THE STARS IN YOUR EYES | JEONGCHAN

quatre

A wave of cool, stale air hits Jeongin when he steps inside the ship. It's his first time inside a spacecraft besides the abandoned one that used to be at the air and space museum in the city. It went bankrupt, just like every other tourist destination.

He can't help but run his eyes over all the bits of machinery. Some parts of the elaborate metal insides are actually moving, pumping a slow rhythm, and he can't stop watching them. Eye candy everywhere he looks, gold and copper and silver gadgets lying about.

Yet, Jeongin's eyes are captured by a sudden movement from the mysterious stranger who had taken him aboard. His hands, big and veined, fiddle with the clasp of his cloak and let the fabric drop to a heap on the plated floor. The mask follows.

Jeongin's jaw drops. Underneath that heavy cloak, the astronaut had little underneath— his outfit consisting of cargo shorts, leg warmers strapped with some sort of whirring machinery, and utility belts strapped around his chest as a pathetic excuse for a shirt.

The stranger raises an eyebrow, and Jeongin shuts his mouth quickly.

But then he opens it to remark, "Do you always look so..."

He arches an eyebrow again.

"Raunchy?"

"I thought you were going to be quiet, kid."

"Oops," Jeongin shuts up.

But when he's not running his mouth, all he can think about is his impromptu decision to leave. Abandoning his home, his house with the last memories of his parents, the planet he's spent all his life on. All thrown away, to follow a mysterious stranger on their weird ship.  He knows that he'll never set foot on GB86 again. That thought is relieving, terrifying, and saddening all at once.

"Hey." Hands, the skin so cold it seems inhuman, touch the skin on his face. "Are you okay?"

Jeongin realizes he's been crying.

"Yeah," he wipes away the tears with one hand, blinking his eyes vigorously to will the rest away. "Sorry."

"I should have been nicer, I'm—"

Jeongin interrupts him, "It's not you, it's me."

The astronaut appraises him, then asks unexpectedly, "Is there a particular place you want to see?"

"I want to see the stars. That's all I want, I don't care."

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i can't stop listening to going to california it's such a pretty song