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"Y-you want me to stay with you?"
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He looked down at the floor embarrassed, after all, he was the one who had hold of my wrist even though we were supposed to have some sort of rivalry. Also, this was the first time the two of us have has a proper conversation since the kiss that took place around two nights ago.
"What's wrong?" I ask. He lets go of my hand and buries his head into them, groaning loudly.
"Listen." He starts. "I have... Somniphobia."
"English please."
"I have a phobia of falling asleep, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?" He angrily asks, standing up to tower over me as he was tall and I really wasn't.
"How do you have a fear of falling asleep? You got chronic nightmares or something?" I grab his hand, calming him down. I drag him to the bed where we both lie flat on our backs, staring at the white ceiling that looked down on us.
"I have sleep paralysis. I've had it since I was 12." He sighs, before getting up and taking out his suitcase. He pulls out a notebook and scrambles through the lined pages before handing the book to me.
The pages were filled with the art of an unusual creature. The disturbing drawings started from when he was 12, and they only started to get more detailed the older he got. But there's one thing each drawing had in common.
Every sketch including an eery picture of what seemed to be a tall woman with long hair, big eyes and a slit mouth that reached from one side of the ear from another. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and her arms and legs combined were probably longer than the wall connecting the ceiling from the carpeted floor.
"Your sleep paralysis demon looks like two Japanese urban legends combined with Momo," I say troubled as I close the notebook and place it down next to me. I think I would have a fear of sleeping as well if I had to deal with seeing that thing every night.
"T-that's exactly what it is. How could you tell?" He asks shocked as if nobody has ever pointed out what I just said.
"It's pretty obvious what it looks like. Shouldn't you see like a therapist or something?" I say as he puts the book back into his closed suitcase.
"My mom doesn't believe in therapy. Or she just doesn't care enough to go and get me one."
"Shit dude, I'm sorry." I felt like apologizing. Maybe I wouldn't have been such a prick to him before if I knew what he had to deal with behind closed doors.
"It's alright, I guess. I'm just kind of used to my mom being a bitch." He gives a pitiful laugh, trying to ease the tension.
"Hey, at least you get to see your mom. My parents work in America, and I got no siblings so I'm practically alone all the time." We laugh together as we share the pathetic facts about our broken lives.
"At least your parents don't force you to figure skate constantly."
"I thought you liked figure skating, though?" I ask.
He lets out a deep sigh. "Honestly, I like it. But my mom pushes me to just practise it 24/7. I feel like I'm losing my passion for it because of her. That's why as soon as I start university I'm out of there."
"So it seems like we both got pretty shitty lives, huh?" I ask, adding onto his sentence as he hums in agreement.
"Sunghoon," I say again after we sat in silence for about 30 seconds.
"Yeah?"
"When you kissed me the other day... Who were you hiding from?" I ask nervously, afraid he may shut me out and end our first meaningful conversation together because of the sudden shift in topic.
"From my ex, Kim Yerim." He says, a bit of cringe in his voice mentioning the girl who was unknown to me.
"Why'd you break up? Did she cheat?" I ask. I admit I'm getting a bit noisy. But I can't help it that I'm curious.
"Are you kidding?" He lets out a humorous laugh. "She's too obsessed with me to even think about the thought of someone else romantically."
"How bad can she be?" I wonder out loud. A mere high school student can't be as crazy as Sunghoon claims her to be.
"I broke up with her because she was stealing my used tissues from the garbage can in my bedroom."
"Okay, I take back what I just said. She's weird." We giggle together as Sunghoon tells me more stories about how Yerim used to do such stalker-like acts that she once had the police called on her by Sunghoon's neighbour.
"Wait, but why did you have to kiss me, from all people?" I ask between my muffled laughs. "You could've done someone you actually like."
"What do you mean? I do like you." He says simply as I stop laughing, processing what he just said.
"In what way...?" I ask nervously. I didn't want to accidentally ruin the mood because I thought of the wrong thing.
"I like you. As in a crush..."
My eyes feel like they're going to jump out of my sockets as I get up from my position. I quickly pinch myself on the forearm to make sure I was in fact, not dreaming. "You like... Me?" I point to myself.
He looked unfazed. Like he didn't just confess that he liked me. "Yeah. So... What do you think?" He got up and made eye contact with me, letting a smirk planter onto his face that I was starting to notice his really handsome face that wasn't there before.
Honestly? I don't like Sunghoon. Not in THAT way, at least. He's annoying and I still have a tiny grudge against him for that dodgeball game. Yeah, we have a lot of things in common like how we have dysfunctional families and whatnot... But still, I don't want to DATE Sunghoon.
But at the same time, I felt butterflies when he admitted that. Like when he kissed me. It feels wrong, but I can't let go. Park Sunghoon, what are you doing to me? I wish the days when I didn't have to think about boys like him.
"I'll think about it. Ask me when we go back to school." I say, expecting Sunghoon to look sad but he weirdly looked overly-confidence. Maybe it's an athlete thing to act boldly all the time.
It's true, I did need time to think about it. My feelings were too confusing for Sunghoon. Too confusing for them to be decided in the span of 15 seconds.
"So wait, you have a fear of sleeping, right? So are you going to be awake the whole night?" I ask as he pulls the blanket over both of us.
"Actually, I have a better time sleeping when there's someone with me. That's why I asked you not to leave." We both situate ourselves in the middle of our pillows, not extremely far away from each other but not close to each other, either.
"Sweet dreams, Scarlett." He says.
"Good night, don't let the sleep paralysis demon bite~"
"HEY!"
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