“Hi, it’s Jaehyun, and you’re watching Jae’s Daily Vlogs. This is my noona, and as you can see, she’s finally woken up after days of not showering and unfortunately, she is quite literally in no man’s land—as in no man literally wants her—”

    I whirl around in the spirit of my unwashed hair and grimy athleisure clothes to smack my younger brother across the back of his head.

    He winces, taking enormous strides away from me as he dodges my incoming kick. “Stop it—argh! I haven’t paid back the camera yet!”

    I cross my arms. “Where have you been these past two weeks?”

    Jaehyun scratches the nape of his neck. “I was filming a documentary.”

    I sigh, dropping my extremities that are close to strangling him. “About?”

    Jaehyun’s life dream, as he dramatically proclaims, is to become a film director. We’d all known that since he fell in love with our dad’s vintage handheld camcorder at the age of ten. Since then, he’s dragged us to numerous film festivals and whatnot. He also has an ongoing collection of movie DVDs that’s soon to be reaching hoarder territory.

    “A satire about older sisters and their prudish lives,” he answers, flipping me off with his free hand.

    I raise my hands to hit him again, but he screams, running.

    “Moooom! She’s bullying me.”

    Mom steps out from behind the kitchen with her hands on both of her hips, her eyes flashing with serious business. “Alright, settle down,” she says barely batting an eye, probably used to our antics since we were born.

    Jaehyun was only nine months apart from me, and I shudder to think about our parents doing the dirty when they clearly shouldn’t have.

    Mom said that we started fighting before both of us could speak. As the way things have gone for twenty-one years of my life, I don’t doubt her one bit.

    One of my earliest memories was Jaehyun throwing me a period party, inviting all of our friends, behind my back. I was truly mortified, and from then on, the Jeong siblings’ prank wars were on.

    “He killed your patch of daisies last year, Mom,” I blurt with a big grin on my face.

    Jaehyun gasps, rigidly turning his head to see our mom’s murderous eyes. “M-mom, I can explain—“

    I throw him a triumphant look as he glares at me before running off, praying that Mom won’t wring his neck.

    Before my mom can investigate, the door flies open, and Jaehyun sighs. Sometimes, I think he came out of our mom’s earlier than I did because he sure acts like an elderly person.

    We both know that it’s Hyoyeon. Other than Baekhyun, she’s the only person who unabashedly barges into the Jeong residence. Her pink sparkly hair glimmers from the sunlight when she skips in toward the kitchen. She greets Mom, and Mom tells us she'll be back after running errands, leaving the three of us.

    Jaehyun’s face is straight as if on cue. Hyoyeon doesn’t bother looking at him and heads straight over to me, plopping down. “When are you heading back to Georgetown?”

    If I were to illustrate the relationship between Hyoyeon and Jaehyun, I’d say—they definitely have an invisible for each other, but make it enemies-to-lovers.

    Jaehyun steals the seat next to her, and I obnoxiously wiggle my eyebrows at him. He mouths some obscene profanities that I ignore.

        “I think I’ll leave my car home this week. So, Baek’s coming tomorrow?” I scratch my chin, pondering about the last text I got from him. He said he was visiting his girlfriend’s family, but I wonder how that was going for him. He was dating this nice, Christian girl, and unironically, her name was Faith.

    Hyoyeon’s eyes widen as she nods. “I miss him. How’s he doing?”

    I snicker, “he’s trying so hard to break Faith’s celibacy pledge. He bragged about her last week.”

    Jaehyun scrunches his nose. “Not you oversharing.”

    I ignore him again because he’s a killjoy. Hyoyeon entertains me though. “How long has he been dating her? Is she nice?”

    “Nice on a scale of high school bully turned nurse? Definitely. She has a nice at least,” I answer. “They’ve been going out—or I don’t know. He likes to call it ‘going out’ when really, they’ve been exchanging dirty looks every time he picks me up from class.”

