radiance | baekhyun

08

22:05.

how she'd ended up in such a situation again, roma didn't know.

stupid girl.

baekhyun, if it were even possible, managed to look even more mesmerising and mysterious and beautiful with the bleak light of the bar illuminating his features. he brought the glass up to his lips, eyes never leaving her gaze.

roma didn't know why, but she wanted answers. about what, she didn't know. she thought that the boy, baekhyun, had some explaining to do. she was tired. couldn't stop looking at the way his hands nervously rubbed together.

they'd walked, silently, rushing, hand-in-hand, to yet another discreet part of town, just like the other night. the two of them had reached a bar, a place where the owner greeted baekhyun in a friendly and knowing manner, and baekhyun had reciprocated the gesture with a firm shake of his hand and serious glance.

roma had been given a drink, too, but her sole attention became entrained with his dark eyes and his quivering lips, as he sat across the booth from her. she was sure she looked a mess, all straggled hair and watering eyes and shallow breaths.

the fan from above provided cool air within the humidity of the room, the vibrating sound soothing, making her clothes not stick to her sweating body as much as perhaps they would have. she analysed the creases in his brow, tried to formulate the million different thoughts flitting through her mind.

"say something," baekhyun spoke, suddenly.

his drink was finished. roma hadn't even started hers.

"what do you mean?" she was startled by his question, because he was the one who had to say something, not her. "you're the one who found me. not the other way around. you brought me here."

baekhyun thought roma was quiet; hence why every time she spoke to him this way, it surprised him. he sat up slightly in his seat, straightening his posture.

"i just..."

baekhyun couldn't think straight.

and every time he thought; the lights changed, determined by his stream of consciousness. eyes shifted around the setting of the room, focusing on nothing. outside, the cars were fast, their vibrations echoing within the bar.

"you just what?" roma demanded.

her own voice surprised even her, but she tried to ignore the surge of embarrassment that was beginning to erupt inside of her. thankfully, it was dim enough for baekhyun not to see the crimson colour of her warm cheeks.

"how did you find me again?" she tried, asked again.

a pause; filled with shifting glances and lip-biting. baekhyun looked deep in thought.

"coincidence," he mumbled, his chin tilting towards the table.

roma knew that wasn't true.

baekhyun knew that, too.

"no," roma replied. "it wasn't."

"why does it matter, anyway?"

baekhyun lost eye contact with her. roma didn't know what she wanted, which is why her jumbled thoughts forced incoherent words from between her lips.

"please tell me," roma whispered.

baekhyun looked alarmed, as if she was hinting at something deeper, as if she knew something he didn't. or she knew something she wasn't supposed to.