digital heart | minsung | ✔

27

I have been staring at the ceiling for what feels like a century ever since I logged out. My room is pitch black and even while it already was like that when I woke up, I didn't bother to turn on the lights. In fact, I didn't move a single inch after logging out.

My thoughts are stuck in their own little world. Or rather, stuck in Parallel, thinking about the hours I've spent there today and everything that happened. You kissed Lino, echoes through my mind continuously. The thought alone is enough to set my heart afire all over again and I smile widely.

All I have to do is close my eyes and my mind travels back to that very moment our lips met. Even though it happened in the digital world, the feeling of his lips on mine was so real and I relish the feeling, reaching up to let my fingertips graze over my lips softly.

I'm not sure whether the kiss counts as real or not since our real bodies were asleep in the offline world when it happened. If you'd just ask me, I would tell you that the kiss definitely is real and judging from the smile Lino wore all night long, he feels the same. But the entire online thing makes it a bit complicated.

We watched the sunset together, perched on one of the only walls left around the old ruins. It was so peaceful, with my hand in his and the soft summer breeze tugging on our hair. Talking about sweet nothings -okay who am I kidding, it was more a bunch of nonsense- while watching our horses graze in the tall grass that sways back and forth softly.

The rumbling of my stomach harshly pulls me from my daydreams and I slowly sit up, my hand patting the surface of my nightstand to find the switch of the lamp perched on top of it. I squint my eyes as soon as the light flickers on, the sudden change stinging my eyes after lying in the darkness for so long. With my eyes still half-closed, I reach out for my phone.

12:37 am, the rectangular screen displays.

What?

I quickly push myself off my bed and leave the room behind me, hurrying downstairs as quietly as possible. I'm pretty sure my parents are already asleep and I don't want to wake them up. But I really need to eat something, and raiding the fridge is the only way I can come up with without having to leave the house.

I use the flashlight on my phone to navigate through the dark living room and find my way to the kitchen. While I do so, I see tons of unread messaged from either Seungmin, Felix or our group chat. From Felix, it's just a dose of memes that I can look at tomorrow while Seungmin wonders where I am and why I'm not replying.

There isn't much in the fridge and I settle on a bowl of yogurt with some cereal instead. With a spoon in one hand and the bowl in the other, I exit the kitchen and curl up into the corner of the sofa in the living room. It's a little chilly downstairs and goosebumps run over my skin but I ignore it for now, eating in the silence of the night.

Of course, my thoughts wander back to the online events of today. A smile tugs on the corners of my mouth immediately and I let out a stupid giggle, not caring to hide it since there is absolutely no one to judge me. Falling in love with an online guy is one thing, but actually having the guts to act on those feelings and kiss him is a different story and I did it.

I kissed Lino.

I almost drop the bowl as another rush of happiness surges through me. It still feels so unreal, but the fact that I can still perfectly remember the feeling serves as enough proof that it was, in fact, very real.

There's a part of me that wants to rant to Seungmin and Felix about this. But at the same time, I want to keep it between me and Lino, to keep it more special. Plus, we didn't talk anything through after that and maybe the other wants to keep it a secret for some reason. There are a lot of things unclear at this point, partly because we just wanted to enjoy the evening together. We silently agreed that we'd talk later, though I'm not sure when that moment will be.

I hope it's before the start of college, which is now a week and a half away. It keeps slipping my mind and I know it's because I spent way too much time in the online dreamworld, hiding away from reality. For not, that's permittable, but I know things will change once I have classes to attend again. I think it's a good thing to sort things out before that happens.

With a sigh, I place the empty bowl on the coffee table in front of me and hug my knees to my legs, making myself comfortable. The smile on my lips never falters, not even when another cold chill runs down my spine. I contemplate between staying here and going back to my room for a second before I decide on the latter and I leave the chilly living room behind, only taking my phone with me.

Once I'm in bed again, I make sure my headgear is securely on my nightstand before I turn off the lights again, flopping down onto the mattress and burying myself in my blankets. I send a quick reply to Seungmin to tell him that I'm alive while I decide to safe Felix's memes for tomorrow -I'm too distracted to laugh about them anyway.

And them I'm in the darkness again, and it isn't long before I find myself tossing and turning in bed, smiling like the lovesick idiot I am. I already know it'll take hours for me to fall asleep, with Lino occupying my mind like this.

"I really fell hard for you, didn't I?" I mutter, grinning softly.

I can't wait to see him again.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Okay this is such a lame, lazy, and short filler chapter and I apologize lol. But I kinda needed to get this out in order to continue, I guess?

To make it up to you, I'll give you a spoiler.

̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶s̶e̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶i̶g̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶
s̶i̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶b̶a̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶f̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶i̶g̶i̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶r̶t̶

That's all I'm going to say ;3