A/N: 

Oh my goodness I'm really really sorry for confusing all of you with the previous chapter. TT_TT Some of you understood the end of Chapter 17 as Kris driving towards Bo Mi and Tao. I should've wrote it more clearer that he drove "away" after seeing Bo Mi kissing Tao's cheeks. Gah I'm really sorry for confusing you all. :<< Chapter 17 was not directly connected to Chapter 18. Not all my chapters are connected all the time. Like this chapter is not directly the continuation of Chapter 18. 

I'm so sorry guys. :< I hope you still "tharang" me. Bbuing bbuing~ 

And lmao guys I knew you'd think it's Jeremy as in Hongki. Sadly the Jeremy here is not Hongstar but who am I to tell you who to magine Haha~ The Jeremy here is pure korean. Actually I got that name from my Korean schoolmate. ^^

“I so beat you in the spiciness challenge,” I fanned my stinging tongue after it was exposed to extreme stress caused by too much spicy food. My eyes were nearly flowing with tears at how my mouth felt like there was an incinerator burning inside it. But I kept my composure, unlike Tao who had collapsed on the table.

Tao mumbled something in mandarin, also fanning his tongue.

Going on a spiciness challenge with Tao at a nearby food store was not my original agenda for the day. I was supposed to meet up with Jeremy because he promised to have movie night with me. With each passing day that we spent together, the awkwardness ship slowly drifted away. We could talk casually—as friends—and the sudden accidental touch of our hands would not affect us so gravely anymore.

Maybe after years of not seeing each another, we both healed. Mentally and emotionally.

He was gradually making his mark on my life again. At first, the thought that we’d get back together seemed completely impossible. But now, I was open to all options and welcoming faith to do as it pleases. If we were meant for one another than let destiny do its job.

Movie night was a tradition even before we became a couple. Too bad though. Jeremy canceled our movie night after calling this morning how work was tying him down. All those minutes of looking for the perfect movie to watch, wasted. Good thing Tao was available.

We soothed our burning mouths with some banana milk then strolled down the sidewalk. I thanked him for saving me from a possibly boring day at home.

“No problem,” Tao spoke with the straw still popped in his mouth. “Baixian ge needed an extra hand at home but I couldn’t resist your offer of the spiciness challenge,”

The banana milk got stuck in my throat and it took one big gulp to push it down. “Y-you did that for me?” I asked taken aback before shyly looked down at my banana milk, playing with the straw.

“For the spiciness challenge,” Tao corrected.

“Oh,”

His lips curved into a playful smile as he bit on the end of the straw. “Kidding,” Tao patted my head “Of course. I’d do anything for you Bo Mi,”

Suddenly I felt my heart thump inside my chest again.

From the other side of the street, I heard the familiar deep voice of Chan Yeol. I whipped my head around until I caught sight of the male frantically waving his arms in the air calling my name over and over again. After waving back at the child like grown man, my eyes quickly got averted to the expressionless male standing behind the cheerful one…Kris.

He glared at me then at the male beside me—Tao. I waited for Kris to at least respond to the wave I sent him but he just bowed like I wasn’t even his friend. Something inside me felt like it was constricting my heart. How could he be so cold to me? What did I do to him?

Before the pedestrian crossing sign signaled us to walk, a bus stopped before them and Kris dragged Chan Yeol to it, still without a single drop of emotion on his face except for that bizarre look of pain in his eyes. But who was I to make assumptions. I barely saw his brown orbs from the distance. That glisten in his eye could just be because of the setting sun.

But still…why did he act like Chan Yeol and I were closer friends than we were?

“Are you okay? Who was that?” Tao’s voice made me blink myself back to reality.

 “I um yeah,” I nervously laughed.

Taking one step forward, my heel corroded on itself causing me to stumble back. If it wasn’t for Tao’s quick reaction, I could’ve landed on my bottom. I regained my balance by shifting all my weight on my good shoe. I cursed under my breath. How in the world will I walk properly with a broken heel?

Apparently, Tao thought of an ingenious idea. Just like the first time, he crouched with his back on me.

“Uh no,” I said.

“Fine,” Tao shrugged his shoulders and began walking ahead.

Trying to walk imbalancly was going to get me nowhere. Tao sent a teasing glance back at me along with a sly smile that I wanted to rub off his face. “Sheesh. Tao I was kidding! Wait,”

Chan Yeol’s Point of View

Kris has been acting really weird lately. His smile had completely disappeared, not that it was there in the first place but still. It was not like him to lock up in his room the moment he arrives from the school where he taught Mandarin. I tried asking him what’s up but he blankly gives me a look before turning his back on me.

