The next few days flew by, they're fully packed with filming and interview schedules. When Eric arrives at Junjin's apartment to pick him up in the mornings Junjin is ready and waiting for him every time, instantly walking out the door the moment Eric opens it. In the car Junjin continues sleeping and when they arrive back at the apartment in the evenings Junjin says he's tired and quickly closes the door behind himself without giving Eric a chance to enter.

During the days Eric sticks close to him, but somehow he hardly gets the opportunity to say more then 2 words to Junjin. Eric never could've imagined that it would be possible to avoid someone who is with you at all times like this, but even though he's by Junjin's side he starts to miss him badly. He regrets his actions the last time more and more, "He shouldn't have stopped, he should've just finished what he'd started that day on the bed.". Suddenly it hits him, "It probably was hard enough for Junjin already, he didn't even know if Junjin had dated guys before, maybe it was all new to him, that would be super confusing", he realized "And here he was teasing him as well". Upon realizing this he really felt like banging his head against the wall.
He decided it was time for a different kind of approach, a more serious one with less teasing, at least he would try...

Junjin was indeed very confused, but not about his own feelings anymore, he already figured those out and accepted them. Now he's confused about Eric's feelings, he wasn't to sure about them from the start already, but now he doesn't know what to think of it at all. " 'Hmm...not yet.' at the moment it seemed that Eric was about to kiss him, what was that supposed to mean?" it frustrated him enormously. " 'Not YET', it meant that he was planning to kiss him in the future...right?" somehow that thought send shivers down his spine, he didn't know if that made him happy or not though. "If the guy wanted to kiss him why not just do it? Just get it over with! He was nervous enough already!" he screamed in his head.
Meanwhile, every time Junjin felt Eric softly putting his hand on his back he tensed. It also seemed as if Eric used every opportunity he got to get as close as he could to him, to put his hand on his back or even his arm around his shoulders while guiding him towards the car, or grabbing his wrist to quickly get him away from the scene. Most of the times his actions where just a bit exaggerated, but not so much other people would think to much of it, even Junjin wondered if it might just be his imagination.

During the next event, a fan sign, Eric was again standing very close to him by his left shoulder while eyeing the screaming girls intently. He had taken Junjin's coat off before he entered the stage, making Junjin surprised by his action. During the event Eric found every opportunity to interact with Junjin, giving him a cup of water, handing him a pen, and so on. At one point Junjin just couldn't help himself anymore and looked up at Eric questioningly, he got a really satisfied smile back from him, making it obvious that that was exactly what Eric had wanted. Junjin blushed and couldn't hold back a shy smile, he quickly returned his attention to the fans, hoping that no one had noticed. He felt happy knowing that Eric had desperately wanted a response from him, the satisfied smile on Eric's face just now was genuine. It felt good, it gave him hope that Eric wasn't just messing with him but actually was feeling the same way as he himself was.
In the car after the signing event Junjin again pretended to be sleeping while having his face turned towards the side window. He still felt a bit uncomfortable and wasn't sure how to react to Eric after having ignored him for days.
He felt Eric glancing at him every time they where waiting in front of a red traffic light, apparently there where quite allot of traffic lights in that area and it slowly was getting on his nerves. When he felt Eric's eyes on his back for the umpteenth time he suddenly sat up and turned towards him "Would you please stop that!" he exclaimed, sounding more annoyed than he meant to. Junjin's sudden reaction obviously surprised Eric, it took a few seconds before a grin spread across his face and he happily said "You weren't sleeping?", it sounded more like a statement then a question though. "Y-Yeah" Junjin stammered, then a bit more confident "Please stop staring at me, it's annoying". "Sorry," Eric said, sounding much more serious suddenly, "I didn't know." and he shifted his gaze back to the traffic light that just turned green at that moment. This time it was Junjin's turn to stare at Eric in surprise, "A serious response from Eric, without any teasing? How was that possible?". "What?" Eric asked, "Nothing." Junjin answered and turned his head again to look out true the side window.

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That night they would stay in a hotel, in the evening they had had more business to take care of in the same area, and it was a bit far to drive back afterwards. "It is more convenient." the staffs who went with Junjin had said, Junjin sighed "For most people it probably was.." he thought to himself "if only you people would know i have nightmares almost every night...., being in my own home is at least a bit better than an unfamiliar hotel room." he sighed again. His former bodyguard Minho had found out about it in the past, and after that he would drive Junjin back home if it was somehow possible, but Junjin had asked him to not tell anyone about it, and Minho hadn't. So now Junjin didn't have anyone to back him up and he also couldn't come up with a good excuse as to why they wouldn't stay in a hotel for a night.

Everyone had quickly entered their respective rooms when they had finally arrived at the hotel because they where all tired. Junjin sat on the edge of the bed contemplating whether or not he would sneak down to the hotel bar for a drink or not. The thought occurred that he could ask Eric to join him, but he quickly decided against that, that would just become awkward. In the end he just took a cup of tea in his room, he had tried before; alcohol wouldn't make things better anyway. After finishing the tea he changed into his sleeping clothes and decided he would just lie down, he couldn't do anything else now anyway and somehow he fell asleep after a while.

