I wake up to the sight of an unfamiliar wall and an unfamiliar trashcan on the floor.  There’s also an unfamiliar bedside table with a bottle of water on it. 

   “This looks like my dream,” I mumble as I stretch.  “I guess I’m still asleep~” I sing and rollover.  I know that this isn’t a dream the second I see Sehun calmly sleeping beside me.  

   My eyes are seriously bulging out of my head.  Was that dream...  Real?  Did I actually do those things?

   As a test, I gently poke Sehun’s chest.  

   It’s real.  He’s real.  I’m awake, and I’m in the clothes I remember wearing last night when I came in here.  Well, half of them.  I still have the cami on, but I’m wearing someone’s pajama pants instead of my skirt.  Sehun is still lying on top of the covers in what I assume to be an attempt to make this less awkward.

   It’s still awkward.

   I don’t know what’s worse.  The fact that I got drunk in front of Sehun, or the fact that I drunkenly forced myself onto him.  

   His sleeping self can sense I’m close to him and he pulls me against his chest.  Our noses and foreheads touch, and I’m finding it hard to breathe.  I’m finding it hard to function at all, really.  Here is the guy I’ve had a major crush on for the past few weeks, calmly sleeping in front of me and holding me against him.  I blink a couple times just to verify once more that I’m awake, then I pull my hands up to his chest.  He changed out of his pirate costume and put on pajamas, which are apparently flannel pants and a tank.  I lightly touch the skin on his chest with my fingers and begin to gently rub it.  Within a few minutes, his eyes gently flutter open and he hugs me. 

   “Good morning, wild thing,” he mumbles.  I don’t hug him back; I just let myself get crushed onto his body with his strong arms.  

   “I’m so sorry,” I whisper.  

   “Don’t be,” he soothingly hums.  “You were hurt last night.  It’s not unheard of to drink from time to time to ignore the pain.”

   “I never drink though,” I sigh.  “And I know I probably made you uncomfortable.”

   He laughs and puts his forehead back against mine. 

   “Definitely.  Do you know how hard it was to kiss you?”

   “I’m so--”

   “I had to keep reminding myself to not go too far; I’ll only do that when you’re you,” he laughs, and I smile.  

   “Thank you for taking care of me,” I whisper.  “But hey, who put these pants on me?”

   “I asked Hyerin to once you were asleep.”

   “Oh.  Thank you,” I sigh in relief.  “Sehun, I’m so sorry.”

   “Sweetheart, it’s okay,” he tells me.  Sweetheart, he says.  I’m his sweetheart.  I’m the prize at the end of the Sweetheart Search.  I’m what he’s been searching for.  Joy floods my heart and makes it come to a stop.  When it starts beating again, everything feels too fast.  “There’s only one thing you have to do to make me forgive you, and after what you went through last night, I think it’ll be a cake walk.”  

   “What is it?”  I ask.  I’m dumb.  He lets go of me and rolls onto his back. 

   “Tell me,” he beckons, and I know exactly what he’s talking about.  He wants me to confess to him.  

   “Right now?”  I ask, scared.  Okay, so, maybe I slept (and I literally mean slept, like, sleeping) with him last night, and maybe I’m acting calm and totally cool about this situation that we’re in, but that’s because I don’t want to ruin it.  On the inside, I look like rainbows and unicorns and numerous things that spin out of control.

   “Right now,” he says with a grin.  I let my back hit the mattress again and stare up at the ceiling. 

   “Sehun...”

   “Eunji...”

   “I really like you,” I say.  I finally say it.   Sober.  The words are out.  Now there’s no denying it.  He grabs my hand, but continues to stay where he is.  

   “I really like you.  A lot.  Do you want me?”

   “Want you?”

   “You kept telling me how much you wanted me last night,” he laughs.  I cover my face with my free hand.

   “I meant it in a dirty way...  I’m so sorry,” I explain.  He squeezes my hand tighter and looks at me.

   “Eunji, I’m pretty sure that when the girl of your dreams tells you they want you, you’re not offended by it.”  

   I smile and look back at him.  

   “I’m the girl of your dreams?”

   “Duh,” he chuckles and rolls on his side to get closer to me.  He kisses my temple and moves my hair off of my forehead.  “I’m going to make us breakfast.  Do you want to go on a date after that?  An official date, shared between the newly enlightened Sehun and Eunji?”  

   I nod my head and we both smile at each other.  I want to kiss his lips so badly, but I’m embarrassed after last night.  He can tell, too-- but I’m thankful.  The fact that we’re in his bed will forever be pretty awkward to me.  

   He shows me where the bathroom is so I can get cleaned up.  Then I put my skirt and sweater back on.  When I make my way to the kitchen, he has just finished making a batch of scrambled eggs.

   “I don’t think you’ll be hungover, because you didn’t drink much.  Just in case you are, I’m restricting you to water and bland foods for the morning.”

   “Like eggs?”  I ask.  

   “Like eggs,” he agrees.  He sits across from me at the table and keeps playing footsie with me.  He’s being so cute, it’s hard to eat his homemade eggs.  

   “Eunji, say ‘ahhh,’” he tells me.  

   “No way.”

   “Please,” he begs.  “Think of all the things I did for you last night.”

