@ksjitae
for hoetaek, sadness and loneliness go hand in hand. they’re an old couple, tethered together with strings of memories hoetaek would rather forget. whenever one crawls it’s way into hoetaek’s heart, the other’s not far behind. sometimes, if they’re lucky, loneliness visits first, and they can seek out a friend’s company before sadness’s familiar ache settles too harshly in their chest. it’s loneliness that brings hoetaek to the greenhouses today, in search of one of their closest friends.
in hindsight, hoetaek should’ve messaged jisoo first to find out if he was free. hoetaek was sure jisoo didn’t have class at this time, and he hadn’t been hanging out under the bleachers, or in his room, so hoetaek had assumed they’d be able to find him here. but then again they’re bad enough at keeping track of their own schedule, their friends’ are a lost cause. jisoo’s not here, in fact the greenhouses are seemingly empty, nothing but plants to keep them company, though hoetaek figure’s that’ll have to do for now.
they wander through the rows of plants, looking through them and trying to remember which ones are jisoo’s so they can at least report back on their status, and a quiet five minutes pass before hoetaek realises they’re not alone. there’s a boy here, tucked away towards the back. a high schooler, but not like most of the high schoolers hoetaek generally ignores, they know this one. they don’t know his name, but back before keisung had decided to add a high school, hoetaek had seen this kid hanging around, enough times for his face to stick somewhere in hoetaek’s memory.
they’re not entirely sure what it is that makes them decide to talk to this kid, but hoetaek puts it down to the fact that they’re starting to crave company the way they crave cigarettes. so they approach him, keeping enough distance to (hopefully) not potentially frighten the boy, but coming up close enough for him to hear them when they speak softly. “what do you think the plants talk about?” hoetaek asks, brushing their fingers over the petals of the sunflower next to them. “they whisper to each other, don’t you think? through the wind. I bet they love telling stories.”
