“Chaerin?” he was wearing a perky expression when I walked towards him. The nerve of this guy. How could he smile like that when I’m worrying how I could pay the package!? Oh right, I forgot. He doesn’t even care. He had already stuffed whatever he was stuffing inside his wallet when I finally reached his place. “How was your--”

“Jingyo!!” I called him using my angry voice. He hates that nomen—Jingyo. He told me it sounds funny and it particularly annoys him since I am the one calling him by that name.

As if shaking off my ‘to-annoy-you’ tactic #1, he just looked at me charmingly and asked, “Did you enjoy it?”

“I didn’t!! It was terrible! You shouldn’t have brought me here!” I didn’t have any control over the volume of my voice. The lady at the front desk immediately turned to our direction. I bowed at her, embarrassed, and then looked at the man in front of me again. “How dare you.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“How dare I? You mean, ‘thank you!’?” He smiled.

“Yah! Don’t act like a good oppa or something!” I crossed my arms. He mocked me by crossing his arms too, and then came his low chuckle.

“Well then, you’re welcome. Let’s go!” Why is he unusually nice to me today? Is it because he took pity on me when I lost my job? He grabbed my arm and pulled me to walk with him.

“Yah! Wait!” I tried getting his hand off of me with my free hand but to no avail. I sighed when I realized I can’t do anything about it. “Are you crazy?!”

“Crazy?” He stopped walking but he didn’t look at me. I saw him raise a brow and asked again, “What do you mean?”

“How can you do this? You know very well that I just got fired from work! How can you take me to this spa, when I didn’t even bring any money nor do I have any left!” This time, I freed my arm from his now loose grasp and kicked up a fuss. I tried to lower my volume so as to not catch other people’s attention. “Don’t tell me you paid for the package because I won’t believe it! And now, you’re asking me to go with you? To leave? Yah! I’m not doing that rotten thing! I know I still have to pay for the package, even if it means cleaning this whole building or..” I paused and thought about what I just said. “Okay, maybe I’m not going to agree with the cleaning the whole building thing…” his mouth curled into a smile as if he had heard the most hilarious thing ever. “This will be the last time you’ll be able to do something like this!! I’m leaving! And I’m taking my sister with me!” 680,000 KRW is no joke. He could have thought of a lighter prank. So much for the fight of the century between Jiyong and me. I mean, we were always fighting, ‘til now. I’m honestly tired of all of it. I want to leave a peaceful life.

“You can’t do that.” He finally turned to me, but the smile left his face and his expression was replaced with a serious one. When it comes to Minzy, he’s always like this.

“Yes, I can.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“Oh yeah?” He challenged me with his intense stare.

“Try me.” I turned my back on him and marched towards the front desk. I stopped when I heard him call my name.

“Lee Chaerin! You don’t have any right to--”

“Of course I have the right! I’m her sister. You are just the best friend and you aren’t even my friend.” How the hell did those words come out of my mouth? I sounded so rude! Although I think he was used to it by this time already. We bicker all the time. And most often, unpleasant words would naturally come out of our mouths. He didn’t reply right away so I got eccentrically nervous all of a sudden. What is he thinking…? Yah, talk!

I turned my head a little to take a peek at Jiyong but he was suddenly nowhere in sight. The Jiyong-less place made me turn around and use my eyes to look for him.  

Where is he?

I looked to my right and oh! There he was, standing close to me. I took a little step back, distancing my face from his.

“You shouldn’t do that.” Why?

I eyed him curiously but it surprised me when he bitterly smiled.

“I paid for the package. If you don’t believe me, well, I think you really don’t, so you may just ask the lady there.” He pointed to the front desk. “You aren’t restricted to leave this place. This spa thing… It’s all on me. I won’t make you pay for it. I just noticed you needed to take a break. You needed to relax and to stop being disturbingly busy. Why won’t you believe it? I care about you.” Is he telling the truth? His last statement made me gasp in my subconscious. This is the first time he said something quite heart-leaping. I masked my emotionally moved self by keeping the look I have on my face.

I gave him no reply but I really walked to the front desk to ask the lady about it. When she told me that the man who I was with paid for my package, I only nodded dully. I feel bad for being half-witted. I misunderstood him! He already succeeded in making me happy by treating me to this I can’t afford spa but I’m acting so stupid! Pabo Chaerin! Pabo, pabo, pabo! I slowly turned my head and flashed Jiyong an embarrassed and sorry smile. He let out a laugh of disbelief and walked away.

“Thank you, Jiyong!” I spoke in a voice loud enough for him to hear. When he didn’t even reply with a hand gesture of ‘yeah, got it’ or anything… I sighed. I could hate myself now.

----

I can’t help but smile when I saw Chaerin walking towards me. She must have kissed me a million times in her head because she can’t resist the handsome and caring man that I am to her just now.

She’s almost here…

Huh? I suddenly wondered. Why does she look so angry? Her expression says it all. That’s how she looks like whenever we’re fighting. That is not how I expected her to be. Maybe she’s just trying to look cool because she’s embarrassed about getting treated to this kind of stuff? Keke. Maybe!

She stood opposite me when she called me by the name that as much as I remember, I loathed hearing. Jingyo. It didn’t annoy me one bit. In fact, I felt bizarrely happy when she called me Jingyo. She should do it again!

