Winter Hearts

Leo gets Acquainted

Leo had made his way quietly back up the darkened stairs, listening to hear if she was coming over to check who was there. He was afraid she would, then he would have to face her and acknowledge that he had been spying.

He heard male voices as the lift door opened, and paused to listen behind the little door he had pulled shut earlier. He heard the voices die down and quickly opened the door and stepped into the lobby.

He noticed immediately that the door to Mr Mikhalis' place was open, and saw Ken and Hongbin coming out, arguing with each other.

They had obviously come down late after the others, found the front door open but the house empty, and didn't feel they could walk through his home without him.

It was too late for Leo to close the door behind him, so he pretended to find it just as they looked up and saw him.

"I wonder where this leads to?" he said aloud. Ken yelled a loud good morning as Hongbin screwed up his face and leaned away.

"Too loud!"

Ken looked into the doorway, "You think we can get out to the yard from here?"

"Yeah, sure, where else would it go?" Leo said, letting them both go ahead of him. They went straight down and turned the corner into the room. He heard Ken ask N about making friends, realising it was about the girl.

Leo steeled himself and walked slowly out into the light.

He was taken aback to see her look straight at him, but he simply dropped his gaze as if he hadn't noticed her. He took particular interest in the quality of the wood floors as he listened to the conversation he was pretending not to hear. Although he wasn't fluent in english, he could understand more than he could speak.

He heard her say her name: Siana.

He had seen Ken make a beeline for her immediately, and thought it was a little arrogant of him to act so. 

But then, he also thought he wouldn't mind very much being the focus of the girl's attention. He saw that she couldn't take her eyes off Ken as he approached, and was sure Ken was turning on that cute smile for her as he walked up to her. 

Leo positioned himself so that Hongbin was between all, and made a studied attempt to look at her over Hongbin's shoulder, pretending he was looking at Hongbin.

He saw her grinning from ear to ear at Ken who was towering over her, looking down at her, too close, he thought. She seemed to drop her eyes shyly, but not before she paused to stare at his lips or his neck or whatever it was girls seemed to like about Ken, Leo thought, a little bitterly. 

But then she turned to look straight at him, or was it Hongbin? He simply stared at the back of Hongbin's head like that was where he was looking all the time.

Inside, he felt ridiculously stupid, but intensely gratified that he had gotten away with it. Hadn't he?

What did it matter? She was obviously enthralled by Ken's attentions. Leo wondered if she knew that Ken was like that to everyone. That she was getting what everyone got, easy. That Ken liked to spread himself around like that.

Leo frowned at himself. He was thinking some very miserly thoughts about Ken, he realised. 

He wondered what could have possibly brought that about. He heard the tone of her voice change when she began talking to her father in their language. Then he heard her explain that she was teaching children. The girl that he had been watching illicitly in the mirror earlier, that same girl was teaching children.

He had no idea what had lead the conversation in this direction, and wondered what it had to do with anything.

When the boys started explaining that she would be setting times for them to use the space, he looked up with concern, finding himself looking into her eyes. Those brown eyes that were slightly upturned, and so invitingly pretty, stared straight at him for a moment, making him feel that despite himself, he wished he had been where Ken was for the last few minutes. Up close and being admired by her.

He turned to Hongbin, not exactly happy with the thoughts going through his head.

He heard Ravi and Joon leave, and Mr Mikhalis say a few words to her. He turned as if to look around the room, but looked into the mirror to see her expression. She seemed embarrassed, or worried.

And then there was quiet. 

Hongbin casually walked up to Leo and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Good thing you found that staircase, otherwise we would have missed all the introductions."

Leo looked at Hongbin, who smiled at him with an innocent expression. He couldn't help but glance back into the mirror to look at her again, at which Hongbin smiled even wider, shaking his head.

"Ah, Hyung, for a pokerface, you're pretty bad at this."