I’d always hated waking up so early. The feeling of drowsiness, the heavy eyes. Nothing could be worse than leaving my warm safe bed of a morning. I especially hated it when the lights were still dim and the sun hadn’t risen. I slowly reached over to my curtain to reveal the dew that dripped down my window. I sat up slightly so I could see the frosty grass that was once so green. Though it was still dark outside, I was able to guess the weather conditions. As soon as I made a prediction of the weather I flopped back down into bed.  Just what I thought... absolutely freezing. I snuggled further into the doona to try to insulate my body. I shut my heavy eyes although I knew there was no possible way that I was going to fall back asleep. Why’d I wake up so early anyway? I have nothing important to do. I heavily sighed as I fixed myself into a more comfortable position. My bed squeaked loudly as I moved, disturbing the peace. I felt an urge; it was as if I was forgetting something. I quickly grabbed my phone to have a look at the time when I saw a notification that grabbed my attention. “Can’t wait for today, sorry for making it so early. I know how lazy you are but promise me you won’t sleep in. Now get up, I’ll be at your house in about 40 minutes” Read the text. It was from my best friend, Gohn. I looked at the time, 5:30, then at the time of the message, 5:00. “Ugh, that means…” I mumbled as I tried to calculate the time he would be here. I wasn’t a dumb person but when my mind was still asleep, I was slow to catch on. “5:40! Ah, Gohn! Why does he do this to me?” I shouted as I swiftly moved off my bed. Seeing as I had only 10 minutes to get ready I quickly threw on some track pants and a warm hoodie. I looked in the mirror to see I hadn’t rubbed off my makeup the night before. I had mascara smeared around my eyes making it look like I hadn’t slept for something close to eternity. I panicked as I quickly grabbed my makeup wipes and scrubbed until my face was completely fresh. I rushed my simple makeup routine until it was 5:40. I looked at the time and stomped down to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. Just as I was about to open the fridge I heard a knock at the front door. I reluctantly went to the door, knowing that it would be Gohn. I swung the door open and saw a freezing Gohn standing there. “Ah, Gohn! Quick, get in! You’re letting the cold in.” I chuckled at my last remark.

“Wow, it’s great to see that you care for me so much.” He shuttered as he spoke. I just smirked at him and automatically went to make him a coffee. “We’re not going to have time for coffee, we have to go now.” He awkwardly said as he rushed over to stop me.

“Alright, alright! Sheesh, just let me get some breakfast at least.”

“What time did you wake up? I’ll get you something on the way.” He said reassuringly.

“Well, I was awake for a while… But I didn’t get up until 5:30.” I said cautiously.

“Lee Jihyun! Aish, what am I going to do with you?” He said with an evil smirk. I looked at him confusingly until he came running at me. I quickly covered my face with my arms until he came and wrapped me into a tight bear hug. He laughed loudly until I whimpered as he grabbed me tightly. He loosened his grip and looked into my eyes trying to see if he had hurt me. Our faces were so close to one another. I stared at him for a while and then teasingly slapped him on the face.

“Haha! You fell for it pabo!” I said as I retreated. I began to run, leaving him stunned as he lightly rubbed his face where the impact took place. He shook his head as he saw me run away and quickly went after me. We ran into the lounge room. He came up to me and picked me up and threw me carefully onto the couch.

“Don’t call me pabo! You’re the pabo.”  He playfully shouted. He pinned me down and began to tickle me all over while yelling, “Pabo, Pabo!” I laughed hysterically as I tried to escape from his grasp. He continued tickling me until I awkwardly snorted due to the uncontrollable laughter escaping my lips. “Aw, that was so cute.” He mumbled as he was still pinning me down.

“What did you say?” I asked, not sure if what I heard was right. A compliment from Gohn wasn’t something I ever expected, especially seeing as he was insulting me all the time.

“Uh, you’re snort. You sounded like a pig… You pig!” He awkwardly yelled trying to break the awkward atmosphere. We both started laughing loudly as he climbed off of me and sat beside me. “But seriously, we have to go. We’ll stop off at a noodle house and get some take-away, okay?” He spoke in a serious tone.

“Aigoo, let’s be quick! I’m staaaarrving!” I childishly wined. He just smiled at me and quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.

We arrived at the car and were on the road to the mysterious place Gohn had planned. We made a quick stop off at a noodle house for my stomach’s sake. We ate our noodles in the car.

“Thank you so much for the noodles Gohn.” I said as I slurped a mouthful of noodles. Although I insisted that I would pay, Gohn stubbornly paid for me.

“You’re very welcome. Now hit me.” I didn’t understand what he meant until I turned to see him with his mouth wide open. I grabbed a small amount of noodles and fed them to him as he drove. He slurped the noodles messily.

I sighed heavily as I looked at the mess he left around his mouth. “Now who’s the pabo?” I said as I gently caressed his face so I could clean his mouth. When I touched him he instantly turned an obvious red. I quickly wiped his mouth and stared at him. Is he embarrassed? He’s been acting so awkwardly today. Usually Gohn just shruggs things like this off and continues what he had been doing but today he seemed to be really stiff. “Gohn? Are you okay? You’ve been so nervous today.” I questioned him while looking at his flustered face.

“Am I okay? Of course.” He kept his eyes on the road as he spoke with little emotions. I looked around at my surroundings to realise that we were far out from the city and the landscape was unfamiliar to me. I knew that asking where we were was completely pointless seeing as Gohn would never tell me. I had already asked all the questions like, 'Why do we have to get up so early?' and 'where are we going?' previously when he invited me out. The answers were always the same, ‘You’ll have to wait and see’. I rested my head on the seatbelt and decided to get some sleep seeing as I was woken up so early.