"I thought you said you don't like him" said Hyosung.

I raised a brow at that statement. "Let me guess. You're raising your brow at me again," she said, looking up from what she was doing to confirm her thought, "See? You are. The biggest sign of denial." "What are you saying?" I asked, jerking upright and totally forgetting that I shouldn't be moving.

 

"Ya! You ruined the polish" Hyosung pouted as she inspected my pinky. She insisted on giving me a manicure and even brought a lot of colors with her. I declined because I need my hands clean for when I make coffee at work. Hyosung doesn't take no for an answer and told me to just take it off before going to work. Such a waste of polish, but I'm sure she's feeling nostalgic about the time when we used to paint each other's nails with strawberry designs.

"Sorry~" I told her. "For messing up the polish or for lying to me?" "For messing up the polish. What do you mean I lied to you?" I clarified. "We're best friends, aren't we? Before we separated, we agreed to tell each other everything. And I told you to let me know when you're already seeing someone" she said. "I am not seeing Kai. It's just...complicated." I dismissed. "Then why do you live together?! I don't see any compelling reason for that especially since you've just known him for what...a year?" Hyosung exclaimed, accidentally swiping the brush the wrong way and messing up my polish even more. "Exactly! You said it yourself. I've only known him for a while so why would I be dating him? And trust me, you won't believe me if I told you why he's here" I sighed. Hyosung put down the polish brush and placed both hands on her hips. "Try me, Jang Haneul."

 

 

--

 

 

"From...the sky?" Hyosung gulped after hearing my story. I nodded. She was silent for a good five minutes before suddenly guffawing. "You know what, Haneul?" she mumbled amidst choking from laughter, "It's fine. If you really don't want to admit that Kai is your live-in partner, I'll respect that. No need to make up stories." I was partly relieved and partly disappointed at her conclusion. Relieved because my best friend doesn't have to be involved in this angel madness, yet disappointed that she didn't believe me. "It's not that I don't believe in you, ok? You do understand that even if your story about the magic notebook is true, it's pretty difficult to accept. It sounds like something that came straight out of a children's book" she explained. Well, she has a point. I opened my mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Bang Bang Bang playing somewhere. "Oops, my phone's ringing. Gotta take this!" Hyosung stood up and walked out of the room. "Technically, it's not ringing. It's Bang Bang-ing" I joked. Not sure if she heard it. That's ok though. I'm terrible at jokes. "Sorry, Haneul. I gotta go. Turns out dad was waiting to surprise me with a trip to Lotte and he's been dead worried about why I still wasn't out of the bedroom until noon" she explained. "Wait, did you sneak out??" "No no, I left the house early to get chicken. He was still asleep then so he didn't notice that I already left" she defended. "Alright, have fun and don't fall off the rides!" I chuckled, carefully giving her a hug so as not to ruin the polish on four of my fingers.

 

 

--

 

 

"Hey," greeted Kai who had just emerged from the bathroom with dripping hair, "where's Hyosung?" "She had to go to Lotte with her dad" I replied as I scrambled to look for cotton. Hyosung left some bottles of nail polish for me to finish what she started, but I thought that it will be more practical to just remove the paint since I'll be taking them off come Monday anyway. Besides, six more fingernails to paint on sounds like a lot of work. "What are you looking for?" Kai asked. "Cotton. I have to remove this polish on my nails" I answered. He walked back to the bathroom and I assume it's to dry his hair, but he came back just after a few seconds. "Here," he beamed, holding out a pack of cotton, "you keep this in your first aid kit, right?"

 

I mouthed my thanks and chuckled to myself. Sometimes I forget that it's my house. After having Kai around for some time, it started feeling like our house. To be fair, it was his house before it was mine.

 

“Aigoo, sometimes I am too much of a genius, huh?” I sighed as I realized that the cotton will do me no good without nail polish remover.

 

“Is there a problem?” Kai asked.

 

I shook my head but explained my predicament anyway.

 

“Never mind. I’ll just pass by the store before coming to work on Monday” I shrugged, looking at the four fingernails with paint on them. “It doesn’t look that funny, right?"

 

“Why don’t you just finish painting them on instead? It looks cute on you” he beamed.

 

Cute. Psh, this guy really finds everything cute so easily. I think I look like a girl trying too hard to look feminine. The nail polish even has glitters in them!

 

I stood up to keep the bottles of polish, but Kai protested.

 

“You’re not going to do it?” he pouted.

 

“Well…I’m not very good at doing my own polish so I’ll only end up messing it up” I answered. Partially true, but also partially just an excuse.

 

“Ah, I know! I’ll do it for you!” he grinned and I think my eyebrows got tangled together in confusion.

 

“Huh?” What do you mea—“ but before I could finish, he had made me sit down and gently steadied my hand on his propped knee.

 

“Kai, what are you do—"

 

“Ssh, I’m concentrating” he said as he took the baby blue polish that Hyosung started with.

 

I shushed as I was told. If you’d look at Kai’s face, you’d think he was doing some sort of surgery because his focus on my left thumb is no joke.

 

“Wow, have you done this before?” I remarked as he finished painting that one nail. It looked like it’s been done by shaky hands, but there were surprisingly no stains outside the nail at all.

 

“No, it’s the first time I’ve ever touched nail polish in my life” he chuckled.

 

“How come you’re so good at it?” I asked.

 

“Well, I’m doing it for you, so I shouldn’t make any mistakes” he shrugged.

 

“Don’t stress on it too much. They’ll be gone by Monday anyway” I said.

 

“Just because something won’t last forever doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the most out of it today” he said, looking straight into my eyes.

 

My breath hitched for a moment and I had to look anywhere except at him. Yah, Haneul. Get yourself together. Humans have eyes. It’s not the first time you’ve looked into a human’s eyes, so why get so worked up about it?

 

“Y-yeah, you’re right. You know what? The polish does look cute. I’ll just uh..I can finish painting the others by myself” I smiled, but it looked like I was cringing.

 

“Oh, did I mess it up so bad?” he asked, his expression sulking by the second.

 

“No no! I just…want to try it for myself” I said, but the truth is, realizing our close proximity and how warm his hand feels on mine gives me an odd feeling. It’s like somewhere in my head, my brain is whispering something to me but I can’t make out the words.

 

I picked up the brush with my left hand and brought it close to my right thumb, but the tip of the brush won’t stop shaking visibly. Knowing that Kai was just watching in front of me made me even more nervous and I whispered a silent prayer for me to be left-handed if only for today so I can this over with.

 

“Aigoo, Haneul” Kai chuckled, “see? This is the universe telling you to let me do it."

 

I heaved a defeated sigh and handed the bottle to Kai. It was fascinating to watch him work so intently. What wasn’t fascinating was the drumming in my chest. It made me so self-conscious, thinking that my heart might be beating loud enough for Kai to hear it since he is so close. I try to mask it with a fake cough every now and then.

 

“So…you really believe that the universe gave you a mission to do this?” I joked.

 

“Uh huh,” he said, not taking his eyes off his work, “I read in one of my books at home that if you really want something, the entire universe will conspire to help you achieve it."

 

“So you really want to achieve painting my nails? You believe that’s what the universe wants you to do” I laughed.

 

“Maybe, maybe not~” he sang, “but I do believe that the universe is on my side"

 

“Why?” I asked.

 

“Because of all the places that I can teleport to and of all the people in the world that could find me, it brought me here. It brought me...to you."