I couldn’t fall asleep.

Maybe it was the fact that I was lying next to someone who I had been practically obsessed with for quite some time, or maybe it was just a little drafty. It definitely wasn't the first one...

I glanced over towards the right side of the bed and noticed that Baekhyun’s breathing was spaced out and even. I poked at his arm, testing how heavy of a sleeper he was. He didn’t do anything. I said his name just above a whisper to see if he would respond: Again, nothing.

I figured he was in deep enough sleep for me to make it out of his room without waking him up. I slowly lifted my limbs off the bed. Luckily he had one of those fancy memory foam beds that make no creaking noise and hardly disturbed the other side of the bed.

Once I was standing, I quietly and carefully made my way over to his door. Thankfully there was no furniture obstructing the path to the door because the moonlight shining the window provided hardly enough light to see a couple feet in front of me.

I slowly opened the door and the hallway lights as soon as I step foot outside. I gently shut the door behind me and quietly sighed in relief. I actually made it outside. I didn’t even know where to start.

I tiptoed my way over to the staircase. I figured that the first floor would probably be the safest place to start. Once down the stairs, the lights of the bottom floor illuminated just as they did earlier.

I found my way into his living room. The lavish couches were large and seemed to be made of expensive leather. They were all placed accordingly with the focal point of the room being the glorious fireplace. The fireplace took up more the half of the wall.

Just above the mantel was an extremely large family photo. Baekhyun and who I assumed was his sister sat in front of their parents. Baekhyun looked like he was about 13 in the picture and his sister looked about 17. His sister was absolutely gorgeous, practically goddess like. But their good looks obviously came from their parents.

Baekhyun never mentioned anything about his mom or sister, I thought.  A large book on the coffee table caught my eye. It was the only thing on the table. I glanced back to the staircase to check if anyone noticed I was downstairs before grabbing the book.

I sat on the couch and placed it in my lap. “Byun” was written in fancy cursive on the cover. After flipping the hard cover over, I realized that it wasn’t just any book. It was a photo album.

The first few pages were of his parents getting married and a few pages after that were of his pregnant mother. I skimmed through his sister’s childhood until baby Baekhyun appeared. Unfortunately, there weren’t any embarrassing photos of him. Only adorable ones that make the corners of your lips automatically turn up.

They seemed to be an ordinary happy family with no worries. What worries could a wealthy family face actually face?

Everything seemed perfectly fine until I turned a page and saw Baekhyun with his hand around a girl’s waist and his lips on her cheek. Jealousy burned inside me as I flipped through the pages. He was with this girl for a while. Could it have been that he was still with her? Was he cheating on her? And I was the other woman?

“I thought I told you not to go lurking through my house,” a voice whispered right into my ear. I nearly jumped out of my seat. I let out a sigh when I saw Baekhyun walk around the couch and sit down. “That’s Sohee.” His wall seemed to be down again. And it clearly showed in his eyes.

I glanced down at the photo album in my lap. “Did you love her?” I reluctantly asked.

He nodded his head and brought his knees up to his chest. He leaned his head on them and said, “I still do.” Ouch. There it was; that terrible feeling of a broken heart. But really, I only had myself to blame. He warned me. Was this what he was talking about?

“Are you guys still together?” He shook his head sadly and the pain inside subsided a bit. “So… She broke up with you?” I carefully asked.

He let out a sigh. “Yeah, I guess you can say that.” He placed his legs back down and sat up straight. “But I think I’ll be back together with her soon.” And then the pain was back…

“Come back upstairs,” he said standing up. “You’ll be sleeping through all you’re classes tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’ll be right up. I’m just gonna get a glass of water from the kitchen, okay?” He hesitantly nodded before ascending up the stairs.

I waited for the sound of his door closing before looking back down at the photo album. “You are a lucky girl, Sohee,” I quietly said as I traced a finger over her face.

So this was why he told me not to fall in love with him. He was already in love with someone else. He admitted that he liked me, but I guess that’s all it would ever be. Like. He was even able to refrain from kissing me while intoxicated.

I silently shut the album closed and placed it back on the coffee table. I placed a hand over my slow beating heart. “I guess we had this coming, didn’t we?”

* * *

“Wake up!” My eyes tried to struggle open, but as soon as it opened, the bright lights caused them to shut tightly. An arm shook me by the shoulder and I was forced to wake up. With sleepy eyes, I sat up, feeling an ache in my back probably from falling asleep on a couch.

“I don’t really know why you’re here, but we need to hurry out before my dad wakes up.” I rubbed my eyes as I stood up and became more awake. Baekhyun was already in his uniform. Wait. He didn’t know why I was at his house? Did that mean he forgot everything that happened?

He placed my clothes from the night before into my hands and shoved me into the bathroom. “Please hurry!”

We walked side by side to the bus station in silence. I didn’t really want to talk to him at all, but it seemed like he didn’t even remember anything of the previous night.

“So, why did you sleep over my house again?”

“You owed me,” I said frankly. If he didn’t remember any of the night before, I wasn’t going to recite it to him because it was all unnecessary.

…And I really didn’t want to remember any of it either.

“That’s it?” he asked as we arrived at the bus station. “You stayed over my house because I owed you?”

“Mhm.” Two could play at his “Don’t Tell Anyone Anything” game.

He let the subject go when the bus came.

* * *

“Wake up.” My eyes squinted open and I quickly sat up when I realized I fell asleep on Baekhyun’s shoulder. He chuckled at me and said, “Did you get any sleep last night?”

I rolled my eyes as we stood up and got off the bus. “No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t.”

His playful expression was quickly wiped off his face. “Did something happen?”

I shook my head wanting to drop the subject. “It’s just hard falling asleep on a couch is all.”

“Oh,” he quietly replied. I could tell that he wasn’t satisfied with my answer, but I wasn’t too satisfied with last night’s events.

We silently walked all the way to my home. I muttered a “See you later” and hastily made my way into the house assuming that he would just go to Kyungsoo’s or something.

When I was inside, my grandmother was already awake, watching her favorite drama on TV.

“Good morning,” she greeted as I walked through the door. “Did you have a good night last night?” she asked with a smirk.

“Not like that, Grandma,” I replied with a groan. “Nothing happened. I slept in the living room.”

She frowned and shooed me away to get ready as an intense scene came on screen.

I quickly washed up and changed into my uniform. After eating breakfast and placing my cereal bowl in the sink, my grandmother said from the window pane, “Hey, hurry up. Your boyfriend’s outside waiting for you!”

“Who’s waiting outside for me?” I asked curiously as I walked to the window to peer outside. Baekhyun was standing out on the sidewalk, kicking a rock around with his foot. “He’s not my boyfriend,” I said with a frown as I put my shoes on.

“Well, whatever he is, just know that I approve!” she excitedly said as she pushed me out the door. I rolled my eyes at her as I walked out. Apparently my grandmother was quite the player back in her high school days and she’d always ask about my non-existent love life. So of course she’d be excited about Baekhyun.

I met Baekhyun on the sidewalk and he looked up from his shoes.

“I did something to you last night, didn’t I?” he asked, face full of concern. I opened my mouth to reply, but he cut me off. “Don’t lie to me because you can’t look me in the eye when you tell me nothing happened.”

I mustered up as much courage as I possibly could and brought my face a few inches away from his and looked him directly in the eyes.

“Nothing. Happened.”