4AM °HOSHI

04

'that girl is looking at you.'

without any warning, soonyoung was being lifted up and pressed to the floor. 'ouch! what the hell?' he hissed as he massaged the back of his head, trying to send off the pain that the strong impact had brought.

he wasn't paying attention to the match at all, and it gave his opponent the opportunity to flip him over, in which his head landed on the mattress first.

his face went red as he chuckled sheepishly, bowing to his junior at the end of their match.

'soonyoung sunbae, it's the first time i am able to defeat you,' he said shyly. he wasn't even back to his senses until his junior hesitantly waved a hand in front of him.

'oh, sorry, what were you saying again?'

for the rest of the day, soonyoung was occupied by his little thoughts. before he left the gymnasium, his trainer asked him to stay and interrogated him about his unusual loss of concentration.

soonyoung walked out of the school gates, with his head bowing down. he heaved a sigh and looked up to the sky, begging himself to get a grip.

you don't even know that girl's name. don't be affected, kwon soonyoung.

he resumed his route back home but stopped when he passed by the girls school beside his own.

a familiar girl held her head low as she exited, being dragged by another cheerful one. the contrast between them was so strong that he even noticed her heaved a sigh.

why does she look depressed?

he shrugged off all the creative possibilities that filled his brain in just a matter of seconds. determined to pretend he had seen nothing, he went home.

the door clicked open and soonyoung flung off his shoes at the doorway. although he dodged, it instantly proved that he was still out of his senses: that moment his father's flying 3000 won brown plastic slipper hit his forehead.

'ow!' he let out a painful cry. 'what the hell?'

master kwon magically appeared behind the curtains in the living room with a creepy lopsided grin on his face, and a matching slipper in his right hand, batting his palm. '80%, son. where's that other 20%?'

soonyoung messed up his blond hair and tossed the slipper back to his dad. he wasn't in a mood to joke around, even with his dad, so he just waved at him and went to his room.

'aigoo soonyoungie, are you having girl problems? youngsters these days...'

he could hear the faint voice of his mother from the kitchen, telling him that it was 'the puberty these days that are affecting him'.

his mother then proceeded to shout across the house. 'yah kwon soonyoung! are you on birth control?'

either way, he rolled his eyes expressive to his parents' nonsense and finished his homework. again, he spend the rest of the day reading japanese comics, and when he got bored, he went outside to find some food.

the first thing he saw was soon-ah having his favourite spicy cup noodles. he didn't even noticed that she had stolen his food, because it reminded him of yooji.

soon-ah had her eyes on the tv and slurped. she choked, to which soonyoung immediately fetched a carton of milk for his sister. again, it reminded him of her.

he groaned in disbelief and muttered to himself. 'geez hoshi, you don't even know her name, for god's sake.'

soon-ah looked at him in amusement. 'kwon soonyoung, are you having a crush?'

he glared at her before pulling out a chair beside her. 'bull.'

his sister responded by an unsure shrug, but he knew he might be close.

that night at 4 a.m, as regular he jogged pass the convenience store. for the first time he had really hoped to see her around the same rack, picking up samples of instant cup noodles with a confused expression.

he had almost remembered how he would pop out at moment and select for her, and they would eat and talk for an hour or so, before walking home together.

he hoped he would see her there, but that night, unfortunately, she wasn't.