𝘽-𝙎𝙞𝙙𝙚

Ｔｈｅ Ａｓｔｒｏｎｏｍｅｒ

Ｆｉｆｔｙ Ｓｅｖｅｎ-Ｔｈｅ Ａｓｔｒｏｎｏｍｅｒ

The stars, the only thing that stays constant through my chaotic life. Through a multitude of crushes and breakups, this is the only thing that stays the same. They always tend to revolve around one fixed point, the earth.

"I had a feeling that I would find you here." I hear a small voice, riddled with time and pain as she sits next to me gently. I turn around and see Rhys's mother. Subconsciously my hands go up to touch the necklace,

"Auntie? When- who- how?" I asked, tripping over my own words. She chuckles hoarsely and pulls out her phone

"Rhys sent a furious swarm of messages to my phone while I was driving home, so I decided to join for the wild goose chase. And as for this park?" She asks rhetorically, gesturing to the children's play structure around us,

"This was the only place around here that requires little to no communication because you can't speak Korean at all." She finishes by poking fun at my terrible Korean speaking skills.

"That's not cool," I murmur lowly, looking back up at the stars. Suddenly, I remember that I had to be Rhys's girlfriend and our argument was mainly me panicking about him liking me.

"Did he tell you what happened?" I ask, crossing my legs and keeping my chin underneath my palm. The crickets chirped as she inhaled deeply, sipping a mug of what smelled like green tea.

"He said that y'all fought over an ex, but I've known my son forever, I know when he lies. Would you care to tell me what actually happened?" She says, her American accent coming out when she speaks English, overriding her barely-there accent from learning English in Korea.

I avoid her gaze, trying to manually override the part of me that wants to tell her the truth. A part truth comes up as a thought and I spit that out quickly,

"Um, just a couple of things, it was a touchy topic," I mutter, giving her a small sliver of the truth. She doesn't eat them up like I thought I would though, she just sits there and stares at me,

"Couple things? Little Bird, I know that you guys aren't a couple. It showed when you went to the restaurant." My head snaps up and I look at her caramel eyes,

"How did you know?" I ask, letting my guard down. There was no point in trying to make sure that I kept the lie up.

"One face showed love and the other showed friendship, in a relationship both faces must show love Talulah." She tells me, giving off very motherly vibes as she strokes my hair gently.

"Do you still wanna hear what happened?" I ask and she nods, pulling the elastic out of my hair and gently releasing all the tension from my head. Like mother like son I guess.

"He told me that he liked me. I guess that the idea of someone loving me scared me." I breathe out, looking downward to avoid her glare. I expect to feel the sharpness of someone staring at me, but nothing comes, All I can feel is auntie weaving my hair in and out, leaving me to wonder what she was thinking of me.

"Are you mad?" I ask, peering back at her. She clicks her tongue and straightens my head,

"Mad? No, but you have to realize that he's always felt this way for you. Always, since high school." She finishes the braid and pats my thigh reassuringly,

"Talulah, you need to learn to forgive. I'm not saying forget what happened to you, I'm saying you should keep it in the back of your mind. Also," She pauses letting her hand hover lightly over my heart,

"You must learn to love and forgive yourself." Her hand lightly taps my heart and a tear comes rolling down my face. Slowly, more start to join it and I dig my head into her shoulder,

"Thank you." I sob and she wordlessly strokes my back, showing more love than words could tell.

A new voice joins our ensemble a couple of minutes later,

"Awww, this is so cute." A higher-pitched voice says and aunty motions for her to whisper,

"Shush Minkara, she's sleeping." I gently raise my head off her shoulder and rub my eyes,

"No, I'm good," I mutter, rubbing the mud out of my eyes. Minkara brightens and pulls an Ipad shaped thing out behind her back, handing it to me,

"I thought that you might need this." I smile at her and graciously accept the iPad, hugging it to my chest. Auntie gets up and brushes herself off,

"I've gotta go. Little bird, if you need me, call me." She says sternly and I nod,

"Thank you, auntie," I say, waving goodbye. Minnie walks over to me hesitantly and points over to the now-empty seat next to me,

"Can I sit here?"

"Sure," I say, opening my Ipad and starting to sketch out a rough sketch of an astronomer fixing a star in the sky. Minnie takes out the sketchbook that I had brought for her and starts to doodle random figures. We sit there like that, scratching noises at ten in the night.

All of a sudden, her pencil scratching stops and she looks over at my drawing,

"Looks like Rhys is still on your mind." I look down at my drawing and see that I had drawn Cassopia as one of the constellations,

"I guess so." She gently sets her book on the side and clasps her hands together,

"Now time for the big question." She pauses for dramatic effect,

"Do you want to come to my house with all the other bridesmaids or do you want to go back to Rhys?" Minkara asks, lightly inferring for me to go home with her.

"Um," I mutter debating what I should do. I don't want to hurt Rhys, because a tiny inkling of my soul likes him too.

"I'll go with you," I say, making my decision. I would have to tell Rhys about my feelings during the wedding. Minnie squeals,

"Great!"