“A-andwae! Juhyeon-noona why did you call me--”
“Don’t call me that..”
“W-wae, I’m younger aren’t I”
“It makes me feel old” shyly said Juhyeon in satoori (daegu accent, Juhyeon speaks in satoori when her emotions are elevated), while she rubbed her left arm with her right hand.
“But you didn’t want to be mistaken for a kid right?”

”It feels awkward calling him oppa, but why did I. Aigoo,…I’ve never called anyone oppa. Ever. This is crazy, Juhyeon you just met him…what do I do?...” Juhyeon thought to herself. Out of the 5 of them friends, Juhyeon was the one who never called any guy oppa because she almost never talked to guys. Maybe she was getting socially awkward and clingy because Taemin was the first guy she actually talked to properly? She wasn’t sure.
“B-but..” said Taemin, feeling guilty. Taemin blamed himself for putting them in such an awkward situation. He wanted to be called oppa but it made him feel guilty because Juhyeon was older, even if she didn’t seem to be.
“I’ll go iron clothes, excuse me..” Juhyeon softly said then stood up from her seat and frantically walked to her room to escape the uneasiness of the moment. Taemin sat still and started to feel more and more ashamed.
“Pabo pabo pabo! Lee Taemin look what you did, you made her even shyer….what to do, what to do??...” Taemin said to himself. He nearly even hit his head in frustration but he remembered that he was still injured. He thought of something to break the ice.  After minutes of thinking, Taemin came up with something that could possibly break the uneasiness between the both of them. He stood up to follow Juhyeon. There were only two rooms in the small house. The other room’s door was open and it was empty inside so it was pretty easy for Taemin to find Juhyeon’s. Taemin knocked on Juhyeon’s door. The door was white and its knob had a purple ribbon tied around it.
“Come in” said Juhyeon from the inside. Taemin opened the door. Juhyeon’s room was pastel pink. Everything in her room was perfectly organized. There was nothing grand about her room but it was simply beautiful. It looked and smelled like a candy store. He then saw Juhyeon ironing his clothes on her bed. She seemed to have taken out the rest of his shirts and pants from his luggage. She was smiling; like she recovered from the uneasy feeling she showed earlier. “Bae Juhyeon-ssi…Joseonghamnida...” said Taemin.
“Gwenchana. Wae?” said Juhyeon as she was joyfully ironing. She asked why as if she forgot about all the awkwardness that occurred.
“Since you thought I was older, and I thought you were younger..”
“Neh?..”
“Why don’t we just forget we knew each other’s ages?”
“Are you asking me if we could play the age reversal game?”
“Not exactly....but something like that…keep on thinking I’m older, and I’ll keep thinking you’re younger until it’s normal for us. That’s how we saw each other at first anyway” suggested Taemin.
“Hmmmm. Not a bad idea..” replied Juhyeon who continued ironing.
“If I’m staying here for a while, let’s might as well be good friends” said Taemin. “So is it a deal?”
“Neh…oppa” said Juhyeon was still hooked on ironing.
“Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to be as ‘oppa’ as I can. That way it won’t be awkward for you to call me that” replied Taemin. His tone showed how much he tried to sound masculine causing him to sound awkward. It made Juhyeon laugh a little. She felt less uneasy. Hearing Taemin’s ideas and intentions, she was starting to see that Taemin had a good heart. He was a bit clumsy, but he was harmless. He had a heart like a child’s but was trying to hide it. Now that Taemin wasn’t trying to keep himself busy, his real self was starting to come back slowly. Juhyeon liked the idea of being good friends with him. She felt like their aim for simplicity will help them get along.
 

Though he still felt guilty about it, Taemin’s heart felt warm after hearing Juhyeon call him oppa with less tension. Taemin liked being called oppa, a lot. Although millions of fangirls call him the same thing, hearing it from Juhyeon felt different. It felt more personal. He liked it but something about hearing it from her made Taemin feel a certain kind of emptiness. He thought that maybe it linked to the immense nervousness he felt when he first saw Juhyeon’s face. As Taemin went deeper into this thought, he disregarded it because he didn’t want it to get in the way of enjoying his relaxation. He thought maybe it wasn’t so important that time to let it bother him.
Taemin continued to watch Juhyeon iron his clothes. He saw how hooked up she was on ironing. She showed excitement on her face as she straightened every crease and wrinkle. He couldn’t believe this girl. She looked seriously overjoyed by what she was doing. She looked like a three year old who tasted sweet candy for the first time. Never had he seen a girl who enjoyed ironing this much and it was starting to show more how Juhyeon loved staying in the house. He was so amused that he started to chuckle a little. Because the surroundings were so quiet, Juhyeon heard Taemin’s silent laughter. Her smile started to fade. She was puzzled why he laughed out of nowhere.
“Wae oppa?” Juhyeon asked, starting to feel insecure.
“Nothing. I’m just so amused” Taemin replied.
“Amused? Do you find me strange?” asked Juhyeon as she switched off her iron and placed it aside.
“What? No! I’m not amused in that way. I just haven’t seen any girl who was so thrilled by ironing clothes” said Taemin. Juhyeon started to shy away and folded the clothes she ironed.  Taemin started to see how timid Juhyeon really was. “You just met, what do you expect” Taemin thought to himself. He remembered that Juhyeon really wasn’t used to talking to people a lot. So he thought that he should be more careful with his words as Juhyeon was easily embarrassed.
“I found it cute” quickly reassured Taemin.
