I've been sitting next to my phone all day like a nut. I haven't even been using it, just sitting next to it. Am I waiting for him to call? Ugh, what is wrong with me?

        It finally rings and I release a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

        "Hello?" comes his deep, slurred voice.

        "Good morn-- um, afternoon!" I say awkwardly. I smack myself in the forehead lightly enough to make a small sound. Why am I so consistently weird?

        "Good afternoon!" He pretends like it doesn't even happen.

        "What's up?" Too informal for strangers! Mayday, mayday! Abort! Abort! Abort! Her confidence is going down! I repeat: her confidence is going down! Abort! Abort! Return to base immediately! Abort! Abort!

         "Where's the nearest grocery?" he asks. "Would it be too much trouble to ask you if I could ride over there with you?"

        "Oh, no! It's not a problem in the least."

        "Oh, thanks!"

        "Yeah, no problem! See you in a few minutes?"

        "I'll be here."

• • •

        "Is that everything?" I ask, scrolling through my grocery list. Hyuksoo's hand moves gently over the contents of the cart, taking a small inventory of the groceries.

        He looks up from his own phone, eyes scanning between the contents of the cart and the device. "All right!" he smiles.

        I push the cart toward the checkout.

        The cashier greets us with a warm grin. "Have you found everything to your satisfaction?" she asks.

        "Yes, thank you," Hyuksoo replies.

        She speaks with us as she works. "You two are absolutely adorable! There's such a blessing in a young married couple."

        "We aren't," he starts.

        "We're just friends . . . " I trail off. "In fact, we don't even know each other all that well."

        "Ah, I'm sorry," she says, totally crestfallen. "But I must still say you are very beautiful, together and as individuals. Be friends, all right? Please take care of her, young sir."

        I can see his hand go to cover an embarrassed, happy smile. "Thank you, ma'am," he bows. "I will if she will let me."

        I laugh obnoxiously. Why does he talk like that? It's so . . . old-fashioned. I rather like it. "I would like to know you better," I say. This is funny. I smile into my shoulder.

        "Please enjoy the rest of your day!" she bids us, handing us receipts and change.

        The car ride is awkward in silence, because I can't start a conversation to save my life, and he is the type to speak only when spoke to by strangers. Unless he's shy, too.

        I wait for him to securely get into his apartment before returning to my own. I kill some time: watch a few episodes of some dramas, listen to music, read part of a book, eat, eat again, play some video games to work off some of the calories, eat yet again, and just randomly rage around my apartment. I try to text the girls, but they're all busy, probably on dates or spending time with family.

        What I think is a response from one of my three besties is actually a text from Hyuksoo.

        I'm going for a short walk. I might be gone for a while. Just letting you know so you don't think you lost me.

        All right, I type. Have fun and be safe!

        I do my nightly routine. I'd better try to catch up on sleep for the weekend. 

        Something little crawls into bed with me as soon as I begin to doze off. It settles down and snuggles under covers.

        Aw! It's the cat that lives around the building coming to sleep with me!

        Ah-choo!

        "Bless you," I mutter. What.

        I'm wide awake and sitting up, all hope of peacefully getting back to sleep drug out into the street by its collar and shot. Cats don't sneeze like humans. Who is this?

        I pull back the cover after feeling around the bed for a while. I brush my hand against a warm little cheek. There's a random child in here. I reach behind me and flip on my bed lamp. A small child stares up at me with beautiful, wide round eyes. 

        "Hello," I say, trying not to scream and flip out, not because there is a random toddler in my bed but because he looks too familiar for my liking. 

        He smiles. "Hello, ahjumma," he says respectfully. He means no harm in calling me ahjumma, but the title is too old for me. Especially because I'm much closer to a child than an ahjumma.

        "Call me noona," I say, holding out my hands. He jumps into my arms without a second thought and cuddles his small frame on my lap, forehead in the crook of my elbow. Ok. I guess he likes me.

        "I like you, Noona," he mutters. "You smell nice."

        I laugh. How old is this sweet little person?

        "Where's your mommy?" I ask.

        He raises his head, dark hair falling into his eyes. "My mommy died when I was too little to remember her."

        "Oh!" I exclaim. I can't imagine losing my mommy so early. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it; he never knew her. "Where's your daddy?"

        He turns to look at my closet, and I understand how he got in here: the crawlspace for storage that conjoins my apartment and the one next door. Could this little boy be . . . ? No, no; don't jump to conclusions, Chaerin.

        "Is that how you got in?" I ask him, pushing his dark locks out of his face. "I can see you again!" 

        I wiggle my fingers into his belly and he giggles happily. He pulls on my low ponytail, bringing it around my shoulder to him. He plays with my hair, tangling it slightly then combing back out the small mess.

        "Monsters were chasing me," he explains. "I found the door to a safe place where they couldn't get me."

        "Is that so, my brave and noble knight?" I ask.

        "Yes, ma'am!" he calls, ing an imaginary sword into the air. "They won't be mean to you because they're afraid of you."

        "They are?"

        "Yes. You are a great lady, the legend of the kingdom. You'll beat them back if they return, won't you, Noona?"

        I place my hand in a fist over my heart. "I will protect you as surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, my lord!" We laugh.

        "Are you hungry?" I ask him. He nods vigorously. "Good! So am I."

        I fix us a good nighttime snack that won't keep us up for hours. We eat together, talking quietly about random things between bites.

        After cleaning up our plates, I fire off a text to Hyuksoo. Come over before today is over. I'd like to talk to you for a little while. I hope I haven't scared him!

       "All right, m'lord," I say, playfully chasing him back into my room. "I need you to stay put in here until I call for you, all right? Don't make any noise. Will you be ok?"

