“Where were you? Why are you the last one out?” Junmyeon is the first to approach you when you emerge from the penthouse with one of his cousins.

“You can’t possibly expect me to go first when I’m just a guest,” you respond. Your wet towel is still draped around your shoulders as you are practically fresh out of the shower. “It’s called manners, if you didn’t know.”

He rolls his eyes as he takes a quick glance at your wet, messy hair before taking your bag from you. His other hand reaches out to grab yours. “C’mon, we’ll be late for dinner!”

As he pulls you towards the barbeque, you are suddenly hyperaware of how his fingers curl around your wrist. It is secure, yet not too rough and it reminds you of a cliché scene from dramas that Seungwan likes telling you about. Your heart starts accelerating unconsciously.

He must be very hungry, you assume, as he is bounding towards the group of people. You shoot a sorry smile towards the girl who accompanied you out. It seems that the resident gentleman isn’t such a gentleman to everyone after all. She shakes her head at you with a smile. Amidst all of this, you are still very much aware of the grip on your wrist and of how it belongs to him.

You are already panting when you arrive; years of not being active has taken its toll. “Yah! Were you that hungry?”

He grins innocently. “Nope. I thought it’d be fun to run.”

“Junmyeon!”

He quickly ducks from your hand. “There it is. You’ve got to really let loose more often. Too much stress is bad for your health.”

“Letting loose doesn’t guarantee you a place in a good university. I’m blaming you if I don’t get into Seoul University,” you say. “And who are you to care about my health?”

He clutches his chest. “I can’t believe you think I’m that heartless.”

You wait for Junmyeon to place your bag on the ground before walking together towards the inviting smell of meat. A few of his uncles are manning the grill, chatting as they flip some sausages. One of them passes you a kebab.

Before they can give one to Junmyeon, his mother appears with some food with her. “There you are! Here, I have a kebab with red peppers and tomatoes. It’s your favourite!”

She hands him some sausages, kebabs, and even some marshmallows. He looks flustered as he accepts everything, not used to the attention. As he fumbles with the stuff, she smiles at you unsurely. It is then when you realise that this is her attempt to shower Junmyeon with more affection and attention.

“I don’t even like tomatoes. Hyung does,” he mutters under his breath. His mother doesn’t hear it.

“Enjoy yourself, okay?” she pats him on the back, making him even more confused. “I’ll be back soon!”

She disappears off into the crowd. You take a bite out of your food, not commenting on what had just happened. Junmyeon looks puzzled, and it is probably not in your best interest to let him know his mother’s motives, or even worse, how she got the information.

He soon schools his features into a neutral expression. You want him to talk to you, tell you what’s on his mind, but you know that all you’ll get is stubborn silence. Besides, it isn’t even in your place to ask that of him. If he had to tell anyone his problems, it wouldn’t be you.

But he opened up about his insecurities to you, didn’t he? A small voice at the back of your mind supplies. It was probably because of the heat of the moment. You sigh. Why are you so let down by this?

“Why are you sighing?” he asks. “Anything wrong?”

You quickly think of an excuse. “Just thinking of how I have to study when I get back. And also about our Physics project.”

“We have a project?!”

You stare at him incredulously. “Are you serious?”

“What did I tell you about stressing over things?” he points out, finishing up the last of his sausages. He doesn’t even answer you about the project. “There’s a time and place for everything, and right now it’s time for you to have fun. I’m telling you, it’s not good for your head if you constantly think about schoolwork.”

Deep down, you know he’s right. However, you refuse to give in so easily. “Then why don’t you ever pay attention in school? There’s a time and place for studying too.”

He groans. “I wish I could have your diligence and you could have some of my laziness.”

“We balance each other out,” you remark, more to yourself.

“Trust me. If you hang around me more, you won’t know what hit you. Laziness is deathly contagious.”

“I can only hope that you’ll absorb some of my focus in the process.”

“We’ll have to wait and find out, won’t we?”

The implications of his words make you flush, but the brilliance of the smile that comes along with it is blinding. It makes you feel like you are on fire, and not in a bad way. In fact, he himself is just like fire; on the outside he is just a pretty flame, light and flickering. But the more you get to know him, he is more than that. He is hotter, fiercer, unquenchable.

-

You confide in Seungwan in the late hours of the night, as you are unable to fall asleep. You had woken up early in the morning and used up a lot of energy on the beach. Yet, you are still tossing and turning with nothing but your running thoughts to blame. Your body screams at you to just sleep!

It is a surprise she is still awake. Seungwan sheepishly admits that catching up on her latest drama is the reason for her staying awake. It is barely past midnight and the whole house is quiet, save for your hushed voice on the phone.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure?" You can hear the curiosity in her voice and you don't blame her. You can safely say that you've never done this before.

The words escape you in a rush. "I think I like Junmyeon."

There is no sound from the other side. You might've just shocked her into silence.

"Seungwan?" you call out. "Are you there? Say something!"

"No, wait. Say that again?" she stumbles over her words. "I was just teasing you in class, I never expected this would really happen. A-are you sure?"

You groan into your pillow. "What do I do?! I've never done this before!"

You've only had fleeting interests in boys throughout your schooling years, but they were never too strong for you to act on. And it wasn't as if there were boys lining outside your door as well. It was safe to say you had barely gotten the minimum experience when it came to boys and dating. You could only hope for Seungwan to guide you towards the light.

"How did this happen?"

"We went to the beach today, right? I'll return your swimsuit on Monday, by the way," you convey, as she lets out an impatient breath. "I-I don't know. Junmyeon's not entirely the guy he makes himself out to be. He's so much more than that, and he's just misunderstood. We talked a lot today, and I can understand why he slacks off so much in school."

“And Minseok sunbae? He was there too, right?”

“Honestly, I think I was just infatuated with him because he was so perfect. But maybe perfection is not something that I really want or need. Right now, he’s more of a nice senior to me.”

“That’s deep,” she comments. “But what are you going to do about this?”

“That’s why I called you!” you cry as loudly as you can without waking anyone else. Your voice drops. “I really like him, Seungwan. But I know we’ll never work out. We’re total opposites.”

“Opposites attract.”

“We’re not magnets, or anodes or cathodes. We’re people, who need compatibility to keep a relationship afloat. We’d be fighting half the time over something we don’t agree on!”

She hums. “Here’s the thing. You can balance each other out. Compromise. Understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. Your love life isn’t an equation that can be solved with a calculator. You have to just act on it and hope the end result isn’t an explosion.”

You can hear the grin from the other line. “Okay, but what do I do? Do I act like we never spoke about anything of importance from today?”

“Just act normal and see how he reacts. That’s all I can say for now.”

“Okay,” You let out a deep breath. “I’ll do just that. Thanks, Seungwan. Sorry I had to interrupt your drama session.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for, right?” she chuckles. “You should really go sleep now. Isn’t it past your bedtime already?”

You bid your goodbyes and hang up. However, something she had said manages to keep you up. She said it was okay for you to call her at this utterly late hour, and that it was what friends did for each other. You cannot recall even one moment when you have done that for any of your friends. Were you that bad of a friend?

You had always kept your phone on silent from nine at night to the following morning. Your friends wouldn’t be able to contact you if anything happened. As much as you hated to admit it, you barely