I'm laying on my stomach, half asleep with the side of my face stuffed into my pillow when I hear shuffling next to me. I let out a small groan and I can feel Dahyun freeze in the middle of her clambering onto the bed.
We were in the living room, scrolling through our phones when she got the sudden craving for some beer and soju. I decided not to join her, though, since I was already feeling ready to go to bed. I sometimes feel guilty for leaving Dahyun to drink by herself, but she always convinces me that she doesn't mind at all. Then, she tries to crawl into bed in the middle of the night without waking me. She always fails, though.
"Just come here, loser." I lift my arm to open the blanket for her with my eyes still closed. "Come on before I change my very tired mind."
She doesn't waste any time, quickly shifting underneath the blanket with me. She curls herself around me, face resting by my neck and hands stroking up and down my back to slowly soothe me back into the sleep she took me from.
I wonder how this sight might look like to an untrained eye. Like a person coming home to their significant other from a night out, wanting to be touched and held and cared for just because they missed them. And, admittedly, I do. I touch, I hold, I care, all because she missed me. Because I missed her too. Someone could easily mistake us as lovers. How ridiculous is that?
My hand comes up to the back of her neck to hold her closer. I feel the coldness of the chain she is wearing and it reminds me of my own.
"I have something for you."
I look up from my phone to see Dahyun standing in front of me. She's nervous, I can tell, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Still, she's biting back a smile, so I raise a brow at her.
She plops herself next to me on the already small loveseat, but her presence next to me always hinders discomfort. Normally, I would try to make myself smaller to make room for the other person. I wouldn't feel comfortable at all with the thought that I'm taking up all the space. But Dahyun doesn't make me feel like that at all, not in the slightest bit. I guess it's easy to take up space when it's with someone you like having close.
She hands me a large, bundled up paper ball. It looks like it's made of the paper they put in shoe boxes and it makes me chuckle.
"Is this what all that ruffling noise was yesterday?" I ask.
She rolls her eyes, but still has enough sense to look a bit sheepish. Then, she starts talking nervously as I begin pulling the wrapping apart. "You know those fun arcade machines they have at the convenience store? With the little figures?"
I glance up at her and nod.
"Well, they have one with colorful rings too and it's stupid because they're obviously for kids, but I thought it would be cool if I got them for us. As matching necklaces." She starts rubbing her arm nervously. "You might've heard the bag of rings I had yesterday. I ended up just putting them back next to the machine afterwards. God, it took me so long to get the colors I wanted."
I pause my movements as I listen to her and she looks at me expectantly. I squint at her. "Is that where my necklace went?"
Dahyun's eyes widen and then she grins at me. "Maybe."
I smack her on the arm and make her laugh. "Hey! You told me you didn't know where it was! You know I love that necklace!"
By the end of my sentence, I'm laughing a little with her too.
"Well, I put the charm of your necklace at the bottom of your jewelry box," she confesses as she calms down from her laughter. "I told you that you didn't look hard enough, so I didn't really lie."
