august, nct

060

060

mel was beyond nervous, cracking her fingers and stretching to release stress. if she let herself, the girl could cry a bucket at any given moment. but she had to stay strong, this had to be easy.

it wasn't an epiphany that hit her randomly, or something she suddenly decided on. somehow, mel always knew.

feeling sick to her stomach, she took a deep breath before understanding that everything was about to change. that deep breath also made her laugh to herself, imagining her younger self running to beat her six feet under the ground for doing what she was about to do.

instead on focusing too much about what she was doing, mel walked up to the house she remembers visiting her friends in high school in. the boys enjoying having a friend who has his own house, taking utter advantage of it.

she knocked politely on the door, doing it once more when she realized that was way too light. unsure if it was too light again, she raised her hand once more but then jumped back as the door opened.

stepping out of his front door, the boy of her dreams laughed as he looked down at her, "hey, figured some things out?"

his smile was gorgeous, painstakingly gorgeous. mel has always wanted to be the reason for someones smile. shes always imagined that one day she would be just that. someones happiness.

but would she ever imagine that someone would be sicheng?

in the last fourteen years she has known him, all she did was wait for a hint that he would come around. a small glimmering piece of hope that she desperately searched for. she never found that, until recently. only recently.

"you don't like me, do you?" she chuckled, looking at him expecting a straight answer. but his hesitation didn't shock her, she wasn't always so confident in the his feelings. "i'm not gonna lie, this chasing you thing isn't for me anymore."

"i like you."

mel was caught by surprise, looking at the boy who seemed very uncomfortable with admitting that. she frowned, examining all the details of his face that she has memorized throughout her entire childhood.

"you know... if time travel was possible, i would go back to the summer of second grade. my parents took us to the beach and taeyong begged and begged until my mom allowed his friends to come along... you wrapped a towel around me on the beach, and we snuck off behind a huge boulder to watch the sun go down as we ate out of the same dorito bag... it was then that i memorized every detail of your face. in that moment, you were the first boy i ever decided to like... and since then i've compared every boy i've dated to the expectations i set for the you i made in my head."

sicheng was dumbfounded, unsure of even moving but slowly fluttered his eyes with those beautiful eyelashes given to him by a god who carved him so carefully.

a slight grin was replaced by a sigh, the boy nodding, "your expectations of me have caused you to become disappointed now that you actually know me?"

"no... you're better than i imagined. you are still that kid on that beach twelve years ago, you are exactly that kid." she told him, beyond grateful that he never changed.

somehow, the innocent and sweet sicheng stayed the exact same. she loved that about him, all of his friends did.

"but you're not that kid." he guessed, scrunching his nose and then laughed a bit after, "i know you're different now."

"it's not just that." mel shook her head, not focusing on how much she had changed. even if she did change, that was something she could work though. that was something the two of them could work through.