Ready or Not

Chapter 10

The sun shines in through your curtains and Namjoon stirs next to you, one arm wrapped around your waist, holding you close to him.  You squint your eyes as you open them, trying to acclimate to the light. When you try and get out of bed, Namjoon tightens his hold on you and asks, "Where do you think you are going, Buttercup?"

You reply, "It's morning, Joonie. I need to get the day started."

He says, "Nope, no way, you are staying put. I want to hold you some more." Then he lays a trail of light kisses on your exposed shoulder and over your arm. "You make me so deliriously happy, Sweetheart." That brings a smile to your face despite yourself.

"We can't just stay in bed all day. Although, staying in bed and getting more sleep sounds really nice, right about now. I am exhausted."

He asks, "Buttercup, why are you so exhausted?"

You abruptly turn to look at him in disbelief. You say, "What do you mean why am I so exhausted? You ran me through the freaking wringer last night. That's why. I may have gotten like three hours of sleep at most."

Eyes still closed, Namjoon replies, "I wasn't the one who was all curious about the all-nighters. So, you brought this on yourself, Buttercup."

"Aren't you tired? You were awake as much as I was and definitely expended more energy than I did."

He replies, "I am tired. But you don't see me trying to get out of bed and 'start the day' now, do you?  And I thought I told you that you weren't going to be going into your classes this morning."

"Joonie! What? Are you going to write me another one of your excuse notes?"

Namjoon laughs and says, "Oh yea.... I forgot all about that."

"You thought you were pretty smooth, didn't you?"

"Buttercup, That was seamless. So much so, that you didn't even realize what had happened until it was way late."

You shake your head and say, "I couldn't figure out if you were just cluelessly earnest or a very well practice hustler. I should have known it was the latter. You sure left an impression though."

He pulls you into him tighter and says, "I never had the need or want to put on such a full court press on someone before. You got five or six of my moves all in rapid-fire succession. You didn't have a snowball's chance in hell."

"Unbelievable. What were the moves?"

"Guess."

You give this a bit of consideration. "Okay, obviously the excuse note. Then...Oh my God, not the handkerchief!" You say, as you turn around to face him. Namjoon's eyes are still closed, but he has on a thoroughly entertained smile on his face.

Then he asks, "Okay. That's two. What else?"

"Um.... Was it when you had me write my number on your forearm?"

"You liked that, didn't you?"

You roll your eyes but cannot help blushing thoroughly as you think about your eyes trailing the length of his forearm onto his biceps. "Yes. But shut up."

Then he asks, "What else?"

"Well, you were just generally sweet. Was that it?"

"No. C'mon now, I am a generally sweet person. That is just who I am. That wasn't a 'move.'"

"Let's see... then what else?"

He replies, "You got to take couple of my very personal things home with you."

You ask, "What's that again?"

"You had my handkerchief and my flannel around you. There were two excuses that I had to see you again. I mean, addition to the broken bike. I really felt bad about that."