violet fingerprints over bleeding youth (2/10)
part 2
krystal/seulgi/wonwoo/mingyu
angst, friendship
1949w
2.
In middle school, Soojung made a consideration that perhaps, it wouldn’t hurt to add more people to their combination. She felt that Seulgi was getting tired of being with her. And it hurt her, that possibility hurt her. She was getting attached to her too much and even though it wasn’t healthy, it felt really pleasant to have one person you were sure of.
“You can be friends with other people also, Seulgi,” as they sat side by side in the cafeteria, Soojung told her as she bit on her sandwich, not looking to her eyes. “Don’t ever feel like you are obligated to be my friend.”
She stopped picking on her bag of chips, her hair was no longer in braids and fell on her back in soft brown strands. “Why would you think like that?”
“Because I know.”
“Well, you’re wrong. Lots of people around here irritated me already,” she bumped her eyebrows and slung her arm to her shoulders.
In that moment, Soojung felt that Seulgi was the colour in her life.
They were put into one class and the first group project came. The teacher demanded a diversity in each group, meaning it had to contain two boys and two girls each. Soojung turned her eyes away from any female students around her and sat close to Seulgi, knowing full well for each other that they would never be separated. They didn’t want to. Seulgi, despite looking calm, loathed that thought deeply.
“Are the two of you together?” Soojung looked up to a pair of boys, one a bit taller than the other and his skin was sun kissed (that was what she noticed first) while the other was fair, eyes roaming and traveling around the room sharply without taking interest in them.
All bad things about boys flew to her mind, how they were the loudest to laugh at her dreams, and how careless and dirty they were. She nodded, still.
“Then, we’ll group with you instead,” they began to pull out chair from other tables.
“We didn’t say yes,” Soojung didn’t need to turn to know that Seulgi was upset.
“Not like the two of you have a choice,” the fair one muttered, his voice a bit deep, eyes piercing at her. Seulgi wasn’t a bit shaken but she let it slide as her eyes scanned the room that all other boys were taken.
“Not like the two of you have a choice either,” Seulgi managed to let herself retaliate and Soojung giggled silently, pulling on to Seulgi’s skirt beneath the table, telling her to stop.
The fair boy scowled and the sun kissed one only grinned. It was a pretty soft yet rough start for the both of Soojung and Seulgi because they never really interacted with boys.
Æ
Soojung came to know that the sunkissed one was Mingyu, who liked to lead and be followed, while the fair one was Wonwoo, who barely listened to them and kept playing and doodling things on the table.
“This is why I hate group projects,” Seulgi grumbled under her breath as her eyes viciously stared at the boy who propped his hand and boredly laid his chin on it, spinning a pen between his fingers. “Someone just have to carry more than one task in the end.”
Mingyu nudged Wonwoo in the side, making him looked at him irritatingly, “What?”
“We’re talking about how we are going to do this research-”
“Let’s do them in my home,” he replied without looking at them. “Right after school,” and this time, he was looking into Seulgi’s eyes and she looked to Soojung for her confirmation. If Soojung agreed, she would go along with her. It would be such a waste of time if she were to go alone and ended up doing nothing. Better do something other than seeing two unknown boys bickering around her.
She nodded and it took longer that it seemed to finish the research project. As days molded into weeks, time started counting longer and longer, they got more time to spend with each other.
Soojung didn’t think that this combination would last, but she didn’t mind the numbers in this combination. This way, perhaps Seulgi wouldn’t feel left behind. When in fact, it was just Soojung who was afraid of that possibility.
Æ
It was easier to get to know Mingyu for he was collected and sensible while Wonwoo was gruff and rough around the edges, constantly laughing at incredulous things. Seulgi kept her silence most of the time, Soojung knew she was trying to be decent for her. But they were getting closer, better than before.
“I think, I have seen the two of you before,” they sat together in the cafetaria now, even though it looked strange. Soojung hadn’t gotten used of their presence around the two of them, but Seulgi settled into it just fine. Wonwoo followed along Mingyu’s lead. It had been two weeks since their project's deadline, and they received a decent result despite the constant debate thrown from one side to another regarding their choices.
“Where would it be?” Seulgi questioned, brown tresses falling down beside of her feline eyes and pasty face, fingers reaching into a bag of chips. Her eyes turned to slits as Wonwoo’s hand dug in to grab a handful of chips, shutting the plastic close. “Buy your own chips! I didn’t buy it to share with you!”
His eyes hardened. “You just shoved it willingly to Soojung.”
She turned to give a meaningful look to Soojung, who only shrugged her shoulders and let her answer hung on the air. “Where did you see us, Mingyu?”