    Jaehyun questions, “isn’t she Christian?”

    I snort, “as Christian as those youth camp kids smoking pot in the parking lot.”

    Hyoyeon hums, “so they’re not serious—serious?”

    “Baek has it all. The brains and brawn, but his manages to make most of his decision.”

    “Does he know you’re -talking him behind his back?” Jaehyun muses.

    I smile unabashedly. “No, but he also doesn’t know that Faith accused me of plagiarizing.” Apparently, my developmental psychology professor emailed me about this accusation only for me to completely shut down her claim because I plagiarized my own paper from last year. Sneaky .

    I’d known she had it out for me ever since she saw Baekhyun waiting for me outside our British Literature class. It was a late afternoon, and she pretended to bump into me—all so she could join our conversation to get his number.

    “Oh, so we don’t like her?” Hyoyeon chuckles. “I’ve always wondered this—but…why don’t you date him?”

    “He’s too good for her,” Jaehyun replies.

    I roll my eyes. “You asked the wrong person. It seems. My little brother is in love with my best friend.”

    Jaehyun grins. “Aw, sis. Don’t fret. You’ll be the first to get our wedding invitations.”

 

[february 14th, 2018]

 

    My boyfriend of three years dumped me. That . Do Kyungsoo was a cute nerdy boy who helped me with Algebra homework in eighth grade. My crush, in sixth grade, began when he caught a basketball before it could nail me in the face.

    It was also the bare minimum. So, yeah, you could imagine how naive I was at twelve years old. Nothing changed much. I still have the flirting skills of a twelve-year-old. Baekhyun says that I get better and better every year, but I’m pretty sure he’s lying to spare my feelings.

    Anyway, Kyungsoo told me that I changed to which I asked him—how? Because as far as I knew, I stuck with our mediocre friend group. I sat through a myriad of sci-fi movie marathons with him and his friends. And it wasn’t the movies that were the problem. It was the three boys who wouldn’t shut up about theories as I tried to admire how hot Anakin Skywalker was. I also took up the cello, so I could be with him without his excuses of “I have too much homework” or “it’s boy’s night.”

    And the lowest of the low, I forbade myself from having girlfriends because I’m going to be honest here, Do Kyungsoo and his friends were on the crux of becoming incels (if it weren’t for me).

    But now, there’s no more me because Kyungsoo broke up with me. Right in the middle of the stupid dance floor in our musty gym.

    The heart-shaped disco lights that shone pink in the dark gym only pissed me off more. This was our third Valentine’s Day, and he finally grew the balls to ask me to our very first dance.

    “What?” I ask him for the third time.

    Kyungsoo sighs, adjusting his black frames. “I think you heard me.”

    I scoff, “Yeah, no , I heard you. How dare you?”

    “How dare—“ Kyungsoo chokes on his words.

    I square him up. “You invited me to the dance only to dump me?”

    Kyungsoo scratches his nape nervously. “I mean—if you say it like that, it sounds worse than it is…”

    I am positive that the next breath I took involved exhaling some type of fire because he winces, taking a step back. I let out a loud, unfunny laugh. “How else am I supposed to say it? You tell me, so I can somehow spare your puny feelings like you did mine.”

    He cringes again. “Sorry, I just—my friends told me that you were toxic. I thought maybe that we both changed, and this relationship…I just don’t see it.”

    “Your friends?” Great to know that our friends were never on my side. “ you.”

    Kyungsoo’s face brightens a couple of shades of red. “W-what?”

    “I think you heard me,” I echo his own words back to him. He’s never heard me swear at him, but tonight, he gets to hear my entire arsenal of profanities. “Thank you for nothing. Please never look in my direction ever again. Also, I just want to say—I’m so much better than you in chamber. You’re garbage. Learn how to play on tempo.” Then, I spin around to leave, harrumphing.

