Title: Disbelief 

Prompt: People build up walls not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down. 

There they were, laying together, covered slightly in a white sheet, leaving little to the imagination. Only a moment ago, they were intertwined, sharing hot, heavy breaths and intimate stares. Now, she wanted to be separated.

Today, he insisted on kissing the bare skin of her shoulder until he reached the crook of her ear. She hated when he did that. It reeked of romance. Of feelings. Both of which they had agreed to avoid when they had begun their engagement of sorts. Whenever he insisted on trailing kisses on her hot skin, she would stare wordlessly at every corner of the room. It was happening so much lately, she swore she had every detail memorized, down to the imperfections in the paint. 

The room was white, almost sterile. Funny that it looked that way to her, even after the only thing she ever did in this room was anything but sterile. No character was found in the furniture that was arranged exactly like it had been in the model living space they purchased it from at IKEA. She was with him that day. That was the day they met. Her roommate had expressed interest in updating their dining table from a box to an actual table. Their budget didn’t exactly allow extravagances, so they settled for the affordable. Her roommate had mentioned that her coworker was going to IKEA that weekend anyway, and would be glad to take them along. His car was bigger and could actually hold whatever furniture they decided to purchase. 

Almost immediately, Hyuna felt a connection to Hyunseung. Almost immediately, they knew it was only physical. 

Hyuna shook the memory away quickly. She tried to do that any time her mind wandered off to memories of them having dinner with mutual friends before their friends with benefits relationship was established, or any memory that didn’t involve the bedroom, really. She thought it made him seem too human. It was dangerous if she thought of him as anything other than a toy. She learned over the months, in wordless bits and pieces, that he possessed the qualities a good romantic partner should have. He was neat, considerate, attractive, stable. 

But Hyuna didn’t do romance. 

She detested the mere idea so much that she had made it her goal to never let him hear her voice if it wasn’t or commanding him to do something. So far, it had worked wonders. 

But lately, the way he requested to see her constantly, the lack of roughness in his actions, and the way he clung on to her more than the sheets did after they were done was making it harder for her to keep that goal. And harder for her to convince herself that the escalation in her heart rate upon feeling his warmth against her back was just a natural instinct. Nothing to be alarmed about. Nothing significant. 

After all, what everyone confused for romance was nothing more than a bunch of natural reactions being overanalyzed and sanctified. She knew that all too well. 

“Hyuna…” He whispered into her ear, his voice still raspy, enticing. She knew that he wanted her to turn around to face him, so he could kiss her gently on her lips. She did everything possible to resist the urge. That was something couples did, not buddies. 

If love was nothing but sanctified and overanalyzed instinct, why did she shiver? Why did she feel a fire in her that she tried so desperately to push away? She knew that if she bought into her urges, if she turned around, it would only result in her falling deeper into part of Hyunseung that wasn’t ual, the part of him that she could see a future with. The part of him that kept her awake at night, despite her denial, her logical approach. 

He could see her shivering, her eyes darting from corner to corner trying to look anywhere but him. He knew he was close to breaking her, to getting her to view him as a man and not a means to an end, but she was resisting. He wanted her in all the most innocent ways possible, but she was making it difficult for him to express it. She had put up a very high wall, and sometimes he could feel her throw down a rope to aid him in the climb, but just as quickly as he grabbed on, she would retract it. 

She breathed a sigh of relief when her phone vibrated on the white nightstand next to her. It was her roommate, a call she needed to take. She hopped up, not bothering to cover herself, and went to take the call just outside of the room. Hyunseung groaned. He felt his hands suffer the sting of rope burn, just like his heart had many times over the past few days. 

It wasn’t like him, to fall in love with someone he thought would only be a physical attraction, but Hyuna was different. It caused him to scoff, to define such a complex human with such an overused and meaningless word. The falling in love had happened outside of the bedroom. Of course, any man would be excited to have such a flawless creature panting under them, but to him, that was a reaction that took half of a thought. Falling in love took care, it took observation, it took complexity. It happened when they were out with their mutual friends. She had insisted that they shouldn’t talk to each other, that they should feign a distaste towards each other to keep their friends from suspecting