Hakyeon’s POV

It has been a week since the last time I saw Eunmi. She hasn’t come to the café at all. I also didn’t see her friend, Taekwoon. Eunmi also didn’t reply to my text or answer my call. Is something happen to her? Feeling uneasy, finally I decided to come to her apartment.

Arrived to her apartment, I press the doorbell. When the door is opened, I am surprised knowing that it is Taekwoon who open the door.

“Oh, Hakyeon-ssi. What brings you here?” ask Taekwoon.

He is topless with a towel on his shoulder, dripped water on his face, and wearing a short.

“I am the one who should be asking here. Why are you on her house at this early in the morning looking like this? I am looking for Eunmi since I can’t contacted her these past few days.”

“Relax, Hakyeon-ssi. Eunmi is sick. She got a very high fever, maybe that’s why she can’t contact you. She usually can’t answer a call or reply any text when she sick. I am here to take care of her. I don’t know your phone number so I don’t tell you. Ah, I know she is sick from her teacher. She suddenly collapsed in the class and my number is registered as her guardian.”

I can’t say anything. I was ashamed for thinking so negatively, but I am also upset why he knows her so much and why he’s the one beside her as her guardian. I know Taekwoon is her childhood friend, but still… And I am so angry at me for being this childish.

“Do you want to see her? But she is sleeping right now.” Taekwoon steps aside, giving me room to enter.

“I will wait until she wakes up then.”

“I will change my clothes first. You can sit at the sofa.” Taekwoon goes to a room.

I sit at the sofa and looking at the surrounding. It hasn’t been a month since Eunmi and I seeing each other. I never been to her apartment. Yes I know where her apartment is, but I never go inside.

“Coffee or tea?” Taekwoon asked. He has wear a black T-shirt, but he’s still wearing the short.

“Anything is ok.” I said.

Then Taekwoon gives me a cup of tea, then sits next to me.

“Eunmi and I are from Changwon. I moved here because I need to enter SNU. She wants to follow me, so when she enters a senior high school, she moves to Seoul. Her parents ask me to be her guardian. She refuses to live together with me so she rents a cheap room in the rooftop before she moves here. Her previous house is far from here and doesn’t look quite safe so I help her to make a yootube channel so she could move and live more decent. I live in the upper floor, room 502.”

“I see.” I lost in my thought.

“Don’t worry, I never do anything bad to her. I see her as my little sister.” Taekwoon said. “Have you had breakfast? Mind if I left you cooking?”

I nod. “It’s ok. Anything I can do to help?”

“No, it’s ok. Ah, you can go to her room on the left, to check if she wakes up.”

I nod again and walk to her room. I saw her sleeping with a frown on her head. She still looks pale. I tap at her forehead to check her temperature. It still warm. Maybe because I touch her head, she wakes up.

“Taekwoon-ah.” She rub her eyes, hasn’t been able to grasp the situation. She holds my hand and said, “Can I have some wa— euh? Oppa, why are you here? Don’t look.”

With her wobbly hands, she tries to push me. Unable to push me, she covers her face with a blanket.

“Why? Why do you cover your face?”

“I must be looking very ugly. I don’t want you to see me like this.” She said.

“What are you saying? You looks okay. Don’t be like that, look at me.”

She sits down, combs her hair with her hands, still covering . “Where is Taekwoonie?”

“He’s cooking. Is that the only words you want to say after seeing me?” I asked.

“Euh… I’m sorry?”

“Sorry? Why are you sorry for? You don’t do anything wrong.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you that I am sick. Also not answering your calls. I am too confused to look at my phone. I just getting better yesterday but I still not contacting you afraid that you will be worried and come seeing me like this.”

“You don’t have to be sorry for not replying my texts or answering my calls.” I her heads. “But yea, you should be sorry for thinking that my love for you is that shallow. I will not leave you even if you are sick.”

“It’s not that! I-I just want to always look good in front of you.”

“You are. You are always look good.” I said, still her hair.

“Of course not! My hair is messy and my face—”

“Sshhh. You look okay.” I put my finger on her lips. “Instead, you look a bit ier.” I whisper, smile teasingly.

