Chapter 8

Life eventually goes on and soon enough, Sehun and Bambi find their routines while maintaining a level headed acquaintanceship. They converse once in awhile about shallow topics such as the weather and pop culture; sometimes even going as far as sharing their current favorite music tracks to each other. But other than that, Bambi makes sure to keep a certain boundary.

Although Sehun manages to get to know the others better, he does make it his mission to pester her occasionally. He just reminds himself to never go into the subject that bothers him the most, which involves her last roommate. Of course, he could always ask someone else, but he wants to know from her directly. Who wants to find out about something as delicate as that from a secondary source?

There's also that tiny, but rather strong desire to understand her more. He's never been so curious about a girl, or even a person in general, before. He's always been the type to drop things that had no interest in him, so he couldn't quite put his finger on why Bambi seems to be an exception. And it isn't like he's crushing on her or strongly infatuated with her, he just couldn't fathom why she lives the way she lives. What circle of hell did her last roommate exactly come from for her to be this closed up to anything or anyone new?

"Oh. Who's this?" A honeyed, high pitched voice next to Sehun snaps him back into reality.

Bambi continues to chew her dinner and stare at the woman clinging to his side. This is the first girl he's brought home ever since she established the strictly platonic rule. If her hunch is right, she won't be sleeping in the apartment tonight.

The minute they both walked in, she immediately noticed how tall and slender the pretty female is. Her body is gallantly well-proportioned and to top all that, she showed off gorgeous and goddesslike facial features. She and Sehun would definitely make the ideal model couple.

"Bambi. My roommate." He clears his throat to mask his momentary daydream. "Bambi, Hanna. Hanna, Bambi."

"Roommate?" Hanna questions, sending Bambi an unsatisfied glare. "For how long?"

"Four...five months?" He estimates.

"And you've NEVER slept together?" Hanna further implores unconvinced.

Bambi coughs, almost choking on her food as she waves her hand frantically.

"No!" She and Sehun simultaneously exclaim, "We're strictly platonic!"

Hanna's eyes widen in more suspicion as she raises an eyebrow at both of them. "Are you, now?"

"Yeah," Bambi and Sehun answer in chorus yet again. She instantly eyes him irritated, mentally telling him to cut it out. But to no avail, "Totally."

"O...kay..." Hanna slowly drags out her mouth. She still has doubts but decides not to dwell too much on it. "As weird as I find this whole platonic thing between you two, it seems plausible. So, you wouldn't mind stepping out, would you?"

Bambi forces a smile, internally high-fiving herself for having the correct hunch earlier. "Well, we all know why Sehun brought you here. So, instead of you asking me to step out; why don't I just, let's say, visit my neighbor?" She says with a hint of sass as she looks back down at her plate. "Just going to finish this up."

Hanna shrugs satisfied and pulls Sehun into a deep kiss. "I'll be waiting," She whispers in a breathy voice as she proceeds to walk to his bedroom seductively.

"We might be long you know," He says with a devilish smirk.

You don't say? "Oh, I don't care even if I have to sleep over at Kyungsoo's." Bambi returns a forced smile, trying her best not to roll her eyes. "Just make sure she's gone by tomorrow morning."

"Done."

It only takes her a few minutes to clean up her plate. Sehun, much to her surprise, actually waits for her to finish. They exchange knowing looks before she finally heads out of the loft and he rushes to his awaiting vixen.

"I'm home!" Bambi calls, entering Kyungsoo and Jongdae's apartment without any problems.

"Hello, person who does not live here," Jongdae greets as he plops on the couch.

She keeps a straight face and forcefully sits next to him.

"What's wrong? Fight with the husband?" He jeers with a snotty expression and is immediately met by her death glare.

"Not that you're not welcome here, of course." Kyungsoo joins them in a nonchalant manner.

"Sehun's going to be in the middle of coitus in about...five minutes," Bambi states, trying not to hurl on their hardwood floor.

"Five minutes?" Jongdae asks.

