disclosure | park woojin

17

Woojin leaves Hana to shower and get ready for bed first once Youngmin finally leaves after many reassurances from Hana that she's okay. She takes the room across from his, sitting on the bed and looking at the few things she had been able to bring with her. Much of her savings would be put towards new clothes, but she supposes she could make do with what she had for now. With a sigh, she brings a change of clothes that were good enough to sleep in and heads for the bathroom.

When she emerges, it's about midnight, the lights downstairs are still on, and she can hear Woojin shuffling about across the hardwood floor. She steps down the stairs and finds him snacking on some cookies in the kitchen. Once he hears her, he looks up, eyes wide, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Hana feels a smile grow on her face, "You're cute, Park Woojin."

"I've heard that before." Woojin replies coolly, shoving the rest of the cookie in his mouth before offering her one. "Hungry?"

"A little." She admits, moving closer to take one out the container he's holding out. They're store bought chocolate chip cookies, huge and perfectly circular but still good all the same. She stands across from Woojin, and as she takes a bite, she notices a little smudge of chocolate on the corner of his lips. Without thinking too much about it, she steps closer and reaches out to wipe it off.

"Why are you so messy..." She trails off after realizing how close they are. He's leaning against the counter, one hand on a cup on the countertop beside him, the other resting on the edge. Her thighs just barely brush against his, feeling the rough material of his jeans against her bare skin. His eyes watch hers carefully, gaze dropping once to her mouth before smiling. "You have some too." His thumb slides under her bottom lip, Hana hopes and prays he can't hear how hard her heart is beating right now.

"You know, you're cute too." Woojin says, brushing her damp hair from her face. Her cheeks grow hot, no doubt turning red. She can't help her embarrassment, dropping her head to hide her face. "I can't believe you're flirting with me right now."

"I'll be honest, I don't know where the sudden burst of confidence came from." He admits, laughing in astonishment.

"Are you telling me you like me?" She asks quietly, face still hidden, hands nervously shaking by her side.

"Is that not what you've been doing all this time?" Woojin counters.

Hana freezes because he's right. They've shared a few moments of subtle flirting, whether it was intentional or not. Shel takes a step back, straightening her back. "I-"

"It's okay." Woojin interjects, almost sounding unsure of himself, but Hana can't detect if he is or not because he smiles warmly to cover it up. "You don't have to answer. We just have to start somewhere, don't we?."

She relaxes from her stiff posture, wondering if this was even appropriate, especially with what had just happened earlier that night. In the midst of tracking down a missing classmate and fighting demons, Hana thinks she's falling in love. The only thing that will be able to tell her for sure is time, and if time is what she needs it's moving quite fast because how could a simple You're cute get her blushing like she's never been complimented before? Was she an easy girl? She's had a boyfriend before, but that was years ago when she was naive.

But another side of her chides herself. How could she be having these thoughts when there were so many other things she should be focusing on? School, those damn demons and trying to find Eunbi, her training, and her well-being on top of it all. Plus, why was her home a target? Her parents had nothing to do with the demon world, but there are so many possible explanations. Maybe her parents know everything, and have been keeping it from her in attempt to protect her. Or it could be that her parents really did know nothing of these demons, something about recessive genes.

Hana files through whatever she can remember from her tenth grade biology class, but that was nearly two years ago, she can barely remember anything let alone anything specific about genes, so she lets it float to the back of her mind for now. She can't focus like that when Woojin is still standing before her, leaning against the counter, looking down at his feet from her lack of a response.

"Yeah," Hana quietly agrees, "The first step."

Woojin tilts his head up just enough to look at her through the tips of his bangs that are due for a trim, and smiles softly. "Our first step."

Hana swells with warmth.

Our first step.