PRISM | sunnew ✓

twenty two

"are you sunwoo's friend?" seonmi asked, looking up at chanhee who looked at sunwoo for confirmation.

sunwoo messed with seonmi's hair causing the girl to pout. "his name's chanhee," sunwoo said, seonmi going closer to chanhee and after sligntly bowing, she extended her hand out for him to shake.

"hello, i'm seonmi! i like your name!" chanhee smiled at the little girl and reciprocated her handshake. seonmi suddenly gasped, cupping chanhee's face. "are you an angel? oh! a fairy? doesn't he look like a fairy?"

"seonmi don't suddenly grab people's faces like that - it's not polite. sorry about that chanhee-"

chanhee continued smiling, shaking his head slightly. "i'm not a fairy but thank you," he said, moving away slightly so that seonmi could get a proper look at him.

he had never had siblings and in all honesty, he was alright with that fact, the idea of his parents imposing their thoughts and egocentric views onto another child terrifying him. so, he never really had experience with people much younger than him.

the more he looked at seonmi, the more he could see the resemblance between her and sunwoo (not that he'd admit to staring at sunwoo long enough to memorise his key features).

"my brother doesn't really let me meet his friends but i'm glad i'm meeting you today!" seonmi said, walking between chanhee and sunwoo.

chanhee looked at both sunwoo and seonmi and couldn't help but smile at the difference between their personalities with one being serious (and annoying at the same time) and the other being a ball of sunshine, skipping down the path and leaving a distance between her and them.

"sorry about her. she's 14 but she acts like a child and doesn't have the best social awareness at times," sunwoo apologised, moving slightly closer to chanhee.

"she seems very sociable," chanhee commented, seonmi walking over to an old couple with a dog and patting the dog while the old couple smiled at her. "unlike you."

sunwoo rolled his eyes at chanhee's comment but let it slide anyways. seonmi walked back to them, a bright smile on her face. then her stomach grumbled and she lightly gave her stomach a pat, trying to hide the fact. "ah, i guess i'm a little bit hungry today," she said. "but, i can wait till dinner!"

chanhee noticed how sunwoo had taken out his wallet and was looking through it as though finding for spare change and, although he wasn't sure if it was his place to offer, he decided to speak up. "i can pay for some snacks if you want."

"there's no need for that-"

"hey seonmi, what would you like to eat?" chanhee said, ignoring sunwoo's protest. "and, don't worry about your brother saying no. it's my treat today."

seonmi seemed deep in thought and eventually, her eyes sparkled as though she had remembered what she had longed to eat. "ramen!" her answer shocked chanhee but regardless, the boy still nodded as seonmi went to sunwoo. "can we eat ramen?"

sunwoo stared at chanhee and sighed, nodding his head causing seonmi's smile to grow even wider than before.

as she skipped ahead of them and looked for a nearby ramen place, chanhee felt movement right next to him and saw sunwoo walking mere centimetres away from him.

"before you decide i'm horrible for suddenly offering despite your refusal i-"

"thank you." sunwoo looked forward, not making eye contact with chanhee. "she's been craving that for a while although she never tells me about it because she doesn't want to burden me so thanks."

"you two are similar in that regard," chanhee said, mimicking sunwoo and just looking forward. "you seem like you don't want to burden anyone either even though i bet your friends don't think of you as such."