    The night only gets worse because I bump right into someone who was previously holding two cups of punch. Red, kool-aid. I blink once and then twice, glancing down at the now soiled ivory Reformation dress that simultaneously cost me weeks of chores and tutoring snot-eating kids.

    My lips tremble as I look up at the perpetrator, a wide-eyed boy with flushed cheeks. I squint my eyes, trying to place who the owner of a set of high cheekbones and pink, shiny lips was.

    “U-um,” he stammers, not sure how to react as I burst out into tears. “Please don’t cry. I promise I didn’t mean to spill punch on you.” He shifts in his spot—a little finicky—as he tries to smile off the stares of our peers actively judging him.

    I should feel bad, but I’d been so angry with Kyungsoo and my dress. I was going to throw up. I was going to hurl my entire stomach of trail mix right on the cheap linoleum floor.

    The boy in front of me exhales deeply, his eyes changing from uncertainty to motivation. He drops the empty cups down the bin and proceeds to grab my arm.

    “Come on,” he assures, and I follow him with more assertiveness. “I’m Baekhyun. You?”

    I tell him my name through gasps and sniffles, not really sure if he could comprehend. If he didn’t, he hadn’t said anything.

    Baekhyun pulls me out into the parking lot. “Are you a sophomore?”

    I sniffle, nodding as big fat tears roll down my face. God. Please make it stop. “Y-yeah.”

    “I’m Mr. Hubble’s TA,” he tells me.

    I stop crying, remembering that Mr. Hubble is the high school physic’s teacher. He’s also notorious for hitting on young boys. He hasn’t been fired only because he’s the principal's husband. I also remember he’s kind of a misogynist and would probably give me hell for snatching his latest boy toy away.

    “You should get back to him,” I say quietly, pulling my arm away from his grasp.

    Baekhyun shivers, but I’m sure it hadn’t been from the cold. “No, no. I think I’ll probably head out.”

    “He’ll get mad,” I warn.

    Baekhyun makes a noise. “Who cares what pufferfish thinks.”

    I’m a little surprised by his sudden contempt, but he relaxes his expression when he looks at me.

    “So, what’s your story, kid?”

    Kid? I frown a little, observing him. I guess I seem like a kid to him. After all, I’m somewhere around 4’11. He’s a lot taller than me. His shoulders are broad, and his arms are big. Arms that look like they can easily wrap around me. I swallow, suddenly realizing that even as young as he looks—he’s an adult.

    But I’ve never seen a younger adult. I’ve only seen middle-aged adults courtesy of the teachers at my high school. I take a step back, making him chuckle a little.

    “Nothing,” I grumble.

    Baekhyun blows a raspberry. “Surely your outburst didn’t mean nothing, right?”

    My cheeks pinken, but it’s dark outside so thankfully, he can’t see. “I was dumped.”

    He makes a pained sound. “Just now?”

    I feel mild embarrassment, speaking to a stranger about my problems. So, I quip, “don’t worry about it.”

    Baekhyun hums in amusement. “You wanna tell me what happened?”

    If I hadn’t embarrassed myself enough tonight. I really went and done it. I told him everything. I told him about my entire life story. I even spilled about my first time with Kyungsoo. I told him everything with big fat tears and a snot-filled nose.

    By the time I’m done, it’s pitch-black outside. Every person has filed out of the building, and it’s just the two of us. My cheeks are splotchy and my eyes swollen from my alligator tears.

    He’d gone into the school to find—more like steal—a tissue box for me. Baekhyun hadn’t said anything for the past hour other than the occasional complaint about Kyungsoo. I laughed a little when he told me that I was too good for Kyungsoo. The man didn’t even know me, but it made me feel immensely better.

    I sniffle, “isn’t that dirty? You can just hand them to me.” I signal to the dirty tissues bunched up in his hands. He’d been sweet enough to hold onto them for me. Though, I was more concerned that those contained my snot.

    Baekhyun didn’t look bothered. “Don’t worry about it.” I notice what he did there.

