There he was, standing tall and erect under the moonlight right next to the door to my apartment building. As he heard my Converse gliding against the cement pavement, Sehun raised his head to meet my gaze. Under the clear, silver moonlight, I was able to see the features of his face clearly - his pale skin, his heavy eye bags covered in a dark tan color, his parted lips that let out weak breaths of air.

“Sehun.” I almost closed the distance between us and tilted my back to look into his dark brown orbs.

“Jen.” Hearing his voice again after three entire weeks of his absence struck a chord within me and awoke a new wave of feelings. But there was something different about his voice. He wasn’t the same sarcastic, jokeful Sehun.

“Come in,” I told him as I led us into the building and to my suite.

We sat in silence - whether it was comfortable or now, I could not even distinguish - on my couch after entering our apartment. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat until he found a suitable position, which was sideways with one arm on the back of the couch behind me and one leg bent on the seat. “I don’t like Kana,” he said simply. Why did he feel such the need to clarify to me? “And I never wished for her to break up with Luhan. Never.”

“Oh.”

“So don’t ever-”

“I’m sorry, Sehun,” I finally brought myself to apologize to him. “I’m truly sorry for even thinking that way of you and accusing you of doing something like that.”

Sehun remained silent. The only audible sounds in my living room were our shallow breathing and the traffic on the street below. “What if I said I don’t forgive you?”

Did I even expect him to forgive me? Did I believe that he would after the foul words that I spat at him? “Sehu-” Then the corners of his mouth molded into a teasing smirk. “You !” I shrieked as I began chasing him around the room.

“You fell for it!” he guffawed as he elusively escaped my grasp.

“Face my wrath, you conniving little !” I leaped onto his back and held onto him tightly, reminding us of the many piggy-back rides that he’d given me in the past.

“Ah! You’re heavy! What have you been eating!” he sarcastically exclaimed and acted as if he was going to topple over. But then, he did. I shrieked in horror as we crashed onto the wooden floor – with him on top of me. Feeling a distinct pressure on me, I snapped open my eyes, only to meet his shocked ones. I felt his sharp breathing on my lips, making me realize how close we were. As he began inching even closer, my eyes widened in complete bewilderment.

He finally composed himself and pushed off the floor. “I-uh-yeah-I-um-I…I should leave. It’s late,” he stammered once he stood up beside me and helped me up.

“Yeah…bye…” I distinctly heard the opening of the door and the click of the lock when it closed again. Sehun left, but my heart never returned to its normal rhythm. I didn’t understand why my heartbeat was in such turmoil, but I couldn’t even come close to controlling it. Perhaps it was the sudden proximity and level of intimacy that have been absent from my life ever since Jongin’s departure.

Yeah, that had to be it.