Chapter Three - 2:38 am

Royui held tightly her phone tightly to her ear, trying not to miss a sound. She heard him take in a deep breath. And then nothing. Or maybe her own terrified heartbeat was too loud to let her hear anything else.

She clenched her eyes closed, waiting for Sehun to say something.

“Royui?” Relief filled her chest at the sound of his voice. “It’s safe to come out. No one is here.”

She was too relieved to feel silly, as she let out the shaky breath she had been holding on to. She didn’t even give herself a chance to reply as she raced out of her hiding place in her room.

Sehun had the lights and was standing at the edge of the kitchen doorway, holding on to something, but just the sight of him took the rest of the worry out of her, and froze her into place.

When he heard her door open Sehun lifted his head to look at her, a comforting smile on his face.

Finding the ability to move once again she ran towards him.

He let out a surprised sound as she engulfed his waist into a tight hug. Instinctively he lifted both his arms, giving her space to bury her head into his chest.

She could feel herself shaking, and she was sure Sehun could her trembles too. Keeping his left arm outstretched her wound his right arm over her shoulder, holding her to him as she shook.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re fine.” He told her in a low, comforting, voice. “I’ve got you. Don’t worry.”

Slowly her shivers came to a stop. But she still didn’t let go, and neither did Sehun, instead he held onto her softly soothing patterns into her shoulder with his thumb and murmuring quiet reassurances to her.

Eventually Royui knew she was going to have to step away, but she didn’t want to let go. The moment was broken when she heard a soft mewing sound that definitely hadn’t come from her or Sehun.

Forcing herself to pull away from Sehun she searched for the sound of the noise. She almost let out a yelp of surprise when she saw that in his left hand Sehun was holding on to a restless cat, trying to wriggle and claw it’s way out of his grip.

“Ouch.” Sehun complained with a frown when the cat tried to dig its claws in.

Royui stared up at him speechlessly as he pulled the cat into his chest.

“I found this little guy rooting through your kitchen.” Sehun explained, rubbing the back of his index finger behind its ear to calm it down.

“He’d gotten in through one of the high windows.”

Royui knew what window he was talking about. She’d opened it because it had been far too hot, and she’d forgotten about it. She often did - it was too high up and far too small for a person to fit in, but it was just big enough to let the cat through and now she felt like an idiot.

“Oh.” She said sheepishly, a blush running up her neck as she stooped her head.

She’d freaked out over nothing. He probably thought she was even more of a silly schoolgirl than he did before.

“I shouldn’t have called, I’m sorry. I was just really freaked out and – “

He cut off mid ramble with a stern look. He gently touched her chin, moving her focus on to him.

“Don’t apologise.” He said firmly. “You had every right to be frightened.”

“Okay.”

He smiled gently at her, before a sudden frown before lifting his head up and looking around the room.

“Come to think of it, where’s Raina?” He asked, still looking around as if he expected her to come out of one of the shadows.

Royui felt her heart squeeze as she moved her eyes to the ground.

“She’s out.” She answered.

“Here give me him, I’ll let him out.” She said changing the subject by reaching out for the cat Sehun was still holding on to.

She was hoping he would just let the subject go - she hated talking about her sister with Sehun - but she had no such luck.

“She left you alone? Where is she?” He asked, following her as she walked to the door, freeing the cat back to the outside world.

Royui hesitated, before mumbling her answer out quietly.

“What?” He asked, waiting for her to repeat herself.

She took in a deep breath. “She’s out on a date.” She admitted wincing when an angry look passed over Sehun’s features.

“She left you alone to go on a date?” He asked incredulously.

Royui felt like he’d sent a blow straight to her stomach with his angry expression. He thought she was too young to take care of herself, and judging from his deep frown he was probably jealous too which was the last thing she wanted him to be concerning about Raina.

“I’m eighteen, not eight.” She said, her voice coming out more hurt than she had intended it to.

Sehun let out a deep sigh. “Trust me I know that.” He said, his anger draining from his voice as he lifted his hand to run it through his hair, leaving it standing more on end than it had been before.

“I just – “

“Got jealous?” Royui guessed, hoping her voice didn’t come out as bitter as she felt right then.

It wasn’t her place to jealous over him getting jealous. The look Sehun gave her told her that ‘got jealous’ was not the words he had been searching for. He had probably been searching for some other way to say pretty much the same thing.

“Jealous?” He asked in disbelief.

Royui rolled her eye. “Yes.” She answered not able to make herself meet his eyes.

Instead she chose to walk past him towards the kitchen.

“I get it. Who wouldn’t be? But she has to move on some time you know. And you were the one to break up with her.” She was rambling again, but this time Sehun wasn’t helpfully stopping her.

She had to stop herself by biting her lip before she ended up spilling out some love confession in the middle of the words. Sehun caught hold of her elbow, tugging it gently so that she turned around to face him.

“Exactly Royui. I broke up with Raina. I’m really not jealous.” The words themselves sounded like denial but there were truth burning in his eyes as he stared down at her.

“What I was going to say was that I was just worried about you.”

Royui blinked. An almost silent ‘oh’ was the only word to leave .

Sehun clenched his jaw. “It’s okay for me to be worried about you.” He continued looking half pained. “I mean, we weren’t strangers or anything, we did used to talk to each other.”

