~𝟲𝟵~

"Gosh, these flowers are beautiful. I'm sure Emily will love them," I said, sniffing the bouquet in my hands. I saw Lee Know shaking his head out of the corner of my eye, making me look at him with a crease between my brows.

"No, the other ones we got are for her, these are for you," he said softly, smiling at me. I could feel my cheeks heating up at his kind and rather unconventional antics.

"Why? I don't need flowers. I have everything I need standing right in front of me," I said, smiling at him as I said the last part. He took a step closer to me, brushing along my cheek with the backs of his fingers.

"Because it's the least you deserve. Besides, you've been under a lot of pressure the last few days. I just want to help get your mind off of everything."

He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead before smiling down at me. We both looked around when a very familiar voice spoke up behind us.

"Ah, my two favourite people. I see you two haven't gotten tired of each other's company just yet."

"Hi, Felix. And no, we haven't. I mean how could I get tired of being with my beautiful girlfriend?"

My cheeks were burning as Lee Know said that, reminding me of the big step forward we took just a little while before. It gave me butterflies just to hear Lee Know call me his girlfriend.

"Wait, really? So you guys are official now?" Felix asked. Lee Know and I both nodded, looking at each other.

"Aw, and I missed it," Felix said, sounding rather distraught, until I saw the sly little smirk he threw Lee Know's way.

"Wait... you knew about this, didn't you? The two of you planned all this out, pretending to have something important to do just to get me out of the house so you could ask me, right?"

Lee Know and Felix shared a look, before both nodding at me. I dropped my head smiling at the effort the two boys went through just to make the day a success. I looked up at Lee Know again, who seemed quite worried. I placed my hand on his chest, smiling brightly at him.

"Thank you for all the effort. I really couldn't have asked for a better day."

I pressed a kiss to his cheek, and I saw him visibly relax.

"Right, now that that's sorted out, how about we all head to the little café around the corner and then you guys can tell me all about the romantic day you had. How does that sound?" Felix asked.

"That sounds wonderful. Let's go," I answered, going to walk next to Felix. He gave me his arm to hold onto, launching into conversation with me. As we walked, I turned my head to find Lee Know smiling at me fondly. I returned his smile, my heart warm and fuzzy. Then we started walking again, Felix dragging me back into conversation.

...

"And then we kissed," I said, looking over at Lee Know who sat next to me.

I had just finished telling Felix about our very eventful day, my fingers wrapped around Lee Know's hand.

"Sounds to me like my Hyung is quite the romantic," Felix said, winking at Lee Know, who smirked at him.

I smiled, gentle tracing my fingers all over Lee Know's hand. The gentle drag of my skin against his calmed me right down, my soul at peace. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lee Know reaching for his glass of water that stood on the table, noticing something white on his hand. When I looked closer, I realised it was a bandage. When he had put down his glass again, I watched him move his hand to hide it under the table, when I gently slid my fingers in underneath his. This managed to stop him from hiding his hand.

"Lee Know, what happened to your hand?" I asked worriedly, looking at him. He seemed hesitant.

"I got mad this morning, and I smashed the mirror in my room. But I'm fine. I cleaned it up and it doesn't hurt."

He tried to remove his hand from my grip, but my fingers tightened around his, making him wince. When I saw his pained expression, I let go of his hand guiltily.

"That's a lie. It does hurt. Why didn't you tell me you got hurt?"

"I didn't want you to worry."

Lee Know dropped his gaze. I gently rested my fore- and middle finger under his chin, tilting his head up to make him look at me. When he did, I smiled at him tenderly.

"Hey, we're in this together now, remember? Officially. You don't have to be afraid of telling me things like this, okay? I can handle it."

At that I pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, trying to make him feel better. It seemed to snap him out of his mood, his lips warm against mine as he pulled me in closer.

"Should I get you guys a room to finish this in private?" Felix asked, reminding us of his presence. I swiftly pulled away, tucking my hair in behind my ear. I was sure my cheeks were bright red.

"I really don't know how you two are going to keep your hands off each other when we head back to the dorms. I mean, we're in public and I have to stop you two from devouring each other."

My cheeks burned even more from Felix's words. His face was serious, but I could clearly hear the playful tone in his voice. He was just teasing us. I smiled at him, but my smile faltered when I realised what his question implied. The rest of the boys didn't know yet. I looked at Lee Know, trying to gauge whether he was thinking the same as I was. Truth was, I wasn't really ready for everyone to know yet. But I didn't want to keep dragging Lee Know along, making it hard for him just because I wanted to keep the secret.

