COSMOS | seongjoong

chapter 19.

today was finally the day hongjoong had been waiting for; seonghwa's birthday.

the younger had everything planned out for today— in the morning, he made an attempt at baking while seonghwa was still asleep. even though his cake turned out inedible, and he ended up buying seonghwa a cake instead, the ladder still appreciated that hongjoong even tried.

hongjoong was currently helping with setting up booths for the festival. he wasn't exactly happy to be doing this, as he'd much prefer to be spending every millisecond of this day with his lover; however, his professor made it a requirement for those of his major to help. even though seonghwa told him that it was fine, he couldn't help but feel guilty about the situation.

hongjoong sighed as he carried the last set of chairs under the last tent, deciding to take a seat in one of them as he had been walking around for a few hours.

"are you alright joong? you seem a little down," wooyoung said softly as he ran up to hongjoong, soon taking a seat right beside him.

"yeah, i just would really prefer to be spending this afternoon with seonghwa... it is his birthday after all," the latter says, looking down at his feet, with wooyoung nodding his head as he understood his feelings at the moment. "don't worry joong— san said he'll be bringing seonghwa over to where we are soon. but in the meantime... are you nervous? you know, you are performing tonight," wooyoung playfully shoved the older's shoulder with a sly smirk forming on his lips.

"yeah yeah i know," hongjoong spoke with a sharp inhale, " i'm nervous, but i'm excited... i know how long seonghwa's been itching to know what i'd been working on for so long, i just wonder if he'll like it or not. what if he hears it and feels embarrassed that i made it for him?" wooyoung frowned as hongjoong started to ramble; he didn't know why his best friend was thinking in such an absurd way, but wooyoung did know that he wouldn't let hongjoong just sit in his own misery. "listen hongjoong, we've both known seonghwa long enough to know that he would definitely not be embarrassed. i'm sure you know he'd feel sad if he knew you were thinking about this right now, so let's think about something else alright? i heard some of the food tents are open... are you hungry?"

hongjoong finally lifted his gaze up to meet the younger's eyes, sending him a soft smile, "maybe you're right... let's go eat then."

—————

seonghwa's pov

the time was nearing 7 pm— i was so happy for hongjoong, every time he spoke about the festival before, his eyes would sparkle; i could tell he really wanted to perform what he composed and produced for his exam.

he refused to tell me what it was about though.

i was currently standing in the second row from the stage; the same one hongjoong would be on within the next 30 minutes. i had only seen him a few times today, as he was required to help set up for the festival. i didn't mind though— we still had the last few hours of the day to spend glued to each other. with that being said, i had spent most of the day with san. i thought it would've been awkward with just the two of us, but it definitely wasn't. since we had so much time to spare until we'd be able to see wooyoung and hongjoong, we ended up visiting a petting zoo not too far from our campus, which was extremely memorable.

all the cute animals reminded me of hongjoong.

afterward, we made our way back to where hongjoong and wooyoung were located; wooyoung had called san to tell him hongjoong wasn't looking the best, which he had assumed was because i wasn't around him. it felt guilty if that really was the reason— i should've stuck around him when he was setting up everything...