It seemed like she was always on the verge of waking up. The cusp of total darkness and the endless barrage of dreams. She was neither here nor there. She was in limbo. Aware of everything and nothing. Aware that the visions that flashed before her mind were her worst nightmares. The worst case scenarios of her future based on branching butterfly effects. These were her demons.

The accumulation of whatever was said to her face throughout her life. The positive, but mostly the negative. Each negative comment, no matter how miniscule, were her demons. Hyejin’s demons were her own insecurities brought about by ignorant tongues. 

No matter the brave face she put out front, the demons were always there. Ready to welcome her back into their arms and into the abyss of despair. Such demons were one with her. No matter how well she pushed them back by distracting herself with the present, they were always there, in the background. That no matter what she does, that no matter how hard she tries, it will all be for nothing and it will all fall apart. 

But before her demons could over power her unconscious mind, she felt a comforting presence. A calming presence that her demons feared and hated, the presence of the one she loves most. So desperate was she for comfort that her body moved to seek it out. She felt Wheein’s slight grumbling at the sudden intrusion of space when she wasn’t even comfortable yet, but she soon felt Wheein’s comforting embrace. Her conscious just barely on the cusp of alertness and everything she is sensing right now had a bit of fogginess to them. 

That didn’t stop her smile when she heard Wheein’s last words before sleep took them both. She heard that declaration of love loud and clear and it silenced her demons for the rest of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As consciousness slowly came to her, the air around her felt cold. The warm body heat she expected wasn’t there and in its place was a lukewarm emptiness. Such a temperature fully brought her back to her senses and she opened her eyes to the golden rays of an early sun. 

She grumbled as she tossed over to look at the clock. Grumbling even more to see the dull red of 7:23 glaring at her. With a disgruntled huff, she turned into a cocoon, the only way to entrap the remaining heat and to become a blanket slug. The perfect way to spend a saturday.

Or it would have been if she hadn’t caught whiff of a beautiful breakfast being cooked.  Was that eggs and muffins she smelled?

Letting her nose take the lead, she made her way off the bed while in blanket slug form. As she toppled forward she had the brief thought of maybe it wasn’t the best idea to have had all those drinks the night prior. Moving about even more made everything so loud and unbearable and everything felt stuffy somehow. The smell of a fresh breakfast brought her back to focus.

Shedding the blanket slug form, Hyejin emerged and embraced the new day with a squint. Her eyesight was still a bit dazed but that doesn’t matter. She knows the apartment layout well enough by now that she could walk to the kitchen blindfolded. So, she continued to let her nose take the lead. 

Her socks cushioning the sounds of her footsteps across the hard floor, she quickly made her way to the kitchen and saw a beautiful sight.  

Wheein’s back was to her as Wheein concentrated on the omelette at hand. Determined to not let it become like the type of omelette that her mother makes. So determined that she didn’t even sense Hyejin nearby. A fact that Hyejin took advantage of. 

Wheein barely got the omelette onto the plate and put it aside when she felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around her waist. Which was shortly followed by a cuddly lion that began to cling to her back. A cuddly and needy lion.

“About time you woke up,” Wheein patted Hyejin’s head first before giving a quick good morning kiss. Or, tried to. It was a bit of an awkward angle.

“You weren’t there,” Hyejin mumbled into Wheein’s shoulder as her grip gently tightened.

“Well, yea. Someone had to make breakfast for your hungover ,” Wheein said as she gathered the plate, and made her way to the dining room. All while Hyejin clung on like a koala. 

“I am not--” Hyejin was about to dispute such a claim but the moment she raised her voice, even a little bit, her head rang. She quickly silenced herself and tried to take away the pain by burying herself further into Wheein’s neck.

“See? Now, sit. I’ll get the rest of your breakfast,” Wheein pulled out a chair for Hyejin to sit. An action that Hyejin begrudgingly accepted. With a puff of her cheeks, a huff, and a pout, Hyejin accepted her fate of having to wait a little more to cuddle Wheein. It wasn’t all bad though. She gets to go through Wheein’s cooking first.

As Wheein brought the rest of the breakfast items, a hodgepodge of whatever they had in the fridge and pantry, they began to eat. Hyejin is all too eager to fill her empty and complaining stomach while Wheein enjoys watching Hyejin eat. She’s always immersed when she watches Hyejin eat. There was something about the way Hyejin enjoyed her meals that was memorizing somehow. But that didn’t stop her own stomach from complaining about the lack of food.

Soon enough both of them were enjoying the meal before them. Not a word was spoken between them. Afterall, there wasn’t any need to. Sharing a meal is its own form of communication. 

Once the sun’s rays changed from a soft gold to an annoyingly bright yellow did they finish. Wheein somehow made just enough as there were no leftovers and nothing to throw away.

“Wow, Wheein-ah, you made like the perfect amount,” Hyejin made the observation out loud as she stretched with a yawn. 

“I don’t know how either so who knows if it will happen again,” Wheein said as she gathered the dishes. 

“Lazy day?” Hyejin asked as she got up.

“Lazy day.” Wheein called from the kitchen.

Upon hearing the answer, Hyejin quickly turned towards the living room and promptly plopped herself, face first, onto the couch. A lazy day means they do nothing. Do nothing but spend time with each other. Either by binge watching shows, or movies, or various youtube videos. Or a day of silence. A day where Wheein would focus on honing her art skills by drawing various sketches, by either practicing still life, or use Hyejin as a natural model. Where Hyejin would lounge around in various places, mostly the couch and sometimes the floor, and just be in her natural state of unbotheredness. She would either read or be on her laptop, just browsing the internet or maybe, just maybe, reviewing her notes for class. Just whatever she’s feeling. And as she contemplated on what she wanted to do, she felt a familiar weight on top of her.

