- Kim Seungmin 🐕

The night was so quiet that even the silence seemed to have a sound.

Seungmin walked beside you with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his sweatshirt, barely swaying as you made your way down a nearly empty street. The orange lights of the lanterns fell on the damp pavement, and the fresh air made their shoulders touch yours from time to time.

None of them moved away.

It was a custom.

Or at least that's what they tried to convince themselves of.

"It's cold," you murmured, rubbing your hands together.

Without saying anything, Seungmin took off his sweatshirt and placed it on your shoulders.

"You're going to get sick.

"And so do you.

"I survive.

You let out a low laugh. He smiled, satisfied to have heard her.

They kept walking until they reached a small park. The swings moved barely in the wind, and the distant murmur of the city seemed too distant to interrupt that moment.

They sat on the back of a pew, as they always did when they talked until it was late.

Although that night none of them could find the words.

You were watching the moon.

He was watching you.

He looked away whenever you felt his presence, pretending to be interested in anything else: the branches of a tree, the rustling of plants as tiny ants passed by, as some of the leaves fell from the tree.

<a i="0">"Don't look at it so much."

<a i="1">"She'll notice."

But she always ended up doing it again.

There was something about your expression when you were calm that completely disarmed it.

"What?" You asked when you noticed another of his looks.

"Nothing.

"Yes, you were watching me.

Seungmin averted his eyes with an uncomfortable cough.

"I was just... thinking something.

"In what?"

He was silent for a few seconds.

"In you."

"In things.

You rolled your eyes with a smile.

"What a bad answer.

The wind lifted a strand of your hair and, without thinking too much, he arranged it behind your ear.

The gesture was so natural that no one reacted instantly.

You're still there!