Sunday. I took a deep breath as I opened my eyes. It was still pretty dark outside and I frowned, reaching out for my phone and switching it on, just to let out a groan, because the light was too bright. 6am. God, when was the last time I woke up this early, I thought, closing my eyes again to keep sleeping, but my brain wouldn't shut up and I lay there for about an hour without moving. It was Sunday and I was really nervous, because I would see Yongguk today. “Why am I even nervous?”, I whispered into the room after thinking about what to do. Bowing? Smiling and shaking his hand? I didn't know I wouldn't be capable of doing any of these options at that time.

I heard someone crash around in the kitchen and was wide awake all of a sudden, just to relax almost on the spot. Hye-sun was never this noisy and I concluded that it was Zelo. No need to be afraid of thieves. I turned around and closed my eyes one last time, wanting to sleep even though I knew I couldn't. After another minute, there were silent steps on the stairs and I frowned, looking through my eyelashes when the door to my room opened and Zelo came in.

He didn't see that I was awake at first and came closer, hunkering down in front of my bed to look at me with a concentrated gaze as if he was searching for something. I took a deep breath, pretending to sleep, and smelled jelly. Maybe his spoon had fallen down and caused the noise... Zelo's concentrated expression made him look more mature and I swallowed to stop myself from staring at him before it became too obvious that I was awake. He then sighed and reached out with his hand, shaking my shoulder. “Girl?” I opened my eyes as slow as possible, underlining it all with a perfect yawn – maybe I should actually have tried to become an actress. “Are you awake?”, his voice asked softly. Softly!? But okay, why not?

I nodded slowly and groaned while sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Zelo remained in his position, his eyes still staring at me observantly.

“We should get going soon.”

I reached out for my phone and saw that it was 7.10am by now. “This early?”, I complained, but got up anyway to look for something comfortable to wear.

“You never asked where I was living”, Zelo replied with a shrug and I turned around, raising an eyebrow to signalize him to keep speaking. He seemed to see the fear in my eyes and chuckled. “Don't worry, it's not that far away. I live in the suburbs. It takes some time to get there, because it's pretty secluded. I want to arrive there by 9 o'clock and we should leave this house in about twenty minutes. Is that enough time for you?”

I hadn't noticed how much I had missed the sound of his voice the day before. I nodded and took a cute dress out of my cupboard, just to be confronted with an unsatisfied groan.

“Wear something casual. A hoodie or something like that. You'll draw all the attention if you dress up nicely.” And then, Zelo left my room, tramping on the wooden staircase. I stared after him for some time before putting the dress aside and looking for the sweater Himchan had given me before he had left for Japan. Ah, there it was! A simple, blue hoodie with darker stripes that was a little bit too big for me. I felt as if I was wearing sleepwear, but it was comfy, so I didn't care, put on a pair of jeans and walked downstairs after putting on some make-up.

Zelo was leaning against the countertop in the kitchen, reading something on his phone. When I entered the kitchen, he raised his head. “Hungry?” I looked at my stomach and I was sure I could have eaten a horse if this was a normal day. But today, there was a knot of nervousness at the exact same place, making it impossible to eat. I shook my head and Zelo frowned. “You're not talking to me anymore?”

It was my turn to frown and I noticed that I really hadn't actually spoken to him. “Just tired”, I explained as an excuse, leaning against the countertop beside him. “Soo, should I call Jongmin?”, I suggested, but Zelo shook his head.

“He hates me already. If he sees my place, he'll throw me out, I swear”, he grumbled and put on his shoes in the corridor with me following him. “We're going by bus.” Woohoo, bus trip!

Thus, we walked to the bus stop after I had written Hye-sun that I was off with Zelo and got on the bus, while I tried to start a conversation. Tried. And failed. He didn't even respond when I talked about the damn weather! He sure was mad at me... For what reason, I can't tell.

“How long are we going to ride?”, I asked as we sat down in the bus and the stick-figure leaned back.

