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I lay on my back on Heeseung's couch in his apartment and stared at the ceiling. My hands were clasped on my stomach, while the lady on the TV talked my ears deaf for hours and advertised some kind of vacuum cleaner. He was busy in the kitchen and screwed around on his cabinet, where the door fell off earlier.
"I'm booored.", I whined and turned my head towards the kitchen door, where I saw Heeseung kneeling on the floor. "Can't you come here? I want to cuddle.".
"You're welcome to come over and help me. I need someone to hold this up for me," he replied, and I rolled my eyes as I stood up.
"Besides, the last time we cuddled it didn't stop there, remember?".
I shuffled over to him and looked at all the equipment and tools on the shelf. "So what? I wouldn't mind doing it again.". My hand brushed along his shoulder and across his back as I walked around him once and leaned against the counter.
But as quickly as I could blink, he suddenly pressed a drill into my hand. "Control your horny ass and hold this for a second.". I glared down at the heavy object in my hand and imitated the sounds while I pretended to drill. Yep, as you can see, I was really bored.
"When you hurt yourself, I'm not driving you to the hospital.", he said, and took one of the nails he had put in between his lips.
"I can drive on my own now.", I answered proudly and he stopped what he was doing for a second and squinted up at me, shaking his head. "You really always want to have the final say, don't you?". I handed the drill back to him after he demandingly held out his hand for it.
After drilling the screw into the locking joint, he kicked the cabinet shut with his knee. "Done".
"Can you now cuddle with me?", I put on a pout and googly eyes.
Heeseung stepped in front of me, loosely hugging my waist. "I never expected you to be this clingy.". He placed a soft kiss on my forehead, making me go weak in my knees.
But a sudden knock on glass made us look up in wonder. We both turned our heads towards the living room, where the noise was coming from.
"Oh fuck!", Heeseung jerked back and nervousness rose in his eyes. "Jay and Beomgyu are here.".
"WHAT? OMG, did they see us?", I pressed myself closer against the counter. My heart started racing in an inhuman pace.
"Me for sure. But i don't know about you.".
Another knock. "What the heck are you doing?". Beomgyu's muffled voice echoed through the apartment.
"Can you hide somewhere?", he asked me, while walking towards the balcony door. "I need to open up.".
I nodded and looked around the room. The only choice seemed to be under the dining table. When Hee opened the door for the two boys, I quickly waddled over to crouch under the table and pulled my knees as close to my body as possible. With the surrounding chairs, I tried to hide my body as well as I could, and his jacket hanging over the back of one of them came in handy.
Why didn't this idiot just have doors between the rooms.
So I sat there. Trying not to make a sound, and listened to the conversation with a racing pulse.
"Bro, what took you so long...are you cooking something or what?". Jay asked as they stepped inside.
"What are you doing here.", Heeseung asked unimpressed and inconspicuously blocked the way for the two to remain standing near the door.
"Sunghoon's birthday...we said we will do the trip in two weeks and still have nothing solid at all.".
"What about it?"
"Have you looked for good hotels?" asked Beomgyu. "I don't want to end up sleeping in a shantytown hostel.".
Heeseung rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Can we call later? I'm sure we will find something suitable for your velvet ass.".
Jay suddenly pushed past him and headed straight in my direction. "Are you trying to get rid of us or what?". I flinched in shock and bumped my back against the leg of a chair, leaving a loud squeak on the floor. But Jay stopped in his tracks because he saw Hee's new gaming console lying around on the armrest of the couch.
"What was that?", he asked and picked up the controller, eying his friend, before squinting in the direction of the kitchen. I held my breath. It probably took only a few moments until the whole thing would blow up. Why did I make the decision to hide instead of finding some excuse?
Heeseung quickly blocked his view and pushed the younger man back towards the terrace. "My neighbor's cat. I have to take care of it while they're on vacation.".
Both boys stared at him as if he had gone crazy.
"Neighbor?" asked Beomgyu.
"Cat?", Jay's voice sounded even more incredulous.
"Broo, you know I love cats. You shouldn't have said that.",
Beomgyu tried to make more room for himself and peek past Heeseung, but he intercepted him, annoyed. "Aggressive cat! Seriously, you wouldn't want to see it.".
But Jay only furrowed his brow. "Come on, you're obviously lying. You've never been good at that.".
"I'm busy, okay? Nothing important. I will call you later.". With these words, he kicked his two friends out of his apartment and closed the glass door in front of their heads. Heeseung considered for a moment whether he should actually lower the blinds, since the two didn't really make the impression to leave.
However, he put this thought out of his mind, because that would make the whole thing even more conspicuous. Instead, he went back to the kitchen and pretended to continue working on something.
"Stay down. They are still here, but don't seem to have seen you." he talked to the wall and I kept my head ducked a few more seconds. "A cat? Seriously?".
