Jongin woke up the next morning, a weird spring in his step had him slip across the hall and crack the guest room door open. When he looked inside he expected to see Jinhee sprawled out in the bed, fast asleep since the sun was barely up. It was an occupational hazard that had Jongin waking up this early as he usually tried to get to work before everyone else. Instead of finding Jinhee, he found that the room was empty and the bed had been made as if there hadn't been anyone there through out the night. Confused, he walked out into the living room as he wondered if she had slipped out in the middle of the night instead of staying there. Sitting on his couch was Jinhee with the television on mute while she scrolled through her phone, answering emails from work and family members from around the country that were on their way to attend the funeral. Jongin froze for a moment, watching as she blended so naturally into her surroundings. It was as if she belonged there the whole time. She looked over her shoulder and saw him standing there was an odd look on his face. She smiled brightly at him and ran to the front door as the bell

rang.

 

"You didn't have any food in your place." She said as she answered the door and a delivery man dropped off a bag and a tray with two large coffee cups. "I ordered food. I guessed what you would want. Hope you like Pancakes." She giggled and ran over to the table, a bundle of unexplained energy. Jongin sat beside her at the table and watched as she unpacked the food and laid out the utensils. She opened three sets of pancakes, one had strawberries, the other chocolate and the last had nothing but whip cream and syrup. Without hesitating Jongin grabbed the chocolate one and Jinhee took the one with strawberries.

 

"Do you like strawberries?" He asked and she gave a slight shrug.

 

"I prefer watermelon to strawberries but I like all fruits. Do you like chocolate?"

 

"My friends have documented me buying at least five chocolate bars a day."

 

"Why so many?"

 

"There are too many flavours so I want to try all of them." Jinhee laughed at Jongin's answer and the two of them ate with simple chatter among them. For a few minutes they were able to forget that the outside world existed and they could just enjoy each others company until around eight in the morning when Jongin's phone started beeping every few minutes. "I'm going to have to go into the office." He groaned as he looked over some of the messages that had been flooding in.

 

"That's fine, I'll clean up and head back home-"

 

"-No!" Jongin said a little too loudly and it startled Jinhee. "Sorry...I just mean...you don't have to leave...I'll give you the code to the apartment so you can come in whenever you want." Jongin jumped up and grabbed a scrap piece of paper so he could scribble down the ten digit code for the apartment. He had never given it to anyone else, not even his ex-girlfriends. "I'm not saying you have to stay or anything....just...if you wanted...you can..." Jongin felt a bit embarrassed as he said this. He wasn't sure if he was crossing any boundaries but was surprised when he saw Jinhee's face light up.

 

"Thank you." She said and Jongin rushed to get ready for work. When he came back out thirty minutes later after having showered and done a quick shave, he was fumbling with his tie while Jinhee threw out the garbage. "Here, let me help." She rushed to he front door where he was standing and quickly went to work at fixing his tie. When she was done she pat his chest and handed him his laptop bag. "Have a good day." Without hesitating he bent down and kissed the top of her head.

 

"I could get used to this." He said with a huge smile spread across his face and he rushed out the front door without looking back. Jinhee was then left alone in the apartment, feeling a bit foolish for still being in the clothes he had given her the night before. She changed back into her clothes from the day before and headed to her apartment. When she walked inside she was amazed at how it no longer felt at home. Instead it felt like a sad reminder of who she used to be before Jongin swooped into her life and gave it some colour. She didn't want to stick around so she grabbed a couple of change of clothes, plus the dress she was going to wear to the funeral along with some makeup and her toothbrush. When she closed the door, she wondered when she was going to see it again and hoped that it wasn't going to be for a while. Jongin bounced happily into the office that morning and everyone was staring at him oddly as he nodded to them and said 'good morning'. It wasn't until he was in his personal office that his co-worker from down the hall, Baekhyun, came in and closed the door behind him.

 

"So, what happened?" He childishly poked fun at Jongin who just rolled his eyes but couldn't hide his smile. Baekhyun was a few years older than Jongin but they became close friends very quickly, mostly on Baekhyun's part as he refused to leave him alone. Jongin supposed it was something like Stockholm syndrome.

"Nothing happened." Jongin said back and his friend scoffed.

 

"I miss one day of work and suddenly you're the happiest man in the world." Baekhyun sat on the corner of his desk and Jongin shoved him off of it.

 

"Her father passed away."

 

"That's horrible that you're happy over that."

 

"Of course I'm not!....she stayed over at my place last night."

 

"Oh, I get it." Baekhyun winked and Jongin blushed when he realized that he was hinting at.

 

"N-No! Nothing like that, you idiot." Jongin stood up and grabbed Baekhyun by the collar and threw him out of the office. Jinhee decided to drop her clothes off at the apartment and each time she wandered into the kitchen she was amazed at the fact that he literally had nothing to eat. Annoyed with this fact, she went to the grocery store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took her twice as long as normal to get groceries because every time she picked something up, she wondered if he would like it. She found herself thinking about him a lot lately, it was a good thing to take her mind off her father and mother. The world outside was scary and complicated, with Jongin it all seemed so simple, as if they had been friends from a long time ago or if their souls had been made of the same material but split in half. It was an odd feeling as only a few months ago, she hated him with every fiber of her being. She hauled all of the food back to Jongin's apartment and set everything up. It was finally starting to feel like a home and not a hotel room that someone would drop in for a night.

 

 

 

Jongin walked in the front door and was greeted with an amazing smell that filled the whole apartment. He kicked off his shoes and walked into the kitchen where Jinhee was buzzing around getting dinner ready. She pushed him out and demanded that he get cleaned up before sitting down. He rushed to his room, get changed into comfortable clothes and washed before rushing back to the dining area where the food had been set up. There was glazed pork chops and ten different side dishes plus the most perfect looking rice he had ever seen.

 

"When did you have time to do all of this?" He sat down and starting shoveling food into his mouth. It tasted just as good as it looked.

 

"I'm a doctor with too much free time on my hands. I like to keep busy. Besides the kimchi and bamboo was made by my mother I just brought it over with me." Jinhee found it hard to take compliments, especially from Jongin who was staring at her all through out dinner. All she wanted was for him to look away for a second so she didn't feel the back of her neck burning.