Day 9½ of 60
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He thanked Yoongi's friend silently, over and over inside his head. At a time like this, neither him nor Yoongi had a car waiting for them in the hospital's parking lot. But after a punched in number and a request for a car,
"thank God for Jimin," Yoongi smiled. His hair fluttered as the breeze from the open car window seeped in. The blonde's pale fingers looked like glowing, white bones in the setting sun evening. The window was barely open a crack, but the late November zephyr rolled in and touched even the fingertips of Hoseok's and he huddled in his skin in the passenger's seat.
'What would mum and dad think? Would they let the police know once they found out I ran away from the hospital? Would I become a missing person?'
"Hoseok."
Brown eyes met another pair of the same, but of such different kind.
"It's okay."
But was it really? Was it really okay to be driving around to some place with a person whom he didn't even know? Suddenly, the setting sun's purple and red rays didn't seem so ambient, but rather, more of fear, and Jung Hoseok wanted to scream to this person to just stop driving and give him back his suitcase and paper stars.
With fingers tapping the steering wheel and wheels turning on a highway, "you think too much," were the words that escaped Yoongi's lips.
Hoseok scoffed, "it's what I do, I can't help it."
And he leaned his head on the glass, eyes wandering over the rows and rows of houses that were so small from the highway they were driving along. It was almost as if the houses were absorbing the remaining heat of the sun, sucking it all dry to make their living rooms and bedrooms more warmer than the people that were inside them. Perhaps that's why the sun was slowly dying; humans forget that the sun is also a star.
"Why do you love the stars so much, Hoseok?" He had been curious for a while now. Practically everything the brunette loved were stars itself.
Hoseok exhaled softly and blew on the glass, fogging up the window and blurring the world. The radio was on at a low volume, quiet enough to not distinguish the music, but heard enough to be able to feel the low bass pulsing like ripples in water.
"Dad used to tell me that when people died, they became stars. And the stars that shined the brightest in the sky were your loved ones watching over you." Hoseok smiled softly to himself and Yoongi wondered which memory was running through his head.
"Up until I was ten," he continued, "I used to believe that. It made death seem not so sad after all. I mean, after all, I'd become this bright ball of light that could be seen for thousands and thousands of miles." He paused, smile slowly fading centimetre by centimetre.
"But that was all I could be — seen. Isn't that lonely? I'd be a star, so far away from everyone. And if anyone ever tried to get to me, even after decades, they'd never be able to touch me. If they tried, they'd burn."
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see what reaction would be on Yoongi's face for if it were to be pity, Hoseok did not want to see it.
A minute passed, another two minutes passed, and Yoongi didn't break the silence with anything. Hoseok peeked open an eye, averting his gaze slightly to watch him driving. It was practically dark now, all traces of vibrant hues gone, replaced by dark, deep ones penetrating the windshield of the silver car.
