fairytale hell asteroid | l.dh

five.

Donghyuck poked the wooden chopsticks into his bowl of udon, stirring it before he picked a chunk up and slurped the noodles into his mouth. Looking up from his bowl, his eyes focused on your back standing at the Taiwanese food stall far to the side of the shopping mall. His eyes blinked when you received the tray of food and bowed with a faint smile; ah, so you do smile on occasions as such, interesting.

His eyes followed you as you approached the table you two managed to find in the middle of the food court. You dragged the chair out of the table with your feet and placed the tray on the table carefully, the soup in your bowl of ramen threatening to spill out when you finally set it down. You sat down afterward, immediately popping your straw into your boba drink and bringing it to your mouth.

"Took you long enough," Donghyuck commented, his eyes shifting to the long line at the Taiwanese shop you just bought from. His gaze returned to you then, his eyes slightly widening in joy when he saw how content you looked just slipping on the milk tea, then he held out his hand where a bracelet sat around his wrist. "Shouldn't they have given you this?"

"What's that?" You asked as you placed the boba drink back on the table.

"I don't know either? I think it's just so they make sure you head to the cashier and pay after you finished," he replied, examining the marble bracelet. "There are too many people at the shop so they took our order and handed this to us. I just assume it has some kind of sensor that starts beeping if you wear it outside the food court."

"Oh... that makes sense," you nodded, scooting closer to the table and grabbing a hold of your utensil.

"You can always just throw the bracelet away and never return the tray, though," he added then, laughing a little before putting more udon into his mouth.

"I hope your moral conscience won't let you do that to other people," you said. "Especially not to a small restaurant business."

"Ay, ay, I'm just saying!" Donghyuck exclaimed in a nagging manner, poking the bowl with his chopsticks as he pulled a face at you.

You two got engulfed in silence then, listening to the chatters of other tables around you both as you two ate away the food in your bowl. Donghyuck would normally pick up a topic immediately upon such a long silence, but something about both of you just slurping noodles quietly and not being awkward with each other made him want to shut up.

It was just a small, additional memory he wanted to have before he goes ahead and leads the way.

He was able to take the time to observe you a little more, like the way you put everything on the spoon before eating it, and how the first thing you did was bring out the toppings and separating them to their individual corners in the bowl. You ate deliberately and gracefully, your features not at all urgent.

And you always have this little smile on you when you sip your milk tea. Also the way you would habitually shake your straw before you drink every single time.

Donghyuk's eyes were, unbeknownst to you, always focused on you when he wasn't busy clipping the udon with his chopsticks and stuffing it into his mouth. Not that there was anything special about people's eating habits, he just wanted to know yours for some reason; he could perhaps use it later when he wanted to gloat about how much he knew about you secretly.

He thought the milk tea habit was adorable as well, but he didn't plan to admit that to himself yet. It was just an overflowing thought, a brief moment of acknowledgment, and then it was gone to the back of his head where he keeps all his romantic feelings secured and suppressed.

"So, I've wanted to talk to you about this but," Donghyuck started, breaking the silence. He rested his elbow on the table and looked at you. "How come you never discussed with me about the topic we are going to work on for the project?"