A week later, however, Eunji realized that leaving him that day in the field of grass was the biggest mistake she had ever made in her entire life. It was not only because she was having, even wet, dreams about him every night or because she began to look up Ralph Lauren clothing over the net that would fit her or because she called Pepper ‘Sung gyu’ at certain odd occasions; no. But because she, as sad as it may sound, took longer than she should have, to realize that she was indeed in love with Kim Sung gyu. If not her obsessive dreams and frequent whining to Pepper and even making the same fried-rice he liked at home a few consecutive times at home, didn’t prove her that much, the simple fact that she had written his name at every nook and cranny of her dingy-little, completely messed up, cat-pee scented apartment room provided enough indications. Not only was she in love with him. She was ambitiously obsessed; it almost sent her converting into a creepy stalker.

Despite not having returned home for an entire week, Sung Gyu had indeed left a prominent trail behind him with only a simple kiss. Gradually Eunji’s stalker potentials improved, a lot more rapidly than her knowledge in patisserie had. She happened to take Pepper out much too often than not; tucked in her bag with a handful of Noms thrown inside for good measure. And then when she wasn’t taking Pepper out, she would lock him up in the bathroom and vacuum the hallway, one spot for much too long. It went on so, yet with no hint of her neighbor in her sight. By the end of that week she had already convinced herself that he had moved out secretly (According to her calculations, between four and five fifteen in the dawn because at all the other times she was either half asleep or meddling about the house with a hungry Pepper) because he didn’t want to meet her as he had planned.

A week and another three days later, however, on a fine cold Saturday evening while Eunji busied herself watching TV on the wrong sided sofa with her hand in a bag of chips, Kim Sung Gyu happened to come knocking on her door.

At first she was too bored to go to the door because it was too much of a hassle to climb down the sofa, and then she convinced herself that it was the mail man, and then when she realized it was Saturday and in the evening at that; Eunji let out a groan, her hand clean, hopped off the backrest of the sofa and trudged her way towards the door.

Upon opening it, an all too familiar voice happened to greet her cheerily; “Hi?”

Eunji’s first reaction was to freeze, and then to realize that it was Kim Sung Gyu there, for real, after days of stalking, in flesh and bones, and finally she realized that she had left all her obsessive Kim Sung Gyu things hoarding unnecessarily around the house, in display for all to see.

She couldn’t let him in. Her pride was more important.

“Oh hey!” She greeted, trying not to be over excited and closed the door, leaving only an inch or two wide parting. “How are you?”

Sung Gyu gave a questioning look at the parting of the door and replied. “I have an urgent matter to discuss, can I come in?”

“No!” Eunji bellowed, taking him by surprise so she quickly coughed to make up for it. “I mean…you can, but the house is….how about yours yes, we can-,”

“It’s all empty” Sung Gyu interjected. “I’m moving out today, everything’s been sent off so-,”

“Ah…” Eunji said and nodded in response. “Well, we can always speak here, out in the hall…or we can-,”

“What? Are you hiding something other than a cat in there?”

“No!” Definitely not. She chuckled. “What’s there to hide? Pepper, he had messed it up-,”

“Oh the jerk…” Sung gyu said and buried his hands in his pocket. Then he just looked at her. She looked back, and there was a moment of silence before Eunji finally stepped out and closed the door behind her. “Let’s talk!”

Sung Gyu looked baffled, and finally gave a bashful smile. “Ah yeah…”

“So you’re moving out…” Eunji said to make conversation. “Where to exactly?”

“To Ansan” Sung Gyu replied. “It’s an apartment house a few blocks away from my sister’s…since it’s a convenience, I decided to go…”

“Right” Eunji said and nodded, a lump forming in . Indeed, Ansan was quite a ride away from where she lived. It was saddening. It hurt her heart. “Right. Right…”

“I am here for something else, actually” Sung Gyu interjected and pulled out his hands. “I have something for you…”

Then his eyes moved downwards, gesturing at the cardboard box by his feet with a nod. Eunji recognized it right away. “Aha! The stolen historical artifact from Manchuria!”

