a lie she told in spring | ATEEZ ff

Chapter Nineteen

//starstruck shiber 

Byun Kiku's p.o.v.

"Here!", halmeoni threw me the cleansing brush over and I continued washing the small pig in the mini tub. It was washing day for most of the animals and I was glad that we had nearly all of them done. Washing is clearly exhausting, especially if the animals are being extra. A baby bird was sitting on my right shoulder and was watching me doing my work. "Hey Chip...", I greeted her. Most of the birds looked forward to the bathing time. "I know you want another round but only once a week...", I said as I successfully finished bathing Yeonie. "Halmeoni, are we done?" She looked at me pouting. "Nearly..." "No, it's your turn to bath Shiber!", I whined as I dried Yeonie. "Aigoo, my back...", halmeoni started and I looked at her with an are-you-serious-face. 

"You owe me.", I said as I went to search for the most rascal pig I ever met. When I reached their small "home" you could say, he was already looking at me as if he knew I was coming. I opened their little playground and right before I could take him out of there, he ran away. " No, Shiber, not today. Please...", even though my hangover was nearly gone, I wasn't in the mood to deal with him. He ran around the playground and I stepped in, careful to not hurt any of the other piggies, I tried to catch him. He climbed up my boots and jumped over the fence. "Fuck..." "HALMEONI!", I whined out but I just got a mere you-can-do-it as a response from the other room. Quickly closing the playground, I ran after Shiber. Did he get faster? Uff... From afar I could see he went behind the curtain to the reception and I was praying the main doors were closed. As I reached the curtain I heard screeching and I quickly went to the reception. The surprise was probably written on my face when I saw the one and only Park Seonghwa standing in the middle of the room with my favorite pig in the world in both his in veins covered hands, screeching and trying to get out of him because Seonghwa only chuckled. "I think someone tried to escape bathing time...", he cooed as he gave Shiber back to me. I thanked him though I wondered how he knew it was bathing time. But one look at my slightly wet appearance answered it all. As I held Shiber secure in my hands, I asked Seonghwa why he was here. Before he could answer, halmeoni interrupted. "Aigoo, Seonghwa-yah! You came again, come here!" I looked weirdly at the two casually hugging and halmeoni pinching his cheeks. I noticed how halmeoni reached at least Seonghwas shoulders and I annoyingly sighed. With my short height, I barely reached his chest. "I never knew you guys were this close", I voiced my thoughts and my halmeoni grinned before answering. " While you were busy with all your university stuff going on, Seonghwa here came by quite often, gave me company and well, played some songs here and there for all of us. Occasionally bringing his quite handsome friend with him" She nudged my shoulder before continuing. "I heard he studies in your department, too." "Yeah, sometimes I bring along Sanie and I think animals, especially Minki,  enjoy my music and I love talking to homonim!", as Seonghwa added that, halmeoni slightly hit his head. "How often do I have to tell you to call me halmeoni instead of homonim." They all started a conversation as I went with them to the tub to wash Shiber. "Oh halmeoni, you seem pretty fine, don't you think?" In a quick second, halmeoni excused herself and said she would lay down in her massage chair to ease her 'back pain'. "What was that about?" "It's actually halmeonis turn to give Shiber a bath but since he can get quite a handful she's put it on me even though I well know that her back is currently fine." But for my surprise, Shiber was being quite obeyful right now. He didn't try another escape nor cried out loud. He just was jumping around a bit in the still clean water. "Hey, you want to try bath him? I know he can get very disobedient but he's fine right now" I glanced at Seonghwa as he bit his lip, hesitating for a second before nodding. He came closer to me, his arm against mine as I showed him slowly how to do it. "You have to be really gentle when you rub the dirt off cause they are very sensitive", I was waiting for Shiber to do anything as usual but I had no idea what got into him. He looked at Seonghwa whenever he could and his gaze was really weird. Well, Shiber was weird. "I have no idea what got into him today. Before you came he ran away like I was the grim reaper himself but now...", I shook my head and continued to watch and guide Seonghwa. "He seems normal to me. Last time I came he was exactly like that.", my eyebrows rose, what? "I THINK HE'S STARSTRUCK", a fainted shout from halmeoni was heard and I looked at Shiber. And exactly, he looked so mesmerized by Seonghwa. "Woah, he's really into you!", I let out a small chuckle and he joined me. "By the way, you looked amazing at the party.", Seonghwa complimented me and I let out an awkward smile. "Really? Thank you, I gave my best to do so."

"But where did you see me?", Seonghwa stopped gently rubbing Shiber and looked at me. "We hung out that evening, you don't remember?" Confused and apologetic I shook my head. I could remember a few particular things but me hanging out with Seonghwa wasn't included. "Considering it was the first time you called me 'Oppa' as well and didn't avoid calling my name, I guess you were pretty gone." I bit my lip before replying "I actually haven't drunk that much as I could have so I'm a little surprised that I'm not remembering so many things. Were did we hang out, though ?"

"I ran into you when you came back to the party, you looked quite perplexed and freaked out. Don't know what happened but you said you needed a drink and I took you to where Hongjoong and I were at...", he started and then it hit me. "Ah, wait! I remember you had stitches all over your face, right?", Seonghwa nodded and continued washing Shiber. After we finished, we. started to clean up and halmeoni said she would make some tea for us. Halmeoni lived right upstairs, so she always had an eye on the animals. I took Seonghwa to the living room and he sat down by the table as I helped halmeoni with the tea. 

"Here.", I gave a cup to Seonghwa and sat down beside him as he continued to tell me about his grandmother. Halmeoni left us alone and I tried to cool down the tea a bit by blowing into it. "Where did you say she lived again?" "In Udo...", he answered while nodding his head slowly. "I miss my eonnie too. It's been nearly a year too since I've seen her last. We occasionally talk but it's not the same." "She lives in Udo, too?" I nodded as an Idea popped into my head. "Upcoming weekend will have a bank holiday after it right?", Seonghwa looked at me nodding. "Let's have a short trip to Udo? You can visit your grandmother and I'll visit my eonnie!", Seonghwa looked impressed and excited by the idea as he locked his eyes with me. "This is a great idea, Kiku! We could take some of the others as well and have a short break from university!", I liked the idea and Seonghwa and I started planning. After Seonghwa messaged his friends' group and I messaged mine, we went to the office room of halmeoni where her computer was at. Pretty soon  we started to look for cheap accommodations and a way to get there. It was exciting and I was excited about the idea of surprising my sister. See you soon, eonnie.