celestial strings | h.js

three.

You gulped. "We barely know each other."

"If everyone thought like that then friendships won't exist, [Name]," he retorted.

"It's different when you let strangers stay over at your house." You smiled with a pinch to his cheek.

"But we're not strangers," Jisung said, catching up with you when you started to walk away. "We're friends. You helped me even when you didn't need to!"

"That's because I know helping you won't cost me anything," you responded. "You, on the other hand, are too trusting and unnecessarily nice to people."

Jisung gasped in disagreement. His energetic energy started to bounce off of his movement as his legs began to stomp and his fists curled in front of his chest in a pumping motion.

"It is not unnecessary!" he exclaimed, stepping in front of you and causing your steps to halt for a moment. He let out a whine of protest when you gently shoved him to the side by poking your finger to his forehead. "I'm telling you, [Name]! What was I supposed to do, let you roam around the street for the night and sleep on a tree?"

"On second thought, sleeping on a tree might be quieter than hearing you cry about your Math homework every five minutes," you said.

His cheeks pinked up at your words. "Oh... sorry about that, I have a habit of being loud when I'm doing homework," he said, then he exclaimed to jump back onto the topic at hand. "Anyway! My point is that helping you was absolutely necessary."

You rolled your eyes. "You're too nice, Jisung."

"And that is bad, why?"

"Your kindness is going to get you killed."

"First of all, dramatic," Jisung said, moving ahead of you and stopping in his tracks when you two finally approached the end of the bus-stop line. He spun gracefully to face you, his eyes innocent as doves as he shrugged. "Second of all, if I am going to go down then I'd rather go down as a decent person than an asshole."

You sighed. Supposed it was great that he grew up in an environment where he could afford to think that way. If he was even a little rougher around the edges then he might think differently, and a part of you was glad that he wasn't. Looking past him instead of responding, your brows furrowed slightly at the line in front of you before you looked back up at him.

"What are we doing?" you asked.

"We are waiting for the bus," he replied. "You don't plan to walk to school, do you?"

You grimaced at him. How long has it been since you've last used any form of public transport? You couldn't even remember. For so long, all you've done was teleport yourself to a remote area and walk towards your destination.

It took some time for all the scouting and planning to make sure you never appear in public places out of thin air and raise suspicion but you managed, and since then you've been running your transportation on five purple strings.

Jisung raised a brow when you grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away from the line. He tugged at you, his head flipping back and forth to glance at the line and you, strings of protests against your incredulous action leaving his lips in a frenzy.

"What are you doing? [Name], I thought you said we can't be late! We have to go back in line! If it gets too long, we might have to wait for another one and it takes fifteen minutes for the second bus to–"

"Jisung." You finally stopped after turning a corner into a remote area hidden behind concrete walls.

When he was finally quiet, you reached behind you for your bag and got your plastic board out. Jisung watched curiously as you unwrapped a small strand of purple string, pausing for a moment to look up at him before you generously pulled a few centimeters more off the board. You snapped it off with a harsh yank before shoving the board back into your bag.