“Urgh. Not again,” Joohyun grumbles to herself as she is brought back to reality.  She slowly opens her eyes.

Her dark room is only filled with moonlight beaming through the window and paranoia starts to take over Joohyun once again.  It’s been three consecutive days of waking up in the middle of dawn and she does not like it at all.

“This is all Seulgi’s fault,” her eyebrows furrow as she rolls around to face her bedside table.  Joohyun grabs her phone tightly and prays that it wasn’t three o’clock in the morning or so she calls ‘the devil’s hour’ as what that horror movie had taught her.  

 If it weren’t for that movie she and Seulgi watched last week, she wouldn’t have been a trembling mess right now.  Joohyun regrets giving in to that pout and all the pleading. She just couldn’t understand why Seulgi loved watching horror movies.  She was pretty sure her girlfriend enjoyed the tight and fearful hugs she gave to every horrid sound effect that comes off in the movie. Hm. That could be the reason. 

Annoying bear.

Joohyun clicks on the lock button and she squints her eyes as soon as the bright light from her phone lights up her dark room.

2:30 am

“Oh god, thirty more minutes to my death,” she quickly locks her phone and buries herself under her blanket. 

Joohyun begins to count from 1 to infinity, trying her best to lull herself back to sleep but the fear creeping on her isn’t helping at all.  She shifts around her bed, still making sure every part of her body is covered up with her blanket because who knows what might grab onto her if it wasn’t.  And after minutes of trying to go back to sleep, she gives up.

Joohyun quickly grabs her phone and turns it on once again.  She avoids looking at the time and it’s only then she notices that Seulgi actually left her a message right before she fell asleep.

From: Seulbear  [Yesterday, 11:34PM]

Alright.  Have a good sleep, hyun-ah.  Sweet dreams and don’t wake up at dawn. Kekekeke love you!

Joohyun swipes the message open and furiously types in her reply.

To: Seulbear  [Today, 2:41AM]

YAH! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT.  IF IT WASN’T FOR THAT STUPID HORROR MOVIE OF YOURS I WOULDNT HAVE WOKEN UP.  IT’S ALMOST 3AM AND I AM WIDE AWAKE AND I AM ABOUT TO DIE.

She directly sends her reply and stares at her phone with furrowed eyebrows.

From: Seulbear  [Today, 2:42AM]

Go to sleep, Bae Joohyun.

She’s awake?!

And with that, Joohyun sighs in relief and taps the call button with no hesitation.  After a few seconds, the ringback stopped.

“Oh, Joohyun-ah,” she can hear Seulgi’s groggy voice on the other line.  She must’ve woken her up.

“Yah, Seulgi. Please stay awake until I fall asleep,” Joohyun begs.

“Okay, okay.  I will.”

They both stay silent for a while and Joohyun’s heartbeat calms.  She can hear Seulgi’s breathing on the other line and she slowly closes her eyes because just knowing that Seulgi’s awake makes her feel safe.

“Sseul?”  Joohyun spoke, wanting to make sure the other girl on the line was still awake.

“You can’t sleep?”  Seulgi softly says in reply.

“Mhmm,” She replies as she shakes her head, eyes still closed.

“You want me to sing for you?” Seulgi suggested.

“Mhmm,” she nods.

Seulgi starts with a little humming, “Baby good night, jaljayo good night, geureom nan dancing dancing, dancing in the moonlight~”

Joohyun giggles at her girlfriend’s song choice, “Pabo.”

“Yah, no complaints and try to go to sleep,” Seulgi chuckles in reply.  She continues singing and Joohyun can feel herself smiling as she slowly drifts off to dreamland.

---

The night after, Joohyun still ends waking up at dawn.  2:03 AM

“Ah, seriously?!” Joohyun groans in frustration.  She sits up on her bed, hands gripping the blanket covering her body and looks around her room.  She’s too afraid to stand up and turn the lights on.

Joohyun grabs her phone and dials, in hopes of finding Seulgi awake.

A few beeps have passed and there was still no answer.

‘The number you dialled is—‘

With that, Joohyun clicks the call button once again, “Come on, Seulgi. Please answer”

“Hello?”

“Seulgi!” Joohyun happily exclaims, “Stay up with me for a while, please”

She hears Seulgi chuckling.   “What happens if I don’t?”  Seulgi teased.

Joohyun’s smile turns into a frown, “I will-“ Several knocks on her door cuts her off.

“Hey, hey, Seulgi!”  Joohyun stares at her door in horror, “Someone’s knocking on my door!” she tries to say quietly.

“Then open it.”