I looked at him again, and this time, his eyes met mine. I looked away, biting my lip, trying to hide how uncertain I felt. I noticed his hand brushing along mine, intertwining our fingers again. He gently brushed along the side of my hand with his thumb, and when I looked at him, he gave me a look that calmed me down a bit.

"We can talk about this. Now, or later. Whichever suits you," he said softly, making me smile. And I thought to myself, could I have asked for a better guy?

...

When we returned to the dorms, I had to remind myself that the boys didn't know yet before walking in the door, my brain having already ignored that information. Han came over to us as we walked through the door, Lee Know handing him the bouquet before turning to me.

"Do you want to talk?" he asked softly, his eyes darting around to make sure no one saw us.

"Yeah, I actually have a few things to tell you so now could work."

I handed Lee Know the flowers, him catching on to my idea pretty quickly. I wanted him to carry the flowers, thinking it would seem less suspicious. As soon as we walked past the kitchen, voices sounded out from behind us, asking Lee Know all sorts of question. When we turned around, the boys all greeted me before asking him again.

"Hyung, is that for the girl you said you like?" I heard Jeongin ask.

"Yeah. She's arranged for us to meet this afternoon."

All the boys congratulated Lee Know, coming to pat him on the back. Little did they know, the girl he liked was actually standing right next to him. They don't have to know that just yet, I thought. Slowly, I snuck up to my room, as I heard him making conversation with the boys. I had barely closed my door and taken a seat on my bed when I heard a knock, opening the door to see Lee Know handing me back my flowers. I giggled at him, accepting them and taking a seat on my bed again, him doing the same after closing the door. I placed the flowers next to me, turning to face him.

"So, I know we're official now and everything, and the next logical step would probably be to tell the others. But, I wanted to hear your thoughts on it, seeing as this is a rather uncomfortable topic for you and everything is still very new," he said slowly.

My stomach clenched as I realised I would have to tell him about my fears. My nerves grew and I started fidgeting. I wouldn't make eye contact with the man sitting across from me. He must have noticed because he took my hands in his, gently brushing across them with his thumbs. I took in a steadying breath.

"Well, it is something I've been thinking about for a while now. As you said, it is the next logical step. I just don't think I'm... ready, yet. And I know I've been dragging you along for so long, and you have to keep the secret along with me, and it's probably getting really difficult for you, believe me I know. I don't want to have to do that to you, but I really don't think I'm ready just yet. I should be ready in a little while, but at the moment, I'm still working through some things and I just..."

My voice trailed off, leaving my sentence unfinished and hanging in the air between us. I didn't know how to explain it to him. I cared for a him, a lot. So much so that I surprised myself some days. But it just felt too soon. Too raw. Too new and amazing and wonderful and precious to share. It felt like once that secret was out, everything would come crashing down around me. And I wasn't strong enough for that, mentally or emotionally. I sighed at my inability to explain how I felt when two fingers rested underneath my chin, bringing my gaze up to meet Lee Know's.

"It's okay. I don't mind keeping the secret at all. I would keep it until we're fifty if I had to. And sure, sometimes it does get hard, but that's only because I want the whole world to know how special you are to me. Sometimes I just want to shout it from the rooftop, how much you mean to me. But I made a promise to you and to myself, that I wouldn't push you. So when you're ready, we'll tell them. But until then, this stays our secret."

On the last sentence, Lee Know gestured to the space between us, smiling slightly at me. Then he rested his forehead against mine. I rested my hands on his neck, playing with the hair on his nape. He sighed deeply before pulling away slightly. He started pressing kisses to my cheeks, my nose, my forehead. Everywhere he could reach. When he stopped at my lips, looking at them intently, I spoke.

"Why are you-"

"Because this might be the last time I get to kiss you for a while, so I need to make it count."

Then he pressed his lips to mine. The kiss burned with passion, but he made no move to go any further than the gentle press of his lips against my own. His hand came to rest on my cheek, gently stroking the skin with his thumb. My hands slipped from around his neck onto his chest, and his heartbeat was fast beneath my fingertips. Neither of us tried to deepen the kiss, content with the closeness.

When we pulled away, we stayed on my bed until the sun set, just holding hands and talking about meaningless things before we would have to act diplomatic in front of the others again. And as we sat there, a sense of dread crept into my heart, invading my brain with all kinds of thoughts that I had tried so hard to run from.

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A/N

heyy guys ;)

hope you guys are all doing well. i really can't believe how the reads have gone up in a week's time! like we reached 10K and 10,5K in one week, like how??!!! thank you guys so much for all the support and please feel free to leave a comment or vote for a chapter if you liked it :D

anyhow, i hope you guys enjoyed this cute chapter and i'll see you in the next one <3