Claire blinked her eyes open and squinted at the sunlight filtering in through the windows. She had a refreshing, dreamless sleep, and didn't want to leave the bed. She stretched her arms and legs before sitting up straight. Only then, did she realize that she wasn't in her own room.

"Oh my god, I just slept through the whole night..." she murmured, and found Kai sleeping soundly on the bean bag. She sighed, "Ah, he should have woken me up if he was going to go to bed too..."

Her phone beeped, and when Claire checked it, a large "10:42" stared right back at her. It was a good thing she didn't have classes that day, otherwise she would have slept through all of them. She stretched once again and decided to pack up her things to leave. 

As she was a writing a note to Kai, his alarm beeped, and he slowly woke up from his slumber. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and found Claire staring right back at him. He smiled sleepily at her. "Morning."

"Morning!" she replied.

A short silence ensued between the two of them. Claire couldn't stand how awkward they were, so she started the conversation this time. "Jongin, you should have woken me up if you were going to sleep..." she began.

He shook his head, "It's okay, you looked really tired, I didn't want to wake you up."

"Still though... your back is going to be sore," she murmured.

"It's okay," Kai smiled, "I like this bean bag, I don't mind sleeping on it."

"You're sure?" she questioned.

"Aha."

"Alright then. Well..." she paused, "thanks for letting me sleep here tonight. I rested really well," Claire smiled.

"I'm glad," he grinned before standing up fully and stretching. Claire could see a small glimpse of his chiseled abs, and blushed at the sight. Luckily, he didn't notice. "Do you have class today?"

"No. How about you?"

"Me neither."

"Ah," Claire continued, "do you have plans though?"

"Just gonna study, not much else," Kai replied.

"Okay, well... I'll probably go home first then..." Claire hesitated.

He nodded, "Go ahead."

Claire then packed up her belongings, and as she was going to leave, Kai followed her out. "Claire, I'll send you out."

"Oh, thanks," she spoke, surprised by his chivalry. "You didn't have to do this, you know..."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me sleep here."

Kai chuckled, "You looked so tired yesterday."

Claire nodded, "I guess. Well, thanks again! I'll see you around?" she asked when they reached the front door of the house.

"Yeah," he smiled. 

"Okay," she waved, "I'll be back at the student center again if you want to join me?"

Kai raised one of his eyebrows, "Do you want me to join you?" 

"Up to you!" Claire grinned.

He chuckled, "Alright, I'll see you soon."

"See you!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later in the afternoon, Kai found Claire in one of the upstairs meeting rooms of the Lee Center. He knocked, and entered when he heard her voice. "Hey, Claire."

"Hey, come sit!" she waved him over, and started to move some of her books. "Sorry, my stuff is literally everywhere. Feel free to push them away if you need room."

"It's alright," he laughed, "I only need enough space for a laptop."

"Okay. Do you mind if I have music playing too?" she asked hesitantly.

"Nope!"

"Well... tell me if you don't like a song and I can change it," Claire continued.

"Okay."

The fell into another period of silence as they worked into the night. They were silent into and after dinner as well, however, and Claire was so sick of the silence that she decided to speak. "Jongin?"

"Yeah?" he replied, his eyes not leaving the laptop.

"How come you suddenly like to hang out with me? I mean, you have your whole group of friends..." she asked.

Kai shrugged, "You're cool."

"Ah."

"Aha."

She sighed, "Okay then..."

Claire turned her focus back to her thesis, for she ran out of things to say at the moment. Kai turned to look at her, and he felt simple bliss. Her hair was neatly braided into a French braid, and she wore and red, white, and blue plaid shirt. Her golden heart necklace shone from her neckline, and her crystal earrings glistened under the lamp light. Her foot tapped in beat with the music coming from her laptop, and she bit her lip as she tried to fix an area of her thesis chapter.

She felt eyes on her, and turned to face Kai's relaxed eyes. His dark brown eyes bore into hers, his lips turned in a soft smile. His tan skin glowed healthily, and the outline  of his arms muscles were visible through his light blue t-shirt. His thick, black hair were reminiscent of a morning bed-head, but somehow he still looked like he came out of modeling page. Claire, shy from the attention, turned her eyes back to the laptop. "What're you looking at?"

Kai grinned, "You're so focused."

"And that warrants you looking at me?" she shot him a teasing look.

"I just admire your ability to focus, that's all," he smiled.

"Oh, stop it... Go back to work," she stuck her tongue at him and turned her eyes back to her laptop.

"Alright, alright, will do," he teased back before opening another window of his coding program.

