After finishing my shower and coming downstairs,
Hwang Hyunjin was leaning against the sofa, nodding off.
The towel around his neck had slipped down halfway,
and moisture glistened on his collarbone through the loose robe.
Just how exhausted had he been to not even notice me coming in,
only letting his head droop.
Even when he lifted his head again,
that heavy head just kept drooping back down over and over.
This scene was pretty amusing.
The kid who acted like a young master outside
looking so worn out, dropping his head this way and that,
was kind of funny in its own way.
I carefully sat down in the seat beside the sofa
and watched this scenewhile holding back my laughter tightly.
Maybe he felt my gaze, because he forced his sleep-blurred eyes open.
“ ... What ”
Afraid laughter might slip out,I lightly ran my tongue over my lips, which I’d been biting to hold it in.
“ No, nothing~ I just thought you might be really tired ”
Hwang Hyunjin seemed to buy it
and gave a light response, nodding his head.
Soon Hwang Hyunjin let out a huge yawn,
then looked at me with tears in his eyes and said,
“ Ah, and I think we should sleep together tonight ”
“ ... Suddenly? ”
“ Not suddenly..
I just can’t get used to sleeping on the sofa “
I’d only said one thing: ‘I’ll sleep on the sofa,’
but I got scolded hard for it, saying women were meant to sleep in bed.
In the end, Hwang Hyunjin and I ended up lying side by side in bed.This silence is suffocatingly awkward,
but he doesn’t seem uncomfortable at all.
He fiddled with his phone as casually as if he were alone.Lying under the same blanket on the same bed,
I was needlessly so tense that my hands broke out in sweat.
Even when I opened SNS, I just couldn’t focus on it.
At the same time, it felt like I was the only one trembling with nerves,
which made me resentful too.
Every time he moved a little beside me and rustled the blanket,
a faint shampoo scent washed over my nose.
We were even sharing the same pillow.
Unlike an ordinary pillow, it was shaped like a long body pillow, but
it was white and soft like a hotel pillow.
Maybe I should be grateful that we weren’t sharing
one short pillow instead.
Carefully turning my head,
I saw that Hwang Hyunjin had his back to me.
Over those broad shoulders,
the faint glow of his phone leaked out.
As drowsiness slowly crept in,
I was slowly blinking my eyes when
I felt a bit of shifting and a gaze.“ You awake? ”
When that low, rough voice reached me,
I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.
I didn’t have the confidence to dispel this awkward atmosphere myself.
Hwang Hyunjin probably meant it as his own way of easing the mood, but
when he saw me with my eyes already closed,
he didn’t speak to me anymore.
Feeling awkward, I cleared my throat a few times and slowly closed and opened my eyes.After a moment, I secretly looked at Hwang Hyunjin as he shifted around to get comfortable.
It was only a dim silhouette,
but I could still tell what kind of expression he had.
Seeing his sleeping face, all the words I wanted to say vanished.
It seemed like such a trivial thing,
yet it was awkward to wake a sleeping person carelessly, even if it was troublesome.
I turned off the main light with the remote on the shelf beside the bed.
Under the soft light, after enduring that awkward silence,
before long I fell asleep.