He scratched on his hair. “Swimming pool, I guess? I can’t be so sure though, it’s been a long time ago. The girls I saw was swimming on their clothes t-”
“Yes, it was us. We swam in our clothes,” Soojung confirmed calmly, making the two boys raised their eyebrows, bewildered. She bit on a half eaten apple in her hand, then taking a look at Seulgi who turned silent and stopped eating her chips, eyes casted down, shoulders slumped a little. “But it’s been so long, the swimming pool is no longer there.”
“How?”
Soojung turned to look at Mingyu, looking a bit confused at his question. How? It should be why. “One day, we just walked into it and all that was left was only ruins.” Seulgi hadn’t glowed beneath the sun for so long her skin stopped showing signs of being sunburnt, and it went the same to Soojung.
But they still had some scars on the back of their neck, their knees and on the back of their feet, for letting the sun shonr on their skins way too long as they dove into the water, legs fumbling and falling from running through the meadow and feets sore and blistered from wearing shoes too tight for their growing feets.
“They built a motel above it,” Seulgi hissed, eyes darting away from them and she clenched her fists on both sides on the table. Wonwoo was the only one looking at her, while Soojung didn’t want to see Seulgi’s pained face and Mingyu chose to look at the half eaten apple rolling between Soojung’s fingers.
“You’re being dramatic. It’s just a mere swimming pool.”
Seulgi put on her blank face. “Of course. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“In fact, I do. Because there is another swimming pool around here.”
“Where? There is nothing around here,” Seulgi looked so irritated and vexed, gritting words through her teeth to the point Soojung had to hold out her arm, holding her body from rising to her feet.
“In my house, duh.”
Seulgi blinked. Bodies stuck to their growing chests and marking their minisets visible. She wouldn’’t let them see their bodies. Seulgi had her own phobia for skin exposure. It was so out if the bkue also for him to say this. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Just no.”
A devious smirk laced across his lips. “Are you afraid because we will get to see something?”
Soojung flinched and Mingyu groaned, smacking his palm to his forehead. “You can’t get any worse, Wonwoo.”
“You’re an ass, you know that?” She threw her bag of chips to him angrily, all the remaining contents splattered to his white uniform then got up and left, gripping and clenching on her skirt.
Soojung scrambled to leave after explaining. “I’m sorry, it’s just Seulgi loves swimming so much. She…she didn’t attend school for one week after the building was destroyed-“
They seemed to wait for a more obvious answer from her and she sighed running her fingers to her hair, standing in her seat. “Just…you will know. Seulgi will be mad at me if I tell you.”
Shortly after, they learnt that Seulgi’s father used to be a professional swimmer, and her father had died in a plane crash on his way to compete in Berlin. That was why swimming became the reminder of her father. They all learnt this when they eavesdropped on their conversation when Mingyu pulled Wonwoo to apologize to her, hiding beside the opened slide door as they listened to Seulgi’s weeping voice.
“Look at what you’ve done.”
“Come on, I didn’t know.”
“Why would she tell people her father had died, anyway? Get some sense into your head, Wonwoo.”
Wonwoo peeked in slightly, coming to a sight of Soojung wiping tears from Seulgi’s red, red eyes as she helplessly sobbed and held her wails by clenching her lips shut.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t recall it again. Everything’s fine,” Soojung lulled to her ears as Seulgi wrapped her arms around her as if she didn’t have anything to hold on.
Somehow, in seeing that, he felt a strike of jealousy. He wanted to be held like that too, like he was extremely needed and longed for. It had been a long time since his parents were around his home. No, his house. Yes, it was only a place where he fell asleep and spent his leisure time. It had been so long since someone felt needed by his presence.
Æ
The next day, he apologized without Mingyu pushing him to do it.
“Hey,” he approached her by the seat, his voice mumbled softly, standing in front of her. She didn’t look up, knowing full well who was speaking to her.
She didn’t want anyone to hear the crack in her voice. Especially him, the asshole who mocked her.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he rubbed the back of his neck guiltily, hair covering his eyes and he swept it aside repetitively, his bangs getting longer that it should be. “You just sounded so overdramatic-“
“If you’re here only to justify your mistake, then go,” she glanced at him in an earnest lethargy and ignorance and went to review something on her History textbook.
“Okay, okay, sorry. Forget that, I’m sorry for real,” he wanted to turn her chin upwards so she would look at him again.
She did without him doing so.
“Are we cool?” He felt guilty knowing that it was related to something so personal, he knew those lines he couldn’t cross regarding family matters. He carefully studied her face. “Are we?”
“For now,” then Seulgi pointed her index finger to his bangs, that almost hit his eyes, from her seat. “You need a haircut.”
He sighed, messing his hair. “ I know.”
Seulgi smiled and this time it wasn’t pretentious nor mocking, even though her words seemed so.
“Stupid.”
And Soojung chuckled seeing this. Mingyu only smiled because Soojung did. The boy was beginning to have beautiful feelings flourishing inside him, after all.
krystal/seulgi/wonwoo/mingyu
angst, friendship
1949w
2.
