Light was flooding in through the window beside the bed. Her eyelids fluttered until Lisa finally woke up. She squinted it and closed it again. She groaned. She didn't feel like waking up just yet.

Lisa heard noises from downstairs. Soft paws running against the vinyled floor. The sound of bodies thumping softly against something solid. There were hissings, too. And meows. Leo and Luca, Lisa thought and smiled a little. Her two boys were always active in the morning and would either judge her or shower her with love when she gets down later. The judging part would mostly be done by Leo. There was definitely something with that cat. And Luca--that beautiful boy was always so sweet and compose and didn't have issues. They were a complete polar opposite, in Lisa's maternal opinion. There was music, too.

Her mornings had always been like that, except the music playing on the speakers. Nothing new. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing unusual. Except that she did not feel ordinary at all. Something was persistently prodding her semi-conscious state of being. It was hanging in the air and clearly demanding for her attention. It wasn't thick. It wasn't too thin, either. But it was there, just waiting for her to acknowledge it.

Lisa stretched her long limbs until her muscles ached and protested and let out a long yawn but stopped halfway and suddenly wondering why there was a strong essence of strawberry seeping through her nosetrils in the morning. Why was she inhaling strawberry in the morning? She squeezed her eyes more. She had always been disoriented in the morning and had to actually recall what occurred the night before, every time.

She went to a party with Doona. That part she could practically remember easily. And Jennie arrived. And Jisoo, too, in her pajamas. And Jennie again, in the car with her. And Jennie. In her house. Jennie, in her bed. Jennie and all sorts of sounds that Jennie made when...

Lisa snapped her eyes open. She sprung up and looked at the empty space beside her. At the crumpled sheet, in furrowed brows.

"Jennie?" Lisa uttered the name a little too loudly--laced with panic and confusion--and noticed the neatly piled office clothes at the foot of her bed that obviously weren't hers.

"Down here, by the kitchen!" Jennie replied from downstairs.

And that was what made Lisa's morning different today. The promise of a good breakfast was wafting in the air. Pancakes, definitely. She could smell the buttery goodness of it already. Not burnt (thank goodness!) and sniggered at the thought. There was a delicious mixture of aromas from coffee and chocolate, too. And also the expensive strawberry scent that lingered comfortably on her bed, and the outburst of excitement and embarrassment inside her, yes. Lisa started to wonder what Jennie was wearing while working on the kitchen below, now that her clothes from last night were, well, abandoned.

And Lisa was still wearing the red dress from last night, she finally noticed as she pushed herself up from her bed, groggily at first because she was still finding her bearings. She went straight to her closet and randomly picked something to wear--an oversized white tee that stretches towards half of her long thighs. She bunned her hair and headed to the bathroom to remove the make up she was still wearing and brush her teeth.

She smiled and snickered at herself through the misty mirror when the intimate memories from last night started to flood in, especially at the thought of where her mouth and tongue had transcended, while she was brushing it. Her face was burning hot, even after she splashed cold water into it to wash off the facial foam she applied on it.

"Lili?" Jennie called, probably wondering why Lisa hasn't descended yet from the loft.

"Coming!" Lisa responded and quickly dried her face with a towel.

If Lisa would be honest, she was actually stalling her going downstairs because she was mentally preparing herself how to face Jennie. She knew she would be embarrassed to face her after what happened last night. Well, not embarrassed-embarrassed, but she was feeling hot in the face while recalling the things that took place inside her bedroom last night. And now that her mind was clear and working, she could now remember all of it too well. All the details.

Jennie and her soft, strawberry-scented skin. Jennie and those lips that were singing songs of love and pleasure while she was glorifying her. Jennie and the way her name--"Lisa!"--escaped from Jennie's mouth while holding on to her as tightly as they both could because it was the best ride of their lives yet and words have failed to decribe it for both of them. And it was wonderful. It was an adventure that took them to places they probably both knew exist but had no idea how beautiful those places are until they've reached it.

All of that was swirling inside Lisa's head as she carefully and slowly took each steps, barefooted, and she headed downstairs as quietly as she could. Which was a feat, actually. Considering how loud she usually was in the morning. Purposely, if she may so, to match Luca and Leo's boisterous energy. But mainly just to annoy Leo.

