Empty Space | BTOB LMH

Chapter 9

Chapter 9
What The Stars Say

LEE MINHYUK

"You're telling me that you've been working for a company called Starsign, but you can't remember the last time you stopped and looked at the stars?" I asked Harin. We were currently on the top of her roof, climbing from the second floor of her room. I wished I'd seen how her room looked like, but she didn't even turn on the light as we passed by.

We brought the popcorn, and I got a canned beer with me and a root beer for her.

Harin raised an eyebrow, and whenever she did that, I think she looked extra attractive in my eyes. "Can you tell when was the last time you did that?"

I shook my head. "No, but, at least, I didn't work for a company called Starsign."

She smiled just a little and the air between us was filled with comfortable silence. I couldn't help but watch as she slowly looked up, heaved a deep breath and then released it. "There was a time I was obsessed with stargazing." She suddenly said.

"Really? You don't strike me as that type."

She smiled again tiredly. "People change. But yes, I did love the stars. I loved their beauty, the way they twinkle and shineㅡand yet, they're pleasant to the eyes. Because there's the sun, and it shines for us every day and yet we don't treat it the same way as we do with the stars. We don't sit like this and gaze at the sun because it hurt our eyes."

"Because it's bad for us somehow." I added.

Harin grinned. "We could wear sunglasses, but we still don't do that to stare at the sun."

"Poor sun."

"Poor, underrated sun. We don't deserve it."

I chuckled, glancing at her sideways. "Do we even deserve earth at all? Look at what we've done to it. Imagine how God feels? Imagine you made such a masterpiece of art, only for that to be vandalized by morons."

"We are all morons. Don't tell me that at some point, you didn't put a writing on the wall?"

"Walls are made by humans. I meant the real earth. The ground where we stood."

"Then, can you imagine not having a shelter?"

"Adam and Eve lived in a garden."

"Do you want to live in a garden?"

"If our ancestors managed to survive and live long lives by living in gardens and caves, then we could too."

"Ha-ha. Funny. You're only saying that because you haven't known what it feels like not to have internet in a long time."

And it was so, so strange. We went up here and we're gazing at the stars, and we were talking about the most random things in the world, and yet I haven't felt that peaceful and contented in such a long time. You know when your heart's in peace, it doesn't beat wildly or slowly, it just beats in a normal, peaceful pace and it felt perfect.

In the middle of this randomness, Harin suddenly turned to me and I'd like to think she looked quite ethereal with the moonlight glowing all over her. I wonder if I looked the same. "What's your favorite constellation?" She asked.

I didn't know what to answerㅡsimply because I've never thought about constellations. I've never gazed up the stars. My life was always spent on the darker side. But at that moment, I wish I could turn back time and start new. I wouldn't go where I've been. I wouldn't do the things I've done, so that when it's time for me to meet Song Harin, I'd be worthy of her.