Nine.

The next two weeks were bliss. With your mother out of town and your father feigning ignorance, you were able to spend almost every day with Hoya.

It was a little awkward initially. He had to remind you how fast you warmed up to him when you two were just children. You smiled at that memory and you slowly opened yourself up to him.

The boys were more than happy to see that you were finally spending time with another guy that wasn't them. It wasn't like they were happy to get rid of you, but that they were more relieved because they saw how much Hoya took care of you.

They took the chance to spend more time with their girlfriends too. Which meant you saw less of Dongwoo after that relatively awkward lunch. You hadn't spoken to him since. You kept telling yourself you would ask Sunggyu about him, but truth was, you found yourself thinking less of Dongwoo and more of Hoya.

It was a good thing, you told yourself. Dongwoo was attached. You should have abandoned those feelings long ago. And besides Hoya was a great guy, this would work out.

"What are you thinking of?" Hoya asked, playing with your hair. The both of you were sitting at a corner of the community library trying to find materials for your research paper due this weekend.

You snapped out of your thoughts. "Nothing, just thinking of how nice this is," you said quickly and smiled at Hoya.

He smiled back and put his arm around you to pull you closer to him. "We've been seeing each other so much lately."

You nodded. "Not like it's a bad thing though."

"Of course it isn't." Hoya grinned. "We have so many years to make up for."

Oh that, your shared past.

With your mother away and your father having almost zero sense of how things were organised in the house, you couldn't really dig up much of your old albums. Neither did Hoya have much to begin with. He had shifted houses too many times to keep track, he explained.

There was one photo you did remember of the whole class paired up, striking dancing poses. You were standing with Hoya, his short arms placed awkwardly on you, one on your waist, and one on your shoulder. You two joked about how dancing was almost second nature to him now, but back then, looking at the photo, no one would have guessed.

"So what are we doing after this?"

You looked at your net book. You had 5 more pages to write. You sighed and pointed to your screen. "Finish this up?"

"I was thinking, we head over to your place for dinner after? I could help with the cooking and cleaning?"

You shoved Hoya playfully. "Why are we acting like we've been dating for ages? It sounds like something couples who have been going out for a while do," you complained, half-serious.

He nodded thoughtfully. "I could take you out for a nice dinner? But I just thought since you had the paper to complete…”

A frown made its way to your lips, causing Hoya to grin. He loved it when you frowned. Your lips would purse together in a cute fashion, he said. "Oh right. And I still have to proof-read this damn research paper."

Hoya bent his head. He kissed you lightly on the lips, and your lips relaxed into a small smile. "I'll help you with that."

You grinned and wrapped your arms around his muscled core. "You're such a great boyfriend. Tell me again, what did I ever do to deserve you?"

"You bravely sat beside me one fine morning many, many years ago, smiled the sweetest smile my eight year old mind could remember and captured my heart from then on."

A group of schoolgirls sitting opposite the both of you two giggled.

You buried your head into his dark purple sweatshirt in embarrassment. Hoya chuckled and reached for your laptop to shield himself.

***

"How are things with your dancer boy?" Myungsoo asked as he placed the pints of ice cream down on your kitchen counter. He hadn't seen you in almost a week and he was having some problems with Woori so you suggested that he pop over after dinner. Hoya had left early to teach a beginners' hip-hop class back at school.

“Excellent!” You quickly climbed up onto a high chair and immediately dug into your favourite flavor – peanut butter and chocolate.

“Not worried dancer boy’s going to dump you after you gain two kilos from the ice cream?”

You smacked Myungsoo’s forehead with the clean end of your metal teaspoon. “Dancer boy has a name. His name is Howon but everyone calls him Hoya. So you should call him Hoya too. And no, he’s much too in love with me to do such a thing.”

Myungsoo let out a soft whistle. “Confident much?”

Your ears turned red and you kept silent.

“Ah, not so confident after all,” he said and pointed to your crimson ears. “But don’t worry. I think all of us agree with what you’ve just said.”

You frowned. “Did you guys have a secret meet-up without me? I miss all of you.”

“Just once. It was a few days back. I think we called you, or rather Sunggyu did, but you said something about having to finish a paper...”

“Oh right. Still working on it actually. But this ice cream is a welcome relief from staring at academic journals and my laptop all day,” you said, waving the pint of ice cream in the air and grinning at Myungsoo.

He laughed. “You sure you were staring at your materials and not your new boyfriend?”

“Myungsoo!” you exclaimed. You heard some movement upstairs and the door of your father’s study opening. “Sorry dad!” you apologized quickly before he could get in a word.

Your father came down nonetheless. “What did you say that got my daughter so worked up, young man?” he asked, eyeing the tubs of ice cream on the counter.

Myungsoo looked back sheepishly and pointed to the ice cream pints. “Nothing sir. We were just arguing over who gets which ice cream flavor. You’re free to take a tub if you want, I brought extras.”

“Yeah, he’s on really good terms with the girls at the ice cream parlor, so he always gets two pints for the price of one,” you quipped without looking up. You could feel Myungsoo’s glare on the back of your head, but you couldn’t care less.

As your father made his way back up, Myungsoo swiped the pint away from your reach. You tapped your fingers impatiently on the counter as you waited for him to return it to you. “You shouldn’t have made fun of me and Hoya. And it’s true. The girls at the parlor are so smitten with you; they’ve tried to bribe me into giving them your number before.”

“Did you?” Myungsoo asked as he returned the pint to you.

“Did you get any calls from unknown numbers in the past week or so?”

“A couple, but I missed them all because I don’t usually pick up calls from unknown numbers?”

You shrugged. “See, I tried, the girls can’t blame me. Besides they can’t make me puke out all the free waffle cones I’ve had. Anyway, what’s going on with you and Woori now?”

“Bad. I thought what went on with you back at the café two weeks ago was a one-off incident. But she’s really quite a neurotic, jealous but very incredibly hot girl. She got jealous when I made small talk with that cute barista at the Starbucks in front of our school. And when I had to stay back in school with my female group mate for my business project…it wasn’t even like I wanted to stay back.” Myungsoo heaved the heaviest sigh you’d heard from him in months and plopped himself onto the high chair next to you.

“And so…what did you do?”

“Broke up with her. You know I don’t like my girls clingy.”

You gave him a pat on the back. “The world is waiting for you. You’ll be fine.”

Myungsoo sighed. “I sure hope so.”

By the time the both of you had shared your sides of the story, it was almost two. Sure you had a paper to complete, but you reasoned that friends were definitely more important than grades.

As you waved good-bye to Myungsoo, you told yourself, tomorrow you would give Sunggyu that greatly-delayed call and ask about Dongwoo. Strangely, your heart felt little urgency.

A/N: I'm so sorry for the huge hiatus I took in the middle of nowhere. Some matters cropped up over this week and the last... Life is getting in the way of my writing, but I am determined to finish this piece of fiction no matter what. I might, however, not update as frequently as before. Do bear with me! And as always, comments are always welcome!