❝ chapter twenty-eight

s o l a r ’ s

We’re sitting in the living room of Eric’s house, facing his parents, his brothers on the side of the couch and Eric next to me. I try not to make it visible that I’m shaking from nerves even though they are smiling at me sweetly. His mom is even prettier in real life and she pulls me into a hug as soon as she opens the door and she couldn’t stop saying how glad she is to see me until Brian whines that he hasn’t been home for almost a year and no one was paying attention to him.

Brian and Eric gave them the souvenirs they bought respectively and I gave them mine because this would be our very first meeting and it’d be weird to come empty-handed. Eddie scratched his head and said he completely forgot about souvenirs and that LA and Atlanta had pretty much the same thing. His mom told him it was fine though, it was good enough to see the three of them gathered together in one place after a long time. 

    “You should go upstairs. You must be exhausted from the flight.” She said and stood up. “We should go for lunch together today, I didn’t get to cook anything.” 

His mom said she had a spare room just for me if I wanted some privacy but I can always choose to stay with Eric instead, it’s my choice. Although I felt bad for having her prepared the room for me but I thought I’d prefer spending some time with Eric instead, plus I think I forgot how to spend time alone without him now. We’re practically almost living together everyday, it was more natural when he’s sleeping right next to me. 

She didn’t mind though, she was pretty cool about us staying together in one room. Eddie and Brian gave us a teasing look and Eric rolled his eyes at them then shooed them away to their own rooms. I laughed and walked into his room with him, and he sighed, almost contented at being back home after a long while. 

    “Well,” He said and took a seat on his bed then pulled me next to him. “This is my room. Not technically my childhood room because my parents just moved here a few years ago but yeah.” 

Outside of his window, it’s a view to his backyard. There is a treehouse, personally made by his dad, a garage with all the tools just like in the movies, a swimming pool with bench. Eric says he was surprised too when he first came here after they moved and found out there was a swimming pool and a large space for whatever they wanted to do, barbecues or sports or picnic or anything. This is so much like what I saw in the movies, so much like my own dream house that I sort of developed recently after watching movies. I never realize I would actually change my perspective about it though. 

He lies down on his bed horizontally and extends his arm out for me. I lie down on his arm and cuddle closer into him and he plants a soft kiss on my forehead. Gently, I drum my fingers on his chest out of habits and he buries his nose in my hair, something he always do when we’re cuddling. 

    “I love your family. They’re really sweet.” I mumble and I could feel him smiles against my temple. 

    “They love you too.” He said. “You have no idea how much they talked about you to me.” 

I giggle and search for my phone from my back pocket. There are a few texts from my mom and sister, a few from Byul and Wheein. Hyejin is probably still on a flight or maybe she doesn’t have any connection, she did mention about going to a mountain remote. Byul asked if I arrived safely and that the news outlet in Korea are exploding because someone shared pictures of us at the airport before our departure and Wheein made sure I remembered to get her the lipstick she’s looking for. Geez, this puppy. 

I typed a reply to Byul and snickered to myself at the thought of our fight two weeks ago. We had a really big fight and it was so obvious during our performances that even our moomoos noticed it. She tried to make it up to me on stage, behaving her usual way but I outright ignored her and she got so pissed and upset during the performance, it spread like wildfire on the internet.

    “What are you laughing about?” Eric asked, his eyes frowned softly in confusion. 

    “My recent fight with Byul.” 

    He laughs. “Yeah, all over her singing when you're not feeling it.” 

I remembered calling Eric at 2am and just cried because I was so upset. I felt so bad for acting so childish and ignored Byul on stage and left her out of the group hug and for turning her down when she already reached out first. He was down with a flu back then but he didn’t mind listening to me ranting about myself being a coward and irresponsible leader that couldn’t even apologize first and for making my own best friend so upset that it interfered with our works. 

I made up with her the next morning though after I talked with him and we’re back to our usual routine as if nothing happened at all. He still teased us until now for having a world war 3 out of singing. Apparently, I wasn't feeling my best that day and Byul came in singing loudly in my face so I got upset and we ended up arguing. Eric was speechless for 5 minutes when I told him this. So were the maknaes but they’re a lot more used to it than him. 

    “Go to sleep, you look exhausted.” I said, fixing his hair. “You haven’t even recover properly from your flu yet.” 

    “I’m fine.” He mumbles and buries his face in my neck. “It’s gone.” 

    “Yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. “You were coughing 2 minutes ago and you still have a small fever right now.” 

He hums and wraps his arms around my waist. I rest my cheek against his head and wrap my arms around him. He stays completely silent the next minute and I check again only to find him already fast asleep. Geez, so much for his okay. I smile and kiss his hair then snuggle against him so we’re wrapped around each other like bread rolls. Maybe I should go for a short nap too. Let’s just hope I won’t wake up to his whole body burning up like a frying pan on the highest heat. 

Cuddling is great.