A commotion outside of our hotel room disrupted my thoughts. But it was not a long time until I recovered and continued on what I was doing.

I had been watching Jiyong’s sleeping and angelic face since I woke up this morning. I didn’t notice how long I was sitting on the floor, with my arms propped on the edge of the bed and my chin resting on them. All I knew was I was enjoying every stolen moments of watching his face and his amazing features.

It wasn’t like we didn’t see each other every day, but I could rarely watch him sleeping. Every day, since we lived together, I always wake up either with him watching me while I was lying on his chest or if not, he would pull a chair with a cup of coffee he made himself and just stare at me.

I swear, back then, I never understood him telling me that he enjoyed every second passing by just through watching me sleep. And he also told me not to worry since he had been doing that since he acted as my Daddy-Long-Legs.

Yep, I never knew until now, though of course, I knew that he had been there since I always woke up with a note. I never knew that he actually stayed long to watch me sleep but not too long for me to find him out.

And I thought it was embarrassing. Like, come on! Do you want someone, especially your boyfriend, to watch you snore or drool? Like, seriously? That’s just freaking embarrassing. But he said it was cute.

Gaaah!

And this morning, he proved that he was right. Yes, he looked really adorable, even just by sleeping, how his chest heaved up and down, how his eyeballs would sometimes move beneath those lids, how his lips would part as if wanting to say something.

If I could, I wanted to stay like this forever.

I smiled as his lips parted once again. And I must say it took me a lot of effort to look away from his lips.

“Ya! Ya! You!” someone panting behind me sounded. “Don’t Young master, you’re such a-“

I whipped my head towards him, glaring. I shushed him with my index finger on my lips. I stared back at Jiyong who was still sleeping, not hearing the commotion that Teddy, the monkey, the annoying monkey, the party-pooper, annoying monkey, the ugly, party-pooper, annoying monkey, the-

Okay, I must stop…

Anyway, Jiyong didn’t seem to have an idea that there was someone else in the room. Usually, he wasn’t much of a heavy sleeper. That was more like of me. But he seemed tired, probably because of the activities yesterday.

“You…you’re not him?” Teddy choked behind me, his voice now hushed.

I stared back at him and smiled at his shocked expression, his eyes silently inspecting Jiyong as if checking if he’s still alright, with all limbs present. I almost cracked up laughing as I noticed for the first time what the monkey was wearing – matching SpongeBob Squarepants pajamas.

“Ya! You!” he shouted at me, but still in a hushed tone, as he noticed me checking out his pajamas.

I shifted my gaze towards him again. I bit back my lip as I tried not laughing.

“I’m him, now go!” I whispered, enough for him to hear.

His eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

I stood up to shoo him away. I pushed him while he was protesting.

“No! I won’t let you. He’s pure, wholesome, and-“

“How could you say that? I stayed with him recently,” I said, stopping midway from pushing him away.

He widened his eyes again. “You didn’t.”

I almost burst out laughing but stopped myself because it was fun teasing him. As we reached the door, I roughly pushed him out.

“Ya!” he said, blocking the door from closing with his feet.

“What?!” I snapped.

His voice became small. “I want to have a taste of your coffee again. I miss visiting your café.”

I scoffed as I stepped on his foot protruding on the doorway. He pulled it up as he jumped on one foot, caressing his bad foot. As he did, I immediately closed the door behind me and burst out laughing.

JIYONG’S POV

Dara and I had our eyes wide open as our hands were midway to our mouth. It was like we were frozen in time.

This morning, the moment I woke up and noticed that Dara had woken up way before me and we decided to go to breakfast with the family, we were all nervous as to what the previous day’s activity resulted. We were nervous like hell, but we never expected a positive outcome. But right now, seeing the two – Dad and Grandma talking casually as if nothing happened for the past years, it was inevitable for me and Dara to react like that.

It was like… SNAP! We’re fine now!

Somehow, I questioned silently, were all of those just pretenses? But I didn’t think so.

Maybe our plan worked out well in the end. I stared at Dara who still hadn’t recovered. I stared at Dami who was eating willfully a while ago until she noticed her Dara unnie and laughed her off when she saw the look on the latter’s face.

This made Grandma look at what made the kid laugh.

Realizing that my Grandma stare back at her, she immediately pulled herself out of reverie and went back to eating, munching on her food quickly.

Grandma cleared . “Your dad and I decided to take truce.”

My lips immediately lifted in a smile. I wanted to hug her right then and there, but I stopped myself. When it came to her, hugs were a big no-no even though she was my grandmother. She was never a really touchy person in the first place, anyway.

