You felt like a scolded child. No…you were a scolded child. Jinki stared at you from across the kitchen table, calmly sipping from his tea cup and narrowing his eyes from time to time as he looked you over.

    Awkwardly, you at your own tea cup and eventually took a long drink, confused as to what to say. After Jinki had picked you up from the flower shop, he had been rather cold and distant. You didn't know how to explain it exactly, but if he was polite before, now he was polite to the extent of you two not even knowing each other. And now, here the two of you were, sitting awkwardly in the kitchen enjoying what was supposed to be a warming cup of tea.

    Jinki's hair was damp and stuck to the sides of his head as well as to the back of his neck. You observed a bead of water trickle down the side of his cheek and bit your lip, lowering your eyes.

    "Sorry…" you eventually murmured, keeping your eyes fixed on the table. "You got wet because of me."

    You saw Jinki purse his lips out of the corner of your eye and continued to stare at the kitchen table. You should really get a new one because you could see the cracks appearing in the old wood. "I—"

    "You should have told me that you were leaving."

    If it was even possible, your head dropped down even lower. "I didn't feel well," you said lamely, as if that excused your behavior.

    "Do you know how worried I was?" Jinki asked, shooting you a look that made you want to melt into the ground.

    "I know," you said, trying to diffuse the situation. "I just—"

    "You just didn't think. You never think."

    The words were harsh and hit their mark. You immediately felt your heart jolt a bit in pain and then narrowed your eyes at Jinki. "Excuse me? If I remember correctly, I didn't even agree to go to this musical! Somebody else did for me."

    "I did it to help you," Jinki shot back, mouth turning down into a frown.

    You decided that you liked his smile better. "I didn't ask for your help. It would've been better if we didn't go at all."

    "How so?" Jinki asked cooly. "From what I saw, you were enjoying your time there with Himchan-ssi."

    You froze for half a second and then just stared at him incredulously. Was he…jealous? Was he actually jealous? No, that wasn't quite the question to be asking…Was he blind? How had you been having a fun time with Himchan at all? How could you have been having a fun time when he was whispering into that girl's ear and smiling at her?

    His smile is mine! you thought heatedly and then backtracked as you realized what exactly had crossed your mind. Immediately, you opened your mouth and then shut it before quickly making a retreat to your room, closing the door softly behind you. You weren't angry with him now; you were angry with yourself.

    If you liked him, you should've or should tell him. You shouldn't take our your jealousy on Jinki like this. It simply wasn't fair, and you couldn't tell him that you liked him because you were a hundred percent sure that he didn't feel the same way. The fact that you two were roommates just made it even harder for you to confess. Not to mention the fact that you had no idea how to go about it.

    "Argh!" you yelled into your pillow, rolling over onto your back and staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars plastered onto your ceiling. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

    The knocking on your door signaled that Jinki was outside of your room, and you quickly called out to him that it was okay to enter. He walked in awkwardly, eyes darting around the room before focusing on you. His hair was still wet,  and his face was still pulled into a frown.

    "Ah, this boy," you muttered, quickly standing up and grabbing the towel off the back of your computer chair. "You're going to catch a cold if you don't clean up."  You quickly began to rub vigorously at his hair, partially because you really were worried about him getting sick again and also because you wanted to avoid the conversation that came up next.

    You stopped, however, when he sighed your name and grasped at your arms. "J-J-Jinki?"

    An immediate silence fell over the room, and you felt your mouth close as you tried to think of what you were going to say next.

    "You called me by my name," Jinki simply said, and you nodded.

    "Of course. That's your name…isn't it?"

    "I mean you didn't call me Jinki-ssi," Jinki replied.

    "I…I'm sorry. I didn't notice, Jinki—"

    Jinki interrupted you before you could correct yourself by grasping you tightly by the shoulders. "You…I told you before that you can call me Jinki-oppa, but you can call me just Jinki…" He blushed and looked down at the floor.

    You blinked, confused as to what had just transpired, and then Jinki's arms were coming around you in a hug.

    "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I shouldn't have made you go. I know how you like Himchan-ssi, and I just thought—"

    "Wait a second," you said, pulling back from the hug even though it twisted your heart a bit on the inside as you did. "Jinki, I don't like Himchan-sunbae."

    Jinki cocked his head in confusion and stared at you. His adorable puppy eyes sent your stomach doing flips as you tried to explain.

    "I did like Himchan-sunbae, but that was in the past. I don't like him now. In fact now…" You stopped and felt your cheeks grow hot. "Now…I like someone else."

    "Oh," Jinki said, and you believed that he sounded a bit dejected. At least, you hoped he did.

