The next morning, I woke up next to Jongin and smile at the sight of his sleeping form. I frown at the heavy rain outside, and close the slightly unclosed curtain. I climb back to the bed, and a few moments later Jongin wakes up, probably because of the loud thunder sounds. He closes his eyes and ears as soon as he realizes the noises.

     “You don’t like it?”

     Jongin nods, his face shows apparent unpleasantness. I tilt my head, and pat his shoulder. I slip back into the blanket with him. The thunders tame down, and Jongin has his hands off his ears.

     “You don’t like it that much?”

     Jongin gives me a wary smile. “It’s embarrassing, but yeah… Since I was little.”

     “Then coming here is a mistake. It originally always rains a lot in Yeosu.”

     “We should pick a better location later.” Jongin agrees. I feel overly excited at the mention of ‘later’. Yes, we have all the time in the world.

     “What else do you dislike?”

     “Basically things with loud noises. Explosions. Screams. Even confetti bombs.”

     His innocent, sincere face when he says them somehow really amuses me. I’m thinking of things to divert him from the sound of thunder. “Okay… What kind of food do you dislike?”

     Jongin looks at me curiously. “What’s with the change of topic?”

     I smile. “So I’ll know what to prepare if I ever happen to cook something for you. What is it?”

     Jongin grins, and pats the pillow next to him so we can be in the same position for a proper (morning) pillow talk. “I’ll eat everything you make for me. Now… Tell me about your family.”

 

-

 

     We decide to spend one more night in Yeosu, and tomorrow would be our last day. When I’m preparing to go out in the afternoon, a call from Hayoung comes. She’s probably the only one who knows my exact whereabouts right now, and with whom.

     “Unni, when are you coming back?”

     “Tomorrow.” I answer flatly.

     “That guy is nice, right?”

     “He is, don’t worry.” I feel like I have to convince more people in the future about this. “I’ve known him before.”

     Hayoung ends the call with a wary ‘be careful’. I put my phone inside my bag, and sit on the edge of the bed. I think it’s time to tell Jinhee about who I’m with.

     Jinhee’s reaction is expected, a loud gasp is heard as soon as I mentioned Jongin’s name. But the following reaction is tamer than what I hoped. “Ah, so it’s him.”

     “He’s okay, right?”

     “I never heard anything strange about him.”

     “Good to hear.”

     “Wow, so you’re in Yeosu now… With Kim Jongin…”

     “It’s too fast, don’t you think?”

     “People may think so.”

     “Do you?”

     Jinhee laughs slowly. “You’re both adults. I didn’t know what happened, but this trip means you two trust each other enough already.”

     “Yeah…”

     “You worry too much. Go back safely, okay?”

     Jongin appears on the door after calling my name, and Jinhee ends the call after hearing his voice. I approach him and we prepare to leave the lodging.

     “Who were you calling?”

     “Jinhee.”

     “She must be worried, we should send her a picture of us.”

     “Of us?” I repeat his statement.

     Jongin nods. “Yeah. We haven’t taken many pictures with us together on them anyway.”

     That sets me on a happy mood, and we set off. We spend the sunlit day with eating more traditional food there, and shopping for souvenirs. We arrive at the beach just in time before the sun sets, and we get to enjoy the pretty view.

     The sky gets darker, and we’re leisurely strolling the beach, purposely avoiding the area with people so we could have some area for ourselves. Jongin and I continue our talk. An hour passes, and we start to run out of topics.

     “Right, we should take some pictures.” Jongin takes out his phone, and snaps some pictures for us with the sea as the background. I glance at his phone, and he’s putting them on his SNS accounts.

     “Oh, you’re posting them?”

     “Yes.” Jongin smiles, looking satisfied. “My friends will hate me.”

     “They must be surprised to see us together.”

     Jongin nods. “We can’t help it.” he finishes with his phone, and pulls me into a big hug. “Oooh, it’s cold.”

