Although I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes, the blissful dream about rainbows and unicorns did not last any longer than two hours. I was awakened by continuous knocking on my bedroom door. Was it a burglar? But why would a burglar even knock, it made no sense… The curiousity soon became too unbearable and I slipped off my bed sheets to check who it was. My legs were still asleep and wobbly that I fell on the floor the second I stepped on the soft white rug beside my bed.

 "Ouch..." I hissed and stood on my knees. The knocks grew intenser and soon turned into banging.

 "Are you okay?!" Someone shouted worriedly from the outside.

 "Yes, I'm okay. Just wait until I open the door." Now I remembered that Yukwon was staying at my home. Strangely enough I seemed to forget important things like this too easily. A deep crease was ecident on my face as I wondered what was so urgent. I crawled to the door and eventually stood straight.

 "Do you know what's..." The unlfinished sentence hung in the air at the sight displayed efore my eyes - Yukwon with his messy hair, standing in front of me.  Shirtless. My eyes slightly rounded though the only source of light was the dim moondlight and it was rather dark that night. There was an uneasy expression on his face.

 “Are you okay? I think I heard you fall.” he asked again.

 “Y-yes, I'm fine. But...what so urgent?" Still too sleepy to form proper sentences I lifted my brows in a questioning look.

 “You didn't tell me where the bathroom is...” he scratched the back of his neck, seemingly embarrassed.

 “Oh, excuse me." It was a rather comic situation but back then I did not seem to deem it as one. I hated being disturbed in my sleep but I was the guilty one so I just let it pass. I stepped out of the room and closed the door closely behind me. I certainly didn't want to turn on the lights, it would only make me feel even more uncomfortable to watch the boy wandering around half and he didn't seem to be bothered by my decision anyway.

 “It's dark here." Yukwon muttered and I felt his hand grab mine and his fingers lacing together with mine.

 “Lead me, I don't know your home as you do, so I don't want to bump into the furniture.”

 I rolled my eyes and blindly led him to the bathroom. “Here. And please don't wake me up again.” I whined and let go of his hand. I headed to my room already half asleep and craving for sleep all over again.

 I wasn't fully asleep when I heard knocking again. An irritated sigh escaped my lips and I heard the familiar voice once again muttering against the door.

 “Jihye, are you sleeping?”

 I opened the door and uttered “Not anymore. What is it?”

 “Well...I can't sleep. Can we talk a little bit?” He smiled awkwardly.

 He was once again provoking my kindness by asking me for a little talk at 5AM. I couldn't help but surrender. “Sure.”

 He tried to secretly peek in my room and it didn't stay unnoticed by me even if I was too sleepy to think properly. I closed the door, preserving my personal space from his sight.

 We went to the living room and he sat on the couch.

 “Are we going to talk in the dark?" he inquired and before I could respond, he added "Unless you want to stare at my y body...”

 “There is a girl here and you're walking around shirtless. That's impolite.” I said half cheefully, half reprimanding him. The situation was still quite funny to me. Maybe my tired mind was playing tricks on me again. I resisted my sudden desire to sit beside him and instead sat on the other side of the couch.

 "Says the girl who kisses strangers in the club." Yukwon laughed sarcastically "But that wasn't the thing I wated to discuss."

"Then go ahead." I bent my leg at the knee and sat on it, facing the charming smile that lightly glimmered in the dark room.

 “Hmm...What is your favourite drink besides  tequila?”

 “Yah, you are saying this as if I go in the club and get drunk every night." My anger boiled, this was not amusing anymore. "I prefer drinking green tea with honey and I also love cappuccino." My retort sounded a bit too harsher than intended but he didn't seem to be much affected by the harshness reflected in my voice. "If that's why you woke me up, I'm going to bed again..."

 Before I could stand up he reached and held my wrist firmly "No, please don't go." He added. His voice was somehow desperate as if I were leaving him in the dark forever. Immediately I felt guilty for snapping at him earlier. He must have had a serious reason and as much as I hated being woken up in the middle of the night, I listened to what he had to say. I sat again, this time closer to him. "I don't even know how to put this..." I looked at him with half-lidded eyes, apparently the sleep was slowly crawling back to me, lulling me and numbing mu senses. "The truth is that I lived in that lub. I didn't really have a place to call home." He stopped obviously fighting with his own self inside. Or was it too hard for him to swallow his man pride and confess this to a girl. "This was my last night as a dancer in the club."

