The hot cup of coffee refreshed Sunjung’s mind after the very first sip. She sat on a stool and stared straight ahead while she stole glances at her phone that sat a few feet away on the island.
She didn’t usually drink the bitter liquid, she actually hated it but she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep the previous night. She needed it to freshen up.

Sunjung stole another glance at her phone which was as silent as ever. A part of her knew she was waiting in vain but a bigger part, the weaker one, was intent on believing that he would respond.  She had finally had the courage to send a four word text message but she was now beginning to think it had done nothing to fix what time had broken.

She stood up with a sigh with the mug of coffee still in her hands, she looked at her phone for a few silent moments then picked it up.
Maybe she hadn’t heard her phone buzz…maybe he had replied.
Those were her thoughts when she unlocked her phone but there was nothing. Sunjung contemplated sending another text but something stopped her, maybe it was her cowardice…maybe it was her pride.

Sunjung took another sip from the mug and grimaced. She couldn’t take more than one sip of black coffee. Never.
She blamed her aversion to coffee to her four-year-old self who had found a cup of coffee in her grandmother’s room and thought it was a magic drink that adults drank. She had thought she was old enough, definitely older than her one year old brother who couldn’t even walk and so she had taken a big gulp. When her tongue registered the flavour, it was too late. She had swallowed the liquid with tears in her eyes and had never told anyone. That day she had realised not everything that looked tempting was good for you.

Sunjung let out a small laugh at the memory. Being a child was just so...nice.
She quickly dumped the coffee into the kitchen sink.

“That is such a waste.”

Sunjung looked up at the sound of Lu Han’s voice and wondered when he would stop walking into rooms like that and startling her. She grimaced.
“I don’t like it.”

“People usually don’t try to drink things they don’t like.”

Sunjung just shrugged and again wondered when she had given him the permission to speak to her that way.

“Good morning,” Lu Han ran his hand through his brown hair and shook his head as if to shake the sleepiness away.

“Good morning to you too,” Sunjung said with a soft smile that came almost automatically.

“Hey,” Lu Han walked over to the coffee pot which still had coffee and poured him some of it.
Sunjung looked up at him, with one eyebrow raised in question.
“Do you know we’re almost out of grocery?”

“I do.”

“I’ll go set some later then,” he offered, leaning on the counter casually.

“Alright.”

Lu Han resisted the urge to sigh. He hated when she responded with one word only. It irritated him to no end when she tried to do away with conversations. He didn’t know why.
He was friendly and open; it was a part of his personality. He was quick to make friends while Sunjung seemed to close up most of the time.
Lu Han had always been the friendly guy who everyone liked. Sunjung couldn’t be an exception, could she?
He had worked to build a friendship with her because he couldn’t take negativity. Even if it was just for three months, he couldn’t spend it drowning in tension and negativity.

It was when he took another sip of coffee and looked at Sunjung again when he realised that they would be living there for just three months. He remembered what he had told Joonmyun.
It’s just three months.

And now that he didn’t hate Sunjung, he wondered if that time could be extended. He wondered if she would mind living with him for a longer period. Lu Han couldn’t quite forget the way she had looked at him when they first met, like he was scum. She had obviously hated the idea of living with him. He wondered if that had changed.
She had stopped looking at him like he was furniture and he had forgiven her for being a... in their first days together.

“You should write me a list or something.”

“I’ll come along,” Sunjung offered.

Lu Han couldn’t help but throw her a smile.
It