Her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she yawned, her arms taking a good stretch. Her gaze suddenly t a firm obstruction and she blinked.
Her eyes traced the contours of the chest before her up to the jaw and then the face of the man, who was barely in a half-sitting, half-lying position on the corner of the bed. His head rested back on the wall, his neck at an odd angle.
Shui gasped.
What is he doing here sleeping like this?
She tried to gently wake him up and noticed that she had firmly held onto his hand like how firm a newborn baby's clutch was. Her brow twitched.
Did I do sothing like that last night?
She did faintly rember feeling very drowsy and sleepy but nothing after that.
So I hogged his bed and didn't allow him to sleep like a human either. Ugh, I am shaless…
Barely fitting in the tight corner in all kinds of odd angles pricked her. She cleared her throat to stir him awake. There wasn't any response, so she turned to his side and slowly poked his cheek.
That didn't stir him awake either but his brows did move up. His pupils slightly moved to the right. She paused and poked his cheek once again, this ti bringing movent. She felt like she was pressing on a video ga's buttons and the result was Lin's facial movents.
She poked the tip of his nose this ti, but he caught her wrist midway before she withdrew. His eyes were wide open now, blinking at her with curiosity.
"What are you doing?"
She felt caught red-handed at the mont, but she kept her calm. "Just having a more close-up view of your face."
"Oh. And?"
"What and?"
"Does it look more handso upon closer inspection?"
"...Where did you learn to say that?"
"It's a genuine question."
She slightly cleared her throat. "It's indeed handso."
"Very handso?"
She raised a brow. "You want to hear praise you early in the morning."
"I just want the translation from your visual appreciation to your vocal appreciation," he nodded.
He is getting good at this…
She smiled. "There was never a doubt about your handsoness. I was only appreciating what already exists."
"Including gawking at my chest?"
"...How long were you awake?"
"Since you stretched your arms."
"That sounds like cheating."
"How?"
"You were gawking at way before I did."
"Technically, my eyes were closed. I was simply in a conscious state of mind."
Her gaze darkened. "Don't think you can defend yourself by getting all technical."
A soft smile lifted his lips. "Is that so?"
His innocent smile was enough to lt her heart, and she looked away.
"Anyway…why were you sleeping in such an odd position?"
He pointed at them holding hands, and a warm color flushed her cheeks a bit.
"I ant you could have shaken off."
"You were sleeping peacefully. I didn't want to disturb you. You were already tired."
She frowned. "Well that might have just cost you your back."
"I wouldn't complain even if it's my whole body."
He said it in such a matter-of-fact tone that like all other tis, Shui didn't find a place to run away to and hide.
He will make my heart burst out early in the morning…!
She tapped on his forehead. "Get up now or you will really be paralyzed at this point."
Lin didn't move from his place and instead held her gaze for a long mont.
"Thank you."
"For what?" She looked puzzled.
"You stayed back last night because you didn't want to leave alone, right? That's why you brought the cards with you. You knew I would have a restless night."
She snorted. "I just wanted to take my revenge on the bowling match. And I did. I am better at cards than you. I have successfully redeed myself," a look of pride flashed across her features.
He stared at her. Though she didn't outrightly admit it, he could sense her true intentions in the light of her beautiful eyes. She didn't want him thinking about his parents and past and spiral into depression.
"So since cards are my esp, we will always play cards from next ti," she shalessly harrumphed.
Shui looked up when she didn't hear a response and waved her hand in front of him. "Lin? Hellooooooo? Are you there?"
He moved, gradually bending over her and pressed his lips on her forehead for a kiss.
"Mhm. We will always play cards," he whispered, looking straight into her black and stupefied eyes.
He slowly withdrew and stood up from the bed. "You can freshen up here. I will be down in the storeroom."
Shui watched him leave, still and motionless and frozen on the bed. Her hand lifted in a daze that touched her forehead where she had felt the strange warmth earlier.
That…was my imagination, right?
She stared ahead at the empty void with an almost comically blank expression. Traces of that small kiss still lingered on her forehead, feeling as if a feverish heat was building up.
Am I going crazy or what!??? Did he really just…kiss ?
She tossed and turned several tis trying to calm her loudly pounding heart by holding her chest, but it looked like her heart was on its own spree of madness.
She buried her face in her palms. The kiss ca so unexpectedly that she wasn't really prepared for it. It happened even before she could make sense of anything and he was gone before she could react.
"Calm down, calm down. It was just a kiss on the forehead…Why am I acting like a teenager? I am a responsible and mature adult."
She rembered his calm gaze and smile as he had left after pecking her forehead.
"Damn you, Hou Lin! How dare you act so cool and nonchalant after almost snatching away the earth from beneath my feet!" said a responsible and mature adult.
She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it because her small palms were not a big enough place to hide, more so when butterflies tickled all over her body.
"Forehead kisses are dangerous..."
—
"Bro."
Lin jolted and turned. "Cai."
Cai slowly approached him, taken aback. "What's wrong? You look a little restless."
"Restless? No, I am not."
"No…are you having difficulty breathing? Also, why does your face look so red?"
He averted his gaze. How could he confess to his brother that he kissed Shui for the very first ti and now his heart was doing cartwheels in his chest?
"I am…fine."
"Anyway, you are up already. I was just heading to the storeroom to check on the stock."
Cai stayed quiet for a long ti.
"Is sothing the matter?" Lin blinked, catching onto his brother's disturbance.
He finally looked at him and said, "I need to tell you sothing important."
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