Ephemeral || Hong Joshua

Closure

'So, before we go into the apartment. There's something I have to tell you.' 'What is it?' He starts nervously tapping the wheel. 'Fuck, I didn't think I'd tell you this tonight.' 'Don't tell me you're  an actual murderer and there's bodies in your apartment.' 'Not even remotely so.' 'So what is it? It can't be worse than that.' He takes a deep breath. 'I'm in a band. It's called Seventeen.' My mouth falls open. 'You're shitting me.' He can't be in Seventeen. Seventeen is currently in the top three of every music platform. 'I am.' 'Okay, this isn't what I imagined when you said you played the guitar. But, honestly it doesn't change anything. Why did you have to tell me though?' He sighs. 'I live with my groupmates.' My eyes widen. 'I can tell them all to shut up and go to their room though. I get it if you don't want to meet everyone tonight. We're with thirteen.' 'I know that.' 'Well, you didn't recognize the lead singer so I didn't really assume you were a big fan.' 'Now I know, why you're so pretty.' He furrows his brows. 'Can I only be pretty, because I'm in a band?' 'Yes. Non disputable.' 'Just come inside.' He offers me his hand again even though he knows I will decline it. He opens the door for me and lets me in the building first. 'That is indeed one sexy ass.' I give him a look back and act as if I'm offended. 'I thought you were a gentleman.' I swiftly cover my behind with my purse. 'No more peeking.' He puts his arm around my waist and leans in to whisper in my ear. 'Don't act like you're such a goody two shoes miss please fuck me.' 'Like you didn't want to.' He draws in a sharp breath. 'Got you,' I teased. He starts taking out his keys and I suddenly get really nervous. What if they don't like me? What if I'm dressed too slutty? What will they think of me being so young? 'Don't be nervous, Hazel. You don't have to formally meet them.' He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. 'You know what? I'll quickly introduce you and then we go hang out in my room. Alright?' I nod. He opens the door and takes of his shoes. I follow his lead and put them with the rest on the neatly stacked shoe dresser. He takes my hand and gives me a squeeze of reassurance. We find his bandmates at the kitchen table playing a tense game of Jenga. Everyone is concentrating on the stacked tower of blocks, so they don't even acknowledge our presence. 'Guys.' The guy, who was taking a block out of the stack, is so startled that he knocks over the tower. 'Fucking hell, Joshua. What was that for. I was-.' He stops talking, when he sees me. 'Coffee girl?' He asks. Joshua nods. 'This is Hazel, everyone.' I get a united hi from his bandmates. 'We're going to my room,' he announces. 'Don't be too loud. We're trying to enjoy our game of Jenga here.' 'Shut up, Mingyu.' I follow Joshua and we enter his room. It's neat and looks recently cleaned. He's got a bookcase full of books. I spot a special edition of The Great Gatsby. 'Great taste, Josh.' He smiles. 'You like that book?' 'Like? I live for the metaphor of the green light. It's a literature masterpiece.' 'Yes, it is.' 'You annotated it? Josh, you are so fucking adorable.' He blushes. 'Did you just blush? Call the newspaper. Hong Joshua can be embarrassed.' He takes the book out of my hand. 'You're really testing my patience, Hawthorn.' He puts the book back in the case, while pressing me up against it making my dress ride up. 'Careful, Joshua. You're playing with fire here.' 'I'm not going to say: 'I like to get burned.' That's too cliché, Hawthorn.' 'So, what do you like?' 'Music,' he replies seriously. 'Fucking hell, Josh. What do I have to do to get what I want, because we both know you want it too but for some reason you're resisting.' 'It's embarrassing.' 'Is this serious, Joshua? This isn't you wanting to be a gentleman or something?' 'If it were up to me, we would have been on our second round in that car already. But, you said it yourself. You just finished a relationship and I think it would be better for us to take it slow. We're already going fast as it is and if we do this, we'll probably miss out on many good things. I don't want that. I want to be able to take my time and enjoy every seperate milestone.' I nod my head. 'You're right, I'm sorry.  I don't know what came over me.' He carressed my cheek. 'Don't apologize. Now what do you say? We can watch a movie and after that you can sleep in here. I'll sleep with one of the other members.'  I wanted to protest and offer to sleep on the couch myself, but I knew Joshua wasn't going to budge. I fell asleep during the movie and I didn't feel Joshua leaving.