sleepless cinderella ☆ x.dj | ✔

10

It was your last day in your hometown. The past few days had been split between visiting your parents and hanging out with Dejun and the rest of the cast and crew. Not an even split. Admittedly, you were more often at Dejun's side than not, fully relishing the fact that since there was no reason whatsoever to be professional, you could truly enjoy every moment with him. Not as interviewer-interviewee, but as... friends. A freeing but restraining thought, because you wanted to be something other than friends.

When you woke up that morning, you half expected Dejun to be gone, the past couple mornings had been early morning shoots, he would probably be down at breakfast already. Instead, he was in the bathroom, which you knew by the blinding light invading your tired eyes. You had to squint at him as you realized that he was washing his face, grabbing a pillow to chuck at him. It missed, hitting the doorframe instead. But it did get his attention.

"Close the fucking door," you moaned, pulling the covers up over your face.

He instead shut the light off. "Did I wake you up?"

"Probably."

"Sorry, sorry," his voice traveled across the room as he did, now at his own bed.

You ignored his apology, rolling over and opening your eyes to look at him in anticipation, "So what's the schedule for today?"

"Breakfast, driving, the aquarium, on-site lunch, drive back, dinner."

"Ooh, you're filming a scene at the aquarium?"

"Nope," Dejun declared, piquing your interest. "Filming finished yesterday."

"Wh—"

"Just you and me, Y/N. Some good nostalgia to finish off the trip with."

You felt your chest swell at 'just you and me,' suppressing what would surely be a lovestruck grin threatening to expose your real feelings as you replied, "Are we going to have a stuffed swordfish fight again?"

"We at least won't have Mrs. Chen giving us detention," he answered. "Now come on, I want to be on the road in forty-five minutes."

☆

The aquarium was nearly as magical as you remember it being when you were a kid. Maybe because you hadn't returned since that field trip, meaning that it was almost brand-new to you again.

You excitedly pressed your visitor sticker to your shirt, grabbing Dejun's hand to tug him further into the building, "We're finally field trip buddies again!"

"Finally," he chuckled, squeezing your hand back.

You continued pulling him from display to display, careful to read the panels by the tanks before moving on to the next one. There wasn't a single thought going through your mind that wasn't about the sea life in front of you or the man still holding your hand. It was supposed to be just for a moment at the beginning, reminiscent of when you had to hold hands when you went off as field trip buddies. But neither of you let go.

The next display ahead of you was a tunnel under a tank, the majesty of it immediately surrounding you. The blue water reflected ethereal patterns across Dejun's features as he looked around in wonder, reaching his free hand out towards the glass as a school of fish passed by. You couldn't imagine anything more beautiful than that, you thought to yourself quite clichély, watching his elegant fingers follow the orange fishes' path across the tank. They swam right by you, which you barely processed in the edge of your field of vision as you were still entranced by the man in front of you.

Dejun noticed this. There's no way he couldn't have, you were staring at him like he was the most wonderful thing you'd ever seen, and you weren't even trying to hide it. Why? Maybe you were finally over trying to keep it to yourself, or you were lulled into a sense of security from the closeness of the tunnel, or the feeling of his fingers laced with yours had made you forget that you weren't actually in a relationship.