The moon was beaming by the window when I opened my eyes. Patches of light settled around the room as thin shadows lined the places where they're obstructed.

The wall clock read eleven twenty. I had been asleep six hours at least, but it felt like six days. My body felt essentially renewed.

I shifted my position and it was then that I sensed another person's presence.

I looked to my left and saw that my outstretched arm was being trapped beneath a plopped head. I tried wiggling my fingers, not knowing what to expect, and realized that they were caged around another's. Soft and slender and warm, these phalanges could only belong to Sojin.

Despite the partial paralysis, I smiled.

Sojin had grabbed an ottoman, settled there and was fast asleep at the edge of my bed. Her head was resting delicately over two of her arms and one of mine. I didn't need to see it but I knew she had interlocked our fingers - I surmised she'd been playing with them - before surrendering to slumber.

The features of her face were faint, further impeded by her hair scattering around it. The paleness of it, though, remained an unmistakable attribute.

As slowly as I could, I leaned over my side to adopt a more convenient view. I ran my free hand over her hair, tucking them behind her ear to reveal her entire face.

She was an angel. She looked tons gentler without her lazy eyes. She was too peaceful in her sleep - I didn't think anyone could look that peaceful.

I wanted to explore her unconsciousness, so I traced her dark brows, her unmoving lids, down the bridge of her nose and paused. Her lips were fatally inviting.

I withdrew my hand, only becoming aware that my breathing had gone shallow.

Sojin stirred and my breathing stopped altogether.

"Luhan," she hummed, making my heartbeat race until it, too, ceased.

Was she dreaming of me? What was she dreaming about me?

Her hold of my fingers tightened. With equal calmness, she called my name again.

"Luhan."

I almost laughed. She was actually awake.

"Why are you awake?" She demanded.

I bade my time juggling her question, and then I decided to deflect it through rebound. "Why are you awake?"

"Hm." She twisted her neck to plant her forehead against our locked hands. It saddened me not being able to see her face. "How do you feel?"

I staggered. "Alive."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

She considered my answer for a minute. At last she said, "Okay."

Abruptly, she straightened up, released my hand and stretched an arm over my face. Her palm flattened across the whole expanse of my forehead. She lingered unnecessarily long, staring at me - all the oxygen seemed to have dissipated.

And then, augmenting my torture, she smiled. I wondered if she could feel my pulse thump againgst the sides of my forehead. It was embarrassingly wild.

"Your fever's gone," she declared. "And you look good."

I didn't know what came over me but my retort was definitely provoking. Not to mention assuming.

"Don't I always?"

It was flirtatious - I knew that. But it must have been my new found confidence over my affections that told me it was natural to flirt with the person you loved. Problem was, Sojin didn't appeal the type of lady to get stimulated by uncoy remarks - and I knew that, too. Whatever.

To my shock, she agreed. "Yeah, you do."

I suddenly regretted my comment. I forgot that Sojin was clever, too clever. And she had read beneath my question, which was supposed to unseat her and not the other way around.

She smirked, certain of her triumph, and said, "Two can play at this game, Luhan. But in the meantime, you need to eat." And she disappeared.

Okay, she thought it was a game. It was not. I decided to let it slip and wait for her. I sat up just as she had returned with a tray of food.

She set it on the bedside table - I noticed it had been cleared out - and grabbed a bigger ottoman to sit upon.

But I found our distance disheartening, so I moved over and patted the space beside me.

Sojin frowned. "You never let anyone on your bed."

How could she possibly know that? "Says who?"

"Baekhyun," she supplied. "And Jongdae," she added. "And Yixing and Tao and mostly Baekhyun. That's basically why you got a separate apartment and not a dorm room."

"Really?" She was right, of course. It was far too risky having people invade my bed if I lived in the same house or dormitory or building with them. But I never told my friends about it. On times when they decided to hang out in here, I would simply shove them off whenever they so much as touched my bed.

"Am I right?"

I patted the mattress again, ignoring her question. She complied finally, settling opposite the space I had cleared and half-faced me - she let her legs dangle over the edge.

We stared each other down, just as we did countless times before - only this time, I was no longer unnerve