metal straw | ast. cha eunwoo

thirty

After the event at the shop, the couple left almost immediately once they had apologised to the employees. The sight of the employees standing beside their ruined cardboard shark was still fresh in their minds. Eager to escape the eyes, the couple entered a random entrance and stumbled upon the shark tunnel.

Suddenly, after much thought, Eunwoo gently grabbed her forearm, stopping the excited girl from skipping further into the tunnel.

"Soyeon."

He then pulled his hand from his pocket and revealed a small object dangling from between his fingertips. It was sudden but instantly caught the girl's attention as it swayed side to side.

"That's the turtle we saw..." she mumbled as she followed the motion of the keychain, "did you steal it?"

It was a rhinestone turtle keychain and was accompanied by a blue sea glass stone. It was small enough to fit perfectly in her palm. The blue light shimmering from the water above only made it more stunning to her eyes.

"I'll give you this..." he sighed, "if you stop mentioning the baby turtle again."

Soyeon went quiet when she realised what was actually. She wore a frown as her eyes narrowed, trying to comprehend what was just heard. Once again, bribery.

All for a little keychain, she thought, a keychain of her most favourite animal with a crystal in an admiring colour. Though, the longer she kept quiet, the more obvious her answer was to be.

She sighed, almost in defeat, "fine, I promise."

With that said, she raised her little finger and waited for him to do the same. When he did, they intertwined their fingers together. They smiled at each other once they did, feeling somewhat satisfied with their agreement.

With one last satisfied look, she attempted to take her finger back, though she ended up pulling something else as well. Eunwoo was suddenly yanked forward towards the girl, their hands being the only thing separating them from getting closer.

"We have to seal it, don't we?" he said bluntly, "with a kiss."

With the same hand where their little fingers were linked, Eunwoo brought his thumb closer to hers and pressed both together, seeming like it was a kiss with their thumbs.

Soyeon stared at the thumbs immensely, completely frozen in place.

"That's... that's not a kiss."

Her eyes were wide open as her bottom lips parted slightly. Her eyes began to blink more often like she was still attempting to grasp what was wrong with the situation. She began to shift her weight side to side, slowly bringing her hand back to rest at her sides.

"It's called stamping, actually. You know, stamp? You stamp your thumbs together. Stamp, not kiss."

Of course, it did not take long for him to finally catch on to what was happening. It was hard to notice when she was only a few inches away from him. Her eyes betrayed her completely.

"Kim Soyeon, were you thinking of something else then?"

His question seemed to have hit Soyeon to realise very well. She changed her expression almost immediately when she heard his question, though it fooled no one. Clearing her throat, she stood up straighter with arms crossed against her chest. She looked right at him with a poker face.

"I was..." she paused, "I was thinking of the... the pose we can try."

Eunwoo looked at her amused at how she tried to convince him that she was not at all thinking differently than what she said. A smirk stayed on his face.

"You know, let's... let's do a pose right now, yeah? Yeah, let's do one right now."