SKINSHIP ; lee heeseung (✓)

V

Heeseung nods his head but he looks conflicted. Yejin doesn't know which side of him is the real side. Yes, he just said that his personality is similar to Yejin's but she doesn't have to take his word for it. He could be lying. Yejin doesn't trust easily. She knows there's two sides to every story and likewise, there's two sides to every person.

"Can I ask you something? I'm just curious," Heeseung asks her, clasping his fingers together in front him across the railing. Yejin nods her head in turn. "How did you end up with not being able to touch people?"

Yejin was expecting him to ask that question sooner or later. He's the only that has gotten close enough to her to know that she hates being touched and touching people. She can't remember the last time she held her mum's hand.

"There is a story but I don't want to share it with you. Not yet," Yejin answers him, refusing to meet his eyes. "I want to be able to trust you to tell you and, I don't mean this in a rude way, but I don't trust you enough yet,"

"No, I understand. I just want to be a good friend to you, that's all,"

A good friend? Are they friends? Heeseung turns to see her, edging a little close than he was. He smiles at her, the radiant smile that could compete with the moonlight and win. Yejin is still thinking about his good friend comment.

"Are we friends? Labels don't really matter to me but would you call me a friend?" Yejin finally asks him.

She has been wanting to ask him that since Saturday but she couldn't.

"Kang Yejin, would you allow me to be your first proper friend?"

Yejin meets his eyes, her own eyes full of tears. Her first proper friend. He asked her to be her first proper friend. She wipes her tears away and shuffles a little closer to him. Now they're standing barely a feet apart. It's a cold night, her bare legs are numb from the chilled wind but there's a certain warmth flooding through her. She nods her head, her body barely being able to contain her excitement of having a friend.

He laughs and laughs and Yejin can swear that she also saw his eyes prickling with tears. Maybe it was the cold. He screams out to the ocean 'I'm here with my friend Kang Yejin!' and the water ripples at the sound of his voice. A couple of strangers walk past them, eyeing them with dirty looks but for once, they don't care. The burst into laughter, Yejin also screaming to the ocean about being there with her friend Lee Heeseung. It's a strange feeling, Yejin notes to herself. Who would've thought she would be out at night, embarrassing herself with a guy she has only known for three days?

The two don't remember the last time they had this much fun. School was always stressing them out so they never had time to be the teenagers they were. Heeseung had friends and they were fun but the enjoyment he got from spending time with Yejin gave him a different aura. Maybe it was because no one knows Yejin like how Heeseung knew her. Maybe it was because they were contrasting but at the same time, they was an balanced parallel between the two.

They forgot about time. Time completely escaped the two's mind. When Yejin finally remembered, she frantically checks her phone to see that's almost eleven. She is an hour late but her parent's hadn't called her once. Did they trust Heeseung that much to let her go over time limit? Heeseung picks his bike up and and they start the slow walk back to the café.