It had been a week since Seunggwan and Choyoung presented their kiss scene and truthfully, Choyoung couldn’t have been any happier. She had told Seunggwan during practice that she wouldn’t kiss him anymore for practice since she didn’t want to just kiss people around willy nilly. She still believed that kisses were something to be treasured and were to be saved for special people. Seunggwan acknowledged her request and they continued on with the scene with something he liked to call, ‘Shadow Kisses.’ Basically, they looked like they were kissing but the really weren’t.

“Hello in there! Anybody home?”

Choyoung snapped back into reality and realized that everyone at the dinner table was looking at her. The Kwons, well really just Soonyoung’s mom, invited the Kwans over for dinner and here they were. Despite her protests, Choyoung’s mom made her wear a dress. It was pretty simple really: a light pink dress with a Sabrina neckline. She even curled her hair. However, she had gotten her way with wearing flats instead of heels. At the corner of her eye, she could see Soonyoung grinning to himself as he took a drink of his water. He found her humility amusing yet again. He was wearing a black long-sleeve dress shirt with a white tie. His slacks and shoes were black as well. Choyoung turned her attention back to the others at the table and slightly bowed her head, “Sorry, I was thinking about something. Did you say something?”

 “We were just talking about letting you stay with the Kwons for a while since your father and I are in Japan for the new video game,” her mom explained.

Choyoung opened to answer, but stopped when she heard a choking noise from her left. She turned around to see Soonyoung hitting his fist against his chest, coughing from choking on water upon hearing the news. Immediately, she laughed. Soonyoung excused himself from the table, struggling through his coughs. Typical Soonyoung. It wasn’t long before Choyoung’s mind took in what her parents and his parents were talking about. Usually when her parents went out for business trips for new games, they would drop her off at her aunt’s house in the next town over, but now that they knew someone in the same neighborhood and could drop her off at school. Choyoung forced a smile onto her face although she wanted to yell at her mom for even considering staying with the Kwons as an option. She didn’t dislike the Kwons, no. She just didn’t like the idea of having Soonyoung around her 24/7. It was bad enough that he followed her around at school, now she was going to be staying with him for about a week.

Soonyoung came back, a bit paler in the face, tugging at his tie. All eyes were on him now as he awkwardly slipped into seat. He cleared his throat, bowing his head, “Sorry, I drank too fast. So will Choyoung be staying with us?”

“It all depends on what she wants,” Soonyoung’s mom flashed a smile in Choyoung’s direction. It was a sugary sweet smile. A smile you couldn’t say no to. Choyoung knew what games she was playing. She and her son were exactly the same.

“It would be very nice of you,” Choyoung started, “But I really don’t want to burden you with taking care of me,”

“Oh no, it’s fine!” Mrs. Kwan said a bit too enthusiastically, “We’d love to have you! I’m the only girl here anyway, so it would be a change of air,”

Soonyoung rolled his eyes and took another drink of his water. With all the water he was drinking, Choyoung hoped that Soonyoung would drink so much water that he would have to rush to the bathroom later. Choyoung looked to her dad for approval and although he didn’t look too happy about it, he slightly nooded his head giving her permission. Her mom was obviously into the idea and so were the Kwons so there was no point to refuse. Besides, it was much better than her aunt’s. Her aunt literally lived the same way her grandmother did. Ancient and outdated. She even had a box TV for crying out loud!

Choyoung finally gave in with the coaxing of her mother and his. They agreed that in about three days, she would move over. Her parents were going to leave that weekend so she would be moving in on Friday. Soonyoung could hardly contain the smile emerging on his face. After dinner, Soonyoung and her were left to clean the table while their parents continued to converse in the living room. It was always the kids that had to clean up. At least, that’s how it worked in both their families. Soonyoung brought the plates over and awkwardly placed the plates at the bottom of the sink as she washed them. Choyoung often often found herself flipping her head to get her hair from getting wet. Unfortunately, they just kept sliding from her shoulders and getting in the line of fire for splashes.

“You okay there, princess?” Soonyoung joked, when he saw her flip her over her shoulder for the hundredth time that day.

“Stop calling me princess,” Choyoung whined, her hair continuing to fall down again.

She hated doing her hair and getting it ruined. If it got ruined, all her effort would go to waste and it’s already hard enough to get any effort from her whatsoever. Soonyoung quickly ran his hands underneath the running water and wiped his hands dry with a towel, walking up behind her. He could feel Choyoung’s body tense up from underneath him, “So how was your make out session with Seunggwan?”

“That’s for me to know and for you to never find out,” Choyoung shuddered at how intense the kiss had been. She was glad that she no longer had to do anything with him, “Why do you ask?”

