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I woke up that morning in my own room. The fluorescent stars on my ceiling twinkled the sunlight back at me. I frowned at the light. I never remembered coming back to my room, but I didn’t remember anything that happened after I cried like that. Oh yeah, I cried last night. I was crying because...

Jung Daehyun.

As soon as his name popped into my head, I jumped out of my bed almost falling over in the process. Ugh. My head was throbbing in pain. Was this what hangovers feel like? It wasn’t the worst pain I had dealt with in my life, but it wasn’t pleasant either. I felt a little nauseous too. I grabbed sweatshirt hanging on my chair and put the hood up to hide my puffy face and eyes. My face was notorious for showing heavy signs of bloating after a night of good crying. I opened the door and stepped one foot out when my body slammed into something equally hard.

“OW!” I groaned in pain. As my eyes adjusted, I saw a figure in front of me. My eyes scanned a familiar royal blue long sleeve shirt that hugged his slim, but fit figure. There was a white towel wrapped around his neck. As my eyes continued up to follow his neck, full lips… I found who I was looking for.

“Daehyun,” I muttered.

“Hazel,” Daehyun smiled as he scratched his head. His hair was still wet, dripping with water from a shower. “Are you okay? Sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Are YOU okay???! How are you feeling?? I’m so sorry about everything. It’s all my fault. I wanted to be there when you woke up,” I blurted out in one go and had to pause to catch my breath. He laughed. His laughter tickled my ears.

“Hm.. you should get rapping lessons from Yongguk, he would say that you have good potential.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“To answer your question, I am okay, I feel great, I accept your apology, it’s not your fault, and Youngjae was there when I woke up so that was… better than no one I guess,” he chuckled.

I sighed in relief. “Don’t do that ever again.”

“I don’t plan on it,” he answered in a joking manner. I glared back at him and he straightened up. “Ahem, I won’t, if you promise me that you won’t be going to a party anytime soon.”

It was my turn to smile. “I promise.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are your eyes so puffy?”

I immediately felt my face warm up as I looked away from him. I covered my eyes with my hands in embarrassment. “I think it was the alcohol,” I said unconvincingly.

“Hm? I didn’t know alcohol did that,” he muttered. “I’m glad you are okay though.”

I looked back up at him and he was smiling again. How could any guy just smile like that after knowing that he was drugged the night before? The thought was beyond me. Then, I realized that we were standing outside my room.

“Were you standing outside my room?” I asked and I watched his face turn tomato red.

“Oh- that. Uh-”

“Breakfast is ready!” Youngjae called.

“Well, I’m starving! Race ya there,” Daehyun exclaimed awkwardly as he jogged off into the living room.

☆ ☆ ☆

Daehyun bit his lips contemplating. His dark eyebrows were pressed together as he narrowed his eyes at me. “Uhm... Hazel,” there was a short pause.

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to go out with me?”

As I stared back into Daehyun’s warm brown eyes, it felt like time had stopped. Thoughts rushed in and out my head all at once, but I had no idea what was going on. Also, let the record reflect that the years of romance dramas and books did not prepare me for this moment. It doesn’t help that I never had a guy ask me out, but still. Well... except anything pre-kindergarten. I actually had two boyfriends at the same time then. Some would say I was a “playa.”

“Uh-” I opened my mouth to talk and realized I had nothing to say. I looked back down at my hands and we sat there in short silence keeping time with our breaths.

The silence was interrupted by Daehyun’s chuckle. “It’s late right?” Daehyun paused. “I should get back to sleep. Hazel, don’t worry about this.”

I was reminded by my own scars when I had confessed last. Those scars still haven’t faded from last year. It was so easy to undermine the amount of courage needed to open up a vulnerable part of yourself. I couldn’t cause that pain to anyone else. Especially to someone as pure and sweet as Daehyun.

“Daehyun,” I interrupted. “I like being with you and the way that you make me feel when I am with you. But, I’m not ready for a relationship right now.”

“Yeah, I understand,” he said. “I didn’t want to mess with what we have. I just decided that I should take a chance on this... strange late night.”

We both smiled.

“No, thank you,” I said. His eyebrows arched at my response. “Whoever I might end up with in the future... I want to be able to love with all of my heart,” I heard my own voice waver. “The truth is, I’m still recovering from… the past… and I can’t burden anyone with that. Not until I can get over it on my own.”

I