Duri decided that she was going to talk to Minho and get down to the bottom of her Choa investigation. She knew it would be hard for him, especially since Jae Woo wouldn't even tell her the slightest bit of information. She pulled herself out of the bundle of blankets she was under and walked over to Minho's room on the other side of the stairs. She paused for a moment in front of the door before softly knocking. Her heart was in her throat, and her stomach started churning. She momentarily thought about running back to her room.

He opened the door just enough to stick his head through "Can I help you?" He asked, he looked like he'd been asleep, apparently Duri hadn't realized she'd been diving into Minho's history as a part of Stray Kids for a few hours longer then she thought.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I'll just talk to you in the morning. I--" She started to ramble.

"No, it's ok" He said sleepily as he opened the door further and reached out and grabbed her hand to stop her from walking away. He didn't care that it was one in the morning. He just wanted to talk to her, and he would take any chance that she gave him. She stopped and turned around glancing down at his hand in hers. Even in the low light she could see him blush slightly. He quickly pulled it away not wanting to offend her. He opened his door the rest of way and stepped aside to let her in.

"What's up?" He asked quietly as she sat down in a chair in the corner of the room.

"I was talking to Jae about you today..." She started looking down at her fingers. He swallowed hard knowing that sometimes Jae Woo would overshare. She didn't do it on purpose, but he knew that she was always very proud of him and often wanted to share. Almost as if he was her own child.

"Oh" He mumbled sitting back down on his bed almost defeated, he was pretty sure he knew where this was going.

"There's just one thing I feel like I need to know......" she paused, "i-if that's ok" she stuttered. She wrung her hands in her lap nervously before finally asking her question. "Who was Choa?"

There it was. The question he knew she was going to ask. He didn't say anything and dropped his head low before looking out the window to the left of his bed. "Why?" He was stalling, trying to think of how to tell her and not tell her at the same time. Trying to come up with some combination of words that would get his point across without going into detail.

"Because I feel like whoever she was made you feel this way."

"And what way is that exactly?" He said trying not to sound angry, though he knew that had come out slightly more irritated then he meant it to.

"I'm trying to get to know you, Minho" She said looking up at him. He sighed loudly and looked back out the window. Right now would have been a good time for a distraction. Though that probably wasn't going to happen seeing as how Jae wasn't here and aliens probably weren't going to emerge from the sky and abduct him. Both of which would have been better options then this conversation.

"I know you are." He said more softly. He knew at some point he was going to have to let the rest of his guard down, but he also knew that talking about Choa left his raw emotions out in the open. The wall he'd built was pretty much laid to ruin over the last two months. "It's just....really hard for me to talk about, Duri."

"So just give me the need to know bits. I don't need to know all the details, Minho. I want to try to make this work with you, but I need to know you're not going to just up and leave me if she comes back."

"That won't happen." He said confidently as she looked at him confused.

"How do you know that?"

"Because she's dead." He said feeling tears sting his eyes. He silently cursed himself that she still, after the 3 years, had this hold on him. He desperately wanted to fully just let her go. He was tired of his life revolving around her and what she did. Especially when there was a girl he was married to that was turning out to really mean a lot to him. Arranged or not, he wanted to make his marriage work.

"O-Ah o-oh" She stuttered in shock before pausing for a moment to look at him. "Can I ask what happened?" She said cautiously.

"She was, she..." He was suddenly unable to form words.

"Oh." Duri said again as if she read his mind. He was relieved he didn't have to say the words.

"I gave up everything after her, grieving was the only thing my brain would let me do."

She nodded her head in understanding. There was a long pause that, to Minho, felt like an hour. He sat there staring at his feet. Unsure of what to say. Eventually, she stood up and walked over to Minho before pressing her palm to his cheek. He looked up at her unsure of what she was going to say. Instead she sat down sideways in his lap and wrapped one arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug.

He tried to calm himself. She hadn't been this close to him since the night they watched a movie together, the night he kissed her. He savored it. He wrapped and arm around her waist and put his face in her neck. She smelled so good, just like clean laundry fresh from the dryer. Little fireworks were exploding all over his body from the physical contact. He had deprived himself for so long that he was starved for any kind of physical affection. When she pulled away he was disappointed, it was too soon. He wanted to just cuddle her and tell her he was falling in love with her. Besides, who knew how long it would be before he got this close to her again.

"Was that what your dream was about the other night?" She asked still sitting in his lap. Minho knew his words weren't working, so he slowly nodded his head not breaking his eye contact with her.

"I was the one that found her" He said his voice low. He didn't know why he told her that. Something in him trusted her with information that he' d held so close to his chest for so long. He was starting to feel all the fear and anger he held about Choa melt away slowly the longer he was around Duri. He had to admit, it felt really good not carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. She'd done more in the last fifteen minutes then a year of therapy.

"Oh, Minho..." She gasped quietly pulling him back into another hug.

"I'm ok." He muttered pulling away from her and putting a hand to her cheek. He could never get over how beautiul her eyes were, they were so dark that when light reflected in them it looked like stars in a night sky. He looked her in the eye wanting to kiss her, but wasn't sure if she'd be open to it. He reluctantly removed his hand from her face and looked down.

"I have one more question." She asked as she stood up. Her face was pensive but there was a small smirk crossing her lips as she crossed her arms.

"What?" he raised an eyebrow not sure what to expect.

"Jae Woo told me an interesting fact about you. One that you seem to have never told me. I'm figuring it was an honest mistake so I'll let it slide this once."

"Oh god." He said as all the most embarrassing moment of his life flashed before his eyes.

"You left one little detail out when you told me a little about yourself." She said still smiling.

"Well, it was a little about myself. Not my entire life." He smirked back at her.

