"Hi, uh, so." Wooyoung desperately tries to shake off the blankness that washed over him as soon as the pretty receptionist looked up from his laptop and smiled at him. "Do you have a phone?"
A moment passes. Wooyoung wants to facepalm.
~~~
Growing...
Welcome to the longest Blue Spaces chapter so far :3
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
San meets Mingi and Yunho outside the pizza restaurant. They seem to have been waiting for him for quite some time, judging from the way they're jumping up and down to stay warm. The tip of Mingi's nose is red from the cold by the time San reaches them.
"Hi. I'm sorry, have you guys been waiting long?"
"San! Don't worry." Mingi takes a step closer to San to pull him into a short hug that makes San's face warm up and a smile thaw on his lips.
"Hi." San waves sheepishly at Yunho once Mingi has let go of him. Yunho grins back, good-natured but just as awkward. "Hi San. It's good to see you again."
San almost bites his tongue in an attempt to stop himself from muttering an automatic and way too polite "Likewise." "You too," he says instead when he remembers how people of their age usually converse. "How was your dinner yesterday?"
"It was good. We had beef and fried rice-" "-with deodeok," Mingi throws in, "-and found out the restaurant even grows their own strawberries in early summer!"
"Oh." San blinks. "Yeah, I know."
"Ah, right, you've probably been there before." Yunho laughs uncomfortably, and San immediately regrets the stoic tone he chose. "It's my aunt's restaurant," he offers apologetically, "so I sometimes go there."
"What? You never told me!" Mingi's voice is full of betrayal as he dramatically grasps at his chest.
"Oh. It just never... came up." San shrugs.
It was nice to know a family relative nearby when he started working at the hotel. Somewhere along his second visit to his aunt's restaurant, though, he came to the realization that family relatives didn't automatically mean mutual understanding or getting along well. His aunt – and now her fiancé, too – never miss an opportunity to invite him, but San got the distinctive feeling that it's never really about him. His parents, his dream career (he doesn't have a distinctive one) and his past achievements always seem to take up more space in their restaurant than his actual presence. Nowadays, he only visits there for a free meal when Mingi is absent and he doesn't have the heart to eat half-burnt mackerel in the employees' supper room by himself.
"Wow, you are lucky." Yunho laughs.
Mingi shudders. "How are you two not freezing? Let's go inside."
"Let's go," San agrees.
Once they've entered the restaurant and Mingi has counted all his fingers because he could only feel seven of them, they end up on a table close to the window that has almost sea view – almost being, if San cranes his neck uncomfortably high or stands up. Mingi and Yunho are just tall enough to be able to watch the rough waves roll in. Today is a windy day.
Yunho takes a look at a poster to their right listing off the menu. "So, what should we order? What about Barbecue Pizza?"
"Sounds good to me." San takes another look at the menu. "And Sweet Potato Pizza?"
