spectacular. ptg

🥀 | nymphaea (wooyuki) 2

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

Days pass by quickly; it seems that Hyunggu's presence is always prettily floating about, whether he's twirling through hallways or engaging in pleasant conversations with Adachi or Wooseok. He's like a child, as naive and innocent as they come. Wooseok finds himself enjoying that liveliness, and he befriends Hyunggu quickly.

Hyunggu is easy to read, for he's expressive and emotional and even when he's quiet his eyes are full of so much feeling. Wooseok can feel the love radiating off of Hyunggu as he places his hand onto Adachi's bicep, or when he calls "Yuto, Yuto!" his voice loud and sharp.

He is infatuated with  Adachi. Wooseok found it conspicuous yet so carefully concealed. Hyunggu seemed to be using the heteronormative ideals of their society to mask the emotions that lie beneath his compassionate words. Wooseok is more worldly than most people, however, and the thought of Hyunggu being attracted to another man isn't too radical to him. Perhaps that was how he figured it out so easily.

Adachi and Hyunggu are almost opposites—Wooseok had realized through his observations—but they got along so well. Adachi is reserved, yet bold. One cannot decipher what he truly feels until he's doing the action. Despite years of friendship, Wooseok cannot read Adachi; his delighted sighs of admiration as Hyunggu dances aren't enough for Wooseok to gage the man's true feelings. Is it the dance he loves? Is it Hyunggu?

Where Hyunggu is soft, Adachi is brash. Sometimes Wooseok wonders, If Hyunggu found someone who he was similar to, would he love them more? Or is he just attracted to someone he can learn from, someone who thrills him? Wooseok is lost in between two differing souls, entangled in a gorgeous, unspoken catastrophe of emotion that entices him for some odd reason. He's peeking, observing a love story or an upcoming disaster. Wooseok is not certain which one it is yet, nor is he sure which one he wants it to be.

A month after Wooseok's stay, Adachi leaves for a meeting in the city, leaving Wooseok and Hyunggu to themselves.

"This is your second home, is it not?" Wooseok chuckles as the two converse on the balcony.

Hyunggu laughs gently, touching the pink blossom on his head for a moment. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Where do you live?"

"Away," Hyunggu smiles, "A few blocks down from the Glass Pavilion. But I don't like it there. It's so dingy."

Wooseok wrinkles his nose, "dingy?"

"Yes, it's so... old and small...I like it much better here. It's so colorful and lively and full of so much possibility..." Hyunggu's voice falters, "and Yuto's here."

A thick, sullen silence fills the air. Wooseok glances at Hyunggu, whose eyes are glum yet wide.

"You love him," Wooseok blurts out.

Mortification is plastered onto the dancer's face, rapidly his poise rotting into insecurity. Hyunggu avoids Wooseok's eyes and stares blankly at the sky, the horizon merely a blur of devastating shades of sickly blues and pinks. The wispy clouds stretch out, engulfing the white moon in tufts of sad rosy color. He stifles a quiet whimper, closing his eyes as he's reminded of his hopelessness. Wooseok's words tantalize him, throwing him into a state of mute anxiety where on the inside, he screams bloody murder.

"What does it matter?" Hyunggu almost whispers, voice shrunk into a weak hum. He swallows dryly, miserable as ever as he stares into the sinking sunset.

"I suppose it doesn't," Wooseok replies softly, after a little while.

"It doesn't," Hyunggu mutters. A few moments go by before Hyunggu glances at the tall man beside him. "I'm in misery. I'm...lovelorn. Yuto...he'll..." he releases a shaky sigh, "h-he'll be alright. He'll have a wife one day...and a family...but I'm static here. I could never be married, I could never have a love that others do, or the ones in the movies, where the men love women so dearly and hold them so closely..." Hyunggu shuts his eyes, a tear falling against his pink cheek. "I'm so static. I'm a dancer yet I never move. I can't move...the world won't let me...."