the first hour after midnight carries many things across and into the night -- a muted sort of ambience throughout the mall, a handful of people doing their handfuls of tasks, the opportunity to squeeze a few breaks more than usual. more importantly, it deposits a tattoo artist with an impatient smile and a strawberry vape right onto the front desk of his kiosk, and haru blames the bleariness of the early am for how he's just a little too late to slam a 'NOT IN SERVICE' sign across the front.
it's more of a case where he won't say no instead of can't say no, but he deludes himself into thinking it's the second because then that means he isn't really interested in what moon jaewon wants to bring to his night.
not that protesting would've dissuaded jaewon from dragging haru along. the latter's just there for the ride. like now, like always.
"hey," he starts off tentatively, thumbing any possible anxiety into the koi fish wrapped around his other wrist. it's harder to throw caution to the wind when your two arms are always firmly by your side -- jaewon, however, doesn't seem to share the same proclivity, evident in the way he's already flittering around the front of bottle tops like he owns the place. the pinnacle of a free spirit by nature, he's someone to be envied because there's pin drop silence permeating the air and haru still finds himself glancing over his shoulder. just in case.
he feels like he already knows the answer, but he asks anyways. the smile his mouth tilts into is hesitant. "are you sure we're allowed to do this?"
@bbiwon / 01.