SoRae closed her lips around an orange slice as she stared off into space. Her teeth snuck into the fruit and her brother snapped his fingers on either side of her head. “Aish, JongUp…Don’t do that, you scared the crap outta me.”

“Have you been feeling alright?” he asked lowering his chin to her shoulder. “You’ve been acting funny since the bath house.”

She placed another piece of fruit into and turned to hug the boy. She rested her face against his clavicle and sighed. It was a bit strange for her to hug him back, but JongUp just stood there enjoying the affection. He loved his sister and he would do anything, no matter the size, to make her feel better. “Nuna, what’s wrong?”

She simply hummed a nothing into his shoulder.

His hand ran across her back soothing whatever insecurities she had away. “You know that I will always protect you. Nobody messes with my nuna and gets away with it. Remember that.”

 

—

SoRae was quiet while she studied with YoungJae. He found it odd that she wasn’t scolding him or nagging him about something or the other. “Are you feeling well?” he asked peering over his book.

She blinked a few times, chewing on words to distract him. “Fine.”

He sighed and started packing his bag. When he leaned down to kiss her cheek, she didn’t even budge. She didn’t swat at him like usual and this struck him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. No worries.”

“Whatever you say,” he mumbled and left for class.

Within minutes, the transfer student had taken his place and eyed her cautiously. “Did it really bother you that much?” he whispered.

“That was my first kiss. …It was just like it didn’t even happen.” She tried not to look upset, but it was all she could think about for the past few days. “I don’t understand it at all. I’ve thought about it so much my head might explode.”

DaeHyun stifled a laugh. Her blank expression mixed with her words were simply too cute. “Let me treat you to a coffee or something. Maybe we can talk it out.” He truly was embarrassed by the situation, but one of them needed to be in their right state of mind.

“What are you thinking?” He asked sliding into the booth.

She closed her lips only to split them slowly. “I’m not sure…how are you holding up?”

He the corner of his mouth avoiding eye contact. “Well, to be completely honest…I feel it. It’s not as bad as last time, or the time before that, but it’s there. Annoying, but not unbearable.”

She looked around the empty coffee shop and then stood up to take a seat next to him. “What about now?”

The pain in his chest spiked and he gasped. She was too close, that was for sure. “You need to back it up SoRae…just back it up.”

She laid her head on the table and rolled her face against the surface. “You’re really serious. It physically hurts you?” She clenched her teeth, but lifted herself so that she was nose to nose with DaeHyun. “Stop for a moment. Where does it hurt?”

She studied the area that he pressed his hand to. “That’s about where your heart should be.” When her hand pressed against his chest, he bit back a groan that would for sure scare her. “I don’t understand how this happens. Why does a kiss-”

He was looking deeply into her eyes and she could see the pain her touch was causing. Her fingers rolled back into her hand and she leaned forward to kiss him. The tension between them was awkward, but their connection was sweet. He gripped onto the table allowing only minimal skin to touch. It was an embarrassing situation. He couldn’t allow himself to greedily kiss her; he was grateful just knowing that she was willing to help him.

Their lips parted but DaeHyun pecked her softly. “For good measures.”

A sudden glow started to burn through her cheeks and she covered with the back of her hand. “You sure that’ll be okay, right?”

He sighed pushing her hair back behind her shoulder. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about all of this.”

She bit her lips together and pouted them as if holding back words. “I have something to confess.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure how YoungJae will feel about this…” She nearly whispered her words, but he caught them. He caught every word.

Pain started to creep across his chest again. So, they were dating, he thought to himself. How could she not tell him? Why would she let him kiss her if she was with someone else? His pain wasn’t nearly that important.

“I have this…this thing. It’s kind of like a gift, but I can’t do anything for myself with it.” Her gaze swept across him and she could see he was struggling again. “Is it back? Already?!”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said between clenched teeth. “What about this gift?” the pain was fading, but not nearly as fast as he had hoped.

She wet her lips with her tongue. “I’m lucky. Kinda in the same way as a fountain. Instead of throwing coins, my family and YoungJae kiss my cheeks. Something good always happens afterwards.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“If you don’t trust me, try kissing my cheek. Maybe it’ll help.” Her fingers stumbled to comb her hair behind her ear. He might think she was crazy, but in his situation, he had no room to judge.