In middle school, Soojung made a consideration that perhaps, it wouldn’t hurt to add more people to their combination. She felt that Seulgi was getting tired of being with her. And it hurt her, that possibility hurt her. She was getting attached to her too much and even though it wasn’t healthy, it felt really pleasant to have one person you were sure of.
“You can be friends with other people also, Seulgi,” as they sat side by side in the cafeteria, Soojung told her as she bit on her sandwich, not looking to her eyes. “Don’t ever feel like you are obligated to be my friend.”
She stopped picking on her bag of chips, her hair was no longer in braids and fell on her back in soft brown strands. “Why would you think like that?”
“Because I know.”
“Well, you’re wrong. Lots of people around here irritated me already,” she bumped her eyebrows and slung her arm to her shoulders.
In that moment, Soojung felt that Seulgi was the colour in her life.
They were put into one class and the first group project came. The teacher demanded a diversity in each group, meaning it had to contain two boys and two girls each. Soojung turned her eyes away from any female students around her and sat close to Seulgi, knowing full well for each other that they would never be separated. They didn’t want to. Seulgi, despite looking calm, loathed that thought deeply.
“Are the two of you together?” Soojung looked up to a pair of boys, one a bit taller than the other and his skin was sun kissed (that was what she noticed first) while the other was fair, eyes roaming and traveling around the room sharply without taking interest in them.
All bad things about boys flew to her mind, how they were the loudest to laugh at her dreams, and how careless and dirty they were. She nodded, still.
“Then, we’ll group with you instead,” they began to pull out chair from other tables.
“We didn’t say yes,” Soojung didn’t need to turn to know that Seulgi was upset.
“Not like the two of you have a choice,” the fair one muttered, his voice a bit deep, eyes piercing at her. Seulgi wasn’t a bit shaken but she let it slide as her eyes scanned the room that all other boys were taken.
“Not like the two of you have a choice either,” Seulgi managed to let herself retaliate and Soojung giggled silently, pulling on to Seulgi’s skirt beneath the table, telling her to stop.
The fair boy scowled and the sun kissed one only grinned. It was a pretty soft yet rough start for the both of Soojung and Seulgi because they never really interacted with boys.
Æ
Soojung came to know that the sunkissed one was Mingyu, who liked to lead and be followed, while the fair one was Wonwoo, who barely listened to them and kept playing and doodling things on the table.
“This is why I hate group projects,” Seulgi grumbled under her breath as her eyes viciously stared at the boy who propped his hand and boredly laid his chin on it, spinning a pen between his fingers. “Someone just have to carry more than one task in the end.”
Mingyu nudged Wonwoo in the side, making him looked at him irritatingly, “What?”
“We’re talking about how we are going to do this research-”
“Let’s do them in my home,” he replied without looking at them. “Right after school,” and this time, he was looking into Seulgi’s eyes and she looked to Soojung for her confirmation. If Soojung agreed, she would go along with her. It would be such a waste of time if she were to go alone and ended up doing nothing. Better do something other than seeing two unknown boys bickering around her.
She nodded and it took longer that it seemed to finish the research project. As days molded into weeks, time started counting longer and longer, they got more time to spend with each other.
Soojung didn’t think that this combination would last, but she didn’t mind the numbers in this combination. This way, perhaps Seulgi wouldn’t feel left behind. When in fact, it was just Soojung who was afraid of that possibility.
Æ
It was easier to get to know Mingyu for he was collected and sensible while Wonwoo was gruff and rough around the edges, constantly laughing at incredulous things. Seulgi kept her silence most of the time, Soojung knew she was trying to be decent for her. But they were getting closer, better than before.
“I think, I have seen the two of you before,” they sat together in the cafetaria now, even though it looked strange. Soojung hadn’t gotten used of their presence around the two of them, but Seulgi settled into it just fine. Wonwoo followed along Mingyu’s lead. It had been two weeks since their project's deadline, and they received a decent result despite the constant debate thrown from one side to another regarding their choices.
“Where would it be?” Seulgi questioned, brown tresses falling down beside of her feline eyes and pasty face, fingers reaching into a bag of chips. Her eyes turned to slits as Wonwoo’s hand dug in to grab a handful of chips, shutting the plastic close. “Buy your own chips! I didn’t buy it to share with you!”
His eyes hardened. “You just shoved it willingly to Soojung.”
She turned to give a meaningful look to Soojung, who only shrugged her shoulders and let her answer hung on the air. “Where did you see us, Mingyu?”
