to most people, the sun is up there, in the galaxy; big and bright, yellow and burning, more than a thousand degrees hot. but to jihoon, the sun is down here, smiling and laughing as if he doesn't know that his smile is the closest thing jihoon coul...
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soonyoung walks to the university and meets up with three of his friends, minghao, junhui and chan. upon arriving, the brown haired student, junhui, greets with a wide sarcastic smile. "great! you're almost late, asshole." soonyoung snickers at the phrase as they proceed to the auditorium.
the university auditorium is about as spacious as two gymnasiums. students and a few visitors fill the seats surrounding the stage, making soonyoung feel like a needle in a haystack. it's not like it's his first performance with his friends. he has been singing and dancing in the same venue for countless of times and the stage is where he belongs, but he never seems to get used to the "pre-performance feeling", like knots and butterflies in his stomach.
"hey, breathe in and out." minghao tells him. "we got this, okay?"
their performance starts in an hour and soonyoung's heart is racing at comet speed. soon enough, the stage director signals them to get ready. they're the next to own the stage.
he could hear his heart thud as the lights dim and they all make their way to the center. the moment they get into position, lights fill the stage, with varied colors softly bouncing against the shiny floor. the song starts and soonyoung feels the adrenaline rushing through his veins. he lifts his head to face the audience, making contact to a hundred pair of eyes, then all four of them start to move to the music. the boy quickly gets the hang of it, perfectly hitting every beat and hitting each note perfectly whenever it's his turn to sing. this has always been his passion: performing. the perfectly calculated choreography attempts to take over but all eyes focus on soonyoung and his movements filled with poetry. everyone seems to be in awe as they watch the group move to the music, their singing voices filling the auditorium.
just when the song ends, they receive a massive round of applause from the audience. the four boys take a bow, then it was time to walk off. soonyoung grabs a bottle of water and hurriedly downs its content to satisfy his quench; he's gone a little too out of breath, but he knows that he did his best back there. the way back to the dressing room is a huge hassle with a sea of a crowd, and he doesn't want to squeeze himself through so he decides to go home wearing his tux. he'll have a jacket to cover it anyway.
while he's taking off his microphone, chan runs to him, holding a bouquet of different colored tulips. "someone wanted to give this to you!"
"flowers? what a surprise!" soonyoung says with gasp. he accepts the flowers and carries it in his arms, trying to look if there's a tag to see who gave it. "do you know who gave it to you?" he asks chan, who simply shrugs. "I don't know, there was no introduction and all, I was just asked to give them to you. eh, must've been in a hurry."
soonyoung nods. the two of them talk about the performance for a little more until he finally decides to go back to the dormitory, where he finds jihoon asleep on his bed. soonyoung steps in as quietly as possible, placing his bag beside the shoe rack and the flowers on the desk.
"jihoon, i'm home."
to his surprise, jihoon suddenly wakes up, and the first thing soonyoung notices is the small smile on across face. "ooh what's that smile on your face? did you have a good dream?"
the thing is he didn't, but he had a good time watching him perform.
"a really good one," says jihoon as he watches soonyoung change into his baggy clothes and wash the makeup off his face. soon enough, the boy is back to the soonyoung that jihoon knew-the boy with a soft aura. jihoon sighs, why is he such a far cry from that soonyoung he saw earlier? this makes him have trust issues.
"wow, flowers," jihoon points out as soon as he catches sight of the pretty bouquet on the desk. "yes, flowers," soonyoung replies, "someone was sweet enough to give them to me after the performance. I didn't get the chance to know who gave it though."
"you know, different colored tulips are the perfect flowers to give to someone you want to date or get to know more," jihoon says, "they have lots of meanings based on their colors and honestly, I think they're way better than roses. roses are overrated!"
"look who we have here, it's mr. flower boy," soonyoung replies teasingly, "you seem to like tulips a lot. how did you know so much about them?"
that moment, jihoon realizes how stupid it was to just randomly tell soonyoung what he researched about flowers. "oh, my mom, you know," he nervously says, "she's really into flowers so I know about them too."
luckily, soonyoung believes him. "these tulips are very pretty though, and I'm glad you like them too, surprisingly, since you don't seem like the type to love these things. will you help me arrange them into a vase?"
"sure, but I don't think there's a vase around here."
"hm, that's too bad, and I don't have time to go out to buy now either," soonyoung pouts, "maybe tomorrow then. for the meantime, let's go deal with your homework."
jihoon takes his bag then drops all the books on the desk. a few minutes later, they're finally burning the midnight oil in a sea of equations.
"another example, consider a helical spring that has one end attached to some fixed object, while the free end is being pulled by a force whose magnitude..."
jihoon continues to stare at his tutor and tries his best to pay attention to what he says so his focus doesn't drift away. Much to the dismay of his attention, he keeps losing himself in soonyoung's eyes.
"are you still with me?"
jihoon snaps out of a trance and nods his head. then a thought crosses his mind, is it science that makes a person so attractive? Intelligence? He sighs as he rests his chin on his arms. his tutor makes a quick joke and they both laugh, although jihoon didn't really get what he meant.
all he knows is that he wishes to understand the physics of soonyoung's happiness- how his eyes form crescents, how the forces of motion go against gravity to pull up the corners of his mouth into a perfect smile.
and so he denies to himself. i don't have feelings for this boy.
