daybreak || minsung

Chapter 20

The dull light of another cloudy day woke me. I could tell there was something I was forgetting as soon as my eyes opened. I harrumphed and squinted at the ceiling.

"Finally," I heard a voice say. Jisung straddled me, leaned down and kissed me. Everything that had happened the day before came back to me in a second. I yanked my arms out from under the covers and wound them around his middle.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up," he whispered, kissing both my cheeks and eyelids.

"You could have woken me up."

"And suffer your wrath? Yeah, no. How did you sleep?"

"Perfectly. How did y— never mind, stupid question."

He laughed, continuing his route.

"Charlie's not here, is he?"

"No. Fishing with Billy Black."

"Good."

"Very."

He almost kissed my lips again, but I cupped my hand over his mouth.

"If this is what's happening, I want to brush my teeth."

He pouted against my palm, and his eyebrows tilted in that irresistible way. It nearly broke me, but I held on. I'd only be gone a minute, and then I wouldn't have to worry about morning breath.

I patted the sides of his face. "One second?"

He fell back, sitting crosslegged next to me. I got up and sprinted out the door, stumbling over my pant legs. I heard him laugh.

It was a moment of overaggressive teeth brushing before I was running back into my room. I jumped onto my bed and hugged him, at long last.

"That was terrible — never do that again." His voice was a murmur in my ear, arms like home wrapped around my waist. "Never sleep, either. I missed you way too much."

"It was worse for me. I don't want to hang out in some dumbass dream without you."

"At least you got to be unconscious. That was eight hours of staring at your ceiling for me."

"You really just lay there all night?"

"Um. I mean, I left for a few minutes, actually."

I hugged him a little tighter, holding him to me. "You left? Why?"

"My clothes were dirty from the meadow. I didn't want to leave you, but I figured I should change while you were asleep, since it would be even worse if I left when you were awake, you know?"

"Hmph. That's kinda good thinking. If I promise never to sleep or brush my teeth, will you promise never to change your clothes?"

"Sounds reasonable — promise."

He backed away and held out his pinkie. I took his hand and kissed his fingers.

I let my eyes sweep over his new clothes. His jeans were frayed and sky blue, his shirt a burnt-reddish button-up in paisley. I resisted the urge to undo the top button just to see what his reaction would be.

"I like this shirt," I said.

"Thank you. Cherrapunji, fifty-three."

"India?"

"Yeah."

"Whoa."

"You said you dreamed," he said then. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Nothing tonight — I was way too tired." I smiled. "When I do dream, I dream about you."

He seemed to like that. "Really?"