Baro was frowning as he walked over to where I was standing. He took my other hand and started pulling me away, not even bothering to spare Shinwoo another glance. I turned and waved a quick goodbye to Shinwoo, who smiled understandingly.

“You’re late,” he said, still frowning.

“Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“Wait,” he said when we came to the top of the stairs. He tied a green scarf around my head, making sure that my eyes were covered well.

“No peeking,” he warned me.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

He held on of my hands, then placed his other hand on my waist, guiding me to wherever. I took small steps, scared I might fall.

“You walk so slow!” he complained.

“Well if you’d just remove this thing covering my face—“

“Just take bigger steps. Were you planning to make it to the room tomorrow?” He added, with a touch of sarcasm.

I sighed, exasperated. This was classic Baro, annoying at times. I took a couple of steps more, then Baro told me to stop.

“I’m going to open the door. Don’t peek okay?”

He laughed when I stuck my tongue out at him. I heard the sound of a door being opened, then felt him take my hand and pull me in. He guided me somewhere, making me move left, then right, then left again. He turned me this way and that.

“Are you ever gonna remove this blindfold, or are you going to spin me around all night?”

“Be patient,” he said. “Wait….there. That’s great.” He uncovered my eyes. “Surprise!” He jumped in front of me, waving his hands around.

At first, I couldn’t speak. I just stared and stared, then stared some more.

“Hey. If you don’t like it, just say so,” he muttered then started to walk away.

“Wait.” I grabbed his arm to stop him, not even daring to look away from the surprise he’d prepared.

He had covered an entire wall with pictures of us. There were frames that showed me with one or two or all of them, while the others showed only me. Everywhere I looked I saw them—Sandeul, Jinyoung, Baro, Shinwo and Gongchan—smiling at me. I stepped closer and lightly traced my fingertips over the photographs, afraid I might damage something.

“This is amazing. I never thought you could take such pretty pictures.”

“That’s because I’m the best,” he said proudly. “Do you really like it though?”

I nodded. “It’s a shame the pictures are so small though. You could have blown them up, so you won’t need too many.”

“Psh. I meant to make it that way. There’s actually another surprise hidden in there.” He pulled me away and made me stand in the middle of the room. “Look at it again. What do you see?”

It took me a couple of moments to realize what he meant. “Me,” I said. It came out a little shaky, so I tried again. “It’s me.”

I was staring at a photo of me, smiling. The photographs, it turned out, weren’t randomly placed on the wall. And they were small, because they were part of a much larger picture.

Baro had created a mosaic of me.

“How did you make that?”

“Like I said, I’m the best.” He grinned. “Actually, I wanted to make a rocket full of your pictures, but it came out all weird, so I decided to make that instead.”

“You are the most intelligent squirrel I’ve ever met.”  I gave him two thumbs up, and he grinned even wider. I looked at the mosaic again, and felt myself tear up a little. Beside me, Baro muttered something. When I turned to him, he was looking at me expectantly.

“Did you day something?”

He gaped at me at first, then puffed out his cheeks. “Are you deaf?”

“Hey!” I protested, baffled by his mercurial moods. “I didn’t hear what you said the first time. Say it again.”

“Forget it.” He crossed his arms and looked away.

“Okay.”

“So you’re seriously going to forget it?”

“You told me to.”

I had known Baro long enough to know that if he really wanted you to know something, he’d tell you—whether or not you wanted to know. He wasn’t the type to keep his opinions to himself. I smiled when he suddenly looked at me, his face full of determination.

“Iloveyou.” he said it quickly, merging three words into one. He couldn’t meet my eyes afterwards. It was the first time I’d seen him so flustered. He kissed my cheek in one fluid movement, then coughed behind his hand, looking everywhere but at me.

Just then the door flung open, and a very brightly dressed Gongchan came bounding in, wrapping his arms around me as he announced, “My turn!” and began pulling me away.

“You pup!” Baro yelled after us. “I’m watching you! Don’t put your lips anywhere else, you got that?”

“I’ll try my very best!” Gongchan yelled back, giving Baro a cheerful salute. Then he smirked at me. “You’re mine tonight.”

I gulped, suddenly worried.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sorry for the long wait.