Fate's Little Bell

Chapter 29

 At around 17:00, I had texted her, asking her to call me as soon as she woke up. Finally, at 19:11, she responded and I promptly handed my game controller to Seokjin, who was nearest and rolled myself back to my room.

"Wow," I heard Jimin say. "He loves her more than he loves Mario Kart."

Rolling my eyes, I shut my door and locked it so none of my hyungs could come in and be embarrassing. Already calling her, I threw myself down on my bed and waited for her to pick up.

"Hey," she greeted me groggily.

"Hi! How'd you sleep?" I asked her, unable to control my excitement at the sound of her adorable morning voice.

"Mmm, okay, I guess. Ideally, I'd still be sleeping, but talking to you is okay too."

"Did you have any good dreams? Maybe... some about me?" I grinned at the sound of her giggles.

"Hah, you wish," she teased, still laughing. "And unless the weird, giant duck in my dream was supposed to be you, you were not in any of my dreams. Sorry."

I nearly lost it, thinking for a moment that she'd said another four lettered word that starts with "d."

"Wait, you— you said 'duck,' right?" I asked, wanting to be absolutely sure I wasn't going crazy.

"Uh, yeah? What else would I have said?"

God, she's innocent, I thought, trying not to laugh. "Okay, cool, I just wanted to—"

She burst out into giggles, wheezing and gasping breathily in such a way that they made my thoughts go to very impure places.

"Oh my goodness, Jeongguk, that is NOT what I said! I did not say the d-i-c-k word! Oh my GOD just— gah just imagine a giant dick in my dreams. EW!" She was laughing so hard and here I was stuck between laughing at her and trying not to feel offended.

"Are you done?" I asked finally, not sure what else to say.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry for dying on you. It's just—" She broke into another round of giggles and I had a feeling this was going to go on for a while.

About ten minutes later when she'd finally gotten out all her laughter and I'd worked up the nerve, I said quietly, "So, um, there's something I want... to talk to you about."

"Oh? Um... yeah, sure. What is it?"

I took a shaky breath. "It's, um, about something you said this morning... or, um, last night... for you."

She was quiet for a long moment. "Is it... related to what I said... before I hung up?"

"Yeah." I held my breath.

"Okay, well... you should know that I didn't mean to say that. I—I... it was just super late and I was tired and stuff, and I always say that to my parents and friends, you know? So it just kinda... slipped out. I... I shouldn't have said that. I'm so so sorry. I really hope I didn't give you the wrong idea."

I swallowed, my throat starting to feel thick. "It's fine," I forced myself to say. "I... I just wanted to know if you meant that. Don't worry. I... didn't expect you... to love me yet anyway."

She was quiet again. "I really am sorry," she whispered finally. "And... thank you for understanding."

"Yeah. No problem." My voice sounded cold, even to my own ears, so to change the subject and hopefully cover that up, I said, "Why don't you tell me about your weird duck dream?"