“Wedding gift” Sung Gyu frowned. “Now a moving-out gift”

“Whatever…” Eunji said with her signature eye roll and continued. “And by the way, you never came back for the money…I’ve been keeping it and-,”

“You better get it then”

“Should I?” Eunji asked, in hopes he’d change his mind; but he didn’t.
“Of course! And be quick! I have to go”

With a groan, she turned back to the door and blindly entered the pass code, completely unaware to the one reading it behind her. He was frowning hard, unable to grasp it at first glance but got it anyway, and once she had gone inside, locking him out the door, he began to enter the code just as he remembered it. He was right at the first go, which was indeed surprising; and then, with the box carried in his hands, he stepped into the house.

The house was as same as he remembered it. Pepper the jerk was sitting on a pantry cabinet, its bum and inside it smelled faintly of Eunji’s scent and strongly of air freshener as well as cat pee. There were things of all sorts strewn about; from clothes to food wrappers and newspapers. Without giving them any concern, Sung Gyu placed the box on a kitchen counter, slapped Pepper off from his spot and began to take a suspicious look at each of the items in the house.

Eunji was busy counting the money she located from the drawers when she heard his voice from inside the house. At first she didn’t take notice. He had been in there before, it couldn’t me much of a problem then. But then it occurred to her that it was before and now was now. Her head was suddenly on fire.

“Oh !”

Sung Gyu had a mug with cat faces in his hand, on which his name was written with a permanent marker and with a heart at that. Then he found his name on the sofa material, then on the pantries a several times, on a seemingly dead, old Laptop computer, on an old T-shirt, even on the television set itself. Sung Gyu was creeped out and elated at the same time. “What on earth is going on?” He mumbled, thoroughly examining the fine details of his name written in different ways on a tissue paper. Then he called her name.

Eunji came out in a rush. Face hot and body drenched in sweat. Sung Gyu was standing there, the mug on which she wrote his name thousand times in his hand. She had never felt more embarrassed in her life.

“Eunji?” He said then, a grin fighting in his soft lips. And when he spoke, his voice shook, like he was laughing or trying not to laugh. “Eunji, are you…somehow, obsessed of me?”

“What?” Eunji said as if it was the biggest horror in the world. “No. I…”

“The why would you write my name on a mug? With hearts?”

“No! I-!”

“Then on the sofa, on the pantries, on the fridge, tissue rolls and maybe even on food-,”

“I didn’t-!”

Sung Gyu raised his brows. “Oh, so Pepper did?”

Eunji was rendered speechless. Of course she did it. She had done all of it. Not only had she written his name in every corner of her house; on kitchen appliances and cupboards and doors and even in the bathroom wall while she wailed about her big mistake to an unconcerned Pepper. She had also searched him up on the internet, put spontaneous Fan taken photos as wall papers, listened to every single one of his songs and fan videos on YouTube, learned their lyrics and sang them while in the shower. All in all, yes, she was obsessed. Not only had she fallen in love with him, but also she was obsessed of Kim Sung gyu for who he was.

But she wasn’t going to admit it; her pride was not giving in. The walls were up and she was still independent-

Yet there was this look in his eyes. So strong, penetrating. It was making her insides melt.

And Eunji couldn’t take it anymore.

“Okay…” Sigh. “I did” She admitted in the end.

Sung Gyu gave her a strange look and took another glance at the mug. “Where else? You got my name tattooed?”

She did write it on her wrist with a permanent marker, but she would never admit that. “No!”

Sung Gyu laughed. “What a stupid potato you are!”

“Don’t laugh!”

He stopped and looked into her eyes. “But why did you do that?”

Eunji pursed her lips, and every inch of her wanted to melt like snow in the spring. How could she say it? How could she get there? She was never that strong to admit things. It just made her weaker.

Then he was giving her that look again, and it was effective than any other kind of reassurance ever was. So she let out a sigh, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Telling things that she hid deep in her heart was harder than she ever thought it was.

