"This is absolutely crazy." // aspen x dongha
"oh, relax would you? it's not like these guns are real or anything." this wasn't like anything dongha had done for a date before or even for an ordinary outing with friends and aspen could tell by the suspicious eye he was giving her. she had just had a speech of how if everything was made from the book people wouldn't be having fun in their lives or having outbreaks of adrenaline now and then from doing something different for once, all because she was pissed of with everyone today.
roxy had a session in the studio this morning and they were always excited to record before it was like going to a carousel for kids except they are adults and music lovers and it's a studio instead of riding ponys but the sentiment it's pretty much the same. for the last months it's becoming more of a chore for them more than anything, it's like everything it's changing all of the sudden and sometimes aspen just wants to yell it to stop. she needs to look at the view out of the window from once in a while or otherwise she might explode, of course she is always way out of proportion but no emotion to her is an untroubled one to feel. she knows the girls share the feeling on their own terms which brings them to project their voices onto each other and it just becomes to messy to even dwell on. aspen is not a fighter, her arguments usually come later in the night or even never at all so she storms out like she is twelve and goes to unwind with her boy.
this relationship is one of the things she still has to ground herself on, yes, music and the band is everything but like all jobs and dreams in the world it gets tiring and stressful from time to time. her dad used to say it all the time while she was growing up: "aspen, stop daydreaming. you only worth something in this world when you have a good head on your shoulders". and for a teenager it's all bullshit but for an adult with real responsibilities, it's good advice somehow. she is lucky though now that she is paid for doing both. dongha it's a bonus, it's not something she expected to have this early on in her life but it's good. she feels safe, cherished and surrounded by hope and this aching feeling of belonging in her chest that makes it all worth it. it was natural of them to met each other as it was falling in love and everything that came after it. she must admit that she is not sure how he manages to understand her the way he does or even if he do, but when she looks deeply into his eyes just like now when they are in the middle of something she most definitely dragged him into she knows he is thinking how crazy he would have been not to say yes to whatever she is planning. her power of mind reading sparked when they first lay eyes on each other and she recognized as love right away because what else would it be if not something deep in her heart?
and love means dying for each other if it comes to that, she thinks, she doesn't necessarily would like to have to go to such lengths when she is so young and with so much more life to see. as the door is being opened and the teenagers are coming out of the dark lit room with neon lights all around, fake guns in hand, frowns and smiles on their faces, aspen is overcome with a feeling of determination. "just trust me in there, i'll protect you with my life." she takes dongha hand in hers and swears it with both of their pinkys. they are next in round in this lasertag room, it's somewhere aspen is been dying to met ever since she came across an ad on instagram. her big brother did his fourteenth birthday party in one once but her parents where so traumatized by the violence that they never let them set foot in anything like that again, well, that they knew of. "feel this like a cathartic moment, a rite of passage if you will." she tried to explain with strong and motivated words as the young boy staff boy handed them their weapons, hers was pink and she smiled at him. "hey- thanks. puddin, take my picture!" her confident demeanor must have done something to dongha because he looked at her with more ease now, pulling out his phone to take pictures of her holding her gun and posing with it. it's all cute as it gets and just like that they are lead into the room where the count for the hunt is about to start, inside it's like they are transported to some perception that caring for each other it's all that matters there is to it.
