[Eli POV]

The girl took slow deliberate steps towards the door at the end of the long hallway. It was dark, too dark to even see anything but somehow, that door was glowing as if it was beckoning for her to come. With each step she took, she felt the air slowly leaving her lungs like something was it all out, nearly killing her. She was finally only inches away from the door, she gulped, ready to face the unknown…

And that was when the doorbell rang loudly across the entire apartment making me jump off the couch. I clutch my chest and breathed in and breathed out. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to watch a horror movie alone but sometimes I just make stupid movie marathon decisions. I yelled for the person at the door to wait a moment as I wanted to collect my thoughts and regain my normal breathing pattern first and when I did, I paused the movie and marched to the front door.

“SURPRISE!!!!” I took a step back, my hand flying to my chest. I was still jumpy because of the movie. I blinked and realized it was my boyfriend, wearing a cheeky smile on his handsome face. And because it had been a full week since I last saw him and I miss him very, very badly, I threw myself at him and clung to him like my life depended on it.

“Whoah there! The pizza. You don’t want me to drop your food, do you?”

At the sound of pizza, I instantly let go and looked at his hands. Sure enough, he was holding three boxes of pizza. I was already getting hungry at the sight of it.

“Let me take that,” I took it from him and he pouted.

“What?” I asked when I already had the boxes in my hand.

“It’s like you’re more excited about the pizza than me being here.” I laughed.

I don’t know where I got the courage, maybe from missing him so much this week, but I dropped the pizza on the floor, stood on my tiptoes and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek. And then I turned around as fast as I could, grabbed the pizza and was ready to make a run for it but of course he wouldn’t just let me go. He grabbed me by the shoulders and twirled me around to face him.

The mischievous grin he had only made me feel even more embarrassed about what I just did. “Not so fast,” he whispered in my ear. I gulped.

“You think you can get away like that? You have to pay for the kiss you stole.”

Before I could even open my mouth to say anything, he leaned in and kissed me on the freaking lips. It was a quick kiss but it left me breathless nonetheless. He grabbed the boxes of pizza I had dropped and left me standing at the door alone and shocked.

“A kiss for a kiss,” he happily stated behind me.

I spun around and smacked his head. “Ya!”

He faced me and theatrically gasped. “You repay my love with violence? You wound me physically and emotionally, darling.”

“What…” I laughed aloud. “I’m sorry. You took me by surprise is all.”

“Alright. Next time, I’ll say ‘I am going to kiss you now so you best have your heart prepared’ before I actually do the deed.”

I can’t help myself. I smacked him again. “Ouch! Stop it!” I smacked him for the third time. “What are you gonna do about it?” I challenged.

“Kiss you,” he replied seriously.

“Right, then.” I cleared my throat and walked passed him, ignoring his little remark. If he does that again, my blush will only intensify to the point that I might literally turn into the reddest tomato that the world will ever know. I hear him chuckle.

He quietly follows me to the kitchen. He only talked again when I was opening the boxes of pizza.

“Nice shirt, by the way,” he said. I wonder what he’s talking about… I looked down and cursed under my breath. I was wearing Min Ah’s gift last year, the one I pleaded for her to get me – a shirt with Seunghoon’s face on it. I could have died of embarrassment. Of all shirts, I had to wear this one. And of all days my boyfriend comes for a surprise visit, it just had to conveniently be today. Great. More reasons to blush. While I was mentally banging my head on the wall, Seunghoon, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying himself very much. He obviously liked my shirt a whole lot if that huge smile on his face was any indication. But then again, why wouldn’t he? It was his beautiful face, after all.  

“It was a gift,” And so? I tried to come up with any excuse to add, I got nothing so I just gave up and told him I’d go change.

“Why? Keep that on. I love it.”

Oh, the bastard was enjoying this alright. “Of course you’d love it. It’s your face.” I pointed out.

“And isn’t it a beautiful face?” he laughed. See? I knew he’d say something like that. “Seriously though, why bother changing? I don’t mind you wearing my face on your shirt.”

“I do.” I turned around and he stopped me from taking even one step by giving me a backhug.

“Eyy. Are you getting shy over this? Don’t. It’s no big deal.” I sighed and struggled to be freed from his grasp because his proximity was making my insides turn into mush. And my cheeks were flaming red, oh God, it’s embarrassing.

“Alright.” I finally said. He let go then, finally.

It took a full minute to recover from his damned backhug. And after that, I asked why he was here today. We didn’t exactly make plans.

“I thought you had practice all day,” I said while pouring orange juice into two glasses.

“We finished early and so I decided to come by to surprise you.”

“But we’re going to see each other tomorrow, right?”

He frowned. “You’re not really excited to see me, are you?”

He misunderstood my question. I asked because I still want to see him tomorrow. I don’t want him to cancel tomorrow even if we’re together today because quite frankly, if I had the choice, I’d stay by his side twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

“Of course I am. I think I just made my excitement clear when I hugged and kissed you earlier. Of course I miss you. Of course I’m excited.” He giggled.

“Of course,” he arrogantly declared. “I know all that already. I just wanted to hear you say it.”

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I just want to punch his face for making me do and say the most embarrassing things.

“So what are we gonna do today? Stay inside, watch movies and eat pizza?”

“Sounds good to me. That sounds like a relaxing day and I do need that kind of day after all the practice these past weeks.”

