The North Star to My Night Sky

Chapter 5

North's POV
Ongsa, Night, and I are on cleaning duty tonight. She cleaned up the dining table while I washed the dishes along with Night. There were two separate sinks so we divided the dishwashing task by two. Night hasn't said a word ever since I came back from the bathroom, and didn't even try to text me either. I turned my head to face him only to see he was so focused that his eyebrows frowned a little.
"Excited to spend the night with me?" I started.
"Keep your eyes open. You wouldn't wanna know what might happen if you're in a trance"
Sulking. Again. How adorable.
We finished washing the dishes and Ongsa's parents handed me an extra blanket.
"It's getting late— Night, sweetheart, will you show North your bedroom?" said Mae.
It took Night a few seconds before answering "Sure" in a tone with such annoyance. We went upstairs and Ongsa was just right behind me.
"You're okay sleeping with my little brother? He doesn't talk much"
Oh, Ongsa. If only she knew.
"I'll be fine. I'd rather spend the night with anyone else but you. You snore really loudly"
Ongsa tweaked my ears before saying, "Your mouth!"
"Ow!"
Night opened the door to his bedroom and so did Ongsa whose room is just across Night's.
"Night, dude. See ya tomorrow" she said before closing the door. I walked in Night's room and my first impression was—
Woah, this kid has the whole universe in his room.

I smiled with endearment because I didn't think there was still a senior who still has a child-like bedroom. I looked around before finding a telescope facing right out the window.
"Can I try this?"
"Do you know how to use it?"
"There's a way to use it? I thought you just look from the eyepiece and see the sky"
He chuckled before approaching me and adjusting the telescope. He closed one eye before looking through the eyepiece, while turning the lens left and right to adjust it.
"Here. Try"
I looked through the eyepiece but it was all blurry.
"It's blurry"
I tried to rotate the lens like what Night did earlier but it made it even more blurry. Suddenly, I felt a hand on top of mine and started rotating the lens. I felt a rush of adrenaline going through every part of my body as my heart started beating faster.
"Tell me when it's clear enough" said Night who continued rotating the lens with my hand still below his.
"What's clear enough? Me hitting on you?"
"Aquarius, North"
"What?"
"Do you even know how to identify constellations?"
I looked away from the eyepiece and looked at him all confused.
"You don't, do you?" he asked.
I shook my head and before I could say anything else, he walked towards the bookshelf before tiptoeing and trying to reach for the very top shelf but struggled because his limited height. I smiled and walked towards him, grabbing the book he was trying to reach with such ease because I was taller than him. If this was a Lakorn, our eyes would've met already and I'd be staring deeply into his brown eyes. But he immediately looked away and snatched the book from my grip. He sat down in front of the bed with his legs crossed, put the book down, and patted the empty spot beside him, signaling me to sit down as well.
"So right now we're in the month of October, right?"
"Yeah"
He turned the pages and stopped at October.
"See? Today the stars are aligned as Aquarius. This was the constellation that I was trying to show you."

All I see earlier were just stars positioned messily. How am I supposed to remember that? Night quickly grabbed a pen before creating dots on a piece of paper, copying the picture on the book.
"Now if you just connect them all, it looks like this" he said as he connected the dots together.

Is this sleepover turning into a free Astronomy class?  Usually, I would be disinterested and would rather play with my phone every time I hear a space-related topic. But listening to Night talk with his soothing voice somehow hypnotized me into actually paying attention. Is my perspective towards Astronomy actually changing?
Night taught me different kinds of constellations that I probably should've known by now. Without even realizing, the clock showed 1.07 A.M.
"We should probably go to bed" said Night as he yawned.
"Yeah. Where's the extra mattress?"
"Extra mattress?"
"Yeah, I'll sleep on the floor"
"I don't have any"
"Then how am I gon-"
"You can just sleep on the bed with me. It's enough for two"
Night said it so casually as if there was no problem. He crawled on the bed while I was still standing in front of the bed frame.
"Why? Are you afraid something might happen?" he said with a snarky smile before making a head gesture directing to the empty spot beside him for me to climb on.
I paused for a while before getting on the bed with him. Earlier at dinner I thought I was going to have the power of teasing Night for the whole evening, but I guess karma is a bitch and now I'm the one perplexed. Both of us were facing up, seeing the glow in the dark star stickers on the ceiling. I could tell Night's eyes were heavy already, so he faced towards me and started to blink slowly one after the other before completely shutting his eyes. I faced him and our faces were positioned so close to one another, but not too close to the point where we would cross the line. Without even realizing, I was already admiring him from his hair all the way to his chin. His eyebrows were perfectly shaped, his eyelashes were long but I never realized that because it doesn't curl, his nose and cheeks were rosy pink, and his lips looked so soft and red. What the fuck are you thinking, North? Snap out of it!
I quickly shook my head and faced the other way before trying to shut my eyes. My eyes might be closed, but my mind was still racing. All I could think of was him throughout the night.