    “Yeah, yeah,” I remark snidely. “I mean—don’t you have anything better to do than listen to me cry in an empty parking lot?”

    His laugh comes from deep inside of his chest. Full of amusement and surprisingly, some tenderness. “Was it the chaperoning a high school dance on Valentine’s Day that gave it away?”

    My shoulders relax. “Don’t you have a date today? Like—how old are you?”

    He makes a dismissive noise. “I’m twenty-two and no date.”

    My eyebrows rise. “Huh? Looking like that?”

    The corner of his lips tilts upward. “Like what?”

    I harrumph. He knows. For sure, he has to know. I’m like a hundred percent sure he’s just pulling my strings. “Is there something wrong with you that’s chasing them away?”

    Baekhyun shrugs. “Well, uh, I didn’t use to look like this. I guess you can say I was a lot like your ex-boyfriend in high school.” He sees my disgusted expression before waving his hands. “But you see—I walked, so he could run.”

    “I assume you'd respected women.”

    “Oh, I love women.”

    I laugh at that, and he nudges me.

    “What’s so funny?”

    “You say that like you’re describing your affection toward an inanimate object.”

    He snorts, “anyone ever told you that you like to overanalyze things?”

    “Future prosecutor in the making,” I tell him with a proud grin.

    “Oh, that’s cute.”

    I frown, punching him lightly. “Hey man, are you insinuating something?”

    He makes a funny face. “Me? I just met you.”

    “Yeah, whatever. What about you? What’s your life plan?”

    He leans back on the bench a little, running his hand through his hair. “Well, I’m almost done with my undergraduate degree in physics.”

    “Oh, so you’re one of those STEM guys,” I tease.

    I could’ve sworn he was going to push me off the bench. “You’re a sassy one. If I was a criminal, I wouldn’t even bother committing a crime if I’d known that it was you I’d have to face.”

    I ignore him. “What about after graduate school?”

    “Maybe a doctorate,” he replies nonchalantly.

    “That’s a lot of…school,” I ponder, but then I think about my career path which is also a pain. “Do you like school?”

    Baekhyun meets my eyes. “Not particularly, but it’s my identity at this point.”

    “Aren’t you a little too old for an identity crisis?”

    “Aren’t you a little too young to be crying about love?”

    I level a look at him, but he doesn’t relent. Finally, I look away. “Alright, fine. You win. I’m going home before you decide to kidnap me.”

    “Sweet. I was just about to swing my invisible wrench over your head actually.”

    “You’re positive that you’re twenty-two?”

    “You of all shouldn’t be talking, mon petit.”

    “I won’t be 4’11 forever. You just wait.”

    “Alright, bet.”

 

[2]

 

    “You’re late,” I tell Baekhyun when I prop open the door to see his leaning against our porch.

    Baekhyun winks at me. “Actually, I think I’m just in time.”

    I make a face, but before I’m able to say anything. My mom pushes through beside me. “Hyunnie! Is that you?”

    Baekhyun grins, leaning in as she kisses both his cheeks. “How are you, Ma? I felt like I haven’t seen you in so long.”

    Mom laughs adoringly, completely ignoring her real daughter. “Oh, sweetheart, is my daughter the one stopping you? You know you’re always welcome here.”

    “God, Mom,” I groan out. “Please—you guys aren’t long lost lovers. Get a grip.”

    Baekhyun feigns shock. “What? We were just about to tell you about our wedding.”

    Mom also feigns shock as she turns to me, winking. “Don’t tell your dad. He’ll be jealous.”

    I roll my eyes. “More like he’ll elope with the both of you. Okay, bye, Mom. Please, for the love of God, feed Bee.” Yes, how can I forget that my entire family adopted Baekhyun as their respective unofficial husband?

    Bee, our golden retriever boy, comes running with a wide grin on his face. He jumps, and I watch Baekhyun chuckle as he bends down to rub Bee.