I remembered his practice. He must be exhausted. WINNER’s comeback was fast approaching so they must be twice as busy now that it’s drawing near.

“Okay, let’s have a relaxing day today! You earned it.” I smiled at him.

He returned the smile. “And so do you.”

“Come on, then. Let’s finish watching that movie I’ve been watching before you came knocking at my doorstep.” He agreed and we went to the living room, bringing along the food and drinks.

We made ourselves comfortable at the couch and I made sure we had enough of a safe distance between us. I mentally scoffed. Like that’s going to stop him from doing anything he wants.

He took a sip of his orange juice as I played my movie. And it started right from the part when the girl opened the creepy door. A girl wearing a long white gown popped out of the door and it scared the beejezus out of both the girl in the movie and me. I heard myself scream loudly. Two seconds later, however, I realized that my hand was covering my mouth and I don’t really remember opening my mouth to scream either. I looked at seunghoon and he had both hands covering his eyes and he spilled his orange juice all over himself and my couch.

“Turn it off! Turn it off!” He screamed. And I did what he asked.

“Did you just spill orange juice all over my couch?” I asked, horrified. Min Ah is not going to be very happy hearing about this. That girl likes our couch clean and spotless.

Seunghoon looked so guilty while saying he’s sorry multiple times. I burst out laughing instead of sympathizing with him, though. What a scaredy-cat my boyfriend is. The thought makes me laugh even louder.

“You’re afraid of ghosts?” I doubled over in laughter. He can’t ride roller coasters, he can’t watch horror movies. That’s so hilarious and adorable all at the same time.

“Go ahead, have your laugh, you cruel girlfriend,” he crossed his arms over his chest and faced the opposite direction.

I waited for my laugh to subside before giving my reply.

“I’m sorry.” I try to hide my smile. He glanced back at me. “Apology not accepted. Hmph!” Instead of apologizing again, I only laughed at his face, he looked seriously offended.

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop laughing now. I’m sorry. But for the record, you’re cuter when you’re scared like that.”

“You will never speak of this again. Not as long as I am breathing,” he commands in a serious tone. I bit my tongue to stop myself from laughing again and nodded. He looked satisfied at my agreement. He remembers the mess he caused and offered to clean it up himself.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll do it. Just go pick the movie we’re going to watch,” I point to the pile of DVDs we have. “I don’t want to hear you screaming again. Who knows what else you’ll do to my couch.”

He groaned at the mention of the earlier incident. “Fine, I’ll pick a movie,” he said.

“These are all action movies and horror movies,” he told me when I finished cleaning up the mess he’s done to the couch. It was now damp so we had no choice but to sit down at the carpet.

“And so? Just pick one,” I replied.

“Don’t you have anything romantic here at all?”

“What, like a chick flick? You want us to watch a chick flick?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes.”

I stared at him for a good ten seconds. “Don’t boys usually detest even the mere mention of a title of a chick flick? I mean, Min Ah’s boyfriend who used to come here in the past would always act so outraged if Min Ah ever suggests romantic films. Are you serious?”

“Not all boys are the same. And don’t girls usually beg for their boyfriends to watch cheesy romantic films with them?”

“Not all girls are the same,” I mimicked his earlier words.

We both laughed then. “But seriously though, nothing here that isn’t action or horror?”

“There is one. The fault in our stars. That’s the closest thing we got to cheesy, romantic films you claim to like so much.”

He wrinkled his nose. “No tragedies please, only happy endings.”

“You don’t like sad endings too? You’re so weird. Life isn’t always a happy ending, you know.” I smile at him and moved closer to look through the DVD titles as well.

“I know, there are so many tragedies happening in real life already, we don’t need tragedies in movies too.”

“Hey, stop looking so serious and just pick a title.”

We ended up watching The Man from Nowhere. He couldn’t decide on any movie so I had to be the one to choose in the end and I had chosen one of my favorites.

We were already an hour into the movie and I was fully concentrated on it when he nudged me on the side.

“What?”

“Wipe off your drool.”

“What?” I repeated.

“Do you like Won Bin that much?”

“Who doesn’t like Won Bin?” I replied with a question. I feel him rolling his eyes at that.

He says something again which I didn’t hear so I asked him to repeat it.

“I said, who’s more attractive, Won Bin or Lee Seung Hoon?”

“Won Bin oppa.” Ooooppsss. “I mean, Lee Seung Hoon.”

I peeked to see his reaction. He was openly glaring at me.

“Won Bin oppa, you say?”

I turn my head to really look at him, ready to apologize even though I know I have nothing to apologize for because, come on! It’s Won Bin, no one is more attractive than Won Bin and I am ninety nine percent sure that the entire country agrees with me. But then again, my jealous boyfriend needs to be assured once and for all that he will always be the most attractive in my eyes.

“You still think it’s Won Bin?” His deep voice taunts. My eyes grew wide seeing his face only inches away from mine. He is smirking. I can already tell what’s going to happen next. I should back away, but I didn’t. Instead, I waited for him to close the distance between us.

“I am going to kiss you now…” he breathed.

“WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS GOING ON HERE?!”

I pushed Seunghoon aside as quickly as humanly possible and stood up. I knew all too well who that voice belonged to. I wished I heard it wrong, but I was right. It was him. It was them.

“Appa? Eomma?”

***