What I do realize is whenever I bring up Bo Mi, his eyes twitch. I notice how he fights back his brows from furrowing to the center. Everything related to Bo Mi stirs a weird reaction in him like a robot that was malfunctioning. Twitching, frowning, and tripping when  nothing  on the floor that could cause anyone to trip. Kris is not himself when I mention Hwang Bo Mi’s name. Just like a few moments ago.

I waved at Bo Mi because she was Sun Mi’s friend, not because we were close friends. On the other hand, Kris just glared. Bo Mi waved at him but he responded by bowing.

When the bus arrived, he dragged me so hard that I nearly stumbled.

I sat down beside Kris on the bus, studying how he gazes outside the window. I leaned forward and followed where his eyes seemed to be sending lazers at. It was Bo Mi and the guy she was with. Bo Mi seemed to have broken her shoe and was currently getting on the back of the male. The bus began moving when the two began walking as well—Bo Mi on the male’s back.

Kris sullenly averted his gaze on his fingers. To others, they might assume that his face had no expression; blank of any emotion. But to me—who has known him for so long—Kris does have one emotion on his face. It’s hurt.  

His eyes—though fierce—quivered.

“Kris,” I nudged my shoulder against his.

Like he has just snapped out from a different dimension, Kris looked around seemingly lost for a while. “Ah sorry. Did you say something?” Kris asked.

“Are you okay?”

The most fake smile I’ve ever seen crept on to Kris’s face. It only made me worry more. The two of them needed to talk, but how…

“Ah Kris!” I exclaimed a little too loudly causing the old lady seated before us to jump. Kris too was a bit startled. “Could you bring this to Bo Mi?”

I rummaged through my backpack for a blue box that I found on my living room couch. Sun Mi probably left it yesterday when I invited her over. It had Bo Mi’s name on it and giving it back had completely escaped my mind and for a good reason. I found an excuse for Kris to go to Bo Mi. I know … I’m a genius.

Kris eyed the blue box. “Why me?” he complained.

“Because Bo Mi and I aren’t close,” I used my two fingers to demonstrate how much we weren’t close—spreading my arms out wide until there was a great distance between my two index fingers. Those seated before and after us groaned when I accidentally shoved my hands on them.

I placed the blue box near his face.

“Fine,” Kris groaned, snatching the box and getting off at the next bus stop.

Bo Mi’s Point of View

Tao carried me all the way to my condominium complex. He refused when I tell him to set me back on the floor when we reached the foot of the building. I thrashed my legs as we began acquiring stares when we entered the compound; some envious ones probably from single women and a few alarmed looks from conservative older people.

“Tao put me down, they’re staring,” I hid my face on his shoulder. Being the center of attention has never been in my bucket list. I wasn’t one to want the entire spotlight on me.

“Let them stare,” Tao smiled.

From one of the couples that passed us by, I heard the female say something like “Why aren’t you that sweet to me?” to her boyfriend. Great, now people would think that Tao is my boyfriend. I knew a number of people that lived in this building. I burrowed my face on his shoulder in pure embarrassment.

When we reached the front of my door, Tao let me down. “Stop smiling like an idiot Huang Zi Tao. That’s the last piggy back ride ever,”

I encoded the password on the lock and my door unhinged. Before I could step inside, Tao said “A thank you would be nice,”

I rolled my eyes, facing him again. “Thank you,”

Again Tao held me back, this time by grabbing my wrist.

“What is it now?” I wailed.

“I hadn’t said thank you yet,” Tao smiled oh so innocently.

I tilted my head. “Thank you for what?”

“For almost killing me with those 10 levels of spiciness,”

Assuming that he’d thank me in words, I was caught off guard when Tao leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the forehead. His warm lips pressed against my bare skin causing my heart to beat so loud, I swore he could’ve heard it.

Tao pulled away and his lips curved into a smile, warmth radiating from his innocent face.

But his eyes locked on something over my head. The smile vanished and his warm expression had stiffened. I turned my head round, wondering what could’ve caused that rapid change on Tao, when my eyes landed on a pair of rounded shocked ones. Kris’s eyes.

He alternately looked at me and Tao, his lips quivering as it was gaped open.  Suddenly, the schocked expression washed away from his face, being replaced with a more darker one. I couldn’t decipher what that look meant but as he made a turn to the next hall, I couldn’t help but run after him.

There was a desire in me to explain to Kris.

To clear up a possible misunderstanding that he might be thinking of.