ʟᴜʟʟᴀʙʏ ♪ ʟᴇᴇ ᴅᴏɴɢʜʏᴜᴄᴋ

[43]

Soomin finally felt at peace. Her chest was going up and down rhythmically, following her calm long breaths and gentle heartbeats. Her eyes were only half-open, soothingly looking down into her lap.

There rested Donghyuck's face. 

His eyes were closed shut, but not in a tense way as they were usually. Dried tears remained on both of his cheeks, reflecting the feeble light emitted by the lamp on the desk. Ushered snores came from his partially parted lips, accompanied by an occasional sigh. Soomin's hand was soothingly going through his messy dark brown hair, parting it in the middle for it to not to fall on his face. 

For once he seemed calm. With all of the tension, anger and the constant frown not being apparent on his fascial features, he seemed like a completely different person. Even the way that he leaned into the girl's warm touch was different.

Soomin couldn't help but feel guilty. She had said so many mean things to Donghyuck during her stay here. She had crossed so many boundaries that she didn't know he felt uncomfortable with. She had assumed everything about him, yet all of that turned out to be dead wrong. 

But despite that, she was happy. Donghyuck had opened up to her and that was all that mattered. He had put his trust in her, which was something the girl would gladly keep and cherish. And of course, she would find ways to help him. Maybe that will recover the once bright and innocent teen who was still somewhere inside the no soul body.

Deciding to finally leave him to rest, Soomin lifted the boy's head and very carefully placed it onto the pillow. She then slid off the bed and out of the room, making as little sound as she could to not awake him. With a small yawn, she walked down the cold and empty hallway, seeing the blackness already covering the world behind the window at the other end of it. 

Deciding to grab herself something to eat and then going over to tuck in for the night, Soomin entered the kitchen with half-shut eyes and her feet dragging on the floor. 

It took her a bit longer than usual to grasp the presence of the tall figure in front of her, chopsticks with steaming noodles frozen half way between the bowl and his mouth. He seemed flustered by the girl's presence for some unknown reason, his Adam's apple throbbing awkwardly as he averted his gaze from her.

"Good evening, Jungwoo." Soomin greeted sleepily, barely paying him any mind and seemingly more interested in the yummy smell coming from his spicy noodles.

"Hi ..." Jungwoo answered uncomfortably, his voice as tiny as it could get. He put down the chopsticks into the bowl as he scanned the newcomer, realizing where she was looking.

The boy hesitated for a little while before finally gathering the courage to ask.
"Do you want some?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Soomin beamed, the warm and welcoming smile allowing Jungwoo to relax in the slightest. 

The tall individual got up, completely abandoning his own food, and walked over to the cabinet. Soomin sat down and watched him as he took out an egg from the fridge and started up the stove. Her eyes didn't leave him for the few minutes that he took, and Jungwoo was of course aware of that. He felt as if a set of burning lasers were digging into his back, but he just bit down on his bottom lip and took it.

"So why are you up until now?" The young girl finally decided to speak, cheek leaning onto her palm.

"Insomnia ..." Jungwoo answered quietly, mixing the noodles with the spices and adding the egg.

"Do you have any sleeping pills?" Soomin continued, voice a little more worried.

"Yes, but they don't really work ... why are you awake till now?"

The girl thought about the question, wondering whether she should tell him or not. But of course, she immediately scolded herself for even thinking about it since it was Donghyuck's personal life. She had no right telling anyone else about it. 

"I just ... couldn't sleep." She muttered, looking down at her other hand as she stared at the small scar that still there.

She flinched as a the bowl of steaming, tasty looking and smelling noodles was put right in front of her face.

"Oh wow ... thanks." Soomin gave Jungwoo another wide smile before digging in. She of course burned her tongue, but the girl could literally care less at that moment. Her starvation forced her to just deal with it.

Whilst very slowly and carefully eating his own food, Jungwoo's eyes remained on the girl who was quite oblivious. But he decided he wanted to be-friend her, although just the thought of talking to her made him want to explode on the inside, he still wanted to try.

It would help him overcome his deepest fears and regrets.

"So ... y-you like Donghyuck, right?" He didn't find anything else to say and blurted out whatever came first. 

This caused an instantaneous cough attack from Soomin's side, as a piece of noodle got stuck in her breathing pipe due to the shock. She turned away on her chair, hunching over to try to clear her airways in a panic. 

Jungwoo's anxiety was of course triggered by the reaction as this has been his plan at all.

"Oh no, I'm so so so sorry! It's okay, don't need to panic !! I like Donghyuck too !!!!" He ranted on in order to make her stop literally dying.

Thankfully, Soomin managed to survive and she took a couple of very deep breaths that she valued as if they were her last. Then she processed what the elder boy had said and turned to him with widened eyes.

"Sorry what?"
"I mean, it's okay to like someone!" Jungwoo continuously panicked as he avoided her eyes. "I like him too?"

"You like Donghyuck?" Soomin couldn't hold back the small smile slowly growing on her lips.

As Jungwoo's face slowly fell into realization, the girl burst out into melodious laughter.

Jungwoo is so cute omgg <333