“Can I drive?” Jinyoung asked, snatching the keys out of Sori’s hands.

“Hmm…I don’t know… I’ve never seen- oh wait I have seen you drive before. Sure I guess...” Sori shrugged as she got into the passenger seat.

“How could you almost forget that night I drove you to my company?” Jinyoung asked, pretendeding to be upset.

“I didn’t forget! I’m just a little out of it today. We both haven’t slept for the past 48 hours. Aren’t you tired? Especially after all that food, you kept ordering more meat!” Sori defended.

“You have low iron. You know you could get thyroid cancer when you’re older if you have low iron? And who knows what’ll happen if you keep eating those damn noodles” Jinyoung scolded.

“I barely eat that stuff anymore! You nag more than Dongin. I bet you eat those noodles more than I do, don’t you?” Jinyoung didn’t respond and started the car. “You’re busier than me, I know you do” Sori said, crossing her arms. “I- I don’t eat that stuff. I- I have to eat healthy food for my voice” Jinyoung defended as he began to drive.

“You’re lying, you never stutter when you talk to me. How about we both quit?” Sori reasoned.

“Alright, I’ll quit as long as you promise to eat a lot of the right food. I’m worried about your health, the doctor was really serious when he told me you had low iron…” Jinyoung said worriedly. “Don’t worry, I’m taking iron supplements. I use to feel tired and depressed all day, but now I’m beginning to feel more energetic. You on the other hand, don’t look so energetic. Your mood seems to be more down than usual?”

“I-I’m feeling fine. Don’t worry about me” Jinyoung said, faking a smile.

“You’re lying. Jung Jinyoung! Tell me-“

Sori stopped talking at the sudden turn Jinyoung made. “Jinyoung, where are you going? My house is the other way!” Sori pointed, confused. “I know. We’re not going to your house” Jinyoung said in a calm tone. “What? Then where are we going? To another steak house?!” Sori questioned.

“We’re going to the beach” Jinyoung replied.

“Eh! The beach? Are you crazy? It’s 12AM, the only people at the beach at this hour are creepy lovers making out and cuddling and…no!” Sori whined.

“Sori-ah.” Jinyoung said in a serious tone, making Sori become more attentive. “I want to go to the beach with you at least once… I want to have some more good memories with you...” Jinyoung held back his emotions as he said those words.

“Jinyoung…you sound like…like you’re saying it’s the last time… stop the car” Sori ordered, frustrated. 

Jinyoung pulled over the car at her demand.

“What’s going on Jinyoung? You know I don’t like secrets” Sori asked, extremely worried at what the answer may be.

Jinyoung looked at Sori seriously “Sori-ah, tomorrow I’m going to tell you something… but before I tell you, I want us to have one more good memory since it may be a long time before we can do this again” Jinyoung explained. “That’s tomorrow, so can we separate that from today?” Jinyoung asked.

“But- if you’re already hurting from what I don’t know, it makes me more sad. I want to carry the burden with you” Sori expressed.

“I’m going to forget it tonight, only for tonight let’s just forget about it” Jinyoung requested, looking into Sori's eyes as he swept a piece of her hair behind her ear.

Sori looked at Jinyoung worriedly. She was hesitant but decided to just go along with what he wanted “Alright… drive” Sori said, putting her seat belt back on.

“Have you ever done this before?” Jinyoung asked as he held up a bag filled with fire works.

“Dongin and I did once. I bought some and then at night we snuck outside and lit them up. We got in a lot of trouble for lighting up fireworks near a hospital. We weren’t even that close…” Sori smiled in reminiscence.

“Rebel much? That was my first impression of you…” Jinyoung laughed. “What? Your first impression of me was that I was a rebel?!” Sori began to hysterically laugh. “Well, when you think of it, you kind of are in the eyes of others” Jinyoung reasoned.

“You want to know what my first impression of you was?” Sori began, giggling. “Stop giggling and tell me!” Jinyoung demanded.

“Well… which one do you want? There’s two. B1A4’s Jinyoung and then there’s the Jinyoung that I met in the hospital”

“Tell me both!” Jinyoung said eagerly.

“Nahh, telling you like this is too easy” Sori teased. “Is it that bad?” Jinyoung asked worried. “No, it’s the opposite. It may boost your ego a little too much so…” Sori joked. “Ahh, so it’s good?” Jinyoung smiled. “It’s because of my great looks, right?”

“Note, that was only my first impression, now, after knowing the truth…I see I was wrong” Sori teased.

“Yah!” Jinyoung twisted the lid off of his water bottle and spayed some water on Sori.

“Hey!” Sori said grabbing the bottle from his hand and dumping the rest on him. “It’s cold!” Jinyoung yelled. Sori began to run in fear that he’d do the same to her. “Come here!” Jinyoung yelled, chasing after her.

“I was joking!” She yelled as she ran. “It upgraded okay, it upgraded!” Sori stopped running, she was out of breath.

Jinyoung ran behind her and put his arms around her. “What upgraded?” He demanded an answer.

“Aish, I can barely breath! You’re holding me too tight!” Sori whined. “Answer my question first!” Jinyoung insisted.

