Third Person’s POV

In the middle of the night, after making sure Nana has drifted to sleep, Hyukjae slips off the bed silently, careful not to wake up the sleeping angel beside him. He tugs the comforter up to her shoulders, watching as she shifts her position so she can snuggle closer to the warmth of the vacant side that he leaves.

He crosses the room to the floor to ceiling glass door that leads him to her balcony, sliding it to the side and letting himself out to the cool air of the night. He pulls out his smartphone and starts making a phone call.

“Yes, President.” Secretary Park immediately answers the call right after the first ring. Hyukjae asks him about the preparation for tomorrow’s trip, about the plane and car.

“The plane is good and ready, sir, and I’ve sent the car to Jeju Island.” Secretary Park answers dutifully.

“Have you done the external checks for the plane?” Hyukjae asks again.

“Yes, sir.”

“Pre-flight checks?”

“Yes we have, sir. All we have to do now is just re-confirm to the tower that we’re taking off tomorrow morning before the flight, and then we’re off to go.” He explains.

“Good. Thank you.” Hyukjae says, feeling unsure as he rubs the back of his neck. “Uh, and Secretary Park, could you please send my suitcases over to Nayoung’s house? I sort of... I’m staying there tonight and I think I’ll be heading straight to the airport from there.”

Hyukjae doesn’t even know if it is wise for him to inform his grandfather’s right hand that he’s staying there. But then again, Secretary Park is his trusted man too. He just can’t... he won’t help him if he gets into problem once again.

Secretary Park takes a pause, his voice taking a turn to sound hesitant. “Sure. Just... be careful, sir.”

Hyukjae has heard that sentence too many times in his life. “I know. I will.” He lets out a long breath. “Have you heard anything from Chairman Lee?”

“No, sir. The last time he called he sounded satisfied with the progress of the new resort in Nagano.”

“Okay, good.” Hyukjae breathes out of relief. So the project he’s working on with Kangsan Corp. is still out of the chairman’s awareness. That’s good, he thinks.

“So I’ll have the suitcases sent over to Kang’s residence, probably around 7 AM. Would you need anything else?”

“No, thank you. You worked hard, Secretary Park. Good night.” And Hyukjae dismisses him from the call. He runs a hand through his dark hair before resting his hands on the railing of the balcony and staring into space. He takes a deep breath, dozens of thoughts flooding in his head.

The whole hiding the project from his grandfather wears him out already, but now that the project is going to be actually started, it feels like he’s walking on eggshells. He’s worked his brains to keep the chairman’s trust on him – evidently by trying to constantly hit the goals with the other projects, keeping his grandfather satisfied with his work so he wouldn’t ask too much details about the other things – Hyukjae is just a step away from inheriting the whole company for himself, so that his grandfather can no longer hold a control of his life.

His mind then drifts further to the other things, more specifically about Nana. He frowns at this. The moment he showed up in front of her bedroom’s door a few hours ago, he couldn’t help but notice the surprise in her face and that her eyes were in the brink of bursting out tears. What’s wrong? She sounded so cheerful and fine when he called her earlier that day. But the moment he walked into her bedroom she embraced him so tightly, hiding her face from his sight by burying it into his chest. She was clearly struggling not to cry. And she wouldn’t even tell him what’s made her upset.

Hyukjae sighs, Sora Noona’s words from their phone call this afternoon suddenly registering back into his head.

“So you haven’t told her?” she asked with a hint of annoyance and worry and confusion. Hyukjae had immediately clamped his mouth shut, not wanting to talk about his cowardice of revealing the truth to Nana with his sister. Yes, he knew that he’s a coward.

When he didn’t answer, Sora Noona sighed and explained to him that she had accidentally spilled some of the information he’s been hiding from Nana when they talked at her restaurant. He froze. So Nana had known a little piece of it for awhile, and she didn’t even ask him about it? Why? Did she feel too disappointed with him?

Insecurity wraps around him like a cold wind.