Lifting her head a bit in order to give herself enough space to talk clearly, she asked Wheein what she wanted to do today.

“Hmmmm. Lounge? Cat videos?” Wheein answered into Hyejin’s shoulder. Earning a soft chuckle as Wheein’s breath tickled just slightly. 

“Sounds good,” Hyejin rolled out from under Wheein in order to set up the tv and to set up their nest since they weren’t moving for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, Wheein got up to go fetch their phones. Have to make sure they don’t miss any messages, especially from their parents. As she turned them on to see if there were any missed messages, she noticed that Sujeong texted Hyejin. She was torn in wanting to know what Sujeong wanted, just out of pure curiosity, and leaving it be. But the answer was easy. She quickly turned the screen off without even reading the message and went back to the living room. 

As Wheein passed by to take her spot, she handed Hyejin her phone. Hyejin promptly looked at it and her face turned into a grimace. The memories of the night prior flooding back. She had to face this sooner or later. And she had to face it sober.

“Wheein-ah….about Sujeong….” Hyejin trailed off as she sheepishly stood there before the couch.

“Hyejin-ah,” Wheein said in a soft tone, “It’s alright.”

Hyejin looked at Wheein to see if there was truth in her words. And in true Wheein fashion, there was. Wheein looked at her with such a soft look of acceptance that Hyejin couldn’t help but tear up a little. What did she do to deserve Wheein in her life?

“But I--” Hyejin tried again. She knows that her exposition was a bit rushed. And a bit confusing. No, it was confusing.

“Hyejin-ah, it’s fine,” Wheein slightly squinted as she recalled Hyejin’s thought process, “I don’t completely understand your train of thought or thought process but I do know one thing.”

Hyejin looked at Wheein with worried eyes, “What?”

“That you have no ill intentions and that you did what you thought was best. I trust you, Hyejin-ah,” Wheein answered with a confident, yet soft, smile. 

Seeing Wheein’s smile, Hyejin couldn’t help but feel her heart sting a little. Wheein has so much trust in her so why didn’t she tell Wheein sooner? Was she really that selfish?

“You deserve better, Wheein-ah,” Hyejin muttered. Still standing before the sofa, not budging one bit.

Despite those words being uttered so softly, Wheein still heard them. Well, it was now or never.

“Why do you keep saying that?” Wheein asked with concern in her voice and eyes as she looked at Hyejin’s sheepish form.

“‘Cuz it’s true….” Hyejin trailed off. Knowing full well that Wheein would want an explanation as to why but even she can’t fully explain why. Hell, were there even words as to why? Her feeling as to why were derived from the whispers of her demons. But she can’t tell Wheein that. At least not yet. She isn’t ready for that conversation. 

“Aren’t I the one who gets to determine what’s best for me?” Wheein asked. She noticed the storm of conflict behind Hyejin’s eyes. A conflict of wanting to confess but being unable to properly express yourself. A frustrating combination. Maybe now isn’t the time. But it can’t be pushed back forever.

“Well, yea, but--” Before Hyejin could finish her statement, Wheein pulled her down on top of her. She gently enveloped Hyejin in a warm and loving embrace. An embrace that Hyejin quickly gave into. 

Hyejin wanted to say more. Say something along the lines of how much the first person point of view misses so much and what it misses is caught by the third person point of view. Or something like that. To be fair, her head was still somewhat pulsing with a headache. So her thoughts had no cohesion.

“Hyejin-ah, please…” This time Wheein’s voice faded near the end.

That soft fade told Hyejin all that she needed to know. Wheein didn’t want her to say such words again. So, for Wheein, she’ll try. She’ll try not to say the words that her demons whisper into her ear every night. At least she can spare Wheein that pain.

Hyejin’s continued silence began to worry Wheein a bit. She expected  some sort of recognition to her silent plea but instead she received silence. An ever growing silence. A silence that was crescendoing to a .

“Hyej--Ow! The hell??” 

Out of every sort of scenario she came up with, this wasn’t one of them. Hell, she didn’t even notice Hyejin undoing her shirt.

“ie soft.”

“Ok, but that doesn’t mean you can bite my , Hyejin-ah,” Wheein scolded

Hyejin looked up at Wheein with indifference.

“ie is mochi,” Hyejin droned as she went in for another bite.

“I--Hey! No! Stop it!” Wheein gently swatted at Hyejin’s nose in order to prevent another bite, “ie isn’t a snack!”

“Hmmm but it is. You are a full course meal  so one is a snack,” Hyejin smirked. 

Wheein could only stare with slightly agape with confusion.

Hyejin smuggly chuckled to herself as she saw the facial journey Wheein’s face did when she went through various stages of confusion. Looks like Wheein wasn’t expecting this so early in the morning. 

“Heh, love you, Wheein-ah~” Hyejin purred as she nuzzled into Wheein’s neck. Another topic delayed for another time.

A defeated sigh finally escaped Wheein as she finished her confused journey, “I love you too, Hyejin-ah.”

And they remained like that for the rest of the day. Comfortable in each other’s arms as they treasured their time together. They know during the week they won’t get as much physical contact with each other so might as well get in as much as they could. Or, that’s how it should’ve been. 

If only Wheein noticed her phone going off earlier, then maybe she would’ve known that her parents were coming by for a visit.