stardust | park seonghwa ✓

28

I snap out of my thoughts and approach the two, leaving my easel behind and rub my hands on the apron to get rid of grey lead stains. Seonghwa turns to me, a big grin on his face.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?" I ask.

"Well... your mum called earlier," my jaw drops and Seonghwa nods, "u-huh, I was surprised too. And it turns out this little pumpkin was looking for me."

"You? Why not me?"

Hyekyung shifts, still clinging on to Seonghwa but looks at me. "Because, eonnie didn't answer Kyungie's call..." she grumbles with clear pout.

"Oh no.. I'm sorry Kyung," I pat her head, straightening stray strands from her face. "You must've called me when I wasn't looking, you know I leave my phone on silent."

"But Kyungie saw eonnie on eonnie's phone!"

"Well... I was checking up on my reference pictures and Sani was spamming my messages, your call probably got buried under all of that. I'm sorry, Kyung."

Hyekyung puffs her cheeks so I poke them with my finger in the attempt to cheer her up, making her giggle. Seonghwa's hand lifts up to wipe the last of her tears away before she nuzzles her face into his neck and her frown becomes a grin.

"What pwoject are you doing, eonnie?" she wiggles out from Seonghwa's arms, hops to the floor and runs to my easel. She seems to forget she fell not even five minutes ago and I hear Seonghwa click his tongue.

"Don't touch it, Kyung!"

With a frown, she backs off from the easel a little. "Okay!"

A hand makes its way around my waist and soon, I am facing Seonghwa. I feel my pulse beat against my chest as he smiles down at me and places a quick kiss on my forehead. "Hi."

"Hey," I reply. "How did my mum know your number?"

Seonghwa rubs his hand on his nape sheepishly, "she might've asked for it last Christmas..?"

Huh.

"And you gave it to her?"

"Well, I couldn't say no," he answers, "your sister is smart; you didn't pick up and so she asked your mum to look for my number and called me instead, demanding for ice cream."

I roll my eyes, knowing that Seonghwa wouldn't and didn't say no to Hyekyung. "How did you know I'm here?" I lead him back to the direction of my easel where Hyekyung was still staring at the nearly completed sketch on the canvas.

"Eh, just had a feeling."

When he tries to peek at my work, I shield it behind my back. I turn his head away to stop him from looking at it and he whines in protest. "Why can't I see it?" Seonghwa still tries to dodge my hands on his cheeks.

"It's a surprise!" It's not exactly a lie either — I really didn't want him to see until I'm completely done.

"Just a teensy weensy peek?" he bargains, connecting is index finger and thumb together to show me what he meant by 'teensy weensy'.

"No," I sit him down at the stool on the other side of my easel so he wouldn't see.

Hyekyung makes a sound of approval from where she stands, seemingly deep in thought. "This is pwetty, eonnie," she tells me. I can sense her walking a little closer to the canvas.

"Kyung! What did I tell you?" I scold her. From this side, the top of her head disappears and reappears as she bounces up and down. I can see glimpses of her cheeky smile as she hops.

Sighing, once I sit Seonghwa down and pat his head, I make my way to Hyekyung (who has her little finger so close — a little too close — to the canvas) and I almost cry. Sure, there was no paint on it yet but it doesn't make it any less frightening to have her hand so close. And after eating ice cream too.