    There are hearts in Mom’s eyes. Well, everyone is a little in love with him. Baekhyun has one talent, and that was his unintentional charisma. He could charm even a statue to screw him.

    I loop a hand around the back of his shirt, tugging him upward. “H-hey!” He yelps. Mom has a tender smile as she waves us off while I drag him to his car.

    Once Baekhyun adjusts himself, he swings his arms over my shoulders. “Did you miss me?” He asks, his breath tickling my ear.

    “You’re so weird, Baek. Where’s Faith?”

    He opens the car door for me, not answering my question. I sneak a tiny glance at him in suspicion. Did something happen? The last time I spoke to him about Faith, he’d been a little off.

    Baekhyun begins driving, and I watch him back out of the driveway with an arm slung over my seat. I see the veins pop in his neck. I also smell him. He smells like a rose garden, which wasn’t anything new. His parents owned a famous flower shop before they passed away a couple of years ago. He sold the shop a while back, but Baekhyun often tended to their personal rose garden as he once told me that the garden was the only remaining trace of his parents.

    I briefly close my eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face.

    When I open them, he side glances me.

    “What?” I casually ask, swatting his face away jokingly.

    Baekhyun’s smile is lopsided when he turns back to the road. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

    “You’re so strange.”

    “Ah. How can I forget when you’ve reminded me a million times?”

    “You didn’t answer my question about Faith,” I remind, fixing a suspicious look at him.

    Baekhyun’s expression remains playful and doesn’t give. He didn’t hide much from me, especially when we’ve known each other for six years. But I couldn’t help but feel like there was something he wasn’t telling me. Nonetheless, he answers, “we split up at her parents today.”

    My jaw falls a little before I close it. “Huh.”

    We reach a red light, and he meets my eyes. “What? You worried about me?”

    I sigh, “of course, I am. I’m sorry, Baek. That must’ve .”

    Baekhyun shrugs, “we had different values. There was really nothing I could’ve done about it.”

    I snort, “like you couldn’t break her will?”

    To which, he answers bemused, “believe what you will.”

    As silence seizes the space between us, I retreat to watching the sun sink. It’s golden hour, and when I turn to Baekhyun, his skin is glistening. I’m fixed on his brown eyes. From a distance, they were romantic eyes. Eyes of a person that contained a bit of everything. Numbness. Grief. Secrets.

     I feel the breath catch in my throat. I swallow down the lump in my throat. The lumps that represented the feelings that I’ve hidden from him since my teenage years.

 

[somewhere in 2018]

 

    “Hi, welcome in!” I chirp, my voice raising because—customer service. When I glance up, a familiar brunette smiles at me. I raise an eyebrow. “Why are you here?” I didn’t mean to sound so accusing.

    Baekhyun also raises his eyebrows, but there’s a teasing glint in his eyes. “Is there another barista?”

    “Why?” I mumble.

    He shrugs. “Seems like you at your job.”

    I ignore him. “What can I get for you today?”

    “Espresso macchiato. Six shots.”

    I tap his order into our POS. “Seems like you should do coke instead.”

    Baekhyun snorts. “How do you know that I haven’t tried?”

    Again, I ignore him. “Alright, can I have your phone number?”

    He pauses, scratching his neck. “Um.”

    I stare at him, drilling an unaware look at him. “What?”

    “My number?”

    “Yeah, your number,” I repeat, not sure what he’s on.

    Baekhyun looks conflicted. “Look. I really like you, but—“

    I pause. He pauses. Then, I laugh. Really, really loudly that it gets everyone’s attention. My coworker bumps into me, checking in. I manage to choke out that I’m okay.

    When I look at Baekhyun again, his cheeks are pink. “For our reward’s program, ert. You’re registered, aren’t you?”

    If he’s embarrassed, he doesn’t show it because he tells me his number with almost no change in expression. “Well, um, I’ll see you around.”

