stardust | park seonghwa ✓

07

I BLINK, unimpressed.

In front of me are Hyekyung and Wooyoung, playing around with each other. It's almost the fifteenth minute that it's as if I've disappeared into thin air. When Wooyoung arrived here earlier and saw that Hyekyung was sitting on the seat next to me, he chorused with a loud "awww!!" and scurried to pinch her cheeks. As a result, they're now the best of buddies.

Now how did this even start?

It was eleven in the morning, Hyekyung came knocking on my door with mum earlier saying that she misses me. Last night, Wooyoung agreed to meet me at the roastery and whether I liked it or not, I had to bring Hyekyung with me.

Just look at them now, looking like they've been best friends for ever.

Frowning, I watch as Wooyoung pulls back a piece of croissant away from Hyekyung who was sitting on his lap. My sister whines as Wooyoung lets out a laugh, satisfied, before cooing at her who is now pouting. The silver haired nudges the piece of bread on her lips and Hyekyung opens her mouth, letting the boy pop the croissant in which my sister happily chews on.

"You guys seem to be having fun," I comment after a while of watching them, resuming my sketching.

"I wike Uyoung!" my three year old sister chirps enthusiastically, hugging Wooyoung who doesn't seem to mind at all. "Uyoung funny!"

"Do you like your sister more or do you like me more?" Wooyoung asks cheekily to her, booping her small nose.

"You!"

Laughing in glee, Wooyoung high fives the small hands belonging to Hyekyung. "You are one smart girl!" he praises her.

Rolling my eyes, I sip on my coffee.

"Lookie, Hyekyung, your sister is annoyed!" the boy giggles wholeheartedly when I fire him a glare.

Hyekyung responds with another fit of giggles, squishing Wooyoung's cheeks together. "It's okay!" she exclaims, "I want to be wif you!!"

As I bite through my macaron aggressively, Wooyoung laughs at me teasingly. "She loves me more than you," he sneers, embracing her tightly. Hyekyung sticks her tongue out at me and Wooyoung does the same and I swear to God it's as if they're of the same kind.

"Okay now, twins," I say, "I get that you two are best friends now but..."

"Yes, yes okay I'll focus," Wooyoung says, calming down before pressing his finger onto Hyekyung's lips. "Let's listen to your eonnie now, yes?" he instructs the little girl and wow please dear Jung Wooyoung take her with you because if I were the one who said that, she wouldn't listen until the sun split into two.

The two people in front of me are now giving me their full attention. Hyekyung has her head rested on both of the palms of her hands, looking up at me expectantly while the boy in silver hair blows a strand of the girl's hair away from his face with his hand circled around her belly to keep her sitting in place. I have a grin on my face now so I set my pencils down and take a sip of my drink before I start.

"Okay so, Wooyoung you're one of the only people who knows about my mark besides Yeosang, my parents and Kyung," I explain.

"That's nice," he remarks. "But you actually told your parents? Wow, some guts you have, you don't even know who they are."

"Heh thanks."

"No need to thank me," the boy shrugs, "I'm just stating facts."

Before I could continue my sentence, Hyekyung cuts me off. "Uyoung! Eonnie wants to know who they are!" she tells him.

Wooyoung looks at me with a slight expression of disbelief. "Wait does this mean you're actually wanting my help? Is that what this is?" he asks me, as if taking a double take as if it's not obvious already.

"Well you did say that," I shrug innocently.

"What do you say?"

The silver haired pauses to think for a second, before leaning back on his seat and shrugging. "I don't see why not," he says and I silently cheer. "But you do need to know that I, myself, haven't gotten the mark."

"You have no mawk, Uyoung?" Hyekyung asks the boy, to which he shakes his head at. "Oh... are you thad, Uyoung?"

"No, not really, Kyung," he answers.

"Oh! We can shawe a mawk then!" And Wooyoung chuckles, saying 'okay' as he ruffles her hair.

I let out an exhale. "At this point you two might as well," I mumble.

Another minute or so passes by. The other two continues to play with each other while I finish up my sketching, erasing thick lines to replace them with slightly thinner ones and adding last minute cross-hatching to deepen a shadow.

When I notice that the volume around me had gotten a bit quieter, I frown and look up from my drawing. Hyekyung's eyes were focused on the screen of Wooyoung's phone, mouth forming into a letter 'o' and her small pointer fingers sliding over the screen.

Hyekyung seems to find something interesting and she tilts her head back to look at the boy. "Uyoung?" she says, catching his attention then pointing to a specific area on the phone. "Who?"

"Oh? That's my best friend, San. Do you know what a best friend is?"

"Yes! Mummy told me best fwend is a fwend who is vewy vewy cwose to you," the little girl responds eagerly. "But Uyoung, eonnie has fwend that's San too. Is San her fwend?"

"Does she, Kyung?" Wooyoung throws me a cheeky glance after my sister gives him a firm nod. "You know, she got her mark after meeting him."

"Weally? But I thought she got mawk from someone called Seonghwa!"

"Eonnie you lied to mummy!" Hyekyung points a finger at me accusingly, cheeks puffed out and eyebrows scrunched as she tries to expose a mistake a didn't even do. "Eonnie bad girl, that's why I like Uyoung better!"

Wooyoung seems to be having the time of his life, watching as Hyekyung's small figure leap off his lap and waddles over to me. She proceeds to smack her fist on to my leg repetitively, shaking them when I paid her almost no attention.

"I'm tewwing mummy!" she warns, climbing up the seat next to mine and letting out a loud huff, cutely crossing her arms over her chest.

I flash Wooyoung a glare when he chortles back his laughter. After scoffing at him (and silently praying so that he would step on Lego when he returns home that day), I turn to smile at my sister.

"No, baby," I say, stroking her hair, "I'm not lying to mum. Seonghwa and San were the people I met. You were there when I told mum yesterday, right?"

"Oh. I was dancing."

"See?" I click my tongue when Hyekyung grins at me innocently.

Wooyoung, who had been observing the both of us then leans over the table. "Kyungie, do you want to meet San and Seonghwa hyung?" he offers, "you can be friends with them too!"

My little sister's eyes light up, slamming her tiny hands on top of the table with her mouth forming the biggest grin I've ever seen on her. I give Wooyoung a look saying 'don't you dare' but he ignores me and sticks his tongue out instead.

"Come on, let's go! I heard Seonghwa hyung is at Sani's house today, so I can introduce you to them!" Wooyoung walks around the table and lets out a hand for Hyekyung to take. She happily grabs hold on to it and clambers off the chair, waving bye-bye to me and pulling Wooyoung out the door.

And so, with a defeated sigh, I pack all my things on the table and shove them quickly into my tote bag. Now with my leftover croissant in one hand and slinging my bag on my shoulder with the other, I follow the two figures out of the door with tiny Hyekyung waddling alongside a now seemingly giant Wooyoung in front of me and she blabbers about how they would be able to have tea parties and sleepovers.

+

it's almost 11 pm and i'm supposed to be asleep bur i have nothing to do so why not:))