I shake my umbrella off as I step inside the coziness of my apartment building, the warmth sending a homey feel to my now cold skin. Feeling content over the conversation I had with Mr. Oh, I jingle my keys in my hand as I make my way to check my mailbox. I open it, to find several envelopes addressed to the previous residents of my apartment. Annoyed that this keeps happening I turn around to toss them out in the garbage can but I stop in place  when I spot someone hiding underneath the staircase, his face looks up to the floor above us. It doesn't’ take me long to realize who it is.

“Kihyun?” I ask as I raise an eyebrow in curiosity. “What are you doin-” 

I watch in fear as he rushes towards me, pulling me into his chest. He reaches a hand over my mouth as he pulls me under the staircase with him. Our bodies against to each other, I try to wiggle myself free but he’s resisting me, making my struggle even greater. 

“Sh!” He whispers as he quickly looks back up to the second floor. Being this close to his chest, I can feel the way his heart beats rapidly. Was he hiding from yet another woman? Two women in one day? That had to be a new record for him. I force a kick against his shin, causing him to let out a quiet yelp as he bites his lower lip, setting me free as he attends to his pain. 

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask, but i’m instantly shushed by him again, reminding me to be quiet.

“Please, be quiet” He pleads with me. 

I my head as I recall what had just taken place before I left earlier. Feeling annoyed with him for having the decency to kiss me like that to get himself out of a situation, I feel like this is the perfect time to make him beg.

“Why should I?” I whisper back to him.

He stares at me, his eyes begging me. I realize this is the first time I had seen him act like this before. I mean I was used to him hiding from women, but it seemed like this time it was something more serious. 

Loud knocking echoes its way down the staircase and towards us. I freeze, trying to make out who it could possibly be who is knocking on his door. I hear the sound of an older woman’s voice, she doesn’t sound happy as she keeps banging her fists against the door. 

“Ki, I swear that if you don’t answer this door right now I’m going to break it down! You can’t keep ignoring me!” 

I raise an eyebrow, returning my gaze to a very scared Kihyun.

“Seriously? Jesus, Kihyun. There’s no age limit when it comes to you is there!” I gasp in disbelief. 

I stare at him as his eyes open wide in shock at the words the left my mouth. He begins to shake his head in a firm but aggressive ‘no’. 

“You’re going to regret this the day your own mother passes away!” The lady’s voice echoes back to us. 

Mother? Kihyun’s mom was visiting him? I try to hold back laughter as I stare at a very frightened boy. 

“So your mom’s in town” I reply, a cheeky grin now on my plump lips. What a perfect coincidence this was, I had been thinking about ways to get back at him for what he had done to me earlier, and this? This was taking the cake. 

“Please, just stay here with me” He begs me. I look back up at the second floor before returning my gaze back to him. 

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t march up there right now and tell her how her son is avoiding her by hiding under the staircase?” I challenge him. I watch as he swallows nervously, his adam’s apple hitching as he swallows the lump in his throat. 

“Because, If there’s one woman that I’m deadly scared of, it’s my mother” He whispers. 

I laugh, a loud laugh that is blocked by a panicked hand covering my mouth a second time. So this was Kihyun’s weakness. The overly confident boy was afraid of his mom. He looks at me, afraid that if he lets go of me, I will give him away. He wasn’t wrong, I really wanted to. I decide that I will play with him for a little bit, just so I can teach him a lesson to not mess with me in the future. I tap his hand with my free one, begging him to uncover my mouth. He hesitates, but ends up trusting me. 

“Okay, I won’t say anything” I lie. 

I watch as he lets his shoulders relax, and then I make my  escape towards the stairs. He jerks up in a fast motion catching my foot as I fall on the first set of steps. He lets a frustrated groan as I fight him off by kicking him. We struggle for a while, as he looks at me with pleading eyes to please not do this to him, but I ignore him. Managing to set myself free I run up to the safety of the second floor and to Kihyun’s mother. 

I stick my tongue out to him as I look down at him. By the look on his face I can tell that he is beyond pissed off with me. 

I find his mother outside his front door. Dressed very conservative she looks nothing like her son, and has me wondering if Kihyun could even be this woman’s actual son. I hold in my breath as I make my way towards her, a fake smile stretched out on my face. 

“Mrs. Yoo?” I ask. She turns around to look at me, her face flustered red. “Hi, I’m Gyo Mina. I live next door to Kihyun” I introduce myself. 

She offers a friendly smile, as she fixes her clothes. 

“Nice to meet you. You wouldn’t happen to know where my son is, would you?” She asks me as she an eyebrow. 

I stand still, deciding whether I should give the evil satan’s spawn away or if I should just and make him suffer until he learnt his lesson. The second option seemed the most fun. I smile again once I know what i’m going to do.

“Oh, hmm. I’m not quite sure!” I answer, loud enough that i’m sure he can hear us. “I think he said he was coming back home soon!” 

She stares down at her watch, her eyebrows furrowing as she notices that it’s already getting late. She lets out a loud frustrated sigh. 

“I’ve been here for two hours. Do you think he will be much longer?” 

I bring my finger to my chin, as I pretend to think about it, before answering. 

“Oh. I don’t think so! Something tells me he’s much closer than we think!” I tell her. 

I smile at the thought of Kihyun beating himself up at the fact he’s not brave enough to come up to face his own mother. This was too much fun. I was sure that after this, Kihyun wouldn’t want to mess with me. 

“He is?” 

I nod. I watch as Mrs. Yoo’s eyes widen as she stares behind me. 

