Breeze wondered what Namjoon was doing. He’d left the house half an hour ago. He’d said that he needed to run a quick errand before they went for a walk. She had busied herself eating a tiny breakfast. Then she’d fled to hide in his bedroom.
Now she bent to pick up the journal she’d been writing to him for the last month. She’d been even more honest in this journal. She flipped it open to a random page.
“Dear Joonie.
“What’s going on? I can’t believe this. The boy who broke my heart on my sixteenth birthday has resurfaced. I’m taking a summer class. Just a few days left now. But as I was walking across campus today, I felt someone watching me. I looked up, and there he was.
“Joonie, I froze. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like something inside of me had just dropped dead. From shock? From terror? From a blinding sense of sorrow? I don’t know. I wanted to sink into the ground. I wanted to grow an invisibility shield. Not just for that moment but for the rest of my life. It’s been three and a half years since he broke my heart. How could seeing him still hurt me that much?”
She remembered writing this. She’d been crying. It still hurt. That boy had carelessly broken her heart. And she still hadn’t recovered. Why? Why, after all this time, did that pain still spiral so far down into her soul? And how could she expel it?
She flipped to another page.
“Dear Joonie.
“Tomorrow I fly. I’m flying to you, my dear friend. At least, that’s what I like to think. We’ll be living in the same city in two days. I like to believe I’ll meet you, you’ll fall madly in love with me, and we’ll live happily ever after. You, me, and our six kids. If you’re wondering, we’re having three girls and three boys. A perfect half dozen. And I hope all of them look just like you. They must definitely all get your dimples!
“Those dimples give me so much hope every day. When I feel down, I look at a picture of you smiling at me, and those cute, little wells in your face remind me that there is a reservoir of strength on the inside of me, and I can face tomorrow. I can just see those six, adorable, dark-haired little beauties, all resembling their appa, a dozen dimples dancing up at me. I’ll have an endless supply of hope in those tiny faces!”
Breeze smiled. She still loved that picture. Could it really happen? Did Namjoon like her as much as she adored him?
Patience, Breeze. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” And neither is an eternal love. Give the guy some time to get to know you. But if he does, will he still want me?
Just then that special guy came walking through his doorway. He stopped when he saw her. “Hiding out in my room, huh?”
He was smiling at her, those darling dimples dancing again. For a moment, she sat unmoving, mesmerized by them.
She didn’t know what to say. It didn’t matter because Namjoon had found another thought. His eyes had seen the book in her hands.
“Is that another letter to me?”
He watched, fascinated, as panic flew across her face. On a sudden whim, he lunged forward and grabbed for it. Breeze slammed it shut and threw it on the bed before landing on top of it, tummy down covering her precious words.
“No, Joonie! You can’t read it! I haven’t edited it!”
“Wait! What?” Her words drew him up short. “You mean you edited the other book?” His eyes narrowed. “What did you not want me to see?”
How much I love you. Because it’s absurd. I don’t even know you. How can I love you so much? How can I have cried myself to sleep so many nights missing a man I’d never met before? How can I have longed to hear your voice whispering in my ear when I’ve only heard you from across a stadium, through a computer screen, or on my phone? How can I feel lost so many days when I wake up without you? It’s embarrassing, Joonie!
There was a fascinating array of emotions crossing her face as she stared up at him. She was still lying flat on his bed, the book completely hidden under her stomach. He bent forward and brought his knee up onto the bed. He laid himself down, right next to her, on his belly too. His face was less than a foot from her own now. He was lying on his right ear, smiling over at her.
“Hi, Breeze. Why are you suddenly so shy?” His lips quirked up in a smug grin. “Is it because we slept together last night?” He waggled his eyebrows at her flirtatiously.
Breeze could feel herself turning crimson again. “We did NOT sleep together last night!”
He tilted his head slightly. “We didn’t? Then who was sleeping in my arms on that couch? I could have sworn it was you.”
He could still see her wrapped in his embrace. He had lain on that couch for over an hour last night simply staring down at her. He’d memorized every freckle on her face, every shade in her hair, every crease of her lips. Oh, her lips! Don’t get him going again! He just wanted to kiss her already!
She huffed, unsure what to say. He was flirting with her, but she was no good at flirting. She wore her steadfast heart on her sleeve. “You have an excellent grasp of English. I know you understand what you intimated, especially since you learned to speak English from watching Friends!”
He laughed and reached out with his left hand to touch her hair. A darling, little lock had escaped from her ponytail to fall beguilingly across her cheek. He captured it between his thumb and forefinger before sliding it behind her ear. It was too short. He knew that as soon as he let go, it would fall into her face again. But it had been such an excellent excuse to touch her that he hadn’t been able to resist.
Slowly, he brushed his fingers over her ear. She shivered. He’d seen it. He smiled again. Good. She wasn’t as immune to his touch as she’d like him to believe. His eyes caressed her face, tracing her cheekbone before sliding down to her chin and then up over those twin rose beauties covering her teeth. He studied the triangular divot above her kissable lips before drawing his eyes up over her straight, little nose and meeting her crystal blue eyes. Then he fell in. He couldn’t get enough of her gorgeous, aquamarine eyes.
Breeze was having trouble breathing. Namjoon’s fingers were sending shafts of lightning into her ear as his eyes delved into her own, causing her stomach to somersault. She swallowed. He dipped his head towards her. She was fascinated by the look in his eyes and couldn’t move. His mouth drew ever nearer to hers. Was she going to get her first kiss on his bed?