“Y-ya! Byuntae! How could you to a sick person!” she hits me.

“Hahaha. Hey, don’t waste your energy like that. Sleep again. I’ll get you a water.” I said pushing her softly to the bed. “I will also bring your breakfast. Stay there.”

And that’s how my day ends. I help Taekwoon take care of Eunmi.

.

The next day, I come again to Eunmi’s apartment because Taekwoon has things to do on his college. Eunmi also has gotten better. Her fever has gone, but she still takes a rest today.

“Why did you come? I am already ok now.” She said.

“I can’t visit my girlfriend?”

“It’s not that. I don’t want to trouble you. How about the café?”

“Hongbin has asked his friend to help with the café. He might be the new waiter. I am only a replacement, remember? I am the owner of the café. Also, why is it ok for you to trouble Taekwoon but not me?”

“Is it even more okay if the owner is playing around like this while the barista and waiter work hard? And, Taekwoon is like a blood-related brother, so it is common for me to trouble him.”

“It’s ok. I can do the recap or work later on at night. Before the new waiter come, I also don’t do my job as the owner but as a waiter around this time. Anyway, he still not your real blood-related oppa.”

“Are you being jealous, oppa? At this kind of time? I thought you said you are 25^th years old, but you still this childish.”

“Yea, I am jealous.” I grab her arm and put my hand on her cheek. “Yes, I am still that childish. I have hold myself yesterday not to bring this topic because you still have a bit fever, but I can’t hold it anymore. I want to be the one who knows you the most, take care of you the most. Didn’t I warn you that I am possessive and get jealous easily?”

Her face gets red when I bring my face closer to her. “Uh, true. This is my fault for forgetting your warning.”

I draw back my face when I see her closing her eyes. She opens her eyes and blinks.

“But I am not that ill-mannered to kiss or do things to a sick person.” I stick my tongue out.

Her face getting more and more red. She screams and hits me.

“Hahaha, looks like you are already healthy seeing you are this lively. Your punch hurts more than yesterday also. Hahaha.”

“Cha Hakyeon pabo!” She pouts.

“Ne, ne. Mian. Sorry for teasing you. But seriously, you are not gonna make me your guardian?” I ask.

“E-euh… that’s… what if we are break up then?” she asked.

“You’re gonna break up with me?” I asked back.

“No! I am not! But you know, we can never predict what happened in the future.”

“I will never leave you. You can tell the school that your guardian is me, and the most important thing, to change this apartment password, so I am the one who will come here instead of another man.”

“Really?”

“At least until you are graduating. Bearing with you for 6 months are okay.”

“Ya!”

“Hahaha, I’m kidding. But I really dislike the fact that Taekwoon can go inside and outside your apartment freely and I am not. I mean, he’s a man after all.”

“He never sees me as a girl. He once has a girlfriend and never confess to me.”

“That’s what he said too, but the way he acts speak differently. I am a man too, so I can clearly see that.”

“Isn’t you being too sensitive? But fine, if you insist.”

Eunmi drags me and walks to the door.

“240512 our first date is the key.” She said.

I smile, resisting my desire to kiss her. “Okay.”

That’s how I got her apartment password.

.

Epilog

Eunmi’s POV

Pip. Pip. Pipipipipip.

I walked to open the door since Hakyeon oppa has gone home.

“Taekwoon-ah.”

“Do you change the password? Why can’t I get in?” he asked.

“A-ah yes… er… Hakyeon oppa asks me to change the password.”

“Why? What is the number now?”

“Hakyeon-oppa doesn’t like that you come and go freely from my apartment… so I can’t tell you the new password.”

Taekwoon glares at me.

“What if something happened to you then? Fine, give me your phone, I will make my number as an emergency number so you only need to press 1 to call me if something happen.”

“C-can you make it to number 2? Because number 1 is Ha-Hakyeon oppa.”

Taekwoon glares getting scarier.

“I-I’m sorry, I-I…”

“You better explain this in a detail.” He takes my phone and sits in the sofa. He looks at me and making a gesture with his head for me to sit in the couch. Goodness… I hope I could survive from this lion.

.

Ya! = hey!

Byuntae = ert

Mian = sorry