VIRAL LOVE Chapter 7 : SNAPPED Monday – 10.28 am Mo-yeon's eyes are wide as saucers as she grips his shirt to steady herself. “It’s you again!” Si-jin chuckles in reply. “When I decided that I want to return the coffee that I owed you, this is definitely not what I had in mind.” She is flustered by their proximity and the wet state of their clothing so she begins to push on his chest. “Can you let me go now?” His hands stubbornly remain on her waist, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Are you sure? It seems like you can’t go anywhere without bumping into something.” How does he do that? Seems like he has a knack of knowing which buttons to push. Her self-consciousness forgotten, she pushes harder against his chest. “Yaah! Let go you byuntae!” “Me? You’re the one who bumps into me, again." She gasps as he easily lifts her up by her waist and puts her feet down safely on the dry part of the floor. He lets her go with a smug smirk on his face after making sure she wouldn't be slipping on the wet brownish puddle. "Hmmm maybe you’re the byuntae one, Kang Mo-yeon.” He knows my name. Of course. “Why are you calling me so informally?” She mocks his tone back, “Yoo Si-jin?” He raises his brow, pretending to be surprised. “So you do know my name. Oh I see, did you just pretend to not know me yesterday? I knew it.” She almost stomps her foot in frustration. “It’s because of you that my name is all over the internet yesterday! Did you really tell the people at the coffee shop that I’m your girlfriend!?” Si-jin freezes. Uh oh, busted. He raises his hands to pacify her, grinning sheepishly at the same time. “It just came out of my mouth, I swear! I was trying to save our face. I didn’t know you are famous.” Mo-yeon frowns, watching his face closely, searching for a lie in his eyes. They are open and honest, just like his sister’s. She sighs and gives up. “Never mind that, it’s too late to scold you anyway. Now we have a shipping name and a shippers’ forum to add to our achievements in life.” He bursts into laughter. “Hashtag YooKang Couple?” “Yaah, don’t say that out loud!” She rolls her eyes as he keeps laughing at her before she catches a glimpse of the spilled coffee and her books on the floor. “We wasted good coffee again. And my books are wet now.” She pouts in resignation. Another bad morning for her, jinjja? Si-jin finds that he can’t stand looking at her dejected face and he bends down to get the books scattered on the steps before she manages to do that herself. The books are only slightly wet as they had miraculously managed not to land on the puddle itself, the hardcovers waterproof. He finds a dry patch on his shirt and gently wipes them with it as Mo-yeon watches him with wide eyes. He smiles and hands the books over to her. “All better now. Just needs another good wipe with warm wet towel in case they get sticky. If the inside are wet and ruin just let me know, I’ll ask Myeong-joo to replace them.” Her heart stutters at the unexpectedly gentle gesture. She holds the books he had handed over gingerly away from her wet shirt. “Err, thank you.” And then she remembers something. “You said you were here to give me coffee? How did you know where to find me anyway?” He shrugs, his face suddenly flushing red. Oh, Mo-yeon thinks, so he does know how to be embarrassed too, I thought he only knows how to tease people. “Err, you know how stories about us are everywhere now.” He looks away and tries to scratch his head before he realizes his fingers are still sticky with coffee. “They said you have a studio here and I saw you went into this building yesterday, so I just thought I would drop by and give you your coffee back.” His eyes suddenly turns back to look at her. “You might be too embarrassed to go to the shop after yesterday, right? I don’t want you to miss a good caffeine fix because of us…the rumors I mean. Sun Café makes the best Americano.” She bits her lips. This guy is such a walking contradiction. One moment he can be so annoying, the next so thoughtful. She watches in silence as he stands there awkwardly, his light blue shirt soaking with coffee yet again. She recalls back to yesterday when they were in the same predicament and how his first instinct was to cover her with his own jacket. Today she is wearing a dark colored plaid shirt so it isn’t as obvious as yesterday’s white one. “Anyway, I guess my good intention didn’t really work out,” he casts her a regretful smile, “I should just go now.” She makes a decision then. “Do you want to come in?” His eyes widen in surprise. “…What?” She points her thumb at the door behind her. “I have a shower you can use. I don’t have any pants you can borrow but we have some shirts we just custom made for the studio’s opening next month.” He looks at her for a few seconds; his eyes seem to be searching for something. He swallows and nods his head. “That…would be great. Thank you.” --- He looks around as he steps behind her into the studio, observing the cool ambience of muted greys contrasting with the lightly stained wood flooring. There is a cozy looking white sofa by the reception area, some boxes sitting by a corner and a white baby grand piano taking up most of the space at the end of the room