sunghyo is pissed. really pissed. for a brief two hours she forgets about herself being pissed off because of how things turn out when she woke up in the alleyway, but now she is pissed again. she gets uncharacteristically pissed. just downright pissed.

she clutches the plastic bag with her night gown and teddy inside with her pissed energy, eyes boring holes into the window above a grandmother sitting across herself in the train. her expression controrts every five seconds to hide how pissed she is. her back is straight like she has a stick up her , and her feet is tapping impatiently at the floor beneath the cheap converse jackson has bought her.

almsot everyone in the train is staring at her. staring and whispering, if the hushed sentences meant to be discreet but still audible from a 2-meters radius can be considered whispers. not that this is something new to sunghyo, no. she is used to people whispering and pointing at her in the streets of seoul and very much used to harsh flashes of cameras everytime she's out for formal meetings. kim sunghyo—the business prodigy, the idols of twenty-something-year-old men, richest being in seoul if not south korea—is used to those kinds of attention. the thing is, those were actually nothing. there were bodyguards on her trail every-frickin-day and if there aren't, she would at least have a man with her.

but now. now though. now that she's literally 300 kilometers away from home, without a bodyguard or a man whether he's there for her for the money or for the fame, anyone can actually do something to her. not just the harmless stolen glances and the photos taken but, sunghyo doesn't know, just. something. and she's pissed for that. she's also pissed by the fact that she has to sit hours here with her spectators when back in seoul she could just hop into her maserati and left those brazenly curious eyes behind. pissed. she is sandwiched by two highschool students with eyes rapidly switching from their phones to sunghyo, as if they're gossiping about her through chats. more pissed. a couple across her seat just beside the grandma is also hurtling subtle glances her way, whispering to each other after. more and more pissed.

half the journey, she decides she has enough with the whispers and glances she stands up, tries her best not to glare at the two adolescents sandwiching her before moving to the seats facing forward instead, further from the back and more into the middle. she sighs, at least having a bit privacy in the secluded seat. she kind of misses jackson's taxi. there she has all seats to herself and a personal radio (despite the driver's protests). she makes a mental note not to take a train anymore in the near future.

sunghyo turns to the window, inspecting her looks (nah, she isn't interested in the view outside. when you've already visited at least five countries in america and almost every country in europe and asia, you just kind of lose interest in mere buildings). her wavy raven hair cascades down her back, some of the locks sprung messily to the lack of proper combing. she still looks stunning as always, her face stoic under the protection of jackson's wang snapback. yep, earlier jackson gave her his mighty wang snapback when she complained about people staring at her every five meters. seems like the effort to cover up ends in vain though. it covers only half her face, everyone is still staring, and she is still pissed.

in moments like these she just wishes she has at least an ipod with her. that way she can mute the whispers with jazz melodies and blues. well, she thinks. at least she can have a little tranquility here.

she almost falls asleep of boredom when the seat beside her creaks, signaling someone has sit next to her. great, she says inwardly, groaning. just great. i swear if he asks for an autograph i'll—

"um, excuse me?" great. now the anonymous individual is talking to her. she takes a deep breath before mustering the most neutral look she can with pissed feeling. come on, she's still kim sunghyo. no matter how pissed she is, she has to keep being courteous. she has an image to keep anyway. she turns to the said individual.

so the individual is a male. male human. male human with two eyes and a pair of ears and a nose and a mouth. he also has hairs. the hair in his head is almost jackson-like brown, slightly darker. the hair above each of his eyes is even darker. dye. he has a mole under one of his eyes, sunghyo notices. a well-shaped nose and fairly pink lips. is he wearing lip tints? but the pink looks natural. now that she really pays attention to the lips, she notices it moving. she frowns, before realizing it's because the male human is talking. sunghyo blinks. did she just lose focus thinking whether this anonymous male human wears liptint or not?

"i'm sorry, what did you say again?" sunghyo says politely, although rather cold.

the male human seems to be startled that sunghyo is actually saying something. he puts a kind of sheepish smile on and rubs his neck slowly. hm, cute. but not cute enough to bait a smile out of the pissed heart of kim sunghyo. the human seems to sense the intimidating atmosphere though. he quickly clears his throat.

"um. i was asking if you, um, mind if i sit here? i mean you were alone in the first place so.. uh, yeah. i mean if you mind me sitting here i can just move to the back," if sunghyo is not pissed to the core and if she isn't trying to be courteous, she would laugh. the way this guy is talking is like a child's been asked if he just stole an ice cream. he has a slight treble, and it just adds the point.

oh my god yes, sughyo yells inwardly. yes i would like you to move to the back seats and yes i mind you sitting here perturbing my tranquility and i just want to—

"um, no actually. you can sit here," sunghyo musters a feeble fake smile. image sunghyo image.

