Flirt

My sobs have begun to calm down, my hiccups softening and tears drying out. I don't know how long I've been in Taeyoung's arms, but I do know that I'm terrified of leaving the security of his chest to face him head-on. But slowly, I lift my face from his chest. His arms soften their hold, falling until only one arm lightly drapes around my waist, so light that it's almost not there.

I take a few more shaky breaths before looking up at him.

His face is very close to mine. He inspects my face a bit, a hand coming up to wipe under my eyes softly, patting away any last remains of moisture.

"Sorry." My word comes out sounding bubbly, as in my lips and entire face are swollen and my nose is clogged, causing the word to pop out in a childlike sound.

"괜찮아요 [it's okay]," he softly says, his warm breath caressing my face.

I get this weird feeling as if I could stay here forever and be content. There's something so captivating about this boy. I don't know anything about him, and yet I feel like I know everything.

My thoughts cease when the skies rumble, rain starting to hit the tops of our heads. I feel his arm tighten around me protectively at the sound of the thunder, and I try not to think too much about it. Within seconds, the sky completely opens up, drenching us rapidly. We both hastily stand up. He takes off the jacket he was wearing and drapes it over both of us. I don't question, I just go where he takes me, which ends up being in front of the sharehouse under some shelter.

"Did you bring an umbrella?" He asks while still looking outside at the intense rainfall and lit up skies.

"No," I reply. It is as if the skies are finishing crying for me, releasing all the anger that I had also just released.

It feels comforting to know that even the skies have bad days.

Taeyoung looks over at my soaked self. My hair is dripping wet, glasses completely covered in raindrops.

"Come with me." I watch in surprise as he types in the passcode and opens the door.

"Isn't this Junwoo's place?" I ask.

"It's our place."

"Oh." I take off my wet shoes and place them beside Taeyoung's. Interestingly, we were both wearing black converse. We exchange glances as we observe this. Two pairs the exact same, both soaked, but one much tinier than the other.

He starts going upstairs, and I follow. I lift my rain-drop ridden glasses off my face so I can see more clearly.

Taeyoung yells out, enlisting a response from Junwoo. The boy comes out from the hallway and immediately his face turns to shock when he sees us, or well, when he sees me.

"Sohee! What happen?"

I smile at him. Taeyoung starts talking to him to which Junwoo responds with an understanding "ahh."

Another voice carries through the hallway and over to us. It's light and airy, and also very charismatic sounding. The new boy walks out. Shorter than the others, but with a toned body, and also with a very attractive and soft looking face.

And those lips. Why are all the guys that live in here so pretty?

I stare at him as he gets closer, a smirk on his round lips as he talks with the other two. To my surprise, he comes right up to me and puts his hand on my head, stroking my wet hair.

"What is your name," he asks in a strong accent like Junwoo, but with such confidence that it leaves me a bit speechless.

"Uh."

"Sohee," Taeyoung speaks for me as he pulls this boy's hand down from my head. The new man snickers at him as if he knows something I don't. Taeyoung then leaves, and I watch him, feeling immediately terrified as soon as he's gone from my side.

"Sohee," the man says to himself, still with that somewhat arrogant looking smile.

Those lips.

I find myself staring again. They are so plump, and rounded, in great contrast to his long smile eyes. Together the boy's face just screams sex-appeal. He talks to me in Korean and I just stare. He knows I don't understand him, I can tell by his face, but he keeps saying words I don't recognize, his hand cupping my cheek, thumb grazing over it.

I feel like I'm in a trance, staring at his mischievous eyes.

"Hyung!" Junwoo reappears. He seems to scold the older man, to which he responds back with a laugh. He leaves me to squeeze Junwoo's cheeks like a baby and coo at him. The already nervous boy just grows more anxious as I watch him get humiliated by the other guy. His face fills with embarrassment, and then an adorable smile as the man keeps playing around with his face. I softly smile at the two. Is this what skinship is? It's a term I heard of when diving into the Korean hole online, trying to learn about the culture I was dumped into.

I have noticed that couples are relatively conservative out in public; no bench make out sessions or cheeky butt grabs out in the open as you sometimes see back home. However, the cute little acts of hair patting or face squeezing, or just hugging each other is rampant. Sometimes it's more nauseating than seeing teenagers make out back home just because young couples are absolutely everywhere here.

The more surprising thing I've noticed is a big difference in how friends interact with each other here. They touch, hold hands, link arms, fix each other's hair without a word like it's second nature—like they are siblings. I've never had a friend like that. A sibling.

Taeyoung returns with a towel around his neck and another in his hand. When he reaches me my attention immediately focuses back on him. He wraps the towel around the back of my head and begins to towel dry my hair softly. Embarrassed by his attention on me, I turn a bit pink and look beyond his face. Like this, is this just second nature to him? Does he think of me as a good friend now, or perhaps a little sister figure? Or is there something more?

His hands slow down, causing my gaze to return back to his. He's staring at me with hooded eyes. He looks really sleepy, it's kind of cute. It's almost as though he could fall asleep, right here, standing up. I smile at him.

Someone clears their throat behind us. Taeyoung drops the towel around my neck and steps back a bit. The boy with the black hair smiles at him, eyes doing the same as his lips.