    I give him a slight smile. “Sure. Yeah. Have a good day.”

    Once he leaves, Haechan, my coworker, nudges me again. “You good?”

    “Fine. Why?”

    “Your cheeks. They’re red.”

    Whether I'd known that his number would come in handy someday didn't matter because my stupid brain memorized it.

 

[february 14th, 2019]

 

    I’d driven my newly wrapped car for thirty miles. My beautiful Honda that Dad gifted me last year. I was getting it wrapped with matte baby pink until someone slammed into my rear at an incredibly illegal speed limit.

    I’ve heard about traffic accidents my entire life, but you don’t process any of it until it’s over. Until the car stops spinning, and I realize that I’m upside down because my car has flipped over.

    I peel my head from the airbag, not sure how hard I hit my head. Sure enough, I feel absolutely, nauseously out of my mind. When I blink, the world still doesn’t stop spinning, but I smell smoke and dirt. I try to pry the door open, but to no avail, it’s completely jammed in.

    I’m not even sure where I am. I’d only made it five miles from the decal shop. I take a deep breath, yanking my belt away. The door to the passenger seat opens, and a stranger asks me if I’m okay.

    I tell him that I am despite me feeling quite the opposite. He helps me out, asking me if I have anyone I can call. I think about my parents that are on a cruise in the middle of the Caribbean. I also think about Jaehyun who is impossibly unhelpful.

    I stare at the keypad on my phone, until I do something that is extremely irrational. I’m not sure why he’s the only person that comes to mind because I don’t know who he is, and he doesn’t know who I am. Mostly. Anyway.

    To my surprise, he comes right away. I stare at the silhouette of the guy I briefly met rush onto the scene. His eyes search for me, but I don’t call out to him because I’m too stunned.

    He’s here because I called him. Me. A completely random girl that he met only two times.

    “Baekhyun?” I murmur, and that’s when he sees me. He sprints across the road, ignoring the cars coming at him.

    “Hey,” he gasps, heaving air. “Sorry, it took me so long. I had to come up with an excuse—“

    “. I’m sorry. I forgot that it was Valentine’s day. You really didn’t have to come. I just called you on a whim. You can go back to your date. It’s not that serious.”

    The police officer from early who questioned me comes back with paperwork. He tells me that my car is quite possible totaled. I don’t realize that my hands are shaking when he asks me if I’ve been hurt.

    I continue to deny it even though my ribs ache every time I try to breathe.

    “I’m staying,” Baekhyun tells me, eyebrows furrowing when I try to wave him off.

    “You don’t know me,” I protest, pushing his arm and urging him to leave.

    He frowns. “You’re right, but I know you enough. I’m not going to leave a seventeen-year-old to fend for herself. Besides, you’re—“

    At the same time, a person stumbles between us, shoving me towards the ground. Whether he meant to or not, he began to shout at me.

    “You’re an insurance scammer, aren’t you?” The man slurs.

    I squint my eyes, catching a whiff of alcohol. Is he serious, right now? “No—“

    “You,” he emphasizes while pointing a finger at my face. “You’re trying to scam me. It wasn’t even your right of way!”

    I back away, but he approaches again—close enough to grab the collar of my hoodie. “Get off of me!”

    Baekhyun grabs the man’s arms, pinning them back. “You heard her. We can settle this without you getting handsy, my guy.”

    “You ran the red light,” I surmise, trying to not cower from his glare.

    He snorts, shoving my arm. “I was already having a rough day, and now you’re lying to me?” He begins to ramble about the finalization of his divorce and that I was being a stupid brat.

    When I turn to see where Baekhyun has gone, I see that he’s come back with a police officer. “He needs a BAC test.”

    The man stumbles, fumbling to get away from us. He’s caught by the police officer when he trips over something.

    Baekhyun returns to my side, eyeing me carefully. “Are you okay?”

