I am not sure if the sky is mocking us but the rain starts pouring down over the town with a roar the moment we left the beach. Big, thick, heavy rain droplets pit the surface of our skin like bullets from above and in seconds, we are completely drenched because the trees around us offer no shelter. Sehun holds on to my hand tightly and runs in the torrent of rain, pulling me along with him to seek shelter nearby. The heavy downpour doesn't seem like it's going to stop anytime, making it impossible for us to return back home, so we end up lodging at a random motel in our vicinity. Sehun's hand is still wrapped around mine as he checks with the receptionist for room availability. 15 year-old me would laugh right at your face if you were to told me I will be engaged to Oh Sehun in the future, but look where we are now. It just feels surreal, like how did this handsome man, who is a renown chef that I look up to, and I end up getting involved with each other? Sehun takes out his wallet from his back pocket to pay for the room; our hands still entwined, while I scan the lobby. The lights are dimmed, the lobby seems shabby with paint coming off the walls, and not to mention how sleazy the place looks with the neon-lit "MOTEL" that smacks right on the slanted signboard outside of the three-storey building. It's definitely not a place you would settle for unless you have no other choice. 

The receptionist, with a cigarette sticking out from the seam of his cracked lips, eye the two of us with a lazy look, like he is done with his job. As he returns the credit card back to Sehun, he tells us that our room is on the second level and then he leers, "Enjoy." I look at him, flabbergasted. Enjoy? Enjoy what?! Did he think that we are one of those couples who come here for hook-up?  

There isn't elevator in the motel so we have to get to the second level through the narrow wooden stairs that can barely fit more than three people at once. As we are about to head up, a man, looking like he is in his fifties, is walking down the stairs with a young and pretty girl in a black bodycon dress that accentuates her hourglass figure in his arms, so we make way for them - that's exactly how narrow the stairway is. That pair of couple wouldn't keep their hands to themselves and the man just wouldn't stop tickling the girl's neck with his lips as they are reaching the ground floor, making me extremely uncomfortable with their y behaviour. After they both walk away, Sehun and I then make our way up, while I pray that we won't encounter anyone else. As we walk along the corridor to find our room, a man, seemingly drunk, happens to walk past and he gives me a dirty grin, scanning me from head to toe with a lecherous gaze before making a wolf-whistle. What the , you gross piece of ! I feel my body being swung to one side when Sehun pulls me to his back, like he is trying to protect me from the filthy ert. When we continue making our way to our room, Sehun holds me tightly in his embrace and his protective side makes me melt instantly. 

Entering the room, the place emits a slightly unpleasant odour. It smells damped, and I assume it's due to the lack of ventilation. At least the room is clean, with no apparent traces of bugs. 

"Do you want to bathe first?" Sehun asks, standing awkwardly next to the wall.

"Sure..." I grab a white towel from the wardrobe and make a beeline for the bathroom.

After I am done washing up, I walk out of the bathroom in my bathrobe uneasily. I have nothing underneath my bathrobe as my dress and undergarments are still wet and I can feel my heart beating rapidly as I approach Sehun to let him know that he can use the bathroom now. Gosh, I have never felt so awkward around Sehun before but now, the uneasy tension in the atmosphere is thicker than usual! Why am I feeling like that? Is it because we just had in the beach? 

"My phone is spoilt, probably because it was soaked in the sea for too long just now."

I nod, avoiding eye contact with the man, who is supposed to look bedraggled after getting caught in the rain but still looks as hot as usual.

"Do you have your phone with you?

I bite my lips, feeling jumpy, "N-No, I left it at home."

"You should use the telephone here to give your parents and grandma a call. I am sure they are worried that we have disappeared for the whole day."

I nod my head, like a rigid and systematic robot. Only when Sehun disappears into the bathroom, I can feel myself breathing like normal again.

The rain continues to lash down heavily without a break; the patter of drops tumbling and hammering the window panes drowns every other noise around me and brings serenity. When I gave my parents a call, my grandma was the happiest to know that Sehun and I are not returning tonight and staying together at a motel because of the downpour. Nothing like what Sehun had said - "worried about our disappearance". Please, I could hear how elated my grandma was from the other side of the town. And throughout the call, she wouldn't stop harping on how we need to take that opportunity to make babies. I could only shake my head and laugh at my overly excited granny.

Sehun walks out of the bathroom in the same bathrobe as me as he dries his hair with the towel over his head. I wonder if he is wearing anything underneath and the thought of him below that bathrobe got my cheeks heating up. Calm the down, Park Areum! Stop picturing Oh Sehun  all the time! Now that we are both stuck in this cramped room without much entertainment facilities except for the TV, what should we do now? 

"You are zoning out. Are you okay?" 

Sehun looks at me and I begin to feel nervous. His damp fringe covering his forehead and his eyes makes him look so much like a kid and I wonder how the hell these grown men are aging backwards. Baekhyun looks like one, Jongin looks like one (even though he is just two years older than me), and Sehun looks like one too.

"Yeah, I am."

"Do you want to sleep?"

"It's only 9pm."

"Oh."

A heavy silence settles over us. God damn it, why the hell are we so awkward with each other?! I hate this so much! Think, Hera, think! Think of a game! Think of something to break the ice and ease the uneasiness.

"Sehun, shall we play Twenty Questions?"

We started off with simple questions like favourite colours, favourite food, favourite movies to get to know each other better. Apparently Sehun likes white colour, sushi, and action movies in general but not any movie in particular.

"I like Moana, have you watched that before?" I ask in a chirpy voice, but my expression turns sullen when Sehun shakes his head.

"What is that?"

"It's a Disney animated film!"

"I don't watch cartoon."

I gasp and shoot right up from my slouching position into a sitting position when Sehun said he has never watched a single Disney movie. How could he? I am so offended! Does this guy not watch any cartoon when he was a kid too?

"Are you serious?" I exclaim, so close to pulling my hair off my scalp. But instead, I grab the motel's pen and notepad from the nightstand and write down the things I discovered and I am going to discover about Sehun tonight, "You know what, I am going to make you do a Disney movie marathon with me!" And then I proceed to lie on the bed, occupying the empty space next to Sehun, who is resting his back against the headboard, "What is your favourite song?"

"9 Crimes by Damien Rice."

The frown on my face grows deeper and I blink my eyes continuously, like I just heard a foreign language and I understood nothing. What rice? 

"This song is basically about imperfect relationships, how both parties in a relationship cheat on each other and grapple with their own conscience and guilt. It's messed up, yet the lyric is so-" Sehun pauses and takes a look at my confused face, "The song is too profound for someone with a tiny brain like you to understand anyway," A smug expression flashes through his face.

Raising my pen, I pretend like I am going to fling it to his face before I scribble another sentence on the notepad. Make Sehun listen to pop songs with me. I am not going to shove my preference and opinion down his throat but he should give other singers a chance. It's not good to listen to depressing songs all the time; Sehun needs a change.

"What would you be if you are not a chef?"

"Regular business man I guess."

I snort at Sehun's boring an