On Borrowed Time

Their Many Times

Hwal woke up that morning with renewed vitality he had never experienced before. He could not believe Min Sang-un whom he always dreamt of was sleeping next to him. But it was not just a dream this time, it was reality. She had imprinted on him the most unforgettable night of his life.

His was a small single bed, so to fit, they lie on their sides facing each other sharing one pillow, with her back on the side of the wall. He would have wanted to spoon her, but he was mindful of her wound, so he restrained himself. He could not help but stare at her beautiful face as soon as he opened his eyes. She was glowing under the light yellow rays of sunlight that filtered through his dusty curtains. The sight of her so close to him and her scent filled him with the sense of belonging, the feeling of home. He was glad to have a small single bed.

Ever since he moved into this haunted house, as what Ms. Lee used to call it, his bedroom had always had a cold eerie feeling. Even after the entire house was cleaned when they all started living together, his bedroom remained the same. After all, it was where he spent his nights planning how to exterminate monsters as well as his revenge. But ever since he woke up that morning, his room felt new. He found it bright, warm, and strangely inviting.

She woke up just about the same time as him but just pretended to still be asleep. She suddenly did not know how to act around him after what happened last night. When he noticed, he playfully snuggled her into his arms and peppered her with kisses until she could not pretend to sleep anymore.

"Good morning."

"Good morning. Stop staring."

"Get some more sleep."

"I can't sleep if you keep staring at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like that."

When she peeked at him, his puppy eyes and bunny smile flooded his handsome face. It made her blush so she pulled up the blanket to hide half of her face. He nudged strands of her hair away from her eyes, rubbed his hand on her arm, giving it a playful squeeze.

"Is your wound okay? Did it hurt last night?"

She shook her head. She did not dare speak, or hold onto his gaze for long. She was still a bit embarrassed to have been the first to come on to him last night. Although she could barely hide that she was feeling sensual again with the way he was touching her now.

He slid his hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him. His knees touched hers, silently implying how much he wanted her. But before it went any further, Sang-un's stomach growled loudly and interrupted the mood. The steamy tension that engulfed them dissipated and was replaced by laughter.

"I'll go prepare food real quick. Come downstairs in ten minutes."

He kissed her forehead and covered her entire body with his side of the blanket. While he was putting back on his clothes, she could not help but steal glances of his form from behind. He was lean and ripped in all the right places. She could not believe her first intimate experience was with him.

He smiled back at her flushed face, before he made his way out of the bedroom. Pinching her cheeks really hard and silently screaming at the pain her face felt, she realized that she was not dreaming. She ran her hands through her body under the blanket, tracing exactly where his fingers and mouth went to last night. She felt different but a good kind of different. She felt like her life energy had more than doubled.

She didn't want to get out of bed just yet but she had no choice. Her stomach was already protesting. As she pushed herself up, she saw that he had neatly folded her clothes at the foot of the bed. She also saw that her socks were back on her feet, when she clearly remembered him taking them off with the rest of her clothes last night. She thought he must have slid them back on after she slept, as she was too tall for the blanket.