Royui’s chest constricted tightly

They definitely hadn’t been strangers. They used to talk a lot. She had found herself falling in love with him before she could even stop herself.

“Yeah we did.” She agreed, her voice coming out sounding just as pained as his was.

Sehun closed his eyes briefly, letting out a stained sigh as he let go of her elbow.

“I miss that.” Royui really needed to buy a filter for .

Sometimes everything she thought seemed to find itself being broadcasted into words before she really thought through what she was saying. Sehun’s next breath sounded relieved.

“So call.” He suggested.

Royui looked up at him with surprise. “What?”

“You don’t have to be frightened half out of your wits because you think there’s an intruder in your house to talk to me. If you ever want to talk you can call.” He told her

“Actually I can’t.” Royui winced.

“Why not?” Sehun flinched back slightly.

“Because…” She answered feebly.

“Because why? Because of Raina?”

Royui wanted to shout ‘no’ at him, but she couldn’t. Raina was part of the reason, but not for the reasons he was thinking.

“Things don’t have to be awkward between us, just because Raina and I broke up. Do they?” He asked.

If anything that made things less awkward. Sort of. It would be delightfully un-awkward for her if the two of them had never dated in the first place.

“That’s not why.” She told him.

“Then why?” He asked, his words sounded hurt and it clawed at Royui’s chest.

It wasn’t his fault. It was hers. She was the one who had fallen in love with him. She closed her eyes. She should just tell him - and then rather than him being hurt- she could be hurt whilst he took steps to avoid her in the future.

“Royui?” He asked when she didn’t respond.

“Because I’m in love with you.” She answered in one breath, unable to meet his eyes.

Royui’s heart was pounding in as the confession slipped from her lips, and it was too late to take it back, but she wasn’t ready to hear his response yet so instead she kept talking.

“And I can’t keep calling you because then I will fall even more in love with you rather than get over you. Which is what I really need to be doing.”

She risked a glance at Sehun to find him staring at her with a stunned expression.

Her hands were shaking as she continued. “And I know you don’t feel the same way because I’m six years younger and you used to date Raina, and actually you probably wouldn’t like me even if those weren’t true. So don’t worry about hurting my feelings.” She told him with a grimace.

She turned her head away from him, focussing her eyes instead on the clock on the wall to her right.

2:38 a.m

“Wow would you look at the time?” She forced a yawn.

“I’m pretty tired. And you probably are too.” She gave him an opportunity to leave expecting him to jump at the chance.

She should have known better. Sehun was far too kind to let her confess and then bolt right after but she wished he wasn’t. This moment was embarrassing enough as it was.

“Royui – “She flinched.

“You can show yourself out right?” She persisted. “I’m going to bed.” She made a move to go past him, but he caught hold of her as she tried, blocking her escape.

“Royui – “

She wasn’t ready to hear him tell her she needed to let go of her crush. Sehun let out a frustrated sigh as she interrupted him once again.

“I have to be up early tomorr – “

This time it was Sehun’s turn to cut her off mid-sentence. Using the arm that was still stopping her from leaving he took hold of her waist and pulled her into his chest before stopping all her arguments with a kiss.

Royui’s muscles all tensed at the simple movement. But then it sunk in what was happening. Sehun was kissing her.

Sehun was kissing her.

Not knowing if this was a one-time thing, or if he was going to pull away regretting it, she threw herself into the kiss. If this was going to be her only kiss from Oh Sehun she wanted to make sure she didn’t regret it

Sehun pulled her in even closer and let out a low groan that turned her insides into jelly, as she kissed him back.

Keeping one arm wound around her waist he used his other hand to cup her neck, holding her so he could deepen the kiss. Royui found her own arms wrapping around his neck as she arched up higher, trying to defeat their height difference by standing on her tiptoes.

Sehun only pulled away when both of them ran out of breath. But he still held her close, keeping Royui’s thoughts scattered.

“Y-you kissed me.” She stuttered out.

Sehun let out a short huff of air, an almost non-existent laugh of disbelief.

“I did.” He said, sounding half stunned over the fact himself.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.” He confessed, tightening his hold on her slightly.

“You have?”

Sehun let out a sigh, leaning forward so that his forehead knocked into hers. His eyes met hers, burning brightly.

“You have no idea what you’re doing to me Royui.” He told her gently.

She lost her breath for a second time that night as he stared at her.

“What?” She asked. Her thoughts were all swimming.

“I’ve been in love with you for so long you, clueless idiot.” He said.

Her heart skipped a beat before taking off at triple speed. He loved her? Sehun loved her too?

“You have?” She asked.

Maybe this was a dream? It wouldn’t be the first but none of her dreams had made her feel like this. And in none of her dreams had he called her a clueless idiot.

“Yes.” He confirmed.

“Holy crap. B-but Raina… I thought – “ She could barely put her words together.

Sehun let out a deep sigh looking pained, and Royui regretted even bringing her up. “I feel bad, but it’s you Royui. I love you. All this – “ He shook his head. “I never felt like this about her.”

His eyes pleaded for her to believe him, and she did.

He loved her.

“Please say something, Royui.” He begged her.

Royui’s lips fell open. “I-I love you too.” She told him sincerely.

Apparently that was the right thing to say. Sehun’s shoulders sagged with relief as he pulled her closer once again for another kiss.

Royui sighed into the kiss, thinking about the future that awaited them beyond this night. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be theirs. They’d get through it together.

-End-