metal straw | ast. cha eunwoo

nineteen

"Tired? Your head keeps dropping."

"What? No, I was just stretching."

Just moments earlier, Soyeon witnessed somewhat shocking to her when she was going through Eunwoo's phone. It wasn't anything near personal or general so she thought no harm of knowing about it. To her, it was something she was asking herself whether to ask the boy or not.

Before she could investigate further, Eunwoo suddenly came back from behind. She screamed when a sudden voice called out to her, causing her to flip the phone from her palm to land on him, fortunately. "I'm so so sorry!" she apologised over and over as if she was a broken player when she realised it had nearly fallen to the ground if it weren't for Eunwoo's fast reflex.

When he was to ask what was wrong, Soyeon suddenly cut him mid-sentence and pulled him into the bus that finally arrived as her saviour. Yet he decided not to say anything, thinking she would be uncomfortable if he were to ask.

Coming back to the present, Eunwoo glanced at the girl, watching her stretch with her droopy eyes and slow movement beside him. She continued to clean her metal straws with a small towel of pale red. Her head continued to fall back and forth as she tried her hardest to stay awake.

"Just sleep, it won't hurt you."

Soyeon glanced back, unsure of what to say. She was feeling drowsy suddenly, she blamed the weather which suddenly decided to rain during the journey. The sky was gloomy and boomed with thunder but somewhat was soothing to Soyeon, as if the rain was telling her to rest for the rest of the day.

"Won't you be lonely?"

"Won't you get a headache forcing your eyes open?" he asked before taking away the metal straw she had been cleaning for the past twenty minutes. He tucked it into the side pocket of her bag along with the small towel. He looked back at her with a smile, encouraging her to sleep.

She hummed lowly at the thought before in an instant, placing her bag and let it sit on her lap. She suddenly glared at Eunwoo.

"My face is off-limits, okay? It's not a canvas," she warned him, getting comfortable in her seat and finally resting her head back against the headrest. She sighed, the sense of peace accelerating throughout her body before her drowsiness took over. Eunwoo smiled slightly, amused by how quickly she slept in a matter of seconds.

It wasn't long until her small head decided to slide off the headrest and onto a boy's shoulder. No, not Eunwoo's but another boy's next to her. The boy didn't look any older, possibly younger, and was wearing a completely different school uniform. His eyes widened when he felt an impact coming and was in shock to see Soyeon unconsciously sleeping on his shoulder.

"You got a girlfriend already, huh?"

His friends by the boy's side snickered as they watched the flustered boy continued to stare at Soyeon favourably and thus, he didn't bother waking her up, clearly enjoying the situation he was in.

"She's cute!"

Eunwoo was not smiling at all. He leaned forward to see the younger boy whose shoulder was occupied by his cru— friend, he thought, suddenly emphasising the word friend in his head with big capitals. Friend. He was fuming at the sight he found disgusting.

"Hey, take a picture!" the boy whispered to his friend, passing his phone.

That was the final straw. As normal as possible, Eunwoo stretched his arm over Soyeon from behind and immediately swung it down, smacking the startled boy in the head. He yelped at the sudden impact against his head as if it felt like something thick smacked him.

Before the younger boy could even do anything, Eunwoo had already pulled Soyeon away from the boy. He gently placed her head down onto his shoulder instead and left his arm around her. He paused for a moment after noticing how she kept moving in closer, unconsciously trying to find comfort in Eunwoo.