The next morning, I woke up feeling a little bit dizzy, but better than I expected. I did drink quite a lot, but I guess I was still at my limit.

               I finish washing up, and leave the room while Aram is still sleeping. The villa is eerily quiet, then I spot someone curled up on the sofa in the living room. I identify him as Soonyoung, and I laugh slowly as I walk into the kitchen which is in an open view from the living room. I take two bottles of hangover drink I bought last night, and walk closer to him.

               “Here, drink some.” I hand him the bottle, and Soonyoung can barely open his eyes.

               “Woah, Dana noona is the best.” he takes the drink, sits up and gulps it down as I sit near him.

               Someone comes to our sight, and it’s Jongin. He looks like he just went out from the bathroom with hair partially wet around his face. Our eyes meet as he walks to the kitchen, and I look away somewhere.

               “You look terrible.” Jongin comments at Soonyoung, and the latter just whimpers.

               “What did you do with Intaek last night?” Soonyoung suddenly asks me.

               “Huh? We just hung out for a bit.”

               “Yesterday he kept asking about you, it really got on my nerves.” Soonyoung complains. “He’s a nice guy, though. I can confirm.”

               “Are you his wingman? Cute.”

               A loud clunking sound is heard from the kitchen, and Jongin is seen in front of the fridge door. “Sorry, it was hard to close.”

               It gets quiet, and Soonyoung lies down on the sofa again. I look at the mess from last night, and stand up. “I guess I’ll just clean up.”

               “Wait, noona, don’t. Let’s do it later with the others.” Soonyoung says.

               “It’s okay, I’ll do what I can for now. You can finish up later.”

               I take a trash bag from the kitchen, avoiding looking at Jongin’s direction. I start picking up the remains from last night, and Jongin quietly joins. With his help, it’s done faster and all that’s left to do is roll the small carpets. There are three that were used last night.

               “Soonyoung, where can I store them?” I ask when they’re all rolled.

               “We took them from the attic yesterday.” Soonyoung mumbles.

               It feels a bit awkward to be in the same room as Jongin right now, so I look for a chance to leave. “I’ll take them upstairs, you can push the furniture back to their place.”

               Jongin doesn’t answer. I take one roll of carpet and climb the stairs to the second floor, trying to find the access to the attic. I found small staircases seemingly leading there on the end of the corridor, and open the narrow door.

               The attic is basically a storage room with a low ceiling, even though there are not many things here. There are vintage trunks and used chairs covered with sheets on the corner. Windows are shut tight, but give enough light to the room this morning without the need to switch the lamp. This looks like the place that children hide in classic family movies.

               “Hey.”

               I shriek, and drop the carpet I’m holding to the wooden floor. I turn around, and Jongin stands near the door with two rolls of carpets on his hands. “What are you doing here?!” I gasp for air.

               “Are you seriously going to take three trips to take them all?” Jongin puts the ones he brought against the wall, then does the same to mine.

               “If I need to.” I say. I went here to escape, but failed anyway.

               “What’s the matter with you?” he asks with his back me, and I furrow my brows.

               “Excuse me?”

               He finished lining up the carpets, and turned around to face me again. “Did I do something? You seem uncomfortable around me.”

               “No. Nothing. Why are you thinking like that?” I quickly refute. “Shouldn’t I ask that to you instead?”

               “What?” Jongin looks a bit taken aback. “What’s with me?”

               “I don’t know, I just feel you were a bit strange last night.”

               “Be more specific.”

               I stare at the fluttering specks of dust exposed by the sunlight next to a window, and swallow. “You asked me questions. And why didn’t you participate in the game last night?”

               “What game?”

               Ugh. Should I say it out loud? “You didn’t kiss Aram yesterday.”

               Jongin takes a step forward, and I reflexively take one back. As he gets closer, I can smell him clearly. It’s nice and makes my head whirl at the same time. Is it shower gel? Cologne? Aftershave? Whatever it is, it overwhelms my senses in seconds. My eye level is right on his lips, and I clench my jaw. 

