Distant Sky

15

Join the Art Club?

It was Sunday, and Joohyun was up early in the morning, working in the garden. She was excited to start planting the little flowering plants that she had bought yesterday. She had already sown the seeds she got in the patch she had prepared for the vegetables. It was mostly tomatoes and some easy to grow herbs.

She was currently digging holes for the plants. There were a variety of them before her, sitting in a neat row, ready to be planted. She had pale lilac hydrangeas, dark red geraniums, yellow dahlias and some petunias. 

Aunt Taehee comes out of the kitchen with a mug of coffee in her hands and sits down on the porch overlooking the garden. "You need a hand, Joohyun?" she asks.

"No, I'm almost done," Joohyun replies, looking up from her work with a big smile on her face. She waves, wearing the garden gloves that Aunt Taehee had gotten for her last week.

"You seem to be in a very good mood today, Joohyun. Had fun yesterday?" Her aunt asks looking at her curiously. Joohyun pauses for a moment, then nods smiling, "Yes."

"So...who was it? You weren't with your friends Seulgi and Wendy, were you?" Aunt Taehee asks.

Joohyun stares at her aunt in shock, unable to believe what she had just said.

She gets startled when her aunt suddenly starts laughing. "Look at your face! Did you really think I wouldn't know?"

"Um...well," Joohyun looks away, embarrassed that her aunt could read her so easily. "So, who was it?" her aunt asks again.

"Well...I was with one of my classmates, Taehyung," she answers looking a little self conscious.

"Ooh..a boy, huh?" her aunt asks with a teasing smile. "Oh no, it's nothing like that! We're just friends," Joohyun rushes to explain, but her aunt just waves her off. "I don't mind who you hangout with, Joohyun. I trust your judgement. As long as you are happy..." her aunt says with a smile.

Joohyun relaxes after hearing that. She smiles at her aunt gratefully, happy that she trusts her.

-•-

She spends the rest of the day in her aunt's studio watching her paint. That night, Joohyun was sitting on her bed, looking at the pictures she had taken of her garden. She had taken them intending to send them to Taehyung, but she just couldn't go through with it.

They were mostly shots of the plants she had planted this morning, but there was also a selca of her among them, sitting in the garden with her muddy gloves on.

She then goes through their chat history and sees her text to him last night, telling him that she had reached home safely. She remembers her surprise at how fast he had replied, feeling happy that he really cared for her.

Then, with a sudden sense of determination, she selects the pictures and hits send before she could change her mind. She then waits for his reply. When a few minutes pass and there's still no reply, she puts her phone down and gets up to start getting ready for bed.

Just as she stands up, her phone rings. She freezes in her place. No...it can't be him, she thinks. She slowly turns to pick up the phone. Her heart starts to beat faster when she sees the screen. It was him. Taehyung was calling her!