The whole walk home I had a silly grin on my face. I kept replaying Yeonjun and I's conversation in my head, over and over. My skin tingled just remembering.

"Alia, do you want to help me make dinner?" I suggested as we neared the door to our apartment. I unlocked it, heading inside.

"Sure!" She grinned. "When are you going to email Yeonjun?"

I rolled my eyes playfully. "What, you just left them! Give your old mom a break." At the look on her face, I smiled. "I'll email him after dinner, alright?"

"Thanks Mama. What are we making?" She headed to the kitchen, but I stopped her.

"Wash your hands, and then I'll tell you," I instructed.

Alia sighed. "Fine." She pumped the soap and washed her hands. When she was done, I washed mine, then turned the water off. I dried my hands and started getting things out of the cabinet.

She watched me, and when I had everything laid out, she studied it. Alia surveyed the butter, salt, tomato sauce, and noodles, then looked up at me. "Are we having spaghetti?" She asked, face lit up.

Her smile made my heart warm. "We are! Now, be careful, I don't want you to burn yourself."

She watched as I set up the boiling water for the pasta. I turned to her once it was boiling. "Okay, so I'm gonna help you pour in the pasta."

I opened the box, pulling up a chair so she was at a good height, and placed my hands over her smaller ones.

Together we tilted the box so all the pasta fell in, and I put Alia on the ground, high fiving her.

"Good job. Set a timer for ten minutes, okay?" I held her up so she could reach, her body snug in my arms.

She pressed each button, then hit start, and I set her down. "Tell me about your time at the park! What did you and Jiho play?"

Her eyes bright, Alia launched into a speech about the game they created. When the timer went off, I poured the red sauce into a pot and set another timer for five minutes.

Alia continued, getting caught up in the details, and the new timer went off. I pulled out a noodle, blew on it to cool it off, then ripped it in two and gave half to Alia. We both took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "Another minute?" I suggested.

She nodded. "That's what I was thinking."

I smiled, letting it sit, then we tried it again.

"Perfect!" Alia exclaimed.

I strained the spaghetti, humming a song while I worked. I separated it into two containers, one significantly larger than the other. One was butter spaghetti for Alia, but I mixed the sauce from the pot into the other section.

I set the table, putting down forks and some leftover salad from the night before. Alia and I sat down to eat, and I served her and myself, taking a bite. "Delicious!" I appraised. "We did a good job."

After dinner, it was time to put Alia to bed. I left the mess in the kitchen. I'd clean it up later.

I helped her brush her teeth, got her dressed in her pajamas, and laid down in bed with her, grabbing her favorite book off the shelf. It was a story about a woman who went on many adventures in her youth, then planted flowers to make the world a little more beautiful once she got older.

When I finished, I tucked her in, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight, Lia."

"Goodnight Mom, I love you," she murmured, eyes closed.

"I love you more." I shut the lights off, about to leave the room, when she called me back in. "Yes?"

"Did you text Yeonjun yet?" Alia asked hopefully.

I smiled. "No, not yet. I'll do it right now, just go to sleep, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay Mama."

I left the room, leaving the door cracked, and sat down at the kitchen table, opening my laptop.

I typed out an email to Yeonjun.

'Hey! Alia was being super impatient about wanting me to email you, you know how kids are. She would like to hang out with Jiho again, would you guys want to come over to play one day? Maybe stay for dinner? Whatever works for you is good with us, I don't work late and Alia doesn't do any after school activities.'

I figured that was good enough, but got stuck on what to write for the closing. I buried my face in my hands as I tried to figure it out.

Sincerely sounded too formal. Love seemed too much for our current relationship. See you soon sounded too peppy.

I ended up going with a simple '-Adelaide' at the end and sent it.

I hooked up my wireless headphones to the laptop and sang quietly while I cleaned up, loading the dishwasher and wiping down the counters and table. I had washed the two pots and when I flipped them over on a dishtowel I heard a ding from my computer, indicating that someone had google chatted me. I walked over to it, and sure enough, a chat had opened with Yeonjun.

