“Why are you coming so sudden?”, Seulgi took on a sip of her iced hibiscus tea from the plastic cup while opened the curtain next to her bed even wider. “How if I’m not home?”. The 4:27 PM afternoon sunray then seeped through the big window into her bed and floor.

“I just want to see you”, the words relaxedly dropped out of Jongin’s mouth. Seulgi stopped her hand movement, grabbing into the curtain for a second before she turned around. “And I can finish these two in one day”, Jongin raised his own cup, filled with an iced americano, and pointed out Seulgi’s cup. “Don’t worry about that”.

“How am I not going to be worried if you’re about to consume tons of caffeine in one go?”.

“Does tea have caffeine too in it?!”. Seulgi thought Jongin was joking with that statement, but not after seeing how his eyes and mouth agape in surprise.

“Every day, you’ll learn something new. It’s nice”. She took a seat next to Jongin on her couch. “So, what is it about?”.

“What?”.

“The last time you came to my flat, you had a fight with your Dad”, she said.

Jongin threw his gaze to portions of the building, sky, and clouds behind Seulgi’s huge window. “The weather is nice today”.

“You came here because the weather is nice?”, Seulgi furrowed her eyebrows. “That’s...odd”.

Instead of proceeded with giving a real answer, Jongin just smiled mysteriously. He stood up and dragged his feet towards Seulgi’s vanity table, which then the stacks of makeups drew his attention in. His index finger quickly tapped on her lip products collection to count it. “12 different reds, 4 different pinks. A fan of red, huh”.

“Your point?”. When Seulgi approached him, Jongin already sat on the chair, peering at himself in the mirror.

“Does this building have a rooftop?”.

Seulgi wondered why none of Jongin’s words are connected since the first time he stepped into her flat. From nonchalantly giving her iced tea, not specifying why he came here, counting her lip products, and now asking for the rooftop. Was there something wrong with him?

“Yeah, why? Plausible answers only”.

“Come on, let’s put on some makeup and dress nicely before the sun sets. The golden hour works magic on our appearance”.

Even though she was still a bit confused about Jongin’s scattered words and behaviors, that was a great idea.

So, Seulgi and Jongin spent the next 30 minutes putting on makeups to their faces. Jongin skipped his complexion because his shade didn’t match with Seulgi. But that can be fixed with a touch of translucent powder, as the base of his face itself was already quite decent. Seulgi was challenged when Jongin asked her to apply eyeshadows. She swore her hands were quivering when the space between her face and Jongin’s was nearly nonexistent.

Jongin, on the other hand, was calm and collected still. He opened his eyes when Seulgi commanded him too, and he was greeted with well-brushed smoky eyeshadows on his lids.

“Wow”, he cooed in awe, rotating his head slowly to the right and left. “So your hands are really that talented”.

“Thanks. My hands can do a lot more”, Seulgi tapped on Jongin’s shoulder and made a moving gesture with her palm. She then replaced Jongin’s position on the chair.

“Such as?”.

“Cooking, writing, slapping someone’s face”. With a straight face, Seulgi took a palette of eyeshadows from her table and stared at the tiny rectangles filled with rose-mauve-gold shades in it.

Jongin was about to sip on his drink when he heard Seulgi’s statement. “Did I hear that right?”.

“Yeah. Just once. And he deserved it”.

“Why, though?”.

“There was a senior chasing me during my sophomore year”, her hand hovered above one cylinder filled with brushes, still thinking about what brush she should take. “I already told him that I wasn’t interested, but he kept chasing me, texting me, and even worse, following me to my home. The next day, I came to his class to unleash my rage, and...that happened”.

On the corner of Seulgi’s vanity table, Jongin sat to hear her story. “Did he stop after that?”.

“Of course. I’m so glad I did it”, Seulgi began to apply a muted pink color as the base of her lid. “My brother already enrolled in college when it happened, so I can’t ask for his help. That guy will be dead meat if my brother stepped in”.

“You got an A-plus for bravery”, Jongin chuckled. “Is it good, though? To have an older brother? I wish I can have one”.

“Subjectively speaking, it kinda . He will always find a way to steal the attention from my parents, never told me that he loves me...”. She stopped to take a flat brush and swiped it onto the golden shimmery shade. “But I know he cares. By fighting kids who tried to bully me and supplying my drawing tools”.

“That sounds superb to me”.

“Cause you don’t have one”.

That sentence alone was enough to make Seulgi and Jongin laughed in unison.

Finished with makeup, Seulgi pushed Jongin to the outside of her flat and locked him out. She wanted to have a moment to choose the right outfit, and that couldn’t be done even when Jongin was locked inside her bathroom. No, their proximity was still too close.

She landed her decision on a square-collared dress that ended its length right on her knees’ level. Soft shades of beige and light pink from the floral pattern were printed on a white base. She tied the dress’ bow to the back to accentuate the shape of her torso. This dress was too girly for her usual casual look, but this matched really well with her overall makeup. Seulgi finally unlocked her door after wearing her white headband and white converse.

