He was a student, just like you. But you had taken him to be the subject of many drawings in your sketchbook. He’s smiling in one, laughing in another. You even caught him sleeping once. But he’s never looking at you in any of your drawings. He never once looked in your direction.
You plug in your earbuds, turning up the volume of your favorite song. You pull out your sketchbook. You thought, for today, you would change your subject to a street performer playing saxophone. You begin your sketch, glancing down at your paper. When you look back up, you freeze.
He’s here!
Standing by the street performer, enjoying the cool jazz, is your subject—Sehun. He listens to the music with his eyes closed, and a smile on his face.
You begin to draw him. Even from this distance in dim light, you can picture him. You very nearly have his face memorized. You look up again and are met with a two curious, smoldering brown eyes. You look down quickly, close your notepad, and close your eyes. Maybe if I pretend to be asleep…
You don’t see him walk over. You don’t see him wave his hand in front of your face. You don’t notice the shift in the park bench as he sits down next to you.
You do, however, notice when he plucks your earbud from your ear and says, “Do you like what you see?”
You jump, blushing cherry red. He leans closer to you and reaches for your sketchbook with an interested look. “Oh, are you an artist?”
“Ah—no,” you say quickly, pulling it out of his wrist. “I’m—“
“______-ah, I know,” he says with a smile. “You and I are in the same class.”
You nod and feel warmth well up inside. He never gave you the time of day; you were pleasantly surprised that he even knew you existed, in the least knew your name.
He pops your earbud into his ear, and you blush again at how close he is to you. Surprise spreads across his face. “Hey, I know this song!”
“Really? It’s one of my favorites!” You exclaim.
He shyly says, “Well…I, uh…I’m a part of a band.”
“Really?”
He nods. “We’re having a rehearsal tonight.” He glances up at your face. “You wanna come?”
“Um…” you hesitate. It’ll be fun; you didn’t know he could sing. “Sure! I’d love to come.”
“Great!” He seems genuinely pleased that you agreed. “I’ll meet you here, and then I’ll drive you to my friend’s place.”
“Okay.”
That night, you wait patiently on the park bench. You dressed cutely but warmly, and now you’re just waiting on Sehun.
He pulls up in a cherry red smartcar, smiles, and waves. You stand up as he gets out. He’s dressed nicely in a sport coat and a white dress shirt. You wonder briefly if it’s a formal band, but you’ve never heard of anything like that.
“Are you ready?” He asks, walking you to the passenger side and opening the door for you. You nod.
It doesn’t take you very long to arrive. You see five other boys tuning guitars, testing drums, and checking microphones. You recognize all of them from your school—D.O., Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, who are two years above you, as well as Suho, a senior, and Kai, who was in the same class as you and Sehun.
“Hey, Sehun-ah!” Kai says. “We’ve been waiting on…” He pauses when he sees you. Immediately a flirtatious smile rises. “Hi, I’m Kai. You’re in my class, right? I’ve seen you before.”
“Kai, come help me with this,” D.O. says, holding up a mess of tangled cords. Kai sighs and goes over to help his hyung.
Baekhyun and Chanyeol look up. “Oh! I didn’t know we’d be having an audience!” Baekhyun says. He nudges Chanyeol. “We’ll have to do well to impress her!”
You blush at all the attention. Have these boys never seen a girl before?
Sehun frowns at them.
Kai gives up on the knot and grabs a lawn chair. He winks at you and sets it down. “Your throne, my lady,” he says dramatically.
“Yah, Kai, let’s start,” Sehun says impatiently, glowering at Kai.
“Hi~, we’re going to start now!” Suho says into the microphone.
<Exo-K’s Peter Pan>
The music starts, and you are impressed with the beauty and clarity of the piano. All of them sing. The words are beautiful and yet, slightly sad. By the end of the song, you don’t know whether to smile because you enjoyed it or cry because of the hidden, touching meaning behind the words.
Sehun steps forward and looks down at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yah, _______-ah,” he says hesitantly. His lisp is so cute. “Truthfully…I’ve liked you for a while…” He pulls out a bracelet from behind his back. It has an intricate little charm on it that reminds you of wind. “Will you be my jagiya~? I will be your Peter Pan, and I’ll always be here for you.”
You blush and nod. “Yes,” you say. “Yes!”
He leans down and pecks you on the lips, a quick but gentle kiss. He reaches down and grabs your hand, squeezing it and smiling.
“So,” he says with a knowing smile. “Will I finally be able to see your sketchbook?”