“It’s 35, 925 won.” Says the cashier and you immediately handed her your payment. You watched as she put the things you bought in a paper bag. You bowed to her the moment she’s done and left. 
You looked up at the towering height of the Galleria Foret. You allowed yourself to marvel at the looming beauty of the building and your heart started to ache once again. The ache started from somewhere deep inside your chest and it traveled to every single part of your body making you weak. 
Seems like just yesterday when you looked up to it for the first time. You were nervous then as you are now, but the reasons were completely different. 
You took at deep breath and started walking towards the building. The closer you get, every step you take; the more you start to cower. You shook your head so hard you thought your brain moved inside your skull. You need that one.  
When you reached the 30th floor, you started breathing in and out to calm yourself. As soon as you stopped in front of Joonmyeon’s apartment, you heard Dona’s voice from last night.
‘Are you sure about this?’ 
You gulped. This is the right thing. You might have doubts about this even now but you know that when you look back to this night, you would without guilt. Because you’re not selfish. You pressed the doorbell and waited for Joonmyeon to open the door.
You tried different kinds of smile on your lips. Just to make sure that you’ll have the best one when he sees you but your lips twitched when the door opened and revealed Joonmyeon looking straight at your face. He’s caught you testing smiles on your face! You must have looked very awkward and ugly. So in panic, you automatically gave him a smile so wide that your jaw almost hurt. The boy looked at you, a mixture of amusement and confusion in his beautiful bare face. But before he spoke, you raised the paperbag on your hand. “I brought something!” 
But Joonmyeon’s eyes didn’t focus on the bag but instead on your hand and you watch him frown at you. “Why are you not wearing your splint?” 
“O-only for tonight, because I want to do something.” You said. 
He looked at you suspiciously and you feared for a moment that he could read into your soul and find out your real intentions tonight. 
“Don’t worry. I won’t put so much pressure on it.” You assured him but he still look worried. He finally noticed the bag you’re holding and took it from you, probably concerned that it’s not good for your hand to be carrying such things. Then he took your right hand and pulled you inside as he closes the door.
“What are these?” He peaked inside the bag and scrunched his nose. He probably smelled the shrimps you bought. You smiled at him.
“I will cook for you tonight.” You said and gulped when you saw him smile so genuinely with a mixture of happiness and surprise. 
“Gurae? Wae? What are you cooking? I mean, your hand-” 
You put a finger over his lips to silence him in his tirade or questions. “I’m cooking because it seems like you haven’t eaten a home-cooked meal, plus it’s a shame your beautiful state-of-the-art kitchen is rarely used. I’m cooking you what we call Ginataang Hipon, it’s shrimps cooked in coconut milk. Plus my hand is fine, because I have these...” You placed your hands on top of his while he’s holding the paper bag indicating that you’re going to need a hand later, or rather; his hand. 
Joonmyeon looked at you with his charming boyish smile that’s slowly creeping inside your sensitive heart and knocking on the door of the room where your guilt is currently locked in. “You’re weird tonight.” He said and you panicked. Shoot. You are? Darn it! What did you do? Wait, you’re cooking for him and you’re being a little touchy with him; which is not normal because it’s always the other way around. “I mean, good kind of weird.” He added. 
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You said, portraying your denial self; the one that Joonmyeon is more familiar with. You don’t want to be discovered, you can’t. You walked ahead of him and positioned yourself on his sofa. “Let’s have our last class first.”
You heard him groan and said something you can’t hear because he went directly to the kitchen and went back without the paper bag. “What did you say?” You asked him.
He was smiling at you when he sank on the sofa beside you. His arm automatically settled over your shoulder to pull you closer than you already are to the point where you almost kissed his neck. You took in his scent; that musky smell that’s uniquely Joonmyeon and that cool fragrance that reminds you of cool wind, and water. He doesn’t just look fresh all the time, he also really smell fresh. But before you could really do something about your distance; or lack thereof, you pulled away but he stopped you. “I was asking you if we could cuddle, since it’s our last lesson.” He suggested. 
You looked at him as you try to decide if you’ll give-in because it is in fact your last lesson together and also... 
Last night you made the decision to make the best out of this night. That’s why you even planned to cook for him. So it wouldn’t be so bad if you’d actually; for once, act without inhibitions. Right?
“Arasso!” You said and Joonmyeon’s face brightened up as he wraps his arms around you and you didn’t put up a fight. Instead you pulled out something from your bag. It’s the self-help book you told him about titled: Happiness in a Nutshell. The last time you talked about this book, you shared a lot of things you learned from it and he was very interested so you decided then to find one for him and you spent your morning today looking for it. 
“Whoa! I remember this book.” He said. His eyes sparkled when you handed him the book and he immediately opened it as if he couldn’t wait to read it. 
“Ne. That’s for you.”
“O chincha? Gomawa!” His puppy eyes are sparkling and he looked so cute that you couldn’t help the smile on your face. Then your heart started to ache for the nth time today, so you shrugged and started the discussion about the book. It’s a really good read. It’s a pocketbook that also have illustrations and original cartoons that is most of the time funny, satirical and thought provoking. It’s the kind of book that should be read over and over again. It’s a simple and effective reminder that we can be happy, if we want to be. It can be finished in more or less 20 minutes. Of course the one you gave him is the English version. 
‘Because we are always attracting the learning experiences we need, we often attract what we fear.’
When you heard Joonmyeon read that part, you shut up. True. Fear is the twin of doubt. You were never a hundred percent sure about being with Joonmyeon despite how strongly you feel about him. It’s because even if you like him so bad that you’d go crazy, these feelings came at the wrong time. This is probably why this had to happen. 
‘It’s life’s way of encouraging us to grow. The only way to beat fear is to face it.’
That was a really good line. Making a decision is one way of facing fear. And here you are, facing one of your biggest fears. You’d like to think that you are being brave. 
After the discussion, you decided on finishing your reports tonight so by tomorrow morning; you can submit it to the office and then the company can issue a certificate of completion to Joonmyeon, Jongin and Tao indicating their current level and improvements. Suddenly you felt arms wrapped around your middle once again and you gasped when you felt that moist, soft and warm thing pressing on your nape. Of course the boy had all the freedom to do that because you had your hair up tonight; well most of the time actually because you don’t like strands going on your face especially when you’re having a lesson and/or playing the violin. 
You heard him inhale you and you felt him bury his face on the crook of your neck. “I think of you when I see and smell strawberry.” He whispered and peppered kisses on your neck that made you bite your lower lip to stifle a moan. 
He’s talking about your shampoo. He told you before that he likes it. Somewhere along the words addicting and relaxing. 
“I’m hungry. We should start cooking now.” You said and blushed when you realized your voice was too weak and you sounded breathless. The effect of what he’s doing to you is clearly too much for you to handle. 
“Mmmm...” He just groaned and you can’t tell if it’s in protest or agreement but you felt him drop a loud kiss on the side of your neck before he pulled away so he can stand and offered you his hand to help you up too. 
You still couldn’t look at him in the eyes but you took his hand and allowed him to wrap an arm around your waist so possessively the moment you were on your feet and the two of you headed to the kitchen. 
When the two of you got to the kitchen, you both became very busy. He’s busy chop