    I open my mouth to tell him that I’m okay, but my lips tremble. Because as the adrenaline dissipates, the seriousness of the situation sinks in.

    I blink, feeling hot tears. As I stifle the sob that threatens to escape, my head pounds, and my vision sways.

    “Okay, I’ve got you.” I wonder why his voice has gotten closer. When he presses me closer, I wince. I wonder why it hurts so much. A startling pain. He pales when he lifts my shirt. Swallowing, he pulls my shirt back down. “I need an ambulance!”

    I inhale again, wincing. The last thing I remember is a burning, hot pain.

    When I wake up, I’m loosely bandaged around my ribs. I check the time to see that it’s nearly midnight. Only a couple of hours have passed after the accident.

    I try to turn on my side when I realize that I can’t because of the sudden flare of pain that comes with moving.

    “Hey, you’re up.” A soft voice startles me.

    My eyes widen. “Why are you still here?”

    Baekhyun tsks. “Why else? Several of your ribs are broken, so they had to put in some screws. I’m not going to leave you when your family members aren’t here yet.”

    “You don’t have to feel responsible. I can handle it.”

    “Hm. I’m sure you can,” he answers with a nonchalant shrug. “But my parents would kill me if they knew I left you alone during this time.”

    “It’s Valentine’s day,” I argue.

    Baekhyun lifts a brow. “Oh, really? I wasn’t aware.”

    “I interrupted your date, didn’t I?”

    “I wasn’t on a date,” he answers.

    I scrunch my face. He’s lying. I’m not sure why he lied because he was clearly wearing a formal suit. He notices my eyes scrutinizing his clothes that I’ve bloodied from earlier when he was supporting my weight.

    “Okay, I was, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

    “Really?”

    He nods again. “Don’t worry about it.”

    I couldn’t help it. I felt like he was still lying to me. “How long have you been with her?”

    “What?”

    I sigh quietly. “Well, from what you’re wearing, you obviously had plans. Your suit means that it wasn’t a casual ordeal. If you were with your friends, you wouldn’t be wearing what you are right now. I concluded that you were on a date, but again, formal. So, this either means you were attending a formal event or you had a long-term girlfriend who is probably pressed that you abandoned her in the middle of dinner.”

    Baekhyun blinks, slightly stunned at my deductive reasoning. “A prosecutor, huh?”

    So, he remembers.

    His smile fades. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. She ended it.”

    “What? You should go to her now, then.”

    He shakes his head. “It was mutual.”

    “Mutual?”

    “She slept with one of my friends, so I confronted her.”

    “Oh,” I awkwardly mutter. “Sorry.”

    “Not your fault,” he says, strangely calm for having been cheated on.

    “Thanks for coming,” I muster.

    To my surprise, he stands up, getting under the covers. The hospital bed is tiny when he joins me. Instead of shoving him off, I ask, “how’d you know?”

    “Know what?”

    “That I was uncomfortable because I’m a side sleeper. You also figured out that I’ve dropped my guard enough for you to climb in without protest.”

    “You’d be an excellent prosecutor,” he whispers with traces of amusement.

    My lips twitch. “Right now, and right here. Where would you rather be?”

    “With a lover,” he answers.

    I tsk. “What’s stopping you?”

    He doesn’t answer that and asks me, “how about you? Where would you rather be?”

    “Anywhere but here,” I answer.

    Baekhyun seeks me out with his eyes. “Do you want me to go?”

    I don’t bother thinking about my answer because the truth slipped out easily. “No, not really.”

    

---

 

[a/n] not me taking forever to update this. so sorry for keeping y'all waiting. i swear. every time I sat down to write this. i struggled. im pretty sure i forgot how to write non-angsty romance. first chapter's kind of boring oop. also me and my obsession with .

sue me. it felt right. okay bye! on another note, this is still collegeau. they both attend georgetown except she's pursuing her undergraduate degree and he's pursuing his doctorate.