Jiyong stirred a little, curling up in the bed. That actually woke him up instead of putting him further to sleep. He remembered waking up in the night to go to the bathroom only to find himself rather protectively wrapped around you. When he’d returned, you had only snuggled up against him again.

But you weren’t in the bed if he could curl up like that. A glance around the room showed that you weren’t even in the room.

Frowning a little, he threw off the covers and crawled out of bed. There was a faint lingering of your scent in the room that he recognized from the pillow. It must have only been a few minutes since you got up.

I’m going to feel really stupid if she’s in the bathroom, he thought with a little sigh. However, he was already up now, so he might as well go see where you went. If nothing else, he could start the coffee maker, or prepare breakfast.

The bathroom door was open, and the TV wasn’t on, nor any music. The house was entirely silent, which made him really uneasy.

“Sunnie?” he called out hesitantly. It felt weird to break the silence, even in his own house.

There was no response.

Frowning, he looked around in confusion, but before he could move a light breeze made his bangs shift a little. What the? He looked at the glass door leading out on to the balcony. It was open a little. Moving over, he walked outside onto the deck. As he slid the door shut, he heard soft coughing.

You were sitting on one of the chairs. In your hand was a glass pipe shaped like a mushroom. As he watched, you covered a small hole with your thumb and in air through the burning plant in the bowl, before removing your thumb to fill your lungs the rest of the way with air. After a second or two, you exhaled the smoke and coughed a little.

You were getting high on his deck, and it wasn’t even after nine.

Ignoring a sudden craving to ask her to pass the pipe to him, Jiyong wandered over with a frown.

“Yah, what’re you doing?”

You didn’t jump so much as roll your eyes over to look at him. “Morning, Jiyong-oppa,” you said with a lazy grin.

He huffed. Although being stoned was a lot tamer than the time you were high off your on LSD, he wasn’t pleased about this. Not because if it got out that someone was smoking at his place he would be in trouble for it, but because you were turning to drugs again. He couldn’t help but wonder what hurt you were trying to bury with it.

“Where did you get the mayak?” he demanded.

You shrugged lazily. “Same place I get everything else. This is just my compensation for having to sell the nasty . Want a hit?” You held out the pipe.

Jiyong resisted the urge to take it, and then the next urge to slap it out of your hands. Crossing his arms, he shook his head and looked away.

“Ani. Put it out and come inside, we should eat. I have to go somewhere after,” he said.

You pulled the pipe back and took a hit yourself, before placing your hand over the bowl so that the fire would be choked from lack of oxygen. Sliding to your feet, you stretched.

“I’m glad I didn’t pack the bowl all the way, or else I’d have wasted some really good mayak,” you muttered.

However, you just held your pipe in your hand as you followed Jiyong back into the house. Once the glass of the pipe cooled enough you slipped it into the shorts you were still wearing. It was good you’d woken up early like this, and that Jiyong hadn’t slept in much longer. You were going to need to get home to shower and change before going to work. It felt like you’d forgotten something important…

Oh well. It must not be that important if you’d forgotten it.

“What’re we eating for breakfast?” you wondered, sitting at the counter to watch Jiyong cook.

It had been a really long time since you had a boy cook for you. You weren’t even going to be picky about what he made, as long as it filled you up. Your tongue felt really weird and you couldn’t help but giggle, biting your lip to try and smother it.

“Haven’t decided yet,” Jiyong muttered. “You wanting something specific?”

“Ani! I just want to test Jiyong-oppa’s cooking,” you cheered, even throwing your hands up in the air. For whatever reason, you thought this was funny, so you started giggling.

He glanced at you with a little frown, not sure if he should be offended because you were making fun of his culinary skills. But then he realized you weren’t even focusing on him at all, and rolled his eyes. Your laughter was at something his sober mind couldn’t comprehend.

“I’ll impress you another time when I’m not in a hurry,” he commented. “I’ll just make something quick.”

“Omo, Jiyong-oppa, did you just make a dinner date with me?” you gasped, face turning red. The only problem with smoking mayak was that it left you unable to really hide your true emotions. Either way, you couldn’t really care, and just giggled again.

Jiyong almost dropped the skillet he’d just gotten out. It kind of was exactly that, but he hadn’t meant to propose a date. However, now that he thought about it… The idea wasn’t horrible. In fact, if it got you to not do drugs for a night and dress up, it’d be more than worth it. He’d pay big money to see you in a cute outfit.

Or at least take you on a date.

“Ah, n-ne,” he said, nodding a little as he calmly put the skillet on the stove. “However, if it’s a date, then you have to dress nicely.”

You gasped. “Yah! I know how to go on a date!”

It wasn’t entirely a lie. You had watched enough dramas, heard Chungcha’s stories, and read enough magazine articles to know the proper techniques. Besides, you saw Kaede getting ready every evening. You could probably just ask her to help you and she’d drown you in a ritual full of products you had no idea what they were used for.

Jiyong smirked a little as he saw your face getting red. There was no way this was the first time you had gone on a date, but it must have been the first in a while. He didn’t comment on that, though, and nodded.

