"Lily. Lily. Lily, I can't feel my arm anymore."

Lily didn’t stir one bit. She had her head angled down, mouth slightly open, lying on her side facing Henry, her head resting on his arm (which was now totally numb), her right hand gripping the edge of his shirt loosely. Henry wanted to let her sleep some more, but he was afraid that he’d lose his arm if he let it not get enough blood any longer. He tried shaking her gently, but it didn’t do anything either. So he started poking her, softly at first, and when she still didn’t show any sign of waking up, he went at it.

“OW! Oh good, you’re awake,” Henry cried when Lily hit him in the arm hard.

“What the... Henry...? What...” Lily asked groggily, face scrunched up in confusion. Slowly, she rolled off his arm and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Good morning,” Henry greeted, sitting up beside her. “You sleep like you’re dead. If it weren’t for the drooling, I’d think you’re dead.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t drool,” Lily shot back.

“The crusted saliva on my arm begs to differ,” Henry contradicted, stretching out his arm so she could see. Lily just slapped it away dismissively.

“Stop fooling around. They must be looking for us already,” she said, sliding to the edge of the bench and standing up. She put both hands out to stretch away the ache in her muscles when pain shot from her left shoulder.

“Ow!” Lily cried out. “What the heck?!”

“What’s wrong?” Henry instantly questioned, kneeling up on the bench. “Come here, let me see.”

“I-I think my shoulder cramped... I didn’t know shoulders could get cramps,” Lily admitted, shifting all her hair to her right shoulder and pointing out where the pain came from on her left.

Henry chuckled. “Oh, believe me, a lot of other parts of the body cramp up. The first time I did dance practice for SJM, muscles I didn’t even know existed all cramped up. They had to practically wrap me in pain relief patches the next day so I can continue,” he narrated while his hands expertly kneaded the painful portion she pointed out to him.

“Mmmm...” was all Lily said in reply. She was enjoying her free massage to much.

Henry had to swallow hard at Lily’s soft moan of contentment. The flawless patch of exposed neck right in front of him wasn’t helping his case. He tried to think of disgusting things to keep himself under control.

“Eunhyuk’s smelly feet. Eunhyuk’s sweaty underarms. Eunhyuk’s hairy legs,” Henry chanted to himself softly, eyes closed as he imagined those things. There. He felt himself loosening up.

“What? Why the heck are you muttering about Eunhyuk’s body parts? Come on,” Lily demanded, giving his massaging hands a slap. “Let’s try making our way back to the cottage. I’m not gonna die here with you putting images of Eunhyuk’s hairy legs in my head.”

“Man you are grumpy in the morning,” Henry muttered under his breath.

“I heard that!” Lily called out, already a couple of meters away. “What are you still sitting there for? Get your out here!”

“You’re forgetting something!” Henry shot back.

“What are you talking about?” Lily asked, one hand on her hips, the other shading her eyes from the bright sunlight.

“But we had a deal! We bumped fists for it!” Henry returned, still not moving from his spot.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, so will you just get up and get walking already?! Or else I’m leaving you behind.” Lily replied, turning around and walking further down the road.

Henry stayed put for a minute more, a pout on his lips. But when he saw that Lily really wasn’t going to wait for him, he decided to give up and go after her. But before he could get up, she turned around and, cupping both hands to , shouted, “OPPA! GET YOUR OVER HERE ALREADY!”

The group checked out early in the afternoon. The van became a little more cramped with the crates of fresh lychees occupying a third of the back seat as well as most of the cargo area. Siwon volunteered to drive, throwing caution to the wind. He didn’t have an international driver’s license but he couldn’t very well let Henry drive all the way back to Taipei after spending the night in a thunderstorm. So he decided to risk it. He was a pretty good driver anyway.

This freed Henry to settle himself by the lychees and munch on them during the ride. Lily squeezed in beside him to make sure he doesn’t finish off everything. They needed to make a huge batch of mochi ice cream for a debutante’s party in a couple of days. After Lily cut Henry off of lychees somewhere in TaiZhong and Henry protesting, which resulted in a few minutes of arguing, the two finally succumbed to fatigue and fell asleep.

In record time of 6hrs, Siwon got all of them back to Taipei in one piece. He carefully pulled over in front of the girls’ apartment and gently shook the sleeping Clare on the passenger seat awake. EunHae, on the other hand, were wide awake and busy snickering and taking pictures of the passed out people at the backseat. Lily looked very comfortable lying against Henry’s chest and wrapped in his right arm. The latter had a slight smile on his lips as his chin rested on the former’s head, his other hand holding one of hers. Clare walked over to the back and hit Eunhyuk and Donghae at the back of their heads to shut them up and make them move aside. She can be grumpy when she only just woke up. As gently as Siwon woke her, she tapped her friend’s knee continuously while softly saying, “Lily. Lily, we’re home. Let’s get you in bed, okay? You can continue your sleep there. Come on, wake up...”

A minute later, Lily started to stir. She squinted her eyes open and was greeted by Clare’s serene smile and EunSiHae’s wide grins. She couldn’t quite register where she was, only that she had a really good nap and that Clare was there so it was okay. Her best friend was saying something but her head was still thick with sleep so it took her a while to understand.

“Lil, we’re home. Let go of Henry now and get some sleep on a proper bed,” Clare said.

Groggily, she sat up, causing Henry’s head, which was resting on hers a moment ago, to nod down, waking him up.

“Nice of you to join us, Henry,” Eunhyuk teased.

“Wh-aaaaahhhhhhh....hhhht?” Henry yawned. He too was momentarily confused as to why everyone was looking at him.

