Lost

[L.Joe's POV] 

For the next couple days, Kristine and I seemed to be doing well in our relationship- as roommates. Of course I'd experience those heart-pounding moments I can't even begin to explain, but I didn't want to freak her out with the possibility of having a heart disease of some-sort after just making up. 

We helped each other out with the simplest things and would try to be as polite as possible, and that... was awkward.

We weren't being ourselves and it started to feel weird. So, I decided to just be myself and not so uptight.

I strolled my way into the living room, sitting on the couch beside Kristine, who automatically stiffened upon my arrival, throwing my arm nonchalantly behind her head on the sofa, looking to her with a slightly raised eyebrow, waiting for an action of some-sort to be taken.

Her eyes looked up at me in confusion, scooting away from me as if I was the black plague. I then hopped up and filled the little gap that she had created between us with my , frowning at her with my eyebrows furrowed together.

"What's your problem? Can I not sit next to you?" Kristine's eyes blinked in confusion, then pulled away in what seemed like shame. I let my eyes continue to study her as she looked at her hands that rested in her lap, her fingers fondling with the fabric of the oversized shirt she was wearing.  

"I'm sorry..." Kristine let out in a slight whimper a signal that tears were going to be coming soon. 

I freaked out.

I've never been one that's good at comforting, especially if that person is a girl. It seems the right words never left my mouth, and things that can make the person feel worse would slip out. And right now, with this girl, I knew it was going to be difficult to just hope she pulled herself together considering the possible 'feelings' I had developed for her. 

Her hand reached up to wipe a tear, making me bite my lip as a reaction to the sensitivity being exposed to me at that moment. I thought of all the comforting I did when I was younger, which weren't many occasions, and awkwardly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, the contact making her stiffen once again, but then I could feel her shoulders relax, slumping. She silently cried against the side of my chest, I then pulled her into a hug. 

Kristine hadn't yet properly released the sadness of her "loss" of Jin Ho from her life, even though she had been sad since the "break up," she hadn’t cried the tears that settled on her heart since the moment she witnessed the one man she loved with all of her being, enjoying a meal and kissing another woman. 

Her head nuzzled into my chest, making me subconscious about my actions as I hugged her closely to my chest. Her body curled up into me as she slowly began to cry herself to sleep. I sat on the couch silently with her sleeping figure rested on my thighs; my fingers gently filed through her hair to sooth her as she continued to sleep, her warm, even breath caressing the skin on my knee. 

Kristine's hair fell into her face loosely until I reached out and gently tucked it behind her ear, cupping her cheek with my palm, having her beautiful, smooth face look upward towards the ceiling. I let the tips of my fingers brush across her soft skin, smiling softly to myself as I saw her eyes flutter at the feeling of my fingers, and then rest closed, letting me trace over her lips just as softly.

The feeling of her velvet lips coming in contact with my thumb made me tingle, the urge to kiss her intoxicated my senses. A force enchanted me as I slowly leaned in, not noting my actions as harmful, and the sealed our lips together softly, my lips blanketing Kristine’s perfectly.

I could feel sparks sprinkle at my lips, giving a numb sensation as the kiss continued, but then pulled away slowly, finding her eyes still closed- asleep.

A smile tugged at the side of his lips, forming a crooked, gentle, smile to himself as he leaned back, resting his head against the couch’s cushions, closing his eyes slowly as he drifted off into a nap of his own.

[Two Hours Later]

Kristine’s eyes slowly opened, squinting at the sunlight that blinded her for a moment, covering her eyes with her arm before noticing she was laying on someone. She turned over, eyes traveling up L.Joe’s built frame before finally landing on his face, his shoulders slumped in sleep and eyes closed, making an angelic image of the man.

A blush crept onto Kristine’s cheeks at her thoughts, biting her lip before carefully removing herself from her laying position on the man’s thighs, and silently making her way down the hall, grabbing a folded maroon blanket and fixing it on L.Joe’s body and moving his body a bit to have him lay on the full length of the couch, his legs stretched out and feet dangling from the arm rest.

Kristine smiled at the sight before turning towards the kitchen, beginning to cook dinner. As she started preparing the main dish for the night, she heard L.Joe’s voice,

“Erm.. n-nugh…” Her eyes drifted to the man lying on the couch, her body following her gaze as her slipper-covered feet patted across the wooden floor, leaning over the sleeping man’s figure, her hair falling on either side of his face.