He scratched on his hair. “Swimming pool, I guess? I can’t be so sure though, it’s been a long time ago. The girls I saw was swimming on their clothes t-”
“Yes, it was us. We swam in our clothes,” Soojung confirmed calmly, making the two boys raised their eyebrows, bewildered. She bit on a half eaten apple in her hand, then taking a look at Seulgi who turned silent and stopped eating her chips, eyes casted down, shoulders slumped a little. “But it’s been so long, the swimming pool is no longer there.”
“How?”
Soojung turned to look at Mingyu, looking a bit confused at his question. How? It should be why. “One day, we just walked into it and all that was left was only ruins.” Seulgi hadn’t glowed beneath the sun for so long her skin stopped showing signs of being sunburnt, and it went the same to Soojung.
But they still had some scars on the back of their neck, their knees and on the back of their feet, for letting the sun shonr on their skins way too long as they dove into the water, legs fumbling and falling from running through the meadow and feets sore and blistered from wearing shoes too tight for their growing feets.
“They built a motel above it,” Seulgi hissed, eyes darting away from them and she clenched her fists on both sides on the table. Wonwoo was the only one looking at her, while Soojung didn’t want to see Seulgi’s pained face and Mingyu chose to look at the half eaten apple rolling between Soojung’s fingers.
“You’re being dramatic. It’s just a mere swimming pool.”
Seulgi put on her blank face. “Of course. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“In fact, I do. Because there is another swimming pool around here.”
“Where? There is nothing around here,” Seulgi looked so irritated and vexed, gritting words through her teeth to the point Soojung had to hold out her arm, holding her body from rising to her feet.
“In my house, duh.”
Seulgi blinked. Bodies stuck to their growing chests and marking their minisets visible. She wouldn’’t let them see their bodies. Seulgi had her own phobia for skin exposure. It was so out if the bkue also for him to say this. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Just no.”
A devious smirk laced across his lips. “Are you afraid because we will get to see something?”
Soojung flinched and Mingyu groaned, smacking his palm to his forehead. “You can’t get any worse, Wonwoo.”
“You’re an ass, you know that?” She threw her bag of chips to him angrily, all the remaining contents splattered to his white uniform then got up and left, gripping and clenching on her skirt.
Soojung scrambled to leave after explaining. “I’m sorry, it’s just Seulgi loves swimming so much. She…she didn’t attend school for one week after the building was destroyed-“
They seemed to wait for a more obvious answer from her and she sighed running her fingers to her hair, standing in her seat. “Just…you will know. Seulgi will be mad at me if I tell you.”
Shortly after, they learnt that Seulgi’s father used to be a professional swimmer, and her father had died in a plane crash on his way to compete in Berlin. That was why swimming became the reminder of her father. They all learnt this when they eavesdropped on their conversation when Mingyu pulled Wonwoo to apologize to her, hiding beside the opened slide door as they listened to Seulgi’s weeping voice.
“Look at what you’ve done.”
“Come on, I didn’t know.”
“Why would she tell people her father had died, anyway? Get some sense into your head, Wonwoo.”
Wonwoo peeked in slightly, coming to a sight of Soojung wiping tears from Seulgi’s red, red eyes as she helplessly sobbed and held her wails by clenching her lips shut.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Don’t recall it again. Everything’s fine,” Soojung lulled to her ears as Seulgi wrapped her arms around her as if she didn’t have anything to hold on.
Somehow, in seeing that, he felt a strike of jealousy. He wanted to be held like that too, like he was extremely needed and longed for. It had been a long time since his parents were around his home. No, his house. Yes, it was only a place where he fell asleep and spent his leisure time. It had been so long since someone felt needed by his presence.
Æ
The next day, he apologized without Mingyu pushing him to do it.
“Hey,” he approached her by the seat, his voice mumbled softly, standing in front of her. She didn’t look up, knowing full well who was speaking to her.
She didn’t want anyone to hear the crack in her voice. Especially him, the asshole who mocked her.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he rubbed the back of his neck guiltily, hair covering his eyes and he swept it aside repetitively, his bangs getting longer that it should be. “You just sounded so overdramatic-“
“If you’re here only to justify your mistake, then go,” she glanced at him in an earnest lethargy and ignorance and went to review something on her History textbook.
“Okay, okay, sorry. Forget that, I’m sorry for real,” he wanted to turn her chin upwards so she would look at him again.
She did without him doing so.
“Are we cool?” He felt guilty knowing that it was related to something so personal, he knew those lines he couldn’t cross regarding family matters. He carefully studied her face. “Are we?”
“For now,” then Seulgi pointed her index finger to his bangs, that almost hit his eyes, from her seat. “You need a haircut.”
He sighed, messing his hair. “ I know.”
Seulgi smiled and this time it wasn’t pretentious nor mocking, even though her words seemed so.
“Stupid.”
And Soojung chuckled seeing this. Mingyu only smiled because Soojung did. The boy was beginning to have beautiful feelings flourishing inside him, after all.