"Yeah." Bambi nods as she continues to explain, "I just got out of the apartment, so give or take, they're probably only starting to make out right now. If they're not too impatient, that is."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Kyungsoo looks at her concerned. Ever since that day in the park, she's been acting rather odd.

"Why wouldn't she be??" Jongdae cocks an eyebrow at the unnecessary question posed.

"Thank you, Jongdae," Bambi acknowledges as her eyes avert towards her best friend. "It's clearly his business, not mine."

"And it's standard roommate courtesy," Jongdae adds. "Given that he's such a handsome boy..." He squeals sarcastically in the highest pitch he could possibly reach. He proceeds to clasp both his hands under his chin, imitating a friend of theirs and rolls his eyes right after. "By Sandara's standards. It's only about time this happens. If anything, you should be expecting more."

"As long as he only stains his area and none of the public ones." She raises her arms in utmost surrender and disgust at the thought.

Just as Jongdae is about to offer a smug response, his phone starts ringing.

"Whoops. Gotta take this call." He grins as he answers, "Hey, baby!" He then disappears into his bedroom, leaving the two best friends alone in the living room.

"Happily taken, I see?" Bambi pipes up sarcastically.

"Give it a week or two," Kyungsoo responds in a half-serious and half-amused tone.

She laughs at his partly true joke. It takes more than your average cutesy and caring girl to keep someone like Jongdae around. Not that he's a playboy or anything. He just gives up easily. Once things get a little too rough, he immediately bails without a trace.

This then gets Bambi to thinking about Sehun. The guy definitely could play the part of a shameless womanizer, but judging by the fact that he became homeless because of an ex seems off. It doesn't add up. Then again, he is screwing Hanna's brains out in their loft.

Ever since Sandara called him her 'handsome boy', Bambi's thoughts constantly lingered towards her birthday night. Was it him? Was it not him? If it wasn't him, then who was it? If it was, why????

"Something in your mind?" Kyungsoo asks, bringing her back to reality.

"Yeah, no. I'm--" She hesitates as she carefully words out, "It's just that there's this one thing bothering me."

"Oh? What is it?"

She sends a dismissive wave, changing her mind about the topic. "Nothing. It's probably just a dream."

He only shrugs in reply.

"That night," She blurts out and mentally smacks herself for having such a careless mouth. "When you saw me at the beach. Was it really a tree you saw me flirting with?"

"I don't know. You tell me." He looks at her intrigued as he folds his arms across his chest, attempting to maintain a casual aura.

"You're right. It's a tree." She shakes her head feeling silly when fragments of what happened that night flash in her mind. "No, it's not. It can't be."

"Are you starting to remember or something?" This has never happened before.

"Not exactly. Just...everything's blurry." She runs her hands through her hair, trying to make sense of the scattered pieces of memories. "I do know that it wasn't a tree though. Some...handsome stranger. Who I kept calling handsome boy."

Oh my. "And you think it's--?" He urges, feeling rather excited.

"Ridiculous, I know." She feels stupid for mentioning it in the first place. "It's probably not him. It's nothing like him."

"Well, why don't you ask him?" Kyungsoo suggests while hiding a mischievous smile.

She scrunches her nose in annoyance at the notion. "What? And embarrass myself further? No, thank you."

"You know, there are two sides to people," He reasons.

"So?" She proceeds to roll her eyes and fold her arms across her chest.

"So, maybe what you think of him may not be him completely."

She cocks an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "You know something, don't you?"

"Even if I do, it shouldn't be coming from me."

***

Damn Kyungsoo. That stupid, owl-eyed freak.

Bambi couldn't find the nerve to sleep. The entire night she kept tossing and turning on the couch. Kyungsoo's statement echoed within the walls of her brain.

What is he saying? That it indeed was Sehun? If it wasn't, then what kind of sick fucking joke is he playing on me?

She tried to get more out of him, but Jongdae entered the living room as if on cue. The last she thing needed was another friend (and a noisy one at that) involved in a rather trivial situation.

Now, as she stands in her own kitchen flipping pancakes due to her monstrous morning appetite and sleep hogging neighbors slash friends, she ponders on whether or not to ask Sehun about her drunk escapade. The night she wishes didn't happen.

