Present.

He couldn’t sleep much that night. Luhan woke up early to pack some things, but he didn’t have much to begin with. Kris had left a bagpack in the house, a couple of clothes for change, a sweater, and some cash money. Now that he had nothing else to do, all he did was stare into the empty space. Before long, time flew and the sun was up. Later on, he began to hear some noise from outside. A very warm, happy kind of noise; of children laughing and adults sharing fun stories with each other.

Luhan leaned against the glass door that opened to the balcony and observed the activities going on outside at the small garden behind the apartment building. There was a barbeque party going on; probably something that the tenants of the building did to bond since Tiffany was there too. She was smiling and laughing, looking gorgeous. Without himself noticing, he too, smiled a little just by looking at her. He was glad that she was happy. Maybe she felt a little lonely without having a past, but Luhan couldn’t find anything good from revealing it to her.

Luhan walked back to the old, slightly dusty sofa in the living room. He lied down on it and closed his eyes. Old memories he had shared with her became vivid underneath his lids, but he kept telling himself to take a nap for the moment. After all, there were still a lot of time until his flight.

Knock, knock.

Knock, knock, knock.

The noise gradually sounded sharper in his ears as he fully regained his conscious.

“I know you’re inside. Open the door.”

It was her. Again.

Luhan pushed himself up and rubbed his red eyes.

“Goodness.” Tiffany’s mouth hung open as soon as the door was opened wide. She frowned looking at Luhan’s tousled hair and red eyes. “Have you been sleeping until now? It’s eleven right now!”

Luhan let his head tilted to the side lazily. “What do you want?”

“I brought you this.” She shoved a couple of big bowls of grilled meat, sausages, and grilled cheese sandwich at him. Luhan held the bowls against his chest and looked at it weird.

“Every month we have a barbeque party down there with everyone. You should join next time.”

Luhan frowned, still sleepy from his nap just now. “Yeah... Thanks for the thought but this doesn’t look like a meal for one person.”

“I believe that all boys eat at least twice as much than girls do.”

Luhan continued to stare at her, thinking that she still had more to say.

“Do you have anything else to tell me?”

She tilted her head to the side, giving him a cheeky look. “Actually, I was waiting to see whether you would tell me to go away.”

Luhan sighed. “I don’t say that all the time.” After all, he didn’t want her to remember only bad things about him on the last day they could see each other; regardless the fact that she already had a bad impression on him.

“I see. Then, it’s okay if I get inside and eat together with you, right? Since you said you can’t finish those by yourself.” Tiffany welcomed herself into the house and eagerly made her way towards the sofa in the living room.

“I didn’t say that but…” Luhan let his mumbling faded midway and decided to just go with the flow. Luhan placed the bowls on the coffee table and retreated to the kitchen to get some plates and cutleries.

“For some reason, autumn this year is really cold. It’s probably global warming’s effect. The weather is getting ridiculous all over the world. Is your heater working fine by the way? You can call the landlord if anything goes wrong. Or you can just call me,” Tiffany babbled. Luhan returned from the kitchen, staring at her coldly and put down the stuffs he brought from the kitchen.

“Eat,” he told her.

Tiffany looked back at him with her innocent, round eyes. “Weird.”

“What?” Luhan shoved a grilled cheese sandwich into his little mouth, filling up his cheek like a chipmunk stuffing on nuts.

“You’re not being mean to me today.”

Luhan nodded carelessly. He swallowed and replied, “We’re neighbors right? And we have to be friendly with each other.”

Tiffany scrunched up her face that could possibly be read as, ‘Yeah, right, you don’t even sound sincere.’

“So you can tell me what happened to you on that night, right?”

“Anything else but that,” Luhan said with a straight face without even paying attention to her. He was starving and he thought he could actually stuff himself all those food on his own. He had to remind himself to leave some for Tiffany.

Tiffany pouted and continued eating while making little conversation with him. She didn’t eat much since she already had a lot that morning with the others. After she felt full enough, she walked outside and stood at the balcony while Luhan continued his mission to get his bottomless stomach full.

Tiffany gasped all of a sudden. “Oh my god!”

Luhan simply raised an eyebrow.

“I can see my living room clearly from here!”

“Why? Do you walk at home or something?” Luhan replied nonchalantly.

Tiffany pulled a disgusted look. “Sorry to disappoint you, but no. It's just I usually fall asleep at the living room after dinner.”

Luhan smirked. “Yeah? Sounds interesting. I should totally have a peek tonight.”

“I should put on a thicker curtain,” she reminded herself before she yawned. She walked back inside and sat on the sofa again, resting her elbows on her knees and putting her chin in her hands. She watched with sleepy eyes as Luhan cleaned the last sausage from his plate.

“Aren't you going to go home?” Luhan asked.

“Are you going to shoo me away?” She asked back, sounding as sleepy as she looked.

Luhan sighed as he got up and cleaned the table. “No. You can do as you wish,” he said as he went to the kitchen with the dirty dishes.

“Then I’m going to take a little nap here.” Tiffany said with a smile and lied on the sofa. She watched Luhan’s back as he cleaned the dishes. “It’s amazing, this feeling. Just because you knew me from five years ago, it felt like I met an old friend who used to be really close with me. I don’t feel strange at all.” Tiffany murmured.

“Are you saying something?” Luhan briefly looked over his shoulder, but Tiffany just smiled back at him sleepily. Luhan shrugged and continued his task.

“For some reason, I keep wanting to see your face, again and again.” Tiffany said again, her voice was loud enough only for her to hear.

It was probably because he almost seemed as lonely as she was. Or maybe, she was attracted to him?

When Luhan finished the cleaning and got back at the living room, Tiffany was already fast asleep. He sat on the coffee table so that he could have a closer look on her face. Her look had matured a bit, but she still had the same gorgeous smile, the same demeanor. She always kept herself busy looking out for him. Luhan reached out, barely brushing her locks with the back of his fingers. For the longest time ever, he finally felt peace as he watched her chest falling up and down in a calm rhythm. His eyes lingered on her lips for a while but he dropped the idea in the end.

Luhan looked at his watch. 11.40 a.m.

It was time to go.

Her heavy lids slowly lifted. She blinked softly a couple of times, and turned her head to the side, to look at the wall clock hung at the kitchen. The shorter hand was pointing at slightly past the number one. 1.50 p.m.

Tiffany forced herself up and found the house to be too quiet, to the point that silence was deafening to the ears. She could even hear her own breathing. She was still at Luhan’s house, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Luhan?” She called groggily.