maybe chan was right about true love, except for the fact that it would hit jihoon like a train
originally titled, surmise for a good surprise
(i/??? of enamored saga) → [love at first sight/아주 nice universe]
마침들려오는사랑노래어떤가요? how's this love song that you hear right now?
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The sunlight awoke him as it bled through the door left ajar, which had never once stopped being a pet peeve for him. Jihoon sat up groggily, a headache forming but not enough to concrete into something tangible, like the wisps of a cloud in disarray on a cerulean day. Mingyu moved from his bed to the corner of the room to the small dresser they shared.
"Why is the door open?" Jihoon whined in irritation. Mingyu turned, startled by the voice, but grinned, with a minor-bloated face.
"Soonyoung hyung just opened it. He and a few other hyungs just went to go pick up Jeongmin noona." He answered, picking up his towel and his set of clothes.
"Noona?" Jihoon made his way off the bed.
"Noona." Mingyu confirmed, nodding his head slowly before speeding off towards the bathroom.
He suddenly felt like a projectile, immune to normal force with only gravity to keep him up, as he nearly collapsed out the door but his reflexes saved him. Had the earth been knocked off its axis today? Of all days?
Silence filled the dorms with tiny chatter emanating from the kitchen as he made his way, missing the padding of his slippers from underneath him. He met the miniature bowing heads of Junhui, Hansol, Chan, Minghao, and Seokmin in their partial energy as they munched on their breakfast.
"Would you like some food, hyung? Junhui made it." Minghao's cinnamon tone greeted him and Jihoon merely nodded, patting his shoulder to sit beside him.
"Joshua also made some French toast, too, if you want some." Jun interjected with a sincere smile. He again nodded his thanks when he served him the breakfast.
The younger ones talked amongst themselves about plans they'd like to do in their futures, as well as for the consideration of Minghao's upcoming birthday but the boy shook his head to their extravagant ideas.
"I don't want to expect too much. I like the life I live. I like the uncertainty." He concluded, pushing up his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Gee, that was really beautiful!" Chan exclaimed, frowning with an admirable gleam in his eyes, as Seokmin faked a few sobs. Jihoon sat in the midst, crunching but pondering upon Minghao's words.
Hansol spoke with Jun about cameras and writing song lyrics: the way words, in their raw form of feelings and caprice, came to him made sense upon writing down and building it. Jihoon listened, diverting the way his mind comprehended as well as the way his heart settled with it, or took it the information in.
They all continued with their chatter even after Jihoon decided to shower promptly before heading down to work on some rearrangements, as if it would an effect on his recent incapability to build upon the demos. Everything always seemed to be scrapped and Bumzu even consulted him on this. Jihoon was being too hard on himself but in the heat of the moment of the call, he hung up. This inescapable routine shadowed him upon his walk, and arguably, from the studio. Nothing was produced, no new sights seen: the world joining in blandness around him. Maybe Jun had poisoned him to feel this way.
The sun had already danced from a few degrees west, kissing the angles of the buildings around the dorms. Before entering, he stopped to take a breath, already aware of the incessant noise, sometimes all too much reminding him of jazz, that incalculable pressure, and the obligation to greet someone. (His watch read 14:23.)
Jihoon opened the door, smiling at Seungkwan's loud voice as he shut the door from behind himself. He caught Mingyu's attention and luckily, the younger only waved in return, as he made his way into the kitchen.
"Where is everyone?" He murmured, somewhat tired from the isolation and everything else. Mingyu finished pouring himself a smoothie in a cup.
"All the noise is in Seokmin hyung's room. They've been showing her around. I'm making smoothies though. Do you want one?" Mingyu offered a toothy grin, which seemed to infect the older with a smile. He declined the offer and went to his room, attempting to tune out all the ruckus.
Jihoon decided he'd write a letter to his parents since his mother always loved receiving them, a trait that he seemed to inherit upon fan letters and such. The organization of their dorm had put away most of his valuables and his ease of heart soon turned to something of an annoyed thump as he rummaged through his second crate of belongings, dropping a Transformers figure from his middle school years.
A knock at the door fell deaf to his ears as he continued shuffling through his and Mingyu's dresser drawers.
"Jihoon—" Wonwoo began, cutting himself off as the door creaked awkwardly into the realities of both worlds.
He still didn't see them as he finally found some of his old stationery, a pen shooting out from across the room upon his pencil box snapping in half.
"No one pick it up. Let's watch him suffer." Soonyoung chuckled as Jihoon chased it.
"You're such a jerk." A reply resounded before a pair of unfamiliar hands came before Jihoon, nearly replicating those of his dream. Nearly? He crashed onto his knees and apparently so had the owner of the pair of new hands.
"Jihoon, say hello to Jeongmin!" Soonyoung seemed to shout, as did the rest with their infinite clamor but somehow, it all dissolved into silence, on the hinges of white static noise but only ever lingering on the highest octave used by violins in symphonies.
He met the top of her head as she bowed emphatically before meeting the rest of her and her eyes and her nose and her mouth, colliding with what seemed the sun.
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What else could have caused his eyes to become stricken with a light, a burning yet scintillating power, that overcame his senses from his palpitating heart down to the degrees of his nerves?
"Hello," she grinned and it had to be the most gorgeous smile that had ever graced his vision. "Here's your pen. I hope Soonyoung isn't too much for you to handle. Anyway...nice to meet you, Jihoon sunbae." With that, Jeongmin gingerly slid the pen into his open hand and bowed her head again before rising up, reaching for Seungcheol's outstretched hand to stand, muttering her thanks, and heading to the next dorm.
Jihoon finally exhaled, realizing he had held his breath in the entirety of colliding with Jeongmin.
He couldn't calculate whether he'd looked at her for either four seconds, minutes, or hours. The outside noise returned, sobering him from whatever medium he had been sucked into. His chest felt light, as did his head, yet there was a pressure half lifted and exacted upon him. What was that? A tremolo of nothing transitioned him back to reality.
Exasperatedly trying to recompose himself from that moment of vulnerability, he rose from his feet, infected with a new, intangible weight upon him and he felt as if he were walking for the first time again.