     I smile, and we walk forward like a penguin, sticking to each other. We decide to have dinner in a nice seaside restaurant, and we cleared the food in no time. That’s a similarity I find in both of us—we eat very well. The waiter proceeds to bring our ordered desserts, and we take some time before eating it.

     Silence. Jongin takes out his phone, and I, realizing I'm going to be ignored for a few minutes, pick up my fork and decide it's a good time to devour my cake now.

     Jongin lifts his head once to ask me on what date we're starting our new semester, and I nonchalantly answer with a full mouth. I take another big bite, and chew the cake with an ounce of irritation, but then my teeth hits something.

     I carefully swallow anything but the concrete thing, and realize it has a round, holey form. Realizing what it is, I quietly take it out from my mouth and place it on my lap.

     Jongin is still concentrating on his phone.  I peek at the ring, and it's a very pretty one, white gold with a tiny diamond. I glance at Jongin, and he just finishes with his phone.

     "Why? Is there something wrong?"

     I slowly shake my head, not too hard to make my body move too much, to not make the ring fall from my lap.

     Big 'IMPOSSIBLE' words are drawn on my mind, and as I try to digest the situation, my sight falls at the couple right next to our table, two people on their early thirties. The woman is eating the exact same cake that I have, and the man is just sipping his wine nervously, while cautiously checks the cake and the woman's face, in case something would happen. I form a smile, and turns back to face Jongin.

     "What are you planning?"

     "What?" Jongin plainly asks back, blankly. I know he's saying the truth. I nod, and call a waiter over to our table.

     "Wrong table." I whisper as I hand him the ring, and watch the waiter panic because of his mistake. The waiter leaves, and Jongin looks at me, even more confused.

     "What? Why did you call him?"

     "I'll tell you later."

     I wished to witness the woman next table get her surprise, but I decide to take Jongin out of there before the waiter brings out the real deal. On the taxi, I tell Jongin what happened, and his eyebrows furrow in disbelief.

     "A ringㅡwowㅡI mean, how could the waiter get it wrong..." Jongin breaks to a laugh. "You must think that it was from me... Oh my. Why didn’t you say anything?"

     "Yeah... I knew it was impossible right away."

     "Why?"

     I smack his arm. "Who in the world proposes after only dating forㅡ" my face gets hot, and I stopped in the middle.

     Jongin laughs, and it dies down slowly. "Yeah... It's impossible... I mean... Not now."

     I decide to respond nothing, and take out my phone. I frown seeing at least ten new chats in my notification, but instantly remember the potential cause. I put it back inside, thinking of just deal with them when I get back to the lodging.

     After washing up, Jongin and I are sitting in the living room, checking the reactions from our friends. It was mostly “When did you guys get close?” and we both just laugh it off without actually replying them. “It’d be too much of a hassle, just let them be.” Jongin says.

     “Yeah.” I put my phone away as he did. “I’ve expected this.”

     “We’ve spent a lot of time together, actually. The intervals are just short. Maybe that’s what makes them surprised. Their disbelief starts getting on my nerves.”

     “Sssh, you said it’d be a hassle. Don’t overthink.”

     “Look who’s talking.” Jongin smirks. “I’m pretty sure you’re the one who was thinking a lot the most about this.”

     “Yeah, but the thoughts start to stop, because of you. Now that I feel a lot more relaxed, you’re the one who starts to worry.”

     “I’m not.” Jongin sounds like a little kid. I smile.

     “So don’t.”

 

-

 

     We barely got any sleep before leaving for the train station to catch our 8 AM departure, but once we boarded the train, both of us show no sign of sleepiness. The train is quite packed today, and Jongin jokes that we’d get scolded by a grandmother on our other side if he were to kiss me. I blush, remembering our first kiss.

     “You kissed me in the middle of nowhere that time.” I mumble slowly.

     “That’s the charm of it.” Jongin suppresses his laugh. “What are you going to do in Seoul once we arrive?”

