It was almost 11 o'clock, and Shion's eyes haven't stopped staring at her phone. Not once did it lit up to notify a text message from that one specific person. She's been lying on her bed for about three hours with absolutely no intentions of sleeping. 

 Her brain was awfully onerous but she forced herself awake. With those numerous thoughts running marathons in her mind, and the little hope of receiving a text from her teacher, how could she even consider falling asleep when these matters were piled up to keep her eyes from closing?

 She tried, twice actually, to drift to dreamland in peace, but she just couldn't. Her nights were seemingly analogical, thinking about the same person, only to be found dealing with a different problem. But in some cases, like this one, she also considers herself. 

 Most of her questions starts with Why, but she hardly finds an answer for every one of them. Of course, one of the reasons is the question itself can be very confusing, but half of that cause is her being too oblivious or even ignorant to what concerns her role. 

---

"We were so close, our lips almost met and I was sure he was going to do it, but he didn't. He listened to me and backed off, just like that time. Though in the first try, I felt like it was okay for me to be kissed by him, yet he stopped himself and walked away. But today, he asked me first, then he tried to accomplish it, and somehow I freaked out. So the question here is, why did I panic?"

"I was totally expecting it, and I even had the chance to refuse. So why didn't I speak from the beginning? Was I too nervous to answer? Or was I unsure of myself? Now let's go back to the first attempt, our lips brushed against one another and I remained calm with closed eyes. I didn't try/want to stop him but he eventually stepped away from me, that's why he wanted to redo it again without hesitating. So in that moment, why didn't I panic?"

 A heavy sigh flew out of for the seventh time that night, each one was released right after she reached a dead end. Every time she went over her thoughts, she would get tangled by vines that prevented her from continuing her path to the awaited answers. 

It was always the same. Whenever she tried reaching for what she badly wanted, the bright light would only turn into an illusion, mocking the hope she held between her hands. She was on the verge of giving up, retreating from the battle she fought against perplexity in order to erase its delusional murk. 

 Until she felt a slight wave of vibration coming from the object ahead of her. The screen was radiant to alert her of a certain notification. She grabbed her phone in an instant and held it in front of her face, reading what has been sent to her on the lock screen. 

"Stop thinking about me and go to sleep."

 She almost didn't know how to react, but a soft chuckle escaped her lips before a smile took over them. She placed the device under her pillow then rested her forearm on her forehead. Her eyes were finally closed after being forced to stay wide open. 

"I can only say the opposite to you, Jimin."

--------------------

"Haven't you finished reading that book of yours yet, Mr. Park?"

 That female voice was enough to distract him for some countable seconds, though his eyes didn't stop tracing the words written in black. It was only when she settled down that he found playing with fire was rather more interesting.

"Haven't you heard of morning greetings?"

"Well, last time I checked, you haven't learned about them yet." 

"Is that so?" 

 He put down his book and crossed his arms as he smiled confidently. He appreciated how she started their conversation by wittily spoofing, it was one of his favorite ways to communicate with her. 

"Why don't you start first since you know better than I do?"

"Okay then, good morning, Mr. Park." 

"Good morning to you too, Kim Shion."

"I'm impressed. Though it sounded kinda simulated considering it came from your imitative tongue." 

"I apologize for my low skills in reproducting."

 Just when Shion was about to throw a brilliant reply to his said words, a bunch of students walked in the class and ruined her opportunity. She saw her teacher smirking mischievously at her right after he greeted his students. She instantly rolled her eyes and took out her phone to text him, but he did it before she could even type hers.

"Don't be sad, there's always next time." 

 She resisted the urge to look at him, and ignored his text as she tried playing a game to calm herself down before she would kill someone, or let's say, kill him. 

"You'll see, Park Jimin. Just wait for it."

--------------------

"Finally! My classes are over!" Shion yawned while she stretched her arms, then dropped them and rested her head on her books. The weariness her body felt was enough for her to pass out on her table, until she felt her phone vibrating which caused her to groan out of annoyance. She slowly lifted her head and saw what had been delivered to her.

From: Jimin. 

"Now that you finished with your classes, why don't you come over to our secret place?"

"Secret place?" She thought to herself. "Does he mean his office? Or....?"

Another text from him. 

"Don't forget to knock the door." 

