ARRANGED BY DESTINY [CHOI SEUNGCHEOL]

CH: 14

Nishita

I was so into this book and music, the songs I chose for this book were sitting perfectly with the plot, I was so into the book that I didn’t even hear the announcement and I hit my shoulder slightly, near the window.

“Ah,” I let out a slow hiss and then realized the small turbulence, I closed my eyes for a second. I was still holding my book tightly, it didn’t fall and nothing happened to my AirPods as well but my shoulder, it got a small hit. I started massaging for a second and then put my hands down, because I was getting uncomfortable; so, I ended up trying to focus on the book.

I closed my eyes for a second, and suddenly felt someone’s fingers on my back and then I immediately tensed up. I took a deep breath and realized it was him “Are you hurt? is it hurting a lot?” His hands went to my shoulder and he started massaging exactly that part where I got the slight hit. I wanted to tell him to stop but the moment I looked at him and the look of concern in his eyes made me stop and dared not to say a single word whatever I was planning to tell him. I wanted to tell him ‘no’ because that’s how I am but the concern in his eyes looked so genuine, I almost couldn’t lie looking in his eyes, “a little”

This is what confuses me the most, is this what you call ‘care’? I tried to keep myself away from all these and for so long that I almost forgot what care meant but more than that I think I almost forgot how care feels like, how ‘care’ can make you feel.

After a few seconds, he stopped and looked at me again, I almost couldn’t read his eyes, why was he caring about me so much, every time he was with me he made me wonder about so many things which I didn’t want to think about. “Do you feel better now?” I nodded, and whispered a small ‘thank you’ he had no idea what was he doing, the care the concern everything was slowly confusing me so much that I just wanted to run away from everything. I felt his hand leaving my shoulder and the warmth was taken off, I glanced at him for the last time and went back to my book. I didn’t want to think about him anymore for now.

We were about to land in 15 minutes, I looked outside when they made the announcement, it would be 8pm when we will reach and the night looked so pretty. Everything looked so pretty that I couldn’t stop from taking pictures. “It’s so pretty” Skies, clouds, city lights, oceans, sea shores were the things which always felt like they gave me a life. Nothing compares to them, I was always in love with them. Beaches always felt like my comfort till date, sucks being in Delhi.

“right” I thought I was in my own world until I heard his low voice. I didn’t turn my head to look at him, his voice was enough to tell me that I didn’t say those three words in my mind, rather spoke it.

Once we landed, I was about to get up after unbuckling the belt to look for Noor and then saw Noor and Jeonghan smiling at something. “There’s no hurry so we can go slowly” he looked at me, I nodded.

After sometime, he got up from his seat and said, “let’s go” I got out after him but he was just behind me. For a second it felt like he was being protective of me because there was no reason for him to do that and he could’ve gone with the crowd without waiting for me to get ahead of me. I took a deep breath because I knew my overthink would kill me.

Once we were out, I saw Noor and Jeonghan standing, so we could walk out together. I was glad, we were far from the airport and didn’t have to take the bus. “How much did you read?” “Half of it” I smiled at Noor.

“You read books a lot?” I turned my head towards Jeonghan, he was smiling, “Yes, even when I don’t have time to do anything or even breath, I still make time to read.” I gave him a small smile. I didn’t realise we already reached the counter. Once we collected our luggage we walked towards the exit.