forget-me-not || lee dohwa

𝐎𝐡 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐕𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐭

Oh Namju Does Some Unintentional Voodoo and Conveniently Forgets About It

Dohwa knelt down, prostrating with his palms pressed flat on the ground by his knees. "We did go for paintball," he bowed his head, "and then for an old movie. My parents and brother weren't home so I...invited her to stay over for the night. But!" He hurriedly added, pointing up a finger at Kyung who looked thoroughly pissed at him, "We're both consenting adults and we're both dating so it's—it's none of your business!"

He muffled a cough when Kyung's glare sharpened. It was only the pages of sketches in his hand that had stopped him from pummeling Dohwa. "Get up," Kyung demanded, feeling secondhand embarrassment because of all the stares a kneeling Dohwa was getting from the passing by students.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Dohwa said to himself quietly in delight as he stood up with a loud huff. "So did the bribe work?" He asked, dusting his knees.

Kyung held the sketches up and scoffed, "Is that what these are?"

"You know, you need to work on your communication skills. I can't tell whether you genuinely don't understand jokes or if you're angry all the time." He let out a nervous chuckle at the unimpressed look he got in return. "Anyway," he waved it off, taking advantage of Kyung's distractedness, and pointed at the sketch, "Who's that?"

"My mother."

"Yeah, no, I know what your mom looks like. I meant the girl in that one," Dohwa explained, rubbing his chin, "What is she, like a girlfriend?" He seemed too amused with himself at that assumption.

Once he saw who Dohwa was referring to, Kyung had to force himself to look away from the drawings. He had had a glimpse of Gyeoul's skills once, when the portals had opened up to him. And he had been thoroughly impressed just the way he was now. If it hadn't been for the few charcoal smudges here and some shaky lines there, Kyung would've assumed that they were black and white photographs.

None of your business, Kyung almost snapped at Dohwa but stopped himself for Gyeoul and his own sake. "Yeah," he looked at the sketch of him and Kang Jia, sitting shoulder to shoulder at a library table and pouring over their notes, "In a way."

Dohwa waited for him to say that he was joking. When he didn't, he carefully asked, "So...um, do you know her?"

"Yeah."

"Is she here?"

"She's in your class."

Dohwa gasped and snatched the drawing, much to Kyung's irritation. "No way!" He exclaimed, peering closely at it, "Then how come I've never seen her before? What's her name? She doesn't look very familiar to me—"

"She's a background character," Kyung took back the sketch with a glare, "And that's all you need to know." He turned to leave, wanting to go through all of Gyeoul's works in a place where there was no one peering over his shoulder and throwing annoying questions at him.

"Does—does that mean you're keeping them?" Dohwa called after him, secretly relieved that Kyung had forgotten about the reason he had chased him across the school. When he didn't receive any reply, he gladly spun the other way and trudged to his classroom with the aim of finding out who the person in the picture was.

☄

"I can send you back," Namju said, maintaining distance from Gyeoul as they stood at the foot of a staircase, wedged between thick hedges and overgrown bushes, "You don't belong here."