'Hi Adelaide! I decided to chat you a response instead of email, it gets through quicker. Jiho really wants to play with Alia too. I have to work tomorrow, but Wednesday could work for us. How does that sound?'

I typed out a response, backspacing all my typos. 'That works for us!' Seizing an opportunity to get to know him better, I added a second message. 'What do you do for work?'

His profile picture, a photo of him and Jiho, popped up, indicating he had seen it, and soon the tell tale 'Yeonjun is typing...' showed up as well.

He was taking his sweet time responding, but finally sent it. 'I'm a photographer! Most people ask what kind of photography I do, but it's really everything. I do nature photos, people, inanimate objects, whatever. Some people hire me for weddings. That's actually what I'm doing tomorrow. Gotta look snazzy XD. Tell me, does this outfit look okay?'

The next message was a photo of him, a mirror selfie in a full length mirror. He was wearing a professional-looking black suit. It contrasted with his messy hair, and I found myself staring at it longer than I probably should have. He was holding the phone the way the pros do it, upside down so you can hit the button better. Something about the photo had me aware of the warmth on my skin, but I ignored it, instead typing out my response.

'It looks great, don't worry. And that's a cool job! I always wanted to be a photographer, but I didn't like the school, so now I'm a librarian instead. Tell me if you ever need a muse, I'm always free XD'

He was slow to respond, and I worried I'd scared him off by being too direct. When he sent his response, however, I felt a nervous tightening in my chest, like I couldn't breath. I closed my eyes to calm myself, then read through again.

'I actually am in need of a muse. There's this photography exhibit coming up in a month and I want to enter something. Not to sound creepy or anything, but when I saw you at the park I thought you'd be perfect for it. Do you think you could come by Thursday? If you were being serious, and if that's something you'd be interested in.'

My hands shook so badly it took me five tries to type through without any mistakes. 'That sounds great. I should probably warn you though, I've never been in a photoshoot before so don't be surprised if I mess up.'

'I'm sure you'll do great. Wow, you weren't lying when you said you'd be seeing a lot of me. Wednesday AND Thursday? If I didn't know better I'd think it was YOU who wanted to see ME and not Alia wanting to see Jiho,' he replied.

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see me, then typed out my response. 'Maybe I want to get to know you better. After all, we only met today, and our children are now friends. I can't not know my daughter's friend's dad, right?'

He replied a minute later. 'Right. It's kinda weird, but even though we met today and I barely know you, I have a feeling that I like you. Does that sound crazy?'

I smiled. 'No, not at all. I think I like you too. Should we get to know each other now? More things to talk about when you come over on Wednesday?'

'Why not? And btw, I hope I'm not coming off too strong. I just mean I think we'll get along well.'

'That's what I meant too. Look, we're reading each other's minds already!' I joked, sending it. 'Now I'll tell you a few things about me:

My birthday is March 8, 2000

My favorite color is purple

I talk. SO MUCH.

I'm freaking chaotic :D

I love singing

Books are practically my entire life

My favorite animal is a tiger

I'm 5'5.5" tall

I'm ENFP-T

I hate raw onions

Now tell me some things about you'

He typed out his response. 'That was pretty random, here's mine:

My birthday is September 13, 1999

My favorite colors are blue and purple

I will listen to you then talk just as much :D

My favorite emoji is 😍

My favorite animals are corgis and pandas

I'm 5'11"

I'm ENFP'

I laughed. 'That's as random as mine! So, your birthday was pretty recently, huh? What'd you do for it?'

'Oh, nothing much. I went to have dinner with Jiho, that was pretty much it. I didn't have a lot of time.'

I pursed my lips slightly. 'How come?'

'I didn't have anyone to watch Jiho. It's alright though, we had fun together!'

'That's good. Hey, can you give me like 15 minutes? I need to take a shower.'

'Alright. When you're done, you wanna call? Like on google meet?'

I raised my eyebrows at that, typing out a response. 'What, you can't go three hours without seeing my face? :hair toss:'

'Of course I can. You can keep your camera off if you'd like.'