     “In the evening, I’m going home to Paju for a few days.” I tell him my plan for the rest of the week. “Then if nothing happens, I’ll come back to Seoul.”

     Jongin pouts. “Maybe I should just go home too.”

     “Of course, where else would you go?”

     “When you’re back, let’s go to the amusement park. Swimming pool. Seoul Forest. Stop being nocturnal beings for awhile.”

     I grin. “Deal.”

     We spend the remaining hours sleeping on each other’s shoulders, and I prepare myself to endure not meeting him for a few days.

 

-

 

     As soon as I finish greeting my parents once I get home, Hayoung pulls me into her bedroom.

     “Unni, so it’s him? The one on your profile photo?”

     “Who else would the guy be…” I rub my face. “Hayoung, I’m sleepy.”

     “He’s really handsome.”

     “I know.”

     “He hasn’t done something bad, right?” I know Hayoung is genuinely uneasy, but I’m getting impatient on this kind of question.

     “Oh, really bad. He keeps being here, and he won’t leave. It’s annoying.” I hit the top of my head.

     “Alright. Be happy.”

     “Oh, this is quick, Lee Hayoung. I thought I would stay here for at least an hour.”

     “You seem so happy, that’s why…”

     I smile, and ruffle her hair. “We know what we’re doing. We might still be on the stage of getting to know each other now, but it felt like I’ve known enough.”

     Hayoung nods, and lifts her head like she just gets reminded or something. “Unni, yesterday Sunwoo—“

     “I’ll listen to you tomorrow. I’m going to sleep first.” I raise my hand and stand up to leave the bedroom, ignoring Hayoung’s protests.

 

-

 

     I’ve subtly answered all the questions directed to me, and thankfully my closest friends are very understanding. On a group chat, they jokingly accuse me of running away to home, and I defend myself that half of them aren’t even in Seoul.

     I go back to Seoul a week after, on a rainy evening. Jongin offers to pick me up from the bus station but I choose to just directly take a taxi to my apartment. I tell him to just rest today, and that we’ll meet tomorrow. He won’t hang up until I reach the apartment.

     “Yeah, I won’t oversleep tomorrow, I’ll go there on time. I’ve arrived, so you can—“ I look outside to make sure I’m really nearing my apartment, and my voice instantly stops when I see someone in white at the entrance. “Oh my.”

     Jongin puts his phone down, smiles at me and I can only stupidly stare at him without a word when I get off the car. He helps me with the bags, and I try not to throw myself to his embrace because I need to at least wait until the taxi leaves.

     We go to my unit, and once we’re alone, I turn to him, take some time to scan his appearance in long-sleeved white shirt and black fitted pants, take a deep breath, and throw my arms around him.

     “We were together 24/7 and suddenly separated for a week… Well well.” Jongin kisses the top of my head. “I’m sorry, I can’t wait until tomorrow.”

     “What are you sorry for?”

     Jongin breaks the hug, smiles at me and his lips waste no time to find mine. We’re being too rowdy this time, because in a few seconds we almost knock down a tiny book shelf near my TV, and we forcefully stop while laughing.

     We can’t really go out too because the rain gets heavier all of a sudden, and in the end we’re just lying down in my bed, with my head on his chest. I’m holding a small pillow in case Jongin needs it to cover his ears when a thunder comes, and he plays with it as we talk about the upcoming semester.

     “It’s going to be interesting.” Jongin hits my head lightly with the small pillow. “There’s a few other people from our classmates in my building too, you know, and they asked me about you. I think they’re going to tease us at school later.”

     “Really?’ I’m holding his hand, and explore his long fingers. “It’s easy. We should just act like we do now, the world only belongs to us. Especially at night. When nobody barely sees us.”

     “Hm.” Jongin responds by grabbing my hand tightly. “Good idea.”

     Everything started with me wanting to go out so bad, and now it wraps up with me wishing I could just stay inside all night long. Guess Seoul Lonely doesn’t apply to me anymore.