stardust | park seonghwa ✓

44

IT'S a shame the weather isn't the best that it could be. My face forms into a frown when I look outside; the clouds are a worrying shade of grey and I can tell the wind is strong because of the leaves being swept on the ground. It's going to rain soon, though I can't be sure how heavy because of how late into the afternoon it is.

My hands pull at the blinds to close them back and grab my wallet and apartment keys from the shelf before slipping my feet into my shoes, picking my umbrella off the wall. I wince, feeling the familiar rush of wind hitting my body the second I open the door, making my untied hair fly wildly all over my face. Tch, I spent a while making them look tidy. Who left the hallway window open?

As I head toward the elevators, my hand pushes at the glass to close it and feel a droplet of liquid hand on the back of my palm. Nice, it's raining.

Please insert an exasperated sigh.

"Hi? Yeah, I'm coming down right now," I say into my phone as I press the 'G' button on the elevator.

"Do you still need someone to pick you up? It's already raining here and it's starting in, like, ten," Seonghwa says.

I lean against the cool elevator walls. "No, it's fine, I have an umbrella."

"Cherry, have you seen the wind?" his voice is a little crackly because of the weak signal. "It's like a storm out there."

"It's only water, I'll be fine," I assure him as the elevator dings and the doors slide open. I step out on to the lobby, giving an acknowledging nod in the direction of the security desk. However, as soon as I arrive outside and pop my umbrella open, someone slides under the shade next to me and I look up.

"Hwa!" I squeak in shock, stumbling over my feet a little.

His hand holds my forearm steady. "Careful! You'll get drenched."

I roll my eyes, "why are you here? I told you, I'll be fine."

Seonghwa flashes me a boyish grin instead. "You know, I never really told you specifically where 'here' was."

I furrow my brows. That was... kind of true, in a way.

"And besides, in this rain, it'll take you forever to get to campus," he reasons which I must admit, it foes make sense. "If we go by car it'll take less than five minutes which means you can still go to the registration table on time and check yourself in before the guests arrive."

That's right. Today is The Day. It's the big showcase; the day everyone in uni has been dreading and at the same time has been waiting for. I guess I'm just a little relieved today has come.

Last night, I spent hours setting up my gallery with Yerim and Mingi. Although we worked together, what should have been an easy one-two hour preparation turned into five due to us getting side-tracked every fifteen minutes. Eventually, we finished with a lot of our energy drained but nevertheless, we were excited all the same. Yerim mentioned to me as we worked last night about how a famous critic will visit the showcase and that made Mingi almost panic because he rushed most of his work.

To be fair, knowing that made me a tad bit nervous. However, the actual reason as to why I feel like my heart is going to snap from its arteries at any moment is because, well... today is the day that I've decided that San has been left in the dark for too long. In other words, it's time to tell him.

I don't notice when Seonghwa and I got into his car, nor when he revs the engine and we drive, nor when he pushes the radio button on only to find that it's playing an annoying 2013 song. Mostly because I'm too busy drawing up scenarios in my head as to what San will say, how he'll react and what will go on after this.