#he's just like .. side eye emoji™ r u blind batman askjfd;

[illusionivsts]

the queue is long, stretching on and on, and littered with all sorts of pairings — the residents range from young adults canoodling with each other to middle-aged men who have gathered in groups of three or four, all boisterously laughing and joking with one another that some of them would need a hip replacement at the end of their excursion. there's a few stragglers amongst the couples, such as single, older people with a twinkle in their eye, as if they have something to prove once they step out onto the ice or pairs of girl friends in matching scarves and earmuffs. moon jihoon finds himself amongst the crowd with a sour look on his face, nose scrunched and brows knitted together as the girls in front of him nearly back into him, giggling about something or other on their phones, but the cross expression vanishes the second they whirl around, replaced with something soft, albeit ingenuine, as apologies spilling from their lips.

"don't worry about it," he says with a friendly smile, tilting his head as the girls exchange glances before huddling together and turning around, whispering to themselves a second afterwards. jihoon rolls his eyes as he turns his head and looks around him, thinking he might have to exit the queue and wait off to the side just so his patience doesn't find itself on thin ice. he really isn't what one would consider athletic, nor someone who was drawn to crowds, but he found himself here at the holiday market solely out of curiosity for what his horoscope had mentioned this morning. something or other about taking part in the festivities around him would bring him good fortune, and that a chance encounter with a leo would happen — of course, those statements were a little generic, but what had really caught his attention was where his horoscope insisted that today was the day that capricorn suns should put on their skates and enter the rink.

jihoon had thought it was an oddly specific thing to say, especially after he had just recently glanced over the flyer for the holiday market in the apartment building lobby, noting there would be an ice skating rink there, but who was he to go against the cosmos? the blond pivots his body away from the girls in front of him, mostly so he can scoff and roll his eyes out of their line of sight, given they'd been peeking at him over their shoulders since he had spoken to them — god, he wishes he could just lean in and tell them to take a picture, given it would last fucking longer. he resists the urge to sigh, and angles his head away a little more, scanning the patrons passing by, just in time to spot who he had been waiting for this whole time.

jihoon perks up at the sight of dyed hair and tanned skin, mischievous grin painting itself on his features as his hand reaches out and grasps the sleeve of the other's coat. "hey, master bruce," he calls out, tugging on insu to grab his attention before he walked past him. "i know the night is darkest right before the dawn, but you need to get your eyes checked out. you literally passed by me like three times." not a truthful statement in the least, but insu didn't need to know that. "i've been waiting for you for like an hour." another lie, given jihoon had only gotten here about ten minutes ago himself after his shift at the comic store had ended. "this the repayment i get for saving your spot in line? tardiness?" — it was still a chance encounter if one forced invited a leo out, right?

──── ✦ 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐄𝐎 . . . with / @icarusreign