our delicate string | ???

15: "i love you."

"oh my God, you guys are you even at the store?" Beomgyu asked, looking at the time that now said 5:30 pm.

"oh, yeah we're like 5 minutes away, we just left the suit shop—" "and Yeonjun is not happy." Soobin chuckled a little as the eldest darted his eyes.

"the good news is that we should be back at the beach house in two hours since we had to delay the pick up time for the cake..."

"how is that good news?!"

"uhm.... we got you hot cocoa! well—cold cocoa."

"you guys, please just try to be back before 7:00 pm so we can still make it to the dance with everything decorated." Beomgyu's face fell to one of his hands out of stress.

"we'll try."

"thank—" Beomgyu looked at his phone that had run out of battery. completely dead.

Taehyun patted the chestnut's shoulders in an attempt to comfort the boy. "we can't even finish decorating until they get here in two hours. the formal would've already started, we won't finish decorating until after it's over. and i have no time in the morning and now i can't even call her to tell her that i'm going to be running late for the dance because my phone's dead." Beomgyu exclaimed in fury. "we should've came here earlier, i have nobody to blame but myself."

"hey, you didn't know." Taehyun placed his arm around the boy's shoulders. "plus, we might make it to the formal in time! here, you can call her on my phone and tell her you'll be a bit late." he held out his phone to the boy.

"it's no use. i don't have her number memorized, only her contact saved." he leaned back in his chair and sighed.

the boy sat there, completely hopeless. Aera's going to think he stood her up the day before her birthday. he's going to make this birthday just as bad as the others. he needed to be here to set up for her, he had a vision for exactly what she would want. his gift was still at home, but the cake was yet to be picked up, the balloon pickup got delayed and everything felt like it was going haywire.

"wait." Taehyun uttered. "i might just have an idea."

[ 🌊 ]

Aera sat at her vanity. her mother had finally arrived back home as the clock struck 7:00 pm. she still hadn't heard back from Beomgyu but she assumed they would just meet each other there.

"you look beautiful, sweetheart." her mother said from behind her as she brushed her hair and placed a couple of flowers into it. Aera wanted to keep her hair out long for the formal tonight—she'd only ever been to one and she never ever wanted to remember that moment.

that was her first dance with Jun-Ho, who hadn't been by her side for the majority of the night. but it would be different this time—she could feel it.

"thank you." Aera smiled. she stood out of her chair and straightened out her dress— a long pink dress with lace undertones, puff sleeved and cut off from the ankles. she wore white heels to prevent the dress from dragging onto the floor. beforehand, Aera already planned out her makeup look with glitter painted on top of her eyelids like a canvas and red lips, her red blush all over her cheeks.

however, that wasn't necessary because her cheeks would already be plentiful red from the cold weather outside. she had a white fur coat to place on top but in the snow, it wasn't too warm.

"here, i'll drive you." her mother picked up the car keys. "it's way too cold to walk in this snow."

[ 🌊 ]