Beyond Redemption || Lee Know

Two.

Chan's alarm wakes me up. The sound is different than mine so it startles me at first and takes me a second to remember that I didn't sleep in my own room. There's a tower fan in the middle of Chan's room and it's on full blast, pointed right at me. I shiver. His room feels like an icebox despite the fact that it's early September.

As I continue orienting myself, I realize that Chan had slid up close to me at some point in the middle of the night. His chest is pressed flat against my back, his arm thrown carelessly over me. He stirs enough to reach behind him and snooze the alarm before sleepily replacing his arm to its previous position.

Chan is one of those types of people that somehow is always warm, like a space heater. I was sick with the flu once, really sick. I had a fever for days that just wouldn't break, and no amount of blankets or fuzzy pajamas could stop the uncontrollable shivering from my high temperature. I was so cold that I didn't even protest when Chan slid into my bed with me and wrapped me up in his arms. His warmth did nothing to lower my fever, but it was the first time I was able to get comfortable and decent rest while I was sick.

I hate being cold, so my first instinct is to nuzzle back into Chan and allow his body heat to radiate over me. The sheets are cool against my bare legs so I slide them in with his, letting the warmth on his skin remove my goosebumps. Once the sharpness of his cold room subsides, I quickly doze back off.

After a while, it's my alarm that goes off next and I know that I have to get up this time. Chan is still laying against me and at first I'm thankful, because I'm certainly warm enough now due to his unnatural body heat. But then I quickly notice the unmistakable feeling of Chan's extra appendage firmly pressed against my ass as he spoons me.

"UGHHHH, CHAN!" I shout, hastily removing his arm from me and jumping out of his bed.

He sits up, startled and confused. His hair is a tangled mess and his eyes are puffy with exhaustion. "What?!"

"You were touching me with your...your..." I gesture to his crotch, suddenly too mortified to use words.

When Chan realizes what I mean, his face immediately turns pink with embarrassment and he grabs a pillow to place in his lap, concealing the obvious issue.

"It doesn't mean anything!" He gets defensive. "I have no control over morning wood!"

"Well, you didn't have to have it so close to me!" I argue back.

"You were shivering! I'll just let you freeze next time!"

"There won't be a next time! From now on, I'm staying far away from your bed and your dick!"

"You say that now." He crosses his arms in defiance and I glare at him. Then we both immediately burst into uncontrollable laughter at the absurdity of it all.

Another good thing about being best friends with Chan? Things don't really get awkward between us. Not for long, anyway. After all, you don't live with a guy for nearly a decade without unintentionally seeing too much of each other a time or two.

One time while we were in high school, I had just finished taking a shower and was in the middle of stepping out at the exact time Chan accidentally walked in on me. His teenage eyes curiously scanned my naked body before remembering who he was looking at. He ran out of the bathroom with an abundance of apologies and didn't look me in the eyes for a week straight.

Another time he had a bunch of guys at his parents' house for a sleepover. I don't know why, because the guys weren't always the nicest to him at school. Maybe it's because he got so much shit for being around me all the time so he thought he should hang out with someone other than a girl for a change. Regardless, when I walked into the basement that night, his "friends" thought it would be funny to pants him in front of me. Only problem was, they grabbed too much fabric and pulled his boxers down too, giving me a full frontal view of Chan and his young, hormonal body. He was mortified, but insisted that it was all in good fun. It took a lot of convincing for him to realize that he shouldn't hang out with people like that.