MAKE A WISH | johnny suh
- johnny suh x oc [one shot]
- au? don’t know
- word count: 2,226
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Coming home to an empty house cut deep. Some nights it was hard to stop the bleeding that resulted from such a wound. The worst part was it wasn’t even an injury that a bandage could fix. It was an invisible wound that stretched all the way from the top of the heart to the bottom.
It was hard for her to tell which taunted her the most: the bare walls or the deafening silence blaring throughout the lonesome house. There had been nights where she had sat on the hardwood floor of her half furnished house with a cold beer resting in her hands. Her eyes were always vacant, a true reflection of how she felt as she sat in the dimly lit living room with the television on at a high volume. It would drown out the ghosts, she told herself. It never did.
Eventually, she grew tired of fighting the same battle over and over. She found herself leaving work and avoiding returning from the dreadful house she had found herself despising. A part of her felt guilty - how could she be so unhappy with a roof over her head? The other part of her hurt so terribly that it seemed to drown out any guilt that she felt. So, she let her body carry her wherever it wanted.
Some nights she spent her free time in random fields. High weeds would surround her, tickling at the exposed skin of her arms and brushing against her fingertips softly as she ran freely underneath the moon. It was an intoxicating feeling. The moon’s glow provided her more comfort than her empty house ever could. She would have done it every night if she could, but unfortunately the landowners seemed to discover her secret affair with the night and quickly put an end to any further visitations.
It hurt, almost as much as that damned house had hurt her. Despite this, she found new areas of the world to explore. She had been all over town. Multiple times she had been ran off. Other times she had been threatened with legal actions. None of this stopped her. It wasn’t like she was climbing into the homes of families late at night, she just wanted to be embraced by nature.
One night she stumbled upon a garden. She had been running through the woods, away from the yells of a farmer who had caught her reading underneath his two-hundred-year-old oak tree. As she had emerged from the woods, her book had slipped from her sweaty fingertips and crashed against the earth’s wet surface. A startled gasp escaped her as she rushed to retrieve it. And then she looked up. The garden had been right in front of her. Even in the dark she could see the vibrant coloration of the flowers. They were sleeping peacefully, something she knew she should have been doing herself. In the distance she could see a large house, perhaps the biggest she had ever seen before. It was a sign of danger to her. Wealth meant major risk when trespassing onto private property. Still, she found herself unable to resist the temptation of the garden.
Her feet had carried her right to the center where a wide fountain rested. It was taller than she was and spat out cool water rapidly from its head. The sound of the water showering down into the peaceful pool below drew her in like a siren’s song. She let her book fumble onto the concrete ground beneath her feet before she gently dropped onto her knees. Hesitantly, her left hand reach out to touch the water. Her fingertips dipped underneath, the mud that stained them vanishing within seconds. The water was cold, but it made her feel alive. As she took a closer look at the bottom of the fountain, she could see the moon’s glow reflecting off of various coins. She removed her hand from the water and began searching her pockets for a coin. When she found none her shoulders dropped with disappointment.
“Here,” she heard a voice call from behind her. Her body turned in the direction of the voice before she could even process what was happening. A tall man loomed over her with his hand outstretched. In the middle of his palm rested a silver coin. She was reluctant to take it. It seemed crazy to accept money from a stranger in the middle of the night. Then again, it was crazy that she was even in an unknown location with a stranger at such a time. So, she found herself taking the coin from his hand.
“Is this your fountain?” Came the timid question.
The corner of the man’s lips lifted slightly at the question. “Technically it’s my parents, but I don’t think they mind sharing with me.”
“Are you going to tell them that I was here?” Her voice was low, as if sharing a secret. The man shook his head as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his pajama pants. She watched as he took a few steps over before sitting down a few feet away from her beside the fountain. His head tilted towards the water.
“Make a wish,” he encouraged her. Her body faced the pool of water once again. Her cold fingers were wrapped around the coin tightly, but slowly she let them uncurl away from her palm. For a moment she remained frozen. There were so many things she wanted to wish for. The man watched her as she stared into the water with a faraway look in her dark eyes. For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to make a wish, but then she lifted her hand and tossed the coin into the water. They watched in silence as it sunk to the bottom to join the other coins.
“Do you think it will come true?” He questioned her.
She looked over at him with a frown on her face. “I don’t know. I hope it does.”
“I come out here and make a wish every night before I go to sleep,” the man revealed. “My wish is always the same.”
“Has it come true yet?” The woman asked.
“I think it will soon,” he told her with a smile on his face. His features were softer when he smiled. When the corners of his lips weren’t curled, he had an intimidating aura to him. To say she wasn’t intrigued would have been a lie.
“What’s your name?” She asked him. He told her that his name was Johnny and then asked her what hers was in return. Hesitantly, she revealed it. He told her it was a pretty name as his eyes averted away from her face to adore the night sky. Only in this part of the city could you see every star twinkling. She found herself drinking in the sight of him more than she did the sky, much to her own surprise.
“Why’d you come here?” Johnny asked her after a few minutes of silence.