“Ugh fine…” Sori gave in “The image in real life is cooler than the image on the screen" Sori let out, Jinyoung's grasp loosening a bit, "When I first saw you on screen, you seemed unreal, like most celebrities. When I saw you in person, that’s when I starting liking you more…and then whenever we would talk, I would think about all the things you had said and done for me….and I couldn’t sleep…because I guess I liked you… a lot” Sori confessed.  “Are you happy now? Now let go I can’t breath” Sori panted.

Jinyoung let go and turned her around. “Sori-ah… I said something in the hospital today… something I should have said a while ago but I thought you deserved to hear it when I was 100% sure…they aren’t words that I could say easily but after I met you all I could think of are those words” Sori looked up, she knew what he was going to say. She felt butterflies rush in her stomach. She began to laugh just at the thought of him saying those words to her, the sand under their feet, the waves behind them, it was just too corny for her to handle.

“Kim Sori, I love you.” Jinyoung confessed, holding both of Sori’s shoulders, Sori continued to giggle, she became incredibly shy and was a little embarrassed. Jinyoung continued to look at her, waiting for her to say something. When Sori lifted her head, her laughter came to a halt and she stayed silent. She was now immersed in emotions and no words were able come out of .

“Kim Sori, I love you!” Jinyoung yelled at the top of his lungs. Sori jumped in shock. The few people at the beach were staring at them, laughing.

“Jung Jinyoung! Are you crazy!” Sori scolded, laughing.

“KIM SORI, I LOVE YOU” he yelled again. “I’ll keep saying it until I’m satisfied.” Jinyoung warned.

“If you keep yelling you won’t be able to hear me say anything” Sori said.

A small smile appeared on Jinyoung's face “Say what?” Jinyoung asked in anticipation.

“Jung Jinyoung I…" Sori slowly began, Jinyoung waiting impatiently for her to finish her sentence.

“-am really craving some dark chocolate chip cookies right now, do you think they have some at the convenience store?” Sori joked.

“Yah, Kim Sori!” Jinyoung whined.

“Alright….  JUNG JINYOUNG. I LOVE YOU TOO” Sori yelled. She laughed in embarrassment. “This is so corny, I’m going to die in embarrassment” Sori exclaimed, putting both of her hands on her face.

“If you do that then I can’t do this” Jung Jinyoung took Sori’s hands and moved them away from her face. He leaned in and kissed her.

“Jung Jinyoung, everyone is staring at us! What if they realize who you are?” Sori worried. “Don’t worry, it’s too dark and this crowd is too old to know who I am” Jinyoung reassured, continuing to kiss her.

“Now, Let’s light this up!” Jinyoung said, taking the fire works out of the bag.

One by one, they lit up each firework. The bright lights made them both forget about all of their troubles. Only laughter filled the rest of the night.

“I’m going to sleep here” Jinyoung stated as he walked into Sori’s apartment. “You said you’d only walk me up here!” Sori reminded. “I can’t let you sleep alone in this house anymore. I can’t sleep when I think of you being alone in this house that both your parents and those creepers know the location of” Jinyoung stressed.

“I’m fine! I have a baseball bat in my room, I was pretty good at baseball in high school so I know how to use it well” Sori smiled. 

“I just can’t. I’m too tired to take the bus home anyways” Jinyoung said. He went to the closet where all the extra blankets were and laid them out on the couch without permission. “You even know where my blanket stash is?” Sori laughed. “I know where your chocolate stash is too” Jinyoung grinned.

“No wonder why I was missing a chocolate bar!” Sori shook her head. “I made you an omelet instead” he reminded, “Ahh right, well I guess I’ll write you off for this one then” Sori sighed.

“Thank you for your generosity” Jinyoung jokingly bowed.

“Well, goodnight Jinyoung-ah” Sori kissed Jinyoung’s cheek and went into her room. “You can’t just kiss me and leave” Jinyoung mumbled. He slowly laid on the couch and covered himself with the blanket he had set out. Although Jinyoung hadn’t slept for over 48 hours, he wasn’t able to easily fall asleep. He was cherishing the moments he had spent with Sori and dreading the next day. He just wanted to forget it all and not tell Sori, but he knew the reality too well. He had to tell Sori, if he didn’t, a bigger problem would arise. Although he wanted to be “cool” and say he could protect Sori from her father’s plans, he knew that he could only protect her to a certain extent. “Sori’s strong, she’ll be okay.”

Jinyoung woke up extremely early. He glanced at the clock and sighed in frustration “6AM..” he mumbled. He kept waking up throughout the night due to a series of bad dreams. Jinyoung couldn’t get rid of the anxious feeling in his stomach. After every bad dream, he would open the door to Sori’s room, check that she was there, and then go back to sleep.

Once again, Jinyoung got up and opened the door to Sori’s room. He walked up to her bed and smiled, although he wasn’t able to sleep properly, he was happy that Sori looked to be peacefully asleep. “Maybe I’ll sleep better if she’s next to me?” Jinyoung thought.

