Painted with Words

2

When Jisung opened his eyes, he saw a little red dot on his notebook. Fuck, he slept at his desk again. When he rubbed his eyes to see clearer, he noticed that the red dot had black dots on it. And it was moving.

"AHHH!" he screamed, trying to send the ladybug outside through the open window but yeeting out the notebook instead. Screw his fear of bugs!

He looked out the window. The notebook was falling, hitting a stranger's head before ending up on the ground. He let out a painful cry as he lost his balance and fell on his bum, dropping the huge stack of brown cardboard boxes he was carrying.

"Sorry!" Jisung yelled. His heart dropped. He rushed downstairs to help the stranger. And all because he saw a stupid ladybug that even some kids wouldn't be so afraid of.

'Jisung, you dumb fuck' he told himself. 'I just hope I didn't cause them a commotion, that notebook is pretty heavy...I would pay for the hospital bills though...somehow' he kept mumbling to himself while rushing outside.

He tripped over his own feet a few times before arriving, since he had just woke up and his legs, or brain, weren't working properly yet. Without hesitating, he reached out a hand towards the person he accidentally hit with his novel.

"I'm so so sorry, let me help you out..." Jisung told him alert, studying the boxes while the stranger was keeping his head down in his hands in visible pain.

"Are you alright? Wanna sit down? Well you just got up, why would you wanna sit down, but if you're dizzy you might wanna sit back down?" Jisung slapped his own mouth to stop his nonsense rambling.

"It's okay. I'm fin-" was all they said.

"A cold spoon! My mom would always use one in places where I hit my head. Oh...let me help you with these first!"

Jisung waisted no time in picking up all the boxes, the stack sort of blocking his view. "'Ight, where do we get these?"

"Um...apartment 143."

"143? How cool, I live at 140 so we're basically door to door neighbours now!"

"Fascinating."

The two made their way up the stairs. The stranger unlocked the door for Jisung to place the boxes down carefully. It was at that moment that he remembered:

"My notebook...I must have left it outside-"

Jisung's breath stopped.

He turned to his new neighbor, who was holding his notebook, reading the title which was roughly written in blue glittery ink.

"Deus ex Machina...Sounds interesting. It's yours, right?" they asked, stretching out a hand to give Jisung his notebook back.

Jisung couldn't breathe and he felt his eyes get warmer and warmer by second.

Leejun.

The eyes, the nose, the lips, the ears, the hair, the facial structure the way Jisung imagined knight in shining armor from his book would look like. They were all there. He was right there.

"...is it not?" he said and giggled.

The bunny teeth.

All Jisung could do was nod, his hand moving to hold the journal absently as he was still staring at the boy's features, his brain trying to process reality.

Was he dreaming?

He slowly raised his hand to touch his face, as carefully as he could as if he was afraid he'd just poof away if he wasn't careful. The boy's eyes just followed Jisung's hand, and then remained laid on him puzzled.