Closer

I dreamily observe Hoshi adjusting his clothes, when suddenly, he reaches out his hand, daintily, with love. He calmly waits for my palm to rest on his, as he tenderly pulls me up, the slow jazz music now speaking instead of us. He fondly puts his both hands on my waist, which is covered in a heavenly fabric of his shirt and I, Instinctively, rest my hands on his slim, but muscular shoulders. We begin to slowly swing to the song that has no rhythm.

We are so close together, that there is no other place to look at than to each others' faces. So I look up to Hoshi, adorably simpering with a shy smile. He is silently returning me a relaxed smile, delicately leading my steps. Only fleeting thoughts appear and then immediately just wane in my resting mind. But one stays.

I and Hoshi have known each other for some time now, yet I still know nothing about him. I thought I loved this guy, but I can't even recall his favourite colour. I actually wanna get to know him better. Yet let the most important question be the first one.

"Hoshi, how old are you?" I ask out of nowhere. He puts on a bewildered expression at first, but it slowly turns into realisation.

"Wow, we never talked about age, did we?" Hoshi asks, and I slightly shake my head.

"I'm twenty, and you are?" He inquires.

"I'm nineteen" I giggle. "When I realised I didn't even know your age, I freaked out a little bit"

"Me too! I realised how young you looked" Hoshi chuckles, a sense of relief in his face.

"I thought you were older" I smile teasingly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I thought you could be like 22 or 23" I say, as my hand finely wanders on his cheek, gently tucking a strand of soft, black hair behind his ear. Silence engulfs our words for a moment as we both just focus on my touch. "You looked good with your hair tied back" I finally spoke up.

Hoshi, seemingly a little scattered, asks: "Do you really think so?"

"Yeah.."

Weird tension is forming between us, as if he didn't want to take the compliment. We're both quiet, Hoshi stuck in his mind, and I just patiently observing him. Maybe I unintentionally hit his insecurity. The stray expression of his shows some sort of untold sorrow, his eyes reflecting hurt. I wish to hug him, just to comfort him, but I'm really unsure if I can do that when I'm in the position of the one hurting him. I watch him with worry, still carefully waiting for him to deny me, or give me permission.

All of a sudden Hoshi tightly grips me, hugging me, and sighs. I wrap my hands around him as well, letting him rest his chin on my shoulder. I caringly rub my hand up and down his back, trying my best to provide him a safe place. Hoshi starts loosening his intense hold, leisurely calming down, his chest slowly rising up and down on me as he breathes.

"Thank you and sorry for this, I don't know what it is with me lately" He nervously laughs. I look at him, still worrying, on which he responds with a slight smile, indicating to let it be. With the same, fine expression he embraces me, and slowly begins to lead my steps in a light swing again.

Out of nowhere, Nelson comes, and jumps into the small hill of shirts. We both laugh, and move on to a bit more lightweight topic, enjoying each others' closeness.

Before I left, I asked Hoshi for his instagram. Turns out he is a famous ice skater and posts content for over 400 thousand followers, including my best friends Aito and Yuki. I didn't know they watch ice skating…

"When did you want to tell me that you are famous?!"