyjamas (we call it the 'bacon pyjamas' because of the weird resemblance it has with a strip of bacon) and he whips them over his shoulders.
"Donghoon's back home," he continues, "he was acting weird so I'm not taking any chances."
I feel myself frown.
"Dad called me, said that Donghoon just came home. Apparently he came in really calm but then, you know how Donghoon is," his voice is muffled due to us being in different rooms but I still hear him. "So I went in, got my pyjamas and went right back out."
"Nice, right?"
Sighing, I get up from my seat and follow him out the living room. Yeosang is in the bathroom, changed into his sleepwear and is currently yanking his toothbrush off from the hanger on the wall.
"I thought, huh, well, might as well catch up with you, you know?" he continues, sounding a little like he's speaking gibberish as he brushes his teeth, "that's when star mate dude decided to trace their mark and boom! I'm happy again!"
He gives me a bubbly grin through the mirror.
"Then I also came to remember ― 'oh! Shin hasn't told me her side of the story of when Hwa asked her out!' ― so I was like time for some hot piping tea. Hwa told me about it, by the way, he was the one who freaked out the night before the concert because he wanted to ask you out."
Oh?
I didn't know that.
My heart warms at the thought of panicky Seonghwa rapidly texting Sang in the middle of the night because he was nervous about asking me out. It's cute ― he's cute. That's why Yeosang must've known that Seonghwa was supposed to pick me up, they'd been talking the night before and―
"Don't laugh!" Yeosang exclaims accusingly but he too, stifles his laughter. "Poor guy was all like, 'oh my God, Yeosang what do I do, what does she like?' 'What if she doesn't like me! Please kill me while you can, I beg you'."
We burst into a fit of laughter. "This is some great teasing material," I grin.
Yeosang waves his toothbrush at me. "You're right," he says, "I'll show you everything! It's expose Seonghwa hours."
"You bet."
"Now hurry up and gurgle some water, you're disgusting," I grimace at Yeosang who was talking with his mouth full of toothpaste bubbles.
Instead of doing as I say, however, and as typical Yeosang would do, he ignores me and chases me around the apartment with his lips pouted trying to forcefully kiss me on the cheek.
"Kang Yeosang, fuck off!" I screech, pushing his face out of the way.
It's so amusing how Yeosang acts like a complete child with me compared to his quiet yet snarky-witty self towards other people and as much as this disgusts me (what, it's unhygienic), I couldn't ask for a better best friend.