    Then the entire mood of the room changed as Jinki bowed down his head and began to apologize again! "I really made a mess of things, didn't I? I thought…well obviously, I thought wrong. I—"

    "Jinki!" you all but yelled, feeling a bit frustrated now. He looked up at you in surprise and blinked confusedly. "Jinki, do you really not understand?" All your feelings were bubbling up from being hidden under your outer facade. You were tired of denying things that were obviously true. The flips in your stomach increased until you felt like your head was whirling.

    "What—"

    "Jinki, I like you!"

    As soon as the words were out of your mouth, your stomach slowly began to settle down, but the loud pounding of your heart in your ears didn't stop. The silence in the room was practically killing you.

    "You…you what?" Jinki asked, obviously shocked from the revelation. "Why?"

    It was such an unexpected question that you let your mouth drop open in a very unlady-like fashion. "What do you mean 'why'?" you asked, furrowing your eyebrows. "It's just! I can't explain it!"

    "Why?" Jinki persisted, and his eyes were unnervingly wide as he stared you down.

    "Well," you stammered, flustered by the question, "I can't really explain—"

    "Try." Jinki's gaze was so piercing that you found yourself at another loss of words before finally trying to come up with an explanation.

    "It's…you…I like you. You're really clumsy, but you always try your best, and that really counts for something, you know? You're also truly kind. I…you wanted to help me with Himchan-sunbae. And sometimes you think that you aren't the best, but…I really do think that you are…the best, I mean. This is really embarrassing; can I stop now?"

    Jinki's eyes were still mysteriously wide as he moved forward to clutch you to him tightly, much to your surprise. His arms tightened around your back, and he squeezed, murmuring phrases in your ear that you didn't quite catch over the pulsing of your heart. And then he said your name, and the thudding in your ears almost overwhelmed you.

    "Are you sure?" Jinki asked, and you nodded silently.

    "Good," Jinki said, and there came his gorgeous, perfect, amazing smile as he continued, "because I like you too."

    "A-ah, r-r-really?" you stammered, completely dumbfounded by the turn of events. You had not expected this; even if he had returned your feelings, you had not expected this.

    "Can I just…hold you for a while?" Jinki asked, cautiously, carefully as if you were going to reject him!

    "Yes," you simply said, and you wrapped your arms around him as well, reveling in the moment. You had confessed to Jinki, and Jinki had said that he liked you too. You liked Jinki, and Jinki liked you. The world was spinning on an axis tilted of about 23.44º, and the glow-in-the-dark stickers in your room were just beginning to show the slightest bit of light as the sun continued to set outside your window. It was you, and it was Jinki. It was the two of you together.

    "This is new," you murmured, and you felt Jinki draw back. Slightly afraid of what you would see, you kept your head lowered, unable to face him eye-to-eye.

    It was a moment before you heard him sigh and reply, "This is…This is new for me too."

    "Ah…" The two of you lapsed into a comfortable silence, and you found yourself beginning to feel drowsy in his warm embrace.

    "Jinki," you started but quickly stopped when you felt his head thump heavily onto your shoulder. "Jinki?" This time your voice was raised in a question, but a quick glance at the young man on your shoulder confirmed that he was, in fact, asleep. "Ah…isn't this the reverse of what's supposed to happen?"

    You gently loosened your grip on Jinki and laid him down onto bed, smiling as he mumbled something incomprehensible and turned to grab onto your pillow. The boy didn't nearly sleep as much as he was supposed to. You didn't exactly know why, but it seemed like he was up at the oddest hours of the night, doing some chore or another. No wonder he was so tired.

    "So…that went better than expected," you said, mostly to yourself, and walked over to flick off the lights in your room. Turning backwards, you couldn't help but gaze at Jinki for a few seconds before flicking off the lights, smiling, and murmuring, "Good night, Jinki."

    Sweet dreams...

A/N: I'm trying to get to the of the story (and consequently the end) of the story quickly, so you'll see things speed up now. A little bit of time crunching is involved, but hopefully I've at least built up a semblance of a close relationship between the main girl and Jinki so far.

Also to yuki_chicken and iLAYmyloveONEW who both tried to guess who the clerk was, it was ... ... ... YIXING / LAY from Exo-M! Congratulations to iLAYmyloveONEW! I definitely thought the ear scratching and forgetfulness would have given it away XD

To goaliehead4 and kawaiikimbap, thank you very much for reading. It really makes me feel better to know that people are enjoying my stories.

And finally to eexiee, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME IF THIS CHAPTER WASN'T GOOD. T_T I'M SORRRY <333333333