Kasumi’s POV

I woke up one afternoon to see Zico getting in bed with me, snuggling up against me. I grinned sheepishly. “Have I fallen asleep?” I asked.

He nodded, kissing my hair. “You’ve been asleep for two hours,” he replied.

“What have you been doing for the past two hours that I’ve been asleep?” I wanted to know, feeling guilty that I had abandoned him.

“Watching you,” he replied simply. He scratched his chin and pointed to my wall. “I noticed you painted a picture of the both of us.”

I looked at where he was looking at to see the painting I’d painted of the two of us. I got it from one of the pictures Kyung had given the both of us the previous week. I smiled. “Well, I was bored,” I confessed.

“Uh-huh. What I am amazed about is that you managed to paint each detail perfectly,” he told me. “Seriously, I have one talented girlfriend.” He leaned down to kiss me. “How do you do it?” he murmured, a thumb on my cheek.

I shrugged. “I just do it,” I replied. “I don’t know.”

“Why do you like to do this so much?” he wanted to know. He looked genuinely interested in my paintings — something Woohyun never really bothered to pay attention to.

I frowned, thinking about it. “I don’t know, it’s my passion, I guess.”

Zico cocked his head over to me and gave me a smirk. “Well, I can think of some other way to express my passion,” he said slyly.

I blushed but allowed him to grasp my chin tenderly. I closed my eyes and tilted my head up and our lips met. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he slinked his arms around my waist, pulling me closer. When he pulled away, he blinked and smiled. “You’re going to Japan next month, right?”

I shrugged. “I guess I will be,” I replied slowly. “I mean, I didn’t go this month like I was supposed to.”

“How long will you be gone for?”

I shrugged again. “I’m not sure. Why? Are you planning on visiting me while I’m there?” I asked curiously.

“I was thinking of following you, but I don’t know if my mom or your parents would allow,” he replied. He looked at me. “Do you think they will?”

I shook my head slightly. “Only one way to find out, I guess: we’ll ask them about it tonight and see what they say?”

Zico leaned over and kissed my lips. “I’ll call you,” he told me.

During dinner that night, when I was sure that my parents weren’t talking about anything important anymore, I decided to speak up. I cleared my throat. “Umma, Appa, can I ask you something?” I asked.

Appa nodded. “Sure, darling, what is it?”

“Well . . . um . . .” I was trying to find the right words to phrase my question correctly. “Do you remember how you said that I could fly down to Japan next month to visit my aunty and relatives?”

Umma nodded. “Would you like for us to book your plane tickets?” she assumed that was what I wanted to know.

“Um, well, it’s more than that,” I answered. I took a deep breath and told myself to just go for it. “Can Jiho Oppa come with me as well?”

Umma and Appa gave each other looks and Myungsoo glanced up from his plate. “You and Jiho have been . . . very close . . . haven’t you?” Umma finally spoke up slowly after a minute of silence.

“I can assure you I’m still a ,” I told her earnestly.

Appa chuckled lightly. “We trust you, we believe you,” he reassured me. “It’s just that you two have only started going out. I’m sure that you two would soon be a bit more, uh, well . . . intimate.”

I blushed. “It’s not like Obsan (aunty in Japanese) and Ojisan (uncle) will let us do anything,” I murmured. I looked up. My parents weren’t really convinced. “If you don’t allow, I can accept that,” I quickly added. “I won’t do anything you wouldn’t want me to do.”

Umma smiled. “And that is why we love both you and your brother so much; you kids are very obedient.”

Myungsoo and I looked dead chuffed.

“Anyway,” Appa went on, “what does Jiho’s mom got to say about this?”

“Uhhh . . . I’m not sure,” I admitted. “We just thought of it and decided to ask tonight. He’s probably asking his mother now.”

“I have an idea,” Umma spoke up. “Why don’t you invite them over for dinner tomorrow and then the three of us can discuss about this?”

I nodded. “I’ll call him now,” I excused myself and walked out to the hallway to call Zico about my mom’s suggestion.

“I was about to call you,” Zico’s voice spoke up from the other end of the line the moment he answered the call. He gave a light chuckle. “My mom said that she wants to talk to your parents about it.”

I burst out laughing. “That’s what my parents told me to tell you!” I explained to him why I was laughing. “They invited you guys over for dinner. What time does your mom get off from work? My mom gets off at six and my dad comes home at seven.”

“Seven-thirty?” Zico recommended. “That way your mom and cook will have time to prepare dinner, your dad have time to shower, and my mom have an hour to get ready.”

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I replied, nodding my head. I knew he would know I was nodding, even if he couldn’t see me. “Keep your fingers crossed!”

“All right. I love you.”

The next evening, when the doorbell rang, Myungsoo and I went to answer it. I smiled respectfully at Zico’s mother. “Annyeonghasaeyo, Omonim,” I greeted my boyfriend’s mother, bowing a perfect ninety-degree.

My brother smiled and said, “Annyeonghasaeyo, ajummeoni,” before bowing as well. He offered to take her coat off.

I turned to Zico and smiled as he kissed my forehead lightly. “I love you,” he never failed to say every time he saw me. I felt my heart skipping a beat like it usually did whenever he was near me and it was a good thing that I was holding onto his hand as the four of us walked to the dining room. Otherwise I might’ve fainted there and then!

Umma and Appa greeted Mrs. Woo pleasantly and as the three of them sat down on the rectangular glass table, they fell into a light conversation. Myungsoo, Zico and I sat down after them and as we dug into the scrumptious meal my mother and I had prepared, the adults told us that they would discuss about the Japan plans after dinner. Zico and my face fell while my brother just laughed.

Talk about the agonizing wait.

After dinner, the grown-ups brought their conversation to the living room, shooing us away. Myungsoo retreated to his room while Zico followed me up to mine. As soon as the door closed, I began pacing around the room anxiously, wringing my fingers, while he settled down on my bed. “Calm down,” he tried to assure me. He reached his hand out to grab my wrist, pulling me to him. He kissed my forehead as I plopped down on his lap. He hugged me. “I’m sure they’ll say yes.”

“What if they don’t?”

He kissed me softly. “They will,” he replied firmly.

I got up from his lap and walked over to my wall, the newspapers under my feet making a crunching noise as I stepped on them. Subconsciously, I grabbed a paintbrush and the navy blue paint container to paint the first thing that came to mind. Later, I felt his presence behind me and glanced over to see him studying the painting of a horse grazing on the grass in a paddock.

“I at painting,” he