She blinked as her hair framed the man’s perfect face, showing no flaws on his smooth face. Her eyes scanned the evenly-tanned skin, then letting them wander down the exposed collarbone, the the zipper to his jacket undone to show his muscle shirt, the very name of the fabric showing true as the threading clung to the man’s body, outlining each muscle and the pattern of his breathing.

Kristine forced herself to snap out of the hypnosis the man was bringing her under unintentionally, and eavesdropped on the jumbled words that escaped L.Joe’s lips, trying to make sense of the non-sense that did come out.

“Ani.. no… that can’t happen..” He mumbled softly to himself, his eyes squeezed tightly shut, as if he was experiencing a nightmare, making Kristine’s eyebrows to furrow together in concentration.

“I love her…” He whispered sleepily, but clear enough for Kristine to understand, but before she could react, L.Joe’s forehead flew straight into Kristine’s, shooting up from the nightmare, but slapping a hand over his forehead and falling back to his laying position, wincing and groaning in pain. Kristine’s hand came in contact with her forehead, thinking the contact would stop that aching and headache that was forming itself behind her forehead.

L.Joe and Kristine moved their hands from their brows and looked at each other, both having an identical reddening spot in the middle of their foreheads.

“Yah! What are you doing?” L.Joe yelled, two fingers rubbing at the stinging that was settling behind his eye lids, waiting for an answer from the still quite girl.

“M-Mianhae! You were talking in your sleep.. and you were groaning, so I thought you were hurt,” She murmured half of the truth, biting her lip and looking down at her toes, wiggling the limbs slightly to distract her. L.Joe looked up slightly, glimpsing at the girl in the corner of his eyes as he sat up, shaking his head and walking towards the kitchen, mumbling,

“Gwenchana.”

Kristine swallowed slowly, following L.Joe to the kitchen as he looked around and nodded, “Why don’t we go out to eat instead? I think we’re both too exhausted to cook anything edible.” She nodded slightly, her eyes hovering over to the slightly taller man,

He’s in love…

She thought back to the incident that had just happened and recalled the words that left his lips. Whatever was in his dream, he was determined to keep the person safe from harm. Kristine found a sigh leaving her lips, thoughts and wishes that Jin Ho hadn’t found that girl, that he was devoted to her the way L.Joe seemed to be over the one he cared about, and that Jin Ho would somehow, someway, come back to her.

Stop thinking of that, he’ll just hurt you again…

L.Joe’s eyes locked on Kristin, intently biting her lip in thought, almost puncturing the skin. He gently grabbed her hand to snap her out of her thoughts, automatically stopping the pressure of her teeth on the skin of her lips, making her look up at him, blinking.

He offered a gentle smile before nodding, “Want to go grab some Ramyun?”

Kristine smile slightly and nodded slowly, “That actually sounds good.”

L.Joe smiled again, letting go of her hand and grabbing his shoes, tugging them on one foot at a time, Kristine following his lead and each pulling on a coat. Kristine’s brown, buttoned coat snuggly warmed her as L.Joe’s half-zipped black leather jacket hung from his shoulders, reminding her again that she wasn’t walking beside Jin Ho, but another man. Kristine’s eyes down-casted to the concrete below her feet as they made their way to a small restaurant down the street, her brown eyes in thought once again.

She had no way of heading back home, and would be stuck in Korea until she sorted things out with the government papers and airport. But, she had to think of things positively, or else things would seem much worse than they actually were.

L.Joe walked into the restaurant, holding the door open for Kristine, noticing she was in though again, making him roll his eyes and chuckle, making her look up at him curiously.

“Stop thinking so much, things will work themselves out in time. For now, just relax and enjoy a bowl of hot ramyun, my treat,” His tone was warm, yet stern, as he approached the ordering area, buying a pot of hot ramyun and the regular side dishes, such as kimchi and pickled radishes. L.Joe then chose the table right beside the window, giving a view of the ground-leveled night life.

Teens held each other’s hands, some girl’s being barely dressed, probably going out to a club, and young men walked past every now and then, crisp and clean with suits, loosening their ties after a long day at the office. They probably all had a family to go back to, whether that be their mother or their own kids and a wife, but Kristine, now, didn’t have anyone to return to.

