“What do you mean?” I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms as he continued to disappear and reappear in and out of his own doorframe.
“I don’t know,” he threw the last piece of clothing into the middle drawer and closed it, “I mean, I came back later but you weren’t there.”

Ok.
The way I answer this question could possibly determine how the rest of this year, plus maybe more, could go.
Don’t screw it up!

“Like how things in general would be? Or like your life? Or like…us?” I played with my hands while I basically word vomited up my answer. As I spilled out my frantic and definitely incoherent answer, I had no idea Mark had traveled over to my room until his touch pulled me out of my fumbling mess.

“There she is,” a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as his hand made its way to the top of my head again. “I remember you used to play with your hands a lot whenever you got nervous. I guess I’m just not used to the grown up you yet so-“
“You tried to test me? To see if I was still the same?”

Mark shoved both of his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged, focusing his gaze on the ground.
“I guess. I don’t know…it’s been like 14 years so I guess I wanted to see if things were still the same.”
I patted the side of his arm, causing him to look up. “Like you said, it’s been 14 years. Things are bound to change,” I looked up at him and smiled, watching his tense expression melt, “but I guess we didn’t. Well, as far as personality goes cause you definitely changed physically. Wait, you didn’t get…”
“What? Surgery? Why would you think that?”

I put my hands up in defense and backed away, “I was just wondering. Considering how…good looking….”

The more I backed away, the more Mark tried to get closer to me. He matched me stride for stride, if not more…seeing how his legs were longer than mine. I backed up until the back of my knees crashed into the edge of my bed, sending me toppling back on top of my comforter again. But this time, Mark followed.

He lay down next to me with half his legs dangling off the edge. I could tell he was looking at me but I was too busy trying to hide my face from his gaze. I expected him to yell at me or at least get mad, not follow me onto my bed. Or pull my hands away from my face like he was doing now.

“What are you…” I started to ask but was cut off when he guided my hands onto his face. I felt like I was touching silk. Or velvet. Or both.
“Think hard and try to remember,” he pulled me closer to him, gliding me over the sheets, “what did I used to look like as a kid?”
Even though he had released his hands from mine a while ago, my hands stayed on his face, touching and memorizing every feature with my touch, examining every little bit of his perfect face and totally not realizing how close I had gotten to his face.

“Do you remember now?” his scent filled my nose as I breathed it in and tried to memorize even that. All I could do was nod.
“So do you think I got surgery?”
I shook my head the best I could while half of it was sinking into my blankets. Dang…the puberty fairy must’ve worked some magic on him during his teen years. He probably had a line of girls waiting for him by every possible school gate.

“Uhhh _____________________,” Mark’s voice broke through the image of the uniform clad high school girls following him back home that was forming in my head.
“Oh sorry!” I quickly took my hands off his face and jumped off my bed. “I got a bit too close. My bad.”
“Oh not that. You’re phone is ringing.”

The screen on my cell phone was lit and the call ID read “Eric” in bold, black font across the top.
Oh snap.
Totally forgot about those dinner plans.

“Eric!” I scrambled into a light cardigan and grabbed my bag from its hook on the wall, “Tell everyone I’m so sorry that I’m gonna be late. My friend just moved in today. Yes the one I told you about. No I didn’t tell him, it kinda slipped my mind. Well my bad! I was…distracted. Ok I’ll ask. We’ll be there in 15? Taking the subway from my place to K-Town does not even take that long. Trust me, we’ll be there in like 15, 20 minutes max. Ok see you there! Bye.”

My eyes automatically found Mark, still sitting on my bed. He looked confused but slightly amused, like he was holding back a laugh.
“What?” I took my keys from off my desk and slipped them into my bag, without breaking eye contact with him. He cracked and smiled.
“Nothing,” he got up to leave but instinct took over and I grabbed onto his wrist. He froze then turned around to face me.
I dropped his wrist like it was fire.

“Ummmm…do you wanna grab dinner? I mean, if you’re not too jetlagged and all. I had dinner plans with some friends before classes start tomorrow and I thought…you know….maybe you could…meet them? You know…to make things easier on you tomorrow.”

A laugh escaped from his lips as he turned around and started walking towards his own room. I could faintly hear him say, “You are so cute when you get flustered.”

I stood there, not really able to do anything.
Partially cause I was really confused by what just happened. But I guess I should get used to it since he’s gonna be living here. Mark seemed like a very…interesting person anyways. I shook the feeling off and made my way to the door, scrambling to put my shoes on.

Note to self: attempting to put on strappy sandals while standing up with a phone in your hand is not a good idea.

I fumbled with the straps on the side of the shoe until I felt myself leaning over.
But by the time I noticed, it was too late to catch myself.
I shut my eyes and braced myself for the stabbing pain of the metal from the shoe rack against my side, but it never came.
Instead, I felt a pair of arms around my waist, supporting me up.

“You seriously need to stop bumping into things,” Mark’s voice came from above me. I opened my eyes and made contact with his gentle brown ones, looking down at me. I gaze followed his arm down to his hands, which were tightly secured around my waist.

He saved me.
Well…from a shoe rack, but still.
He saved me.

My stomach whirled as I picked myself out of his arms and straightened my shirt.
“So since you’re by the door, does this mean…?”
His hand reached around me and opened the front door. “You’re already late right? We should get going.”

Author's Note
Chapter title: Falling in Love-2NE1 [x]