What I just did to show my happiness and gratitude was grab Dara’s hand under the table and squeeze it.

She looked up at me from her food and squeezed back. She smiled her reassuring smile and I could just smile back.

The trip seemed too short, though it was one of the best I had in years. With my dad and grandmother already getting along, it was such a satisfying feeling.

Dara and I stepped inside the apartment unit, all smiles. We were just talking about the adventures we had at Jeju Island, especially the recent ones where we really enjoyed the scenic beauty because Appa and Grandma got along already. It was very enjoying. All of us were laughing, joking. Even Grandma laughed at Dara’s jokes. It looked like she came to accept her already.

Well… I hope so…

However, I noticed Teddy-hyung not really enjoying his time. He was usually the outgoing one, the one who enjoys these kinds of trips. And he seemed to limp while walking too. I wonder why.

“Ahhhhh~” Dara moaned the moment she hit the bed. “I’m tired!”

I chuckled as she rolled all over the bed. She seemed to miss it. It wasn’t like the bed back at the hotel wasn’t comfortable at all. In fact, it was softer than the one we had.

“Sleep now,” she ordered, her voice muffled as she was lying on her stomach with her head on the pillow. She tilted her head to the side to stare at me. “I know you’re tired too. Besides, you still have classes tomorrow.”

I was about to hit the bed too when I remembered something.

“Wait,” I said as I turned my back on her. “I’m going to check the mails. I am expecting the bills.”

When I returned to the unit with the stacks of bills from the mailbox on the ground floor, I saw Dara drifting to sleep on the bed, her position still the same one with the one I left her on. She didn’t seem to notice me, even though she wasn’t really asleep yet.

I sat on the chair beside the bed as I scanned each bills – telephone, rent, internet. But when I reached the last one, I had to blink twice.

It was from Danny Im.

It was weird for him to send a letter here. Wouldn’t it be more convenient to personally come or just call? In fact, I gave him my telephone number when I informed them of Dara’s whereabouts. And of course, Dara didn’t know that. However, they never once contacted us.

And another thing… it was from Danny Im. It wasn’t from her grandfather.

I widened my eyes as realization hit me. Don’t tell me this letter is…

“Dara!” I shook Dara awake. “Wake up, you need to see this.”

Dara lazily rolled and faced the other side.

I shook her shoulder once again. “Wake up!”

“Unngghh~” she groaned. “Just sleep already!”

“Dara, it’s about your grandfather.”

There was silence. And then she sat upright and looked at me. There were several emotions passing by her eyes – worry, fear, anger, and some I couldn’t recognize.

After a second, she composed herself. “What’s so important that you have to wake me up?”

She tried to sound cold, but it failed miserably. Seriously, by now, she had to realize that she couldn’t pretend in front of me. Even the smallest lie… now, I would recognize it.

“It’s this…” I said, handing her the letter. “It’s from Danny.”

She hesitated for a while but still grabbed the letter from my hand. She read it silently.

I waited… and I waited.

I watched her eyes as she read the letter a few more times before she fell back to the bed. The letter was still on her hands.

“What was that?” I asked. “What did it tell?”

“Sleep,” she said her voice hard.

“But-“

“I’m tired. I’ll be sleeping first if you won’t,” she said.

Realizing then that I was also tired, I succumbed and lied beside her. Unlike before, when I drape my arm on her waist to pull her closer to my chest, tonight I did not do that. I let her have her time alone. I knew she needed that. But I would just stay right here.

Because after her lone time, I knew that she also needed someone to lean on.

I will be here.

Before my eyes slowly closed and my consciousness drifted to dreamland, I thought I heard a sound of crumpling a paper followed by some muffled sobs.

The drive towards the café was tensed, mostly because I could hear Dara’s sobs behind me. I asked her if she was alright thrice, but she never seemed to notice.

The moment we arrived, she got off my motorbike without even taking off the helmet. She started walking towards the glass door unconsciously.

“Dara!” I called.

She didn’t hear me. So I got off my bike too and ran after her. I whirled her around.

“Are you going to work with my helmet on?” I asked.

She just stared at me. And with the helmet on the way, I couldn’t clearly understand what her eyes wanted to say. Gently, then, I removed the helmet from her head. After removing it, I noticed traces of tears on her cheeks.

Without saying anything, I gently wiped them away with my thumb.

“I’ll be fetching you after work, okay?” I said my voice gentle.

She nodded slowly and sniffed.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong. But when I noticed a crumpled paper protruding from her pocket, I immediately knew that it was about the letter Danny sent.

Acting as if I didn’t know, I gently pressed my lips on her forehead.

“I’ll see you later,” I said.