After watching the sunrise together, we got breakfast in Itaewon, it was really early, so there was barely anybody around. We also weren’t as worried as before with being seen outside because news would be released about the relationship anyways. So, we thought ‘why not just let go and let loose’.

            “Ellie, actually, I have something important to tell you,” he said, after gulping down some orange juice. I stabbed the hashbrown with my fork and chewed away.

            “Mmm?” I said, busying myself with the food, trying to take away the seriousness of his tone. He touched my arm which made me put down my fork and look at him. “What now? What again?” I said, irritated. Our relationship was problem after problem. Lemme breathe!

            “Ellie…” he started and looked deep into my eyes.

            “What what what,” I shook my head.

            “Ellie, you’re…not wearing make-up,” he said with a serious face.

            “Aiiiiiiiiiiissssh, yah!” I shook my arm to get his hand off. I tilted my head side to side to crack my neck, stretched my arms out and cracked my knuckles.

            “Omo, ani ani, just kidding! You’re uh! Wearing so much make-up!” he said, covering his face. I stretched my arm closer to him and pretended to yawn.

            “Omo, did you think I was gonna hit you?” I feigned shock. He rolled his eyes, fixed his hair and cleared his throat.

            “No,” he said quietly. “But actually, I do have something to tell you,” he added with a serious tone in his voice again.

            “What is it? Just tell me, don’t hold back, suspense is worse,” I said.

            “CEO asked if you wanted a job,” he put food in his mouth right away after saying this.

            “What??” I didn’t know if I should be grateful or what. “I have a job,” I said after a moment of silence. He swallowed all the food he was chewing.

            “Yeah, I know that, I told him that,” he kept nodding, with furrowed brows.

            “Aaaand?” I said, expectantly.

            “And nothing? Actually…he didn’t ask…He said, to uh, tell you that he has a job for you already,” Key said slowly. I scratched my head so hard that I felt like I made my scalp bleed.

            “I have a job, I’m gonna like this job, I worked hard to get here,” I said, confused and frustrated. “Why does he want to give me job? I don’t want it. Is it to oversee our relationship or something?” I added, downing my tea which burned my throat. I was too prideful to react because at this moment, I was annoyed.

            “You burnt yourself, didn’t you?” He said. I nodded, shooting lasers from my eyes to him. He handed me iced water and I took it

            “Are you okay with the job you have? He says that the job he’s going to give you will pay a lot more…Also, he said, he’ll let you finish school here and get your Doctorate…” he added, looking down at his plate.

            “What????” I stood up from my seat. Should I be offended? Should I be grateful? Should I be weirded out? How should I feel? Somebody tell me! “Why???” I asked

            “I don’t know…Honestly, I thought about how this would benefit him and I actually came up with nothing… Maybe CEO is just being nice, you know,” he put two fingers to his temple.

            “But you think it’s weird too, right? I’m not alone in that,” I pointed my fork at him. He backed up like I was going to put a fork on his face. I sat back down and massaged the back of my neck. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that information, Kibum… What do you think?” I asked him in English.

            “You really should call me ‘Oppa’ or something, just hearing ‘Kibum’ makes it seem like we’re buddy-buddy,” he shrugged. “But, anyways, I think…actually, I have no idea, is the job you have now what you really want to do?” he asked, putting his elbow on the table.

            “I haven’t even started, so I have no idea… I worked really hard to get here,” I said.

            “Did you work hard for that job itself? Oooooooor did you work hard to get that job so you could be here, in Korea?” he asked a question that I didn’t want to face. I sat straight and prepared myself for what I was about to say.

            “Well, this job right now, is just temporary… I haven’t set out how long I was staying here…The job was supposed to be only six months to a year… Then I haven’t decided what to do after that,” I said quietly.

            “Oh,” he sat up and looked at me without blinking.

            “Yeah…” I nodded once and waited for him to say something. Could I really leave after six months to a year? Kris was coming to stay with me for 2 months, not any longer. I wanted to graduate and be a lawyer. That’s still my dream… But what about Key? I’d be leaving for myself, if I were to do that. Was that selfish? “Say something, please,” I said.

            “Oh, uh… six months to a year, huh…” he mumbled.

            “Yah, don’t be sad now! I’m not leaving you yet,” I said. Wait, did I just say that? ‘I’m not leaving YOU yet’? Oh my gosh. When did I get so flirty…

            “Aigoo-yah…” he didn’t react to my comment, but sighed instead. “What did I get myself into,” he said, playing with his hair.

            “What do you mean?” I said, offended.

            “No, that’s now what I mean,” he leaned back and crossed his legs. “I mean…how could I watch you leave after all this, how would I be okay if you were 11 hours of a plane ride away?” he asked, rhetorically. I blushed at this, but I couldn’t show my emotions, because what he said also saddened me.

            “Aniya, no no, let’s not talk about this right now, we should let your CEO know that I’m only here for a year and a half to a year,” my voice faded as I kept talking. We stayed quiet for a whole minute then I prepared to leave and he just followed suit, still quiet.