Is that why she looked upset few hours ago and didn’t even want to talk about it to him? What? Did he mess up again?

“I hate to say this, Hyukjae, but I’m surprised she’s willing to be with you again even though you left an egotistical, bad guy image on her head. She must be so devoted to you so much for even considering to take you back, after what she thought you’ve done to her.” Sora Noona said, her statement stung him, “But don’t keep her in the dark, Hyukjae. She deserves to know about everything that’s happened to her. It’s just unfair for her.” Sora Noona reminded him.

Hyukjae’s frown deepens. Yeah right, she deserves to know that the white shining armor she thinks he is was the one who practically shattered her life. In some way, he was the one who sent her family’s company into a downfall, he made her lose her dream of attending Seoul University... and then he left her, to the point that she wanted to end her life.

Yeah, she deserves to know all that. And then when she knows... she will be the one who walks away. He’ll lose her.

Hyukjae slams his eyes shut. Damn it. He can’t even bring himself to imagine that moment.

But... but his sister was right. Nana deserves to know. It’ll be unfair to her if she doesn’t. Hyukjae just needs to find a way so that it wouldn’t strike her like a powerful thunder when he spills the truth to her. But... how?

Nana wakes up to the warm, even breaths next to her ear. Sleepiness slowly fades from her system and she’s a bit startled to find another person’s presence in her bed. A pair of strong arms hugs her loosely from behind, and she can quickly notice how familiar the arms feel. She calms down, but a hint of red appears on her face. And a wide, face splitting grin.

Oh God, she can’t believe it. He’s actually stayed with her. Hyukjae is sleeping behind her... and they’re spooning. She’s always found it cute when she watched couples spooning on romantic movies, but now she finds a good reason of why she was always so envious when she saw it. It’s because the feeling of spooning with your loved one is very... soothing. And comforting. It’s almost overwhelming, but in a good way.

Nana wants so badly to turn her body and see his sleeping face, but before she can even turn in his arms, Hyukjae moves sleepily and opens his eyes. He blinks a few times to regain consciousness, before carefully peering over her shoulder to see her face.

“You’re awake.” Hyukjae smiles, his eyes still in a slit when he’s sleepy. Nana finds it exceptionally adorable. “Good morning, baby.”

Nana blushes at the endearing. Can a morning be this gratifying? “Good morning, Oppa.” She replies softly.

“Did you sleep well?” he asks, suppressing a yawn. Nana nods distractedly. Another scene of a typical romantic movie appears in her mind, and suddenly she has this urge to run her fingers through his bed hair, feeling how smooth and fluffy it is and- “How are you feeling?”

Nana stops picturing her fingers in his hair. “What?”

“Do you feel better?” Hyukjae asks wryly, “I mean, you looked... pretty upset about something last night.”

She blinks her eyes, not quite catching what he’s talking about, before the recollection of Kyuhyun’s confession dawns on her. His dejected expression when he left last night suddenly flashes in her head, and the guilt comes all over again.

Oh right. That’s what makes Hyukjae stay here in the first place. She wanted him to stay so that she can feel more calmed and comforted. And now she is.

“I’m feeling better.” She manages a smile at him, letting it occur to herself that it’s his presence that makes her feel a lot better. Hell, he’s distracted her from feeling agitated all these while until he mentioned it to her.

Hyukjae stares at her with silence, looking for something in her eyes. She can easily tell that something’s bothering him, but he holds himself back not to talk about it. These whole not communicating thing is starting to make her uncomfortable, but she’s not going to probe.

“Nana,” he says.

“Yes?”

“Would you tell me if you’re upset with me or something?”

Nana looks at his eyes. “What?”

“I would like to... make up for every single thing of myself, that you don’t like.”

Alarmed, Nana says quickly, “I-I wasn’t upset because of you. I was just...” there’s no way she would tell Hyukjae about her best guy friend confessing to her last night, and that she was disappointed with herself for breaking his heart, “I was just tired and-”

“No, I mean it, Nana. Alright, I’m relieved that I’m not the one who made you upset, but,” he takes a deep breath. “If I do, please let me know about it. Don’t keep it to yourself. Okay?”