“You sure about this?” he speculated.

“Positive. It always works.”

He pressed his nose to her cheek and closed his eyes.

YoungJae and JongUp did this all the time? Didn’t they? That’s how she made it seem. Daehyun couldn’t think of anything other than the two younger boys kissing her daily.

“SoRae-shi,” he gasped. “It’s no good.” He felt helpless. It was just a little bit of pain but he was acting like a baby.

Her hand pressed to her cheek as her eyes grew while watching his pain. “I don’t understand! It usually works!”

His hand made it’s way behind her neck and he pushed her closer leaning his forehead to hers. “Hush…you’re too loud.” And just like that he was kissing her again. This time she could taste how much he needed her. His kiss was sloppy full of hunger. She paused out of shock but then caught rhythm and kissed him back. Allowing her arms to wrap around him, she pulled him in as close as she could. His tongue flicked across her lips and she parted for him letting him taste more of her. He slowed his kiss and it was only moments after he stopped that she realized she was laying in the booth, his body hanging over hers.

His lips hovered over hers and she breathed deeply. Her chest slowly raised and lowered as she maintained a constant inhale of air. “DaeHyun-ssi?” she whispered.

He still lingered over her but made no move nor did he look like he would attack her again. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me…” he uttered trying not to look at her but still refusing to move. To be honest, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to move, he couldn’t. His mind was cloudy and he was dizzy. The room spun, but it was somewhat delightful.

Is this what they call ‘cloud nine?’

“DaeHyun-ssi, are you okay?” She looked at him with concern.

“I think…” His lips were lose and he stopped himself before he could embarrass himself. For whatever reason, whenever he thought about SoRae with YoungJae or JongUp, his chest hurt more. One might have called it jealousy, but he had just met her. What exactly was there to be jealous of? “I think I’m fine. Sorry.” He apologized again and tried to avoid eye contact. He was so ashamed of himself and the way he had acted. Why was he feeling like this? It wasn’t like they were dating or even really close for the matter. Still, growing and receding pain in his chest could only be calmed by her. That was the only thing he was sure of. “Let’s not tell anyone about this. It’s a bit far fetched.”

SoRae nodded her head though the boy couldn’t see. He refused to look at her. She was noticing his and grabbed his hand. “You don’t have to worry about anything. DaeHyun-ssi, you’re not alone. Mkay?”

She was still shaken up from his sudden embrace, but for whatever reason…she felt the urge to calm him. She had an aching need to rest his nerves.

“I find it weird that you believe me,” he muttered letting his vision gloss over their touch.

“There are all of these reasons that I shouldn’t, but something in the back of my head says to trust you. Something is telling me you are painfully honest. I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but I trust this voice over logic.”

His breath caught in his throat. How could one person be so faithful?

--

A/N: I swear I'm going to fix the graphics soon. I'm just so tired, but I promised I'd post this! Hopefully tomorrow I can get in the first chapter of To Love or Be Loved, something I'm crazy excited to start working on. Mainly because my bias is in it.... *cough...gukkie..cough* btws, here's the poster for it. And NO. It's not a BangHim story ㅠㅠ i know it looks like it. Also, there's profanity in it...sorry about that.

Replies~

@Gbbi15 : he really does O-O
and I would never kill off a main character *cough* I would never kill off DaeHyun.
Currently enjoying discounted candy, oh yeeah~

@toowhiteforkpop : Oh Jae................. - -;
and a chapter? hmmm, I'll think about it, but no promises. >.<

@banghim_xoxo : his smile is deadlier than planet Mato's number one assassin.
/bashfully...and eating. omg fatty./

If anyone would like to fangirl with me off and no for the next few days, I'll be checking my Tumblr pretty frequently. I'm currently working on it (like over the next week or so I'm going to be editing tags and stuff to make it more user friendly). So hit me up? totally need to be studying though...but all these new feels for One Shot and Channie....omg I cried when I read his tweet. ㅠㅠ