Jongin turned his back upon hearing the beeping sound from Seulgi’s door. And what greeted him was beyond his expectation.

He stared at Seulgi for some good seconds that felt forever to Seulgi, until she eventually snapped and said, “What? Never seen me in a dress before?”.

Jongin shook his head. “You look awesome in one”. No, I mean pretty. Why did I say awesome like a bro?

Seulgi snorted. She then led Jongin the way into the elevator, up to the rooftop they were aiming for.

Spending one fine summer afternoon in the middle of July by having a mini photoshoot with her crush on the rooftop, with the hubbub of people and vehicles were muffled at least thirty meters below their feet...Seulgi thought it will only happen in one of those cheesy rom-com movies. But when she pressed the shutter on Jongin’s phone while the object of her photograph was resting his back on the concrete fence, she was convinced it was really her life. Jongin knew how good he looks, and it was pretty easy for him to strike a pose and generate good photos. Every angle, every degree, no one will scream ugly.

Seulgi found out that to match her confidence level with Jongin’s, she had to sweep her nervousness away—which was easier said than done. Having Jongin taken her photograph means that she would be the only person in his field of vision. That obviously wouldn’t help.

Only if she knew Jongin enjoyed having his attention focused on Seulgi at that moment.

The way Seulgi’s long dark brown hair flowed by the wind to her back, how her dress swayed in the same direction, and the match made from the heaven of Seulgi’s dewy face and the golden sun ray, Jongin was mesmerized. Was Seulgi always look like this before? Or it just came to his senses today?

Jongin dragged a rusty stool that resided near the entrance door to the corner where Seulgi stood. He placed his phone on top of it, but it kept tumbling over. He then pulled out his wallet from his jeans' pocket to make it a prop for his phone.

“We haven’t taken a picture together”, Jongin set the timer to 10 seconds before he clicked on the shutter. “Come on!”.

Seulgi have no time to protest as Jongin’s arm already encircled on her back, which made his hand landed on her shoulder.

A heavy influx of boldness surge when a portion of her back rested on Jongin’s chest. Now Seulgi could figure out—she just needed to relax, enjoy her moment with Jongin, and be comfortable with him to feel at ease. Because Jongin always did the same with her.

She then wrapped her arm around Jongin’s waist with no further hesitation. Looking up into Jongin’s expression, he smiled widely.

It was more than enough amount of reassurance that Seulgi needed.

When Jongin took his phone back and showed the result to Seulgi, she squinted her eyes and shook her head. “This doesn’t look natural”. She then turned it into video mode before placing Jongin’s phone on the stool carefully again. “Let’s just record ourselves talking or telling jokes”.

“Brilliant”.

They rushed back into the concrete fence when Jongin’s phone started recording. It began with just both of them looking into each other’s eyes until Seulgi was the first to crack up even though nothing was funny. Jongin laughed along with her, and it was because Seulgi’s laugh was contagious.

“Okay, for real, for real”, Seulgi leaned her arm on top of the fence, just a few centimeters above her waist. “You still can speak English, right? Full paragraph, from start to end?”.

“Yeah, of course”.

“I want you to tell me the steps of making sundubu jjigae without mentioning any Korean words, even if the ingredients are in Korean”.

“What?!”, Jongin raised his voice.

“If you slipped a Korean word, you’d gain a slap in the arm from me. That will be fun! Come on, show off your bilingual skill”.

Jongin ran both of his hands into his hair and squealed. “Fine. I’ll try my best”.

He took a deep inhale while imagining the steps of making one of his favorite meals. The problem was, he rarely helped his Mom in the kitchen, and that’s because he was clumsy. He would just sit nicely in his room instead of knocking a set of knives in the kitchen and injured everyone.

“Okay...so...you’ll need tofu, of course. That’s where the sundubu comes—aw!”.

Seulgi slapped his arm right after catching the word sundubu from him.

“Fine, fine, I’ll continue!”, Jongin rubbed the spot where Seulgi hit him and hissed. “Then you’ll need an egg, green onion, chili powder, and other dishes like beef or mushroom depends on your choice. And for the soup, you have to boil some stock, I don’t know if that was chicken or beef or anchovy, but you need water with some taste”.

Seulgi still grasped what Jongin said, but it was just too funny to discover that Jongin wasn’t clueless about the language—he was clueless about the cooking steps.

“And how do you make it?”.

Jongin bent down to push his knees with both of his hands. He squealed, again, for the second time in less than a minute. “Damn, how do I make it? I don’t know, just throw everything to the pan and let it simmer?!”.

“Uh...I don’t think my Mom just throw everything at once at the pan when she made sundubu jiggae?”.

“Yeah, me neither”.

Seulgi shook her head, still couldn’t contain her laughter. “Next time, you should walk to the kitchen at lea