It was already twenty minutes passed seven in the evening. The sky had been missing its stars and moon, sudden thunder almost made him shiver. Hanbin was already late for the group’s dinner with their president. It was one of the never ending celebration of their song topping in all charts. With the dim and wintry atmosphere, he took a photograph of himself with street lamps at the background, filtered it with black and white and captioned ‘LOVE ME.’ Lips were bewildered, smiling huge when he saw the never ending affection from his fans. But somehow, he still felt empty, he was longing for that particular attention. He released a profound sigh and sat on the gutter. While reading the warm long messages, he felt the itchiness inside of his nose as he unconsciously tried to remove some booger with his pinkie finger.

“Love me? Pffft. Someone will surely love you picking your nose.” A voice coming from nowhere made him almost threw his phone as he felt his heart racing to win a cardiac arrest. The wind was crippling between the weave of his cardigan as he heard static noise from afar. He stood slowly, looked around keenly and searched for the soul that owned the voice.

“Aish... You’re still a coward?” She nudged him from behind as he clutched his chest with incoming heart attack, his lungs were slowly raising its arms as a sign of defeat. When he faced the person, his lips rapidly trembled as he tried to lift up the corners. Everything was blurred when he caught her already staring at him. From a terrifying turned of events, it transversed to a melodrama aesthetics. Only the heavens knew how much he loved the sight of faint light hitting her lovely face, making everything melt in fluffiness.

Handful of seconds ran over them, she tilted her head and crossed her arms. “What?” Her brows suddenly went up when she realized he was thinking of something and exclaimed, “Excuse me, I’m not stalking you! Your post was just all over my timeline.” She paused. “I’m just making sure that the address that your mom gave me is correct.”

Hanbin was once again phasing out as he naively followed her sight, going up the building and stopped on their floor with nothing but shut windows and dark rooms. She heaved a sulking breath. “Looks like the whole squad isn’t here.” Her words were unclear as his sight went south, it was unintentional. He was staring at her weird necklace with an old lego pendant but somehow, his orbs were involuntary stuck, remembering those soft-

“Yah! Where are you looking?” She hit his forehead with a flick and clicked her tongue. “By the way, can you give me money?”

“Wae?” He wondered with that strange question. While his brain was still functioning, getting all the necessary information to process a simple question, without any warning she pulled him by his pockets. Her thin cold fingers were inserted in front of his jeans, tickling him. He felt his muscles solidified, especially down there. As the earth begun spinning slowly again, his heart was doing otherwise. It performed acrobatic stunts that made him feel like his ribcage was going to explode. The fog from covered his blushing face and dilated pupils.

Her arms went around, almost hugging him as she slipped both her hands at the back of his jeans, still looking for money. On the left pocket at the back, she sensed some crumpled papers as her fingers dug in, her nails were deeper, closer to his skin. Cupping his hump, thanks to the super fitted jeans that gave her a hard time getting the bank notes. He thanked the whole universe for inventing skinny jeans as he bit his lower lip and groaned. “Uhhh...” He closed his eyes and let her so close to him, smelling her hair eluding some camomile soothing scent, almost feeling her super soft facade. “I just forgot my wallet. I’ll pay you back, uglyyyy~” She murmured prolonging the last syllable, next to his ear as his smaller head begun pumping unknowingly. Surprisingly, the word ugly felt like the sweetest word he heard from her.

She left without caution as his skin was fuming red, blood was in chaos of anarchy, his body quivered. Eyes were twinkling as his palms cupped his burning cheeks, his smile was ear to ear. “My God. She called me ugly and touched my cheeks.”

*

Finally, friday chilly night was here. The usual ritual of the group was movie marathon before they spend the weekends with however they want. The group was divided into two apatrtments, the neat ones and the messy ones. This time, they were all over the messy’s four bedroom flat. “Did you buy popcorn Chanu-yah?” Yunhyeong shouted from the kitchen. He finally placed the last omu rice on the plate and put it on the tray, walking slowly to the living room. “Your house is really dirty guys.” He commented snidely.

“That’s why I’m glad I’m with Hanbin and you.” Chanwoo pi