I sniffed in the air and flung my eyes open.

Pancakes.

I slowly sat up and looked around. Jonghyun was sitting in the chair next to my desk, observing me.

“You’re awake,” he said with a smile. I returned the smile.

“What time is it?”

“It’s about 10 am,” Jonghyun answered.

“Wa!?” I had slept for God knows how many hours. I sat up and ruffled my tangled hair.

“I guess you needed to sleep.” Jonghyun approached me with a plate full of steaming pancakes. My stomach growled angrily.

“You must be starving. You haven’t eaten since breakfast at my house yesterday.” Jonghyun said worriedly.

“Give it,” I simply said, snatched the plate out of his hands and dug in to the pancakes. He chuckled at my voracity and sat back down in the chair.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked. I nodded with my mouth full of food.

“Yeah, thank you for taking care of me oppa.” I looked down at all the layers of blankets that were covering me. Between all the blankets I spotted something. The sweater Jonghyun had been wearing yesterday. I glanced at him and saw him sitting on the chair, elbows on his knees and no sweater. I felt a strange warm feeling in my chest and it gradually spread to the rest of my body and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.

“Oppa, thanks for lending me your sweater,” I beamed at him, but suddenly I got concerned. “But weren’t you cold when you walked home?”

“Nuh, not really,” Jonghyun smiled.

“…” I looked searchingly into his eyes and tried to read his mind through them. I was missing something. “… You slept here.”

“Is that a question?” Jonghyun asked mischievously. I averted my gaze. “Are you unhappy about it? It’s not like it’s the first time…”

“Unhappy isn’t really the word,” I mumbled to myself and stared into my plate of half eaten pancakes. To be honest, I couldn’t find any part of me that object to his company…

“What was that?” Jonghyun put a hand to his ear with a teasing smile playing on his lips. I glanced at him.

“What did my parents say when they saw you this morning?” I asked.

“Nothing. Your mother was very happy to see e in the kitchen.”

“A-are you sure?” I gaped at him. I never thought that about my mother.

“Absolutely. She said she was happy that at least someone cared enough about you to take care of you,” Jonghyun said. His voice had a sudden cold tone. What was that all about?

Two nights in a row he’d really taken good care of me. I blushed a little while hoping dearly that I hadn’t done anything embarrassing, like snoring or saying something stupid in my sleep. Why was I even bothering about that? The big problem here was the whole sharing-bed-situation, right? But I had no objections… Gah! I didn’t understand myself at all lately.

Jonghyun looked at me thoughtfully. I peeked at him.

“What…?” I asked with a shy smile.

“I think you need some cheering up. How about I take you out for a while?”

“Out?” I looked down at myself with a disgusted look. I was wearing an ugly pajamas that I had changed into while I was waiting for Hongki oppa the day before. I watched my reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall. My hair was wispy and soiled and the make-up, still left from the Friday’s party, was still to be found on my face. I simply looked like …

“Are you healthy enough?” Jonghyun asked.

“Who cares if I’m healthy or not, I can’t go out looking like a corpse!” I blurted.

“You’re healthy alright,” I thought I heard him mumble. “Just a change of clothes and you’ll be as new,” he said louder. He got up and walked to my closet and opened it.

“But, take a look at my face!”

He stepped up to me and cupped my chin.

???

He turned my face and looked at it from different angles.  He let me go and took a step back.

“You look beautiful,” he stated and returned to my closet. I just gaped at him. Beautiful? Wasn’t that exaggerating? I’d been pleased if he had said something like ‘it could’ve been better’ or ‘you don’t look like a corpse, more like a ghost’. But still, who could not feel flattered at that comment? I felt a smile sneak up on me and my lips curved into a smile. At least he tried to cheer me up…

“What are you secretly laughing about? Get dressed.” Jonghyun tossed me the outfit of the day and left the room to give me some privacy.

“I would very much like to take a shower,” I said to myself as I once again glanced at my reflection.

“Just get dressed will you. You can splash your face or something,” Jonghyun said through the door. Did he actually hear that?

I got up and put on the clothes he had chosen for me, my favorite jumper and a pair of jeans. He’d also put a cardigan in the pile of clothes but I reached out for Jonghyun’s sweater and pulled it over my head instead. I recognized his smell, the same as in his car…

There was a knock on the door.

“Are you ready?” Jonghyun’s voice sounded through the door.

“Yes, come in,” I said and adjusted the sweater. He looked at me with an evaluating look. He flashed a smile.

“It looks good on you.” I blushed at his comment.

“I’ll just go and wash my face,” I excused myself and got out of the room and hurried to the bathroom. I washed my face tidily, put on just a little bit of make-up and brushed my teeth and lastly I took a pill for the headache. I went out of the bathroom.

“Let’s go.”