"Yup, it's his office." She mentally nodded, then thought a little about it. She really didn't want to walk even though it isn't that far, but the idea of having to sit or lay down on that large comfortable couch encouraged her to do so.

---

"What does he want from me anyway?" A few meters were left until she reach the office. She wasn't in a hurry to go and spend time with her teacher, curiosity just walked along with her to figure out what was the deal with him. 

 Shion entered the room while avoiding Jimin's gaze then closed the door with a low click. Her books were neatly placed on the table before she practically threw herself on the couch, slowly sinking into the soft mattress as if she was on her own bed. 

"Perhaps greeting your own teacher isn't really your thing, huh?" He intended to be frolicsome once again, but she didn't bother to even glare at him. Instead, she stayed in her seemingly sitting position with closed eyes. Her body almost lost its soul if it wasn't for the scent of flavourful coffee circling her nostrils. 

 Her eyes opened to see two cups next to a small plate of raspberries placed in front of her, waiting for someone to devour them. She sat up straight and rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her hands, trying to drop the building heaviness from her eyelids. Her feet skillfully removed her shoes to bent her legs and cross them over each other.

 With a swift move, Jimin managed to sit right next to her without being too close. He took one of the cups and offered it to her with a lovely smile, feeling satisfied when he saw a cloud of sparkles in her eyes. 

"For me?" She asked while grinning.

"I don't have any other guest." He remarked.

 She gladly accepted it into her hands and instantly inhaled the delightful smell as the soft steam washed over her cheery face. She took a sip of the hot liquid and smiled joyfully upon tasting its strong yet very sweet flavor. The second sip was more like a small gulp, and it got bigger as she tried to drink the whole cup but burnt her upper lip instead. 

"Ahhh, my lip." She bit it and tried easing the sting by constantly it but it ended up looking puffy. 

"You idiot, it's obviously hot for you to drink. You could've at least waited a bit for it to be warm." He jokingly scolded her.

"But it's so savoring that I can't stop drinking it!" She whined like a baby begging for candy, which Jimin thought was super adorable. He took her cup and returned it onto the table before choosing a fresh raspberry for her.

"Oh thanks!" She was about to take it from him but he held her wrist. 

"But I thought...." A look of confusion was given to him as he playfully smirked and lowered her hand

"I'll feed you." He stated while leaning closer. 

"B-But why? I c-can just eat it," Stuttering was all she could do as he kept shortening the distance between them. 

"You forgot to knock."

 He whispered into her ear with a coarse tone that cause her to back off slightly with her free hand supporting her from behind. He watched her as she nervously allowed the piece of fruit to enter , having his fingers pressed on her lips made her blush a little.

 They both stared at each other for awhile, their heartbeats were slowly increasing by the lack of space between them. Shion feared that yesterday's event would repeat its self before she could even blink, but with a pat on her head, Jimin backed away to take the plate and directed another berry to her. Shion instantly parted her lips to receive what was coming at her, chewing on it while keeping her eyes on her teacher's misty ones. 

 They wore a dull color with a slight print of grief, his emotions were swimming in such fuzziness with debilitated movements. With the way he managed to break their eye contact, she was sure he caught her trying to detect what his hazy eyes wanted to tell her. The situation was too familiar for her to consider it an odd one like she always did, she had been there before a few times for her mind to forget that certain look he tried to cover with smiles. 

 A buried matter was recently digged out to announce its existence with a bunch of other words to spit out. But the spotlight was too dim for it to be expose yet, so it got tossed away for awhile to wait for a better chance. Jimin couldn't hide it anymore, that's how she knew he was on the edge of giving up on time and bravely spill it out to her. The lines of frustration were obvious on his face, and he surely was going to lose it any time soon. 

 Just when he spaced out and forgot about his surroundings, she stole a berry from him and carefully pushed it between his lips. He brought his eyes back to hers with a few blinks of confusion, until he realized what she had done. A small smile was shyly curved on her face after he completely ate the fruit and was blankly staring at her. 

"You should be eating too." She spoke.

 A wide smile changed his whole expression as he couldn't maintain his gaiety from spreading on his face. She didn't know how happy he was because of that little thing she did. It wasn't like her, she usually wouldn't do such thing, her hesitant hands and shy personality would always prevent her from interacting with him whenever he tried to be affectionate. 

"Stop smiling like a freak and eat." She shoved another piece into his mouth to remove that ridiculous smile off his face.

