stardust | park seonghwa - Chapter 5: Chapter 5

TODAY, I find myself wandering back and forth in between the many rows of bookshelves in the library merely for my own enjoyment. Yeosang's class finishes in about half an hour and I've got some spare time to kill before we both would usually go out for lunch at a nearby Subway or something.
You know, there's just this something comforting about the library and maybe it's because I love the peace and quiet as well as the warmth of the heaters whirring from the ceiling that somehow feels like a better 'different' than the heaters back home. Usually, I'd snatch a random book from the shelves and have a quick read of it while plugging my earphones to a computer and watch a dozen of music videos or two.
Some people may call it lame and that there's probably a million of other exciting things I could do, but sometimes just sitting down with a nice piece to read is comforting.
So I do it again, this time picking out a book about Greek mythology from the 'G' aisle.
Sliding on to my usual seat at the computer rows, I quickly turn the device on and plug my earphones to watch one of my favourite boy group, B-TEEZ's new music video as I read.
It's one of the fewer things I enjoy doing on my own, being engrossed in my own world in a quiet room and surrounding myself with the enthralling words as the book tries to captivate me, telling their story with the faint booms and claps of the song sounding far, far away. I find myself being transported into the peaks of Mount Olympus, where the Gods and Goddesses walk around majestically in their silky white robes and silver headpieces.
My mind tries to picture the most beautiful woman I can make up in my mind, and there I was, having a small talk with Aphrodite whose voice sounds soft and melodic. Or I could be watching Artemis out in the forests somewhere, pulling on her bow and arrow to shoot at a target fixed on a tree. Or maybe, I could see Apollo begging Daphne to stay, being blinded by the cloud of lust caused by the arrow of love that had shot him.
As I flip another page over, someone tugs at my earbuds and let them drop to the side. Before I could cry out in protest, the person tilts his head and lets out of a curious hum.
"B-TEEZ?" he asks, making a somewhat 'not bad' face. "They're kinda cool, I like them."
"Now that you've added your words of contribution, can you leave me in peace thank you very much?" I say, shuffling in my seat before slipping the bud into my ear once again, focusing back on the words typed on the pieces of paper.
"No, you're welcome," Seonghwa nudges me slightly so he could see the screen more clearly, "I totally forgot Neverland comes out today!"
I try to ignore Seonghwa, tracing my eyes over the lines of the paragraph to remember where I was up to but with the boy almost banging his head on the table - which left me a little alarmed because... what if they snap? His neck, I mean.
"My favourite is Seonghoon, by the way," he tells me after the song ends, looking up to meet my eyes. "Who's your favourite?"
"Juyoung," I simply tell him and click another song.
"Awh, are you in a bad mood today?" Seonghwa chuckles teasingly.
I only spare him a glance before returning back to reading my book. Next to me Seonghwa now rests his head on his arm, stretching over so that he was looking forward at me before pulling the top of my book down. Scowling, I place my book down on the table and tug at my earphones before fully turning to face him.
"Yes, what do you want?" I ask.
Seonghwa flashes me a boyish grin. "Nothing," he chirps, "you were just sitting here alone and I owe you for yesterday anyhow."
My frown quickly turns into an amused chuckle as I try to hide my reddening cheeks - oh God, I hope he doesn't see. I try to avoid his gaze by letting my hair fall over my face, it's as if he could know every secret running through my veins had he looked inside my eyes for a mere second.
"Heard from San who heard from Wooyoung that you weren't feeling yourself today, no?" he pats my arm before returning to sit properly on his chair. "If you didn't want to share, don't worry, he didn't mention anything about it but now that I see it, you're acting kinda different from yesterday."
"I'm fine, just waiting for Yeosang," I say once I'm sure that my cheeks have returned to its normal colour, "it's something I like to do since I don't really get much time for myself, I guess."
The blonde-haired boy rolls his eyes and puffs out his cheeks. "Let's go somewhere," he states, standing up before outstretching his hand, "while you're waiting?"
