A spark

WHEN ADONIA WAS MERELY ten years of age, she realized boys were not the bugs crawling with cooties she had made them out to be . . . all thanks to Min Yoongi. She remembered the first time she met him, keeping the fond memory safe inside her head throughout the years.

Adonia grew up lonely. Her father was a wealthy businessman, owning his own company, which his son would surely take over when he came of age. This meant he was always away on business trips or locked inside his office while her mother tended to every one of her brother's needs, oftentimes forgetting Adonia had her own. She didn't have many friends; most of the kids her age labeled her as a snob because of who her father was, so there was no point in trying with them.

Her brother, Kim Seokjin, however, always made sure to drag her along wherever he went like she was his very own prodigy, apprentice, assistant, whatever. He had always been her protector from day one . . . even if he kicked her out of the room every time he had his friends over. (They were playing boy games, he'd always say, but she was smart for her age. She knew boy games actually just meant looking at the special magazines your father kept hidden in his room.)

She had grown up alone. But she was used to it. It didn't bother her. She liked to be alone when she drew in her sketchbook anyway. And she did draw every chance she got. It helped keep the loneliness at bay.

The day she met Min Yoongi had been no different.That day, she found herself alone yet again. Their father had locked himself in his office for the night while their mother took Seokjin to one of his basketball practices. In her lonesome, she'd turned to mindlessly draw in front of the television in the living room, while the movie Matilda played in the background. she'd spent that time etching the ideas that had consumed her young mind onto the new sketchbook she had begged her parents to buy. she'd planned to ask for paints next.

Adonia liked being alone. She liked painting in silence. Lately, she had been finding the silence, in general, not so bad. she'd even go as far as to say she enjoyed it. But Seokjin didn't. He could never handle it. Because of this, he'd always kept busy with his many interests that seemed to grow as he aged. While only at ten, Adonia enjoyed days full of art and color and watching Matilda over and over again, Seokjin was stuck at twelve almost thirteen with an overactive mind and a need to fight twenty-four-seven. Granted, he was only a preteen boy, so it was a given he’d beg his parents to let him join every sport he set his mind to. And the sport he had chosen this year: basketball. And this time their mother decided to chaperon every practice and every game . . . so that meant Adonia would be left alone even more, given the other invasive fact that their father was far too busy to give her the time of day. It would just be Adonia and her drawings from now on, she supposed. She'd have to draw faces to keep herself company, and that wasn't so bad. She could find friendship in the two-dimensional caricatures she'd craft. And she could like that. She had to like that.

So when their mother opened the front door with boxes of pizza juggling in her hands, warning her that Seokjin and his friends would be in any minute, it was no surprise that she was still drawing. She had nodded, not paying much attention due to the fact that her dear older brother always made it a habit to invite his friends over to his house after their basketball practices. It was routine by now. A routine she hated . . . because . . . her brother’s offer to have his teammates over meant she would have to sit there in the middle of their preteen antics and body odor and endure it all. (Just another reason why you had never paid attention to boys: they all smelled. Bad.)

But that day had been different. Because when the boys from her brother’s team finally all piled in, loud and obnoxious as they made their way to the kitchen for a slice of pizza, she spotted a new face. He was shorter than most of the boys, his limbs long and skinny, but he had this expression on his round face that convinced her young, hopeless romantic mind that she had truly just seen sparks fly. Like, full-on sparks. Perhaps there were even hearts in her eyes. She observed him for the rest of the night, and in her ten-year-old mind, she had reassured herself that no, this was not stalking . . .Because, no, it was not creepy for Seokjin’s little sister to stand in the doorway of the kitchen, silent and standing still as she listened to the boys talk amongst each other. And, no, it was not weird that she kept staring at the new face amongst her brother’s friends, giggling when she saw him accidentally drop a piece of pepperoni on the floor. He had looked at her then, his attention being drawn to the sound of her small laughter. And when he had, Adonia being ten and well . . . not used to interacting with other people often, tried to hide from his gaze, but the boy didn’t give her a weird look like his peers normally sent her way, instead, his mouth morphed into an awkward tight-lipped smile as he hastily picked up the pepperoni from the floor and flicked it onto his plate. He then turned away and focused his attention on Seokjin, who was loudly demonstrating the shots he had made during practice. It was clear he could still feel her eyes on him as he kept awkwardly glancing her way, shifting under her gaze. It wasn’t until the boy grabbed another paper plate, put a piece of pizza on it, and approached her that she truly realized that the boy had actually seen her staring at him.

Almost as if she had been starstruck, she stared at him, her eyes as wide as saucers as she glanced between the plate in his hands and his face.A second later he had asked, “Did you want a slice?” His voice was small with only a hint of awkwardness hidden behind his calm tone as he held out the plate toward her.She blinked, nodding up at him, and a second afterward, she grabbed the plate from him, her eyes never leaving his face. She noticed then that he had a small freckle on his nose, and she decided that it was her favorite thing about him. It only took a second longer for her to convince herself that she is going to marry him. This caused her cheeks to blaze aflame. (she’d surely write this down in your diary . . . )

But her cheeks didn’t stay burning long before her brother finally became burdened by her presence and yelled her name, "Leave Yoongi alone. You’re freaking my friends out with your weird looks.”

She blinked, slightly stunned as she kept her wide eyes on the boy—Yoongi.

“It’s OK,” Yoongi mumbled, offering a small smile. “She was just hungry.”

She grinned widely at his words.

Yoongi.

She noted his name so she wouldn’t forget it. To the diary, it would go. However, when she heard her brother click his tongue in annoyance, she quickly snapped out of her bashful daze and groaned at her brother, stomping her foot and pointing a finger at him. “You can't kick me out this time. It's dinnertime, and I'm hungry,”she huffed. “And . . . Mom said I could join!”

Her brother gave her an irritated look. “No, mom told you to leave me alone when I have friends over,” he hissed.

“No—” she bit out— “you did!” she groaned again. "I couldn’t starve . . . because of you!"

Seokjin clicked his tongue. “OK, you have your pizza now, so go.”

“But—”

“Go away, shithead,” Seokjin whined, shooing her away.

She glared at him. "You're such a nerd."

"Nerd?" Seokjin scoffed. "How-How am I a nerd?"

"Find a mirror," she muttered as she pointed at the glasses on his face, simultaneously taking a bite of her pizza at the same time.

Seokjin gave her a pointed look. "If you leave now--" he paused to release a sigh as he rolled his eyes and continued, his voice muffled-- "we can watch Matilda later."

Adonia smiled, complacently. “Fine.”

She turned to leave the kitchen, but not before she stuck her tongue out at her older brother. He reciprocated the action but flipped her off in the process. He, however, quickly realized what he had done, his eyes flying wide open just as a sly grin slid onto her face. And at that, sge took off running as she yelled, “Mom, Jin flipped me off!”

But as she ran away, she could have sworn she had heard a laugh fall from Yoongi. Maybe she had imagined it . . . but . . . it'd warmed her heart nevertheless.

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