Something Peculiar

17

Lazy Sundays happened even in Förening, thankfully. I woke up late and was happy to learn the chef was still on hand to make breakfast. I saw Lisa briefly, passing her in the hall, but it was no more than a nod hello. I flopped back onto my bed, thinking I would spend the day bored out of my mind. Then Wooseok knocked on my door, interrupting my plans for moping, and invited me over to his room to watch movies with him and Jisoo.

His room was a masculine version of mine, which make sense since he had decorated my room. A huge overstuffed couch sat in front of his TV, the one big difference between our rooms. We ended up watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy because Wooseok insisted it was much funnier once I'd spent time with actual trolls. Wooseok sat between us on the couch. When the first movie started, he was directly in the middle, but somewhere around three or four hours into the marathon I noticed he'd moved closer to me, not that I minded. He talked and joked a lot with Jisoo, and they had a way of making me feel comfortable. After spending the weekend failing to be the perfect little princess Hye-kyo wanted me to be, it felt good to just relax and laugh.

Jisoo left right after the third movie started, saying she had to get up early in the morning. Even after she'd gone, Wooseok didn't move away from me. He sat so close to me on the couch that his leg pressed against mine. I thought about moving away, but I didn't really have any reason to. The movie was fun, he was foxy, and I enjoyed being with him. It wasn't too long before his arm "casually" went around my shoulders and I almost laughed. He didn't make my heart race, not the way Lisa did, but his arm felt nice. Wooseok made me feel normal in a way that I never had before, and I couldn't help but like him for it. Eventually I leaned in to him and rested my head on his shoulder. What I didn't realized was that watching all three extended edition versions of Lord of the Rings in one sitting ends up being over eleven hours of movie viewing. At one in the afternoon on a boring Sunday, that sounded genius. But by the time midnight rolled around, it became a war on sleep, and I eventually lost.

In the morning, while I slept soundly on the couch in Wooseok's room, I had no idea that a commotion was going on in the house. I would've been happy to sleep through it too, but Lisa threw open the door in a panic, jolting me awake.

"Oh, my gosh!" I shouted, jumping up off the couch. Lisa had scared the hell out of me, and my heart pounded in my chest. "What's going on? Is everything okay?" Instead of answering, Lisa stood there glaring at me. Behind me, Wooseok was waking up much more slowly. Apparently, Lisa hadn't terrified him the way she had me. I glanced back at Wooseok, who was dressed in a T-shirt and sweats dawned on me how this must have looked of Lisa when he first burst in. I still wore my lazy dawn comfy clothes, but Woosek and I had been curled up together. And even if Lisa hadn't noticed that detail, there was no denying that I'd spent the night in here. My mind scrambled to think of an excuse, but at that moment even the innocent truth escaped me.

"She's here!" Lisa said flatly

Wooseok groaned, so I knew things weren't good. He looked completely alert now, and he stood sheepishly next to me. I wanted to ask what's going on. what Lisa looked so pissed off about it, but Hye-kyo didn't give me a chance. She appeared in the doorway, her emerald robe flaring out behind her in a dramatic billow, and her hair hung down her back in a thick braid. She stood behind Lisa, but she somehow managed to eclipse everything else. Several times before I had thought she looked unhappy, but that was nothing compared to the severe expression she had on now. She scowled so deep it looked painful, and her eyes were filled with fury.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hye-kyo voice echoed painfully inside my head, and she had added some of her psychic voice to make it more intense.

"Sorry," I said. "We were just watching movies  and fell asleep."