Without another word, Myungsoo dropped Jinyoung’s hand. Without another glance, he walked back into the practice room and shut the door.

   Jinyoung ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Did I seriously just – oh god, _______ will not be happy once she finds out. I think I might be…starting to like her, he thought, and it felt as though a small part of the heavy weight was lifted off his chest, making him feel slightly lighter. I can’t believe I like her after three days. What’s this girl doing to me?

   Leaning against the wall, mentally exhausted, he thought about how Myungsoo must’ve hurt you terribly in order to make you cry. Whether you were a sensitive person or not, seeing you break into tears had made him feel worry that he had never felt so intensely for any other person beforehand, except perhaps his family. It scared him – three days, and he was ready to compete against another guy for you.

   Now that all was quiet, he became aware of a strange, distant sound. A faint and persistent…something. Straightening up and walking cautiously towards the noise, he walked down several doors before stopping in front of one, where the sound was coming from. Pulling it open, he flickered on the lights and jumped a little at the sight of a huddled ball in the corner.

   He froze as you lifted your head, your eyes red and slightly swollen. Hugging your knees with your hair messy, you were the epitome of vulnerability.

   It was her sniffling, he thought, his eyes widening. Before he could even think of anything else, his body acted on its own – directed by his own subconscious. He shut the door, walked swiftly across the room, got on his knees and enveloped your body in his arms.

---

   I gasped as Jinyoung’s body crashed against mine, warming my entire body. Embarrassed, I flinched back, but his arms were wrapped tightly against me. “You don’t have to see this,” I told him, my voice thick with tears.

   “It’s okay. I want to be here.”

   I looked at his eyes, finding nothing but worry and sincerity. Giving in quickly, I slumped my forehead against his shoulder, sniffling. “I never even knew what I did wrong,” I whispered, my voice cracking.

   “Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” he whispered in my ear. He ran his fingers through my hair, combing it out and then my head.

   I knew that he had no idea what was going on. I knew that he probably thought I was being overly dramatic and emotional. I knew that his shirt was going to be wet later. Yet at the moment, I didn’t care – I was just honestly grateful to have a shoulder to cry on.

   I’m not sure how long we sat there, completely silent. Every little while, I would raise my head to look at his face, mere inches away, only to have him send me a small, comforting smile every time. It wasn’t a smile of pity – it was a smile that said a hundred things. It was a smile that said, “You can cry. I’ll be here. It’ll be alright.” He kept his arms around me the entire time.

   Maybe in order to comfort, and to support, words aren’t needed. Maybe silence really is golden.

   Eventually, my sniffling calmed down, and my chest stopped heaving. “I’m not always like this, I swear,” I forced a small laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

   Finally letting go of me, Jinyoung shifted so that he was beside me instead. “Do you want to come over to my place?”

   I looked over at him questionably. “W-what?” I stuttered.

   “No, no!” He raised both hands, as if just realizing what his question sounded like. “I meant – to clean up a bit. We could still do something after if you want, it’s still early, and it’s Saturday.” He smiled apologetically.

   I turned to look at one of the big walls of the room, which was just a gigantic mirror. My eyes were swollen, my face was blotchy and I looked as if I just had two all-nighters in a row. “Yeah, cleaning up does sound good, doesn’t it?” I bit my lip, embarrassed.

   Chuckling, he helped me up. “C’mon, I don’t live far.”

   As we walked out of the room and headed towards the staircase, I tugged on his sleeve.

   “Hmm?” He turned around, evidently surprised by my touch.

   “Could we go out the back? I love Vic, but she’ll ask questions.”

   “Yeah, of course.”

---

   “Bathroom’s down the hall, second door to the right,” Jinyoung directed as we both took off our shoes.

   “Your place is pretty nice,” I said, feeling a lot better. It was a spacey apartment, which he said before that he shared with his friends. “You live here with four other guys?”

   “Yeah. The four from the studio, actually.”

   “I’m so sorry, I must’ve been so embarrassing.”

   “Don’t even think about worrying over that, they won’t mind at all. They’re decent – usually.” He snickered. “Go do whatever you girls do,” he shooed me into the washroom.

   I smiled gratefully at him before shutting the door. Taking a deep breath, I gathered myself. He’s already seen you at your worst, I thought. Doesn’t really matter what you look like anymore.

   I washed my face, holding a small bundle of toilet paper soaked with cold water under my eyes, hoping to reduce some of the swelling. That was pretty much all I could do – I looked slightly better, but I still felt kind of drained. It’d be nice to be able to do something with my hair though.

   I stepped out, calling, “Jinyoung…?”

   “Hmm?” I heard his voice, muffled.

   Walking down the hall towards the living room, I stopped in front of one of the rooms. Jinyoung stood with his back towards me, and I stood there frozen as I watched him pull his tee shirt up and off his body.

   I couldn’t help myself as my eyes roamed from his shoulders down to his lean torso, under which I could see the elastic band of his blue boxers.

   Oh God, he was attractive.

   And you’re a total ert, a voice in my head yelled. Quickly, I darted back into the washroom, pretending that I hadn’t left the entire time.

   “D-do you have a brush, or a comb that I could use?” I tried to ask casually.

   “Er, yeah, just a second.”

   He wouldn’t walk out of the room topless, would he? Half of me wanted to scream and run, yet the other half wanted to see how he looked topless…from the front.

   Thankfully for my sanity, Jinyoung walked out in a normal black v-neck with a light jacket over it. Handing me a brush, he smiled gently. “You’re looking a lot better, though just a tiny bit pink.”

   Except it’s not from the crying, my head whispered. I swallowed, combing my hair out and walking towards the door of his room.

   “This is your room?” I questioned.

