Chapter 18 – Together again 

After crying for quite sometime she slowly fell asleep with her head leaning on my shoulder. Her face was stained with black streaks of tears from her eyeliner. I noticed that her hair was covering half of her face so I tucked her hair behind her ears.

‘Maki, gome (I’m sorry). All I wanted to do was to protect you. I never meant to hurt you. I’m really sorry.’ I felt a tear drop down tmy hand. I turned to look at her and with my thumb, I gently wiped away her tears.

I carried her inside the room and I laid her gently on the bed. I placed her legs inside the blanket and I covered her whole body with it. I sat on the bed for a while and I just gazed at her stained streaked face. ‘She must have been really tired,’ I thought. When I stood up from the bed I felt her grab my hand. I turned around and found her half awake.

“Are you leaving?” she asked me in a sleepy tone.

I shook my head at her. “I’m just going to the bathroom to get you some wet cloth so that I could wipe away the stain on you face.” I explained to her.

With a pleading look in her eyes she squeezed my hand tighter and said, “Please come back soon.”

After giving her a reassuring smile she slowly let go of my hand and I proceeded to head towards the bathroom.

After retrieving a bowl of water and a wet cloth from the bathroom I settled down on the bed next to her. I took the cloth and submerged it into the bowl of water. After I had removed the excess water from the cloth I proceeded to wiping her cheeks. She winced a little bit when the cloth touched her skin. After I had fully wiped away the stains on her face I continued down her neck, then down her arms, and down her hands. After I finished cleaning her, I placed the cloth back into the bowl and placed down on the side table.

I then made my way towards the other side of the bed and I lay down on the bed next to her. Lying on my side I stared at her face and I silently watched her sleep. But then I noticed her bangs were covering her part of her face so I leaned closer to her and I gently moved her bangs to the side and tucked it behind her ear.

I settled back down next to her. I placed my hand under the blanket and I searched for one of her hands. When I finally felt it, I brought it out from under the blanket and I kissed the back of her hand. ‘Maki, I promise I won’t ever leave you. Never again.’ I declared confidently. For the rest of the night we slept together peacefully with my hand still clutching her hand tightly next to me.

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When I woke up I found myself on the same position I was last night. My vision was blurry at first, but when my vision was finally in focused I realized that Maki was no longer sleeping beside me. I immediately sprung up from the bed and hurried towards the door.

When I opened the door, my heart heaved a small sigh of relief to find Maki cooking breakfast in the kitchen. She wore a pink apron with hello kitty’s face printed all over it. She looks very adorable, I said to myself.

When she finally noticed my presence, she greeted me excitedly, “good morning sleepyhead!” She gently waved the spatula at me.

“Good morning!” I greeted back. I made my way over to the counter and asked her if she needed any help.

She shook her head, “No, just sit down over there. It will be ready in a few minutes.” Before I could interject, she grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the dining table. She pulled the chair open for me and ordered me to sit down. I obediently followed her orders and sat on the chair.

“Sit and wait patiently.” She commanded.

“But-” I tried to interject again but she wouldn’t let me speak.

“I said just sit quietly and wait for the food. Besides you don’t even know how to cook.” She let out a small giggle before heading back behind the counter.

My face turned pink in embarrassment. She’s right; I don’t know how to cook because I don’t often eat human food. Even though I work at a restaurant I never once worked directly inside the kitchen. All I did was serve food. The only time I ever cooked in my life was during our first date. It was a very memorable day for me. Eun Hyuk and I spent the entire morning preparing noodles. Apparently he also didn’t know how to cook. We experimented a few times before we finally agreed on the taste. I had a wonderful time with Maki. Speaking of which, I wonder how Eun Hyuk and Meisa are doing. Are they still together? I let out a small sigh. I miss them.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Maki call my name.

“Jae? Are you listening to me?” she asked me worriedly.

“Erm, yeah.” I lied. Within a few minutes she brought a plate of bacon and eggs onto the dining table and laid it in front of me. She then brought out her own plate of bacon and eggs and sat down right across from me. After exclaiming ‘itadakimasu’ she hungrily ate her food. I watched her amusedly as she shoved bacon strips into right after another.

“What are you staring at?” she asked curiously. “Do I have something on my face?”

I shook my head vigorously. “No, I was just admiring your beautiful face.” I complemented her. I smiled and her cheeks turned pink. When she saw me smiling, she couldn’t help but smile back.

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After breakfast we both decided to take the day off from our jobs and just hang out with each other, like a little date. We called our employers and informed them about our absence.

Then, hand in hand the both of us made our way to Central Park. We rested on one of the benches along the pathway. When she rested her head on my shoulder I felt a tingling sensation inside my stomach.

“Oppa,” she started out. I looked down on her face. “…I missed you.” She wrapped her arms tightly around mine.

“I know. I missed you too.” I said in a low but passionate tone. For the rest of the afternoon we roamed the rest of the park. We took a couple of selcas as we walked around the park. For lunch we bought hot dogs and pretzels.

By 4:30pm I took her to Jones Beach in Long Island. It was already getting dark so I expected that there weren’t going to be a lot of people at the beach at this hour. We sat on warm sand and waited for the sunset to arrive.

“Did you have a good time today?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said shyly. “I had a wonderful time.” I smiled.

You'll have an even more wonderful time later today, I said quietly in my mind. I placed my arm over her shoulders and I pulled her body closer to me. In response, she wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me tightly. The people passing by took quick glances at us probably wondering why we were hugging each other like there’s no tomorrow. We just laughed at their reactions.

By the time the sunset arrived, it was already 5:09 in the afternoon. We watched as the orange-ish sun gradually disappeared over the horizon. As the sun came down, I glanced over to Maki to see her reaction. Of course her eyes were full of excitement and interest. She turned her head towards me when she realized I was staring at her face.

My eyes landed on her lips. I slowly moved my head closer to hers. She blushed when she saw me advancing towards her. She sat still as she watched me move closer and closer to her face until she felt my lips touched hers. She stared at me wide eyed, her body stiff as a rock. I brushed my lips a couple of times on her lips but she kept closed. I became worried because she wasn’t responding to my kiss and she’s not allowing me to access . I opened my eyes, and as I was opening them she began closing hers. She opened slightly allowing me to enter . I placed my hand over her neck and she tilted her head to the side giving us a more comfortable position to kiss. I was shock when I felt her tongue brushed against mine. Nevertheless I responded back to her kiss. Before we knew it we were already an expert at French kissing. After what seemed like forever, we broke our kiss and we gasped for air. We stared at each other surprised at what we just did.

“Wow,” She exclaimed. “That was….”

Before she could finish her sentence I finished it for her. “….amazing.” I said.

She nodded her head in agreement. We stared at each other for a while, and without another word we were at it again.

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A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry I haven't updated in ages. It's my senior year at my high school and I've been super busy with clubs, college stuff, and APs.

I'm really disappointed that not a lot of people are commenting to this story :( It's also one of the reasons I haven't updated in a while. I really feel motivated when people leave comments and such. So please comment. It really helps me write. I want to thank those who does comment. I really appreciate it. Thank you :)

Again, my sincere apologies to everyone who had subscribed to this story. I'll try my best to update more often.

(3/25/10)