“Babe?”

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

“Honey?”

Four seconds.

Five seconds.

“Hong Dabin? Are you there?”

“Huh- what?” he asked, startled.

“You do realize that you’re holding a cup of really hot coffee, right? If you’re doing it with your mind goes out of space like that, I think you should just give up the coffee, also your shirt, and maybe your skin, too,” I answered his just-wake-up question. He replied me with just staring at me blankly while I was blabbering all those words. Well, girl, you sure were dumb as f. You knew talking to him then was like talking with a zombie. Plus, you’ve never been fond of zombies.

Dabin and I just came back from the coffee shop near our apartment building, and what I meant by near was right across the street. He insisted on having a ‘late night walk’ after just coming home from a super-packed schedule. Well, the so-called walk just last for a few minutes and then turned into a coffee break.

“I need caffeine,” he said when we just one step out of the apartment building. Of course you need that, idiot, look at you. I said inside my head while giving him a look of disbelief.

He looked just like a walking corpse. His eyes were barely open and he walked like a snail. I needed to be extra patient to deal with his current state and apparently that didn’t work really well.

The state was to this extend: I need to hold his arm while we walked, just to make sure that he’s going to the right direction. Yeah, it’s that bad.

So, after he got his caffeine, I asked, “Babe, can we come back to the apartment? I didn’t expect the weather to be this cold. I need my pants,” he scanned my look from head to toe and then agreed with me right away. Now you’re looking at me, huh?

Little did he know, I was actually, purposely, wearing only my oversize yellow hoodie that went (only) mid-length of my thighs, also with just a pair of sandals, for him. Plus to that, I wore socks because I didn’t want to go on a complete-suicide mission (or more of a killing-my-stomach mission) knowing that the weather would be this cold. I knew I needed some kind of an excuse to go back to the apartment, so I came up with the mission. Sigh, what I do for love.

I knew he wouldn’t last that long with that zombie/corpse-like state. Most importantly, I didn’t want to risk having him passed out on the street.

So, here we are, in the elevator, on our way back to the apartment.

Here’s the thing: Dabin is the sweetest type of boyfriend. The degree of his sweetness is so high that sometimes I can’t comprehend what’s going on inside his head.

The start of this ‘antic’ is that we happened to not have so much meetups because of his preparations for the tour he’s going to have in a few months. With the mess he’s going through at the merchandise department, it did give him extra hell.

Apparently, that didn’t go well with his promise of always meeting me, emphasize on the ‘always’ part. His ideal of ‘always’ is one time per day. Because of that, when he noticed he had a vacant schedule tonight, he came up with the plan of having a midnight date.

You don’t know how much I thank God for giving me this sweet boy as a boyfriend. With my line of work in the journalism world, I seriously need a tranquilizer. And, instead of aspirin, the curse of being my tranquilizer has been blessed on him.

However, that didn’t mean that this antic of him was acceptable. Seeing him that way was basically giving me extra headache, and it’s currently post working hour. So, besides being my tranquilizer, he’s also being a pain on my .

“Dabin-ah…”

“Yeah?” he replied while sitting on the elevator floor, holding his cup with two hands, and, of course, eyes half-closed.

“Baby, look at me…”

“Yes, honey. What’s up?” his head went up looking at me half-smiling.

“You know, we can just stay in? Look at you… You look like a zombie, and I hate zombies, but that’s not the point. My point is, let’s just do the date inside, okay?” his half-closed eyes then went a little bigger hearing my request.

“Besides, I think I wanna do some catch-ups on watching Battle Trip. If we’re doing the indoor date, you could give me a company doing that while, maybe, we cuddle on the couch. What do you say?” his eyes popped open the moment I said ‘cuddle’ and he went, “Alright, sweetheart, whatever you want,” with a little melody on the last part. Oh, wow, now he’s gaining his energy back. I thought. That also followed by the ‘ding’ sound of the elevator arriving at our floor.

We walked out the elevator and then suddenly he asked, “Is Battle Trip the one with the travelling thingy?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Hence the title Battle Trip. You hear me? ‘Battle’ and ‘trip’,” I said emphasizing things to mess with him a little.

“Tch. Whatever,” he brushed it off just like that and continued asking, “Why do you even like that show so much?”

“‘Cause-”

“Oh wait, I think I know. Because you’re a masochist,” he said cutting me.

I turned my head to face him beside me, with my eyes went as big as a golf ball, and I saw him grinning. How did he get this big of a revenge with that little amount of time?

“YA! No, I’m not!”

“Oh honey, I know how tortured you are whenever you’re watching that show. In spite of all that, you always watch it whenever you have free time,” he explained with having an innocent look on his face.

“I-”

“And you’re saying that you’re not a masochist?” he turned his face at me and let out his tongue. He then turned his face back front and said, “Hurry up, slowpoke! I wanna watch the show.” Great, he’s fully regained his energy now. I rolled my eyes at his back then chuckled.

“You know, you were walking like a snail just before this. I almost didn’t recognize your feet that it changed into some slimy-like-thingy,” I ran to him, catching his left hand into mine.

“Nice try, Missy. Keep up the good work in the comedy department,” he said grinning, eyes still upfront. Yeah, I know he’s grinning even when I barely saw his turned-face. His voice said it all.

Seriously? How dare of him mocking me like that? After I was being a super lovely girlfriend who’s practically begging him to get some rest?! Sigh. Well, actually, that’s one of the reasons why I’m still keeping him as my boyfriend. Him that could do both sweet and sassy. If one has a partner who’s expert only in one of the departments, just how boring their relationship could be, right? LOL.

