All That You Got (Skin to Skin, Oh My God)

Chapter 10

• The One Where It's Not That Kind of Date •

The heat in the Manoban's household was ridiculous. The air conditioning unit broke over the weekend, and it had only taken two days for the heat to seep into the house and stifle its inhabitants with the dry, raging humidity. Lisa didn't even know how heat could be dry and humid at the same time, but her mouth felt like sandpaper and her clothes clung to her skin, and all she wanted was to bribe Han to follow her around with a fan. She might just have succumbed to that, if it weren't for her damn pride.

Besides, it wasn't like she wouldn't have been feeling this hot anyway. Not after kissing a certain brown-haired bombshell.

She couldn't believe it. While her heart couldn't help but to pitter-patter into breathless, happy pounding at the mere memory of Chaeyoung's lips pressed against hers, part of her was still numb. Did it actually happen, or was it just a dream?

The scary thing is, it could have been. It had been two weeks since the end of the year bonfire celebration, and their relationship had been nothing short of...nothing. That was the only word for it. Things went on the next day much as if nothing at all had happened.

The day after the party, Lisa woke with a pounding head, a queasy stomach, and perpetually tingling lips. She moped around her house all day with her phone glued ot her hand, unsure how she should approach speaking to Chaeyoung. "Hey, so, we kissed last night" was far too scary, but she didn't want to pretend it didn't happen either, so what did she do?

In the end, Chaeyoung took the decision out of her hands. She text that she was going out of town on a trip to Seoul Hospital with her mother to get some volunteering in for the summer program she was doing in anticipation for senior year. She seemed cheerful and casual in the message. Lisa had tentatively asked wished her luck, uncertain as to what this meant, wondering if she should say something or wait for Chaeyoung or...

But Chaeyoung didn't say anything. They talked every other day since, sometimes with their usual long phone conversations at the end of the night. She told Lisa three days ago that she would be gone for over almost two months for the program and would return at the end of July. Lisa was disappointed and more nervous than ever, because now—now since they hadn't discussed the kiss nor was Chaeyoung giving any indication it had even happened, Lisa wasn't sure if it had happened. She hadn't been drunk enough to imagine it and she knew Chaeyoung wasn't drunk enough to forget it, so what was the deal?

The realization came to her with a sinking heart. Maybe Chaeyoung did remember it, but she regretted it so much that she didn't want to?

In the end, Lisa decided to let it go for now. Chaeyoung was out of the state for weeks, they still spoke constantly, it wasn't like anything changed. Nothing except now Lisa wasn't imagining a fantasy; now she knew what those pink lips felt like on her...

Let's just say she was grateful when her father was out of the house.

She piled her thick curls of hair into a heavy bun atop her head, grateful for the air of the fan she plugged in hitting the back of her sweaty neck, and did the only thing you really could do in extreme heat: flop down onto the couch lamenting on her life.

"Lisa," said her father sternly when he walked in adjusting his tie. "You should be dressed and ready. Aren't going to the church dinner tonight?"

"Too hot," mumbled Lisa, no energy to even roll her head around on her neck to look up at the lights glinting off her father's bald head.

"Exactly," said her father slowly, as though she were an idiot. He began to tuck his wallet into his pocket as he reached for his keys with his free hand. "So get out of the house. The church has air-conditioning."