I flashed my genuine smile and asked about her spa experience to which she replied she didn’t enjoy it and that I shouldn’t have brought her here. The in denial Chaerin. Kekeke~ she narrowed her eyes at me and even questioned how dare me—that made me giggle inside. Is she shy? But then I was taken aback when she doubted my good intention. Chaerin told me to drop the good oppa act and I badly wanted to tell her I wasn’t acting! She crossed her arms and I did the same. I wanted to annoy her. Not the hateful type of being annoying, but the playful one. The type in which I am like her oppa… her cute oppa boyfriend. She didn’t look too amused by what I did so I just took her by the arm to leave this place. Perhaps we can spend some time together. Weird Jiyong, huh?

She was struggling to make me lose my grip on her arm so I didn’t. Unexpectedly, I didn’t want to let go of her. What is she up to? She asked me if I was crazy and it made me speculate if she burned her brain while in the sauna. I asked her what she meant when she called me crazy and she replied with weird things, she does completely not believe that I treated her here. Well, I forgot to tell her about it, I guess I should wait ‘til she asks about that. Chaerin told me she was worrying about money. She didn’t have anything to pay for the package. But why are you worried about that? I already paid for it!

I see.

She’s scared.

I can feel it.

She’s scared because she thought she’d be paying for the package when she just lost her job. She was already blabbering things like cleaning this whole building as payment for her spa and I flashed a very amused smile. She’s exaggerating things. I mean, she needs not to worry about paying for the spa. How many times do I have to say it in my subconscious? I already paid for it!!! Then she told me she wouldn’t leave this place because it’s a rotten thing to do—to leave without settling your accounts? I was even accused like a bad man freeing a prisoner from a city jail.

I was about to tell her that it was my treat.

That I am only eager to hear her Thanks for what I did.

That she didn’t need to panic nor clean this place because I got it all covered.

But then…

She said that this will be the last time I can do such thing like this. What did I do? She will be leaving, and she’s taking Minzy with her. WHAT? NO! HELL NO! She can’t take Minzy with her. She can’t leave…

I looked at her straight in the eye and told her that she can’t do that. I was serious.

After the exchange of you can’t and I can, she marched to the front desk and finally blurted out what she’s meant to say all this time.I’m her sister. You are just the best friend and you aren’t even my friend.

But I wasn’t talking about Minzy.

I told her she can’t leave because… I simply don’t want her to leave.

At first I was really mean to her because my intention was to make her suffer for leaving Minzy. I did what she hated. I . I always pranked her. I really made her suffer. To be honest, I didn’t have a concrete reason why I was doing those things. My reason was because I need to avenge Minzy, that I should, in a different way, make Chaerin feel the pain that her sister has felt in the past, and that I should do it to make her realize what she’s done.

But I realized that I fought with her most of the time. That was totally out of the plan. And it made me always think about what my reason really is in the first place. Because I really planned to stop torturing her! But then, I started to crave for more of her attention… I wanted to be someone who’d take all her time so she can only think of me. So I didn’t stop. I was afraid because I was starting to care. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. But I didn’t want to remain ‘evil’ to her forever.

So she doesn’t consider me as her friend? Or maybe even something close to it? No?

I walked towards her and she peeked at the place where I stood. When she didn’t see me, she turned around and I could see that her eyes were already searching for me. I placed myself at the side right of hers. She soon found me and our faces were quite close at that time so she backed away a little.

I told her she shouldn’t leave with Minzy and her eyes looked at me as if replying with the question why.

So I replied with all the things that were on my mind.

I even confessed that I care about her.

She didn’t look too touched or happy. So I guessed she didn’t like me caring for her. What was I expecting anyway? After all the horrible things I’ve done…

She didn’t reply after that so she went to ask the lady if I really paid for her package. After a minute or two, she turned to me and she was smiling a flustered smile. Or was it a sorry one? I could tell it was the half of both. I didn’t even notice but I let out a laugh of disbelief. I was feeling dejected. She didn’t believe my words that she even had to ask a stranger if it was really true or not.

I walked away with a heavy heart.

She shouted a Thank You.

But I couldn’t even bring my hand to motion that she’s welcome.

Why am I feeling lonely now?

--

The next day…

Jiyong had returned to being the mean guy to Chaerin minus the overly torturing things and plus Minzy’s knowledge. He finally told his best friend that he’d been making her sister suffer to avenge her. Minzy got mad at him but with his tireless efforts, he managed to brush the angry Minzy away. And he knew that he was still her oppa. The oppa who she can’t resist.

He was avoiding Chaerin and sometimes, he’s making things difficult for her. Surprisingly, she doesn’t fight back now. He didn’t know if she got tired of ‘fighting’ with him or if she’s just doing it to piss him off.

Minzy had plans of getting her two loved ones to raise a white flag. But for every plan, she was unfortunately showered with failures. They wouldn’t let her get them to be friends!! It continued on for a long time that Minzy already got herself a boyfriend. 

--

Lame update, i know TT_TT

In this fic's calendar, it's almost Ji's birthday!! So how do u think will the three spend it???

Can you guess the lucky guy who became our Mingkki's boy? XD  Kyaaaahh~~