When Josh stepped out onto the balcony, he saw that I had fallen asleep in front of theputer, the dim yellow light casting a soft glow on my face. His gaze lingered on me.


    1 could feel his eyes on me, but I just couldn’t bring myself to wake up.


    After a long moment, I heard him call my name softly, “Zoe, Zoe…”


    I thought, ‘Zoe? Is he calling me? Yes, that is my name.’


    “My name is Zoe…” In my dream, a little girl appeared before me, with two buns in her hair and a sweet, doll-like face. She was calling out to a boy.


    The boy was distant and quiet. Then, I became the girl, and Josh became the boy. I was leaning on his back.


    “Josh, you smell nice…”


    “Josh, there’s a little ck dot on the back of your neck. Let me get rid of it.”


    “Zoe, stop pinching, it hurts.”


    “Josh, you’re tired. Can we stop running?”


    “Mom, I like Josh. I want to marry him…”


    “Mom, Dad, stopughing. I’m really going to marry Josh.”


    “Zoe, you can’t marry him. You already have a fiancé…”


    “I don’t want to marry him. He’s a jerk! A jerk!”


    I woke up suddenly, my breathing quick and shallow. I thought, ‘How strange… How could I dream about Josh and me, and when we were so young-probably only two years old?’


    Lying there for a few seconds, I blinked and realized something felt off. I slowly sat up and looked around. This wasn’t my


    room.


    My mind rushed back tost night. I froze, ncing around. Therge bed I had been in was empty, and Josh was nowhere to be found. I looked down at myself-still fully dressed, nothing had been disturbed.


    I let out a quiet breath and walked out of the room, my eyesnding on Josh, who was sleeping on the couch. As expected of a soldier, even when sleeping on the couch, he was perfectly arranged.


    My first thought was, ‘How can he sleep like that? Isn’t it ufortable?’ Honestly, someone so neat and organized made you want to mess things up just to see him lose that perfectposure.


    He was still asleep. I stood quietly for a few seconds, watching him, then tiptoed over to myputer.


    I picked it up carefully, moving quietly as I made my exit. The thought of having slept in this roomst night was so embarrassing, I just had to leave without waking him.


    Luckily, I had grabbed the room key when I left. When I snuck back in, Myra was still sound asleep, so I didn’t have to worry about her stirring up a storm with her wild guesses.


    It was 5 a.m. when I checked my phone. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep, so I opened myptop to pick up where 1/2


    I left off with the problems Josh had pointed out yesterday.


    But when I opened the files, I was surprised to see he’d already handled everything.


    I stared at the screen for a moment, lost in thought. Then, I went to wash up and drink some water, before heading out onto the balcony to get some fresh air.


    As I looked out at the view, I saw Josh again, standing below.


    I thought, ‘Has he woken up too? He was still asleep when I left earlier. Did I wake him when I opened the door? Or has he already been awake and just pretended to be asleep to avoid making things awkward for me?’


    As I stood up there, looking down at him, my thoughts started to swirl. At that moment, I couldn’t deny it-Josh was starting to have an impact on me, and the more time I spent around him, the stronger that influence became.


    I sent Jasmine a cheeky text first thing in the morning. [A man and a woman sleep in the same room, but nothing happens. What do you think that means?]


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