   “Fine,” I huff.  I open my mouth wide.  “Ahhh.”

   He sticks his forkful of eggs in my mouth and I chew them up and swallow.  He proceeds to make an incredibly girlish noise and I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.  

   “Once I put this fork in my mouth, we’ve indirectly kissed!”  He cheers.  I can’t help it; I blush and hide my face in my hands.  

   “We kissed so much last night, and you’re getting excited about that?”

   “Last night didn’t count,” he corrects me.  “You weren’t the typical Eunji who acts rough and tough and then sweet and soft.  You were...  An entirely different person,” he laughs.  “I’m still waiting for a real kiss from you.”

   “Those were real kisses,” I laugh.  “I remember the whole thing, and I remember how good it was.”  

   “I must admit, it was nice,” he says.  “But I want a romantic kissing session, not a hot-and-steamy one.”  He chews on a piece of toast and quickly swallows it.  “That doesn’t mean a hot-and-steamy session would ever be rejected,” he announces, and we both become a hideously beautiful shade of red.

   “I can’t believe you just said that,” I chuckle.  

   “I had to be clear.”  

   “Fair enough,” I comment.  I’m so lucky to have this guy.  “So does this mean we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now?”  I ask.  He looks at me with a grin and nods. 

   “If that‘s okay with you,” he says, and I smile.  “We can announce it on the next Sweetheart Search and just return the remaining spending money.  But on the show, I refuse to act lovey-dovey.  That would kill my image.”

   “Gotcha.” 

   “But when we’re alone--”

   “That’s enough,” I stop him.  I cross my fork with my knife and make an X in front of his face.  He purses his lips playfully and lowers my cross.  

   “Last night marked an important moment in our relationship, like it or not.  And yes, I am slightly hoping you might consume alcohol and do that again one day, but no pressure.”

   We both can’t help but laugh.  We’re so pathetic; we won’t accept last night as the first time we kissed, but we can’t ignore it, either.      

---

   We go to a museum that’s exclusively designed for kids and get lost in it.  There are giant dinosaur statues everywhere, and cave men are around the corner warding off giant beasts with their sticks of fire.  There’s a photo op with the T-Rex, and we both tuck our arms in and try to hug each other like we’re T-Rexes.  Because T-Rexes don’t have much for arms, though, we fail to hug each other.

   “We’re such dorks,” I laugh as I look at the pictures we took.  We’re waiting in line for their haunted maze, and I’m excited.  Sehun is scared.  “Don’t worry, this will be a piece of cake.”

   “What if it’s really scary?”

   “It’s made for little kids,” I tell him.  “You’ll be fine.”

   “Only if I hold your hand the whole time.”  

   I roll my eyes and smile. 

   “Deal.”  

---

   “You lied.  That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” he whines when we walk out.  We’re still holding hands, and I’m rubbing his arm.

   “But you’re alive, and you held on to me the entire time,” I remind him.  He smiles, lets go of my hand, and wraps his arm around me.

   “You’re right.  It was worth it,” he cheesily says.  “I’ve had a great day with you, Eunji.  I don’t want it to end.”

   “It’s only mid-afternoon; let’s go walk around downtown.”  

   “I was thinking the same thing,” he says and smiles.  I’ve never seen him smile so much.  I feel like an overachiever.  

   Downtown is pretty empty for the time of day.  We eat dinner at some small Italian place, and Sehun makes me get Spaghetti just so he can watch me eat noodles and laugh at me again.  When we come out, a big crowd has formed around the monument in the center of a traffic circle.

   “What’s going on?”  I ask him.  It looks like tons of couples are everywhere.  Sehun stands on his toes and looks over the heads of people.

   “Looks like a firework show.  It’s Halloween, and I guess they want young adults to find a safe way to have fun,” he suggests.  I nod in agreement and hear a loud bang.  We look up in the sky and a red and white firework explodes in the shape of a pumpkin. 

   “That’s so cool!”  I yell over the cheers coming from the crowd.

   “I know!  I’ve never seen a pumpkin shaped firework.”

   We continue watching and continue to be amazed.  A ghost comes out next, followed by a scarecrow, followed by a witch that sparkles.  I grab Sehun’s hand and hold it tight; I don’t want to lose him in this crowd of people, especially since people are shuffling past us to get closer to the monument.   

   “This is amazing,” I tell him, and he nods.  I don’t look back up at the fireworks, though.  I just keep looking at him.  He looks like a child watching those things explode.  His expression of enchantment doesn’t fade, and I feel my heart start to beat hard and start to swallow with difficulty.

   This boy is my boyfriend.  He’s a child, he’s a man, he can be arrogant, and he can be super sweet.  I pull him closer to me and give him a hug.

   “What’s wrong?  Do you want to leave?”  He asks.  I shake my head against his chest and look up at him.  

   “I’m just getting started,” I chirp.  He raises an eyebrow, but I don’t pay attention to it long.  Before I know it, I’m up on my toes kissing him, and he’s kissing me back; he’s not resisting like last night, and I feel on top of the world. I'll fix things with Eunsang. I'll fix things with Baekhyun. In this moment, the one thing I care about is Sehun.

   I’m kissing Sehun, and he’s kissing me, and that’s all that matters right now.