        He nods. "Is this practice in fighting the monsters away from the town? Because I'm good at being quiet and waiting."

        "Uh, sure! It can be." 

        He pats my knee lightly. "I'll be all right, m'lady warrior," he whispers.

        I push his hair out of his face again and leave my room, shutting the door quietly. I know exactly who this boy is, or at least his parentage.

• • •

        Hyuksoo and I sit on the floor in front of the couch, channel surfing. I take the time to choose my words carefully and in a logical order.

        "Do you have any pets?" I ask, albeit awkwardly.

        "Uh, no." His voice wavers. I've made him uncomfortable. Great. "Are they not allowed?"

        "Oh, no! They are. I was just asking in case you needed anything else, you know?"

        He nods. "Thank you."

        "Pets are like a part of the family, you know."

        "Sure."

        "They're like little inhuman children." What? Is that supposed to mean anything?

        Hyuksoo puts his head in his hands. My own hands fly to my mouth. I want to die.

        I pull myself together. "I just have one question." I look up at him.

        His hips lift and wiggle a bit in his his seat. "Why I hid him, I suppose."

        I nod. "I'm not upset with you for hiding him. You had your reasons."

        "I thought you would get the wrong idea of me, a guy like me dragging a baby around the streets."

        "What would I think, in your mind?"

        "I was irresponsible and messed around too much, kidnapper, worse than a kidnapper, the list can go on."

        "I try not to jump to conclusions, but I had to to ask you about him. I'm sorry."

        "I deserve a side-long glance. I really do.

        "Not necessarily. If you were comfortable, would you tell me?"

        "Yeah. I'm . . . I'm a widower. We were only running for a day or two. We weren't running away from anything, but rather toward something. A new chapter in life, I suppose." Now I know I've got a heart, 'cause it's breaking. A widower? At his age? And with a small child?

        "Oh, wow. I . . . Wow."

        We fall into another small awkward silence. I get up.

        "I believe I have something that belongs to you," I say. I go into my room and hold out my hand.

        "My brave knight, it is time to meet the king, your father," I say to the little boy sitting on my bed. 

        He gets up, smoothes out the bedspread and takes my hand, letting me lead him out of the room.

        I take him to Lee Hyuksoo and the boy bows to his father. "I am sorry, Abeoji, for disappearing."

        The man kneels down to his son's height and hugs him tightly. 

        "He was running from the monsters," I explain seriously. I tell Hyuksoo about the crawlspace and how he got into my apartment. 

        He pulls back, looking at his hands, face, arms, legs. He's checking for scratches.

        "He's all in one piece, sir!" I smile. "No scratches or owies, right?"

        "Right, m'lady!"

        "Did he have any run-ins with the monsters?" Hyuksoo asks me, the same sparkle in his eye his son has.

        "I am happy to report that the monsters have fled. You should have seen how they ran! And after we watched them, we had a great banquet."

        "You should have told me you were hungry, Hyukshin-ah," Hyuksoo says, rubbing his son's back.

        "I wasn't until way after you left, Abeoji."

        Hyuksoo kisses the boy's forehead and ruffles his hair. "Ah," he says, turning back to me. "I suppose it's time that you two officially met, huh? Lee Chaerin, this is my son, Lee Hyukshin."
I kneel next to the father and son and bow my head in greeting. "It's nice to meet you, Hyukshin."

        "You too, Lee Chaerin Noona."

        "Noona?" Hyuksoo mouths. I nod in the affirmative. 

        "How old are you, Hyukshin?" I ask, sitting down with my legs crossed.

        "I'm four," he smiles, climbing onto my lap and hugging me around my neck.

        Hyuksoo continues to rub small circles on the boy's back. Hyukshin yawns, his breathing evening out to a slow pace. He starts to fall asleep in my arms.

        "Someone is sleepy, yes?" I ask to the back of Hyukshin's head.

        "I'd better get him home." Hyuksoo holds out his hands and I do my best to hand his son to him. He cuddles the boy into his long arms and kisses his hair.

        "Good night, Lee Chaerin," he whispers, bowing his head.

        "Good night, Lee Hyuksoo, and Lee Hyukshin." I bow in return.

        They've left. Now I can attempt to go back to sleep.

• • •

        These slight disturbances at night, even if they are good, they keep me up and I have weird thoughts and dreams. 

        This one is an out-of-body experience, the kind I really hate because I feel like I'm being suspended in space. 

        I'm climbing a Goliath of a steep mountain with a urgency and inhuman speed. Someone's life depends on my reaching the top, and it isn't my own. That life is a child's. That life is a young girl's.

        Her thin, white dress billows in the wind, brushing past and outlining a pair of thin, long legs. Her dark hair is pulled back into a tight, immaculate chignon. For a moment I wish that my hair could be that perfect, but I'm supposed to be saving her life, not thinking about her hair. I look down for a second to find the next foothold, right below her. I look back up.

        She's disappeared. I search the top of the rock frantically and I find her standing at the bottom, looking up at me and shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. I relax and fall from the side of the rock, completely angry at her for some reason. Maybe because she tricked me. Maybe because she left me there. Maybe because I'm falling to my death and she isn't.

        A streak of black cuts through the midday sky and I think it's all over for me. It's a large bird, I realize, with a large, hooked beak slightly agape and beautiful dark eyes. Human-like beautiful dark eyes.

        He smiles for a second. I'm hearing the ground coming closer behind me. He catches me in his talons and pulls up to give me time and space to land.

        I jerk and spazz awake from the bird pulling up.

        "The heck?" I scream. My room is empty. My mind is racing.

        This must be a prophetic dream. I know those eyes.

         I manage to fall back asleep, but I don't have another dream like that, thankfully.