Can We Do This in the Morning

Lisa gingerly turned the key in the keyhole and gently turned the knob. She hadn't gone home that night and she was sure her father would have her head if he found out she had left in the first place. She wanted to sneak into the house and hide in her room so no one would notice she was gone in the first place. The door opened with a creak, a sound she flinched at, and she entered the living room.

She tiptoed, shoes in hand, across the living room and towards the old wooden door at the other side of the room that led to her bedroom and quietly reached for the knob.

"Welcome home"

Her heart jumped in her chest, and her body copied the motion. She hadn't realized someone was also in the living room. The deep voice was her dad's voice, and she had already started trembling with fear with a hundred and one possible scenarios in her head. How would she explain that she spent the night in someone else's home and had lost her virginity to a man whose name she didn't even know and that was why she was coming home by four in the morning. Her father was a very strong Roman Catholic and if he found out she had already done the deed before marriage, she might as well have died.

She inhaled deeply and turned around, ready to start apologising, when her eyes met with her brother's. A wave of relief washed over her when she realized. "Eun-hyeok, what are you doing up at this hour?" she scolded when she saw he was on his laptop. The laptop was pretty new, it was bought by her married older sister, Ji-eon.

Ji-eon was the first of the three of them, and the brightest at that. She studied medicine at the University of Seoul and graduated with a first-class degree and got a job immediately after. Getting her Master's and PhD was a piece of cake afterwards. Her married life was also enviable as she was already married to a lawyer for three years. She regularly visited with her husband each month for a family dinner, an event Lisa did not look forward to.

Eun-hyeok, on the other hand, was about three years older than Lisa, and had just gotten a job at the University of Seoul the previous week. He hadn't gotten his first paycheck yet and he desperately needed a laptop, so Ji-eon had gotten him one. He promised to pay her once he received his pay, but Lisa knew Ji-eon wouldn't accept the money.

"I should ask you the same, sister dearest" he mocked.

Lisa suddenly looked dodgy as she tried to avoid his gaze. Eun-hyeok had the ability to figure someone out just by looking in their eyes, and he was never wrong. "Oh...I was out with..." she tried to think of who could cover for her, but realized she didn't really have friends. It's not like people didn't like her—she didn't like people who were not family and she rarely left the house. That was mostly because of her upbringing. She wasn't allowed to go out and interact with many people. She got anxiety just from leaving the house.

"With who? Su-hyeok?"

Tears stung at her eyes as she was reminded once again of Su-hyeok, the only good thing that had happened to her, and he had left her just two weeks to their wedding. He was the reason she was out at night trying to drink to forget the pain. The reason she had met the man at the bar. The reason she had gotten drunk. The reason she had lost her virginity which she had held onto for so long.

Eun-hyeok knew about the breakup, but he didn't know how much it had hurt Lisa. In fact, she laughed it off so it must have seemed like she wasn't even interested in the wedding. She couldn't call him insensitive because she had made it clear that she didn't care about Su-hyeok. She held back her tears, preparing to give some sort of answer.

"I..."

She trailed off when Eun-hyeok got up from the dining table and approached her with a questioning look in his eyes.

"You...you what? Go ahead and finish your statement" he urged her, one brow raised. He paused before she could reply, sniffing the air around them. Knotting his brows, he frowned and wondered aloud. "Has dad been drinking again?" Then he paused as realisation hit him. "Lisa, is the smell coming from you?" he leaned closer to her. "You've been drinking? Since when did you drink Choi Ji-soo?" Ji-soo was her Korean name, although only Eun-hyeok called her that and only when he was mad.

"I..." she stuttered.

"Where were you all night anyway? What were you doing? Whom were you with? Why are you coming home smelling like alcohol?" he questioned, looking very upset.

"Oppa, keep your voice down, you might wake everyone up" she whispered imploringly. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to wake up and find out why he was yelling.

"You should've thought about that when you decided to sneak away at night. I won't keep my voice down until you answer all my questions"

"Please, can we do this in the morning, I'm really sleepy. I'll tell you everything, I promise." She crossed her fingers behind her as she made the promise, knowing fully well that she couldn't tell him what had actually happened.

He stared at her, seeming to be considering something in his head. He studied her expression and saw that whatever happened had to be very serious, but he didn't know what, and she wasn't going to tell him what it actually was, but he sighed anyway. He would find out eventually, even if she didn't want him to.

"Alright, go ahead. I'm still making some notes for class tomorrow" He pulled her to himself to hug her and placed a kiss on her hair. Yes, he was that tall. And Lisa was that short. She looked smallish when her 5 feet and 1 inch was compared to his 6 feet frame.

"Goodnight. I mean morning. Whatever" she rambled, then hurriedly went into her room and shut the door behind her. She breathed in relief when she had gotten away from her older brother. He was really overprotective and strict with her but she knew it was because he loved her. And it was the typical behaviour of any older brother, but sometimes, his concern and behaviour was a bit too much.

"Bathtub bathtub bathtub bathtub" she found herself mumbling. She needed a long soak in the tub—a very hot long soak in the tub. She was sore in every possible place and every part of her was extremely sensitive. Even her muscles ached severely. She decided to run a bath while she undressed. And as she undressed, she noticed a small patch of blood on her dress, her eyes wide with shock.

Was she supposed to bleed whenever she had sex?

She didn't have the energy to spend time worrying though, she would worry about that when she had tested enough. For now though, she was too stressed to think about anything.

Eun-hyeok stared after the figure that had already left, wondering whether or not he should have told her she was on her period. She probably didn't know or something, but the deed had already been done. She had probably walked around town showing the whole city that she was on her period. He prayed to God that she had at least taken a cab instead of walking around at this time of the night. He wasn't even sure why he had let her go without a warning it a good enough lecture, he would have to do that in the morning, when she had rested. Shaking his head, he went back to the table where he sat making his notes.