“Are you crazy?!!? This is just like in the movie! Seulgi-yah w-what do I do? What if it’s a murderer?!”  Joohyun whispers and someone knocks on the door once again.

“Bae Joohyun, did you ever think that maybe it’s just the other people living in the dormitory who maybe needs help?  Or it could be the landlady.”

“Why would people be awake by this time!?”

“You ask yourself that,” Seulgi laughs on the other line.

“Seriously, Seulgi...” Joohyun mutters and a few knocks on the door can be heard.

“Try to ask who it is,” Seulgi suggests.

“W-who is it?” Joohyun says loud enough for the other person outside the room to hear.  She takes a deep breath and stands, still holding her phone to her ear.

“Alright, now all you have to do is open the door”

“Seulgi, the person didn’t even answer my question,” Joohyun whispers in worry.

“Are you even sure it’s a person?” she can feel Seulgi smirking.

“YAH KANG SEULGI! I really really hate you right now,” Joohyun swears she is about to cry.  She slowly walks to her door and grips on her door knob.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I was just kidding,” Seulgi laughs.

Here goes nothing...

Joohyun twists the doorknob and-

“BOO!” All of a sudden, a person hugs her and Joohyun screams and almost loses her balance.  A frightened look flashes on Joohyun’s face as she looks up.

“YAH SEULGI!” Joohyun begins to tear up.  She gives Seulgi a hit on the shoulder, “You scared the out of me. I hate you so much.”

“Hi, Hyun-ah,” Seulgi chuckles and gives her a hug.

“Are you crazy!? You almost gave me a heart attack!” Joohyun angrily releases herself from the hug.  She sniffles and wipes the tears on her face.

“Sorry baby. I just wanted to surprise you,” Seulgi opens her arms to give Joohyun another hug but the shorter girl turns around in frustration.

“Don’t even talk to me. I hate you too much right now,” Joohyun sniffles although she was secretly relieved Seulgi came over.  Joohyun feels arms snaking around her waist. 

Seulgi gives Joohyun a back hug and rests her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me”

Joohyun turns around and shoots Seulgi a glare, “What are you even doing here?”

Seulgi wipes Joohyun’s tears with her thumb, “I couldn’t sleep so I went to buy food and decided to drop by ‘cause I knew you’d be awake by this time,” Seulgi gives her a smile.

“But what if I wasn’t?”

“I’d wake you up. Duh”

Joohyun furrows her eyebrows and notices a plastic bag in Seulgi’s hand.  The latter brought it up to give her a closer look, “Cheesecake? It’s our favourite.”

The couple ended up eating cheesecake on Joohyun’s bed.  An hour passed by with Joohyun leaning on Seulgi’s shoulder and Seulgi’s arm around her waist.  They talked about random things.  Seulgi’s teasing and bad jokes always received a hit in response.  But Seulgi didn’t care as long as they made Joohyun laugh.  Seeing Joohyun smile because of her still gave her the butterflies.  Sometimes they would share a kiss in the middle of the conversation because Joohyun would look up to her and Seulgi was always tempted to close the gap in between. 

After a while, Joohyun’s drowsiness starts to take over her so she closes her eyes and Seulgi just stays put, making sure her girlfriend was comfortable.

“Stay the night, okay?” Joohyun shifted and buried her head on Seulgi’s chest, draping her arm over Seulgi’s stomach.

“That’s the plan,” Seulgi brings her cheek to Joohyun’s head and inhales her strawberry scented shampoo.

“Thank you, Seulgi-yah...” Joohyun whispers, enough for Seulgi to hear.  She bobs up her head to face Seulgi and gives her a kiss on the cheek. “Love you. Goodnight”

Seulgi’s ears turn red and she smiles a wide toothy grin, proud of what she had done.  “Let’s watch a horror movie,” she girlfriend once more and receives a hit on the stomach.

Joohyun turns around and shifts a little away from Seulgi.

“I’m sorry, I was just kidding,” Seulgi giggles and touches Joohyun’s arm but only to be swatted away.

“No cuddles for tonight,” Joohyun states, back facing a pouting Seulgi.

“You do know it’s still 3am,” Seulgi reminded, thinking it would bring Joohyun back in her arms.

Silence.

Seulgi sighs in defeat and closes her eyes.

When Joohyun thinks Seulgi has drifted off to sleep, she moves a little bit back, attaching her back to her girlfriend’s front.  Joohyun hated to admit that she was still paranoid. She needed to feel safe.  Joohyun places Seulgi’s arm over her waist and intertwines both their left hands together.

And Seulgi could only smile in contentment.  I love horror movies.