If Lisa was a ray of sunshine as per Irene last night, Jennie was an angel. With a halo around her head, Lisa thought gingerly upon setting her eyes on her Nini, who seriously looked radiating, literally and figuratively, against the soft glowing sunlight from the kitchen window behind her.

Jennie's back was on Lisa. She was wearing a white cotton bedroom dress, with spaghetti straps and the hemline exposing half of Jennie's thighs. Jennie must have searched through Lisa's pile of unused clothes because Lisa couldn't remembering wearing that one ever.

The sight of Jennie Kim working in the kitchen, with her hair down and her feet occasionally moving and thumping against the floor in harmony with the music she was listening to was a sight to behold. It was beautiful and a welcoming sight that Lisa would probably never get tired of.

Lisa tiptoed and took her camera from the shelf. She couldn't freeze the moment forever but she could immortalize it through her lens. But the sound of the shutter made Jennie swirled on her spot and greeted Lisa with her bright, gummy smile and a very cheery, "Good morning, Lili!"

Lisa smiled and tried to open her mouth to respond but closed it after. Her mouth was failing her. Words were failing her. But the very thing inside her chest didn't. Jennie's sunny smile and the excitement in her eyes as they made contact with Lisa's brown orbs made Lisa's heartbeat skipped a few frantic beats until it just went off completely in loud, rapid beating. Which was good, actually, Lisa thought, because she had never felt more alive in the morning until today.

But what should a person say to someone she had made love to for the first time last night? Lisa wondered, after she noticed a sudden slight change in the frequency of her pulses (which she could only translate as panic) while staring straight at Jennie and the anticipation written on the chaebol's face.

A 'good morning, Nini!' should be a nice and appropriate reply. Or 'hey!' Or both, in one sentence. 'Hey, beautiful!' could be a candidate, too. But 'beautiful' was an understatement in comparison to how unrealistically beautiful Jennie Kim was at the moment. With her perfectly smooth bare face and glowing skin, and an aura that Lisa had never seen on Jennie before.

Lisa thought she should say the right words. But as her mouth was unbelievably failing her at tye moment, she ditched the idea of communicating through conversing. Instead, she decided to follow what her heart had been telling her to do.

With long, big strides, Lisa decided--with a silent hope that she wouldn't trip in front of Jennie because her insides was squirming with excitement, among everything else--to close their gap and headed straight to where Jennie Kim was standing--beside the electric stove, leaning on the sink counter, barefoot, with a spoon on one hand and a look that clearly says, "Come here, you silly!"--and crashed her mouth straight into Jennie's lips. Their arms automatically found their ways and snaked around each other's body. Lisa's on Jennie's waist, Jennie's around Lisa's neck.

They soon realized that morning kisses after a hot and intimate affair from the night before was way more everything than all the kisses they had shared from the night before or yhe kisses before that, as the kiss deepened and a contented sigh had escaped from Jennie's mouth. It was a lot of mores, the kiss. More beautiful, more exciting, more...everything. And Lisa wanted all of that more and everything right here, on her kitchen. But she decided to pull away before it would escalate. Before she would escalate it.

"Hi! I love you," Lisa said breathlessly and offered Jennie a lazy smile. She needed to say that before she would go crazy because her heart and everything about her was close to exploding. "Have I told you that last night?" she asked.

She did. Lisa knew she did. She remembered it vividly--how she had said it, when she had said it. But she needed the validation. She needed a reminder that last night wasn't just a dream. And this morning, too.

Jennie flashed her gummy smile and nodded. She tiptoed and kissed Lisa again. Tenderly, this time.

"Yes, you did, Lili," Jennie replied and made a face. "Was that a 'good morning' kiss or an 'I love you' kiss?" she asked playfully, eyebrows hitching up and down in standard motion. "Because if it was either of the two, then I'm seriously want more of it."

Lisa chuckled. "Uh, it was a 'good morning, I love you' kiss," she said and kissed Jennie again. A little more passionately this time. She was now cupping Jennie's face inside her hands. "I can't believe you're still here," she said after she pulled away yet again and laughed a little when she heard the disappointment in Jennie's sigh.