“At night I like to go on adventures,” she explained quietly. “A farmer ran me off his farm, so I took off into the woods and it brought me here.”
The man looked over at her with surprised eyes. They were wider now, making him look innocent-like. “Do you need somewhere to stay? I can help.”
She shook her head. “I have a house. I just don’t like staying in it.”
“Why?” He couldn’t help but ask.
“Because it hurts,” she breathed the words out, her head dropping as she spoke. The man could see she was bothered by the subject. So, he dropped it.
“Then come here at night. We can make a wish together,” he told her. Her head lifted at this and her eyes found his again. When she realized he was being serious, a smile formed on her face.
His offer was not ignored. Every night she found herself visiting the garden. Johnny was always there, waiting on her with two coins resting in his hands. They made wishes together, swapped childhood stories, and confided in each other about the stressful aspects of their jobs. She learned that Johnny was trying to get into the entertainment industry, something that required a lot of his time and energy. It only made her more thankful for their time together. Johnny was perhaps the kindest man she had ever met.
“What did he do?” She asked him, leaning forward as if it would help her experience the story even more.
Johnny laughed before he could even begin to answer. “He spit the milk up all over the place! He looked like this fountain here! So now we call him the milkman and he hates us for it.”
It was such a ridiculous story, but he told it with so much enthusiasm that it was hard not to be invested in it. Their laughter died down a few minutes later, but the silence between them was not awkward.
“I had an interesting dream the other night,” Johnny began speaking again. He always seemed to be the one to speak first. The man loved to talk, but she didn’t mind. She asked him what his dream was about. He shook his head, seeming almost embarrassed to even share it with her. Of all the times she had visited, she had yet to see Johnny bashful before.
“So, it was us, right? And we were out here like we usually are at night, but this time we were dancing,” he paused. “It’s silly, right? I slept better that night than I have in a while, though.”
“I’ve never danced before. Is it that relaxing?” She asked him. Instead of answering her, Johnny rose up from the ground he was sitting on and stepped over to her. His hand was suddenly outstretched towards her, just as it was the first night they had encountered one another. This time there were no coins resting on his skin. And unlike the first time, her hand seemed to shoot out within just a few seconds. Johnny helped her stand up, but didn’t pull his hand away once she was up. He confidently guided her free hand to rest on his shoulder before he placed his large hand on the small of her back.
“Is this okay?” He asked. She nodded, laughing nervously. This seemed to make the corners of his lips curl. He guided her through a few basic steps and within just a few minutes she was starting to mimic his rhythm.
“Some people say I’m bad at dancing, so I might not be the best teacher,” he explained to her.
“It feels right,” she assured him.
The man hummed at this. “I guess that’s all that matters then.”
They danced for almost an hour. Their laughter filled the summer air. Every time she accidentally stepped on Johnny’s foot he had to tease her and she couldn’t help but to laugh with embarrassment.
“I’m curious,” Johnny started. “What do you wish for every night?”
“It’s a secret!” She answered him in a playful manner. He dramatic sighed, giving a roll of his expressive eyes.
“Okay, okay. I can see there needs to be some sort of negotiation before I can get any information,” he played along.
“What’s your offer?” She asked. He scoffed, a smile forming on his face.
“Is this Deal or No Deal?” He replied.
“What’s that?” She asked with genuine confusion. He laughed at this.
“What about this: I share my wish with you if you share yours first,” he suggested.
She was quite for a moment. She knew it wouldn’t hurt to tell him, it had already come true after all. “My wish was to not be lonely anymore.”
“What?” Johnny asked in disbelief.
“I know, it’s silly-“
“No, I’m just in shock,” he interrupted her. “That was my wish, too.”
The woman froze, bring their dance to a halt. She looked up at him with furrowed eyebrows. How was it even possible that they had the same wish? Maybe Johnny was playing one of his tricks on her. He was quite the mischievous man after all.
“I’m telling the truth!” He assured her. She could tell by the absence of the mischievous glint he got in his eyes when he was being playful that he was being sincere.
“Are you going to go on one of your philosophical rants about how the universe has everything planned out and this was meant to happen?” She teased, in an attempt to lighten the mood again.
His eyes crinkled as his smile lifted his cheeks. “I can.”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Still, a smile stretched across her face. Her hand slipped from his and she found herself wrapping her arms tightly around the man’s broad torso. Johnny looked at the top of her head with admiration in his eyes as she laid her cheek against his chest. He couldn’t see the tears collecting in her eyes, but it didn’t take long for them to start soaking through his shirt.
“Don’t cry,” he told her as his hand lifted and rested against her soft hair. She pulled away just enough to look up at him again. His thumbs were swiping away the tears on her cheeks almost immediately.
“I’m not sad,” she assured him. “Not anymore.”
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a / n : hi, it’s been a while. sorry for being so inactive. i really, really want to write stuff for you guys, but i’m so hard on myself that it’s hard for me to share anything. here’s a super soft one shot, though. i hope you guys enjoy it. i will try to write more often.
