The Habit of Liking you 🌅🌞

Renjun fell in love with a boy too sparkly for the small, run down town he called home, in a grimy, old gas station in the ungodly hours of the morning.

It was 2:58 am, two minutes before the convenience store Renjun worked at closed, when Donghyuck and his little gang of misfits stopped by. They came in and took to the aisles before Renjun could catch their attention to say hey, we're about to close, though, honestly, he knew they wouldn't have cared, anyway.

He sighed, and watched the three of them (Lee Donghyuck, Na Jaemin and Lee Jeno) , scurried up and down the aisles, laughing as they grabbed a few energy drinks and some hot Cheetos. Renjun watched Donghyuck step away from the other two to slip a Red-bull into his bag, and couldn't find it in himself to say anything.

The three approached the register and plopped their stuff on the counter.

"You're not getting anything, Hyuck?" Jeno asked his friend.

"I think Donghyuck got everything he needed." Renjun interrupted without much thought.

Donghyuck looked nervous only for a millisecond, before expertly changing the topic of conversation, "Oh my god wait," he looked at Renjun, "what's your name again? You're in my astronomy class, right?"

"Yeah, it's Renjun," he said dryly as he rang up their items. They'd only gone to school together since kindergarten, in a town of just 20,000 people. Of course he didn't remember his name.

Donghyuck hummed, "Ohhh, that's right."

Jeno handed him a stack of one dollar bills and some change, and at this point Renjun, beyond exhausted and working after hours, let out the biggest sigh.

"Just take it."

"Huh?" Jeno cocked his head to the side like a puppy

Renjun wondered how he could make such innocent faces when he made a habit of hanging out with people like Lee Donghyuck at 3 am on school nights.

"Just take it," he repeated,  "The register is already locked up and I really can't be bothered to count change right now."

Jeno's eyes smiled back at him,  "Thanks, man!" he said happily.

"No problem...   Dude..." Renjun was over it.

They all headed out and Donghyuck was the last to the door, but he stopped to turn around and say,

"Thanks for being so chill, I'll have to come by more often."

The thing was, Renjun wasn't trying to be "chill",  he was just tired and annoyed.

"Sure, maybe don't come 2 minutes before we close next time, though."

Donghyuck just laughed, like he'd totally do it again. It hung and twinkled in the air with the sound of the door chiming closed behind him.

...

The next day in astronomy, Renjun was more exhausted than usual. He had a pretty good routine going: Wake up for school. Do homework. Go home to nap. Wake up at 8 to eat and go to work. Return home. Sleep. Repeat

Lately though, he'd been missing his naps, overwhelmed with school work and the college admission process.

He was half asleep on top of his textbook when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He lifted his head up, opening his eyes slowly to adjust to the tacky, off-white LED lighting.

"Um, hi, We're partnered up for this- oh! I saw you yesterday, or..er, earlier today? Right?"