"So, here we are," Mia said, sniffling as she wrapped wrapped her jacket tightly around her. They were sitting outside of his house and cold was unbearable despite it being spring - it was almost as if winter refused to accept its time was over. Sunghoon wondered why they couldn't just talk inside where it was warm, but he was silent. She did always have a preference for the cold, anyway.
"Yeah," he said, sniffling and moving closer to the girl as if to collect body heat. "We're gonna catch a cold, you know."
"It's okay," she said. "This won't take long." Sunghoon knew he shouldn't be panicking but he was. She sounded so serious, it was unlike her not to crack a joke every thirty minutes. But Mia's been silent for most of the time they've been together and he was starting to think something was wrong. However, before he could say anything, she spoke first.
"I had a talk with Yoongi," she started, "though he probably didn't want to be there. I didn't really want to be there either, but I wanted advice from an 'expert.'" She paused, breathing out. "I don't know why I needed help with this when you could've told me the answer, anyway."
"You're scaring me."
"I don't mean to," she said, smiling as she looked at him. "I just thought I'd be able to say all of this better if I were being serious."
"Oh," he said, relief washing over him. "I thought you were going to say something else."
"I would never say that," Mia said, looking at him. It was like she knew what he was thinking (half of the time, she did).
"What were you going to say?" he asked, waiting for her to continue. "It sounds important."
"It's actually not, now that I think about it," she said. Then she paused, sighing. "I had a dream a few days ago," she started again. "You were there," she smiled. "I mean, you're always there, but this was different. We looked... old. Everything around us was the same, but we were older. You were still taller than me, though." Sunghoon laughed and for a moment, Mia swore she could hear the angels singing. (Maybe that's a little too dramatic for her, but she didn't know how else to describe it.)
"I asked Yoongi about it and he told me that our dreams are made up of our thoughts," she said. "Obviously, I knew that but when he said it, it felt different. It felt a lot more true."
"You saw us getting old together," Sunghoon said after she'd gone silent.
"Yeah," she said, laughing at herself. "See? It wasn't so important after all."
"You do that a lot."
"Do what?"
"Invalidate your feelings," he said. "Of course it's important, Mia. It's your thoughts. Even if you don't say them out loud, they're still worth being heard and they're still as important."
"But do you think it's true?" she asked quietly. She hid the bottom half of her face in her jacket to block it from the stinging cold air and looked down at her feet. For some reason, she was unable to look him in the eye. Maybe it was because if she did, she'd start crying.
"What's true?"
"Do you think we'll grow old together?"
"Yes." Sunghoon's response was instant, which shocked Mia. She finally looked up at him. He cleared his throat, suddenly embarrassed now that she was looking at him. "I, uh, I mean why wouldn't we?"
Mia smiled again. "Yeah," she said. "It's gonna be hard to get rid of me, isn't it?" Sunghoon lifted his hand and placed it on top of her head, tousling her hair.
"Don't worry, it'll be hard to get rid of me too," he said.
"So." Mia looked at him with tired eyes despite the smile on her face and held out her pinky. "Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise." He hooked his pinky with hers and pushed their thumbs together, making her giggle. "Let's go inside now - it's still cold."
"Right." Mia stood up, followed by Sunghoon as they finally went inside, immediately being hit by the smell of vanilla and warmth of his house. All her thoughts were wiped away and for a moment, she stopped worrying.
And as cheesy as it sounds, Mia didn't need to worry when Sunghoon was around.
