When I woke up, only three things I saw registered into my brain.

One side of my wide neck PJ sliding off my shoulder, exposing a fairly large amount of skin; Changmin’s buttons undone revealing an interesting set of pecs underneath, which was coincidentally placed exactly where my exposed left shoulder rested.

My exposed skin + His bare abs = Skin contact.

‘Yuri, this is the first and last time I’m gonna say this to you,’ said Changmin, who was once again, above me with his hand literally plastered over my mouth. ‘SHUT IT. And don’t make me repeat.’

Picture this: You found yourself awake in the arms of a half male, in a steamy room too hot for a day in November, and your PJ’s are sliding off your shoulders. Of course, it’s totally normal to feel annoyed yet pleased at the same time because although you are in the embrace of the person you hate the most in the whole world; his body is quite an eye candy. Screaming is considered a restrained reaction in this situation…right?

‘Girl, I’m talking to you. Stop looking at my body.’

Geesuz, this guy is so freaking thick! It’s maddening that the person I hate the most; is hot, and he knows it. What’s worse is that the over exposure of skin is confusing me and leading me to think that the person I hate is hot. It is unhealthy because I just proclaimed his hotness twice in the same paragraph.


‘Ji Eun,’ he said suddenly, ‘how many times have I told you to knock before entering?’

Feeling slightly relieved, I tilted my head and realized someone peeking through the door gap. Good. This distraction is healthy. Anything would be better than looking at his freaking abdominal muscles.

‘Well…’ said the small voice behind the door, ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt but…Unnie’s stuff has just arrived and…omma sent me to ask if…’

My stuff has arrived! Finally! I attempted to push Changmin away from me but Changmin remained on top of me, his grip on me hardened a little.

‘Ji Eun,’ Changmin replied with a mocking tone. ‘Can’t you see that we’re busy?’

In a second, Ji Eun disappeared, so as my chance of escaping from Changmin’s evil snare. I struggled to break free from his grasp, but he only pressed on harder. He even laughed his stupid evil laugh. Clearly, he enjoys making life a living hell for me.

Maybe this living hell IS the life I’m supposed to lead. He’s offering me money and that makes him the boss. After all, my participation in his opening act last night actually somehow showed that I’m interested in his bargain although I lied out of desperation. If I talked to Mrs. Shim, would she believe that her eldest son barged in and demanded I play lead actress in his role-playing game?

On the other hand, I can choose not to bear the guilt of living a lie. I can always find another place to stay, defer my course, and earn money in other means. Getting sent back to Hawaii is not the end of the world. Since I haven’t sign anything, it’s not too late to back out now.

It was the slamming of the bathroom door that made me realize Changmin finally got off me. He probably got sick of mocking me since I wasn’t responding. But that’s the least of my worries right now. What concerns me is the reason behind all his schemes.

Outside the room stood three big brown boxes, my name and address written neatly on all sides. As I carried the boxes one by one into the room, my mind continued to ponder on Changmin’s intentions. What could have happened between him and his fiancée, so bad that I had to be the substitute? Why is he offering 30 thousand dollars to someone he barely knew?

Why is he even lying to his family?

A thud on the floor pulled me away my thoughts. I turned back and saw Changmin’s cellphone on the floor. I must have accidentally knocked it off the table as I moved the boxes over.

The phone was sleek and sophisticated, but that wasn’t the reason why I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Curiosity burned my insides as I saw its screensaver, a self taken picture of Changmin together with a beautiful girl, who I assume is his real fiancée.

I quickly put down the phone as the bathroom door creaked open. Changmin left the room as he dried his hair with a towel, paying no attention to me. I glanced at the cellphone again, the screensaver still hovering on the screen.

What exactly is he trying to hide from his family?

The 4 hours and 37 minutes that followed was Changmin-free and once again the long lost tranquility has found its way back to my room. Finally, after hours of unpacking and rearranging my stuff in the room, I placed my laptop on the study table. Halfheartedly, I logged on to my messenger only to find 236 unread emails in my inbox and a whole lot of offline messages from my mum.