"Would you have had a better idea? You were the one making noise.".
"But only because you failed to keep Jay at the front of the door.". I climbed out of my hiding place as I saw the two of them moving away. "You urgently need doors, Hee".
Heeseung turned around and noticed that I was standing up. "WHAT ARE YOU..."
"They are gone. Come down.".
"Shit, that could have ended really bad.", he exhaled in relief.".
"Do you think Jay suspects something?".
"Maybe," he chewed on his lower lip. "But he probably suspects it's someone else. I mean...who would expect you to be my girlfriend?".
A smile settled on my face in surprise, and I leaned back against the counter. "We haven't had this conversation yet.".
"Conversation?".
"Like, what are we?".
Heeseung turned to me in wonder and screwed down the water bottle he had just drunk from. "Well...what do you want us to be?", he flipped around the question.
"I want you to be my boyfriend.", I answered quietly, my eyes shifting to the floor.
"So, then...", his eyes dropped down to my lips for a second, as he stopped in front of me again and his hands started pinning my hips against the counter. "I want you to be my girlfriend as well.".
I expected him to kiss me, but his lips only hovered over mine slightly with a smirk. This idiot knew how to tease me. Sulkily, I leaned closer, but he backed away with an even bigger grin.
"Asshole", I grumbled annoyed, but only received a stern shake of the head as an answer. "Is this what you call your boyfriend?". I pushed his shoulders away, and he walked back into the livingroom with a laugh.
"Let's go on a date.", I suggested as I shuffled slowly after him. "I've been back for two weeks now, and we haven't really started going on dates yet.".
"What are you up for?"
I thought about it for a moment. "I feel like going to the beach.".
"It's cold as hell outside.".
"Beach with my brother's electronic heater and my mom's Jeep. We can fold down the back seats and take pillows and blankets and watch a movie.".
"Nachos?", he asked with wide eyes.
"Just for you. I stocked up on a whole bunch," I explained proudly.
"I'm in!"
***
It was already pitch dark outside when I drove my mom's Jeep towards the beach. Heeseung on the passenger seat and a lot of snacks and pillows in the trunk. However, as soon as I looked outside, I regretted my decision, because outside it was snowing like crazy and already from the inside I could feel the bone-chilling cold.
Since it was not allowed to drive directly to the bottom, I parked the car on a wooden walkway, directly on the shore. This was normally not welcomed as well, but since there was a mooring for boats here and in winter no one moored anyway except fishing boats, I didn't care at all.
"Crazy that your mom let you take the car.". Uttered Heeseung, reaching for the handle on the ceiling. "With your driving skills, I'd be scared you'd dump the car in the ocean.".
"Oh, come on, scaredy-cat. These winter tires are as sturdy as steel. You can drive on snow with them without any problems," I dismissed.
"I'm not talking about snow, I'm talking about ice.".
"We already stopped and nothing happened. So come down.".
We got out of the car and folded down the back seat, making the already large trunk top of the Jeep, even larger.
As promised, I brought his beloved chili nachos as snack and a bag of gummy bears for myself.
At home, I had collected all possible pillows from my room and from the couch that looked somehow comfortable, and three large blankets. The trunk was so full of stuff that the space to lie down had shrunk considerably.
A clang caught my attention as Heeseung was unpacking his backpack.
"Seriously? You brought alcohol?"
"Only two bottles. One is your favorite flavor though.", he justified.
I scrambled into the trunk first and pulled my laptop out of the bag I had placed on the driver's seat.
"Fine, just in case, I'll leave the car here until tomorrow morning and we'll walk home then.". I suggested.
"Or...we can just sleep here. This thingy is really cozy."
I hadn't even noticed that Hee had already sunk into the mountain of pillows and pulled his blanket up to his neck.
"You still owe me a round of cuddling.". Without even letting him get a word in edgewise, I plopped down on top of him. He whined briefly, but then finally gave in and I made myself comfortable. "Can you at least turn around?", I heard him say close to my ear and I shifted in my position.
I gathered the blanket to the side and sat down between his legs before pulling the blanket back over us.
"I want my nachos!". He pointed to the left in front of me because he wasn't able to reach it himself.
I handed him the bag and shortly after placed the laptop on my lap. While I slid down a little further and snuggled closer to him, his arms wrapped around my stomach to keep me close. "You feel as comfy as Mr. Snuggles.". I giggled and scrolled through my laptop to choose a movie.
"Your ugly ass teddy bear?". His voice sounded indignant. "Hopefully I don't smell the same. Has this thing ever seen a washing machine?".
"Shut up.". The intro of the film already started to play. I could have been mean and picked a horror movie. Heeseung has always been one of the biggest scaredies in the past. It probably hadn't changed. Some of you probably know the novel Purple Hearts. Since I devoured the book within a day, I had to see the film version of it.
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