"But Yeosang -"
"- heh, he can wait if you could wait," he shrugs before pulling me to my feet and swiftly shuts the PC down before I could stop him. Seonghwa nods toward the exit before dragging me with him. "Let's go, you want to check your book out?"
As I walk, I do a double think then place it on a wheelie cart full of other books that had yet been returned to their shelves. "Nah," I tell him, "where are we going?"
"I don't know," Seonghwa answers lightly, his lips slightly tugging up in a small smile, "We just met yesterday and I feel like I'm gonna cross paths with you more often so why don't we just walk and talk?"
Laughing along with him, I say, "sure, whatever you say."
Walk and talks might as well be my new favourite thing. The man next to me keeps his pace in time with mine as we walk aimlessly around campus. We turn a few heads as we stroll past and I must admit, Jeon Hyeshin and Park Seonghwa didn't really look like the kind of people to be hanging out together. Art students don't really mingle with music students, unless at a party of course. I recognise a few of the people Seonghwa greets as we walk - one of them being Kim Hongjoong, which I find out who's in his third year and by the way Seonghwa spoke so casually to him made me connect the dots and realise that Seonghwa is actually older than me by one year
"You didn't tell me you were in the same year as Kim Hongjoong," I comment after the said red-haired boy passes by, giving me one last polite nod of acknowledgement.
"Didn't really feel the need to," Seonghwa lifts his hand to rub the back of his nape sheepishly.
"Oh really?" I smirk playfully as I remember what San mentioned yesterday. It seems that Seonghwa catches on to what I'm thinking of and he lets out a long groan, crouching low to the ground to hide (more like 'show' but whatever) his embarrassment.
He looks up at me who's giggling in satisfaction with a small pout. "Please forget about that," he whines, "I swear I'm gonna kill San the next time I see him..." I hear him add under his breath.
"Should I?" I say thoughtfully in a sarcastic tone as I get him to his feet, "but I thought you were the grandpa, so I shouldn't forget things easily."
"Is San living inside you?"
"Nope but he could be," I joke and there was a brief moment of silence before I earn myself a playful smack across my arm from Seonghwa.
"Young lady, your thoughts!" he scolds me, sounding much like a mum.
After a few minutes of more strolling around, my hand naturally finds Seonghwa's and I lead him into a cute looking stationery shop just across the street.
"I hope you don't mind," I say, turning to face him with an innocent grin, "I need to pick up a few sticky notes and maybe some pens because I ran out, is that okay?"
Seonghwa leans against the light purple wall of the shop, arms crossed and tilt his head to the side. "Go ahead, take your time," he says.
I take that as a cue to start wandering inside the shop. There are a few people here and there, looking at notebooks and binders and I see a person stressing over two pastel coloured planners then ending up placing the both of them in her shopping basket. Just when I thought I won't be caught in a dilemma between two sketchbooks - I'm stuck with not two, but three.
Sighing, I take all of them before marching my way to Seonghwa (who looks as if this is boring the hell out of him but he doesn't show any signs of it when I approach him) and show him the sketchbooks.
"These are for me?" he asks in a half-serious tone, half-joking tone.
I quickly jerk the books closer to me, frowning. "No, idiot, they're for me!" I tsk to myself and show him them to him again. "Well, maybe only one of them. Which one do you think looks better?"
Seonghwa hums as he thinks, making me look up at him through his lashes to see if he's actually giving some thought - abort mission! I shouldn't have looked at him and oh God I know I shouldn't even be thinking this but wow, how does one look so handsome and so cute at the same time?
(You didn't hear that from me).
After a while, he pulls out the book with a deep coloured cardboard cover and black coloured spirals to bind the papers together.
"Why this?"
"I don't know," he tells me but then he gives me a lopsided grin, "I think it matches with your hair and your eyes."
Huffing, I lightly pull on his ear. Seonghwa yelps in surprise, caressing his ear softly. "Sheesh, what did my ear ever do to you?" he mumbles under his breath.
Ignoring what he said, I walk back to put the other two books where I found them before grabbing a few black coloured pens as I walk to the cashier.
But I can't help but think, you know. Wow, what a charmer.