               My back hits the wall, and my whole body freezes. Jongin has one hand pressing to the wall next to me, and I can feel his eyes on me. “Can you kiss just anybody?”

               “Well - “ I clear my throat. “I guess not.”

               Jongin’s expression is hard to describe. He doesn’t budge an inch, and my eyes seem to only hover to either his eyes, his lips, or his collarbone.

               “Can you step back a little? This is killing me.” I breathe out, and try to walk away but Jongin blocks me with his other arm. I’m now trapped.

               “After that damn game, you were acting weird. You could barely look at me, even moved farther from your seat.”

               I try to calm myself. I can hear his own breath clearly, and it ruins my attempt to focus. “I felt a bit unwell after drinking.”

               Of course I can’t explain that it was due to my inner turmoil of either feeling relieved he didn’t kiss Aram or dying to know the reason behind it. Why is he confronting me like this?

               “Why was my friend treating me like that?” Jongin asks under his breath.

               ‘Friend’. I can’t stand it anymore. My chest feels so full right now, and I get the urge to pour my heart out and kiss him at once. This is too much for me.

               “I don’t want to be friends with you.” my heartbeats are almost overpowering me right now. “I don’t want to be just friends.”

               I decide to take the risk. I close my eyes and press my lips against his. I have one hand on his shoulder, fingers curling against his shirt. His lips feel soft, just like I expect them to be.

               Then suddenly, I remember that I did this before.

               Jongin is kissing me back, and my heart leaps but then he abruptly stops and heads to the door. I stand there feeling empty, looking at his back with my feelings on the floor. I feel mortified. What is happening? Is he going to leave and pretend it never happened? Oh God, how am I going to face him later? Did I just get rejected?

               Turns out he goes there to close the door, lock it then he goes back to me. His hands reach my neck, gently pulling my chin up and he swoops in for another kiss. 

               I feel so lightheaded, and his warm hands feel blazing on my neck. I’m holding onto the sides of his clothes, gripping tighter as I feel my knees starting to weaken. It’s not the time to give in - I wish this would never stop.

               As our lips move against each other, our hands start to be restless as well - Jongin’s hand slides down to my back, and another reaches for my wrist. He pushes our bodies next to the wall, and at least now I have something to lean on and not melt to the floor.

               When we stop moving for a second, we hear muffled talking sounds through the wooden floor beneath us and we pull away. Some of the others must have woken up by now. Jongin and I look at each other, and we get quiet between ourselves.

               Jongin breaks into a smile, and I let my head down to hide my beaming face. 

               “You chose the weirdest time and place to confess, do you know that?”

               “Couldn’t help it. You kind of started it.”

               “I actually only wanted to mess with you.” Jongin scoffs. “We’ll continue in Seoul.”

               I press my lips. “Your place?”

               “Where else?” Jongin smirks. “The password’s still the same.”

*

               A few weeks later, Jongin and I are getting away from the cold weather outside inside his apartment, sitting next to each other on his bed with his blanket draped over our legs.

               “I’ll never be bored of this scent.” I sniff the blanket, and sigh peacefully. “Can you ask the laundry parlor what brand it is?”

               Jongin is doing his assignment next to me, leaning to the headboard with his laptop on his lap. “No need to. You can just come here and smell it as much as you want.”

               I roll my eyes and slide down to lie on my back. “I think it’s used specially for the blanket. You wash your clothes there too, right? But they don’t smell like that.” I take a whiff at his t-shirt near my face.

               “Your obsession with that smell is enthralling.” Jongin shakes his head. “You literally come into this bedroom just to inhale the scent. We could’ve just hung out in the living room.”

               “But this spot is better.”

               “Then why aren’t we doing other things here?”

               “Like what?”

               Jongin looks at me, then puts his laptop on the bedside table. He swishes away the blanket, making it fall to the floor, and confines me under him. I raise my eyebrows, and blink. “...oh.” I say slowly.

               He laughs softly, and plants a kiss on my smile.