We continued the never-ending walk to our apartment with my right hand in his left one. I didn’t know how this supposed to be short walk… Since when the distance between the elevator to my apartment became this long?

When we got in front of my door, I freed my hand out of his and fished my key out of my right pocket of my hoodie. He backed away from the door a little for me so that I could slide myself to the right and opened the apartment.

As the door’s opening, I could feel the warmth of the heater and, God, that felt so good. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, liking the temperature so much, Dabin walked past me scoffing.

“That’s your punishment for not covering up in that hellish weather,” he said while taking off his shoes and dashing away from me.

Only if you know, darl. Only if you know.

I came in to the apartment, taking off my sandals and putting them (mine and his) back to the rack.

I walked in and saw Dabin’s already positioned himself in the sofa in his usual place, left-side (‘cause I like leaning to his right shoulder).

I didn’t give him a single glance and walked past the sofa to the kitchen.

“Babe, where are you going?” his voice sounded distance because of the wall separating the living room and the kitchen.

“You have eyes, Hong-ssi. Use them,” I said half-shouting.

I opened my cupboard and started looking for the mandatory preparation before watching the show.

While doing that, he suddenly creeped himself behind me and asked, “Whatcha doin’?” His face was already on the left side of mine, his tone was impersonating Isabella from Phineas and Ferb.

I was so shocked that I almost screamed my lungs out, “WHAT THE HELL, HONG DABIN?!”

“Sorry,” he answered grinning.

“Oh, right, I forgot. You need to eat something for a Battle Trip watch,” he backed away from me, leaned his bottom on the kitchen counter behind him. “Seriously, you are a true masochist, Mrs. Hong.”

“Shut up and since when did I become your wife?” it now became so close to the eruption of my anger.

He then slided himself down to seat on the floor, leaning his back to the counter, “Don’t forget to add an egg. Add one more if you want it, too. I want one whole egg.”

“ARGH. Alright, alright. Now would you please move out of the kitchen? I own an f-ing small kitchen for God’s sake,” I yelled at him.

“Chill, woman. Okay, I’ll go,” he stood up while propping his hands up and backing away.

“This is why I told you to just move in with me!” he shouted.

And your voice is the very reason, you loud monster. I can’t believe I’m a girlfriend of an idiot.

I then continued the ‘cooking show’ with a pack of ramyeon and two eggs, just like he asked. Battle Trip is one of Korean shows that has an incredible mukbang. You could easily drool while watching the show which meant watching it without eating something is practically another suicide mission. I’m done with just one suicide for the day.

“Babe, can you bring the pot to the living room? The ramyeon’s ready!” I shouted my voice a little.

I tiptoed to reach the top shelf for the tiny bowls for us to eat later without actually ruining the sofa. While doing that, he came to the kitchen and went straight for the pot.

“Ouch!” I heard Dabin exclaimed and automatically turned my head to my left.

Tch. “Please don’t be stupid and wear this,” I reached for the mittens on my right and threw them at him. He catched it skillfully.

“Why can’t you just stop being a tsundere?” he sounded pissed.

He still had his eyes (piercing) toward me while his hands were fully covered with mittens, grabbing the pot’s handles. “Isn’t that why you date me, baby?” I stuck my tongue out at him and then continued my search on the bowls.

I heard his footsteps going further away from me. Well, not really ‘steps’, more like ‘drag’.

Followed by his feet’s sound, I heard him also mumbling hot thousands of times. I chuckled by myself listening to all of those.

Why? Why, Lord, why are you giving this super-extra person to me? Why?

“Babe, can you come back to the kitchen? I need a little hand here…” again I half-shouted at him who’s already on the other side of the apartment.

“Oh God, woman, why can’t you do it by yourself?!” he replied me with a bigger voice of shouting.

Once he’s shown himself in the kitchen, I replied, “Please do tell God to give me longer legs,” with both my hands clasping together, doing the praying pose, complete with my eyes closed to add the dramatic aura.

Looking at me, he could just give me a long sigh. Did he think that he’s the only one who can be annoying? You’re super wrong, Mister.

He took steps forward toward my place in front of the top shelf where the bowls were at. Without me telling him what he should grab, his right hand went straight to the mini bowls. He grabbed it with a little tiptoeing of his toes since the bowls are on the very back of the shelf. Once he got it, his toes went back to their normal flat-position and the bowls went right on to the counter.

“Thanks a million, baby,” I said to him while giving him a little peck on his right cheek. His face suddenly lit up with a stupid grin playing on it.

“Come on, let’s watch the show!” I exclaimed with two bowls in my hands.

I pushed him to move forward so that we could start the show sooner. He’s just willingly coming along with me pushing him from behind, and this pushing-activity was full-forced by me by the way. Dabin didn’t wanna move his feet.

With just that, the night was ended by him falling asleep on the couch and me following him doing the same thing.

I remember I was waking up without seeing him beside me. But instead, I found a note with his messy handwriting saying,

Morning, baby.

I’m sorry for not staying until you wake up.

Not really, check your phone.

from boyfriend.

With a just-woke-up mood, I was pissed as f. However, I did what he instructed me to do and then right then my face lit up.

He sent me a screenshot of receipt for two tickets to Vienna, Austria.

You’re actually watching the show, huh? I chuckled.