I See The Stars//A SHORT STORY

Happy days

The kettle screamed aggressively on the hot stove, stream heaving from its snout. Yeul picked it up from the hot pan and poured the boiling liquid into two large mugs that already contained powdered coffee.

"Milk?" She raised her voice slightly for the male sitting at the small dinning table to hear her.

"No thanks!" He responded, his eyes fixated on the task in front of him.

Yeul opened the cabinet above her head and pulled out a sealed glass of sugar. She popped the lid open and proceeded to ask Yoongi the amount of sugar he'd like in his coffee before putting it in.

She walked over to the table where Yoongi sat, laying a warm mug in front of him on a coaster before taking a seat across him. He looked up at her, a subtle scowl on his face. Yeul smiled slightly, putting her foot on her seat as she took a sip from her mug.

"This game is boring. Let's play something else." He said, referring to the chess pieces on the table. Yeul put her mug down, a fiendish smile on her lips.

"You're just mad cause I'm kicking your butt."

"Maybe I am. Can we please play something else?" Yoongi sighed, throwing his head back and shutting his eyes. He let his head fall back and kept a pleading gaze with Yeul,bottom lip slightly sticking out. The girl rolled her eyes, her lips curving up slightly.

"Fine. What do you want us to do? You're the one who brought us in the middle of nowhere." Yeul stated briskly, motioning her hand to their surroundings. Yoongi pursed his lips, thinking of something else they could do to keep themselves busy.

He wanted to do something outdoors, but that thought was quickly brushed off by the fact that Yeul was too weak to do anything that required running or an exceeding amount of body movement. Even though she didn't want him to know, Yoongi saw the way her knees would shake whenever she was standing up for too long, or how her wrist would slightly tremble when she was carrying the mugs towards him. With each passing day she was fading but still feigning fettle as to reassure him that everything was okay and it was all going to be alright.

Yoongi had been silent for a while now, not thinking about what game to play, but of something else. Something far more darker and something that would soon come to an end.

Yeul bit her lip, contemplating on her next sentence since,in her mind, Yoongi couldn't come up with anything. She opened her mouth to speak then closed it once more before deciding that she'd just go through with her words.

"Maybe we could..." She trailed off once Yoongi's eyes met her's, expectantly.

"Can you-can you cut my hair...for me? Please?"

The man's eyes squinted, first in confusion, then went wide with realization and finally fell neutral, in a soft and sympathetic manner.

"Sure."

•

Yoongi had somehow and coincidentally found a shaving machine in the bathroom cabin under the sink. He proposed it was Jungkook's father's and that he kept it there for obvious reasons. The machine was in a black box that came with different appliances for different functions and a pair of scissors.

Yoongi walked into the light filled bedroom where Yeul sat on a chair they'd retrieved from the dinning table to lay it closest to the adapter. She sat patiently, hands placed on her knees and back straight as she watched Yoongi stride towards her with box in his veiny hands. He walked pass behind her silently, bending down on his knees to place the box down.

Taking out the machine and putting on the right set of the dark appliance, he plugged the contraption in and pulled himself back up. There was a moments pause as Yoongi stared at the top of Yeul's head, a sort of brief moment of goodbye to something both significant to them;not hair, before Yoongi flipped the switch on the right side with his thumb and the machine roared silently and shook in his hand.

He brushed the silky strands back with his hand, making some faintly fall. He noticed the faint but evident patches on her head of hair that had already been missing,

Yoongi swallowed, placing the machine at the girl's hairline and pulling back.