Claire could feel her face turn red from the attention. "What's up with this kid?" she thought. Once, again, her mind was blank, and she even had a hard time concentrating on what she had to write again. "Stop it, get back to work." Claire took one more deep breath before typing away rapidly again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was once again past midnight. Kai and Claire decided to leave the Lee Center and head home. However, Kai didn't part at the fork in the road. 

Claire looked at him, "Aren't you going home?"

Kai shook his head, "I'll walk you home today."

She in a breath and started to shake her head, "You don't have to! I can get home perfectly fi-"

"It's okay," he stopped her and grinned, "I want to."

"Oh... really?" Claire paused.

"Of course," Kai nodded and placed his hand behind her back in order to guide her up the steep hill. 

Claire thanked the heavens that it was dark outside. She felt her face turn beet red. His hands were incredibly warm, and her back felt comforted as his touch lingered. They fell into a comfortable silence as they both walked up the hill, his hand on his back, her eyes trained onto the ground.

Once they arrived at her dormitory, Claire turned to him. She didn't quite want him to leave, and he didn't seem like he wanted to either. So, she decided to do something she never did before. "Uh, thanks Jongin, for ... you know... walking me home?"

"Haha, no worries," Kai laughed. He thought she was so cute when she was like this. 

"Uh..." Claire started.

"Yeah?"

"Do you want a clementine?"

"Uh..." Kai started while not quite knowing what to say.

"Well," Claire continued, "I have plenty in the common room, and since you walked me all the way home, you can warm up and eat clementines before heading out again..."

Kai smiled at her kindness, "Okay then."

The two headed up to her second floor suite, and upon seeing the large box of clementines, he laughed, "You have quite a lot here."

"Hey, don't tease me!" she stuck her tongue out playfully, "I like them."

Kai laughed again and sat down on a nearby couch. He watched as she said 'be right back' and entered her room to put her things away and change into sweatpants. When she walked out again, she took a clementine from the box and sat herself next to him. Claire looked at him, and noticed that he didn't take one. "Do you not like clementines?" she asked while peeling.

He shook his head, "I was waiting for you."

"Aww, thanks for waiting!"

"Aha," he responded as he took a clementine and started peeling. During this time, the two chatted continuously. Claire learned that Kai initially had a hard time adjusting to American culture, especially since he came from South Korea right after high school. But now, his English has nearly no accent, and he seemed more American than some of the other Asian students who were at the college. Kai also learned that Claire is an ultimate food lover, from eating fruits every day to experimenting with new dishes when given the chance. Claire talked about her older brother and learned that Kai has two older sisters. Kai also realized that Claire had a high alcohol tolerance, but she simply didn't like to drink alcohol all that much anymore (he laughed at Claire's nickname "The Ramen Tank," for it seemed that back in freshman year she could inhale large amounts of ramen and alcohol and not act like a fool afterwards).

She also noticed that he started to lean closer to her, for their thighs touched for most of the time they chatted. When he wasn't peeling clementines, his hand lay near her knee. They spoke quietly, and both Claire and Kai's faces emitted happiness from the time they spent together.

The two shared so many quiet laughs and stories that they didn't know how quickly time flew. Claire took a look at her phone, only to realize that they have been up for way too long. "Jongin, it's past 5 am."

"Really? Wow," he spoke.

"Yeah, I was a little surprised too," she nodded. Kai fell silent. Claire looked at him sadly. "I guess you have to leave then?"

"Aww..." Kai started, "This was fun."

Claire nodded, "Yeah it was, but you don't want to have a messed up sleep schedule, do you?"

"I guess not," he mumbled.

"Hey," Claire patted his knee, smiling at him, "we have plenty of time to hang out. I'll see you around though, yeah? In the meantime, you should get some sleep?"

He nodded, lips pursed, "Yeah... I'll head back then."

"Okay." Kai picked up his bag, and they slowly reached the door of the common room.

He turned back to Claire, before opening his arms, "I had fun tonight."

Claire entered his embrace, "I did too."

The two stayed like that for a while, not wanting to let each other go. Claire, however pulled away first, "I'll see you soon? Go catch some sleep?"

Kai nodded, "Yeah. I'll text you?"

"Okay," she smiled.

"See you!" Kai waved happily at her, and then made his way back home.

Claire made her way to the window and watched his outline disappear into the night. It was the first time in a while that she felt this happy, and she couldn't wait for the next time she could see him.

Hey everyone! Thank you so much to all of you who subscribed! I realize that I'm updating rather quickly compared to when I wrote stories in the past, but I guess it's because of how I excited I am for this story. I'm being rather exploratory with how this fanfic is written, as you might know, but somehow writing about one kind of simple, true love makes me really happy. I hope you all will continue to like this story, and a huge, HUGE THANK YOUUUUU to all of you who're staying with me during this story!