fool.

“Xia, stay with me while I eat please?” Myungsoo requested earnestly as the nurse set his meal on the table she had recently positioned in front of him.

Miyoon in her bottom lip as she stood there awkwardly. It’s been thirty minutes into the visit and that’s all she could do. She didn’t have the slightest clue still to what was going on but she did know that it involved Myungsoo suddenly getting the ridiculous idea that the two of them were a couple of some sort. Honestly, she didn’t know how to feel about the situation.

 “Uh—” she glanced at everyone around her but they all conveniently decided to avoid her gaze. Finally, she turned to Hoya who was just leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He was sporting an indifferent expression, making it difficult for Miyoon to decipher his current emotions. Was he at a loss for words just as she was? Why wasn’t he saying anything? Wasn’t he curious too? 

“Pleeeease, yeobo.” Myungsoo oozed pleadingly as he wore a pout. “If you don’t stay with me I won’t be able to digest properly.” 

“I—” seeing how badly her best friend wanted her to stay and no one rejecting his proposal, she could only give him a hesitant nod as a reply. She inhaled and stole another peek at Hoya whose head was now directed out the window. I was waiting for you to tell me to say no. 

“Great!” Myungsoo cheered. “Everyone, will it be okay if you all left? I’d really like to spend some quality time with my sweetheart.” 

Everyone followed his order almost immediately as they started piling out even Hoya and Maerah. Miyoon saw this as a chance to ask them what was going on and she had to seize it before something else happened. “Myungsoo-ah, I have to uhm—ask omonim something. I’ll be back,” she declared fidgety. 

“But Xia,” the latter whined. 

“Myungsoo, it will be quick. I promise. Just start eating and I’ll be back in a flash.” Miyoon assured. He huffed, threw his head back onto his pillow and snapped his head the other way, signaling that she could leave. He’s acting childish.

Next, she exited the room and the first people she looked for were his parents. “Omonim, abeonim. What’s going on? Why did you call Myungsoo my boyfriend in there? We aren’t dating. He’s Maerah sunbae’s, not mine.” 

“Miyoon,” Mr. Kim began after he quickly peeped into the room, making sure his recovering son was still resting in bed. “Keep your voice low in case Myungsoo hears you.” He hushed. 

“But I don’t get what’s going on.” She proclaimed. 

“Miyoon-ah, Myungsoo thinks the two of you are dating.” Maerah mustered the courage and heart to point out at last to answer her question. She sniffled and then wiped her nose with some tissues she had stored in the pockets of her cardigan.

“B-Bo?” Miyoon uttered in bewilderment. “But we aren’t! Why would he have such an idea as crazy as that?” 

“The doctor thinks that the accident caused his memory to become disorganized and a little confused.” His concerned mother stated. She walked up to Miyoon and held her hands, “When he woke up, the first person he asked for was his girlfriend. We thought it was normal since Maerah was at the ladies’ room at the time. He kept begging for his jagiya and so I went to get her. When I came back, we thought Myungsoo would’ve been ecstatic but instead, he wore a frown and continued to ask for his sweetheart.”

“So I asked him the name of his girlfriend and he answered with Wu Xiazi, the love of my,” Maerah paused and locked eyes with Miyoon, trying her best to suppress her tears from flowing, “Life.” She completed in a soft and weak whisper.

Miyoon swallowed the heap of saliva which had formed in as she blinked constantly at the heartbroken girl’s melancholic expression. Love of his life? This can’t be right. No. Omonim said his memory isn’t correct. He doesn’t mean it; he doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. “S-so did you guys try telling him that we aren’t a couple?”

“Of course we did,” Mr. Kim cut in. “But he told us you guys had been dating for years.”

“No we haven’t!” Miyoon objected vigorously.

“We know that, but Myungsoo doesn’t. He believes you both are in love and have been ever since you were children.” Mrs. Kim said.

“I don’t get any of this,” Miyoon groaned as she sat down. She held her hands over her face, breathing in and out.

“It’s his heart’s way of making up for all the time he’s wasted loving the wrong girl,” Hoya spoke at last. Miyoon’s head whipped at him with a disturbed expression plastered on her face. “Don’t look at me like that; it’s the truth.” He scowled. Miyoon immediately glanced over to Maerah who was staring at the floor. She felt a twinge of guilt as she got up and dragged Hoya away from the party and over to a secluded corner.

“Why’d you say that?” she hissed.

“What? Is it your turn to be dense now?” he shot back.

“Me dense? Not in a million years.”

“So why can’t you see what’s happening?” Hoya sneered, raising his voice a notch. After listening and observing everything, he was starting to solve the puzzle.

“Yah why are you talking so loudly?” Miyoon huffed as she cupped his mouth and pushed him against the wall. Her chest was leaning on his and as always when the two of them would come into physical contact, their hearts, as if they were part of a synchronized team, began to beat hastily together as though they were one organ. Realizing what she had done and the blush creeping onto her cheeks, Miyoon could only look up at Hoya whose eyes became unreadable.

She let him go and put some space in between them as she cleared and itched her ear. “This is a hospital,” she announced. “You have to be considerate of the patients.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hoya scoffed, adjusting his jersey. He then took a step towards Miyoon and pulled her into his arms. As she hit his chest, she was stunned to feel his arms slither around her body. It was like time had frozen as she let herself be embraced by him. As a natural reaction, her hands lifted up and soon enough wrapped themselves around his back. Hoya felt his heart leap as he held her tighter, “Don’t go back to him.” He instructed, burying his nose into her hair, receiving a quick intake of her scent—the scent he had learned to love over time.

To say Miyoon was shocked would be an understatement as she was completely taken by surprise. She felt her worries however, suddenly disappear as she smiled softly and nuzzled further into his broad chest—the same chest she wouldn’t have minded punching and bruising a few months ago.

If she was to deny that she hadn’t grown some sort of attachment to Hoya, she would be a big fat liar. She felt secure around him and every time he was with her, she couldn’t help the tingles that would consume her entire body. And that sickly churning feeling Miyoon would always get when they made some kind of physical contact was recently happening more frequently. Miyoon had discovered that even the smallest thought of Lee Howon would make her heart lose control and her knees to lose their sturdy strength.

Never would Miyoon have thought she would be this comfortable or heavily influenced by this used-to-be ice prince, he wouldn’t even shake her hand as children but now look at how far they had come.

“Go back to him how?” she decided to tease, as she pulled away. They were still in each others’ arm when Hoya’s lips tugged down