Eric got suddenly woken up in the middle of the night, he heard screams coming from the room next to him, it only took a few seconds for him to realize they came from Junjin's room. Without a second thought he dashed out of his room onto the hallway and immediately turned to bang on Junjin's door "OPEN UP!" he hollered. He didn't waste time asking if everything was alright, it obviously wasn't, all he cared about was getting inside and then he would figure out what happened. The door wasn't opened immediately so he hollered again "Open the door, or i'll open it myself!", he was definitely ready to kick in the door if needed. He hardly finished his sentence when the door was finally opened, he pushed his way inside ready to grab anyone who didn't belong there, but to his surprise there was no one, the room was empty except for Junjin who stood by the door. "Sshh," Junjin said sluggishly "You'll wake up the entire hotel." while closing the door. Eric turned towards him, before he could ask what was going on he noticed Junjin's pale face and trembling body. He quickly walked over to Junjin and put an arm around his shoulders to guide him back to the bed, before he sat him down on the bed he quickly looked the guy over to see if he wasn't injured or something. Junjin looked at him with watery eyes "I'm sorry for waking you up." he said softly, it seemed like all his energy was drained from him. Eric quickly sat him down and squatted in front of him "What's going on?" he asked firmly, obviously not going to accept any excuses for an answer. "It was just a bad dream, nothing more." Junjin said, "Just a bad dream?" Eric angrily asked "That didn't sound and doesn't look like 'just a bad dream', you're shaking like a leaf!". "Hmm, yeah...sorry. I'll be better in a little while." Junjin tried to wave it off but Eric wasn't intended to let this matter go easily, softly he said "you scared the heck out of me." and without thinking he got up and pulled Junjin into his arms.
Only when Eric felt the trembling body against his own he realized what he had done, but Junjin didn't try to free himself from Eric's embrace, so he decided to keep holding the guy. After a few minutes he softly said "Sounds like you're kind of used to those 'bad dreams'?", he felt Junjin's head nod against his shoulder and then a soft reply "I have them sometimes, yes.", "Do you want to tell me about them?" Eric carefully tried, "hmm...not yet." Junjin said.

Right after he said it he realized it and pushed himself away from Eric, Junjin's face turned as red as a tomato, he just had said the words that had been bothering him for days now "hmm..not yet", in the same tone and manner like Eric had done when he almost kissed him.

Because of Junjin's reaction Eric also realized it, and he couldn't hold back a smirk, "I can completely understand." he said while grinning. He felt apologetic towards the guy when he noticed that Junjin's face turned even redder if that was even possible while he was staring firmly at the floor.
"As for that other 'not yet'...." Eric muttered while putting his hand on Junjin's shoulder and softly pushing it to make Junjin turn towards him "how about now?", Junjin suddenly looked up at him in surprise. Eric put his hand on his other shoulder to pull him closer while his other hand moved onto Junjin's back. The moment their lips met he felt Junjin's entire body tense up, he just gave him a short kiss on the lips before he slowly pulled back while looking into the other guys eyes, "obviously a new experience for him" Eric thought to himself while grinning.
Junjin quickly shifted his gaze towards the floor again, but Eric saw a small smile spread across his lips, "You're cute." he said. "Cute???" Junjin yelped offended while looking up again, "Yes, cute!" Eric said while standing up and ruffling Junjin's hair.

He walked towards the door "I left the door to my room open, i'll be right back.", at that Junjin could just stare in disbelieve after the guy, "back???" he thought, while his eyes grew big.
When a few seconds later Eric walked back into the room, Junjin immediately jumped up "Wait..I..I...wait...uuhh..." he started to stutter becoming more and more anxious. Eric laughed "Yah, what are you thinking?!" he deliberately took a deep breath before he continued "I'll just spend the night here in case you get another bad dream.", he could see the relieve on Junjin's face. He walked up to the guy and put his hand on his arm, he leaned in and softly said "I know I'm your first, don't worry. I won't do anything you're not ready for yet." he saw the shock of embarrassment on Junjin's face. "I don't mind" Eric added "I actually like it; we'll go nice and slow, so i'll have plenty of time to tease you." he said grinning evilly, the embarrassment on Junjin's face turned into horror.
"Now, why don't you get into bed first." Eric said, Junjin being to dumbfounded by what Eric just said meekly got into bed and under the covers.

What he didn't expect was that Eric would walk around the bed to the other side and also get under the blankets.
But Eric felt that he had teased Junjin enough for tonight, "I have finally gotten this far...I don't want to go to far and scare him away again" he taught to himself. So, when he got under the covers as well he just held out his arms towards Junjin who was laying tensely on the other side of the bed with his back towards him, innocently Eric asked "Wanna cuddle?". Junjin carefully looked over his shoulder, he huffed at him pretending to be annoyed, but he did scoot backwards a bit towards Eric. Taking that as a yes Eric moved forward a bit and put his arm around Junjin, "This is nice." Eric mumbled while pulling Junjin close against his chest.
Junjin just closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the strong protective arm around him and the warmth of Eric's body against his back while slowly drifting of to sleep.

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YAY sudden inspiration struck and I wrote an entire (extra long) chapter today...my shoulders hurt terribly after sitting for 7 strait hours writing :)
Hopefully i've made up for the previous chapter, at least a little bit, with this one (there's more coming).
I did greatly enjoy your comments though, they gave me a good laugh! XD Thank you SO much.
I think Eric's teasing mood is becoming contagious. hihi

Anyway, hopefully i can update the next chapter soon as well (next weekend?), but i'm not entirely sure.
My life is a bit hectic at the moment because in 3 weeks i'll be on vacation in South-Korea for 2,5 week...yyaaayy,  (i'm going to see DengPoe :D)
the thing is; i'm going alone,... well with a tour group (17 other people who i don't know)
and it's the first time i'm going on vacation ever! (I've been on vacation when i was 8 years old also, i shouldn't lie...)
So i'm a bit nervous and still got some things to take care of and all that....vaction stress...i never understood it before, now i do! XD
But i do hope to put the next chapter up at least before i'll be going...
Hope you enjoyed this one...and sorry for this ramble...