"When were you going to tell me about your stint as an Idol, Lee Know?" She asked her smile finally reaching its full potential as she giggled.

"Oh god." He said again as his cheeks turned red and he fell backwards on his bed laughing. "NO." He said firmly as she came over to the bed and starting poking him to get him to talk.

"C'mon! I wanna know!" She said excitedly poking his arm and ribs.

"Ow! Fine! Yes, I was in Stray Kids. Geez" He laughed.

"Tell me more!" She said poking him after each word in the chest.

"Ugh" He said smiling again. "Please tell me you weren't on YouTube all day"

"Maybeeeeee" She sang annoyingly. "What was the deal with you and Han?"

"He was my secret lover, is that all?" He joked.

"He WAS?" She said in shock.

"No, Duri." He said poking her back in the shoulder. Which caused them both to start laughing all over again. Before he knew it she was stradling his waist and all his senses were heightened. All he could think about was how she was sitting.

She didn't realize at first that she was even on top of him, that is until she suddenly realized she was. She cleared her throat and started to move off of him but he put hands on either side of her hips preventing her from moving. She put her hands down on his chest and they both slowly stopped laughing. Minho stared at her eyes as she leaned down to him and pressed her lips onto his. He moved one hand from her waist to her face as he kissed her back. She pulled away from him and moved so she was next to him.

"Sorry." She mumbled as she moved to get up, but he once again grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving.

"Stay." He said quietly into the dark room that just a moment ago had been filled with laughter. He could see the gears moving in her head while she considered what he said.

"I don't think I should, Minho" She said quietly. He felt his heart drop to his stomach, sure that his disappointment was written all over his face.

"Why not?" He asked her, trying desperately to make her stay. He just wanted to hold her, keep her close. With her no longer sitting next to him on the bed, he felt cold.

"I don't know. I just feel like there' s more you're not telling me" She replied honestly.

"If you stay, I'll tell you anything you want to know. Please." She looked at him again and realized that she'd have to stop being upset and shutting him out at some point. It wasn't even that she was upset anymore, she was cautious. She had to admit that just a few minutes ago, laughing with him and joking around made her feel happy. He made her feel happy. Not to mention the fact that when he put his hands on her hips that way, she wanted more. She sighed and smiled again, making Minho start to smile too. The opprotunity to ask him anything she wanted was tempting.

"Promise?" She asked making sure he wasn't going to reneg on his promise.

"Yes."

"You're not going to let me ask a question and say 'just not that'?"

"No."

She got back on the bed and laid down next to him, as he laid back down and made room for her. As soon as she did the list of questions in her brain all disappeared. They laid on their sides staring at each other, a peaceful calm between them. Not a hint of awkward silence hung in the air.

"Do you miss performing?" She asked as she got under the blankets and made herself comfortable.

"Sometimes. It's just not a part of my life anymore." He shrugged.

"Do you miss dancing?" She asked and she snuggled down deeper under the covers in the cold room.

"I haven't done it in so long I probably don't remember how, to be honest." He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. "It used to be the one thing that kept me going. I'd spend hours and hours a day as a trainee to get better. Not to mention the hundreds of classes I took before that to get good enough to audition. There were days I'd literally just collapse into bed, wake up the next morning and not even remember getting home."

"So why give that up? If it made you so happy?"

"There's just not a point anymore. I don't have the time. I work all day, come home and then work more and then go to sleep."

"So you make time" She said bluntly. He looked over at her and smiled as he thought about how hard he'd worked to debut.

"It's not just that. It just...now it reminds me of the hardest period of my life. It doesn't make me happy the way it used to."

"Hmm" She hummed quietly, He could tell she was getting sleepy, she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. "Why is your room so damn cold...." She mumbled as she closed the space between them and put her head down on his chest.

"You're nice and warm" She mumbled again as she fell asleep.

Minho smiled to himself and wrapped an arm around her pulling her as close as he could before falling asleep himself.

***

Duri started to wake up as she realized she was warm and cozy in Minho's bed. She felt his arm wrapped around her waist and his breath slowly fanning across her neck. She snuggled down further under the covers not wanting to wake him up. She felt safe and comfy.

Slowly she rolled over to face him and watched him sleep for a moment before snuggling herself into his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist. She didn't know why she'd been so hesitant last night, she didn't know why she thought this morning would be awkward.

Minho woke up a few minutes later and kissed the top of her head while brushing a piece of hair out of her face. She was smiling up at him in a way that made his heart explode. The best kind of exploding heart of course. The kind when you know you're completely and totally in love with someone for the first time.

"Morning" He whispered as she kissed his nose and giggled.

"Hi" She said happily putting her head back against his chest. "Why is your bed so much more comfortable then mine?"

Minho laughed, "I didn't know it was. I figured yours was the same as mine." She looked back up at him pretending to be annoyed, but all he could think about was how adorable she looked with her hair slightly messy and sleep still in her eyes.

"Oh...Ok. Sure Minho. Whatever you say." She sarcastically threw back at him pretending to be mad. "I'm mad, but I'm staying because I'm comfy."

He laughed again, "Guess you'll just have to sleep in my room more often then." He laughed as she made the cutest groaning sound he'd ever heard.

"Don't tempt me." She said looking back up at him and sitting up. "I should go shower. I'm getting brunch with Taeyeon today. He's grumpy lately."

Minho was slightly disappointed he didn't get to spend the day with her. "Are you going to be home for dinner, then?"

"I guess, if you really want me to..." She jokes smiling at him.

"Yes, please" he joked back.

"Then yes, I'll be back for dinner." She kissed his cheek before climbing out of bed and going back to her room.

Minho fell back onto the mattress and let the biggest smile cross his face. He could get used to waking up to her, he wanted to wake up next to her every single day for the rest of his life.