“Are you sure there’s no more available room Yonghwa ssi? Not even one...?” I asked as we walked into a long and winding corridor of a cheap motel he insisted on staying. He simply shook his head. I bet his hands were numb by now considering the amount of shopping bags in his hands.

With our hands filled with shopping bags, we—almost looking like a couple of penguins—waddled our way to our room. Yonghwa and I—he mostly—must’ve spent almost a thousand Won just on ‘cheap’ clothing.

“You have no idea how cheap these clothes are!” I remembered him saying, well practically yelling in glee to me. All I could do then was looking down basically trying to hide my face from the crowd that watching him in awe. But it seemed like the watching eyes were less of my concerns since now we were about to stay in the same room.

“Here it is!” he announced as we halted in front of a simple wooden door with the number 28 painted in white on it, “This is our room” he smiled. He opened the door but gesturing me to enter the room first but conflicted by the thoughts of sharing a room with a guy I only stood stuck on my feet.

He looked at me for a few moments perhaps wondering why I refused. His mouth formed an ‘O’ shape as he understood my reluctance. Then he simply smiled. He entered the room first then I followed suit but, to my horror, there was only one bed. “Oh God...” I sighed aloud.

He only looked at me with teasing eyes. “What’s so bad with sharing a room with me Seohyun ssi?” he said. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I’ve never shared a room with a guy before” I told him frankly and to be honest, not even when I was with Kyuhyun oppa. There was a time when we went for a three day getaway; he insisted that we should be sharing a room. For me; a person who has no experience in getting close to a guy, the idea frightened me. Imagine now I’m about to share a room; probably the bed too, with a guy I’ve known for about a week let alone when I was with Kyuhyun the thoughts of staying with him gave me all sorts of worries.

“Relax my friend...” Yonghwa patted my head, “I’ll sleep on the floor and you can take the bed. Besides, I’ve never tried sleeping on the floor before not even when I was at the orphanage” he said while rummaging into his shopping bags. Feeling slightly relieved, I could only utter an unsure thanks.

It was in the middle of the night and I couldn’t shut my eyes to sleep. I tossed and the bed feeling restless over nothing. I tried to check on Yonghwa but I was afraid that I might wake him. The bed was too creaky.

I tossed and turned some more before I heard Yonghwa moaned. I crawled to the edge of the bed and I could see him crying in his sleep. I turned back to lie on my pillow but before I could decide to ignore him his moans turned to faint sobs. I felt sorry for him by then. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise that my brain shut the painful memories of how I lost my parents. I would’ve ended crying in my sleep like Yonghwa.

He fidgeted, tightly grabbing the one and only bed sheet covering the cold floor. I watched him a moment longer thinking deeply on what should I do. Should I wake him up? I reached out to him slowly and gently putting my hand on his shoulder. He shuddered at first then finally his eyes fluttered open. For sure his eyes were bloodshot.

“Seohyun...?” he said looking at me. “You heard me cry didn’t you?” he sat up then wiped his face with his hands. “Sorry for waking you up”

I shook my head admitting my insomniac condition. As I looked at him sitting up with his back slightly hunched, he seemed distant and tired. I guess he wasn’t mentally present in the moment. He didn’t realise that my hand was still on his shoulder. Both of us weren’t able to sleep by then so we simply lie down and in silence admiring the plain white ceiling.

“Hey...” I said. The bed; the king sized bed Yonghwa let me to sleep on; I shuffled to the left side of it and I placed the bolster in the middle. “The floor is cold. Come up to the bed” I said trying to sound cool but in truth I was yelling at myself. It was too bold! I guess Yonghwa too was surprised because for a few seconds he only sat up straight looking at my di