celestial strings | h.js

three.

He carefully leaned a little towards your side to ask in a small voice. "How was your day?"

You did not look at him when you replied, "Everything is normal. Just eating some dinner, which you should too."

Jisung nodded, a look of realization dawning on his face at the mention of dinner. You felt a rush of relief when you saw him drop off the chair and look around the store, thinking he would finally leave you to your own devices. You were wrong.

After glancing around the store, Jisung returned his attention to you and asked, "Can you save me the seat?"

You looked at him with questioning eyes. "Why?"

"So I can get dinner," Jisung said, pointing towards the cashier. He then giggled, a light snort coming out of his nose. "Well, I know there isn't anyone here but just in case, you know!"

"No, I mean as in–" you paused, then you sighed in faint distress. "Go home, have dinner with your family."

He continued to smile at you for the next quiet minute. Not going to lie, it was hurtful when you kept trying to push him away like this. It made him wonder if he had done anything wrong. If he did, he wouldn't be able to catch on unless you specifically tell him, because the way he has treated you since the moment you two met each other is friendly, and friendly is never wrong in his eyes.

It was so easy for him to just leave you alone, though. There were absolutely no important reasons why he should stay and put in effort just to befriend you. He simply wanted to. Jisung wanted to get to know you, which he supposed was a reason important enough for him to pursue his goal. He assumed you were lonely. And weirdly, every time he glances at you, there seemed to be this magnetic pull yanking him towards you.

Jisung thought it was a small crush he developed, a feeling that sparked from you helping him during the morning. It could disappear soon but as of now, he had chosen to act upon it. Despite knowing it was very impolite of him to continue his curious advances, Jisung decided that as long as you haven't explicitly told him to leave you alone yet, he just wouldn't.

"No." He smiled.

That was an upfront refusal. It was even comical. You were unprepared for such a reaction and as a result, you offered him silence as you frequently did. Jisung patted his bag and sent you a nod, then he turned to go around the store so he could find something to eat. Meanwhile, you continued to devour the cup noodle in your hands and tried to pay no attention to the warning signs in your head.

Dealing with people on a long-term basis has never been your thing. You have been alone ever since a young age, in a place where people were completely different from you and where people had not been the nicest to your kind (the magic-wielding kind). You doubted their indecency stemmed from hatred, though. It felt more like general uncertainty, something of caution, which to be fair, you held the same over them. If anything, you were more aware of the advantage you held over these regular people.

Due to that, you were left unwilling to befriend anybody and you would much rather be left alone most of the time.

It was the first step for you, a giant step as it seemed, to have a meal with someone else. You were so used to staying quiet as you eat that the foreign concept of chit-chatting and eating was almost exciting to you. Gulping a dry patch down your throat, you glared down at the soup and clenched your jaw in dismay.

Not only did the act itself goes against your life compass, but you were also left feeling confused about your feelings because while your head was telling you it would cause you trouble if you let the boy into your life, your heart felt giddy and nervous upon the encounter.