beaming | keith kogane

XXIII | good

☀

—

"AW, YOU'RE SUCH A GOOD BOY!" Y/n knelt down, scratching the back of Kosmo's ears as the dog licked her wrists playfully. He barked, his tail wagging furiously as he bathed in the attention. Haneul stood behind Kosmo, watching Y/n with a fond smile. I glanced over at him once and he caught my gaze, as if challenging me to keep staring.

"What?" I blurted, my voice having some edge. The girl between us looked up briefly, saying nothing as she quickly looked away again. Haneul continued our stupid staring contest for a few more minutes before averting his gaze. "Nothing." The blond spoke quietly, as if too tired to even bother raising his voice to my volume.

I didn't say anything, sighing and heading to the kitchen. From the looks of it, they were most likely going to stay for dinner. We had barely made any progress on the project and it'd been about forty five minutes since they'd arrived in the first place. Suddenly, the door slammed open, startling the two of them.

Kosmo must've sensed it earlier since he seemed to be the least fazed, barking madly. I turned to look past the door frame of the kitchen, seeing my mom at the front door. She held grocery bags as Kosmo leaped onto her, tail still wagging as his tongue lolled out. Haneul was diagonal from her, his bandages unraveling into strong gold ones.

The ribbons from his forearms seemed much sturdier than the regular bandages wound around his skin. My mother looked between the two startled people before looking down at the floor. "KEITH, YOU LITTLE SHIT; YOU TRACKED DIRT INTO THE HOUSE—" I yelled back, "—I DID NO SUCH THING, YOU BLIND WOMAN!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"YOU HEARD ME, UNLESS YOU'RE DEAF TOO! HELEN KELLER ASS!" 

A quiet voice interrupted our shouting match, "I'm sorry, what's going on?" Y/n seemed timid and more anxious about the weird situation, glancing between me and my mother confusedly. My mom seemed to switch personalities instantly, "Oh my, you must be Y/n! Keith mentioned you before! You're even prettier in person," Her eyes sparkled.

Y/n turned pink, realizing that I talked about her. I felt my cheeks flush as well, but I refused to acknowledge it. Haneul looked at me with a smug expression, I could see his face from the corner of my eye as he grinned cheekily. "She's just here to work on a project, Mom." Haneul's grinned grew as he watched my antics, "Actually, Mrs. Kogane, we wouldn't mind staying."

Her eyes widened and she nodded with a warm smile on her face, "You three can go upstairs and work on the project. I'll get started on dinner and call you down," She paused for a moment before looking at the floor. "Keith, clean up the dirt before you go upstairs." She said quickly, heading upstairs right after.

I sighed, rolling my eyes as Haneul ruffled Y/n's hair, heading upstairs to my room. I made sure my room was the only room that had its door open since I knew Perla wouldn't be the happiest camper if they went in her room. Either way, it didn't matter since she planned on staying overnight at Lance's house because his family invited her over for dinner.

I grabbed a wet paper towel, wiping away the dirt on the hardwood floor. "Hey," The same quiet voice interrupted my actions as I glanced at my left, blinking at her. "I'm sorry about Haneul's antics. I don't know why he's acting so cocky all of a sudden." For once, she seemed. . . angry? I blinked at her before shaking my head. "N-No, it's fine."

She stared back at me, raising a brow. I responded, taking in a deep breath. "My mom tends to do these kinds of things, so I can't say that I didn't expect it. I honestly thought you two would stay for dinner too." I nodded, wiping the floor more before standing back up again. She still knelt on the floor, almost in crawl position.

She just replied with a meek nod, following after Haneul as I threw the paper towel away and headed into my room. The blond was poking at one of my band posters, studying it as Y/n sat quietly on my bed, fiddling with her hands. "Let's get started," I offered, grabbing my bag and unzipping it to grab my binder.

Haneul took one look at me and back at Y/n. "I'm not sticking around for this," He swished his hand, disappearing in a red cloud. Y/n looked at him, "Haneul—" She stared at him some more before realizing that she had cried out to crimson smoke instead. A sigh left her lips, head dropping at the realization.

"It's okay, we can do it without him," I smiled slightly at her as she weakly nodded back. Why do I feel the need to reassure her so badly? I questioned myself internally, but shook it off to focus on the project instead. "I guess," Y/n let out a breath that she seemed to be holding back, looking down at her lap. "A letter to the universe, huh?"

I brought out some paper from my binder, passing her one sheet to start off with. I nodded, "You have a pencil with you?" She blinked, instinctively reaching down, but patting the floor of my bedroom instead. Her cheeks flushed pink out of embarrassment, "My bag's downstairs; I-I'll be right back." I didn't say anything back, shoving my binder back into my bag.

Soft steps padded up the stairs and I thought it was Y/n at first, but I was wrong. Kosmo nudged the door open with a quiet whine, walking in slowly afterwards. He sniffed the air a bit before heading straight towards me and pressing his snout against my wrist for a scratch behind his ears. "Good boy," I cracked a grin, the dog barking and sniffing my hand more.

The door creaked again as Y/n slipped inside, taking one look at Kosmo as her smile grew wider. My heart beat faster at the sight, stomach flipping as I quickly turned away. Clearing my throat, I said the thing that I've been wanting to say for a while. "You're cute."