“For about an hour”, he stated and stretched his back before leaning against the window. An hour?! How do you ride a bus for one hour?!

“Uhm...what am I going to do now?”, I asked helplessly and Zelo snorted while closing his eyes.

“Whatever you want. It's just a bus ride, don't make a fuss and listen to music or whatever”, he groaned as he found a comfortable position and I took out my phone. Thank god I never leave without my headphones! I put one in before glancing at Zelo. Wouldn't he get bored too if he didn't have anything to do? I hesitated for another second. Was he sleeping? I then carefully positioned the plug in his ear – more like on top of his ear – and he just slightly opened his right eye, looking at me. “What are you doing?”

My hand flinched, but the earplug remained in its position. “Uhm...I just thought you'd like to listen to something too”, I whispered so that I wouldn't disturb the other passengers – which weren't many, since it was a Sunday at 7.40am. One grandpa to be exact.

Zelo just snorted once more before closing his eyes again. But he didn't remove the earphone and I took that as a sign of acceptance. One girl group song after the other was playing and I had closed my eyes too when I heard his voice. “You really like all that stuff?” He seemed as if he couldn't really believe it and I frowned with a nod.

“Should I play something else? I could-”

“No, no it's okay, but... I didn't think you'd be into that girly stuff. And where are the boy groups? Don't you girls always have some idol that makes you drool?”

“Eww, that sounds gross”, I stated while screwing up my face. “And I do like boy groups too. I just don't drool because of them. God, what kind of imagination do you have? I listen to music like any other person would!” I frowned once more. “But are some girls like that?!”

Zelo shrugged and leaned back. “Well, that's what I heard. It's creepy isn't it?” I nodded, replying with a creeped out: “You bet it is” and he opened his eyes completely when a new song came up. “Wait, that's Kanye West, right?” I nodded again and he listened attentively. “I love his songs!”

I sat up in surprise. “You do? Me too!”

“Wow, you listen to international music? Not only girl groups and boy groups?” He raised an eyebrow. “That's kind of cool.”

“Of course”, I snorted in return and added a silent: “I'm always cool.” He laughed at me, but hey: He reacted, so why not? Talking about our taste of music, time flew by quickly and Zelo kind of smashed the “stop”-button when he noticed that we had almost driven past the stop we needed to get off at.

So that's how you ride the bus for one hour.

However, I had difficulties when it came to catching up with Zelo. His pace was too fast for me and I had to run after him, trying to look at the scenery without falling at the same time. There was nobody around, everything was quiet and the houses were a little rundown....okay they were very rundown and I don't know why, but the atmosphere sent chills up and down my spine. Not even the park to my right could change that, because nobody seemed to take care of it and it looked like a jungle. No wonder I shouldn't dress up nicely. This place wasn't nice either. I noticed that Zelo glanced at me from the corners of his eyes and I clung to the thought that he was with me in case something happened – at least I hoped so. “So, where do you live?”, I asked to break the silence, but couldn't suppress the slight trembling of my voice.

“It's the one right there”, he replied and pointed at a tall house with maybe five stories, which made it bigger than my own house. It was cluttered with tiny cracks and it reminded me of Zelo's scarry arms, but I tried to push that memory away again. This place was so creepy, I didn't know what to do but mistrust everything and everyone I saw – not that anyone was here beside us. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, but I could see a slight flicker in his eyes when he turned to ring the doorbell, but then decided to open the door with his keys. “And you feel safe here?”, I wondered, letting my gaze wander over the abandoned street again before glancing at the doorbell panel. There were like ten buttons and I assumed that they all represented the people living in this house. Did I say it was big? Well, I have to correct myself: all the apartments couldn't be much bigger than our living room at home, considering the many people that were living here.

“What would you do if I said yes?”, I heard his voice whisper as he took out his keys to unlock the door.

It swung open, hitting the wall with an ear-splitting bang and I shrugged before following him into the big house. “I'd wonder.”

Zelo remained in his position and turned his head towards me with a frown. “Wonder? Why?”