“J-jinjja?..”
“Mhmm”
Juhyeon started to smile a little with one of her eyebrows raised. She stacked up all of Taemin’s folded clothes. She stood up, walked towards Taemin and handed him his clothes.
“O-oppa, put these in the cabinet of the other room. That’s where you’ll stay” said Juhyeon. Though it was still awkward calling him oppa, she was slowly getting used to it. Probably because she gained confidence after ironing clothes.
“Araso, komawo” said Taemin and headed over to the next room. He walked to the room’s cabinet and saw a female high school student uniform hung on its knob. For a while, puzzled him. “Maybe Juhyeon was just hiding her real age after all” Taemin laughed to himself but then he thought that it might be her old uniform. He then pulled the cabinet door open. As he was placing all of his clothes in the cabinet, Taemin realized that this room was her parents’ because some of their clothes were still there. Taemin felt conscious about this. He knew that her parents were very special to her, so he started having second thoughts of staying in that room. He wanted to respect Juhyeon and her dead parents. He felt like he doesn’t deserve to stay in that room for he was technically a stranger.  He was about to go to Juhyeon to ask if he could stay in the couch instead but remembering that she was sensitive when it comes to talking about her parents stopped him. Besides, he wouldn’t want to come out as ungrateful to Juhyeon after she generously offered the room to him instead of the living room couch. He continued to place the rest of his clothes inside the cabinet, closed it and rested on the room’s bed. He lay on his back and started to feel how surreal this day was. He was badly injured on the head and because of that he was now staying inside a house alone with a girl who seemed unreal. It felt like a dream. In the past 5 successful years, he didn’t have this much time to rest; everything was so grand and fast-tracked. It didn’t come to his mind that he will be going back to a simple life like this. During the past years, all he wanted to do was work, move, sing and dance and after 4 more weeks it will be back to normal. For now, he just wants to enjoy the beauty of life as Lee Taemin, the regular boy, not the idol. As Taemin was trying to take all these in, he started to feel drowsy and eventually fell asleep.
            Juhyeon went to the kitchen to wash dishes and prepare dinner. She picked up the two dishes they used for lunch and took them to the sink. For a while, she forgot that she wasn’t alone today.
“Two dishes?.....ah, Lee Taemin’s. Where is he?” Juhyeon said to herself as she wondered where Taemin had gone. It was already evening and it’s been hours since she told him to take his clothes to his room. She started to wonder what kept him out of sight.
“Maybe he’s just taking a nap” Juhyeon thought. Not seeing Taemin around for a while was fine until it came to her mind that Taemin might’ve collapsed prior to his injury. Juhyeon swiftly and quietly ran to the room. She opened the door wide open just to see that Taemin was lying down comfortably on the left side of the bed, sleeping soundly. She walked closer to Taemin. She took a look at his head and checked if his bandage was wrapped just fine. She placed her ear on Taemin’s firm chest to make sure that he was still breathing and if his heart was still beating. She was relieved to find out that he was fine. As she was about to lift her head from his chest, Taemin’s arms suddenly wrapped around her head. Juhyeon gasped as her eyes grew out of shock. Her heart stopped. She looked up to Taemin’s face to see that he was in a deep sleep. Surely he didn’t do this on purpose; it must be a sleeping habit for him to hug things in his sleep. She tried to pull her head out of Taemin’s grip but his hug tightened. Juhyeon didn’t know what to do for a while.
“Aigoo, this is so weird. Eotteokke (what to do)” Juhyeon whispered to herself. 
“Lee Taemin…” she said to Taemin quietly while tapping on his arms, trying to wake him up.
“…O-ppa-ya?..” she said once more but Taemin still didn’t wake up. She started to wonder what Taemin does for a living for him to be such a heavy sleeper.
“Omo….it would be more weird if he wakes up to this. I guess I should try to slip away carefully” Juhyeon said to herself quietly. If Taemin wakes up with her head in his arms, it would indeed be another awkward moment that’ll get in the way of their newfound friendship. Juhyeon placed her hands on the edge of the bed to try to pull her head out of Taemin’s arms. As she struggled to slip her head from his arms, Taemin suddenly opened his arms wide open, releasing Juhyeon. She finally escaped. Juhyeon immediately walked as quickly and quietly towards the door but suddenly:
“…uh…Jongin turn off the lights please…” Taemin suddenly mumbled. Juhyeon halted. Her hands grew cold so she held them together. It worried her that she woke Taemin up. She slowly looked back and saw that he was still sleeping and had just rolled over.
“Heol…what a relief” sighed Juhyeon, walked out of the door and closed it slowly and quietly. Juhyeon immediately went back to the kitchen but because of what had happened, she lost appetite. She didn’t want to cook dinner anymore but she also didn’t want to neglect her stomach. She grabbed a loaf of carrot cake from the fridge and sat down on the couch with her feet together. Juhyeon felt bothered as she munched down on the moist carrot cake. She still felt funny on the inside. She knew that Taemin didn’t mean to hug her but it made her feel weird. She remembered how warm his hug was and how he looked like a sleepy baby who wanted his teddy bear. She normally NEVER lets any guy hug her, because it causes her so much discomfort. Despite that, somewhere deep in her heart, a part of her wanted to stay in Taemin’s arms. His hug reminded her so much of how her father used to hug her; it reminded her of the most of the way her father held her tight as her tears fell on his chest, in his room, the night she lost her mother. It was a feeling she greatly missed; a feeling she longed for so much.