“I like you. I’m not supposed to but I do. Isn’t that so” —hiccups— “so sad?”…

Yoona should have known something was amiss when she found herself opening her eyes to the bright morning light under crisp and downy white sheets.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t comfortable where she was. There was no pea stuck under the mattress she was lying on (like in the childhood story her mother used to tell); no annoying blare of an alarm clock set to wake her just before the sun rose into the sky (so she could get a head start on a day that would be filled with lab reports and rounds around a ward). It was clear that the sunrise had already passed hours ago and that she’s missed it—but only because it’s been months since she’d last taken a break and when her year-long internship finally ended, Yoona thought there was nothing better than to take a nice long, relaxing nap.

At least, after Hyoyeon’s hell of a celebratory ‘We’re ing graduating’ and obligatory ‘Yoona finally let me throw her a birthday’ party all rolled into one. The crazy event had gone on well into the night before and for all Yoona knows it was a miracle that she had survived, despite the throbbing hangover, in one piece.

Yoona let out a loud sigh as she brought a hand up over her face, squeezing her eyes shut until the wave of nausea from her hangover passed. She wiggled underneath the soft sheets, snuggling into the pillow next to her face and away from the window pouring sunlight in. The scent on the pillowcase comforted her and she buried her nose even further into it for one, two, three seconds too long until she suddenly bolted upright—finally wide awake to pretend that she wasn’t anywhere else but her bedroom.

“I matter, don’t I?”

Except she actually wasn’t in her bedroom, God forbid. And since Yoona has known her best friend for far too long now to recognize her style and penchant for Egyptian cotton, it was too obvious to note that the dark dray generic cotton sheets she was wrapped around in were not in fact Kim Hyoyeon’s.

“Oh my God!” Yoona gasped, rubbing a hand over her eyes to clear away her sleep-blurred vision, hoping to God that she wasn’t just imagining herself inside a stranger’s bed. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…”

The shock and the throbbing headache she was sporting made it hard for her to move, even though all of her insides were twisting in dread. Nervous, she dropped her gaze to her lap—taking in the too-large white shirt she was wearing and how it hung off of one shoulder. She felt around under the sheet and was relieved to note the presence of her and a pair of shorts she chose to ignore was not her own.  Then she reached up to inspect her face, noting that her face was bare of makeup and that the top-knot she’d done to her hair for the party had come loose and disheveled around her head. She must have been sober enough the night before to remove the chunk of eye shadow Hyoyeon made her use but still drunk to leave the clumped hairstyle on.

I must look like the Frankenstein Monster’s wife, Yoona mused, wincing as a splintering wave of pulsations hit her temples.

She closed her eyes, willing for the throbbing to stop before opening her them again and turning to her side. Tip-toeing down the strange but comfy bed, she noticed a rumpled set of sheets on the floor where she stood. Yoona kicked at them, slipping on a pair of fluffy hotel-esque slippers and looking around for her clothes and bag. She spotted her handbag’s strap draped over a chair in the small room and moved towards it—only to stop when she caught something in her peripheral vision.

Yoona turned her head and stared wide-eyed at a Polaroid image of her face stuck on a corkboard. In the picture, she was wearing her scrubs; her nose scrunched up but smiling wide as her arm reached forward. It was a photo taken of her from just a week ago… by Changmin.

Except Changmin wasn’t at the party the night before. He had to work construction somewhere south of the city and—

“Hyoyeon! Yo yo Hyo! Hyoyeon! Kim Hyoyeon! Changmin’s not here!” Yoona whined, pouting as she knocked back the shot Eunhyuk put in front of her. She winced as the alcohol burned down . Hyoyeon laughed at her as she continued her whining, “He’s supposed to be here, that cheapskate! We saw each other just two ago and he wasn’t even that busy but now he is and it’s so unfair!”

“Missing your boy?” Eunhyuk teased, laughing as she bristled, “You do, don’t you!”

Her cheeks were red from not just the alcohol she consumed. “N-no. No, I don’t. I’d just like all of my friends to be present as I steadily enter the mid-20’s of my life!” Yoona glared at Eunhyuk as he made kissing noises and moved to toss her shoe at him.

Yoona didn’t get to throw her shoe but she did get to smack him on the head. “Shut up, Monkey!”

“Hey!”—

Her daydreaming halted when her ears picked up the sound of a door opening close to her. Yoona spun around, stopping short and speechless at the sight of her ‘boyfriend’ in question.

Dripping wet from a shower.

She blinked once.

And shirtless.

Blinked twice, her gaze unconsciously dipping low—

In only a towel.

Um.

“Oh!” Yoona squeaked, jumping and diving under the covers of the bed she’d just vacated. She heard a shuffle of activity as she burrowed deep into the blankets, shielding her from view. And as she pulled one of the pillows over head in a ridiculous attempt to somehow become invisible, Yoona wished her heart to stop thrumming like a hummingbird’s. She didn’t even have to look at a mirror to know that her face was hot and beet red in embarrassment, but it was even worse knowing that her blushing had less to do with that than what her overt reaction actually meant.

Because shirtless or not, Yoona doesn’t even like Changmin in that way. So she shouldn’t be feeling like a little schoolgirl caught starry-eyed by her crush. He wasn’t really her boyfriend.

Their relationship is a business deal.

He was, at most, just a friend.

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