"He's reaaaaallyyyy good in bed," A familiar sickeningly sweet voice breaks her from her trance.

Bambi widens her eyes in shock, not only because of Hanna's explicit statement but also because of the fact that Sehun wasn't able to get her out of the loft in time. She's thoroughly glad that she's fully clothed though.

"Yeah, no...I don't think that's a good idea. None of that for me."

"What? I thought you two were platonic." Hanna pouts.

STRICTLY. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to know about the details of both your sex lives." Bambi argues calmly, "Would YOU be comfortable with me telling you about the guy I slept with a few days ago?"

"Well, yeah." Hanna nods her head, sharing an intrigued grin.

"We're not even friends," Bambi points out flatly.

"But it would still intrigue me. Sex is sex. How good was he? Was he into anything weird? Like chains and whips and--"

"OKAY! Hanna. I think you um...you need to..." She shoos Sehun's one night stand away from her vicinity. "...skedaddle."

"But you're making breakfast!" Hanna protests, trying to act cute.

"Yeah, just for me. Bye-bye now." Bambi then leaves her pancakes for a moment to drag the clueless girl to the front door.

Hanna can only resist with loud outcries and in a matter of minutes, Bambi manages to kick her outside the loft. She breathes a sigh of relief as she resumes to cooking her food.

"Is she gone?" Sehun peeks only his head out his bedroom door.

"You were awake?!" Bambi exclaims annoyed.

"I was trying to think of a way to get her out of the apartment without actually forcing her or making it awkward." He shrugs sheepishly, joining her in the kitchen.

Unbelievable. She rolls her eyes at his cowardice. Forget about asking him about that night. He'll probably act like an idiot trying to avoid the topic or worse, humiliate her.

"Clearly, you're the woman for this job." He saunters over to her. "Have you done this before?"

"Nope," She responds dryly. "Pancake?"

He nods while getting a plate and she immediately serves him a newly cooked one. He proceeds to sit on the kitchen counter and enjoy his food.

"It could be a thing. When I bring women around, you tell them to 'skedaddle' and when you bring men around, I'll..." Bambi's head instantly snaps back at him. He gulps cautiously, "...think of something."

"No, thank you. I'm not your maid. I don't want to have to clean up your mess every time you drag it in the loft." She turns the stove off and eats next to him. "Anyway, I'm not the sleeping around type."

Or not anymore at least. She swings her legs back and forth, trying not to get lost in her own thoughts.

"I can't say I'm not surprised."

She furrows her eyebrows at him questioningly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're a bit..." He avoids her eyes, coming up with the right word. "...difficult."

Bambi stares at him for a moment before looking ahead. She shrugs and continues to chew on her pancake in silence. It's true anyway. Why burst out in anger over something that she knows is an actual fact?

"Wow, I was expecting--" He tilts his head at her, both puzzled and surprised.

"What? The Kraken?" She snorts and looks back at him. While attempting to hide a smile because of his reaction, she continues, "I'm not THAT bad."

"Is that a smile I just saw?" He asks, leaning close.

"What?" She scoots away, avoiding his eyes.

"Just now. You smiled." He shrugs but finds himself doing the same.

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes, eating a lot more of her pancake that she could take.

"You should smile more."

"Why? Because I look pretty when I do?" Like I haven't heard THAT one before.

"Because you deserve to," He answers in the most sincere tone she's heard, "Everyone does, don't they? Besides...just because I'm around you doesn't mean you have to be all screechy and mean."

"Well, you're not exactly pleasant to be around."

"I am!" He throws one arm up, fork on hand, in protest. "You just haven't given me the chance."

"There's a reason I haven't."

"What? The strictly platonic rule? I barely know anything about you. We're not even close to the boundary of platonic. Exhibit A: you and Jongdae, very much platonic. Exhibit B: you and Kyungsoo, utterly and probably eternally platonic," He explains in the most eloquent way possible. "You and me? Room neighbors."

"Sehun--" She doesn't like where this is going.

