Chapter 36: Lovers' Day

Dell felt nice and warm. She could hear the distant ringing of her alarm clock, but she felt too comfortable to move. But something at the back of her head was nagging her to get up. Something about today having something. What was it again? Her brain couldn't quite pull up. She wanted to stay like this some more. Her alarm stopped ringing. Good. Just a few more minutes.

Then her alarm started ringing again. Sigh. She really needed to get up. But it felt so nice here. Actually, it was more comfortable than usual. She felt something stir beside her. She opened one eye to look. And there was Sean, curled up beside her.

"Waah!" She exclaimed, jumping away.

Sean turned over and opened an eye to look at her. "Oh, you're awake already," he said sleepily.

"What are you doing here?!"

"This time, you let me in."

As her brain started waking up, she remembered that Sean had come knocking last night to hang out, and she had indeed let him in. But she had an early meeting today, so she had left him watching TV on the couch and turned in to sleep, with the instruction to lock the door when he leaves. "Well, you were supposed to leave when you were done watching your show."

"I didn't feel like leaving." He reached out and embraced her around the waist, burying his face on her side.

"Hey! This is... you know... inappropriate!"

"You're my girlfriend."

"Pretend girlfriend!"

"Then start pretending already."

"A-anyway, I need to get up now. I have an early meeting."

"Five minutes," he mumbled, and made no move to let go. Instead, he swung his leg over hers.

"Sean!"

"Shh, trying to sleep here."

With a sigh, she stopped struggling and leaned against the headboard. Fine. Five minutes then. It wasn't like it didn't feel good anyway. "Hey."

"Mmm?"

"Today's apparently Lovers' Day."

"Really? Love me, then."

"That's not what I was getting at!"

"No need to be so loud so early in the morning. What were you getting at then?"

"There will be three concerts tonight."

"Ah yes, the yellow fever battle."

"What?"

"Yeah, we, Filipinos, are racist that way. What, you want me to take you to one of them tonight?"

"Nah, not my demographic. But I just wanted your opinion. Who do you think will win between the three bands? My bet's on the Korean band. But the Japanese band also--"

"Tamarind."

"Eh?"

"My bet's on Tamarind."

"But aren't they new? And the Korean band's support is just huge."

"Yeah, but the Thai band has something the other two don't."

"And that is?"

Sean released her, propped himself up on his arms and looked into her eyes. "Story."

Dell looked away, blushing. It still disconcerted her whenever he did that. "Story?"

"Yeah. And we love a good underdog story. Tamarind's members shared theirs. They don't have a lot of commercial support so they relied earlier on smaller gigs that allowed them to interact with people. Ring Ding is fabricated."

"Wow, you really thought about this."

"Nah, my work just gets me in contact with people who do."

"So, you're saying these aren't really your observations."

He shrugged. "They're my opinion, though."

"Okay, I really need to get up now."

"Very well," he said reluctantly. "But in celebration of Lovers' Day, I'll give you our morning kiss instead of the other way around."

"Must you really--"

Before she could finish her sentence, he had kissed her on the cheek. He was grinning mischievously when he pulled away. "Have a good Lovers' Day, dear!" And with that, he jumped off the bed and proceeded to the restroom.

Dell could feel her checks get hot. It may have just been a kiss on the cheek. But he had kissed a little too close to her lips that she could have sworn his lips touched the edges of hers.

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