“Hi, mom” Kihyun says as he walks towards us. I turn to face him, shocked that he decided to expose himself to the woman he said scared him to death. 

“Honey” His mom says as she too seems to be surprised at the sight of him. 

I glare at him as he stands next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder he pulls close to him. He stares at me with eyes that tell me I shouldn’t have dared played this game. I swallow nervously as he smiles. 

“Mom, I want you to meet my girlfriend” He says.

I glare at him, this time shooting him death glares. Looking at him, I mentally call him all the names under the sun because I can’t believe that he is doing this to me a second time. No, this shouldn’t be happening, this wasn’t part of my plan at all. 

“Girlfriend?” His mother asks as she looks at me. 

“No, I’m not his girlfriend” I answer, pushing him away from me but he doesn’t let me go. He holds me tighter as he pinches the bare skin of my arm. I wince in place.

“Well, technically she’s not my girlfriend” He starts and I look up at him, already dreading the words that are most likely going to escape his mouth. He looks back at me as gives me a cheeky wink. “She’s actually my fiance, right hunny?” 

He must be out of his damn mind. This guy is seriously in denial, his fiance? I rather brush my teeth with a used toilet brush than pretend to be his fiance. No, I can’t play along with this. He’s taken this way too far. He has to be stopped. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know! This is why you need to pick up my calls!” She exclaims at him. 

He purses his lips before he answers her. 

“I would be it seems i’m busy giving all my time to this lovely lady here” He says, motioning to me. 

I close my eyes, feeling my face grow bright red in anger. I’m not in the appropriate situation to be giving him a loose lip. Not in front of his mother. I make a mental note to kill him, for real. I’ll plan on how to get rid of his body afterwards but the main goal now is to have him leaving in a body bag. 

“That’s right, I’m sorry for stealing his precious time” I reply as I bite hard on my cheeks. 

She looks between the both of us, as if she’s studying us. Not sure if she can see right through our bull charade but I’m hoing that she does. Her face warms up as she takes me in, from head to toe. 

“Fiance, you say?” 

I watch in horror as she the tiny woman in front of me,  walks towards me, linking her arm with mine. 

“We have so much to talk about before the wedding!” 

I glare back at Kihyun. He has a smug smile stretches across his face as he mouths the words ‘Don’t mess with me’ as she drags me into Kihyun’s apartment. 

__________________

After two hours of hell, I had finally managed to make an excuse to escape from the wrath of Kihyun. I had excused myself after I noticed that the conversation between his mom and him was getting serious. I sensed that they didn’t have a good relationship, the constant eye rolls and the twitch on his jaw as he listened to his mom pry into his private life was enough to hint it out. 

As the events of last night mar my mind, I make an even longer list of reasons why I must kill Kihyun. Figuratively speaking, anyway. Lately he had been getting under my skin more than usual. His now morning pop ins were turning into more than just pop ins. It was as if he was looking for me and wanting to spend time with me. As silly as that sounded, I tried to convince myself that I was reading into his actions too much. 

I’m not startled when a light knock hits my front door. Not even bothering to get up, I already know who it was. 

“Come in, it’s open” I call out. 

Kihyun let’s himself in quickly closing the door behind him. Like usual, his routine hasn’t changed much. He stands behind the door, peeking out of the peep hole. 

“Another bad decision?” I ask bringing my coffee to my lips. 

“It’s not a bad decision when you also get some fun from it” He says, pushing himself away from the door and making his way to sit on the couch next to me. 

I study him, taking in his handsome features. I could see why girls would fall into victims, surely they couldn’t believe their eyes when Kihyun approached them, acknowledging their existence. Losing myself in his good looks, I quickly snap myself out of it. Reminding myself that this man is a womanizer. 

“Gross” I answer, crinkling my nose. 

He sits beside me, looking at me without saying anything. Feeling the awkward tension growing between us, I’m the first one to look away. He shortly follows, his eyes setting on the contract in front of me. He his head to the side as he reads it. 

“Prism publishing house?” He asks. “You’re wanting to be an author?” 

It didn’t surprise me that he didn’t know what it was I did for a living. To be honest, he never paid much attention to important things. As long as they weren’t wearing short revealing dresses and were willing to jump into bed with him, those things didn’t matter to him. 

“Webtoon artist” I correct him. I watch as he raises his eyebrows in surprise. “You would know that if you actually paid attention” 

I push myself off of the couch and make my way to the sink. Placing my now empty coffee mug in the sink, I hear the sound of his apartment close. The sound of heels clicking on the marbled floored, letting me know that his bad decision had left. 

“What do you mean that I don’t pay attention?” He replies, sending a freeze of hot air down my neck. 

I turn around to find him standing in front of me. His arms gripping the side of the counter as I’m stuck between his muscular arms. Nervously, I look up at him to find his brown eyes surveying my face. I begin to feel my skin becoming clammy and hot, my heart beat speeding up as a y yet cute smile tugs at his lips. I clear my throat, suddenly distracting my raising attraction towards him. 

“She’s gone” I answer pushing myself further into the counter. “You can go now” 

His smile turns into a grin as he pushes himself away from me and turns his heels towards the front door. I stand frozen in place, trying to calm my hormones from going crazy over this boy. 

“Thank you, for being my saviour” He stops at the door, quickly looking back at me. My eyes meeting his. “Oh, and I forgot one more thing. Make sure to dress up nice tonight, we have dinner with my mom” 

He lets the door close behind him, leaving me in a mess of emotions. He was seriously pushing it but also he was somehow finding his way into my thoughts.