Chapter 51: Love Is

I struggled as my assailant tried to keep his hand over my mouth.

“Sierra,” he suddenly whispered. “It’s me.”

I stopped moving immediately. As soon as I stopped struggling, he took his hand off my mouth and he turned on my bedside lamp. It was Jae Joong.

“Michoso!” I whispered fiercely at him as I smacked his arm. “You scared the hell out of me!”

“Mian,” he said as he sat on my bed and rubbed his arm.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

“What time is it?”

“It’s a little past 11pm.”

“The guys let you in?”

“No, I let myself in.”

“Were they asleep?”

“Ani. Well… Skye is. I saw lights coming from under Shoei’s door.”

“Michoso!” I said as I smacked him again.

“Ap’a… mianhae,” he said as he took my hands in his.

“I’m not gonna live a long life if you keep scaring me like that every other day.”

He smiled mischievously and pushed me back onto my pillows gently.

“Then we’d better make the most out of the time you have,” he said and leaned in to kiss me.

His kiss took me by surprise and it caused a surge of butterflies in stomach. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He tightened his arms around my waist and pulled me up against him. I moaned when he slipped his hands under my shirt and stroked my back with his fingers.

“Jae Joong,” I breathed as he lifted his head to look at me.

“Nae?” he said, also out of breath.

“You’re squashing me,” I laughed.

“Oh,” he laughed as he rolled over onto the bed and pulled me over so that I lay on top of him.

I traced my index finger across his lips. As I did his tongue licked where I last touched. I leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips, then on his nose, on his forehead and then, he pulled me down and kissed me hard. We kissed and ran our hands all over each other’s body, and at some point, we stopped so that Jae Joong could take off his shirt. We continued kissing and just as Jae Joong was about to pull up my shirt, we heard a knock on the door, and we both froze.

“Nuna,” I could hear Shoei call my name as he knocked.

“Nae,” I answered.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “I heard noises.”

Oops! Jae Joong and I must’ve gotten a little too carried away. Jae Joong sat up and started putting on his shirt as I walked to the door and opened it.

“I’m fine,” I said as I faced him.

“Oh, hyung,” Shoei said. “You’re here.”

“Yea,” Jae Joong smiled sheepishly. “I let myself in.”

“I was on my way to the kitchen,” Shoei explained, “and I heard noises,” he grinned.

“Ah… haha,” Jae Joong laughed nervously.

“Since everything’s fine, I’ll just go back to bed,” he smiled.

“Okay,” Jae Joong and I replied in unison, and Shoei laughed at the both of us as he walked away.

“Gawd…” I groaned as I closed the door. “Thank god he didn’t just barge in.”

“That would’ve been fun,” Jae Joong laughed and I gave him the evil eye.

“You were so awkward just now, and now you tell me its fun?”

“Come here,” he laughed and he held out his hand. As I took it, he pulled me down onto the bed, put his arms around me and spooned me.

“Are you sleeping here tonight?” I asked him.

“Do you want me to?” he said as he kissed me behind my ear.

“I dunno. What about tomorrow morning?”

“I could go to the to the venue from here, with you. It’s just rehearsals. I don’t really need to get dressed up.”

“The media will be there to film the rehearsals,” I reminded him.

“Oh, right. I’ll get the guys to bring me a change of clothes then.”

He took out his phone and started typing a text message to Yun Ho.

“Do you think the guys mind?” I asked him as I picked the lint off my bed sheets.

“Mind what?” he said as he hit the ‘send’ button and put his phone on my bedside table.

“That you spend so much time here, with me.”

“They understand,” he said as he put his arms around me again. “They know I’m committed to the band. But you’re my outlet. I need you to get away and relax.”

“Hmm…”

“Chintcha…” he said as he combed his fingers through my hair.

“Are you nervous about the MKMF tomorrow?”

“Kinda. I hope we do well.”

“I just want S-Cube to win the R&B award. I’m not greedy.”

“Yea. The year TVXQ doesn’t release an album, maybe you guys might get a shot as winning the Daesang.”

“You arrogant pig,” I said as I pinched his arm lightly.

“Aaah!! Ap’a! I was just joking.”

“I know you were. But I guess you’re right,” I sighed. “The only time any of us will get the chance to win a Daesang would be when you guys don’t produce any albums for the year.”

