I See The Stars//A SHORT STORY

28th

"Why are we here?"  Yoongi asked, craning his neck to look at the girl behind him. He had his arms outstretched behind him, carrying his upper weight as he looked out into the city lights that sparkled more than the stars. That is, the stars couldn't even be seen in this moment of time.

Yeul walked over, taking a seat next to the man and handing him a bottle of soju. Yoongi's question was rhetorical, he knew what their business on the rooftop of Yeul's hotel was; to watch the stars. Unfortunately enough, today the night sky was filled with clouds making it impossible for them to do so.

"To watch the night sky." Yeul answered, crossing her legs over each other.

"But it's dark. Aren't you afraid of that?" He was mocking her, although his tone was one and the same as any other sentence he'd said before. In this short space of time, she'd learnt how to tell the difference.

"Very funny."

"I know. I'm a natural comedian." Yoongi said before gulping his drink.

"This place looks so pretty at night." Yeul breathed, looking at the blinking lights that now substituted the stars they were supposed to be looking at. Yoongi said nothing although he agreed. The problem was, he'd seen this place so many times now that the view wasn't as breathtaking as it used to be.

In fact, having seen it so much, it had become sickening.

"You work as a librarian but your house is huge. You sell drugs or something?"

Yeul asked, referring to the house she'd been at two days ago. She hadn't gotten a chance to talk about the experience to him since she left early and didn't see him the next day.

"It's not mine. It's Kook's. He's just letting me crash there." Yoongi admitted.

"Hmm. Makes sense, you're not fit to be the rich type."

The pale man glared at the girl's jaw as he head was turned towards the buildings. A moment passed with Yoongi sipping on his drink and Yeul contemplating if what she was doing was the right thing, beginning to doubt her own choices like she'd been ever since a few days ago.

"What happened to your friend?" She asked bluntly and Yoongi knew exactly who she was talking about. He sighed, not being sure if he should tell her or not.

"Car accident." He went for the option that he'd just give a simple yet vague answer. Yeul didn't need to know the whole story. Plus,what would it help if she did? The girl nodded.

"Is he gonna be okay?" She asked and Yoongi wondered the same thing. God he hoped so.

"He's taking therapy so only time will tell."

He told her the same thing Jungkook had told him. They both took sips from their drinks, unconsciously copying each other's movements as they did so. Yoongi had admitted to himself that he enjoyed these sacred moments he'd share with Yeul where, for a moment, he'd forget about his responsibilities as an adult, about his mistakes, about his darkest thoughts.

This-them just sitting and discussing things that were useless to both of them was what he enjoyed and sometimes, when alone, even missed.

"I'm leaving in two days, for France." Yeul said shocking her friend. Yoongi wondered where Yeul got the money to be traveling so much whenever she pleased since she'd admitted at the dinner table that she was unemployed and came all the way from Malaysia.

"And I want you to come with me."

Yoongi's eyes were close to popping out of his skull as he looked at the girl who was looking at him expectingly. Although it was dark and only a portion of her face was illuminated by the light that was from other buildings, he could tell she was doing that thing where her eyes would go wider and her eyebrows would slightly furrow. He wondered if she knew that her face did that.

"I just met you. I'm not gonna jump onto a plane with you to another continent." The boy opposed, his own face furrowing as he tried to make the other understand.

"You just met me and yet you agreed to come up with me to a rooftop in the middle of the night. If I wanted to kill you Yoongi I would've easily pushed you off this roof long ago." Yeul said and the man cursed in his head for she had a point.

"I can't. I have responsibilities here." He said solemnly, reality coming back to hit him that the world wasn't just him and Yeul and bottles of alcohol and long but empty conversations.

"I know, that's why I feel like you need sometime to get out of this place. See the world and not be so stuck in your little pitiful box." Yeul said, pointing at the boy accusingly.

"Well we can't all just do whatever we want like you miss adventurous."

Yoongi's tone was spiteful but it didn't bother the girl. She got up, standing straight as she picked her bottle from the ground.

"Fine. I'll get you a ticket if you change your mind. I'll be leaving Monday morning. My time in Korea has come to an end, Yoongi."

She turned on her heel and left.

Yoongi was once again alone, on a rooftop of a hotel, amid the night with a cold bottle of soju.