Chapter 21: 18-1

JW: Are you home? D: Not yet why JW: Can I wait at your place? D: sure I sigh and put my phone down. I try to focus on my studying, but this text has disrupted my rhythm. After twenty more minutes, I give up and pile my books away. I leave the library with worry weighing on my mind. I haven't been able to relax since Jaewook came over that night. He hasn't been going home until really late at night in order to avoid his parents. That meant that I've basically been babysitting my boyfriend all week. Not that I mind, I'd rather him be where I know he is safe than somewhere uncertain. My brother seemed to catch my tense aura and didn't push the topic further when he asked me why Jaewook was always over. I had been using makeup to conceal his bruises, but by the end of the day they still poke through, and I'm sure he's seen them. When I get home, Jaewook is standing with his back facing the door. He turns around with a thumb in his mouth. He tastes whatever is on it and smiles at me. He walks over to me with something in his hands. "What's this?" "I feel bad for always being here. I saw this on the way home and got it for you." I look at the box in his hand which holds what look like roses, strawberry roses covered in chocolate. "Oh you didn't have to do that," I say while looking at the extravagant packaging. "I wanted to," he says with a cute smile. "How did you know I love strawberries?" "I guessed," he says with a smirk before chuckling. "What?" I ask, feeling like I've been left out of some inside joke I should be apart of. "Nothing Noona, nothing," he shakes his head and grabs onto my arm. He leads me to the small dining table and I sit down. He sits across from me and motions for me to eat one. I grab one of the roses and inspect the perfectly smooth surface of chocolate covering the big strawberry. Then I nibble on it. I groan at how sweet it is. This is just what I needed. "Is it good?" "So good, have one." I hand him a rose and he eats it whole. My eyes widen as he struggles to chew it all. "Why did you eat it whole?!" He merely laughs in response, his chest jerking and a hand over his mouth as he tries not to spit it out. "Don't choke! You idiot." He finally swallows and a flow of giggles leaves his cute little mouth. "Why is it that sometimes you look and act like a little boy and then other times you—well you don't." He merely shrugs at me. "I told you, I have a young face." "That's not all of it though, look at you giggling like a toddler just then." "I didn't know my laugh sounded that way. I don't laugh often." "Way to make me feel bad," I mumble as my heart crumbles. He smiles softly, "I didn't mean it like that. The important thing is that now I have you to make me laugh." I take another strawberry. "Where's your homework?" I ask mid-chew. "Can you ever not think about school?" He chuckles. "I already did it. I wanted to be finished before you came home so we don't have to do school work." "Such a charmer you are." His teeth poke out from his lips as he smiles . . . After a while, Jaewook convinces me to watch some movie that he won't stop raving about. So we sit back against the wall that my bed is against, watching the movie on my laptop. His hand has been playing with mine for the full hour so far—this must be a habit of his. Eventually, both of his hands hold onto my one, playing with my fingers and drawing patterns on my skin as his eyes fixate on the screen, his mouth slightly agape in concentration. His hands are seemingly massaging mine now when he gasps aloud. I look over at him. "Haven't you seen this before?" Without breaking eye contact with the screen, he says, "yeah, but it gets me every time." Sure enough, eventually something I expect to happen in the movie does—a sex scene. I've sat through enough of these to predict his body language. His hands stop moving mine, his eyes flicker away from the screen nervously to look around my room, his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. When I look over at him he quickly looks at me. "Don't get any ideas." "What ideas?" He says seemingly innocently, but now I know it's just an act. "Don't pretend like that." "I don't know what you're talking about?" He's smiling mischievously now as a hand moves to lay on my leg. "You're such a little deceiver aren't you?" As I speak he gets closer and closer to me, his face twisted in amusement. "I shake my head when I think about how you acted around me before, playing around with your Noona, pretending to be an angel," I shake my head and tsk at him. "You thought I was cute though," he says. "Well yeah, I still do." "Oh really?" An eyebrow raises before his face moves merely inches away from my own. Then he turns his body and lifts his leg so it lays on the other side of me. His hands hold onto my face as he eyes my lips with a smirk.