Old love (ENHYPEN's Heeseung Fanficiton)

Basil romance

--- Sunghoon's POV ---

Katy's phone buzzed right as we got up to leave. She looked at it and sighed. "Stupid project", she mumbled as she shoved it back in her pocket. Everyone looked at her. "Could we stop at my university on the way?", she asked, "Need to check something." "But the show...", Niki protested. We agreed to go to Jake's and Heeseung's apartment to watch the newest episode of a show whose name I already forgot. I just tagged along because I enjoyed the company. Thinking about it, I didn't really care being there in time to watch everything. "I'll go with Katy, you guys don't have to wait then", Sunoo suddenly suggested right when I wanted to do the same. She smiled at him thankfully. "Anyone else who wants to see what I am doing a project on?", she asked. Heeseung raised his hand. Her face barely noticeable lit up while Sunoo's darkened. I tilted my head. "I'll join in as well. It's better to be more", I said and she nodded.

The four of us went up the hill to where her university was. She pulled out her keys and searched through them before finding the right one, unlocking the gate. "They let you have the keys to the place?", Heeseung wondered. "Someone has to keep the plants for our experiment in check and I was the one living the closest", she shrugged. "Still", he gave back. She chuckled. What had been funny about that now? My sister behaved a bit weird today. I had a suspicion why, but I didn't want to admit it yet. "It's a small university", she explained to him now, "They know their students since Day 1. They trust us. Well, most of us." We walked over to the greenhouse which she unlocked swiftly as well. Pushing the door open, she revealed numerous basins with basil swimming on it. Alongside a wave of warmth. She took a deep, slightly frustrated breath and went inside, followed by us.

--- Katy's POV ---

I kneeled down next to the measuring instrument that had sent the warning message to the app on my phone, saying something was off. Heeseung squatted down next to me, followed by Sunoo doing the same on my other side. "What are we doing?", he asked. I grinned. "If you mean overall – Testing if nutrition and the basil's kind influence the height and mass of swimming basil cultures. Or less scientific: Trying to find the best circumstances for basil production in hydroponic systems. But what we are doing right now is checking what caused the problem my app told me about. It could be something irrelevant like a measuring mistake, but it could also be that something indeed is off. This little device at least told me that the water level isn't right for some time now. Thing is, it doesn't say if it is too high or too low. Because if it's too low, I could just have come tomorrow. But looking at it", I said as I stretched my neck, "It seems to be a measuring issue."

I looked back down on the device and pressed various buttons to get the data from the last hour. As I looked through it, I realized. My loud "Ah, okay", made the others focus back on me. "See, it's quite irregular within the minutes. It doesn't make sense that one minute the water is too high and then way too low." I showed the associated data to Heeseung. As he leaned in a bit closer to see better, I blushed, trying to ignore his face so close to mine and his alluring scent I now could smell.

Somebody clearing his throat next to me made me snap out of it though and I quickly backed up. Surprisingly it wasn't my brother who had made the noise but Sunoo. Oh gosh, I had totally forgotten about him. "Oh, sorry", I said sincerely and showed it to him as well. While he looked at it, I searched for my brother. He still wandered along the basins and inspected the plants. "Hey, Sunghoon, could you turn on the pump for this basin? The switch is over there. Basin Number 8", I instructed him, pointing in the roundabout direction. He nodded and went over, soon finding the right switch and turning it on. The guys flinched upon the loud sound which made me grin widely. I was used to it.

"Thought so", I then mumbled. "Hmm?", Heeseung asked. "The pressure too high for such a small basin. That means stronger water current which again could make the plants fall out of their pots. Somebody must have forgotten to turn it down after we had this one repaired", I explained and placed my hand on his shoulder to support myself as I reached out for the control. As he understood what I was about to do, he grabbed my arm with one hand, the other one sneaking around my waist. I tried to ignore how my heart almost stopped there. I was way less skilled than usually while turning the rotary knob for controlling the pump's pressure. Must be my shaky fingers. With racing heart, I leaned back and looked at him thankfully before ordering Sunghoon to turn the pump off again.

--- Sunghoon's POV ---

I turned the switch. "Done", Katy announced proudly and got up. A bit too fast it seemed because she looked a bit dizzy, causing both Sunoo and Heeseung jolting up and supporting her. She herself held on to the latter one, but at least thanked both of them with one of her warm smiles. "Alright", I said loudly, making them turn to me, "Let's go then." Katy nodded and with a light smile turned Heeseung around, gently pushing him towards the end of the small path between the basins. Yep. I had to admit it to myself by now. My innocent little sister might have a crush. I sighed. She heard it and looked at me confused. I waved it off.

On our way back, I let myself fall back a bit to talk to Sunoo trudging behind us. "I'm sorry", I said sincerely. He shrugged. "Can't be helped", he mumbled. "Cheer up, one day you'll get to know someone else and suddenly forget about her", I tried to encourage him. "Maybe", he sighed. I glimpsed to him watching the other two in front of us who joked and laughed, seemingly forgetting about us. Poor Sunoo. He had a crush on my sister for quite some time now. I suspected her to not realize it, like so often when a guy was interested in her. But seeing Sunoo trying to get her attention while all of us knew that it wouldn't work was just heart-breaking. He just wasn't her type. I patted his shoulder, trying to say something nice. But I couldn't think of anything.