Innocence // STRAY KIDS' Han Jisung

thirty

In which the boys have a talk.

•☆•☆•☆•☆•☆•

Han Jisung felt in heaven.

Each minute he spent running around the farm with Mirae pretending to be her prince and shielding her from invisible threats—sometimes being a big dragon with the shape of a lemon tree or a big snake with the shape of a small lizard—, he felt the need to confess his feelings.

These past few weeks had been the best ones out of his whole year, keeping out the week where he got jealous and made her get mad at him. He had been hanging around Mirae, joking with her, and managed to get her flustered easily—but had not been brave enough to confess. No matter how many times he went through the plan with all of his friends, in the end he would chicken out and behave as ordinarily as he could.

While being under the grape tree he believed he was going to be able to come out of his chicken self and finally give her the kiss he had been dreaming about for a while now, but Mirae caught him on surprise when she stuck the grape on his mouth before running away in between laughs.

He didn't know how to take the message behind her action.

Had he freaked her out? Was that her way of saying she didn't like him?

However, the way she followed him into his dorky games, playing along as if she was a princess and hiding behind him whenever he said he was going to 'fight' the dragon—the lemon tree—confused him. And, he remembered, when I kissed her cheek, she didn't freak out.

How did she look at him?

What had happened earlier on the bus and the stairs gave him hopes. But what she did under the tree took them away.

But as he watched her running around, laughing at her clumsiness as she tripped over fallen branches, he felt his heart filling up in hopes again. He didn't want to confess yet because he was too afraid to hear her saying she didn't feel the same way.

But he too hoped to hear her saying she felt the same thing he felt for her.

He hoped his wishes would come true while also considering the tough possibility of them not happening.

•☆•☆•☆•☆•☆•

"What now, Prince Han?" she asked, sitting next to Jisung on the big fallen tree. "What more adventures are we going to have?"

"Nothing more."

"Why?!"

He chuckled at her cute pouting face and poked her nose as he answered, "We have to be at four in the dining room. And it's already three thirty."

"We have half an hour left to be adventurous," she insisted and grabbed his arm, shaking it like jelly. "Come on! I don't want to work anymore."

"Neither do I. But, um," he breathed and nervously smiled, "I don't really remember how we arrived."

"What?!" she yelled, dropping his arm away. Mirae instantly got up and walked in a small circle, blabbering about how they were going to get back while he tried not to laugh. "Do you have at least your phone?"

He shook his head, "Hyunjin has it."

"Why the hell does Hyunjin has your phone?"

"Mine was the only one with signal and he needed to speak to Minho-hyung about I don't remember what."

She took a deep breath while holding onto the bridge of her nose, "Okay. Fine. Then I guess we should start walking, don't you think?"

He watched her take the path back from where they had been fooling around, leaving behind the trees that had performed as the dragons and the grape tree that was once their 'umbrella'. With a sigh he followed from behind, not sure if he should really confess he indeed knew the way back but just wanted to spend more time with her.