say you love me | choi beomgyu 최범규

⌦ 16

in the midst of haeri ushering beomgyu into his seat, the boy felt his face warming up. as he took his seat, he kept his head down and shifted his eyes to his hand; specifically his hand that was intertwined with hers. why hasn't she let go yet? he wondered, raising his gaze to the girl beside him, subtly staring at her through the cracks in his hair. and why am i kind of hoping she never does..?

while beomgyu let his questions and thoughts run around his mind, haeri was struggling to keep herself from dozing off yet again. being a student for several hours and then a teacher for an additional three surely seemed to have tired her out.

her attempt at staying awake was beginning to fail as her head began to droop down and her eyelids grew heavy. but the sudden vibration in her open hand caused her head to instantly shoot up. haeri let go of the cold slim hand that she had unknowingly been gripping onto to properly hold and check her phone.

the second she pulled her hand away, a frown was pasted onto the long-haired boys face. his hand that had begun to feel so warm in her grip returned back to its original freezing state just as he was starting to get used to the new, comfortable sensation.

finally bringing his head up, beomgyu glanced at the girl who was intently staring at her cellphone. however, the expression on her face was one that he had never seen on her before. one that he never wished to see on her or anyone else in fact. one that he was all too familiar with himself.

anxious. distressed. fear.

as he examined her, he noticed how her right leg was now bouncing at a rapid pace, occasionally brushing against his leg. how her eyes were wide and frantically reading over the texts she had received over and over again. how her fingers were shaking as they hovered over the digital keyboard. and how her chest quickly rose up and down as she took more frequent breaths than before.

this won't do... ugh, screw it!

beomgyu swiftly snatched one of haeri's hands off her phone and held it between both of his own. "i'm sorry for suddenly, um, holding your hand, but i need you to look at me," he stated as he gave her smaller hand a slight squeeze. the girl turned off her phone before hesitantly turning to face her friend. "i know you probably don't want me to see you like this but i promise, it's okay. just look up, yeah?"

haeri shook her head, using all the strength in her to hold in the tears that were threatening to fall. "it...it's fine. i-i'm okay." she choked out.

"i know i need tutoring and all but i'm not stupid, haeri," beomgyu lightly joked. "let me help you like you've helped me, okay?"

the sincerity in his voice luckily did not go unnoticed as haeri slowly nodded before lifting her head to properly look the boy in the eyes. beomgyu sent her a small smile which she tried her best to return but in the end, all she could do was let out choked sobs, trying to stay as quiet as she could in order to avoid gaining unwanted attention from the other passengers.

"hey, hey... focus on your breathing not on smiling back," he ordered before taking slow deep breaths, demonstrating for the shaking girl. "copy me. deep breaths... in and out... take your time..." haeri nodded and began to mirror his actions.

after a few minutes and plenty of words of encouragement from beomgyu, haeri finally managed to get her breathing under control. "i'm s-sorry you had to see t-that," she muttered out. "thank you though..."

shaking his head, beomgyu gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. "there's no need to apologize. i'm glad i could help!" he grinned, beginning to trace circles on the back of her hand.

"and just in case you're worried about this... i'm not going to ask you or have you tell me about what happened or what's wrong. we really only met a few days ago so i doubt we're close enough for you to be comfortable telling me and that's perfectly fine."