ON HOW TO LOVE || CSB

𝟬𝟬𝟳 │ 𝗢𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲

C H A P T E R S E V E N

On wasting time

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SOOBIN ISN'T HAVING any of it anymore when Mr Gentleman interrupts his daydreaming with a groan that at some point Soobin can't locate transformed into a complaint. He can admit that he isn't being helpful in the slightest, but the audacity of disregarding just how much time he's wasting in the cafeteria with him and, on top of it, accusing Soobin of making him waste his time? Soobin doesn't even want to fathom the amount of confidence he'd need to make any type complaint, much less one like that (and, maybe, that his rival is interested in you is blindign his judgement but we digress).

'Anymore' isn't the correct word, seeing as he had been incredibly displeased since the conversation started, but what he is feeling has changed considerably for mere chagrin.

Originally, Soobin was bored (he cares about anything except his new rival, but at least he got a free drink); then, he felt strangely sad. Not sad, per se, but rather longing. He felt like he was longing for something - he knows you aren't his and probably will never be, so the reminder acts like a wondrous hit towards his flailing self-stern and feelings.

Now, this emotion of longing is subdued by growing anger, it's flames licking at his words, so, when the man again rushes him, he does nothing but spat. "She'll challenge you. You won't resist a day."

-

IF SOOBIN KNEW one thing about you, it was that you had always loved finding magic in the mundane, in the boring things no one appreciates because they are just there, and that won't change. Vibrant greenery and fresh linen sheets, sunlight and orange slices, kind strangers and strawberry jam, toasts and warm tea - they all showed there's a certain kind of goodness in life. You loved how flowers were only dressed in light and how someone's handwriting was the written equivalent of their voice.

Hence, you had always felt some kind of adoration for the human power, the one that resided inside oneself, turning hallways and hiding in twilight corners of grief and loathing, because it was exactly that, apparently mundane and completely normal, but significantly strong if one dared explore past the iron doors that housed it.

And it's the comparison that allows humankind to feel - through feeling sadness, one knows what's happiness; it's through tasting something sour that one notices when something else is sweet. This infused in you a nearly constant state of challenge. Through partaking in challenges and exploring the lack of comfort, you truly experienced the normal and mundane as something wondrous and vibrant.

Soobin noticed your adoration for the mundane and your tendency towards challenges when you reached your penultimate year of high school. You had been fairly goal-oriented before, but that characteristic of yours was magnified as it grew closer to the university application deadline, partaking in extra classes, volunteer work, teaser lessons, contests... He was fairly amazed at the work you could manage to do.

Meanwhile, he still left blank all the career interests forms that his school tutor gave him throughout the year. He did his best, sure, but he didn't do it for himself, per se, but to fulfil his parents' wishes. Soobin had never liked challenges or unnecessary effort - he was a believer of working smartly over working hardly.

As the summer before the last of high school rolled in, Soobin expected you to maintain your focus on your studies, while spending some senseless time with him as it had always happened during the holidays. He wasn't one for big adventures - he had spent the whole year being an average student, and he would act as an average teen throughout the summer. He planned to binge watch series, eat, sleep... Basically, he planned to not do anything academically productive and to relax.

What he hadn't planned to do was learning to swim. Soobin wasn't made to have any sort of major contact with water, because, for being so tall, he was surely a poor sportsman with no coordination whatsoever.

Days went by that summer, while he was unaware of his impending doom, and everything was as he had expected it to be.

Until it wasn't, and his mother had the great idea to visit Jeju and it's beaches. As the news were broken to him by his very excited mother, he gave out a sigh and consoled himself by thinking he could do tourism, and that it was always nice to travel somewhere with you and your family (which was obviously included in his mother's summer plans). There wasn't any reason for him to be at the beach, so he guessed that he wouldn't find himself in one.

That was when his father tricked poor Soobin, and he found himself precisely where he didn't want to be; in other words, in a family day at one of Jeju's beaches.

He took his rightful place, sat in a towel beside you, while holding his phone, ready to start a new game. Just as the first images flashed before his eyes, a hand pulled his phone from his hands.

In front of him was his sister, older by around ten years, and looking down on his sat down form with her hands on her waist. With a booming voice, she talked. "You're learning how to swim."

He didn't take a heartbeat to deny the request - order? It sure sounded like an order - and tried to pry his phone from her hands. Just as he glimpsed the logo of his game, he felt a pair of arms grab him strongly by the shirt and pull him up on unstable feet, which his sister took. Just a second after, he was flying across the air into the cold water of the ocean when his siblings let go of his body.

Another second later, he was well under the water, eyes closed tightly and hair flailing around.

It was the movement of a pair of hands enveloping his that pushed him to open his eyes. There you were, in front of him, eyes half-closed due to the sensation of the salt, and hair in unruly tufts around you, creating a halo.

Despite the stinging sensation of the seawater and the frown this made you have, it was only light and your most prominent feature was still a smile for him.

With a small tug, you moved his shoulders over the water level and ruffled his wet hair lightly once he properly planted his feet in the seabed.

"Now, swim!" Shouted his sister from the shore.