amaranthine.

treize

-          "are you in love?"

"am i what?" yerin was sure she had misheard.

"in love. with someone. are you?"

"n-no," yerin buried her face in her mug. this is not how i thought this would go.

"not like that!!" now it was jeongguk's turn to be flustered. "it's just—i just think that people look different when they're in love."

"how would you know that?" yerin said incredulously.

"i read it somewhere..." jeongguk said sheepishly, wrinkling his nose. "i'd like it to be true, though. so, you're not in love—"

"are you?" as soon as she said it, yerin wished she hadn't. but jeongguk only laughed good-naturedly.

"nope! but it's me who gets to ask the questions, yerin," he chided her.

"don't i deserve to know a thing or two about the man behind the canvas?" she teased, sipping her café latte.

jeongguk ignored her. "what's your favorite time of day?"

yerin thought for a moment. "twilight, i think. or just after, the earliest part of evening, right when the streetlights turn on."

"why?"

"because it means i get to sleep," yerin laughed. "but also because i like that there's a moment when evening starts. it happens so quickly—you snap your fingers and suddenly day becomes night."

jeongguk pondered this for a while. when he finally spoke, it was with genuine inquisitiveness.

"what's your favorite color?"

"yellow," she said automatically, a smile glazing her lips. "it's always been yellow."

"why yellow?"

"well, when i was little, it was because it matched the sunflowers in my backyard & my favorite dress. but now...it seems like the color that's just around when i'm happiest." yerin had no idea why she was telling him all this, but the words just kept slipping out. "like for example, yellow candles on my birthday cake, or a yellow stray cat that followed me home a few years ago...it sounds superstitious, but it's like a good omen for me."

jeongguk was staring at her with the strangest look on his face. yerin looked down at her lap, self-conscious.

"amaranthine," he said suddenly.

"what?"

"that's my favorite color," he told her. "like the amaranth flower—a kind of rosy red-pink."

"pretty," yerin said, trying to imagine it.

"and the word has another meaning," jeongguk said with a soft smile. "everlasting."