"Why? Did you expect me to be somewhere else?" Jennie asked, frowning and tilting her head a little to the side and looked at Lisa curiously.

Lisa chuckled as she noticed the specks of white, powdery dusts resting on the tip of Jennie's nose and some on her left cheek, which Lisa assumed were flour.

"I just, uh--" Lisa started and dusted the flour off using her hand and couldn't resist planting a peck on the chaebol's frown. "I thought it might have scared you off a little, I guess," she said.

Jennie eyes squinted. She bit the inside of her cheek, as though she was contemplating about something, before she asked, "Which 'it' specifically?" in a very curious way.

"You know," Lisa hesitated, "that."

Lisa couldn't bring herself to speak and talk openly about sex--or on her case, the lovemaking that she and Jennie did last night--because Doona's words suddenly echoed inside her head. "I want you to get laid. There, I said it." She hadn't gotten laid, per se, Lisa told herself. But she did end up with someone on her bed and Lisa wasn't sure if it would equate to getting laid, by definition, but it was a beautiful, overwhelming feeling and...

"This?" Jennie spoke softly, pulling Lisa away from her train of thoughts and kissed her full in the mouth.

It was demanding but cautious. Teasing, but with a hint-of-longing kind of kiss. Like how Lisa was kissing her last night. And as the kiss deepened and an exchanged of soft moans took place, drowning the music playing (You don't know, babe/ When you hold me/You kiss me slowly/It's the sweetest thing) and before Lisa could even run her hands on Jennie's back, Jennie was already steering Lisa (by pulling her by the shirt) towards where Lisa could vaguely remember where her dining table was without breaking the kiss and eventually pushed the taller woman to sit down at the edge of one of the two wooden high stools.

"That," Lisa said as she felt her bottom touched the cold, hard wood and their lips have parted, "was hot!" She was catching her breath. "Was that a good morning kiss?" She blinked. That kiss just haywired her brain, set her soul on fire and unhinged her complete being.

"I'd take that as a compliment," Jennie said with a smirk and nestled herself between Lisa's thighs and chucked at the thought that they were now on eye-levels. Her arms rested on Lisa's shoulder. Her fingers were already busy playing with Lisa's loose hairs and tucked them behind her ears.

"It is," Lisa replied, the quick beating of all the pulses all over her body hadn't slowed down yet. It was that mind-blowing hot. "You look great on this, by the way," she said hazily. She was feeling encouraged and highly motivated that she started to playfully tugged the thin fabric of Jennie's right strap and planted a kiss on the exposed skin.

Lisa started planting hot, slow kisses on Jennie's bare shoulder and ran it upwards as Jennie craned her neck and sucked for air.

"I saw the marks you gave me," Jennie said after she held her breath and clutched her hands on Lisa's tee fabric because Lisa had hit something--her weak spot.

Lisa only replied with a grunt because she was busy trailing kisses and spraying hot breaths on Jennie's soft, milky skin that tasted like expensive strawberries.

"It was a lot," Jennie continued with a struggle as Lisa had turned on that switch inside her again, which she didn't knew she had until last night. "We, Kims, are rather..." An involuntary moan had escaped. "Bounteous when showing our gratitude and I intend to give back the generosity you had bestowed upon me last night, Lisa," she said and exerted all her effort to pull away and put a halt on Lisa's sweet and electrifying adventure on her neck and behind her ear. "Tenfold."

Lisa groaned and pouted. "Really?" she asked.

"Really," Jennie said, feeling a surge of confidence inside her and smiled so so sweetly. "I've been thinking..."

"I'm not entirely sure if I'm liking the way you're smiling at me right now, Jennie Kim," Lisa said and eyed Jennie suspiciously.

"I'm sure you don't, Lalisa Manoban," the chaebol replied playfully and without warning, brought her mouth to the nook where Lisa's neck and shoulder met. "You smell good in the morning," she said, inhaling the scent she discovered there before she showered it with kisses.

"And you're pretty aggressive this morning," Lisa commented as she willingly craned her neck to give Jennie better access. Her hands tightened around Jennie's hips as she felt Jennie bit a tiny chunk of her neck and sucked it carefully after. It was waking something inside her. Again.