the guy looks like he's just been given a free toy of his favourite and sunghyo just can't help but sigh. when the dude says a cheerful thankyou sunghyo just throws another fake smile and quickly gets back into staring at her own reflection on the window, leaning to it. really, if she isn't this kim sunghyo, if she isn't the heir of the almighty kim company and the member of the most elite marketing group in seoul, if she's only an ordinary kim sunghyo, she would just tell the dude to off. she's looking the other way, but she can still sense the dude stealing glances every now and then. she feels more pissed if that's even possible so she opts to just stare into her face longer, admiring her beauty.

ten minutes into admiring her beauty sunghyo finds herself bored as hell, so she refocuses her sight and watches the view outside instead. sunghyo cannot really remember what day is today, but she's sure it's somehwere in june. yet outside the leaves are turning brown and yellow and they're falling, chill wind is wafting outside and it looks more september than june. is she having a concussion or something? maybe it's because of the drugs the olive-skinned woman has given her (she just cannot help but to suspect). maybe it's really september and the whole kidnapping thing just messes her mind.

but she remembers clearly that taehyung has said something about summer business, and few days ago she just celebrated tzuyu's  (her far relative, don't ask how far) birthday.  summer is in june, and so is tzuyu's birthday. so how..?

oh screw it. maybe it's just a climatic change. or something astronomy-related. her 7th boyfriend had been a president of her highschool's astronomy club. he told her once that, "the universe is a fascinating thing to study on. it makes you realize there are lots of things out there that's out of your control. you are just like it, sunghyo. you make me feel like i'm learning about the universe all over again. losing my control and grasp over things,". or something like that. don't bother asking his name though. anyway, that must be it. she shouldn't think so much, really.

she chooses to focus on her face again. there are eyebags starting to form under her eyes. she shudders. she has to get rid of it once home.

twenty minutes later she's slipping in and out of consciousness, eyes losing focus every now and then and somehow she's getting less pissed. the clutch in her plastic bag loosens, and she finally relaxes into her seat. when her eyes autofocus, she can see that the train folks now have lost interest in her. that kinda relaxes her more, and she's thinking about really going to sleep before remembering this is the first time in a very long time that she has taken a train and if she misses her destination, screw her life. she doesn't feel like bribing any more innocent people today anyway. so she keeps her eyes open.

few minutes into boring holes upon the seat in front of her with how intense she's staring at it sunghyo sighs. she steals a glance upon the human beside her. he's now doing something in his laptop. sughyo peeks. wow, it's a paper. so he's still a colleger. he looks like he isn't going to doze off anytime soon so maybe she can just ask him to wake her up once they reach seoul. that'd be ... she looks at her wrist and, oh right. she doesn't have her watch with her. her gold, kidney-expensive watch. because of the goddamn kidnapping thing. stay positive sunghyo positive. sunghyo erases the word pissed from her mind indignantly.

"um, i'm sorry?" well, that's not sunghyo. the dude is talking to her again, and sunghyo jolts a bit. , she's been staring before. did he sense it or something?

"yeah?" sunghyo thanks herself for not stuttering. come on, she's that kim—

"um, i know this is kind of weird but, can you help me with these?" the dude is hesitant, but he somehow doesn't piss sunghyo. it almost seems like he doesn't even know who she is. for once she's kind of grateful. the whole thing messes her mind up, she tells herself again.

the dude shifts in his seat, so that he can bring his laptop closer to sunghyo. it gives sunghyo a better view of what he's been typing. bunch of familiar english lines greet sunghyo's eyes. it's ...

"are you studying english literature?"

the of lucrece. wow, sunghyo's surprised she even remembers the title. her father once introduced the piece of literature to her once she was .. fifteen? sixteen? she shudders again at the thought.

the dude's eyes widen a bit, and sunghyo lifts both her eyebrows. what? this is a pretty famous piece from shakespear, isn't it?

"you know?" he asks, sounding a bit too cheerful to her but she dismisses the thought. she nods, pointing to one of the line and reads it out loud.

"Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week? Or sells eternity to get a toy? For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy? Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown, would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?"

wow, sunghyo says to herself inwardly. she didn't know she could read like that. she never reads a poem out loud before that one. her father told her to read, not speak. and so she did it for a long long time.

"hey, that's exactly what i've been stressing about!" the dude gleams his eyes at her, looking like he's found a savior or something. she just shrugs and points to the screen again.

"go ahead and ask. i can help, but it's been long since i last ... touched these things," that sounds almost too modest for kim sunghyo but once again she kicks the thought out of her mind, relaxing into her side to view the laptop screen better. the dude beside her is visibly excited, but she doesn't say it out loud. she's about to read another line when the guy offers his hand.

"my name is kim yugyeom. call me yugyeom,"

sunghyo stares at him for a brief moment, studying his sincere smile and the youthful expression painted across his face. heck, how can someone be that happy? sunghyo looks at the offered hand and falters. if she tells her who she is, will he change and act just like the highschoolers that sandwiched her earlier?  but he looks innocent enough for her, so she shrugs.

right, she thinks. he isn't as peniless as jackson anyway. sunghyo glances at his dapper attire and seemingly expensive footwear. one more introduction won't hurt. she takes his hand in hers and shakes it gently.

"kim sunghyo,"