I logically thought through my response. It might seem a little weird, but he seemed like someone who wouldn't mind. 'If I'm keeping my camera off, we could just call while I shower. Is that alright?'

'Yeah, fine with me. Just make sure the camera stays off XD'

'Ofc. You send a call link, I have to go find out how to put this computer in the bathroom-'

'Have fun with that.'

I stood up, carrying the laptop to the bathroom, and, upon much consideration, put it on the counter up against the wall.

I opened our chat once more, clicking the link he had sent. I felt my heart speed up, then clicked off my camera and waited to join until it said he was there.

A thought occurred to me that maybe he was doing the same, but then I saw his icon pop up and the words changed from 'no one is here' to 'Yeonjun Choi is here'.

At that, I clicked join. "Hey," I smiled to myself, double checking my camera was off and covering the webcam for good measure.

"Hey Ada," Yeonjun replied, flicking his camera on. The blood rushed to my face at the sight of him, and I was grateful he couldn't see me. He was lying down in a bed, holding his phone above him, and a blanket covered his presumably bare chest. His shoulder peeked out from under the covers, exposing his naked collarbone.

His collarbones were so well defined, I didn't even know that level of definition was possible, (YES I WROTE THIS I'M A SIMP FOR HIM T-T) and as he smiled a small smile at me I felt my breath get stuck in my throat. "Can I call you that?" he asked. "Ada?"

"Of course," came my quiet response. "My family calls you that, but there's no reason you can't too. I can think of a million nicknames for you."

His eyes narrowed teasingly, the smile still on his face. "Yeah? What are they? If I like one, I'll let you call me it."

I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. "Give me one sec, I'm gonna actually get in the shower." I turned up the volume on the computer, then yanked the handle of the shower to turn the faucet on. I got in, then opened my mouth. "Can you hear me okay?"

"Yes, as well as the sound of the water, but it's alright. Now, tell me the nicknames you were thinking of." Yeonjun's voice was quiet over the sound of the water, but I could still hear him.

"In no particular order: Jun, Junnie, Yeonjunnie," I recited. "And..." I struggled to think of another and internally slapped myself for exaggerating. "Okay, that's all I've got."

I heard him laugh. "Not quite a million, sweetheart, is it?"

I rolled my eyes, taking the soap in my hands, and started to lather myself with the suds. "Do you like any of them?"

"They're not anything I haven't heard before, but you can call me all of them."

"Well, I'm going to make it my mission to find you a new nickname, one that's special for the two of us," I replied, now shampooing my hair.

"You do that, I've already got one for you," Yeonjun shot back. I could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"Yeah?" I said in a teasing voice. "What is it?"
"Sijag," he said. "It means beginning in Korean."

"Oh, you're Korean?" I asked, surprised.

He laughed. "Yes, I am."

"Cool. And why is that my nickname?" I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, then pumped some conditioner in my hands and ran it through.

"Because your name starts with the letter A, and that's the first letter of the alphabet."

I smiled at his explanation, thinking it was cute, how he had it all thought out. "What's the word for end?" I asked, thinking it'd be perfect since his name started with Y.

"Keut," Yeonjun replied. The smile in his voice was still present, and I couldn't help but smile along.

"Well then, keut is now my nickname for you," I stated.

"And why is that?" he teased.

"Because it goes with your nickname for me, and because your name starts with Y, which is at the end of the alphabet."

Yeonjun was silent for a moment. "That's actually really cute."

I smiled, brushing my hair. "It was your idea first," I reminded him. I couldn't take credit for the idea. "Will you send me how to write keut in Korean? Or the romanization?"

"Yeah, of course." He sounded vaguely distracted, so I assumed that was what he was doing.

A moment later I heard a ding that showed he had sent it. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome, sijag," Yeonjun replied, testing out the new nickname. I wished I could've seen the look on his face right then, he sounded so happy.

I rinsed my hair out, stepping from the shower and wrapping a towel around myself. "So, about this photoshoot," I said.

"Yes?" he asked as I put product in my hair, scrunching it before flipping my head up to part it.

