The next morning, I was stiff and sore. I slowly sat up, my muscles protesting, and grumpily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Why was I so sore and tired? Was I forgetting something? Oh well, I'll remember sooner or later. I wasn't awake enough to really care. I needed coffee.

I roll out of bed and made my way to the kitchen. My apartment is small. Like, walk in closet sized small. There's only a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchenette, just enough for me to get by but not enough for me to really want to have more than a couple of friends over at a time. It's not messy but it's cluttered. Every inch is crammed with books CD's, posters, and clothes. The clutter made it hard for me to navigate pre-caffeine and I ended up with stubbing my toes a few times.

I finally managed to stumbled into the kitchen and reached for the coffee maker. The liquid inside it was still warm. I sloppily poured a cup and gulped it down. After half a cup, I was feeling more human. I went to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Kris. He was completely absorbed in the news and didn't even acknowledge me. The newscaster rambled on about another boy band member who had gotten caught up in a scandal. Strange. I didn't think he'd be the type to care about that sort of thing.

Wait a minute.

What's Kris doing here?

Coffee dribbled down my chin and I made a strangled noise of surprise. Kris looked at me in alarm and I quickly wiped my chin. A blush rose to my cheeks.

"What was that?" He asked, eyes still wide.

"I-I forgot you were here." I mumbled.

"Really? You're sitting next to me. You're even drinking the coffee I made."

"I hadn't really woken up yet..." I covered my face with my hands. God, how embarrassing.

He looked at me in disbelief for a moment before taking a sip of his own coffee. "You're unbelievable."

I gave him a look before turning my attention to the TV. The newscaster had moved onto the next story but my focus wasn't on it. Now that I was awake, I could remember yesterday. Everything was a terrifying blur of frantic thoughts, struggling, and the strangely comforting presence of Kris. Although, now that I think about it, one seemed impossible and out of place. When I was shoved into the van, Kris had somehow gotten on the roof of the van, left indents on it, and broken the window to get me out. How on earth had he done that?

"Um..." He had turned his attention back to the TV, intently watching a report about UFO's. When I spoke, he glanced at me to let me know that he was listening before looking back at the news. "Thank you so much for... Yesterday. And thanks for spending the night. Knowing you were here was a great comfort. I'm sorry for all the trouble I put you through." I bowed slightly.

"Are you stupid?" His harsh tone made me jump. Why was he upset? Had I said something wrong? "You were attacked and you're worried about troubling me?"

"I-"

"Worry about yourself more." He asked at me and turned back to the TV. We sat on the couch in silence, interrupted only by the news reports and the occasional sips of coffee. I glanced over every once in a while as I thought about what he said. Kris seemed had told me to worry about myself but it was obvious that he wasn’t following his own advice. Through out the entirety of last night, he had been worrying only about me. He offered to walk me home, took care of me when I could have been okay by myself, and just in general been very supportive through the whole ordeal. When the news was over, he turned off the TV and turned to me.

"Do you have work today?" He asked.

"Yeah, ten to three." I quickly checked the time, suddenly afraid that I was running late. To my surprise it was eight thirty. I almost never woke up this early.

"Take the day off. You need rest. I'll tell the chef you're sick." Kris grabbed his coat off the arm of the couch.

I rose quickly. "Oh, you don't need to. I can call Tombo myself." Please don't go yet.

"I'm going over there anyway." He headed to the door and I slowly followed him.

"Oh," He turned around so suddenly, I nearly ran into him. "Give me your phone."

"Eh? Why-"

"Just give it to me." He ordered impatiently.

"Alright, fussy pants." I fished it out of my pockets and unlocked it for him. He took it out of my hands and did something that needed a lot of button pushing.

"Here," He handed it back to me. "I put my number in it. If you need anything or if anything happens, call me. Later." He patted my head and I leaned into his touch. Then he opened the front door and left. I looked the door behind him.

I tried to go about my usual business, but I soon realized that with Kris gone, I began to have "thoughts." When I went to work on my english essay, instead of comparing an Antigone and a Julius Caesar character, I was comparing Kris to the leading man in a rom-com I had watched the other day, When I washed the dishes, thought of doing them with Kris like an old married couple filled my mind. When I attempted to read Harry Potter, I tried to figure out what house he'd be in. No matter where I turned to escape thoughts of him, I always found him waiting for me there.

Now that I was allowing myself to think, not shoving all thoughts of him in a locked closet, I was beginning to realize that the lie I had told myself was weak. It had gaping holes and cracks running along it and they were getting bigger with each passing second. I didn't want to hang out with Kris because he was handsome and interesting.

I wanted to hang out with Kris because I liked him.

***

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stay home and rest all day. I was a college student and I had responsibilities. Plus, the teacher I had today always covered a lot of material in class and I did not want to play catch up.

Around four, I gathered up all my stuff and went to class. Today I had "Decoding Poetry", an exciting name for a class where we just pick poems apart. It was pretty interesting and I did enjoy it, but the best part was the 2 two friends I took the class with.

Xiumin is basically the Boy Next Door that can switch from cute to drop dead y in the blink of an eye. I don't know how he does it but he loves to tease me with it. But teasing aside, he's got a great sense of humor and always knows how to cheer me up. Tao is like the brother I never had. He helps me whenever I'm in a pinch and knows how to make me feel better when I'm sad. However, sometimes I forget that he’s suppose to be the older one because of how childish he can be. With Xiumin, I make fun of the weird contemporary poems we have to read every once in a while. With Tao, I share my favorite poems, the ones that seem to speak for me.

Today, we were looking at popular songs and how they used poetic elements to tell their stories. The class was abuzz with conversation as everyone went over their songs and joked around.

"'So you're gone and I'm haunted.' Well, she obviously missed the person she was almost lovers with. I guess the memories of them are haunting her." Tao underlined the line in the song and jotted down a quick note.

"Tao..." Xiumin whined and pouted slightly. "Why'd you have to get the good song. Switch with me"

Poor Xiumin had been assigned Wrecking Ball and he had this thing against Miley Cyrus. According to Tao, who had known him longer than me, he had a younger cousin who made him watch every single episode of Hannah Montana, three times. There's only so many times you can watch a show you don't like, he'd said. Just looking at he was painful to him.

"Haneul Gi got a good one too, though." Tao pointed out. "Why aren't you bothering her?"

I had gotten ET by Katy Perry.

"Your's is better than hers though." Xiumin lightly touched Tao's arm.

"Are you kidding me?!"

I laughed with them before turning back to my song. "Well, mine is obviously about amazing . 'Infect me with your love'? Jesus, how am I going to write out it's meaning without things getting really awkward for our teacher."

"You should relate it to the most ridiculous thing. Like..." Xiumin paused and thought for a moment. "Eating a really good cupcake."

Tao and I burst out laughing. "What the-?! But how does that relate to 'boy you're an alien'?"

"It was so insanely good, it was out of this world."

Our laughter grew until our classmates glanced at us in annoyance. We shushed each other and tried to muffle our laughter. When we finally calmed down, we all went back to analyzing the songs. Every once in a while, Xiumin sighed and grumbled something under his breath or Tao would let out a low hum of understanding. Tao seemed to really understand and relate to Almost Lovers. I wondered about that for a moment while scanning my lyrics before something caught my eye.

You're from a whole other world

a different dimension

you open my eyes

And I'm ready to go, lead me into the light

Boy, you're an alien

A/N: