Selcouth Wakings | brightwin |

N: 10

"Odd for you to wake up this early." Off grumbles once the rare sight of Bright brewing coffee numbed the phrases he'd rather say to the younger.

Bright who never woke up before his alarm until that day stops to stare back at Off.

"I slept early."

You didn't. But Off chose to force himself up to get the steaming cup of coffee that Bright was offering him. "Seems the case, the whole dorm smelled like ramen noodles last night."

Moving around the counter, Bright was quick to grab his already packed bag that Off failed to notice. For the given time, Off was sure that if it were a normal morning and the usual one he'd wake up to, it was Tay in Bright's place.

But he would be lying to himself if he failed to acknowledge the different glow on his friend's face. He knew Bright was a handsome kid; maybe even far too good looking for his own well being that linked him to troubles of different sorts; yet this morning, he looked like Bright—the one who actually resembled his name.

"You don't even like ramen, Bright."

The burning liquid against his tongue should burn Off but it didn't. He could only watch Bright tie his shoes neatly, pepper a spray or two of his favorite cologne before grabbing the keys he never failed to bring with him.

Before twisting the door knob open, Bright turns to face Off again.

"But he likes ramen, Off. I was right."

The coffee sat on his tongue heavily yet Off couldn't feel a thing.

Exam seasons were done, Bright knew that the longer he sat against the bookshelf of fictional novels. His cramped posture was starting to hurt yet he couldn't stop flipping the pages of the fan made comic book of his favorite anime movie.

"If only she stayed," Bright mumbles in between his reading while the faint sound of a ticking clock harmonized along the eerie silence of the air condition humming.

There was a certain difference he was starting to feel since that night he took his usual detour with Win; though Bright knew that somewhere it probably even started way back when he woke up that day while uttering Win's name for the first time.

He flipped another page where the familiar tunnel could be seen; marking the distinct representation's of Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away.

The first time he dreamt of Win was an occurrence he didn't, and not even in a thousand light years, could he ever perceive for something so rare to happen. He wanted it to be the dream where they were at the beach, Win's distant calling favoring his ears to no end as the sun set dropped behind them.

Only it wasn't.

Bright flipped another page while his back continued to ache. The scene was the last page of the book. Not because he memorized them all but because he knew that the story ended there too despite his desire to wish that Spirited Away could've had a different ending—one where the little girl never forgot.

On his last year of middle school, Bright woke up in trembling gasps. He was heavily sedated, if he lets himself remember. Everything looked white and almost too white that it scared him to bits as he ever wondered if it was heaven he was at already.

"Daddy!"

"He needs to be observed...just for a moment until he gets used to it...it'll be discussed when you're ready."

"Let me out, please! Mommy!"

The spurts of memories and what seemed like past dialogues would often cross his memory. They were fragmented pieces of unwanted puzzles to Bright the older he gets. If his mind didn't want to remember then he was sure that nothing good ever came out of those memories.

Except for that dream and the only set of memories he would never dare to forget even if the skies would fall on him one day.

"It's alright, he won't bite." A young Bright had said to a timid looking child around his age.

There was a puppy between them whose eyes shifted back and forth like it was witnessing the longest rally of tennis.

"I don't," The younger boy struggled to say just as the sunrise bended to rainbow colored droplets of rain around them. "It might not like me."

Taking one hand off the little puppy, Bright reached out to the shy kid as he offered his palm up. He noticed the kid's smaller hand, implicitly telling him he might be younger.

"Here, take my hand. We'll pet him together..."

It was just a linger of notice because everything else was starting to set around them and Bright was scared that he would never know the kid's name.

Raising his own little hand, the first few tips of their fingers touched first. They both watched in awe as both their hands aligned to firmly clasp each other. Now parallel, the puppy barked once then twice before wagging its tail in a jittery manner until it took off leaving them both no choice but to go after it.

"Faster!" Bright laughed in between pants as they ran after it in profound steps. He could feel his heart drumming against his chest from the force, adrenaline or maybe—he takes a second to look behind and to the owner of the hand he's holding.

"What's your name?"

Crescent eyes answered him followed by an eye smile that made his eyes water.

Then he woke up, drenched in tears while the kid never got to say his name.

"I was sure it was you back then." Bright whispers after closing the comic book and he was able to feel his back muscles contracting abnormally.

His phone continued to vibrate against his pocket but he didn't need to check the caller. He just knew it wasn't set to be answered now or ever.

"Who was who back then?" Jumping a good meter from the sudden voice, Bright inhales to pat his chest.

"Fuck, I was about to piss myself." The laughter that was starting to inhibit his heart danced pass his ears until it enveloped him completely. "And you're late."

"I wonder who's fault?" Win scoots beside Bright with no words more. Just a light shove of their shoulders bumping, not even a warning for the older to scoot over. "I said goodbye five times already last night yet you couldn't stop talking."

Bright shakes his head like the revelation physically pained him while he opens his laptop for their report making. He could feel the thickening of his cheeks and with Win's shoulder against his, it made everything else harder.

"I wasn't even talking that much."

"You were!" Bumping his shoulder, the familiar scent of laundry detergent and mild cologne clogged Bright's nose. "I never took you for the talkative type but your mouth was something else last night."

As if realizing what he just said, Bright could feel Win's sudden stiffening. A nervous laughter was let out and an unwanted space was starting to form.

"I didn't mean—"

"Don't move away."

Both their shoulders froze just as their eyes met in the little space they allowed to have. No mouths could break the formidable silence and somehow maybe no one needed to.

Crescent eyes and eye smile. It was the same.

"Okay," Win settles after a while before another nervous laugh broke out from him. He settled back against the shelf making their shoulders meet more intimately until he could feel Bright's heat against his side.

"Okay," Bright responds too.

"This is the part I'll say it back maybe a few more times then you'll tell me—"

"I know," Finally setting the laptop in front of them, Bright previews their draft before answering. "I'll tell you how okay will be our always."

"The fault in our stars, huh?" Win too, finally recovers and he starts getting his notes out of his bag.

"No, it's ours." Bright stated too distinctively like he was so sure—then again he always felt so sure whenever it came to Win. "Fuck Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, it's ours now."