“Just making sure,” he commented.

You huffed, puffing out your cheeks as you pouted at the far wall. , now you were really going have to go all-out to show him you could be just as girly and y as any of the girls he’s dated before. That thought made you a little sad, remembering how he’d responded to your pretending to be Chungcha last night when you wanted him to loosen his grip on you.

As he cooked, you couldn’t help but study him. With his obvious wealth, fashion sense, and good looks, Jiyong was the perfect match for your sister. She would eat up his wealth, the fact he even had a sense of fashion, and would be proud to show him off as her arm candy. You had no doubt that, even as down-to-earth as he was with you, when given Chungcha as a date, he’d be just as smug to show her off.

No one was ever going to want to show you off.

When silence ensued, Jiyong took a moment to glance over at you. Although your eyes were in his direction, it was obvious your gaze was far beyond him. On top of that, there was a sorrow to you that he hadn’t glimpsed since that night you were on LSD. He hoped this wasn’t going to turn out to be a really bad trip for you.

“How does Saturday night sound?” he wondered. It was Wednesday, that would give him plenty of time to free up his schedule and make sure that it was a proper date.

You jerked out of your dark thoughts and blinked at him innocently. “Ah, sure! I won’t be busy.”

If Dongyul wanted you to do something, you would just tell him you had a date. And proceed to kick his when he laughs first, you thought with a little sigh. There was no way in hell Dongyul was going to believe you had a date. You would have to convince him with a little pain.

Jiyong smiled at you and returned to the food he was preparing. This weekend was suddenly looking way, way up.

Breakfast was delicious, and you were glad that Jiyong allowed you to just wear his clothes home so that you didn’t have to wear the same outfit twice. Still, it was pretty humiliating to be seen on the bus holding your clothes, but you were talented at ignoring the stares.

Kaede was home by the time you arrived, and you failed miserably at sneaking in. You barely got a couple feet from the door, before she appeared out of the kitchen in a yukata.

“The walk of shame? Sunhi-chan I’m surprised at you,” she said with a smirk, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

You scowled at her, although your face was starting to burn. “You should know me better than that, then.”

“Those aren’t you clothes, and I definitely smell a man’s cologne.” Kaede was clearly enjoying this. “Has my adorable imouto finally lost her ity?”

Your eye twitched a little at her calling you her little sister, but chose not to comment. Compared to your actual older sister, Kaede was a much better choice for a sibling. A heavy sigh escaped you.

“Okay, so I slept over at a friend’s house, who happens to be a guy, that doesn’t mean I had .”

Kaede looked sad for a moment, before she could school it into disappointment. “You poor dear. I bet he was giving all the signs that he wanted to have with you, too, but you were just oblivious.”

You crossed your arms defensively. “For your information, no, he wasn’t. However, I’m having a date with him on Saturday.”

Your Japanese roommate was off the wall and crossing the room to throw her arms around you in a giant hug. You yelped softly and tensed up, not used to any form of skinship, even with a girl.

“Y-Yah, babo!”

She just tightened her grip on you. “Baka, why didn’t you say so earlier? We need to get you ready!”

“Bwo?! Kaede, it’s only Wednesday!” you protested, finally managing to squirm out of her grasp. You pushed away from her and took a couple steps away.

Kaede rolled her eyes. “You’ll need that long to become a seductress, Sunhi-chan.”

“I’m not going to be a seductress, I’m just going on a date. It’s not a big deal.” You rolled your eyes a little.

“We’re still going to go shopping for a cute outfit! You don’t get to wear any of the stupid uni things on this date.”

“I know…” You looked away. You didn’t want to wear the things you did every day. Dates are special.

“Gomen, Sunhi-chan,” she stated, reaching out to ruffle your hair. “We’ll go shopping on Friday, ne?”

“Arasso,” you muttered, moving around her now to head for your bathroom. “I’m going to shower, I’ve got work in an hour.”

“Ano, check your phone. I think your colleague called me last night trying to get a hold of you.”

Confused, you pulled your phone out of your pocket as you entered the bathroom. Sure enough, you had a missed text from Chulmoo. Why do I even have a phone if I don’t check it enough? Aish.

                Chulmoo: Don’t forget you’re meeting with the artist to custom-fit the masks today! At 11AM so             don’t be late!

You glanced at the clock on your phone. It was a quarter till nine. You had plenty of time and brushed off the instinct to be stressed out. You the water and pulled off your clothes. Looking in the mirror, your hands traced the slight curves of your body, fingers bumping over the edges of your ribs. Perhaps Dongyul was right about you needing to eat more. You twisted to get a better look at your whole body, and frowned at how blank the skin of your back looked. I need to plan out a back-piece for myself. I wonder what I should do for it…

The reflection became distorted and you frowned, before realizing that it was just getting foggy. Bonking yourself on the head lightly, you moved to turn the water temperature down before crawling into the tub. With the hot water soothing muscles you hadn’t even been aware were tense, you leaned your head back and let the hot water run over you for a couple minutes before finally starting to get clean.

You needed to make a good impression on the artist so that you could get a good reputation with the entertainment company.

Hwaiting!