It became easier for the two of them to get close after that. Gary was pretty easy to talk to, after all. He was a good listener, she found, after spending some time with him during filming breaks and after filming sometimes, and Jihyo often felt that in some way, they understood each other well. They talked more about the struggles they faced while filming Running Man, about the pressure of trying to please a crowd, keeping up their images on the show while juggling their roles as actress/singer, and how much they had come to care about the show, despite their initial hesitation to do variety. They even added more gags for their Monday Couple act, and Jihyo had a lot of fun with Gary both during filming and after. The members, of course, noticed how much time they started spending with each other.

            “There’s something up with those two,” Jaesuk constantly teased them, on show and off the show. At first, Jihyo had felt uncomfortable with his jokes about her being with Gary, but she learned to let the comments roll off. After all, she wasn’t doing anything worth feeling guilty over. So they just let the members tease them.

He invited her to sing at his Leessang concert. After the concert, naturally, she started listening to his songs more. The lyrics for his song “The Pursuit of Happiness” particularly caught her eye- the lyrics talked about how he had gotten into variety and persevered through the rough times.

           Don’t give up easily on this game called life. And she felt encouraged by those words.

           He sort of reminded her of Kwangsoo in how easily she was able to talk to him, after she made the decision to be honest with him. Unlike Kwangsoo, though, he was a good drinker, and they often went out for light drinks together, sometimes with Haha and sometimes just the two of them, during which they’d talk about more personal things. It was awkward when it came up, but he even asked her about her boyfriend.

          “How are things with Mr. Baek?” he asked, hesitantly, startling her since she hadn’t really been thinking about her boyfriend at all, and she felt a little guilty about it. She thought of not answering, somehow reluctant to discuss her love life with Kang Gary. It was like she didn’t want Gary to know about her boyfriend. That’s silly, she told herself. It’s not like you’re dating Gary. It’s not like he really cares anyway. He’s just asking out of courtesy.

    “It’s alright. We’ve been going out for some time now… he’s very nice; gentlemanly. He takes care of me, especially since he’s my CEO.”

            “Ahh. Who confessed first: you or him?” he asked playfully. She rolled her eyes.

            “He did, oppa.”

            “I see. And you fell for his charms instead of mine, your Monday Boyfriend?” he teased. She swatted his shoulder.

            “Okay, okay.”

           “He’s much more mature than you are, oppa,” she told him, sticking out her tongue. He rubbed his chest in mock pain.

           “Ouch, that hurts.”

           She rolled her eyes at him. “See what I mean?” she said, though she was smiling when saying it. She played with the glass in her hand. “He’s good to me,” she told him offhandedly. “Keeps me from feeling like I’m all alone since my family’s all back in Pohang, even though he’s often busy and away.”

Her boyfriend, who had returned from Japan had picked her up after a celebration party with the members (during which her immature coworkers replayed the footage of her singing with Gary, teasing her mercilessly about it) on rare occasion, and he had commented upon the large grin she wore on her face while she was putting on her seatbelt.

“Looks like you sure are having fun without me,” he had quipped. Jihyo had rolled her eyes, the smile wiped right off her face, but then a thought popped into her head.

“Right. Oppa, when do you ever plan to meet the oppas and Kwangsoo? You’ve never met them before, right?”

He had turned to her in surprise. “You want me to meet them? Why?” He sounded as if he had never entertained the thought.

It was her turn to be surprised. “Oppa, of course I’d want you to meet them. Jaesuk-oppa, Sukjin-oppa, Kwangsoo, and the others… they’re like my family now. I’d want my family to meet my boyfriend,” she told him. “In fact, it’s bad manners that I’ve kept you hidden from them for this long, so to speak!”

He didn’t say anything and had just drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, his face unreadable. Then he’d turned to her.

“Maybe sometime, when I’m not so busy,” he had promised with a brief smile on his face, though his eyes expressed disinterest to her before his eyes returned to the road. So she’d dropped the topic, though she couldn’t help but feel slightly irritated by the whole thing. But you’re always busy, she couldn’t help but think to herself.

“Was it hard to come up to Seoul by yourself?” Gary was asking, so she shook the thoughts of her annoyance at her boyfriend away. “You felt lonely?”

“Ah, it was at first,” she admitted. “I don’t make friends easily and kind of keep to myself, as you probably already know. But being on the show has made it much better for me. The members also keep me from feeling so lonely.” She chuckled to herself a little. “Isn’t that weird? I like to keep to myself, but I hate being alone. It’s probably a really selfish trait of mine.”

Gary looked at her over his drink. “I get that,” he said. “And I don’t think you’re selfish. You worked really hard to get close to each of the members on the show in the beginning and have stuck around, even though it can’t be easy to be the only girl in the group, and you always try your best to greet the guests on Running Man and befriend them. You even agreed to my asking you to be friends and opened up to me and all, even if you didn’t really want to. So no, you’re not selfish at all.”

She met his eyes then, and he smiled at her. It wasn’t as if he had said anything profound, but her heart felt warm all the same.