'He's a tall glass of domineeringness, you're the glass half-full of penitence ... well, almost, yet no other two entities would fit more perfectly.'
In which Younghyun tries to make do with the comfort he finds in the unclear while he waits and hop...
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The court.
Their eyes meet and Teddy isn't thinking of the last time they saw, she doesn't cite the sudden urge to exclaim deja vu! either. This time, the sun is not making its timely exit, the moon has already staged its entry. It's a crescent tonight. For a fleeting moment, she contemplates whether she should have slept longer on it. Literally. Foregone Eon's class and make up for the shut-eye she missed, because she's feeling wired out.
Younghyun.
He looks like he wants to be anywhere but here. Teddy remembers Lily Woo from this morning. But this seems worse, it's almost like he has no idea what he's doing here. If he was asleep when she sent the message wanna b-ball?, his fingers absentmindedly typing his reply sure, his feet shuffling out the door. Once again, he wears his turmoil out in the open, as if he's done putting up a front. This is the real Kang Younghyun—in full view for the world to behold (too bad everyone is currently busy). He's not intimidating, at least not like he claims to be.
Younghyun isn't a weak kitten, she discovers, he's a scared one. As scared as they come, even. No one ever saw it.
Feeling like any closer she comes he might make a run for it, Teddy stands right where she is—at the entrance. Just like last time, there is the surety that they won't be shooting hoops. Younghyun doesn't even hold the ball this time, not until they ... she ... pulls the rabbit out of the hat.
The flood lights offer luminosity that the moon, shaped like a sickle, cannot. There is also music out of earshot, can easily be missed except one decides to listen closely. Probably Jackson and his frat brotherhood hosting half the school, she thinks. Against the wire fence and peeking from behind Younghyun is a bench, like every other, but what makes this one an eye-catching spectacle than its neighbours is the yellow basketball sat beneath it. Their ball, she calls it in her head. The one with the two dots and upside bracket that makes up a smiley. The ridiculous emoji throws Teddy off, simply for the reason that it adds to the number of stares she's receiving, and Younghyun's already packs enough of a punch on its own.
Teddy's attention reel back to Younghyun, down to his lips, back up to his eyes—both show nothing. Bland. No conflict. They have once more taken refuge beneath an unfeeling dome. If they've spared anything it's that they're not going to be kicking off the intros.
Heck! Younghyun is ready to back up for once. Does he want her to see each hell she had put him through?
Fair enough, she thinks. That accepting thought is what impels her to take another step. Teddy pauses, glances up for a short time, he's still standing there. She takes another, then another, until she stops exactly on the line that sections off his personal space.
