2:21 PM

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=====ENTRY #9145141510131718106102211317=====

“Heyyyy. Hey!”

You’re used to mornings.

To groaning when your alarm comes off like a siren. To the dreadful drawl of another new day trying to drag you to your feet. To that first breath of air that you take when you’re finally conscious, allowing it to fill your lungs like it might breathe new life into you.

What you aren’t used to is waking up next to your neighbor from across the hall bouncing on your bed while shouting something in excitement at two-twenty-one in the afternoon.

What you aren’t used to is waking up next to Lee Hyunseo.

“Oppa, oppa—check it out!” Leeseo—as she prefers to be called—beckons, tapping your chest repeatedly without realizing it’s knocking the sails out of you each time. When your eyes finally adjust to all the flashing lights as you sit up, you blink thrice and see what she’s referring to on your TV. “I finally cleared the Sparkling Skylands! I was just about to head to Palette Town.”

Her last words send a ringing through your skull, and suddenly, it all comes crashing down at once.

The extra pillows and sheets dragged across your shared hallways. The creases and marks left by heavy convenience store plastic bags underneath your knuckles. The weight of each laugh as you bawled at the movie playing out before you through the darkness. The soft of her palm around yours. The tangle of wires snaking across the floor racing towards a plethora of different electronic devices and accessories.

When your mind finally settles onto her again, Leeseo’s pursing her lips, her mouth doing that thing again when she smiles—like she’s hiding something within it that fills out her cheeks. “Oh right! Soooo that happened!”

You don’t want to, but you have to ask. “Did we …?”

“Not we, oppa. Just me. You were out like a light around one. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I let you sleep while I continued.”

Leeseo reaches for the controller once more and operates it smoothly with her slender fingers, using her pinkies to point to the screen. “You missed this part. And that part. Do you remember this one?”

“Rocky Ridges?” you grumble, pulling the blanket off so you can sit next to her on the edge of the bed. She left some space for you, so you lean towards her as you yawn. “Oh wow, oh damn. You weren’t joking.”

She giggles and crinkles her nose. “Might as well make good use of the weekend before it ends. And here I thought you’d help me out too.”

“Wait, how … how long have you been up?”

“Mhm!” is all she says. Like that’s supposed to answer anything.

Your eyes burn holes into the floor as you realize what this meant.

Your spent the night with your next-door-neighbor, Lee Hyunseo.

You think back. Back to where it all began. From before last night. From before any of this.

You and Leeseo have gotten closer lately because of that one time your date showed up at her doorstep instead of yours. She had to signal to you with scribbles on her sketchpad through the balcony to ask if she was yours. Since then, you’ve been communicating that way. At first, it was only after every time you’ve come home from another one of your dates. She’d be right there to ask about it and cheer you up through drawings and broken phrases. Until you started meeting up at your spot on the balcony more often to talk about mixed laundry, movie nights, and walks in the park. Before you knew it, you’re caught in the adorable avalanche that is Lee Hyunseo.

And now you’re here. In bed with her. Not having remembered how you passed out while she was still around.

Neither of you have said a word as Leeseo continues to take her little Ditto avatar around the cobbled path she just shaped out. But how can you? The moment you so much as even part your lips to try and ask her something you’re immediately met with the shine of her teeth when she smiles and cheers. The bundle of blankets swaddling her in a flurry of pink. The subconscious jerking of her knees when she’s trying to do some light parkour in the game.

“Ya, Leeseo, I’m sorry I slept on you. Had I known we’d be staying up that late last night, I would have made myself coffee or something.”

She shakes her head in swift motions, eyes never lifting off the screen. “It’s ok, it’s ok! I know you’re not really a nightowl. Figured that one out when I stopped seeing you out after eight.”

“Hey now, I don’t pass out until ten at least. What are you talking about?”

Leeseo mimics you in mockery before pausing her game and turning to you. “Want to play something together, oppa? Now that you’re up, I was thinking we should finish that Lego game from last night.”

Your phone buzzes by your nightstand. “Sure, let me just get this first, and then we can play for a bit.”

As you go through your notifications, you see one from that one girl from the night before. The one who said she’d take a raincheck on a second date. The one who said she didn’t want anything too serious right away.

The reason why Leeseo offered to keep you company yesterday.

“Oh. Ok, oppa. Do you have plans for today?”

That’s new. You’ve asked each other many things before, but nothing of this sort. Nothing more intimately about each other’s lives.

“It’s already two. What other plans could I have?” you retort, but deep down you’re hoping you might have something for later tonight. That same girl’s last message to you asked if you were free at around seven for coffee. Her date for tonight apparently flaked in advance. She suddenly freed up. “But … just in case, we might have to finish before dinner.”

When you set your phone aside, you’re met with a serious-looking Leeseo. “What?”

“Your controller. Get it.”

“Oh, right! Right, my bad.”

What the hell was that about?

You try not to dwell as you pick up the blue controller of Leeseo’s Switch 2. She always wants the red one, and yet she always demands to be player one. Even after the numerous times you’ve explained how it works, she still comes whimpering to you to sort out the player order.

Just thinking about those times is enough to put a smile on your face.

“So what are we doing? Are we trying to push the story or coming back to the older levels for the minikits?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know how much time you have to play, oppa, but we can redo levels instead. We can finish the story some other time.”

She says it like there will be a next time. You’re not sure if you’re allowed to want that, but you keep that in mind.

“Let’s do … this one!” she exclaims, selecting the level. It’s Rock Up at the Lock Up. You know you’ll need Magneto and Sandman for this one, and you just know Leeseo’s picking neither of them—likely going for someone like Jean Grey or Black Widow—so you take one for the team and lock them in yourself.

She picks Storm. Close enough.

“Are you sure you’re allowed to be gaming this much? I know it’s the weekend and all, but don’t you have like homework or something?”

As she sends tornadoes into objects around the stage to farm coins up for that juicy True Believer status, she whines through clenched teeth. “Yaaa, oppa! I’m already out of college just like you. You even sent me flowers for my graduation two months ago.”

“That was for your graduation? I thought those were for passing your entrance exam.” And soon, she’s standing in your way and blocking your point of view by wiggling her bum in some sort of dance while she collects more coins than you. “No, seriously though, don’t you have anything better to do on the weekend?”

Your phone buzzes again. It’s her. She’s bumping you for a reply.