   “Mhmm. I share with Sandeul, so it’s kind of messy, but come in.” He led me into the room, cleaning up the table as I sat tentatively on the corner of the lower bunk bed, trying to take up as little space as possible. I looked around his room, noting the clothes thrown randomly on the table and the random electronics all around the room. “Is it alright if I ask…what happened?”

   I looked up at Jinyoung, who was just leaning against the table. After sitting there and letting me bawl for who-knows-how-long, it only seemed fair to let him know what I was bawling about. I sighed, deciding that I trusted him. “Myungsoo and I dated for a year and a half until six months ago,” I began. “We went to school together, and that was how we got close – we had the same group of friends and everything. We…we really liked each other.”

   I saw Jinyoung wince, but took it as a sign that he just thought my story was sad.

   “The thing is, we could only go out in secret. He had a strict family, and they didn’t let him date, but we did anyways. Not even Vic knew about it – or else she would’ve warned me that he was up in the practice room, I swear. She probably just thought he was another boy from our school. We stayed in often, not going on many dates.”

   “Do you regret it?” Jinyoung blurted.

   “I don’t regret the time we went out, really. We made lots of memories. One day, though, he just suddenly became cold. He sent all my calls to voicemail and skipped school for an entire week. He wouldn’t answer anybody’s messages.” I swallowed, determined to not shed anymore tears for the day. “So naturally, one would be worried, right?”

   Jinyoung nodded, as if on cue.

   “So I went over to his house, saying that I was a friend who needed to look over an assignment with him. His mother just looked at me all pitifully before telling me that he went over to the dance studio.” I fiddled with the sleeve of my shirt, remembering. “We spent a lot of time at the studio when we were going out. We both had a passion for dancing – we’d make up our own routines and practice them, even though we weren’t in any competitions or anything. We even had our own designated room.”

   “Did you go to look for him?” Jinyoung murmured as he sat beside me on the bed. He criss-crossed his legs, getting comfortable, and I shifted myself into a more natural position also.

   “Of course. When I got there, though…I’m not sure what happened. He got angry, asking me how I found out where he was. So I told him, and then he -” I drifted off, wondering if I was really ready to tell Jinyoung all of this, but I continued anyways. “He told me that I was a stalker for following him around, and that I was too clingy. He said that I was paranoid and needy. We broke up that day.”

   “He sounds like a jerk,” Jinyoung stated. “Out of the blue – who does that?”

   I smiled wistfully. “I’m not even sure where I started going wrong.”

   “You weren’t wrong. Anybody in their right mind would’ve went looking,” Jinyoung placed his hand on my knee and lightly squeezed it. He meant it in a supporting way, but I suddenly felt extra self-conscious. “I’m guessing you don’t really want to do anything else today? I’d be tired if I were you.”

   I couldn’t help smiling at his understanding. “Thank you so much,” I whispered. “For everything.”

   “You’re welcome,” he smiled back. “Does this mean you’ll stop hitting me?”

   “Not quite,” I smirked, ruffling his hair.

   “Hey – before you leave, then…do you want to see the duck machine?”

   “The duck machine…that you said you could shoot toy ducks with?”

   “Yeah, c’mon, it’s in the other room, I’ll show you.”

   He led me into the next room, which was surprisingly clean. “Whose room is this?” I questioned.

   “Gongchan, Baro and CNU’s,” he replied.

   “You’re all so messy,” I observed jokingly.

   “Do you want to see the duck machine or not?”

    I giggled, “Yes, please~”

   We spent the next 45 minutes just pretending to shoot the ducks. At first, I simply stood behind the machine watching him shoot and making fun of him every time he missed. I’d put my head right behind the ducks, and he’d pretend that he would be shooting me.

   Eventually, he taught me to aim also, and we ended up challenging each other to see who could shoot the most ducks.

   By late afternoon, I was standing at the door, ready to say goodbye. “Thanks for having me over,” I said.

   “Anytime. I’ll text you tomorrow?”

   “I’d like that, yeah.”

   “And also…”

   “Yeah?”

   “I know we haven’t known each other long, but you can trust me, okay?”

   I smiled brightly, truly grateful. “Okay.”

   Exchanging goodbyes, I left, my mood having risen considerably just by spending an hour with Jinyoung.

---

   Myungsoo lay on his bed, staring at his phone. Sighing with frustration, he retyped, then erased the text message that he’d been trying to send for the past ten minutes.

    How can this be so hard? He thought. I used to send texts all the time.

   The thing was, he wasn’t sure how to phrase and word what he wanted to ask. His brain couldn’t seem to find the right words.

   Angry with himself, he decided to just send something random and be done with it. He sat up on the bed, hurriedly typing in the message on his phone. With a deep breath, he pressed send before he could stop himself.

   Falling back onto the bed, he let out a relieved sigh. Fifteen minutes to send out one sentence. He looked at his phone, rereading what he sent out:

   To: Hunny Bunny
Meet me tomorrow at our practice room.

   He hoped that you would still remember which room it was. He hoped that you would forgive him.

---

*Bleep*

  I came out of the washroom after brushing my teeth to find a text message. Staring at the sender’s name, I winced. I hadn’t changed his nickname. Opening the text message, I quickly read and then reread it. I plopped onto my bed, stunned and not knowing what to think.

   What could he possibly want? I thought. To torture me some more?

   I thought about how we never really had closure, and how it could possibly make me feel better. Less guilty. Then, maybe we could at least be acquaintances, if not even friends.

   I could give him back the necklace. It’d put an official end to us, and then I can officially move on.

   I texted him back before snuggling into my blankets, knowing that I’d fall asleep right away. I was so exhausted – both physically and mentally.

   The text message glowed on my screen as I turned off the light and slept.

   To: L
See you tomorrow, then.