“Well the truth is…” She began and bit her lip. “I…you know, kind of like you.” Then she went on. “I know, you’re an idiot, you’re a jerk. You hate Pepper, you call him little and I’m supposed to hate you for all of that, but…”

“But?” he urged on, a smile gracing on his lips.

“But…then I started to think that you were kind of nice, when you talked to me that night. And I thought you are kind of witty and cool and cute and you singing was really nice and stuff….and then, I don’t know. The thoughts of you makes me go crazy….” She took a deep breath and met his eyes. “You make me go crazy, and I like you”

Sung Gyu just stood there, smiling softly, head tilted to a side, looking like a proud father listening to his daughter admitting to her crimes. Eunji was then getting frustrated by the seconds because she wasn’t getting any reaction from him; when she was all about to protest, Sung Gyu took a soundly breath and said; “You are one of the reasons why I’m leaving”

Eunji widened her eyes. “What?”

Sung gyu smiled and shook his head. “It’s like….you’re crazy and stubborn and weird and I...I don’t know…Eunji you, make me go crazy”

“But why-?”

“You said nobody can have you…” He went on, and gave her a smile. “When everything was going down for me, you came up…but I couldn’t have you…”

“Oh” Eunji looked down at her feet. The things he had said earlier began to surge into her gradually. Back at his garden when they shared the first bottle of plum wine, back at the wedding, when they shared the last bottle of wine.

“So yeah” He mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck. “What….what do we do now?”

She just thought for a moment and quickly held her hand out, an envelope tucked between her fingers. “Six hundred and eighty dollars” she said and lowered her head.

Sung Gyu looked at the envelope, at Eunji’s lowered head, back at the envelope and burst out laughing. “Oh Eunji!”

“What?” She said, perturbed, but before she could say more, Sung Gyu stepped towards her, kept the mug aside and pulled her towards him by her arms. “Come here you!”

His arms wrapped around her instantly and the envelop fell off her fingers, down between their feet. They moved closer to each other, almost touching; the tips of their noses keeping distance between them, and she smiled. She was loved, and it was possibly the best feeling she had ever had felt in her life.

“I love you, you stupid, cat-loving independent woman”

Eunji smiled and moved to meet his lips with hers. “I love you too”

When their lips moved and hearts unraveled, however; the reasons he had come to her disappeared in the air above them. They didn’t do much talking after all.

*

Lips, wet and soft; gentle sloppy were all over his face. Still with his eyes closed, Sung Gyu began to murmur his love to her. “I know, I know…I love you too”

She wasn’t responding. At least she wasn’t in words. But the kisses didn’t seem to stop e loved it. They were still in bed, , basking in the afterglow of making love throughout the night. And while everything had gone good and well, Sung Gyu wasn’t sure he had had enough of her. He refused to leave; even with the movers taking his load across the routes of Seoul to his new home. Nothing seemed to matter more to him while he was with her.

She too was proving it to him, with all these kisses on his face.

Something moved on his side then; a loud ugly groan and her sleepy voice muttered into his ear in a husky tone, “He likes you too”

Sung Gyu pulled back and opened his eyes, taken by the biggest horror of his life. There was Pepper the jerk, perched on his chest, on his face. It had been him all that time!

“Ahhh!!!” Sung Gyu hadn’t been more scared his entire life. He tried to throw it away from him, but it was so huge that he couldn’t get his hands around it. Eunji, who was laughing beside him, took him gently in her hands and kept on her side.

“Put it away!” Sung Gyu said, pure horror inflicted in his eyes. “What are you doing? Eunji, put it away-!”

She just laughed, patted on the cat’s head who was purring loudly and moved to lean over him. Sung Gyu softened gradually. He couldn’t help but do so when his eyes met hers, and he smiled. “Ssh…” a slender finger pressed against his lips and it moved to trace the shape of them. “You have taken over a cat-lady, Kim Sung Gyu…and all cat ladies come as a packaged deal of love, compassion, beauty and a cat”

Sung Gyu and me are basically me and I my boyfriend tbh.

I hope you enjoyed!