He brought his blanket and carefully laid next to Sori so that he wouldn’t wake her. He stared at Sori’s sleeping expression for a while before he slowly fell asleep.

Sori woke up to the sound of the rain hitting her window. She gradually opened her eyes to see Jinyoung lying next to her. “I better still be dreaming” she mumbled. She was about to wake him up until she saw the dark circles around his eyes. “Was he uncomfortable on the couch? I should have slept on the couch instead” Sori whispered. She moved the hairs away from his face and put her hand on his forehead. “Why is his forehead so hot” she said, worried.

Suddenly, Jinyoung started talking in his sleep.

“Leave her alone” he mumbled.

“Jinyoung? Are you awake?” Sori asked, confused.

“Leave her alone!” he said in a louder voice before waking himself up.

“Jinyoung, are you alright?” Sori asked, worried by the uneasy look on his face. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital? Your forehead is extremely hot, let me go get the thermometer” Sori was about to get up until Jinyoung grabbed onto her arm.

“Don’t go. Sori-ah, you’re alive right? This isn’t a dream, right?” He asked, half awake. Sori turned to him and held his hand. “Yeah, it’s me. Kim Sori. I’m alive and breathing” Sori comforted. “Did you have a bad dream?” She asked. Jinyoung cleared his throat.

“Yeah…you and I…kept dying. I had 4 dreams in the past few hours where you and I died. We always died at the same time too…” Jinyoung revealed.

Sori suddenly remembered that Jinyoung was keeping something away from her.

She remembered that dreams usually represent things that you are repressing or stressed out about.

“Jinyoung…do you know who killed us?” Sori asked, trying to figure out what he was hiding.

“Your father” he responded without thinking.

“My-my father!? Why would you dream about…” Sori looked at Jinyoung in the eye and sat closer next to him. “Jinyoung…it’s tomorrow…what is it that you have to tell me?” Sori nervously asked.

Jinyoung hesitated before speaking.

“Yesterday…I met your parents. Your mom called me and asked me to go to your house. She specifically told me not to bring you with me or to tell you that I was going to meet her and your father” Jinyoung began.

“So you didn’t tell me because you were afraid? Jinyoung, I’ll protect you from my parents, next time tell me, okay?” Sori expressed, upset at what Jinyoung put himself through alone.

“That’s not it… your father… Sori, you need to move out of this house. I can’t have you living here anymore, not until I know you’re safe. Come live in my dorm for a while, will you? I could barely get an hours sleep without waking up and having to check up on you” Jinyoung pleaded.

“Wait, slow down. Why? What did my father say to you?” Sori asked, beginning to get frustrated.

“He asked me to…”

“Asked you to?”

“Have a child with you, immediately.”

“WHAT?” Sori yelled. “What the hell is wrong with him! I can’t believe him“ Sori turned around and screamed into her pillow in embarrassment.

“Sori-ah, that’s not even the bad part. I told him that we both weren’t even close to being ready for that. He said that if I didn’t get you pregnant, I’d have to leave you alone. I told him that’s never going to happen so he said that I’ll face consequences-"

“Consequences? What kind of consequences… Jinyoung I’m so sorry that you had to go through this because of me. I’ll- I’ll figure out a way to get him to keep you out of this. I won’t let him do anything to you” Sori reassured.

“That’s not the part I’m worried about. I don’t care if he messes with me, I can handle that. What I can’t handle is him messing with you…” Jinyoung expressed.

“Don’t worry, he’s been trying to mess with me since the day I majored in musical production. I can protect myself from his little tricks” Sori assured.

“Sori…he said- he said he’d…get someone to..”

“Get someone to..?”

“You know what Haejin did to you? Or was about to do to you? He said he’d get someone to do that to you, in order to get you pregnant. I- I can’t just stand here and do nothing while he plans something that disgusting”

Soris face froze. She was in complete disbelief at what Jinyoung had just told her. Her heart beat also began to quicken. “He- he said that? My father said – that?” Sori started to choke on her words. “My own father...would go to such lengths…for his damn money” Sori said as tears rolled down her face. She quickly wiped them away but they kept falling without warning.

 Sori felt something boil in her stomach. She quickly got up and ran to the bathroom.

“Sori! Are you alright!?” Jinyoung ran after her to see her throwing up. He ran to the kitchen and mixed some water with lemon juice, hoping that it would make her feel better.

Sori sat on the floor, light headed. A thousand thoughts were running through her head. Although her and her father were never on good terms, she never thought he’d stoop this low for his greed. She always thought her father had a mental disorder, this time she was sure. He was an addict. He was addicted to success, to money, to material things. He fed off of it. His heart was made of stone, so love didn’t work for him. Only something as worthless as money made him happy.

“Here Sori, drink this” Sori took the glass from his hand and gulped down some of the water. “J-j-jinyoung-ah” Sori said lightly. “What is it? are you alright?” He said leaning down in front of her. “I’m losing my sight. You’re turning blurry…” she said in a low tone. “You’re losing your sight? Sori-ah!” Jinyoung called as he shook her. Sori tried to take another sip of water but before she could finish she passed out on the floor.