It was a Saturday morning and they wasted no time. Krystal was in the hospital from 7:30 in the morning till 12 in the noon, while Minho had the same working hours as her. Before the left the hospital, they made sure to do rounds and check on their patients who were confined for about an hour. Minho finished his rounds early and instead of going straight to his wife’s clinic, he guessed that she was still in the pediatrics ward and made his way there. He stood behind the wall to peep and watched her do her thing with the kids and he smiled as he saw her giving the little boy a high five.

“Well done! Keep it up,” she said to her five year old patient with a smile. She stood at the aisle near the door and called the kids’ attention. “Little fighters, I’m going now and I’ll be checking up on you again. Rest well!”

“Bye pretty doctor!” The kids greeted Krystal and waved at her while their pediatrician waved back with a huge smile that she always has for them.

When she walked out of the ward, she almost jumped when she saw Minho standing while resting his back against the wall with his hands on his white coat’s pockets.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled at her before chuckling. “Done for today?”

She let her shoulders relax before nodding in reply, then they started walking together. “What were you doing out there?”

“Oh, I finished a bit early than you and I was on my way back to my clinic to get my stuff, then I saw you in the ward.”

“Oh, alright. I’ll be on my way to my clinic.” She was to turn right, while Minho would have to walk at the far end of the hall to take the lift to a different floor to go to his.

He nodded with a small smile. “I’ll meet you there.” Krystal raised her thumb before turning the other way. She was relieved that they parted ways soon before she felt the bubble of awkwardness encapsulate them

Krystal switched everything off and grabbed her stuff. She greeted her assistants before leaving her clinic and Minho was just on time, walking towards her clinic just before she opened the door. 

“Hey, pretty doctor! Long time no see.”

She giggled at his remark and hit his arm. “We were just together a few minutes ago!” She almost choked when she felt the loss of air shortly and tried to ignore the way he addressed her to avoid blushing.

“Where will we eat lunch? Kinda tired of the same old restaurants. I don’t mind cooking, though.”

“Yeah, we gotta try something new- by the way. I heard the new organic restaurant opened in the mall near our place.”

“Wanna check it out?”

She raised her eyebrows as a response and they walked together to the car. Minho opened the car door for her, which he regularly does, and waited for her to get in before going to his side of the car. There was nothing to talk about in the car. They both sat in silence while he maintained his focus on the road and she was looking out the window. He wanted to talk to her, but he was unsure if she wanted to. She wanted to talk to him, but she was having doubts because she might distract him. Their instincts both decided that they would just talk to the other at the restaurant over lunch, so they would have something to talk about.

“You want to go watch a movie later?”

Krystal looked at the wall on the right while she was in thought. “There aren’t really nice movies today.”

He nodded in agreement. “I think so too. Let’s just go around later.”

They continued eating lunch and would have a few conversations in between. They were always shy with each other. Their first meeting was in their mutual friend’s birthday party, the one where Krystal attended with her mother. Mrs. Jung introduced them to each other before the party and their mutual friend, Yoona, introduced them again to each other twice during the afterparty. In those three occasions, they never shook hands. They only smiled shyly and raised their eyebrows at each other. They only greeted each other “hi” in an almost inaudible sound, and not even “nice to meet you.”

As they walked around the mall, unlike other couples, they didn’t hold each other’s hand, nor put an arm around the other. They both didn’t feel like looking around clothing stores, so Krystal looked at her husband while they were walking. “I’ll go to the bookstore.”

He looked at her and nodded. “I’ll go check if they have new video games.”

She pressed her lips together before showing a thin smile and nodded before walking to her favorite store. As soon as she set foot in the bookstore and the guard greeted the familiar girl, she greeted the guard back and flashed him warm smile. She roamed around for at least two hours and look for new and interesting titles because she finishes a book quickly, but sadly she wasn’t able to get anything this time. Again, she greeted the guard when she walked out and went straight to the coffee shop across the bookstore. As she was walking along the aisles that were lined with books, she received a message from her husband that he was waiting for her at the coffee shop. It has been a usual routine for them. They sat there to kill time before they went to Church in the evening, then finally went home.

Minho was on his phone, reading up on new alien discoveries and Krystal was trying to finish the last few chapters of the novel that she started last Thursday. They were both in their pajamas while sitting in the living room. They were comfortable in sharing their silence and it did not seem to bother them still. He was on the left side of the couch, while she was on the right. After reading the article, he kept his focus on his wife who was engrossed with the book in her hands. He studied her features carefully and thought, “even her side view’s gorgeous.”

“Krystal,” he called her.

She turned his head to look at him, her eyebrows already raised, asking for her without doing the talking.

“Are you hungry?”

