When Jong Kook returned to Jennifer’s apartment that night, she was already asleep. He took off his shirt and socks and quietly snuck into bed beside her, putting his arm around her and soon falling asleep.

He woke up that morning in that same position, his arm around her waist, breathing in the scent of the strawberry shampoo in her hair. He lay awake like that for some time, thinking about the special moments they had shared throughout their time together.

It had been less than two months since they met, but they had been together nearly every day. He tried to count those days, excluding those when they didn’t see each other. Forty eight? Had they spent nearly fifty days together? A normal relationship, he thought, would have seen those days spread out over many more months, maybe even a year. He might have preferred that when he was younger, but he had turned forty this year and he didn’t want to waste any more time. And why wait when he knew in his heart, in his soul, that this was the person?

He smiled to himself, thinking about the plans he had made, and as he thought about this, he began kissing her neck softly and brushing the hair back from her face, moving his kisses up to her cheek and then to her lips. She slowly opened her eyes and smiled. “Yeobo,” she said. “I love waking up next to you.”

“You shouldn’t say yeobo,” he whispered. “We’re not married.” He wanted to add yet.

“It feels like we are,” she said, smiling. She looked at him for a moment, the same way she had that night at the jazz club when she seemed to want to tell him something. But then she just smiled again and asked about the fan event. He had forgotten that he had made up that excuse. “Uh, it was okay,” he said. “Lots of ahjummas.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said.

He froze, thinking for a moment that she had found out about his secret trip.

“I’m sure there were lots of pretty young girls there calling you oppa,” she teased.

Jong Kook relaxed then and smiled. He told her that he liked when she had called him oppa the previous morning and beg