I smiled at him, happy and sad at the same time. “I don't know... Because you don't look like you actually feel that way.”

He cleared his throat, stomping up the stairs and I had to run again to keep up with him. “Alright, I don't feel safe in this area”, he stated, loud enough to drown out the creaking, wooden staircase. “But the apartment makes me feel safe. As long as I'm here, I feel as if nothing could hurt me.” He seemed to think about his own words that probably came out without him thinking about them twice. “Well, almost nothing.”

I decided to just leave it like that instead of asking him what could harm him here, because he wouldn't tell me anyway and was panting by the time we reached the third floor, where Zelo knocked at a door that seemed to be at least as old as my grandma. Or older. It took some time and I had just opened my mouth to say something, when I heard scuffling steps and someone who started busying himself with the locked door. “It gets jammed sometimes, but at least we can be sure nobody gets in here silently”, Zelo explained and my eyes widened.

“You mean it isn't locked?” He just shrugged, shaking his head as if it was something normal. “Why don't you lock the door?!” I'm sure the fright in my voice could be heard by now, but I knew I couldn't have controlled it even if I wanted to.

“A lock wouldn't stop them anyway”, the other one explained in disinterest, when the door opened with a loud creak, but I couldn't stop staring at Zelo in disbelief. How did he manage to live under these conditions? I didn't get it. Maybe we were just too far apart from each other to understand the other one... Someone cleared his throat and I blinked a few times before getting that I should move.

My head turned towards the person that had opened the door and I frowned, still not capable of doing anything but stare. The man standing in front of me was, of course, not as tall as Zelo, but I guessed that he was about as tall as Himchan. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of tatty, dark-blue jeans, which created a rather dark image, considering that he was quite tanned and had dark hair too.

But something was odd: He seemed familiar. Not like a friend, but I felt like I had met him somewhere already. “I'm home Yongguk-hyung.” Zelo's voice echoed through the stairwell and the man immediately reached out for the stick-figure to hug him tightly. Man that was a bromance. My mind became a little bit clearer and I shook my head in order make my brain work again. Right. Yongguk said that I seemed familiar when he saw the picture of me, Zelo and the kids too... Zelo lightly punched my arm after freeing himself from the tight embrace and I glared at him with a pout. “This is the girl I told you about.”

That's it. The girl. Thanks, stick-figure. On the other hand, I couldn't act as if I knew Yongguk, not that I actually did, but he probably remembered my name from our messages. “M-My name is...is Kim Soora, Yong- uhm, Mr. Y-Yongguk?”, I stuttered, unable to avert my gaze from his dark eyes. He was nothing like Zelo, he looked like a soldier that had fought many wars and yet was never honored. Kind of an abandoned man that would never give up fighting, no matter what. But the most important thing I could see, was honesty.

The corners of the man's mouth raised and he smiled at me warmly, showing me his gigantic gums. Wait, those gums... “Bang Yongguk, but call me Yongguk”, his deep voice answered as we shook hands and my frown disappeared in sudden realization.

“I have met you before!”, I exclaimed with wide eyes, pointing at Yongguk and he glanced at Zelo, signalizing him to bring me into the apartment before I could wake up the whole neighborhood. Just when the door was closed – more like slammed shut – I glanced around the room, trying to grasp everything at once. “I...know...you...?” My words were barely audible when I looked at my surroundings, turning back at Zelo. “You live here?”

But Zelo could only frown, pointing at Yongguk. “Why do you know him?”

The older man sighed, but I could see in his eyes that he had recognized me too. “I guess you want to talk, huh? Soora, uhm...Z-Zelo...” he hesitated for a second before calling the stick-figure and I assumed that he had wanted to use his actual name. Damn it, why did everybody but me know his name?! “Let's sit down for now, okay?”

I glanced around the room. Where would all the three of us be able to sit down comfortably in this mess?!

Weeeeeek-eeeeend~~

I'll try to write and update soon, sorry for not updating faster ^^"