[Rosemary and Thyme]

[ 24 ]

     Three acquaintances (friends, actually, but they don't ever admit it) were once more gathered at the park where they made their hangout space ever since that fateful day they all came together and one of them ditched the other two. It was nice, they all had to admit...once more not vocalizing it. 

     "Hm." The blond of the group peered down to check the time before tilting his head back slightly. 

     "I'm going." He announced, catching the attention of the two who were having a conversation--it consisted of Lotus mainly talking since Kingsley was offering short answers. 

     "Oh!" She exclaimed, seeing him already walking. 

     Waving at him, she chirped, "Um, Bye!"

     It was returned with a measly half-assed wave. Well, it was better than nothing. He could've just walked off pretending not to hear her, that would've been terrible. 

     "You both are close," Kingsley commented. He still had yet to wrap his mind around it. He was slowly getting there after getting more comfortable around Lotus, though. She was a breath of fresh air after having to deal with rowdy, at times violent and other times cold people.

     She shrugged, finally looking up at him, "Not nearly as close as you two. What's happening lately? He seems kind of busier."

     The hours delayed texts, earlier partings, and fewer meetups were a dead giveaway that something was up. 

     "He's been busy near Gilshin." He stated, promptly dismissing the curiosity that she seeped. 

     "Gilshin?" She hummed in thought, "I wonder what he's doing over there."

     It wasn't as if he went to that school. Maybe he knew someone from there or maybe it was something else. She shrugged it off. Sure, she did miss being around him for a longer time, but he had his life and that was that. Not only that, but she didn't want to seem clingy. She used to always get told off over that.

     She looked down at her phone, with a pursed lip. That just gives her time to finish what she needed to be done. 

     "Hey, which one do you prefer?" She asked, holding her phone up to Kingsley with the screen displayed. 

     "The blob...owl...." She swiped to each picture displaying said charm,  "...or teapot?"

     They looked like cute-ified versions of each item. While he wasn't interested in them much, she just seemed so excited. Her looking this excited didn't happen every day...more like every so often.

     "We talked about this days ago." 

     The phone disappeared out of his sight as she went to fiddle with the corner of her case. "I know, but it took this long to narrow it down to three ones that I thought you'd like..." She trailed off. 

     The girl appeared downtrodden, a pout upon her lips which caused her to look as if she had been kicked. He just sighed, concluding that rolling with the flow in this situation was the better option. It wasn't like he cared if he got a charm or not. 

     "Make it a surprise then." He uttered. 

     This caused her to perk up once more and she nodded in determination, looking back at the screen of her phone. "On it!" She cheered. 

     He released a barely audible sigh through his nose. It was such a shame someone like her was involved with Donald Na, as much as he hated to admit it. But what was done was done, and for her sake, he could only hope this whole thing stayed out of the light of those involved in the things they were implicated in.