I stared at myself in the mirror and tried to smile. My hair fell down in soft waves and I had picked a relatively cute outfit. Still, I felt insecure. I let out a quiet breath and finally decided to apply some lip gloss. The doorbell rang and I jumped in surprise. It was just one date anyways. In a way Daehyun was right, I couldn't go my whole life hung up on him. I had to try to move on. So I walked to the door with that thought in mind.

"You look great" Sungjong said politely as he stepped back to let me through.

"Thanks, you do too" I added honestly, he looked so different dressed up.

"Did you decided what you wanted to do?" He asked as we walked down the stairs and out into the fresh air of the street.

"Um... no not really" I said with an embarrassed laugh, "I'm sort of out of practice... I had no clue what to do"

"That's ok, I tried to come up with a back up, but I was sort of stumped too. I was thinking we should go on a walk and just see what comes up" He said leisurely and I smiled despite the nerves I felt.

Something about the way he was taking this calmly eased me and I decided it wasn't going to be so bad. So for the rest of the afternoon, until the sun set we just walked and talked easily. I was full, but every time we would come by another food stand we would just grin and decide to simply have a taste, which then turned into ordering an entire plate. I might have gained 10 pounds right then and there, but I figured the walking sort of evened it out.

"So yeah, that's my younger brother. I swear sometimes I just want to strangle him! Agh" He said as we left the small convenience store with a small bottle of juice each, "So how about your family? Any crazy siblings?" He asked happily.

"Nope. I'm an only child, but uh my family is complicated" I said with a shrug as I stuck the straw into the small juice box and took a sip.

"How come?" He asked as we headed in the direction of my apartment. I glanced up at the dark sky, had time really gone by so fast?

"Can we talk about something else?" I asked quickly.

"Sure, since I'm walking you home I'd like to know your evaluation on our date" Sungjong joked.

"My evaluation?" I asked in confusion.

"Yeah, what did you like? What didn't you like? Would you go on another date with me and so on?" He asked.

"O-oh... um let's see" I said deciding to play along. My house was only a few blocks away, this would be short, "Ok I liked how random we were and all the food we ate. It's like the best food carts decided to suddenly gather and we took all the right turns to get there!" I said happily.

He laughed and I felt his hand graze mine. My body tensed as he did it again. My pulse quickened and I forced myself to look straight ahead.

"Ok, what didn't you like?" He asked after I went silent.

"...Um, nothing I guess. It was pretty much a perfect date" I admitted as his fingertips reached for mine.

I looked ahead and knew we were so close to me getting home. A nagging voice inside of me told me to get over it and just let him grab my hand, but I didn't move and pretended not to notice. He must've known I noticed though because we had both gone completely silent. I could almost see my house though and so in a random decision I moved my hand a little and he grasped it firmly. My lips parted in slight surprise, they were warmer than I had expected and... it wasn't so bad.

I relaxed my arm and we walked quietly the rest of the way until we got to my apartment where he led me all the way up until the main doors.

"Last part of the evaluation, would you date me again?" He asked quietly.

I glanced down and hesitated before saying no. My eyes flickered to my hand in his and I wondered if it would be so terrible to go out with him again, but the thought brought an inexplicable fear to me. I guess it wasn't that inexplicable after all though. It meant I was seriously going to try to get over Kai and the thought scared me.

My eyes slid back up to his to see him leaning in. My eyes widened and I placed my free hand on his chest and I leaned away.

"I can't... I told you I wasn't ready to start dating again" I explained giving in to the part of me that still thought about Kai, the part that I should be ignoring.

"Can I at least get a nice try kiss?" He asked playfully.

A small laugh burst out and I shook my head without noticing he had moved in an inch further and that I had moved my head so that our lips now touched. My eyes burst wide open as I froze up, his hands held my arms as I tried to sort out what was going on. But... once again I realized it wasn't too bad. If I had to be brutally honest I'd say it was nothing mind blowing, but it made me feel something. As if I had suddenly remembered I realized I should close my eyes so I slowly shut them and his lips moved against mine. I responded trying to figure out what to do when suddenly alarms went off in my head.

My eyes burst open and I stepped back. Sungjong was grinning sheepishly and I realized that the alarm wasn't so much in my head than it was some car's theft alarm. I blinked in surprise and frowned.

"I'm going to go inside now" I said suddenly.

"Sorry Hyerim" Sungjong apologized sincerely.

"It's fine. I mean it's not fine. Don't do that again, but I'll let it slide this time ok? Just don't tell Daehyun! He'll never stop nagging us both if you do" I warned as I quickly opened the door and stepped inside.

"So... that's still a no on the other date?" He asked.

"...Yeah it's still a no" I said.

He nodded and I closed the door. I walked up to my apartment and stepped in quietly. The thought that I had just kissed someone not able to really comprehend in my mind. I placed a finger on my lips as if that would help and shook my head. I tried to think it through but a warning went off in my head. If I tried to think about it too much, those feelings and that pain I had buried away deep inside me would break out. I shivered, suddenly terrified of them and went to change into some comfortable clothes. I went to watch some TV when at some point I dozed off and dreamt of him.

He looked so beautiful I almost thought he was real, but we were standing in the forest so I painfully realized he wasn't. I recognized the place though, it was back when he had gone to his parent's cabin. I blinked and suddenly we were dripping wet, hard pellets of rain crashing onto our bodies. I looked up at him and he smiled. I took a step towards him and frowned. I couldn't move. I tried to say something to him, but my voice was gone too.

"Hyerim" His voice echoed all around us.

I looked around in surprise and was dismayed to find that he was gone the next time I looked back. The rain fell harder and I figured I'd give it a try. I closed my eyes and opened them again slowly. To my overwhelming relief he was there again. Not far away, but right in front of me. He leaned in a pressed his lips to mine.

Fireworks exploded inside of me. Every nerve ending buzzed alive and I felt like a rush of adrenaline had been injected into me.

Then I woke up.

I looked around me to find the cruel reminder that it was all a dream. I suddenly heard the reason I had woken up in the first place, my phone was ringing. I scrambled up, still in a daze and ran to the phone picking it up at the last ring.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

There was no answer. I stayed on the line for a few seconds longer before asking if anyone was there and finally hanging up.

I stood in a bit of shock. It had been months since I had dreamt of him. Or rather, dreamt of anything. I had almost begun to think I had lost the ability to dream, which was good because I didn't want to dream of him ever again. This was a fluke I told myself as I turned off my TV and climbed into my bed. I buried myself in blankets and closed my eyes.

I would ignore the way that kiss had felt so real.

I will stop thinking that Sungjong's kiss was nothing like it.

I would not dream of Kai again.

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Ok so the next chapter will be the last one! I generally like the ending I decided on so I hope you guys will enjoy it too. I would post it tonight, but I'm going to probably end up making some small last minute changes so I figured it's better to wait :)

Thanks for reading and for leaving comments!