"Uh, I have an umbrella you can use to go back home." He looks at the time on his phone, then he looks out the window, face lighting up as the lightning outside strikes.

"Stay," Junwoo suddenly calls out to me. I'm taken aback by his sudden outburst. Sure we do talk casually as acquaintances but at this point I'm around Taeyoung much more than him. When I look at his face though he seems to turn a bit red.

"Or you should stay," Taeyoung says this while still looking outside, as if echoing Junwoo's statement.

"What?" I ask, dumbfounded.

"It looks dangerous outside. And it's already 12:30."

Holy shit, I was outside for longer than I thought.

"Yes," the new boy walks over to us, "stay, with me." He smirks at me and Taeyoung hits his shoulder, "*Minjun, shut up." The English words cause Minjun to tease him.

"Oh, Taeyoung is angry!"

"I shouldn't intrude, I'll walk back." As much as I don't want to go outside, or even back to that dorm, I also feel very strange staying here. Especially with that boy, Minjun's flirty gaze.

The thunder that hits at that moment seems to shake the whole building. Minjun screams playfully, grabbing onto Junwoo. Taeyoung's face is still serious though.

"No, you're staying." He leads me to the hallway and I follow compliantly. It sounds like there may be a typhoon out there.

We end up in what I think is his room. Very small, with a bed against the wall and a desk adjacent to it. He grabs a shirt from a drawer and hands it to me. He points to the door across the hall.

"The bathroom is there if you want to shower. You can sleep in this since your clothes are wet. You can sleep in here."

"Where will you sleep?"

"WITH ME!" I hear Minjun yell as he passes the room. Taeyoung lets out a sarcastic laugh before turning to throw his wet towel at the boy.

"Ow," Minjun mutters.

"I'll sleep on the couch or the floor," he replies.

"The floor? That's too uncomfortable."

He smiles at me, "It's normal to sleep on the floor in Korea."

"Ah... but still, it's your bed."

"No, you're sleeping here." His gaze is serious again, and I can tell he's thinking about the mess I was earlier.

"Thanks," I mumble. I take the shirt and towel and head to the bathroom. As much as I hate using other people's things, I desperately need to shower. The rain made my bones feel chilled. I turn on the shower and let my body de-thaw. When I'm done I dry off and put on my bra and the black shirt Taeyoung gave me.

It's huge. I know I am shorter than average, and him quite tall, but when holding out the shirt in front of me I realize just how much bigger he is. I blush a bit at the thought of wearing his shirt.

Forget it, it's just a shirt.

I've just put my second arm through the sleeve when the door opens. I gasp in shock, trying to stretch the shirt down below my knees. I thought I locked the weird sliding door?

"Oh, hello," Minjun says with that signature smirk as he walks in, shirtless.

"Uh—" I'm at a loss, staring at his very chiselled torso, trying not to drool. He moves closer to me, reaching an arm over my head to get to the medicine cabinet. My back is pushed against the sink as his torso pushes against me.

"Excuse me," he basically sings out.

This asshole is playing with me.

My face gets hot with embarrassment and annoyance. He groans as he reaches for toothpaste, very slowly retracting back. Now he just stares at me with those sleep-eyes and smirks. That stupid smirk.

My arms cross over my chest. I'm not taking any more of his shit.

"Move," I say firmly.

"Ooh, did 오빠 [older brother/male friend] upset you? 오빠 get too close?"

What the hell is Oppa? With the second sentence, he leans in again, arms coming to either side of me, hands on the sink, basically trapping me in his hold. My face gets even more heated. He's sexy. And I hate it.

His face gets closer, lips parting as his eyes move to my lips. His head turns to the side a bit and he's about to lay those lips on my cheek when I call out, "Taeyoung!"

He comes, speed-walking down the hall in what seems like seconds.

"Yah! Minjun 개새끼야 [bastard/son of a bitch]!"

Minjun turns around with a smile on his face as usual. I'd almost think Taeyoung is about to punch him, but instead, he just grabs the shoulders of the shorter boy and literally moves him out of the bathroom. Minjun just laughs. Taeyoung's face is red when he looks at me.

"Are you okay? Did he do anything?"

"No."

"Sorry. Minjun's... Minjun's something else." He leaves it at that and lightly takes my wrist, leading me to his room once again. "You can lock the door if you want." He gestures to the doorknob. "He won't do anything stupid again. He's an idiot sometimes but he isn't a bad guy. But you can lock if you want."

"Okay, thank you." I most definitely will.

"I put a glass of water by the bed if you're thirsty."

"Thank you," I say again. He pauses like he's trying to think of what else he can do for me. "I'm okay now. You can go sleep, you look tired." His eyes return back to mine.

"Okay." He looks at my shirt, or rather his shirt. I see him swallow when he looks at how the shirt reaches my mid-thigh. I immediately become self-conscious, wishing I had pants on. "Goodnight," he says before turning away and closing the door.

I stand here in Taeyoung's room, in his shirt, face hot from—not Minjun—but Taeyoung. This boy is driving me insane and I can't help but wish he'd come back in the room.

His presence. There's something about just having him near me that makes me feel both relaxed and anxious.

This boy is going to ruin me.

* Minjun 민준 pronounced as "min-joon"

. . .

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Sooaura