 "Now you have nowhere to stay?" I said after thinking over what he had said. Again this stupid feeling of guilt and pity invaded my mind and I had no power to stop it. I averted my gaze from him, still trying to suppress these feelings.

 “Yes, I am now homeless. And I know it's too much to ask but can I stay one more night here? Until I find accommodation."

 I turned back to his face a blurted out the words before I could stop them and think over the situation “Of course, Yukwon. Stay as long as it's necessary."

 He looked at me, seeminglu surprised but also relieved with a small smile spreading across his face. “Thank you, Jihye.” he mumbled, leaned in and hugged me tightly. All I could do was hesitantly hug him back, he sounded so vulnerable just a few seconds ago, I could not let him hanging. We stayed like this for a while as sleep slowly engulfed the both of us and we impreceptibly fell asleep.

 I woke up with unbearable backache. I was lying on the couch in a weird position my body cuddled to another. I lifted my head and saw Yukwon's face illuminated by th soft morning sunrays. His features were calm and peacefu, which probably meant I was the first to wake up, I carefully shifted and gor up cautious not to wake him up, he seemed qute tired last night.

 I quietly tiptoed to my room to get dressed and then to the kitchen to make breakfast. After a few minutes, I realised that there was othing in the fridge except for a few eggs and some milk. “I guess, we're having pancakes this morning.” I mumbled to myself and started to prepare the mixture.

 Not two minutes had passed and the sweet scent of freshly cooked pancakes could be sensed in the air. Soon after I heard pattering steps coming from the living room and Yukwon appeared on the doorframe f the small room. He sat on a stool by the kitchen bar and rested his chin in his palm, his eyes still half-closed.

 “Today's breakfast is pancakes?” he asked with his huscky morning voice.

 “Yes, you like pancakes, don't you?” I asked, focused on the sizzling food in front of me.

 “I love them.” he said without any emotion. I turned around and found him leaning on the counter with his head laying on his left arm and eyes closed. Still shirtless.

 From the previous experience I had gained the night before, I knew I had to be careful but something told me he wasn't pretending this time. I let out a deep sigh and the only thing that came to my mind was to drop something to wake him up. I took a spoon and stared dumbly in my overly rounded reflection in the utensil and threw it on the floor. The cold metal clanked when it touched the surface of the floor with a loud sound. The boy jumped with a startled expression.

 “What happened? Are we being attacked by alien zombies?"

 I tried hard to suppress the chuckles that threatened to come out of my mouth but failed eventually. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know how to wake you up, so I had to drop something." When I noticed his serious expression and his eyes glued to my face, my laughter died out. "What's wrong?"

 “Nothing, I'm just still sleeping." he mumbled.

 When the food was ready, I placed a plate piled with pancakes in front of him. His eyes did not leave the tasty looking food and he immediately dug in. 'He looks like he hasn't eaten for years...' I thought while studying his face features.

 “Why don't you eat?" he asked interrupting my train of thoughts.

 I vigorously shook my head and felt my cheeks slightly blushed “I do eat.” and stuffed a whole pancake in my mouth “See?” I said with my overflowing mouth.

 Yukwon choke on his food and laughed uncontrollably. As soon as I gulped, I started to laugh with him too. “You looked like a hamster!” he chuckled after he calmed down, pointed at my face and began laughing again.

 “Since we are roommates now, we should go to the supermarket to buy some stuff." he nodded understandingly and together we headed to the nearby  supermarket.

 Being the gentleman I didn't know he was, Yukwon insisted on carrying the bags and after arguing for a minute I gave up and handed him the groceries. On our way back to the flat, something caught my attention and I stopped in front of a colourful poster advertising a rap battle. There was a picture of two boys with their backs facing the audience in a dimmed nightclub.

 “Hey, Yukwon, do you want to go on this rap battle? It looks interesting!"

 He stepped back and stood beside me "Sure, when is it?”

 “Next Saturday night." I pointed at the date and venue written in the bottom of the poster. The boy only nodded in approval and we continued the short walck back home.

Author's note

Hi everyone! I finally came down to write and edit this chapter. It had somehow mixed cursive and normal font and I had to rewrite almost the whole thing, my poor nerves xD. As always I'd love to read your comments and what you think about the story!
Until next time, I love you all!