Supermom says: 
dot! wat’s up yo?
[U-Ree] says:
hey mom
Supermom says: 
y didn’t u give me a holler?
[U-Ree] says:
im OK. dont yo me, it doesn’t suit ur age
Supermom says: 
heh
Supermom says: 
so hows korea?
[U-Ree] says:
its ok. just cant stand some of the people here
Supermom says: 
r u ok?
[U-Ree] says:
im fine dont worry
Supermom says: 
hv u made any frenz der yet?
[U-Ree] says:
…
[U-Ree] says:
no
Supermom says: 
oh
Supermom says: 
hey i can intro some 2 u!
[U-Ree] says:
no thx
Supermom says: 
u’ll like them, trust me!

Image89.jpg (712kb)
Waiting for [U-Ree] to accept
Cancel(Alt+Q)

[U-Ree] says:
…
Supermom says: 
accept accept! :D

Transfer of Image89.jpg is complete.

[U-Ree] says:
omg
Supermom says: 
isn’t he cute?
Supermom says: 
his name is sungmin and my old classmate’s son
[U-Ree] says:
speechless.
Supermom says: 
y? too cute for u?
[U-Ree] says:
no
[U-Ree] says:
he’s gross
Supermom says: 
dot, be nice
Supermom says: 
anyway, i gave him ur contacts
Supermom says: 
u guys shud hang one of these days
Supermom says: 
dot?
[U-Ree] says:
MOM, NOBODY GIVES THEIR DAUGHTER’S DETAILS TO A STRANGER
[U-Ree] says:
N CAPS ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH TO ILLUSTRATE HOW FURIOUS I FEEL
Supermom says: 
hey relax! whats wrong?? he’s not a stranger…
[U-Ree] says:
i cant believe it! u askin me whats wrong?!


I got disconnected before I could even reply. Just as I turned to check the cable, Changmin was already leaning on the door with an unplugged internet cable in his hand. Mum, thank Changmin for he just saved you from getting an earful by yours truly.

I thought I could relax a little on my off day. But here I am now, carrying forty over boxes of Changmin’s rubbish into the room, all by myself, while Changmin had a gala time exploiting my laptop.

Inside the brown boxes were Changmin’s expensive presents from his fans. They weren’t just Gucci expensive, they were Gucci, Prada, andLouis Vuitton combined together kind of expensive. Designer clothes, bags, colognes, wallet; gadgets such as MP4 players and cellphones; and thousands of self help books and novels. Yes, there were MP4 players and cellphones with the S. Did I mention there was a Apple MacBook Air lying somewhere beneath the piles of presents? Blind underage fangirls with overflowing amount of estrogen. Spending cash buying a pile of is better than spending it on an arrogant Freak.

After an hour of unpacking, I reached the last box which contained the weirdest costumes I could never imagine anyone wearing. Some of it kind of looks like the sick tights DBSK wore last night for their concert. Ew. Didn’t know Changmin had a for outfits. In the midst of stuffing the costumes back in, a small glittery ornament caught my eye.

Holy macaroni, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Isn’t this the charm bracelet I dropped when I was doing the bloody ballet stunt in the concert?

‘Yah!’ I yelled, as Changmin snatched the bracelet away even before I could even thank God that I’ve got it back.

‘Taking something that doesn’t belong to you without asking the permission of the owner equals to stealing,’ he said, as he examined the bracelet.

‘It IS mine! Give it back!’

‘These costumes belong to my company, and they are in my possession, I have every right to claim ownership.’

‘But I really did dropped it the other day-

‘In life, things doesn’t always go your way, darling,’ and flashed his annoying smirk. Keeping the charm bracelet in his pocket, he continued, ‘you should know where to keep all these stuff,’ he continued, as he made his way out of the room. Then he paused at the door, ‘when I get back, I expect to see my study table clear off your stuff.’