She frowns, but nods her head anyway. “Okay.”

“Thank you.” he leans closer to kiss her forehead. When he pulls away he sees her face releasing that lovely blush again, but instead of moving closer to kiss her cheek like he always does, he waits for a minute or two; for her to ask him something. But Nana just stays silent and her face gets even redder under his penetrating gaze. “Do you have questions to ask me?” Hyukjae asks after a moment.

Nana looks at him in confusion. “What questions?”

“Any questions,” He says, quietly bracing himself for her reply. “Or anything that you want to tell me.”

Like about what my sister told you about why I’d left. He’s not going to say this out loud, though.

Nana scrunches her eyebrows together. He’s being weird. He wants her to ask him a question at probably six in the morning. “Uh, are you hungry?”

Amused, Hyukjae can’t help but laugh softly. “Okay, that’s one random question. But no, not really.” That’s obviously not the question he’s waiting for – or has been avoiding for awhile. “Anything else?”

“What else?” Nana blurts out.

“You don’t want to tell me anything else?” he pauses, “About, I don’t know, what you’ve been thinking about me?”

“What I’ve been thinking... about you?” she thinks about it, and he immediately regrets demanding a question from her when something seems to cross in her head.

Hyukjae braces himself, his heart slowly picking up its rate. He prepares a million reasons he has for her in case she starts accusing him things. Misunderstandings have never been good, but... Here it goes...

The shade of red in her face gets even more apparent and she smiles shyly. “That bed hair looks so good on you.” She says.

Hyukjae’s heart almost stops working. He’s sure he’s misheard. “What?”

“What?” Nana asks quietly, a little embarrassed. “That’s what I’ve been thinking about you.”

Hyukjae only gapes at her. The compliment almost doesn’t affect him at all, since there’s practically a Katrina hurricane accompanying the suspense in his head. “That’s... that’s it?” he asks incredulously.

 “Yes...? And, uhm,” her fingers fidget with the hem of her shirt. “And I... I like being in your company, too.” She looks up slowly, her big sparkling eyes meeting his. “Thank you, for being here with me.”

Silence follows her words. Hyukjae looks at her, not knowing whether he has to be happy that the million dollar question hasn’t come yet or to be perturbed with the fact that she already knew that there’s something he’s hiding but doesn’t want to talk it out with him. Yet.

Slowly, Hyukjae lifts his hands and cradles the girl’s face with his palms. He stares into her eyes, completely lost in thought. What did he do to deserve her? He crashed her dreams. He led her parents into bankruptcy. And he left her... he didn’t even show himself to her when she woke up from her coma.

But while he’s decided to be honest about it, she just has to decide to be sweet, to tell him encouraging things that verbalizes her genuine, unconditional feelings for him. If he’s a girl, he’s sure it would overwhelm him to tears.

Nana blinks her eyes, confused at Hyukjae’s sudden intense gaze and silence, but her heart immediately slams into her chest when he leans in and presses his lips on hers. He takes her breath away. The kiss is chaste, soft, unhurried... it’s simply everything that she doesn’t want to be over. She closes her eyes and let his arms slide to her waist, holding her there tightly, but gentle enough for her to pull away. But really, she doesn’t want to.

Half clouded in the kiss, Hyukjae makes his decision. Maybe it’s better to keep it this way. If she doesn’t want to know – she’s probably afraid to hurt herself – then fine, he’ll let things go that way.

He knows she deserves to know though, and he’ll have to tell her the moment she demands explanation from him. But not now, not when the world feels so beautiful that he feels like they’re the only persons living on planet. Not when he hasn’t had a tight grip of her. He won’t let her slide. It’s so selfish of him, he knows. But then, can’t he be selfish just for once?

Hyukjae holds her more protectively. Possessively.

He will tell her, yes, but... maybe not now.