My Korean Christmas Prince Ch. 05

And then after we've eaten and I've cleared up the dishes, we're back in the living room. Yeong-soo is playing with Rosie who's loving all the extra attention, and Sonia has joined us and is sitting on her usual perch on the backrest of the sofa.

"Sleepy?" I ask Yeong-soo, hoping for even just a few more minutes of his company, feeling like every second is slipping through my fingers.

"A little," he says. "But, do you need to go to bed? I hope I didn't keep you up too late yesterday."

"No, no, I'm fine. Any time you want to go to sleep is fine with me," I reply, perhaps a little too quickly in my relief. "Did you want to watch another movie?" I ask him, trying to play it cool, but really hoping he says no.

Once again, as if he's reading my thoughts, Yeong-soo looks up from Rosie and looks me in the eye and says, "No, I'd just like to hang out, if you don't mind."

"Sure. Sounds good."

Yeong-soo goes back to playing with Rosie and we sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes. As I think over the day, I remember how much I used to love playing hockey, and then I'm suddenly struck by an idea.

"Hold on a sec," I say, walking over to the window and peering outside up at the night sky. No moon in sight.

"Uh oh," Yeong-soo says in alarm that may or may not be feigned. "I hope this is a better surprise than yesterday, when you exposed my true identity," he says half-joking.

"No, you'll like this," I say with a chuckle. "Come on," I say, gesturing at him to get up and follow me.

"Where are we going?" he asks as he stands up, intrigued.

"You'll see. But we have to go back out to the barn," I say mysteriously.

"Don't tell me we have to clean those sheep pens again!" Yeong-soo jokes as we put our winter gear back on and head out.

We walk to the barn at a casual pace, side by side, matching our strides step for step. My hand feels pulled towards Yeong-soo's, and I have to wonder at this seemingly natural instinct to want to hold the hand of the person you like. Where did it come from? What was its evolutionary purpose?

The snow has turned icier in the evening cold and crunches under our feet, and as we walk I steal a glance over at Yeong-soo and find that he's looking over at me, and we share another smile. Is he feeling the same thing I am? I wonder. That our day together was about as perfect a day as I've ever had in my entire life? And that I just want this last night to last as long as possible?

But it won't last forever. I know that. The sun will come up all too soon. But in the meantime, we can hide away in the dark, Yeong-soo and me.

And I can pretend for just a little bit longer that we're the only two people in the entire world.