ten

Yeoreum watched Jongin finishing his breakfast. She felt content when she saw he had finished the breakfast. A small smile lingered on her lips as she took it away. “Is it delicious?”

“It’s perfect.”

She smiled even more. What was the content feeling in her heart that she was feeling? She didn’t know. She was just a tad happy to look at the boy who eats so well. It was the first time she saw him finishing his meals – maybe his mother healthy diet didn’t go well with him. His coffee was also finished, lying empty on the kitchen counter in which she picked it up and throw it in the trash bin.

“Are you going to go back to your room?” she had asked, washing the dishes.

Jongin seemed to ponder for a moment – he shrugged and she didn’t say anything.

Just like that, they went silent.

Awkward was an understatement.

She had glanced at Jongin for the nth time when she finished doing the dishes. She turned off the water and sighed. “Are you going to stay there forever?”

He scowled. “Why do you even care?”

“Jeez, I’m trying to be nice.” She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless when she saw his uncertain moves – as if he was also asking himself what to do.

“Can you check if Chanyeol is sleeping?”

She raised a brow, an amused smirk tugged on her lips as she crossed her arms. “And what’s in for me?”

“Why do have to put everything like that?”

“Because I don’t do anything for free. And also, like I said…I help you, you help me.”

He groaned, “Just forget it. You annoy me.”

She clacked her tongue and pushed the boy to sit down back, trudging to his room afterwards. “He’s sleeping.” She had said – door opening, revealing Chanyeol who was busy snoring and hogging the whole bed. She could only smile because the boy was so energized the moment he stepped in, but was so deep in his sleep to even realize that she had just shouted.

“And he’s hogging the whole bed.”

Jongin groaned, of course at that.

“Are you going back to bed?”

Yeoreum would be lying if she said that she wasn’t amused seeing Jongin’s grimaced face. He still seemed unsure at answering her and she thought that maybe he wanted to go back to bed, but was too lazy to handle with Chanyeol.

“Or maybe you could stay in the living room? You know…do stuff…” she waved her hands around.

He scowled. “I don’t want to.”

“Do you prefer staying there the whole time?” she snorted back. “I’m giving you an options and besides, you don’t need to move much when lunch came, right?”

He seemed to be thinking about it and she smiled – maybe her poor attempt will succeed.

And it did, of course – Yeoreum found Jongin on the couch when she finished doing the laundry. He sat on the edge of the couch, having a blank face as he stared at nothing. She smiled, because he looked so cute without even trying to.

Was he like this actually?

She tilted her head, gazing at him from the corner of the room. And it must have been long enough, because suddenly he raised an eyebrow.

“Hey…”

She raised a brow.

“Hey…”

She still didn’t answer his calling.

“Hey…”

She pressed her lips into a thin line.

“Hey…”

She huffed. “I have a name, okay? Not hey…”

Jongin seemed amused by the sudden outburst. “Okay then, Han Yeoreum…”

Yeoreum was a tad surprised by the fact that he knew her name. How he knew about it – she didn’t know. Maybe Mrs. Kim had informed him about her. But nevertheless, she felt a bit excited that the boy was calling for her name, an actual name.

“What?”

“Get my book in the room.”

“You know…it would be nice if you actually said the magic word – please.”

“It would be nice if you stop talking, but I didn’t say anything about it, did I?”

She glared. “What book?”

He smirked. “You will see it when you get inside.”

She rolled her eyes. He couldn’t even see, how could he even read? But she didn’t comment anything and just walked inside. Chanyeol’s snoring greeted her and she glanced around.

The same book that she always seen with Jongin had her attention and she took it from the nightstand, quickly exiting the room afterwards.

Wondering what so special about the book that had the boy’s attention, she opened it. What takes her attention about it was that – it was filled with no words, it was empty. But when she gazed on it, she could feel the little dots on the surface.

It was written in braille.

Now she understands why the boy was always with the book, he was reading it.

She was amused alright.

“Here.” She placed it on his laps to which he seemed surprised by it but didn’t say anything.

She watched it as he picked it up. His fingers slight caressed the book and realized that it was upside down because he suddenly fixed the position and opened it back. She just watched as his fingers gazed on the surface of the paper.

“What?” he spat and Yeoreum startled.

“What?”

“You’re staring at me.”

She frowned. “And how you know that?” she spat back.

“I can feel it. You’re basically me with your eyes.”

She scowled, seemed offended by it as she put her hands on the chest. “Excuse you, you’re not even my type.”

“Glad to know that.”

She rolled her eyes at that, but still didn’t move anywhere and continued watching him again. She didn’t know why the thought of having him reading the stupid braille had her attention so much. She was so focused on him that Jongin had to comment again.

“Are you seriously going to stare at me the whole day?”

She frowned. “Jeez, no need to be so moody about it.” she murmured.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“All my jobs are finished. I just have to wait for lunch…”

“Must be nice doing nothing.” He mocked and she glared.

“What do you mean nothing? I have to take care of your bratty .” She had mumbled under her breath, praying that Jongin wouldn’t hear it.

“So do you decide to take your time and admire me then? Just do whatever things you always do.”

“I always watched the drama after finished with my works.”

“And?”

“Won’t I disturb you or anything?”

Jongin sighed. “Just do whatever you want.”

She shrugged at that and goes around the couch, before taking a seat at another end of the couch, turning on the drama. She had turned down the volume, in case it was too loud for the boy