celestial strings | h.js

three.

"Waiting for the bus–yeah," you scoffed with an eye-roll as you began to work on creating a pattern with your string, your delicate fingers poking through holes and knitting together a special symbol you learned back then from school. When you were done, you looked up at Jisung and raised your arm, motioning for him to go under.

He tilted his head to the side. "What?"

"Come inside, we're teleporting and it'd be better if you hold onto me. The magic is going to wrap around me so I need you sandwiched in-between," you said casually, reaching your arm higher. When Jisung didn't budge, you sighed out loud. "It's faster, Jisung."

Oh, he knew that. He knew it would definitely be faster. He just hasn't tried enough teleportation in his life to know if he would come out of it alive. There were plenty of errors he's seen in movies about it before, such as being teleported right in front of a car or being sent off to some unknown place nobody can ever find. Or, one of his worst nightmare, being sliced in half by a portal.

Although those instances were all fiction and therefore, probably unlikely to happen in real life, it was still a part of his unshakeable childhood fear. He's gotta live through today to tell you all about the time he thought his mom died in a portal when he was around four, after he watched a movie clearly not meant for children his age!

"I'm not going to let you die, Jisung," you said. "Come on, we don't have all day."

He groaned a little in dismay but ultimately complied with your request. Ducking under your arms, he stepped closer to you and waited for you to rest them on his shoulders. The embrace was loose but Jisung stood close enough to you for him to feel your breath on his face.

Flustered, Jisung kept his hands pressed to his abdomen just in case they wandered somewhere they weren't supposed to. And he tried to glance away from your concentrated face, he tried to look at the wall standing in front of him, but his eyes kept reverting to you anyway.

You two stood so close, and he could feel the tug in his chest again when he was standing so close to you.

"自由漂流在空間, 讓吾超越界限." You muttered under your breath and waited until you felt the tightness of the strings wrapped around your forearm.

Bringing your hands to his back, you carefully brought Jisung closer to you for the sake of safety, ignoring the way your heartbeats mingled together in a way you couldn't tell if it was his heart or yours that was beating so fast. Jisung closed his eyes to brace for the impact that never came. It was just a quick swoosh of wind and then you two were slapped right in the middle of a different alleyway.

When he opened his eyes to find that he could see his school building from just a few streets down, he let out a surprised squeal and turned to shake your shoulder. You, having already been exposed to this for much of your life, attempted to calm him down while dragging him out of the alleyway so he could proceed with walking to school.

"Oh, that is so fun! I didn't see anything but I still teleported!" Jisung beamed, clapping his hands together. "Can everyone do that? Or is it just you who can teleport?"

"Everyone can but we all use different methods," you replied briefly before giving his forehead a flick. "What are you jumping for? It's not that big a deal."

"I'm sorry but if you introduce free transportation to people, everyone is going to think it's a big deal," Jisung said.

"Just get a car then?"

"Who's paying for the gas, [Name]?"

Jisung laughed hysterically when a look of realization hit you. This has got to be one of the most hilarious things he has known about you, which wasn't all that great as there were less than ample competition in your pool of life experiences. You were so pulled away from the mortal reality that you couldn't even remember the concept of needing to pay gas for a car. He doubted you would without magic, anyway, as from what he remembered, your family was wealthy.

Come to think of it, if you couldn't grasp the concept of that, how the hell did you manage to get paid? Did you create a bank account with the magic of compulsion or did you just went the easy way and persuaded the managers to pay you in cash? Ah, Jisung has so many damn questions to ask you!

You scoffed at him and smacked his finger away from your face. Great, you were probably not going to get out of that for a while. After that, the remaining journey simply consisted of Jisung teasingly asking you about normal, human things as if you haven't been living the same way as everyone else for the past ten years and more.

A relieved sigh left you when you finally saw other students approaching from other streets and the sight of the school finally came into view.

"Look! Your school is here, Jisung," you said, pointing at the opened gate and stopping on your spot. You eyed him once, finding him unmoving on his spot as well, and you waved your hand towards the school's direction. "Go! Get out of here! Leave me alone!"

Jisung frowned dramatically and put his hands to his heart. "I thought you liked me, [Name]."

"You thought wrong," you retorted.

He mumbled something under his breath, possibly something childish, then he brought his hand up to wave at you. "Fine, I'm leaving," he mumbled. "Have fun at work."

You hummed with a nod and returned the wave before turning around to leave the scene. But you only went so far when a hand clamped on your shoulder, forcing you to look at Jisung again. He was glaring at you questioningly for a moment, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed troublesomely.

You shifted the weight on your leg, giving him a look to prompt him to speak.

"You're going to be here, right?" he asked firmly but not without cowardice. He was scared of what you might answer and how he might not be able to convince you of otherwise. "When school ends, you are going to be here, right? And we can go home together?"

Oh, he was back on that again.

"Jisung." His grimace deepened at your exhausted tone. You gulped; it was your turn to look at him with confusion. "Why are you so hell-bent on making sure I have a place to stay?"

He thought about asking you why it was so hard for you to accept help but he thought better about it. A retort might not be appreciated at the moment, he figured. What he needed to do was to appeal to you, and honesty has done its job time and time again when it came to you. Jisung gave you a faint shrug before he spoke.

"Because I like you, and I want you to have somewhere warm and safe you can stay in," he confessed. "So you are going to be here when school ends, right? I'm not leaving school unless I am leaving with you."

He was telling the truth. Not only could you see it from the reddening of his ears, but you could also hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. Jisung just genuinely wanted you to have a home, albeit it wasn't with your biological family.

He cared even though you've barely met each other yet; something you believed to be a fatal flaw and has tried so hard to keep yourself from doing.

It annoyed you so much. That gentle soul of his simply made him a much better human-being and so much more likable than you hoped he has to be. It annoyed you so much because you did end up liking Jisung a lot and you'd probably feel miserable without him rambling next to you again sometime today.

The tension in your muscles loosened and you softened upon his honest face. Reaching up, you brushed his bangs out of his eyes and you let your finger linger on his forehead for a moment before removing yourself.

You smiled faintly at him. Supposed there could be another way for you to make it up to his family somehow.

"I'll see you soon," you told him.

And Jisung's smile was wider than ever upon your response.