you're beautiful.
he often wonders how reality show couples function. they are given scrips to go by but it’s impossible for feelings and personal emotions to be overlooked in the process (there is no such thing as holding hands with someone and not feeling that spark of electricity rush over your skin) because with time, comes a little thing they all call love.
“it’s cliché, isn’t it?”
“what is?”
“this. us. meeting on a reality show and expected to display love when there is no base whatsoever,” remarks seohyun one day after filming, her fingers absently tangling into her lush, dark brown tresses. “it’s actually very strange.”
“really?”
“yes. but some strange things i’m fine with.”
“what sort of strange things?” asks yonghwa, his lips curving into an easy, amused smile.
“you know, strange things like the hairstyles our stylist gives hyoyeon-unnie -“ begins seohyun with immense zest (really, hyoyeon hardly deserves those unbearably peculiar hairstyles) and stops as he begins to laugh, long and hard.
“oh, joohyun,” yonghwa ultimately laments, “you really are something.”
they sit in the silence that follows; a long, soundless period of unsaid words and affection that isn’t uncomfortable. but it would’ve been much better if they could just say and murmur and whisper the imperceptible bond they secretly want to share.
her fingers spread out over the small space that separates them on the couch - long and lean, even and smooth. yonghwa momentarily closes his eyes to block out the sight (sometimes he thinks that she purposely tortures him with these petty little things) and lets out a barely audible sigh.
she hears him, of course.
“you’re tired?” asks seohyun, eyes wide and childlike as she gazes at him in concern. he emits a little laugh. “no, not really. i was just - i was just thinking.” she nods slowly and doesn’t bother to pursue any further; she gives him the privacy he doesn’t really want but she knows he needs.
“may i ask about what?”
curiosity gets the better of her not a minute later, as she finally gathers the courage to ask. “thinking about you,” yonghwa answers teasingly, “and us. good things to think about, aren’t they? keeping pretty things in your thoughts are good.”
“am i a ‘pretty thing’, then?”
“you sure are. very much. a pretty person, really. pretty seo joohyun.”
seohyun chuckles tenderly, giving him a feeble poke (her cheeks are rosy and warm, like summertime, despite her protest) as she settles back into the soft cushions of the couch. she looks up at the ceiling, eyes focused yet hazy, hair spilling and mouth slightly open as she unwinds.
yonghwa’s heart jumps just a tiny bit more, because this is the most beautiful that he has ever seen her.
“you’re beautiful.”
the words catapult out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he feels himself drowning in embarrassment. he expects to see a shocked gleam in her eyes or a surprised, strangled sound from the back of her throat, but these things he doesn’t get.
“thank you.” seohyun diverts her attention from the ceiling to his face and a small, enthralling smile graces her features; her eyes sparkle (yonghwa feels like he is looking at the entire universe; maybe this is what talking to the moon means) and her whole face beams in a delicate fashion.
“you’re welcome.”
he returns her smile with a simple grin and closes his eyes as he waits for his manager to arrive. he takes a peek at her. she is still staring at the ceiling, but he knows she notices him, because her smile is more vibrant than before.
yonghwa wants to freeze that smile for himself to keep (there is no use photographing it because although a picture lasts longer, a smile as flawless as that one would last his entire lifetime).