"Do I need to wear anything specific?" I turned to the computer, carrying it into my room along with my dirty clothes.

A smirk played at the edges of his lips. "Well, there's a pretty specific vibe I want these pictures to have, kinda..." I slipped a shirt over my head, letting it fall to the back of my thighs, then got into bed. I finally turned my camera on. "...Sexy? Obviously, only if you're comfortable."

My lips parted in shock, my brain going silent. Yeonjun looked slightly concerned. "Ada? I'm sorry, did I make you uncomfortable?"

I slowly shook my head no, snapping myself out of my wandering thoughts. "No, no, you didn't, don't worry. I can do that! I was just surprised, that's all."

He let out a relieved breath, smiling. "Thank god, I didn't want to say anything you weren't okay with. So we'll start Thursday, there will be three sessions, so this week, next week, the week after that. We're gonna start slow, if you're ever not alright with something, let me know, okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. Alright. So do I need to wear anything special?"

I thought I saw a glimpse of red on his cheeks, but he moved out of view, reaching for something I couldn't see, exposing his back. "No, not this week. If you'd like to wear something a little more form-fitting, that's good with me." Yeonjun moved back into frame, taking a sip of water.

I calmed my racing heart. "I'll have to see if I have anything... I haven't done anything remotely sexy in a long time."

He smiled at me, running a hand through his hair. "Neither have I. It's alright, you'll relearn. By the way, what's your clothing size? If you need, I could buy you some things to try."

Unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face, I replied, "You don't have to do that."

I told him my size anyways.

Yeonjun smiled, writing it down. "Oh, do you have any allergies?" He asked.

I raised my eyebrows, surprised by the question. "No, why?"

"I was just wondering, like, if I was going to give you a lollipop for one of the photos..." he smiled sheepishly, rubbing the nape of his neck.

I smiled back at him, shifting so I was laying on my side, facing the computer. "Alright. What kind of photo were you imagining?" I teased, watching him fidget under my gaze.

"Well, I was thinking, just a close up of your lips with the lollipop against them?" he suggested, a little less nervous then he was a moment ago.

My eyelids suddenly feeling heavy, I kept them open, focusing on the person on the other end of the call. His chest was even more exposed by now, both shoulders above the blanket. I found my mind wandering to how it would feel to have my lips pressed against the skin of his neck.

I cleared my mind of that thought. "Oh, that sounds good. I can do that," I replied quickly, fingers brushing lightly over my own lips. "Anything else?"

Yeonjun shook his head, hair falling into his eyes. My heart did a little skip at that. "Not yet. We'll just go and see what happens. Make sure to tell me if something feels too much, okay? We'll start slow, I promise."

I smiled shyly at that, eyes trying to fall closed. "I promise I'll tell you. Thank you for caring so much, keut." I tried out the new nickname, face breaking into an even wider grin once Yeonjun's did.

"You're welcome, Adelaide, always," he whispered, a content, soft smile on his face.

I could feel my cheeks heat up, and buried my face into the mattress for a moment. When I lifted my head back up, Yeonjun was looking at me with an amused expression. I stood up, walking to the light switch on shaky legs. I flicked it off then got back in bed. "Jun, if I fall asleep while talking to you, I'm so sorry."

"Nah, it's alright, don't worry," he replied, turning off the light in his room as well. "Anyway, what's your address? For when I bring Jiho over on Wednesday, I mean."

I had my eyes closed as I told him our address and apartment number. "I hope it's not too far from you guys."

"Nope, only a little ways away. We could probably be there in 15 minutes," Yeonjun told me.

I smiled, eyes still closed, mumbling something that was supposed to be, "Not far at all then."

I thought I heard an amused laugh from Yeonjun before I finally fell asleep, listening to him sing to himself.

A/N- Not this chapter being longer than the other two combined-

Anyways, the next few are kinda spicy, very flirty, and I think the 5th/6th chapter (s) are spicy and then hilarious :D

Sorry for taking so long to update!! I have access to typing on a computer now, so it should be better.