She opened her eyes to the blinding sunlight, smiled and turned to the man sound asleep beside her. She watched freely as a ray of light hugged his face; the swirling speck of dust all over it making his after- messy black hair appear dusty. How could he ever think he is ugly? She allowed her eyes to rake his pretty face, his nose, his slightly parted lips. What a sight.

Saab felt content and happy. It has been two weeks since their hiking trip and they have been inseparable since. She wanted to wake him up so bad but he has a schedule, in fact he will start being busy soon as their anniversary comeback approaches. She doesn’t know what to feel about that. She has grown accustomed to the normal world they have been keeping; a normal world wherein she can freely be his girl and he can freely be with her without worries. But today, that fake reality will slowly crumble. She hates how she can already predict what will happen. She sighed in worry.

One day at a time Saab. One day at a time.

She knows he will have a busy day so she contently buried her face on his chest, drowning herself with his manly smell she’ll recognize anywhere, anytime, forever. She let him sleep for thirty minutes more until his phone beeped.

Time to go.

“Yeobo.”

“Hmmm.” He protested, drawing her body to his even tighter. “It’s time to wake up. You’ll be late.”

“30 minutes more.” She can’t see his face but she knows he is pouting. Cute.

She escaped from his embrace to kiss his exposed forehead. “I already gave you 30 minutes earlier. That’s the second alarm. You should get up.”

“You’ve been awake for that long? Aishh, you should have woken me up.” This time she can see his pout. She resisted the urge to kiss him. God knows it will lead to something else and the alarm would be useless.

“Aishh, you oldie. Why are you complaining? Your bones need proper rest. What would you even do for 30 minutes here? Getting enough sleep is better.”

“We could do a lot of things in 30 minutes.” His eyes glinting.

“Shut up.” She laughed. “Get up!!”

“5 minutes please?” He begged. “Fine.”

“Yes!” He exclaimed and climbed on top of her; pinning her hands over her head in seconds.

“Yesung what the ?” She blurted out in English, completely shocked. He just laughed and kissed her neck.

“You said yes to 5 minutes. No complaining. Time’s ticking.” He whispered to her ear, in between gentle but needy bites. She felt so weak she can only nod and groan at the same time.

The room was soon filled with urgent peeling of clothes and hurried grunts.

Then he was gone.

Saab stared to the ceiling, still . Selene’s parting question at the airport ringing in her ears. “When are you going to tell him?”

She got up, pulled a tracksuit from the drawer, arranged her still wet hair in a bun, dashed to the door leading outside the real world without him and ran.

_______

He pinched his legs in secret, trying not to space out completely. He can feel Siwon’s eyes boring into his face. “Are you okay hyung?” He whispered.

He tapped his hand on his knee. They don’t need words. Siwon sat back to his chair.

He hasn’t seen Saab for more than an hour since their comeback promotions started. He felt frustrated and scared.

“Hyung.” Ryeowook. Everyone is looking at him. Did he miss something? The interviewer laughed. “Ah looks like our Yesung is still sleepy. Promoting must be hard with your age and all. You guys are not getting any younger.”

“That’s right.” Heechul chimed. “Though our Aesongie’s visual is looking younger and younger day by day.”

“Now that you said that. Yesung looks like he is a man in love in a hurry to get home to his girlfriend.” The interviewer teased. “Does our Yesung have a girlfriend?”

“He doesn’t. Who in their right mind would— “, Hyukjae, this brat? “He is thinking if he fed Melo and Kkoming before leaving.”

“Bastard.” He laughed.

“Speaking of girlfriend. We have a question here in the comments. Hmm. I wonder if this is alright to ask?” The interviewer paused. It is a live broadcast and they need to be careful. Fans are a little bit sensitive.

“What is it?” Their leader asked. “Hmm. It says, “At this age of Super Junior, if you find yourself in difficult situation and you need to choose, would you choose your career or your love life? Answer honestly.”

“Cha. Who is qualified to answer this?” Shindong joked.

“The hyungs should.” Kyuhyun, quick to his feet in avoiding a tricky question. “They are the ones most likely to be in this situation soon.”

“I would choose my career. I don’t even meet anyone.” Leeteuk laughed while the younger ones snickered, looking at Heechul, the member with a girlfriend. He opened his mouth, his palms up, “Honestly, I may be old but it is not up to me.”, then he laughed and everyone understood. Momo is too young for marriage.

“How about you Yesung?”, eyes turned to him. He would have answered this question comfortably with their basic fan service but realized Saab might be watching. A bead of sweat trickled on his back. He has no choice. She will understand. Out of all people she will. “I would choose my career of course. I have built this all my life. Our ELF is here to cheer us on anyway. It’s not lonely. Right?”

Basic fan service answer but why does he feel like getting his phone to apologize?

I hope this shoot end. I need to talk to Saab.

I need her.

_______

They are back to Café Armoire. Yesung prepared a picnic on the rooftop this time. She knows he is trying so hard to make up for his busy schedule but why can’t she remove that salty taste in ? That fan service answer he gave a week ago pissed her off. She didn’t tell him though; he didn’t ask.

She watched him practicing their new song. She should consider herself lucky, right? She gets to hear it first-hand. But she is not in the mood. She tried not to space out and appreciate his voice.

Saab felt like a different person. Her mood swings lately have been insane.

I hope he doesn’t notice. He already has a lot on his plate.

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