Sungkyung stayed over after Joshua dropped Ariel and I home. The infant had fallen asleep in his arms, and almost woke up when I took her. We waved goodbye awkwardly, both of us wondering if it was too soon for a quick peck. That felt like a long-term relationship thing.

I dressed Ariel and put her to bed, and Sungkyung waited patiently in my room, wearing my spare pyjamas, and using my phone charger. “Tell me everything,” she whispered.

I smiled as I changed into my nightwear right there. “It was beautiful. He was so good with Ariel, and he was so cute when he was thinking about me when he was staring and didn’t realize I could very easily hear his thoughts, and we kissed during the firework show and it legit felt like the fireworks were going on inside my head.” I hugged the plush dog close to my chest and fell onto my bed.

“That sounds so cute!” Sungkyung gushed. “Oh my God, I knew this would happen from the night you two met. At that soup place.”

I nodded. “I know you did.” I went through my photos to show my friend. “Past all the firework pictures… Here. Look at this one.” It was the picture of Joshua and Ariel eating candy apples. Then there were pictures of the two of them on a ride I took when I returned from the bathroom at one point. I got to the firework pictures. “Ariel took these photos,” I said, scrolling by quickly since they were all pretty blurry and very repetitive.

“Wait. Stop. Go back,” Sungkyung said, eyes fixated on the screen. “There. Look.”

Well, well, well. Ariel had captured a beautiful picture, most likely by accident judging from the blur, of Joshua and I kissing with the fireworks behind us. “Oh.”

“This is so wonderful. Like, background picture worthy.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I’m not setting this as my background picture, Kyung. This was our second kiss. We’re nowhere near married.”

She shrugged. “Vernon set his background picture to a selfie he took while I was sleeping.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You guys are that serious?”

Shaking her head and frowning, Sungkyung said, “No, that’s what I’m trying to say. You don’t have to be serious to do like that.”

I wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure Vernon knows you two aren’t serious?”

Her brows furrowed deeper. “Of course. I mean, we never outright said it, but we haven’t seen each other besides sleeping together in forever.”

“Huh,” I muttered. “I guess he does realize you’re not serious.”

“Also, I thought about this like yesterday after he left, but I am so going to ask him to introduce me to Aron of Nu’est.”

I chuckled. “Jeez! How many men do you need in your life?” I yawned at the end of my sentence, and so did she.

She winked. “Just enough. Let’s sleep. Do you have school tomorrow?”

“Nope. But I work in the evening.”

“Whenever I feel like I have your schedule down and memorized, you hit me with a switch up.”

“I like to keep you on your toes, hun.”

In the morning, I woke up for my early run as usual. I didn’t stay out as long as I normally would have, since I knew Sungkyung was over. When I got back, she had started on making breakfast. I hopped into the shower for a quick rinse, and then set the table.

“Three?” Sungkyung asked when she saw the plates.

“My dad said he’d be home for breakfast, remember?”

Speak of the devil, the man himself walked in through the door at that very second. He looked at me with sleepy eyes. “I almost rang the doorbell with my key,” he said. “Please tell me you made coffee.”

Sungkyung panicked. “Umm, no sir, I didn’t, but I can get on that right now!”

I placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “No, don’t.” Turning to my father I said, “I don’t think that’s the best idea, Dad. You should eat your breakfast and then go to sleep.”

He shook his head vehemently. “No, no, no. I need to go back to the firm. The stones are speaking to me, and I seem to be the only one sleep deprived enough to understand what they’re saying. I just came home for a change of clothes and an entire thermos of coffee.” He then went into his bedroom, most likely to take care of that first thing.

Sungkyung leaned in and whispered, “So should I make coffee?”

I sighed. I knew I got my stubbornness from my father so I knew there was no changing his mind. “Yeah,” I said finally. “Let’s make him a thermosful of coffee and I’ll make him a lunch.”

By the time the largest thermos we owned was full, and I had stacks of tin containers for him, he still hadn’t come out of the bedroom. I decided to go in to see what was up.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed in his boxers and one arm through the head hole of a vest (but no dress shirt under said vest) and he was fast asleep. I clapped my hands right by his ear and he jumped. “Oh. Alice. What are you doing here?” His eyes were already half closed again.

I pulled the vest off of him and instead gently pushed him down into a lying position. I tucked him in and he was none the wiser, already in deep slumber.

I left the bedroom and closed the door behind me. I found my father’s cellphone in his jacket pocket and dialled one of his only coworkers that I had actually met. He didn’t answer, so I left a voicemail. “Hello Mr Park. It’s Kwon Alice, Professor Kwon’s daughter. I’m calling to let you know that my father is not in the best shape and will return to work in a few hours once he’s rested and ready to be as productive as he possibly can. Thank you. Have a great day.”

Then Sungkyung and I had breakfast alone and as quietly as possible before packing it up and going up to the rooftop to work on my final project.

I opened the door and told her that I was only showing her this place out of pure necessity and that it was my secret place that no one was to know about. She agreed and we began.

***

I woke up with a relaxed smile on my face and the smell of waffles coming from outside my room. I followed it and found Vernon alone in the kitchen. He placed a finger on his lips to tell me to stay quiet and he pointed at each of the rooms and mimed sleeping.

I nodded. “What’s all this for?” I asked in a whisper.

He simply poked my chest.

I raised a brow and pointed at myself inquisitively.

He nodded. “Sungkyung told me you took Alice out for a proper date last night. So I wanted to celebrate with you without letting anyone else know.”

I chuckled. “Thanks, I guess? You didn’t have to do this.”

“I think you guys are cute together.”

“...Okay.”

We sat down and ate our waffles with fresh fruit and whipped cream on top, and it was the best thing in the world.

“Where in the world did you get a waffle maker?” I asked.

“My mom gave it to me a few months ago when I mentioned offhand that I missed waffles. I’ve been storing it in my room ever since.”

I nodded. “Well yesterday I woke up to you coming home from Sungkyung's. How is it going w