HyukJae POV

Irritated, I wrinkled my nose and murmured a few incoherent strings of words. Something had been tickling my nose continuously for several minutes now. Even though I tried to ignore it at first, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I pressed my face into my pillow sleepily in order to escape at least somewhat the unknown thing tickling me and hoped to gain a few more minutes of sleep. I sighed in satisfaction as the bothersome thing finally didn’t annoy me anymore. How good it felt to finally sleep in peace again. I pressed my head further into the pillow with pleasure and enjoyed the warmth that had stored itself in the bed sheets overnight. Not much more was needed and I would’ve gone back to the land of dreams when I suddenly noticed something – or rather someone - moving right next to me. Only a few moments later I felt how that someone was pressing himself against me. I immediately opened my eyes.

Dark brown and sleep tousled hair was the first thing I saw. I blinked a few times in confusion to better understand the picture presented to me right now. Only little by little did I start to understand what I was seeing.
Next to me lay a peacefully sleeping DongHae. But why was he lying so close to me? Hadn’t he been on the other side of the Yo-mattress when I fell asleep or was it maybe me that had slid closer to him and started hugging him during the night?
I knew that I tend to reach out and clutch something, anything, when I was asleep and usually held on to it until the morning after. Sora Noona mocked me because of that when I was younger, because it wasn’t rare that I’d actually steal away her teddy bear when I was asleep.

I slowly lifted my head and gazed past the mop of hair to take a look at the mattress behind him. I established with relief that I was still lying in my own space. I carefully laid my head back onto my pillow, all the while trying to edge a little bit further away from him to bring some distance between us and looked at the deeply sleeping man. I would’ve loved to go back to the former closeness, but the thought of encountering distance and rejection all over again stopped me from doing so.

He was still resting peacefully next to me. When I looked at his face, I recognized neither sorrow nor any other of the negative feelings that had been plaguing him for all this time now. He seemed totally relaxed. A frame of mind of his that I hadn’t been able to experience so far. He breathed calmly, and I noticed that he breathed mainly through his slightly open mouth. His left hand, that was touching my belly, softly held the thin fabric of the T-Shirt that JeongSu had lent me yesterday evening.

A loud smacking guided my attention back to his face. His face frowned as if he was displeased by something and he clutched the hem of my T-shirt a bit tighter for a moment.
Without any warning, DongHae pushed closer to me and nuzzled his head against my chest. I heard him sigh in satisfaction before he settled down again and continued his worriless sleep.

I lay there, frozen and with a furiously beating heart. My heart was beating so loudly and wildly that I feared that he might wake up from it. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. DongHae slept like a log and didn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings at all. A soft smile snuck on my face when realizing that.

I carefully lifted my left arm, put it over his waist and pulled him even closer to me. When he was finally as close to me as possible, I allowed myself to let my arm rest over his waist and carefully put my hand on his back.
When I started to softly pull at the wrinkles on the back of his shirt with my fingers, I noticed that there was no blanket covering him. The fabric of his shirt felt warm, but I knew that with the low temperatures in the room right now one shouldn’t be sleeping without a blanket, or else they’d risk a cold.
Without hesitating I tugged at my own blanket and tried to cover the both of us as good as possible. When I slightly lifted the heavy quilt with my feet, the cold air in the room seeped through the comfortable warmth and made me shiver.

When I had finally spread the blanket over both of us, I put my arm around his waist again and pulled him close. I let my hand slide over his hair before putting it back to the same spot as before.
Like a cat, the sleeping man leaned into my touch with pleasure and continued to nuzzle his head against my chest. His warm breath seeped through the thinly woven fabric of the shirt and touched my skin.

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t like this. Because I did. This closeness. This feeling of warmth. It was almost too good to be true. For weeks, if not months, I had been longing for what was happening right now. I knew that this moment wouldn’t last forever. The moment the younger man would wake up, things would still be the same as before between us.

The clearing of a throat tore me out of my thoughts and made me flinch harshly. I looked down at DongHae, but he still seemed to sleep deeply. The sound couldn’t have come from him. But from who was it, then?
I carefully turned my head towards the door behind me. And that’s when I saw him. The master of the house himself. Park JeongSu.

The older man stood in the door frame, his arms crossed, and looked down on us with a serious look. This expression didn’t promise anything good. His look even reminded me of the severe eyes a father would give his children if he caught them fooling around.
When JeongSu noticed me staring at him, he stared back for quite a while at first, his gaze still grave.
Finally, he hinted at me to follow him into the living room with a curt nod. He immediately turned around and walked ahead.

An uneasy feeling spread in my stomach. What could DongHae’s friend want to tell me? Did he just see everything that happened?

Shaking lightly, I pushed a part of the blanket away from me and tried to move away from the younger man as quietly and unobstrusive as possible, which wasn’t an easy task as he seemed to have used my right arm as some sort of spare pillow.
After what felt like an eternity, I was able to pull my arm from under his head. I gently put the pillow I had used myself only a few minutes ago under his head instead and covered him with the comfortingly warm blanket.

A soft smacking was heard when the younger man accepted his new cocoon of down and clutched the thick fabric with his fingers to pull it closer towards himself. I smiled while observing him, satisfied, and finally decided to follow JeongSu into the adjacent living room.

I had only just stepped into the living room as JeongSu mentioned me with a hasty gesture to close the sliding door behind me. Without hesitation I followed his request and closed the door. When I turned back to him, he nodded, seeming pleased.

„Sit down!” he ordered and turned to the open kitchen that was part of the living room. I observed him pulling a big jug out of its holding and pouring in water. With approached the low table in the middle of the room with hesitant steps and sat on one of the thin, colorful pillows placed around it. My hands were trembling lightly and I felt them becoming increasingly damp.

JeongSu had put the jug back into the holding and started heating up the liquid. While the kettle was starting to boil, he took out two big mugs out of the cupboard above the sink and placed one of them directly in front of me. Without saying a word, he walked back to the small kitchen and opened another, small cupboard that seemed to be filled with herbs and teas. The older man already seemed to know what he wished to brew, because only a few seconds later, he held a small box in his hand and fished a teabag out of it.
„What tea would you like?”, he suddenly asked and turned back to me.

I looked at him surprised and pressed my lips together out of discomfort. My hands were now sweating heavily which made me wipe them on my pants.
„You can relax. I won’t tear off your head you know. I just wanted to talk to you“, the bright haired man said in a somewhat friendlier voice and even gave me a short smile.

Unsure, I mentioned the first tea blend that came to my mind, prompting JeongSu to immediately grab another box and taking out the respective bag.
„Good choice. DongHae likes this tea the best, too”, he said with a smile and put the teabags into the two mugs in front of us.

The kettle was hissing and bubbling loudly by now. A clear sign that it couldn’t be long until the water had the right temperature to properly brew the tea. JeongSu already stood next to the kettle and waited for the small light at the bottom of the kettle to go out. Which it did after only a few seconds.
The bright haired man took the jug and started pouring the water into both of our mugs before placing it on the small table and sitting down on the opposite side of me.

I didn’t dare to say or do anything, because JeongSu was still eyeing me with the severe gaze of a father. I swallowed loudly and turned my eyes away from his.

„You like him. Don’t you?”, he asked and thus interrupted the unbearable silence that had been going on for far too long between us.
My head jerked back up to look at him, eyes huge.

„Of course! Who wouldn’t like to have DongHae as a good friend!”, I said, but JeongSu immediately shook his head with a wide grin on his face.
„You know exactly that this is not what I mean. I’ve seen enough yesterday as well as just now to draw the ob