Love is a Lie

CHAPTER 4 - HISTORY

<SULLI>

As soon as the front door was open, Puppy came running from the kitchen, passing me like I wasn't even there and headed straight for Kihyun.

"Puppy." I warned as I closed the front door. He knew my voice well enough to know I was telling him to stop. "Wait here." I spoke to Kihyun, without really looking at him, and walked inside, disposing of my wet bag and umbrella in the kitchen before going in the bathroom.

"Take this." I shoved a bath towel into Kihyun's hands, "Go have a hot shower, put your clothes in the dryer." He must have known I wasn't asking, either that or he was frozen to the bone, because Kihyun just took the towel and disappeared into the bathroom. 

I changed into some dry clothes and put the kettle on to make some hot tea. It wasn't exactly time to have tea, but I was freezing and there was nothing I wanted more than a boiling hot cup of tea.

My hands pressed against the cold kitchen counter top and I left my head hanging from my neck. I couldn't believe that was actually happening. I couldn't believe Kihyun was actually showering in the next room. I couldn't believe he'd simply showed up at my doorstep like that. I couldn't believe it and for some unknown reason to me, I was kind of mad at him. Or maybe at me, I wasn't really sure. I stayed like that, my eyes shut closed, until the kettle told me the water was boiled. Then I poured some of it into two mugs and added the tea.

I don't know how long that process took, but it must have taken longer than I thought because when I walked back to the living room, Kihyun was already there, though he must have just gotten ready, back into his dry clothes, a small towel hanging from his shoulder.

"Here," I rasped out, "I made some tea." I didn't even remember if he liked tea, but he didn't give anything away, taking the mug in his hands, his breath hitching on his throat as our hands touched. 

"You're freezing." It was his turn to say, and I couldn't say anything about it, because I was freezing. I was cold to my bones, and I didn't think it only had to do with walking out in the rain.

"I'm fine," I sniffed, moving my stare to the couch. He understood what I meant and sat down, and I followed, sitting on the opposite side and curling up into a ball. I was doing everything I could to stop myself from shaking. 

We just looked at each other in silence for a while, none of us touching our teas, we just used them to warm our hands.

"Your hair is pink." I stupidly pointed out, because it was honestly the only thing I wanted to say at that moment.

"Your hair is long." Oh. 

"I need to cut it." My hand instinctively reached up to touch the ends of my hair.

When I was little I always used to wear my hair short, but once I went back to America, I got lazy about it and just let it grow, and then kept it like that for a while, but I'd been thinking about cutting it short for a while and Kihyun mentioning it kind of made me make up my mind and stick a note on my brain saying 'GO GET A HAIRCUT'.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to coo as much warmth out of me and into me as I could, but it wasn't working, the cold from the rain and the shock of seeing him had stopped my body, my brain, my mind. I couldn't think. I felt my lips getting cold and wished Puppy would come out to sit by me, but I guess he knew what a delicate situation we were in because after I'd told him no, he'd left to my room and hadn't even made a noise.

Sitting in silence with Kihyun wasn't awkward, even when we found ourselves in an awkward situation like that, we were still comfortable around each other, even after all that time, even after we had both changed so much.

"You're shaking, come here." I looked at Kihyun finally, but didn't move. Again, my brain didn't process his words until he repeated them gently, "Come here." He almost cooed at me, and I couldn't just blink at him again, I had to do something, decide if I wanted to go or not. I did, of course I did, but he moved first, leaning over to set his mug on the coffee table. I followed his lead and set mine next to him, then moving over on the couch to site closer to him. I still wasn't touching him, but I was close enough that I felt his warm skin next to mine.

The pink haired boy – who had turned into a man – never ceased to surprise me. I was expecting him to want to warm me up, hug me or something along those lines, but no, of course he wouldn't, Kihyun always thought beyond the right now. He took the towel that was still hanging from his shoulder and started running it through my hair, towel drying it as much as he could. I turned my back to him a little, to make his job easier, yes, but also to hide my small smile that I couldn't keep inside. He was too sweet.

"You should have showered, too." He spoke softly as he worked through my hair with gentle hands.

"I'm not important." I shook my head as much as I could without pulling my hair. "Not like you are. It's fine if I get a cold, it's tragic if you do." Explaining my thoughts on that proved to be a little trickier than I'd thought, so I just added. "I feel like you're not going to be here anymore if I leave." Kihyun didn't react to any of that, he just continued making his way down my hair, taking as much water as he could, which should have been a lot because I hadn't even run a towel through it. 

I eventually closed my eyes when Kihyun started humming a tune to a song that I didn't recognize, but that sounded a lot like a children's lullaby. It was a weird feeling, having Kihyun 'back', but at the same time, it felt like we'd never been apart, even if we'd barely even said two words to each other.

"I'm not going anywhere." I jumped a little at his words, having drifted off in my thoughts and not realized he was done with my hair. "Well, I do have to go back to the dorm in a little, the guys can only cover for me for so long, but if you want me to, I'll come back."

"I want you to." I rasped out, turning so that I was facing him, "But it's weird right now, I know you have really tight schedules and you have to practice and all that, I don't want to make you more tired than you already are by making you move back and forth." I shook my head slowly, and I could tell he was about to disagree, so I just reached for my mug, "Tell me what happened. From the begging."