"Is this payback?" Lisa asked jokingly after Jennie had straightened up seconds later and took a step back to admire her work.

"No, silly," Jennie replied, but looked somewhat disappointed. "It's tiny and not as visible compared to what you gave me," Jennie said and reached out to trace her forefinger on the faint hickey. "But there's always room for improvement."

"Jen..." Lisa started.

"What happened last night wasn't the kind of thing that would scare me away, Lili. I love you," Jennie said in her most vulnerable and sincere voice, "and I'm certain I won't be going anywhere. Not now, not ever. You should know that by now," she said.

"Won't you be going to work today, though?" Lisa inquired.

"The world outside can wait, Lili," Jennie replied.

And the fire from last night had been re-ignited, refueled. The temperature  had reached the highest point of the scale. Longingly and aggressively, Lisa pulled Jennie closer to claim her mouth once again. She wanted to convey what words had failed her, by kissing Jennie Kim deep and ravenously. The promise of a good breakfast was forgotten, as they tasted each other's mouth when their tongues finally met and got to dance to their own music once again. Love and desire had overtaken them.

The pancakes can wait. The brewed coffee and the chocomilk can wait. They all had to wait, because in that moment and the moments onward, the only thing that mattered to them was them, and the way the surge of everything inside them, wanting to consume and be comsumed by them.

The world outside had to wait, including Lisa's intentions of telling Jennie everything about Pranpriya and Thailand. All of that can wait because Lisa was convinced that they had all the time in the world to talk about anything and everything in between kisses, or over a meal. Or when they would lay exhausted and contended in the bed after another round of lovemaking later (because that was where they would definitely end up later, anyway). Lusa would tell Jennie about Pranpriya, about the Manobans in Thailand, about her sweet and very loving grandparents, whose eyesights had gone bad over the years but would recognize her once they would hear her voice. She would tell Jennie about her childhood, how she used to sport an apple-cut hair.

But all of that can wait.

....

If dreams were to be interpreted literally, Chaeyoung Park's dream would never make any sense to her at all.

She was dreaming of riding on a group of soft, cottony clouds. The air was crisp despite of the sunny weather. It might have turned her face a little numb but it was bearable and welcoming.

There were birds flying around her, with her. Where they were heading, she didn't know. What she knew, though, and couldn't help but paying attention to it, was that a distant ringing of a cellular phone was audible in the air. It was faint and barely audible, but it was enough to make Chaeyoung wonder how on earth was there a cellular phone in the sky? Was it God calling her? And instead of a giant trumpet, there was a cellular phone? Technology had really taken over, hadn't it?

Chaeyoung fidgeted. She thought of changing her position. It was weird lying on her back and seeing nothing but the vast blue sky above her. But she couldn't move. She tried to lift her hands but she couldn't. She tried to raise her feet but it wasn't moving. As though something invisible and heavy was keeping her still.

And soon enough, she wasn't flying anymore, Chaeyoung noticed. Something was pulling her down. She was falling and she would die soon in midair (or probably on land, when gravity had finally done its job on her) and the birds, she realized as panic was starting to arise on her chest, were there to accompany her to the gates of heaven.

She was panicking and ready to scream her lungs out, which really wouldn't make any sense at all because she knew she was only dreaming and she wasn't really falling from the sky. But it all felt so real and that would be a gruesome way to die.

The ringing grew louder and louder that it snatched her away from the gravity and woke her up eventually. And when she snapped her eyes open, she was greeted by the hovering face of a groggy Doona Bae and a cellular phone, which Chaeyoung recognized at once as hers. It was ringing for a few seconds before it fell silent.

"I was contemplating whether I should throw this out the window or flush it down the toilet because it doesn't stop ringing and my head feels like blowing into million pieces," Doona said and handed the device to Chaeyoung, giving Chaeyoung no time to even catch her breath.

"Uh, t-thanks?" Chaeyoung hesitated as Doona placed the device on her palm. She was taken aback by Doona's grumpiness and the fact that Doona Bae was inside her bedroom. She had forgotten to lock the door, she