“It’ll end someday,” he said. “Someday, a super band will emerge. A band that will be way better than we are and we’ll be out on the spotlight.”

“And what would you do then?”

“I was kinda hoping you’d marry me, and we’d open our own convenience store back in Ch’ungnam,” he laughed. “How about it?”

“I’ll think about it,” I smiled. “No promises.”

“I’ll be waiting for your answer when the time comes.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go to sleep. It’s past 12 already.”

I reached out my hand and turned off the lamp. As he pulled the blanket to cover the both of us, I turned around to snuggle against him and I fell asleep within the minute, wiped out from the day’s events.

I woke up the next morning to Skye’s howling, outside my room. He must’ve gotten back into a good mood. He usually woke us up with his off-pitch singing when he was in an extremely good mood. I rubbed my eyes and peered at the clock; 7:30am. I should get up a little earlier since Jae Joong would need to use the bathroom, in addition to the three of us. I moved Jae Joong’s arm off me. He hadn’t gone to sleep on the futon like he usually did. He must’ve been really tired yesterday to sleep right through the night, or he’d usually get up in the middle of the night to sleep on the floor.

I sat up on the bed and turned around to look at him. He always looked so beautiful and peaceful when he slept. I reached out my hand to trace his beauty mark with my index finger. Not many people notice, but Jae Joong has a mark on the left of his neck, about an inch or two away from his jaw line. In fact, he had lots of little beauty marks on his face and when I first noticed them, I felt that instead of looking less perfect, they just made him look more endearing.

“Hmm?” he woke up, scrunched his face and tried to open his eyes.

“Go back to sleep,” I said as I leaned forward to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. “I’ll wake you after I’m done showering.

“Mmm…” he stretched like a cat, hugged my bolster and went back to sleep.

I walked out with my clothes and towel and saw Skye at the dining table, eating his breakfast.

“You’re in a good mood this morning,” I said as I walked over and mussed his hair.

“Ya… don’t mess with the hair,” he said as he smoothed his hand over his head.

“You’re so vain. I should tell hyung to shave your head for the next album.”

“You wouldn’t!” he glared at me, his already huge eyes as large as saucers. “You’re so evil, nuna!” he gasped. “How can you even think of doing that to me? My hair’s my charm; my pride and joy.”

“You’re gonna lose it when you join the army anyway.”

“Yah! Can we not talk about the army? I am so not looking forward to it.”

It had been discussed before, that when Skye went for his service in the army, Shoei and I would continue as a duo until he was released. This means that we would continue putting out albums and filming MVs while he was gone.

“Then you can’t be S-Cube!” Skye exclaimed when he heard the plan.

“Why not?” Shi Kyung hyung asked.

“We’re S-Cube because there are 3 Ss in the band. If there are only 2, you’d have to call them S-Square.”

“Skye… you’re so lame,” Shoei groaned.

“Don’t worry,” I laughed. “Your voice might not be on the tracks, but we’ll make sure we insert clips of you training in the army in all the MVs,” and I patted his arm. He made a face at us and turned around to sulk.

“So what are you so happy about?” I asked him.

“Guess!”

“You won the lottery?” I guessed.

“Nope!” he said as he shook his head.

“Someone started a fan club for you?”

“Animida…” he smiled.

“No?? Then… Omo!!! Someone agreed to date you?” I exclaimed. I’d meant it as a joke but I was shocked when he actually nodded. “Chongmal?” I asked him.

“Yep!” he nodded gleefully.

“Who is it? Do I know her?” I hadn’t noticed Skye getting close to any girls lately. It really was a surprise.

“You know her,” he said.

“I do?”

“Yea…”

“Nugu?”

“Hae Rin,” he replied, and I felt my jaw literally drop to the floor.

“I finally got her to say ‘Yes’,” he smiled.

I’m really confused. Had he kept in touch with Hae Rin all this while? Why didn’t he mention it to me? So was he the one who gave Hae Rin my Yahoo! ID?

“Skye, did you give Hae Rin my Yahoo! ID?”

“Yea, I did. She said she wanted to ask you some stuff about English. So were you able to help her?”

I’d spaced out the moment he admitted to giving Hae Rin my Yahoo! ID. She did not ask me anything about the English Language at all. What was she trying to do? Why did she accept Skye when she was obviously still into Jae Joong? Did she even like Skye? I’ll kill her if she hurt him.