Of course, there was L.Joe, but she barely knew the slightly older man, and now she was living with him. If her mother knew, she would skin her alive.

L.Joe continued to babble, mostly to himself as Kristine kept to herself, responding with an occasional “mhmm” and “yeah.” Kristine’s eyes focused on the outside life, wishing she was one of the young people out there, not worrying about anything and having fun, living a care-free life. L.Joe leaned onto his elbows, eyes scanning over Kristine’s distracted character, his eyes tracing each detail of her face, her worry lines showing, her eyes distant from him.

“Yah, I said not to worry about it,” L.Joe sighed, earning Kristine’s full attention for the first time that night. Her eyebrows furrowed together, frustration building up inside her from all the distress she had been under-going recently,

“That’s easy for you to say! How can I not worry? My life is in the States and I’m stuck here, I can never go back, all because of a mistake!” Her agitation was boiling to its limit, her blood heated up from annoyance, biting her lip as she fought the tears that would show themselves when she was angry. By this point, she was standing straight up from her seat, looking down at L.Joe who used his tongue to roll along the inside of his cheek, looking around at the other customers who were staring at them.

“Sit down,” He said harshly with a hushed voice, eyes slightly glaring at the girl.

“Don’t you tell me what to do,” She snapped back, grabbing her jacket and shrugging it on before turning and storming out of the restaurant, purse hanging loosely over her shoulder, blowing slightly in the wind from its light weight.

L.Joe went after her, after bowing politely to the others that were staring, apologizing for the rude behavior the girl had presented, then running after the girl, losing her in the crowd of young people, making him grow more frustrated at the matter, then giving up shortly after looking for her.

“You did it again, Byunghun,” He mumbled to himself, roaming around aimlessly around the center of Seoul, still trying to find the young woman.

[20 minutes later]

Kristine found the spare key to the apartment and opened the door, sighing slightly, knowing her behavior was immature, but she couldn’t help but snap at L.Joe. He was trying to look at things at the bright side, but she couldn’t, all she could focus on was what was going on in her life at that very moment. Even though it was selfish to think like that, she couldn’t help but think about everything she had lost all because she had checked off the wrong form of Visa.

She made her way into the apartment, throwing her purse aside along with her coat and ran a tired hand through her hair before heading to her bedroom, ready to just sleep away everything that had happened. Before going to sleep, she walked down the hallway to the restroom and took a soothing, warm shower, the steam helping the headache that had been settled behind her forehead since her and L.Joe had bumped heads, literally.

After taking a lengthy shower, Kristine stepped out with a towel around her, sighing as cool air nipped at the bare skin showing underneath the towel and then proceeded to dry herself to help keep her semi-warm.

She brushed her hair and pulled it back in a loose ponytail, slipping on a pair of boy shorts and a loose t-shirt, then cleaned her face to clean out her pores, then, finally, left the bathroom. As she walked down the hallway, she could hear ruffling sounds from the living room, blinking as she leaned against the wall in the hallway, knowing L.Joe would have made at least a sign of his presence, whether that be a knock on the bathroom door or his shoes would have been left in front of the entrance way beside her off-white snow boots.

Kristine’s eyes peaked around the corner to see a figure, dressed in all black, a ski mask over his face and stuffing anything of value into a black bag.

Kristine held in a scream, shaking in fear as she looked for her phone, remembering she had left it in her purse on the couch, along with her coat. She bit her lip, tip toeing to L.Joe’s room, crawling beneath the bed carefully after grabbing the wireless phone on the night stand. She quietly dialed the only number she knew: Jin Ho.

But when there was a pick up on the other end of the line, the door to L.Joe’s room opened, a black pair of Nike’s entering the room and crashing things from the dresser to the floor, causing Kristine to slap a hand over from screaming, tears rolling down her cheeks in fear, soft whimpers escaping and making it to the other end of the phone, earning a,

“Yeobosseo? Who is this?”

The words were loud enough for the intruder to hear, making his covered face look under the bed, eyes dark as night, making a scream fill Kristine’s lungs as his hand came at her to drag her out from under the bed.

“Kristine? Kristine? Is that you?”

Jin Ho’s voice came out frantically from the other end as the man in black dragged Kristine to the kitchen, kicking her legs and screaming, tears freely running down her cheeks as she clenched the phone in her hand, trying to escape the grasp around her ankle, hoping and praying someone would hear her and would run in for her rescue.