"Look, I know there's a reason behind it. Maybe your last loftmate fucked you over. A guy who tried to get jiggy with you for fun. Or maybe a girl who turned out to be a spy for the government. I don't know. The point is that it's just one person. One...fuck up. Have you lost your faith in humanity that much?"

Silence.

Bambi sits still, not knowing how to feel. Why is this person pestering her so much? Why won't he leave her alone? Is she that interesting? Or is she that dull? Like some goldfish swimming about in a bowl doing nothing, but sparking a certain curiosity by anyone who happens to pass by it?

The only fact she knows is this: he won't let it go until he's fed with the necessary information. He thinks he understands what she's going through without actually knowing the specifics. Thinking, 'Poor little girl. She probably needs some saving,' like some asshole therapist. He really does seem to be having a kick out of making an effort to dig up her past.

"You don't know shit about what happened to me," Bambi murmurs through gritted teeth. She holds onto her fork, trying not to shake at the anger boiling up inside her.

"I wasn't--"

"You don't know SHIT about what I've been through. So, don't stand there all high and mighty thinking that you know everyone and you have me all figured out." She finally gets off the kitchen counter and turns to him enraged.

"That's NOT what I was saying, Bambi," He responds gently.

"Bullshit," She says crossly as she throws her plate in the sink. She immediately exits the kitchen, attempting to get away from him. She doesn't want the situation to become worse than it already is.

"I know a person who's hurting when I see one," He blurts out.

She freezes into place, but doesn't turn; tears welling up in her eyes.

Sehun slowly makes his way to stand his ground right in front of her. Though she keeps shifting her gaze somewhere else, he only focuses on her.

"You're right. I don't know anything about what happened in your past. I don't even know anything about YOU. Besides the fact that you've got your walls sticking out all over the place when I'm around. Why do you care so much about what happened before that you can't even allow yourself to be a decent human being to me?!"

Her eyes immediately snap up at him. "DECENT human being?" She has to hold back a laugh. "I took you in when I didn't even know who the FUCK you were."

He stares at her hurt but doesn't do anything to show her how much. "You're going to go that far, huh?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to go a step further." She maintains her firm gaze at him. "You don't hear me asking you about the exact reason why you were homeless and how your ex was involved in it. So, why are you so eager to know about the last person who lived with me?!"

He lets a sharp breath out in disbelief. "Right," He says tight-lipped, "You're right. My bad."

As he walks away, she feels both relief and guilt crawling up inside her. He shouldn't have said anything. She was already trying to end the conversation earlier, but he had to go ahead open his big mouth.

'I know a person who's hurting when I see one.' It resonates in her head over and over. What do you know? You're just assuming on a hunch.

"If I told you, would you also tell me?" He's standing in front of her again.

"What? This isn't a trade. We're not fucking merchants," She harshly retorts.

"I just want to know why you're so hostile and closed up when it comes to this person. Everyone else knows! And I just sit there like a fucking idiot trying to solve some weird 90s crossword puzzle while the rest know exactly what to do!"

"Everyone else?"

"Dara, Jongdae, Amber, Kyungsoo," He enumerates as he shakes his head. "Don't act dumb about this."

DUMB?????? "They've been my friends for as long as I could remember." She glares at him impatiently.

"I just want to know what I'm dealing with!"

"You wanna know what you're dealing with?!" She shouts, finally giving in to all the rage that's been building up inside of her in such a short amount of time, "You're dealing with the asshole who broke my heart by cheating on me and dying right in front of my eyes!!! All in the same night! And that person also happens to be Amber's brother. That's what you're fucking dealing with."

Her eyes are still fixated on him as she draws a breath. "You happy now? Are you satisfied? Have I met your fucking needs?" She tries her hardest to stop her tears from falling. She doesn't want to cry; not in front of him.

Sehun stares back at her, slowly regretting his decision of taking it too far. "I'm so—I didn't—Bambi, I--" He stutters.

"Save it. You wanted to know, right?" She pushes past him, drawing the end of it then and there. "Well, now you do. So, stop fucking bothering me."