"You forgot about your burned lip." He uttered after gulping down the fruit. 

"Oh, yeah." Her index finger touched it, it wasn't hurting her anymore. 

"You were distracted by the raspberries." He added. His hand reached out to grab her cup and gave it to her. 

"It's warm now, so don't worry." She excitedly took it and drank the whole thing in an instant. 

"You intended to take my attention away from the pain." She stated as she handed him her empty cup.

"Quite so." 

 Once she dropped her feet to the floor, she managed to smoothly slide them into her shoes to stand up and get ready to leave. Jimin got up as well to kindly his student to the exit, already making his way to the door but stopped abruptly when he saw her still standing in the same spot. He approached her to have a look at her face, but couldn't since she had her eyes fixed on her shoes. 

"Shion, is something wrong?" She slowly looked up to meet his unquiet eyes with her confounded ones. It took her a few seconds to decide whether or not she should say it already or wait until she was completely sure of it. 

"You were right. I did notice, but it was because your hints were strong enough to indirectly highlight what you had in mind." 

"What do you mean?" A part of him was utterly confused by what he was hearing from her, yet a tiny side of that half knew exactly what was she talking about.  

"You wanted to ask me about my feelings for you, you wanted to know if I ....." She paused to take a deep breath.  

"like you." 

 It came out with a soft exhale, almost like a whisper. Jimin wasn't surprised with how she ended up solving the mystique he previously implicated her with. He was glad it didn't take her a long time to found out about it. Otherwise, he would've needed to hold himself from divulging the little secret he sealed within fragile walls. 

"You're right. Though it's kinda too late but still, you didn't forget about it." A smile of satisfaction was tracing over both of their faces. Although there were things they wished to say in that moment, but they would only add some tension to the atmosphere. 

"Now that the case is closed, let me walk you to the exit." He almost turned around when Shion opened to protest.

"No! I mean, you don't have to, I'll just leave." She awkwardly spoke before her legs started to move towards the door. 

"Wait!"

 He grabbed her hand and lightly turned her body to him. Without even a warming, he pulled her and wrapped his arms around her slender figure. Shion was utterly shocked by the unexpected action, she could feel his breaths hitting her neck as he hugged her closer to his chest. 

"Forgive me for keeping you awake at night to think of something that concerns me."

 The guilt he spoke with couldn't be more obvious, the little trembling in his voice made her heart soften. These honest words were manifesting the truthful shades of the passionate solicitude he had for her. She didn't know how to react, or mostly what to say to convince him that it didn't matter, that her sleeping routine was messed up because of him but she didn't mind, that she couldn't handle the amount of attention he gives her or how he treats her with endless kindness and generosity. Maybe he cared too much, or perhaps she still didn't understand him. 

"Someone once told me to smile instead of apologizing with words, because they aren't suitable to ask for forgiveness." 

 His arms slowly released her upon realizing what she had uttered. He remembered his own words when he looked at her straight face. She seemed very serious but she also pitied him from the inside. He chuckled, did she really need to remind him when all he wanted to do is sincerely apologize for ruining her sleep?

"I did smile, but I couldn't handle the idea of letting you waste your precious hours of sleep on me." He said with half a smile. 

"It wasn't your fault, I chose to think of you at night, you didn't force me to." She confessed, looking away when his smile grew bigger. 

"So you admit that you think of me? I never thought you would actually say it to me." A light blush colored her cheeks which caused him to laugh a bit. 

"I made you blush, how cute." She glared at him as he pinched her cheeks to add more color to them. She shook her head to stop him then hit his arm with a tight fist. 

"Idiot." 

--------------------

Well, I messed up ㅠ_ㅠ 

Sorry for the late update, I was so distracted by this anime called Kuroko No Basket. It's so gooood ~

But hey at least I managed to write some kawaii parts, right? No..... okay. *cries*

I know the chapter isn't good enough or well written and probably the next two chapters will be the same cuz school is waiting for me on Sunday *cries again* but maaayybbee chapter 14 will be a really good one IF I didn't change the ideas.

I really hope school won't prevent me from writing or else I'll have to sacrifice my precious hours of sleep just like I did before. 

But I can't really complain since I have beautiful subscribers to write for :D

And yes the title doesn't suit the chapter.

\@_@/ 

N.T.K ~♢