Hurt, Soonyoung’s lip pulled into his signature puppy pout. Oh that pout. Choyoung was immune to that pout yet he continued to do it anyway. Teasingly, he wrapped his arms around her waist into a back hug and rested his head on her left shoulder, “Would you say that it was better than ours?”

Choyoung froze at his sudden actions and immediately, her heart began to race. No, not like it had with Seunggwan. The same way it had been when she kissed Soonyoung. It fluttered more than it beat rapidly. She couldn’t find the right words to say. She didn’t want to say that Seunggwan’s kiss was better because it wasn’t. If anything, it lacked emotion. Sure, it was racy, but it didn’t even come close to her experience with Soonyoung. There was something different about that kiss. Something…real. Choyoung decided to keep silent but Soonyoung already knew what the answer was. He stayed clinging on to her until she finished washing the dishes. Choyoung didn’t really mind Soonyoung at this point. The important part was that he was keeping his mouth shut. When she hung her gloves at the towel rack, she expected Soonyoung to let go. But he didn’t.

“You can let go now,” She said, waddling over to the kitchen door but stopped halfway because dragging Soonyoung with her was tiring. For some reason, both entrances to the kitchen door were closed. They weren’t locked but she didn’t remember closing them.

“You liked ours better, didn’t you?” Soonyoung slyly said, still refusing to let go. Choyoung could swear that he was acting like a five year old saying, ‘I told you so!’

Defeated, Choyoung nodded and brought her hand up to pat his head, “Yes, I did. Are you happy now?”

Soonyoung grinned when he heard that. Even though Choyoung had kissed someone else, he didn’t seem to mind. He knew Seunggwan wasn’t a bad kid, and as long as it wasn’t Chan, he was good. If it were Chan it would have been an entirely different story. He probably wouldn’t have been so lenient.

“Not quite,” Soonyoung said, turning her around but still holding her securely by the waist, “But I want to know, how did you kiss Seunggwan?”

Soonyoung was lying of course. He had seen the entire scene unfold from behind those itchy bushes. From them greeting each other hello and her running away from embarrassment; he saw it all. It angered him, really. For what reason? He really had no idea. Maybe it was because someone who wasn’t even friends with Choyoung was kissing her. Call it overly protective brother or whatever; he just didn’t like that feeling. Choyoung rolled her eyes at him, not taking him seriously and went to take his hands away from her waist. There was no way that she was going to kiss Soonyoung especially since her dad was in the other room. In fact, both sets of their parents in the other room! Soonyoung held her wrist and stopped her, “That’s where my hands are supposed to go, remember?”

Choyoung’s mouth dropped, “You were spying on us?”

“I wouldn’t call it spying,” Soonyoung explained, “More like I was passing by to go to the soccer field and Jihoon pointed you guys out and the bushes were calling us,”

Ha. Great excuse. Of course Jihoon would tell Soonyoung. They were best friends and bros always helped out bros. Jihoon wasn’t as trustworthy as she thought. Choyoung wanted to yell at him for spying on them but for some reason, she ended up saying something completely different. She stood up on her toes, pulled him down so she could press her forehead against his, and smirked, “You like me, don’t you?” she recited his signature question.

“Why would I?” Soonyoung pulled her in closer, scoffing, “You have a face only a mother could love,”

Before Choyoung could answer him back, the kitchen door opened and Mrs. Kwon came in carrying a set of tea cups. When she closed the door, she nearly dropped the tray she was holding. Soonyoung and Choyoung immediately pulled away from each other, and held their hands behind their backs. They exchanged quick guilty glances at each other before turning back to his mom. Mrs. Kwon set the tea set down on the counter and slowly backed up towards the door, grinning like a complete idiot trying to contain her feels, “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

The two flustered teens fought to explain to her what they were doing, both coming up with lame excuses as to what they were doing. Soonyoung said something along the lines of her tripping while Choyoung’s story was that she was trying to reach over and get something from behind Soonyoung. Both stories sounded farfetched and Mrs. Kwon didn’t believe either one of them. Still grinning, she slipped out of the kitchen without saying a word. The two stood in silence trying to come up with something to say to each other. Choyoung peeked up at Soonyoung whose face was just as red as Tupperware lids. Soonyoung could say the same for Choyoung.

“You tripped while trying to get something from behind me,” Soonyoung slapdashed a somewhat credible story.

