balconies • seventeen

polaroids & rain (2)

Ljones - Introductions.

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"I didn't know you had a youtube channel."

Junhui almost chokes on his coffee, quickly shutting his laptop screen close. He spun aroumd, searching fot the owner of the voice, greeted by a brown haired girl, a familiar umbrella hanging om her arm. She placed her tray of ordered food down on the shared table next to Junhui, and pulled one of the high stools next to him.. "Mind if I sit here?"

Junhui doesn't answer, but watches Areum comfortably settles into the seat next to her, probably thinking that she knows no personal space. Okay, Junhui wasn't trying to be mean, but no stranger has ever sat this close to him before, not in a cafe, not anywhere. She hands him the umbrella.

"Thanks for this the other day," Areum says as Junhui takes it away from her, "Sorry for scaring you. Now you remember me? The umbrella girl?" Junhui doesnt reply, but takes a large sip of his coffee. Now he finally realized they got his order wrong.

"Sure." Junhui replies once he put his coffee down. To keep things short, during that rainy evening he accidentally dropped the picture he took by accident, and it landed in front of a pair of soaked sneakers that belonged to a girl who lived opposite of him. Junhui doesn't know much about her, of course, except the fact that she visits Soonyoung and Chan sometimes. Anyway, she asked for an umbrella, so Junhui did give one to her, remembering how frantic she was while trying to catch it. Junhui remembered the thunder and the top of her head, sooner or later covered by the umbrella, running away just like everybody else.

Today, she was going to return his umbrella, along with that certain polaroid.

"This is late, but I'm Areum. Live opposite from your block," Areum flashes a grin, a glimpse of her earrings caught Junhui's eye. She takes out something from her denim jacket and pushes it towards Junhui, "It turned out really well."

Areum wasn't wrong. Junhui was a blink too late to capture that lightning, but the grey of the clouds was enough to make him pleased. Junhui remembered the cold, the flash of lightning again.

"So, what's with your youtube channel?" Areum asks, taking a bite from her panini. Junhui gulps, a little nervous at the question. No, he's completely fine with people (unlike another chinese boy he knows), but he's a bit too shy to explain his hobby. Junhui's interests are a little all over the place. Like wanting to take a picture of the corner of Areum's lips.

"I do videography. Sometimes." He answers, slowly opening his laptop again, the name of his youtube channel appearing onscreen. Areum swore she's seen the name somewhere and...40k subscribers?

"The amount's not that big." Junhui quips sheepishly, as if reading her mind. But he doesn't mind being underrated. It's not like he does it for anybody after all.

Areum squints, "Wait, I didn't know you were the junhuiwens??" She beamed, excitement screaming from the look on her face, "your videos are amazing! The one where you went to Milan — I never get tired of watching it!"

Junhui gets embarrassed pretty easily. His red ears spoke enough.

"You travel a lot too. Aren't you still a student?" Areum asks, licking the crumbs of her food on her fingers. Well, Junhui thought, somehow my rich dad manages to get the professors to let me off for two or three days. I'm a rich kid. What can I say? It's a great life, isn't it?