“Listen,” he said, placing a firm grip on my shoulders. “I like you. I really do. But we can’t do this.” He removed his hands from my shoulders and took a step back. I was already longing for his touch again. “You should go home. I’ll wait with you at the bus stop.” He started walking away and I followed slowly from a distance.
 

He said it himself that he liked me. What exactly was stopping him? What did he mean that he’ll hurt me? How was he dangerous? I couldn’t stop the questions from flooding my mind and the only thing that would stop them were answers.
 

I caught up to him at a stop light. As we were waiting for the light to turn, the last bus heading towards home drove right past us. We watched as it stopped at its stop momentarily before leaving and driving off. I glanced at Baekhyun and noticed he seemed a bit frustrated that I missed the bus. To be honest, I didn’t actually want to go home. I was already in the city. What would be the point of going home without learning any information at all?
 

Baekhyun turned to me with an uneasy look on his face. “I guess you can stay at my house,” he said quietly.
 

We walked back slow. Almost as if he didn’t want me to stay at his house at all. But I guess I couldn’t blame him. He hid a lot about himself and no one had ever been in his home. I couldn’t even fathom the information I would find out just standing in his home.
 

“What are you going to tell your grandmother?” he asked as we reentered the dark, narrow street. I couldn’t help but replay the earlier scene. It took a lot of will power to not push Baekhyun up against a wall and make out with him, but I somehow managed.
 

“Oh, um, I guess I’ll just tell her that I stayed over one of the guys’ house or something.”
 

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You sure have a lot of guy friends, you know?”
 

I returned his stare. “Why, are you jealous?”
 

“Nope, it was just an observation,” he quickly rebutted, speeding up his pace and walking ahead of me.
 

“Hey, wait! It’s scary over here,” I exclaimed as I hastily caught up with him, grabbing onto his arm in the process. I noticed him smirk in the corner of my eyes and I felt a tingle run down my spine.
 

When we approached his house, my mouth fell open in awe. Google Maps really didn’t do his house any justice. It didn’t even seem like a house. It was more of an estate. It was four stories tall and the architecture of the building was simply incredible. The walkway was adorned with lights all the way up to his door. Even though it was dark out, I could tell that the garden was impressive. The grass was a vibrant green and although it was fall, the flowers were all in bloom.
 

He fumbled with his keys and after a bit of struggle aligning the key with the door hole, he finally opened the door. I almost forgot he was buzzed. As soon as the door opened, all of the lights on the first floor switched on by themselves.
 

“Whoa,” I said in amazement. “Won’t your parents wake up?”
 

He shook his head as he closed the door behind him. “My dad’s on the fourth floor. He can’t hear anything up there.” Dad? Did that mean that his mom was gone? Or did she pass away? I didn’t have it in me to ask him.
 

“So is there a guest room I can stay in?” I asked, changing the subject.

“There are a lot,” he said. “But you’re not staying in any of them.” I opened my mouth to ask why, but he answered before I could speak. “I wouldn’t know if you woke up and roamed around my house or something. I definitely can’t have you doing that.” I mentally sighed. He was so sure of hiding everything about himself. “You’ll be staying in my room.” He seemed so placid about me staying in his room. As if it wasn’t completely scandalous for a girl to be staying in the same room as someone who was drunk and who could potentially do something to me that couldn’t be taken back.

He shut off all of the lights on the first floor with a simple clap of his hands before I could observe any of it. I could barely see the steps as he led me upstairs. When he stepped onto the second floor, the lights of the second floor automatically . He led me all the way down the hallway to what I assumed was his room. When he opened the door, the hallway lights went off and the lights in his room .

His room was huge. The walls were a dark gray and his room décor was white and black. He had a king sized bed with the head board against the wall. A 72” flat screen TV was hung on the wall across from the bed. The wall opposite from the door was completely made of glass and there was a view of his backyard. My mouth fell open once again as I stared out the large window. His backyard lights were off, but from the moonlight, I could see a large pond-like pool accompanied by a running waterfall. It was almost like his house was some vacation resort.

