#i really really apologize that this took a whole year to get to aldjdjdj

[starlightfades]

in the past, he was a distraction, born solely out of her own curiosity. if one were to question how the pair had come to be, minyoung wouldn’t be able to produce an answer, for she was unsure of the details herself. in her age of adolescence, it was something she simply wanted to experience. all she really knew was that she appreciated their shared interest in the cinematic arts. hearing anything besides, ‘it was just good’,  as a response when asking about a film was truly a holy grail, and more than enough of a reason to want to keep baek eunwoo in her life.

though she’d never admit it aloud, she rather enjoyed being kept company, as opposed to her solo cinema outings. even having to explain the events of the film in real time for the other had been more amusing than annoying.

at his words, minyoung could only squint her eyes in a half-hearted glare before resigning with a heavy sigh. “there’s no winning with you.” she mumbled the words under her breath as she widened her stride to catch up with the other’s pace. for a moment, she questioned the meaning behind his words, wondering if there was more concern for her than necessary. but she was quick to shake off the thought with a playful comment of her own. “if that happens, you have to promise me that even if turn into a chair, you’ll continue to keep me company no matter where i travel to.”

eyeing the door to the convenience store ahead of them, minyoung stopped in her tracks. “is the ice cream on you, mister bar owner? i did just move after all– and that’s expensive!”

the cozy comfort of a movie theater always managed to lure eunwoo into a dangerous sleepiness. to his luck it had rained outside, the scent of summer rain now seeping life back into him as he filled his lungs with the familiar scent. he gave himself a good stretch, hands intertwined above his head, genuinely not used to sitting for such a long period of time. eunwoo had spent the majority of the film flicking between the subtitles and trying to understand the japanese film with his broken language skills, sometimes getting a bit lost in translation. minyoung would chuckle and shake her head when he asked for what a character just said because he tried to listen and not read - and leave him hanging in his own chosen fate, of course. 

eunwoo would really have to keep it together at work tomorrow and not clumsily answer with the truth when asked what he had been up to the night before. uttering the word movies put everyone into a state of high alert, revving up their engines to tease him. it was a known code word for spending time with minyoung again, a fact everyone took great joy in annoying him about. for the rest of the world it seemed a thing of astronomical unlikeliness to stay friends with your ex. somehow, eunwoo had rarely questioned it. it wasn’t like they were an integral part of each other’s lives, bound by memories - at this point the comfort of knowing each other and their overlapping interest kept ushering them together. 

although at times, eunwoo wondered if that was truly all.

he dissipated the thought whenever it crept up on him. their romance (if one could even call it that) had been so short-lived and casual that it would have been foolish to assume anything else. but at times he would lay awake after their movie outings, twisting and turning one of minyoung’s sentences in his head, wondering about its true meaning. more than once had he been told that he would not notice an obvious sign sent his way even if it was written on the wall. but to assume that minyoung was sending him those signs felt so pretentious, he cringed at himself whenever his imagination got ahead of him.

“even more of a reason to walk you home. you don’t know the neighborhood yet, what if you get lost? step into a puddle that ends up being a portal to another world?” eunwoo asked, a reference to the movie they just saw. coincidentally, they just split to avoid a large puddle blocking the way, walking side by side again after the danger had been avoided. he pointed to the convenience store at the corner they were heading to. “i think i can survive it if we get ice cream on the way.”