“You,” I said. “Never scare me like that again, okay?”

Dragon purred, and I hugged him tight in my arms as we made our way back. I secretly glanced over at Kris. He was smiling, watching me as I kissed the little kitten.

“Thank you,” I said to him.

“No problem.”

I paused in front of the car, my hand on the handle as I opened the door. Dragon leaped from my arms, jumping right inside, and landing on the back seat comfortably.

“You said you had something to say,” I said without turning.

I could feel Kris’ eyes on my back, and I knew he was hesitating.

Biting my lip, I turned to face him, and that’s when I saw him slowly raising his head to look at me. Something flickered in his eyes, like he was fighting something, and he looked away, mouth half opened, not a single word coming out from the person who had practically dragged my ride to the awaiting airport.

“I’m listening,” I informed him as I closed the car door, leaning my back against it.

“You’d be late for your flight.” He didn’t give a moment for his face to express any sort of expression, and he kept the dense look on, as if that could push away any sort of emotion that might come through. He was doing everything he can not to look my way.

“Kris.”

He still didn’t look up, didn’t look at me.

And suddenly I heard him mutter, “This is stupid…”

I wanted to question him, but the tone in his voice crawled up my spine, and mind you, he had never ever used any sort of tone besides his cocky act that makes me want to punch him in the face.

“I just wanted to say I forgive you, and that you were under a lot of pressure that night, and I practically made it worse, so yeah.” He said it all in one breath, and I had to keep up. The fact that he spoke it in Korean made it even harder.

I paused, blinking. “Yeah, you need some brushing up on your Korean there.”

“That’s all you gotta say?”

“Yeah, because clearly what you’re saying has nothing to do with the situation.”

“All right, fine. What do you want me to say?”

Honestly, I didn’t know. I was still there, still waiting for him to come right out and say it, but what I had no idea of.

“Sheesh, Rika, make up your mind,” he said, busy running his fingers through his hair to straighten it out—although it just made it even messier.

“I want you to say that it’s fine,” I said, fists clenching. “I don’t want to hear that you forgive me, I don’t want to believe that you were the reason. What I want is to know that it’s okay, that I shouldn’t worry that after this everything is going to be different, everything is going to change.”

I lifted my arm to cover my nose with my sleeve, hoping it would block that horrible noise I make whenever my nose is clogged.

None of this would’ve happened if I hadn’t decided to take a trip down to SM that morning.

Back at the cafeteria, Kyuhyun wasn’t playing when he awkwardly assumed I had a thing for someone—if that made it even worse. I wondered how he could’ve said something like that, or even thought of something like that.

Everything was turning around. Everything was nothing like what I used to know. Nothing was the same anymore.

He had pointed at the gleaming silver that came popping out from my tote bag. In his head, he had guessed that I was keeping the giant’s jacket, which what led him to the actually thought. When I tried to think it over, it was funny. But however it may seem, he wasn’t wrong.

“Dang it, Kris,” I groaned as I brought the sleeve to my eyes next, pressing them hard to push away the undeniable waterworks that was soon going to pour.

I was still unsatisfied. With the other hand I curled it into a tight fist—and I punched him right in the arm.

“Ouch!” he whined. “W-Wh— What—”

“That was for lying to me.”

“H-Huh?”

I hit him again.

“Yow!”

“And that was for being stupid.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Jumping onto the road? How idiotic can you be?”

“Wait, you said I lied— Ow!”

“The jacket?” I said. Back then when I was clutching onto him, it reminded me of something—something that I had known but never really figured out, until Kyuhyun had pointed it for me.

“What jacket?” he wheezed, trying to fight the pain.

Another hit.

“Ow!”

“The silver jacket that you lent me back then,” I told him. Then I stepped on his foot, causing him to shriek. “Why the heck did you not tell me? You could’ve just explained it all that you were the one who brought me back to the girls that night during the attack.”

At first he looked like he really didn’t know anything—but then he paused. Changed expressions. Then looked at me.

“I didn’t know you then,” was all he said, his eyes looking elsewhere. He said it so casually, as if all of that was nothing to him. It caused the surge of anger towards him to rise into flames, and I tried hard to restrain myself from hitting him again.

“You’re really something,” I hissed. “You are—”

I couldn’t hold myself anymore. The punches, the hits. Maybe that’s something I share with Jessica, our urge to release our angers physically when needed. What’s worse is the buckets of tears that are released every single time our blood boils.

I was about to hit him one more time, when he caught my wrist. He’d never done that. Never. He’d always let me hit him, whether it hurt like crazy. But this time he stopped me, and I was pulled into his embrace.

“Hey—” With my hands I struggled.

“Shut up and just listen, would you?”

“Yah, people are s-staring. Let me go—”

“Let me ask you something,” he said.

I stopped struggling, and gave him my silence as an answer to carry on.

“Do you hate me?” he asked.

“Of course I do, you’re an idiot.”

“Do you like me?” His question took me by surprise. “You like me. Right? Don’t you?”

I realized that the silence had gone on for too long, and I was still trapped in his embrace for a full, long moment. My mind was blank. I was going deaf. At least, I think I was going deaf. All I could hear was the pounding inside my chest. Or was that his?

“Rika?” He was calling my name. I winced.

“If I didn’t then why had I been sticking along with you the entire time?” I said, trying to answer without damaging anything or what he was presuming. I clenched my eyes shut as I said it, as if that could help keep the rising flames in.

“True,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “But you know what I mean.”

I paused for too long again.

I had to say something. I needed to say something. But how could I when my internal organs were dancing and nearly crushed in his grasp. There was no doubt that he wasn’t letting me go, not anymore, not this time. There was no Kyuhyun to break the situation. Oh gosh, why did I even think about him? Stop it. Just stop it.

“I know you’re leaving,” Kris said, and I swear his voice was so low and deep, I had to lean even closer to hear it. It was getting softer and softer now. “And I’m not holding you back. But could you listen? Please?” He was practically pleading. He was waiting for an answer. A real answer.

“Yes,” I said, managing every ounce of strength in me to actually speak aloud.

“I’m sorry.”

What? Was that all that he wanted to say? How he had practically made my heart swell up like a balloon?

“I make you mad,” he said, “I know. I annoy you, I know. And sometimes you just never want to see my face again, I got that. And I’m sorry.”

He paused. I waited, giving him a chance to continue. His arms tightened around me.

“I’m sorry I make you hate me,” he said. “