I glanced at the study table, where my laptop was buzzing and blinking away. Wasn't he the one who was using my laptop?! And what about the bracelet! IT IS MINE! This is ridiculous! Argh! ARRGGHH!! Sigh. Whatever. Ignoring him saves me my time of going through mental turmoil and physical exhaustion anyway. I opened the wardrobe and starting chucking his stupid designer clothes in. I wasn’t surprised a single bit when I looked into the mirror on the wardrobe door and see Kwon Yuri who have aged ten years overnight.

My phone buzzed. It was mum.

Guess she wouldn’t give up until I agree to meet that Sang Min guy or whatever his name is. As if I haven’t have enough on my plate.

‘Yes mum?’ I said, keeping the phone to my ear with my shoulder.
‘Yuri, what happen? Why didn’t you reply on MSN?’ said mom.
‘Oh, nothing. I was AFK ‘cause I had to…clear up my room. Anything?’
‘Um…yeah…actually, it’s okay if you don’t feel like meeting up with Sungmin you know…’

I knew it, she’s gonna try make me feel guilty so that I’ll date him.

‘To be honest with you, mum, I would love to meet him,’ I said as I loaded the remaining presents into the next wardrobe.
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, totally. I mean like, being kidnapped, then dissected alive and my organs trafficked to places I never heard of sounds pretty enjoyable huh,’ I replied sarcastically.
‘Yuri, what are you talking about?’
‘Mum, stop pairing me up with strangers, OKAY? Don’t you know that it’s dangerous?
‘I’ve met him, dear, he’s my classmate’s son-
‘If this is what you’re calling for, I’m hanging up. I’m really busy now.’
‘No, wait!’
I let out a huge sigh. ‘What now?’

Mum paused and there was an awkward silence between us, which made me feel slightly guilty for venting my frustration at her. Honestly, as much as I appreciate my mum being concerned over my non-existent love life, I do wish that she stop pairing me up with her friends’ sons, ‘cause it’s starting to get a tad irritating.

‘Well, it’s about your tuition fees…we have talked about this and agreed on your plan, but your dad…your dad says that he wants to sponsor you.’

I let out a fake laugh. ‘Sponsor me? Why now and not before when we were having a hard time trying to make ends meet? What does he want from us now?’

‘He is your father. Isn’t it normal for parents to do this for their kids? Besides, life there wouldn’t be so hard for you if-

‘Mom!’ I said, this time a little too loud that it made her winced, ‘I’m not complaining about anything here alright? We have already agreed to do things my way. Alright?’

‘Alright…’ she said quietly, and at the moment it felt as if my heart was pulled six feet under by the overwhelming sense of guilt inside me. I just screamed at her twice today, through a long distance phonecall.

‘I’m sorry, mum. There’s just too much to attend to and it’s suffocating me.’

‘It’s okay dear,’ she said softly, ‘I’ll call you another time then.’

Throwing my phone aside, I let myself fall face down onto the bed as I felt my eyes stinging and my vision blurring.

Today I left pizza shop early, with Mr. Kim’s permission, to settle my university registration stuff. Although the journey there was tiring and troublesome, the student affairs department confirmed my application and everything was settled in no time.

I was making my way out of the office when I saw ‘Student Hostel’ and ‘Scholarships Available’ posters pasted along the corridor.


Scholarships! Student dormitories! OF COURSE! Why haven’t I ever thought about this?! Am I blinded by some stupid 30K offered to me or what? Why should I be afraid of losing a place to stay or my tuition fees? I don’t even need that stupid contract to make life easier!

Wooohooo, I’m haven’t feel so happy ever since I set foot in Korea. Banging into people along the way, I ran back to the Student Affairs Department with as fast as my legs allow me to. Guess Shim Changmin will have to find another substitute to participate in his marriage role-playing game. Heh.