After avoiding Sehun for three days, I felt listless and empty, just as I did when we argued because of Kana and Luhan’s then cracking relationship. Just as I made up my mind to apologize and ask him to disregard that night’s events, the figure that my eyes longed for greeted me under the sunlight of the spring morning. His hazel brown hair glistened under the bright rays, but his eyes reflected only the dark clouds of a stormy night. In his hand was a bouquet of fifteen vibrant, blood-red roses. The moment his eyes pierced into mine, no words were even necessary to express our mutual feelings of regret for our own actions.

           “S-Sehun,” I gasped upon seeing him and recollecting myself.

          He smiled weakly after realizing that I was not obviously ignoring him any longer. “Jen,” he whispered softly. Sehun extended his arm that held the roses towards me, inviting me to accept the bouquet symbolizing apology. “I’m sorry. I overstepped my boundaries that night.”

           No, you actually didn’t. “It’s okay,” I assured with a grin that was genuine for the first that week. I forgave him long ago, although I insisted on ignoring him. I simply had no idea how to face Sehun. In fact, I actually had no idea how to face myself, answer the questions that I was trying to seek refuge from. I didn’t want to expose him to my broken past. “I’m sorry, too – for lashing out at you. I-I shouldn’t have, no matter how upset I was.” I meant it.

           “It’s okay,” he smiled, causing his eyes to curve into crescents. My heart warmed with a feeling that I failed to accurately describe, but I felt comfortable. Oddly enough, I felt more at ease than I ever did in the past seven years. I guess, with Sehun’s help, maybe I could focus less on my past and instead on the present.

           Or what I wanted to label as our present.

           After dance practice that day, he decided to invite me to dinner at a French bistro as what he called “Part two of our mutual apologies.” Jokes, sarcasm, and laughter filled our light evening, and I was able to use no words other than enjoyable and relaxing to describe it. After dinner, we walked in sync along the path to my apartment with supermarket-bought ice cream cones in our hands.

           “Did you really?” I exclaimed in pure amusement and shock after he revealed another childhood embarrassment of his to me.

           He playfully knocked me on the head as mock warning to stop teasing him. “Hey! You promised not to laugh!” he pretended to growl angrily at me but ended up bursting out in chortles to join me. I did promise him not to laugh at his revelation, but that was before he told me that he pretended he was a super hero. I mean, how could I be capable of restraining my laughter when he thought of himself as a flying monkey super hero? “It’s not that funny, come on!”

           “Are you kidding, Oh Sehun?” I ogled in disbelief at him. “You freaking thought you could fly so you jumped off a tree! You’re telling me that’s not funny?” I engaged in another round of rumbling laughter, disregarding any curious glances other pedestrians threw our way.

           “Mark lied to me!” he ignorantly defended himself. Yes, his brother was the one who convinced Sehun that everyone had super powers and that Sehun’s was flying.

           I scoffed at him. “You’re the dumb one to believe him.”

           “I was seven!” I shook my head in disbelief, but the smile remained plastered on my face.

           “I should so call you dumb Sehun from now on,” I put on a thoughtful, wise expression. “Dumb Sehun,” I teased in a sing-song voice.

He groaned in annoyance before ordering me to shut up before he did something that would make me regret my actions and words. All I did was laugh at his flustered face and poke my tongue out at him. “Stop it.”

Shaking my head, I halted in my steps to poke his cheek playfully and grin at him cheekily. “Dumb Sehun, dumb Sehun dumb-”

           “Call me that again,” he interrupted in a low, husky voice. Suddenly, his face was mere centimeters from mine, so proximate that I felt his breath on my lips. My eyes widened and my entire body froze, whether in anxiety or pure nervousness I failed to differentiate. “Call me that again,” he threatened with his eyes fixated on my lips, which I anxiously nibbled on.

           “Dumb Sehun-”

           And his lips were on mine. My stomach knotted into webs, and my heartbeat increased tenfold.

           But it was only due to the sparks that exploded within me.