BOSS | NCT

010

I have no idea how to respond to Lucas, so I just gave him a meaningful bow and said, "I understand. I am sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, Nina," he looks away. "I don't deserve an apology."

"But I disrespected your-"

"Stop. Just stop, okay? Stop bringing that up now. Yes, you're forgiven. Could we move on now?"

"Okay, Lucas," I tell him, my voice soothing. "Okay." I repeat again, because I don't think it's okay at all.

He touches the bandage on his arm, then looks at me. "So," he starts. "You're not really going to sleep?"

"No," I look at him. "You?"

"No,"

"Good," I say. "We could stay awake together."

"Not a bad idea," he smirks. Then he scans me from head to toe, his face slowly turning to a frown. "I forgot you need to change. But I don't have clothes that might fit you . . . We need to shop clothes for you."

"What?" I ask. He nods.

"We'll go to the Capital tomorrow. I'll buy you clothes. Anything you want," he tells me.

"But I don't want to go shopping, I want to-"

I want to go home.

I am eager to say that out loud to him but then I suddenly remembered what just happened and what he just said.

'I don't want to bring up anything at all from the outside world.'

He told me, and so I don't. I won't talk about anything from outside. In this room, it's just us.

"Okay," I breathe. "Okay, we will go shopping tomorrow but can I have one request?"

"What is it?" he hums.

"Can we bring Jungwoo over? Maybe he can teach me stuffs as as we go there. It's like killing two birds in one stone,"

Lucas smiles. "Of course, Nina, if that's what you want. I think Jungwoo has plenty of free time."

"Great," is all I say.

Lucas' smile deepens. Then he looks at me. "You're not really going to sleep?"

I shake my head.

"Whole night?"

This time, I nod.

"How can you manage that?"

"Just like how you manage to do it,"

"And how do you think I do it?" he cocks an eyebrow at me, grinning at the same time.

"You just need to open your eyes," I say, breathing hard. "And refuse the whispers of sleep."

"Temptation," he corrects me. "The temptation of sleep, is what should be refused. You might refuse whispers," he's looking straight at me. "But you could not with temptations."

"Fair enough. You must refuse both whisper and temptation."

A smirk tugs on the corners of Lucas' lips. "As you say so, Nina."

"Nina is not my name. It's Jeena," I reminded him.

"But you're Nina. My Nina."

Dear lord.

This is his second attempt of flirting.

"Lucas," I call.

"Hm?" the way he hums is driving me crazy.