She shook her head and smiled shyly. “No, thank you. Are you? I can cook if you are.”

“Nah, I’m all good.” He smiled to reassure her and went brought his attention back to his phone.

“Alright, suit yourself.”

Just a few minutes later, a tiny sound was heard loudly, especially in this state of silence. “That’s definitely not mine,” said Krystal before she got up to go to the kitchen.

“No, no-“ his stomach just churned a nit longer and louder this time and the sound made his wife laugh.

“What do you want?” She halted in her tracks to look at him.

“Uh- grilled cheese,” he almost said in a whisper.

She laughed while shaking her head. “You sure you only want that? That churning was a bit loud.”

“Very.”

In the kitchen, she was doing a google search on how to properly prepare a grilled cheese sandwich because she was ashamed to tell him that this was her first time making it. After getting everything ready, it was time for her to put it in the pan and she was praying that she wouldn’t be splattered with oil. “Okay that was a great start,” she told herself. Two minutes passed and she was praying as she flipped the sandwich on the pan. “No splattering, no splattering!” She successfully flipped it without getting hurt by the oil. She was resting her back on the counter when she saw something on the floor. “OH MY GOSH JESUS CHRIST!”

Minho rushed to the kitchen when he heard his wife screaming. “Why, What’s wrong?!” He held her shoulders while asking her before looking at her hands or arms to see if there were cuts or burns. “Where are you hurt?!” He was clearly worried about her. It was written on his face, too.

She started running around, looking like she was trying to avoid something. “COCKROACH! THERE’S A COCKROACH!” She was pointing at it and ran out the kitchen while her husband chased it and killed it with his slipper. She got the mop and before going back to the kitchen, she asked him. “Is it dead?”

“Killed it,” he replied while washing his slipper in the sink.

Krystal hurriedly cleaned the spot where it was killed with a mop before placing it at the side. “I’m just hoping this isn’t burnt,” she mentally told herself. She turned the stove off and placed the sandwich on the plate. Just as she expected, it was already burnt. She cursed herself secretly while sighing to show her dismay. Minho was still in the kitchen and threw the paper towel he used to dry his slipper. He turned to her when he heard her sigh with the plate in her hand.

“Sorry.”

He pressed his lips together before letting it curve upwards to form a smile. “It’s fine. I like eating burnt stuff.”

She thought that he was just probably saying that to make her feel better. “There’s no need to pretend. I promise, I’ll do better next time.”

After grabbing the plate from her, Minho sat on a dining chair and placed the plate on the table. “Can you please accompany me?”

She sat with him and stared at the burnt mess. “If I were you I wouldn’t eat that.”

He took a bit of the sandwich before his eyes met hers. “But I already did. It’s not as bad as you think! It’s actually very tasty. Plus, the texture’s nice. You like eating burnt stuff, too, right?” He kept a smile on his face just so her frown would go away.

“That side nearly turned into ashes.”

“But it doesn’t taste like it’s burnt.” Minho put the last piece in his mouth and chewed on it. “See,” he said to her before shaking his head. “I even finished it.“

Krystal only sighed because of her self disappointment. “I’ll be washing this.” She grabbed the plate and stood up, while he stood up the same time as she did.

He held both of her shoulders, which made her raise them in shock. He turned her around to face him before hugging her and kissing her hair. “It wasn’t as bad as you think. Thank you for the meal.” As he broke their hug, he smiled before taking the plate from her. “I’ll go clean this up.”

She only looked at him and nodded. Whenever he’ll do this, kiss her forehead or her hair that is, she would still be shocked and freeze a bit. She was confused with him. There are moments when she’d ask herself if he likes her or he was only acting that way because they were arranged.

Author's note: Hi everyone! Sorry for being MIA for two months :( the past few months/weeks/days were really hectic (like REAAAAAALLYYYYYYY hectic). I do catch myself going back to my unhealthy habits, which date back to the days when we were conducting our experiment for our thesis and I rarely ate because there was really no time for me to do so. Also, they need to check my back again because we all felt like it moved again (if you've been my previous reader, you may be aware that my lower back and pelvis are twisted and not properly aligned), which I hope not, and they also need to check my knee again because the tear in my ligament may have become bigger, which I really hope not. Again, I sincerely apologize for not updating.

Which reminds me, this chaoter was supposed to be uploaded the next day after my previous update! I forgot that I was supposed to post this because it really got busy, so here it is, just now. I know I'm not updating as quickly as I did when I wrote JALBOYH (because I had the luxury of time back then), but I promise everyone that I won't be abandoning this story. I hate leaving unfinished stories behind.

Lastly, since I was MIA, [to make up for that] I have a gift for everyone :)