Suddenly the view was gone and the window went black. “Don’t touch the windows. please.” I turned to Baekhyun and he was holding a remote that could apparently turn the window into a solid glass wall.

I turned my attention away from the window and noticed Baekhyun walk into the large door near the TV. He didn’t close the door behind him so I followed him into it. My mouth fell open in awe once again. We were in his walk in closet. Clothes and shoes lined the walls all in color coded order. There was another door inside the closet that Baekhyun went into and it was his bathroom. A large Jacuzzi tub was centered in the bathroom. There was a long counter in the back of the room with a large mirror above it. There was a glass shower and a bidet toilet on another wall.

“Why did you follow me into the bathroom?!” Baekhyun yelled before pushing me out. A blush rose on my cheeks as I walked back into his bedroom.

I collapsed onto his bed and pulled out my phone to call my grandmother.

“Hello?”

“I don’t think I’ll be coming home tonight because-”

“You’re at Baekhyun’s?” My eyes widened and I shot up on the bed.

“W-what?”

“Don’t lie to me. I know that you’re there. Why would you be dressed up like that to see the guys?” I brought a hand up to my forehead and sighed. I did get my observational skills from my grandmother after all. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad. I was once a teenage girl with hormones-“

“THAT’S NOT WHY I’M HERE.” Baekhyun popped out of the bathroom/closet and stared at me with a concerned look on his face. I heard her laugh on the other end and I couldn’t help but let out a laugh myself. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” I said as I hung up the call.

“What happened?” Baekhyun asked as he placed a set of clothes in my lap. They were his clothes. My heart tingled in excitement at the fact that I would be wearing them.

“Nothing, my grandma just though that we were-” I stopped myself before continuing.

“That we were what?”

I sighed and stood up, obviously not wanting to answer the question. “I’m going to go change…” I mumbled as I walked to the bathroom.

When I came out, Baekhyun was lying on the left side of the bed staring at the soccer highlights displayed on the TV. The comforter was folded open on the right side obviously stating that he intended for me to sleep there.

“I-I’m, uh, W-we’re sleeping in the same bed?”

He shifted his eyes from the TV to me. “Is there a problem with that?” he asked blankly staring at me. I assumed that he had a spare bed in his room when he said I'd be sleeping in it; especially considering how extravagant the rest of his house had been. But clearly there was no spare bed and I wasn't about to sleep on the cold floor. With a sigh, I climbed into the bed. Luckily his bed was big enough so that I didn’t have to be lying on the edge of the bed to keep a good distance between us.

I was about to shut my eyes and try to fall asleep when I heard the TV turn off. Baekhyun clapped his hands and the lights went off and the window returned to being clear. I felt Baekhyun shift his position to his side and I could feel his stare on the side of my face. I tried to keep my gaze on the ceiling, but when he said my name I had no choice but to turn to face him.

Although his room was barely lit by the moonlight, I was faintly able to see his face. He seemed different. The look in his eyes was different than I had ever seen them before. It was like I was watching his wall slowly lower itself. Was he finally going to tear down his wall and let me see what he was hiding behind there?

“You’re the very first friend to come my house you know.”

“Oh, really?” I answered even though I knew completely well that I was the first to be in his house.

“Mhm,” he said. “You must be special.” My heart felt like it was going to explode with rainbows and butterflies. I couldn’t deny the feeling at all. It was just my luck that I would fall in love with someone that was completely closed off. “Or really creepy.” I rolled my eyes as all of the lovey dovey feelings dissolved.

With a heavy sigh he to his back and stared at the ceiling, but I kept my gaze on him, wondering what he could possibly say with his wall brought down a bit. “Do you ever wonder what it’s like to die?” His question startled me. Why was he asking about something like dying? “Do you think that there really is a heaven? Or do you think that it’s like sleeping without dreaming?”

“Sleeping without dreaming?”

“You know. It’s that blackness that you can’t really explain. You don’t really know if you’re asleep or if you’re dreaming. It’s like the in between.”

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve never died before,” I said causing a chuckle to come out from the both of us. “Why do you ask?”

He turned back to look at me and said, “I don’t know.”

And just like that, his wall was back up again.