“Yup,”

“Be good now, Cho,” her dad warned as he kissed her on the forehead, “Don’t get into any trouble otherwise you’re going straight to your aunt’s,”

“Don’t worry,” Choyoung reassured her dad, pulling him into a hug. She loved her dad a lot. When she was still in elementary school, her mom worked overseas in Japan for about two years. She pretty much relied on her dad at that time, and they had gotten closer in that period of time. Both of her parents working for the same video company had its ups and downs for Choyoung. When a new game was going to be released or when buying games as gifts season rolled around, they were always busy. Japan, being one of the leading countries in video game design, was the headquarters of her parents’ company.

“Bye ma, I’ll miss you,” Choyoung hugged her mom afterwards. She loved her mom just as much as her dad but they weren’t on the same closeness level. Her mom was a lot stricter on her of course because she was a daughter. Moms are always stricter on their daughters. Dads were stricter with their sons. It was pretty much common sense. Her parents gave her one more rundown on what to do, what not to do and then they were on their way. Choyoung headed inside her new home for the week where the Kwons were waiting for her.

Mrs. Kwon held up a bed set for her, “Welcome to your temporary home, Choyoung! I hope you’ll enjoy your stay!”

Mr. Kwon greeted her but apologized for having to leave so soon because he had an evening meeting to make. He was a retail store manager and meetings for managers were mandatory. Soonyoung’s mom handed Soonyoung the sheets and said that Soonyoung would be ‘more than happy’ to show her to her room while she prepared dinner. The two headed up the stairs where Soonyoung stopped at the second door to the left, “For the first two or three days, you’ll be staying in my room until the guest room is cleaned up,”

They entered the room, Choyoung first, and began setting up. His room was quite neat for a boy. Everything was organized to a T. He had separate compartments for his clothes, colored boxes for his other items, a paper organizer; it was pretty much like those bedrooms advertised in store commercials. Soonyoung set the bet set on his bed, grabbed the handle at the side of his bed and tugged until the side came out. Choyoung realized that another bed slid out from his but it was smaller. It was perfect for her size.

“So you’ll be taking the extra bed,” Soonyoung moved her bed set onto the smaller bed and sat down on his own, “Any questions?”

“Yeah but since I’m the guest, I won’t ask anything because that’d be rude of me,”

“Good, now let’s go downstairs. Mom might need help or something,”

By the time they went to sleep it was about 9:30. While Soonyoung was sound asleep, Choyoung was tossing and turning. Her eyes would not close. She stared up at the ceiling, blanket pulled up to her chin. Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore so she sat up and poked Soonyoung until he woke up, “Soonyoung, hey wake up!”

“What do you want?” He grumbled, still half asleep. If there was one thing Soonyoung hated, it was being bothered when he was sleeping. Without sleep, he would wake up cranky the next day. If his attitude didn’t change, then he was just downright tired throughout the day. Boy needs his beauty rest.

“Can you turn the lights on?”

“Why would I do that?”

“I can’t sleep with the lights off,”

“No,”

“Soonyoung, please!” Choyoung begged in her whiny voice. She knew that whenever she did that, Soonyoung would always give in. As she predicted, he got up and lifted the switch about 1/3 of the way on. He had an adjustable light in his room, not just an on/off switch. It was about another half hour before she woke him up again, “Soonyoung, it’s cold,”

“Go to sleep,” he said, completely ignoring her request. She continued to pester him about how cold it was until finally, he sat up and moved over on his bed. His hair was a hot mess and stuck out in all directions. But it looked good nonetheless. He patted the spot next to him, “Here, if you’re really cold, you can sleep here,”

“With you?”

“Isn’t that what you want?” Soonyoung managed to tick her off even late at night but honestly, the warmth was calling her name. She crawled onto his bed and moved his body pillow into the middle so that there was some sort of barrier or wall between them. Soonyoung handed her his extra blanket so that she would stop bothering him for the night. He slept on the outside part while Choyoung slept on the wall side. She didn’t want to risk rolling over but unfortunately for her, the wall side was cold. She kept her back turned to Soonyoung so that she was facing the wall. Soonyoung was just a few centimeters away from falling over. Thankfully, the smaller bed was there so all he would do was roll over if he did. He was just about ready to fall asleep again before Choyoung called his name out once more, “Soonyoung,”

“What do you want now?”

“Good night,”

“Sweet dreams to you too, princess,”

author’s note: yay, hooray for double updates! i decided to write a double update for you guys because i don’t have school tomorrow. of course, with double updates comes shorter chapters. anyway, art students don’t have classes tomorrow – yes! so from the comments so far, there are mixed reactions to whose kiss was better. i personally liked soonyoung’s better but in this chapter, choyoung obviously chose which one she liked.

hope you all enjoyed the double update! it’ll be the only one i’ll do in a while~