It Meets You Where You Wait • Yeonbin

SEVENTEEN

The bird calls in the morning wake him on most days. Summer brings Soobin on new adventures, exploring the forest surrounding his grandmother's home. It brings him dirty shoes and sweaty tee shirts, earned as he climbs over tree roots, chasing dragonflies.

His grandmother tells him to be careful, and he generally listens. But she never worries when he wanders into the forest, never really scolds Soobin for disappearing for hours.

That's what he's doing now, as he enters the clearing of flowers. He never strays too far, of course, but he does like to find the prettiest plants and use the camera he'd been given to take pictures of them.

He kneels down to look at the bushel of pink flowers growing between the tall grass. He aims the camera, snaps a picture, and then gives the plant a pat. He doesn't pick them anymore, just looks through the pictures on the camera's screen and admires it. He likes to go home and show them to his grandmother, who will later tell him that they look like geranium flowers.

After bounding around the woods for another hour, he starts the trek back to the house. With turning thirteen his limbs are growing long and gangly, and his grandmother thinks his next growth spurt will have him 'sprouting like a weed', in her words.

He hums happily as he makes his way back.

Though he's never very careful about where he places his steps, and he doesn't look down at the tree root protruding from the floor. Soobin trips, falling hard onto the dirty ground.

He looks down at his scraped-up knees.

They're bleeding, and will probably leave surface scars because Soobin always picks at his scabs. He presses his eyes closed and hopes that when he opens them, the blood will be gone, and his skin will be right again.

—

Soobin reaches forward, threading his fingers through Yeonjun's as they walk.

"So why this one specific shop?" Soobin asks, gleeful with the way Yeonjun's fingers squeeze back.

Yeonjun gives him a side smile. "Well, it's one of the few places without fae working there. Just a plain old human-run ice cream shop. It, I dunno, feels like..."

Soobin laughs, "Like we're just a couple of teenagers going on a date?"

"Yeah," Yeonjun confirms. "Like I can just say thank you to them, you know?"

"I do," Soobin says gently. "But their ice cream better be incredible to justify walking across town for it."

They've been walking for about fifteen minutes, and have yet to arrive. Earlier that afternoon, when Soobin had suggested they leave his apartment and go do something, all date-like, he hadn't imagined Yeonjun leading him across the entire downtown for one store. They didn't even bring Soobin's car— again, he hadn't had the foresight.

But honestly, Soobin really doesn't mind too much. He's okay with walking around the town while Yeonjun narrates every street, pointing out what happened where and who did what. He's found that Yeonjun, once trusting, talks quite a lot. He truly doesn't mind.

When they finally make it to the ice cream place, the sun is going down over Mare, in purple and orange hues. Crickets have already begun to chirp from the passing bushes when they push open the doors, bell chiming to announce their entrance.

"Welcome!" The employees chirp in between helping other customers. Nobody blinks twice at them, as he's noticed that the fae in the city tend to do. Just a few days ago they'd walked into a convenience store and the cashier's eyes followed them the entire time, as did the poor employee's that was mopping up spilled soda. But now, they just smile politely, and scoop ice cream, and serve what is just two teenagers on a date.