Late that night, we all settled in our dorms. We had explored Beijing all afternoon because Dae, Jin-son and I had never been.
There were no beds, so we had to set up sleeping bags. JiYong and I went to bed last. The others were sleeping. JiYong put on some quiet music in our room. The song playing was 'Overdose' by Exo.
"You don't mind if I play some music, do you?" He asked me. I sat down on my sleeping bag.
"Nah," I smiled and took out my sketchbook.
He watched me draw quietly. I was drawing a lake with a forest around it. JiYong's eyes widened and he sat in front of me cross-legged. He looked like a 5-year-old. A peice of blonde hair fell in front of his face and I pushed it back and ran my fingers through his hair.
"You can always fix my hair perfectly," he chuckled. Then he pointed at my sketchbook and asked,"Can I see it?"
I nodded and handed it to him. He flipped through it, pausing at every drawing for a few seconds. He stopped at a particular drawing that I had forgotten was in there. It was unfinished, but you could clearly see it was a drawing of him. His eyes glistened just as they did in reality.
"Is this... Me?" He looked into my eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, I--" I was going to explain myself but he interrupted.
"It's amazing, you're amazing," he said. I blushed as he kissed my forehead. He smiled and kept on flipping through my sketchbook.
We talked on and on for hours. After a few moments of silence, he asked me,"Do you miss home?"
I stopped for a second and then nodded.
"A lot actually." I told him,"I love Korea, but it's so much different from where I'm from. Plus, I miss my parents a lot too. And my little brother, Jonathan." A tear ran down my face as I remembered my family, my friends and everything else I had left behind. He wiped away the tear and pulled me onto his lap. As if by instinct, I rested my head on his shoulder and put my arms around his neck. I began to cry a little. He hugged me tight and whispered,"It's okay, I'm here. Always."
When I had calmed down and stopped crying, JiYong loosened his grip and looked at me. I raised my head off of his shoulder and as I did, my lips grazed his neck. I blushed but neither of us said anything.
"Thank you," was all I could say. He turned off the music and the lights and just held me for a while until I fell asleep beside him.
I woke at up around 5:30AM. JiYong was sitting on his sleeping bag, my sketchbook in his hand. I was covered in a blanket. His blanket. He was shivering a little. I sat up.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Oh--well, I just can't stop looking at that drawing. It's so perfect," he explained.
"You're perfect," I said absentmindedly, and loud enough for him to hear. Ooops. He looked up, surprised.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"Nothing," I gave him a fake smile.
He shrugged and went back to looking through my sketchbook. I was thinking about the conversation earlier. I asked JiYong,"Do you miss your home?" He put my sketchbook to the side and nodded.
"A lot. I haven't seen my parents since I debuted," he looked down at the ground. I think we should avoid that topic, it's painful for both of us.
"That thing you wanted to tell me, what is it?" I lifted his chin so I could see his eyes, changing topic.
"Well it was that, a few days after I met you, I started to have feelings for you. I... I like you, more than a friend," he told me shyly. He looked up at me waiting for my reply. I smiled and answered, "I thought you didn't feel the same as me. I like you too." His eyes lit up and he hugged me out of happiness.
"Then, I'm taking you out on a date the day after the concert. Okay? By the way, it would be smart idea to tell the others sometime soon," He smiled and helped me up and we went outside. I was smiling like a madman from the news.
The others were already awake and shirtless, excluding Tae. Tae poked me in the ribs and winked. I slapped her hand and we giggled. I whispered in her ear, "Look at the abs on them!" She nodded and stared at Mark's stomach. GD pulled of his shirt and exposed his own well-defined abs.
"I don't want to be left out," he smirked, then turned and winked at me. I grabbed Tae's arm and squealed quietly. We stood there for a while and stared at the boys.
Later that day, we were on our way to the concert.