Eight

Yixing and I settled into a relationship which went at a comfortable speed. It wasn’t too fast, it wasn’t too slow; it was just right, just like everything else about him.

After a particularly brain-battering English exam, I stretched my limbs before flopping back into my desk. Before long, I felt a familiar pressure on the top of my head and cracked open one eye to see Yixing smiling down at me.

“Tired?” He asked as he squat down to eye-level with me. I felt his fingers slide gently through my hair.

“Yeah, that exam was a death-blow,” I said as I reached over to tangle my fingers in his hair.

I was tugging at and playing with his hair until he grabbed my hand and pulled it away. “Come on, let’s go on a date. We both deserve one,” he said.

I grinned at him before shoving all my belongings haphazardly into my backpack. Swinging my backpack onto one shoulder, I threaded my fingers through Yixing’s and let him guide me out.

We strolled along the sidewalk of the main street, hand in hand. The afternoon was uncharacteristically cold for a June day. I looked upwards at the overcast sky and hoped it wouldn’t rain because I didn’t have an umbrella. I hadn’t even realised I was shivering until I felt something warm envelope me.

Looking over my shoulders, I realised that Yixing had wrapped his jacket around me in a bid to keep me warm.

“You should’ve told me if you were cold,” Yixing gently chastised. “I don’t want my girlfriend to get sick.”

I felt my heart warm up considerably at his words.

We walked along the main street in peaceful silence. Glancing over at Yixing, I realised that I’d caught him staring at me. Again. Smiling teasingly, I nudged him gently with my arm and laughed when he began to blush.

My good mood however, slipped away as we approached the book store in town. There were two men decked all out in black at the end of the street heading toward me, talking on cellphones. Abruptly, I was jerked out of my joyful disposition as I was reminded of that day at the soccer game back all those months ago in Seoul. I had a bad feeling right in the pit of my guts and before any of the men could spot me, I changed directions and suddenly dragged Yixing into the book store.

“Jung?” Yixing asked, confusion quickly clouding his eyes. “What are we-”

I tugged him down by his neck and pressed our lips together. He was momentarily stunned, but quickly regained his sense and slipped his arms around my waist and began to kiss back with ardent fervor.

Pulling myself away slightly to peer into his eyes, I could see the twinkling, even in the dimness of the doorway. “Sorry Xing, I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy new notebooks. I’m almost running out just from preparation for those exams.”