“Oppa, I’m home. I’m going to bed,” Lily said, her speech a little slurred for she was practically still half asleep. All that registered in her head was the warm, soft, bed waiting for her upstairs. She didn’t notice everyone look at each other mouthing “Oppa?” in surprise.

“Okay, good night,” Henry bid, turning towards her voice, still half asleep himself.

“See you tomorrow,” Lily said at the same time, moving forward to give him a kiss on the cheek.

But at that moment, Henry has just turned to face her, and so her lips ended up landing on his.

There was a synchronized sharp intake of breath of surprise from everyone except the two connected through the lips. It only took a couple of seconds, the first of which Henry spent not comprehending what’s happening, and the next in a state of shock and delight. Lily, on the other hand, seemed like she was totally unaware of the gravity of what she just did. She broke away, eyes still half closed, and patted Henry’s hand. Everyone else stared at her in awe, making way as she clumsily got out of the van. She gave them a confused look, but shrugged it off right away. All she cared about now was getting to her bed.

“Clare, come on, open the gate, I wanna sleep.” Lily instructed her best friend, who had hanging open with the rest of the group because of what they just witnessed.

~ ~ ~

"Mochi Co., Mochi Co., hmmhmmhmmhmm…"

"Kid, why are you still awake?" Donghae asked groggily from the fridge area. He got up to get some water and was surprised to hear Henry quietly strumming his guitar and humming a tune. He'd think that the whole day of running around Taiwan would've knocked the boy out completely when they got home. It sure knocked him out for six solid hours - not even World War 3 could've woken him up from that dead sleep. Donghae still felt a little sore from the impromptu road trip, and they had a schedule in four hours. So why did Henry look so fresh?

“Oh, hyung. I uh... I couldn’t sleep,” Henry replied with a smile. “What are you doing up?”

“Thirsty,” Donghae said, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and plopping down next to Henry on the sofa. “So what are you working on?”

“Nothing, just... I kind of suddenly thought of this jingle.” Henry said.

“A jingle? Wow, I didn’t know you were venturing into advertising,” Donghae joked, punching his friend playfully on the arm as he chugged his water.

“For Mochi Co.” Henry continued.

“Ah... No wonder you’re inspired,” Donghae replied, a teasing grin on his lips. He wiggled his eyebrows at the younger guy.

“What? What’s with that face?” Henry demanded.

“You know what,” Donghae shot back. “Oppa?”

Henry grabbed a pillow and hit him with it. “Shut up.”

Donghae doubled over in laughter as Henry repeatedly hit him with the pillow to get him to stay quiet. When he has caught his breath, he turned to his friend and asked in a more serious tone, “What exactly happened last night?”

After taking a breath, Henry told him about their sincere talk and the deal. He also, at last, found the guts to admit to someone the worries he’s been holding inside for weeks now.

“She sees me as a kid, but I’m not anymore. I’m afraid that if she keeps looking at me as that, she’ll never take me seriously. Then I can’t tell her how I feel. Fine, I’m a couple of years younger than her but so what, right? It’s not that big a difference, right? Do you think I stand a chance?” Henry confided in his friend.

Donghae sighed and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “That’s... really out of our control. But you did say that she said so herself that she felt like she became a real grown up because of you. So maybe little by little, she’ll see you for the good man that you are.”

“I hope so, hyung. Because I really have no other idea how to show her that I can take care of her.” Henry admitted.

“Maybe grow facial hair or something.” Donghae casually suggested.

Henry narrowed his little eyes at him to say, “Thanks for the useless info.”

“Kidding! Geez,” Donghae said, hitting him with a pillow. “Really though, I think you two suit each other. I also think whatever you’re doing now is working so keep on doing that. A nice girl like her can’t be had with only halfhearted efforts.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing words of wisdom from you,” Henry returned.

“Aish, this kid!” Donghae said, flicking Henry on the forehead. “Why don’t you play that jingle for me?”

Chuckling, Henry picked his guitar back up and strummed.

(To the tune of the Weibo Song)

Mochi Co., Mochi Co., 美味 的 甜點 (delicious desserts)

Mochi Co., Mochi Co., 嘗過了沒有？(have you tried one yet)

Mochi Co., Mochi Co., 能讓人痴迷 (they'll drive u crazy)

今天出去買個 mochi. (So Go out today and grab a mochi.)

Henry ended the song with a sheepish grin. “Do you think she’ll like it?” he asked his hyung.

“I think she’d like it enough to kiss you again,” Donghae teased.

It was Henry’s ears that turned a shocking shade of red first before the rest of his face followed. The memory of the kiss earlier that night gave him excited goosebumps. He knew it was accidental, but it happened. And it felt wonderful. Just the other day, he was stumped as to how he’d win Lily over yet in the past 24 hours, it seemed as if the whole universe converged to help him. He’s beginning to like thunderstorms now.

“Well I’m hoping for the same thing...” Henry replied cheekily.

"Oh my goodness you are SO whipped it's too cute!" Donghae gushed, trapping his friend in a playful headlock. 

_______________________

Hiiiiii :D Still remember this story? 

This mochi has been appearing in my dreams for 2 straight nights, hence, the update. LOL!

I'm so sorry it took me almost half a year to update. :( A lot of stuff has happened since the last chapter (including getting to see Henry in person perform!!!^^ he's every bit as cute - if not cuter - than what I imagined him to be. Eeep!^^ ) that kept me busy. I have the plan for this story laid out already, I just have to... well, write it. Lol. I'll do my best to update as often as I can. Hopefully I can finally finish this soon. 

Thank you so much to everyone who paitently waited. Thank you thank you thank you! I'll keep on going. :)

Alright, enjoy! Will be waiting for your comments. :D

I missed you guys so much!!! <3