Ha Neul's POV

It was around ten o’clock in the evening and I was working on some math problems when a phone rang. At first I thought it was my mobile but it was a different sound. Terrorist Kiddy was still out so it couldn’t have been his either. After a few rings it dawned to me that it must be the landline. I didn’t even know he had one.

I stood up and went to the living room where the ringing came from. When I stood in front of the phone I figured though that it mightn’t be the smartest idea to pick it up. Thus I turned around and headed back to my room.

But I hadn’t even taken three steps when it went to voicemail. “Jonghyun-ah,” a woman’s voice said and I halted. “Why did you leave so suddenly? Mom really wanted to talk to you. I haven’t seen you for so long! Won’t you call me back? I really miss you.”

So that’s his mom… Guess he’ll be happy to hear that she wants to meet him… I should remember to tell him that she called…

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Later, I was going through the bath, I heard the door going indicating Terrorist Kiddy had returned.

I hastily rinsed my mouth of the remaining toothpaste and went to tell him of his mother’s call.

“You picked up my phone?!” He hissed alarmed.

“No, of course not!” Did he think I was that stupid?! “She spoke on your voicemail. She said—“

“Don’t!” He cut me off harshly; his voice and expression hard. “I don’t even want to know what she said!”

Huh?

“But she—“

“I SAID I DON’T WANT TO KNOW!” He yelled and I stepped back, shocked.

“Arasso, arasso,” I said quickly and raised my hands in defence. “I just wanted…” I trailed off not knowing what to say. I had never seen him this furious.

He sighed and turned away. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands, as if to calm himself. I just stood there, watching him. His back looked so lonely I wanted to give him a tight hug. But I was afraid he wouldn’t want that.

“I know and I’m sorry,” he suddenly said. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“I…” His mood that changed 180 degrees every few minutes had left me speechless.

“It’s just that the fact that…” He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. “That that… woman – he spit the word – is calling me again after she’d doggedly ignored my existence for years! It makes my blood boil!” His voice and fists were shaking and I could tell it cost him humungous strength not to punch something.

She ignored his existence? Her own son’s? I had difficulties believing that.

“She ignored her own son’s existence?” I inquired tentatively not wanting to anger him any further.

“Yup, her own son’s!” He spat. “After my old man had threatened to take her adultery to court she loathingly agreed to sign the divorce papers! And to proclaim her resentment she refused to see her children ever since! No matter how much they wanted to see her…”

I was dumbfounded. Adultery…? Refused to see her own children…? But…

“Don’t look at me like that!” He barked at me. “I don’t need your pity!”

He strode past me and I turned around. Seeing him walk away like that, into the dark cold corridor, my body just acted on its own. I ran up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

He stilled. “What are you doing?” He snarled. But there was a shaky edge to his voice.

Yes, what in the world was I doing?! Why was I hugging this stranger who never missed a chance to be a jerk to me?! Why was I getting myself involved with his business?

Since when… since when did I start worrying about his wellbeing?

“Have you fallen for me?” He joked. But the shaky edge was still there.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I said dismissively, glad about the excuse he unconsciously offered me. “Why would I fall for a conceited jerk like you?! I just wanted to back-hug you once so that I can brag about it later…”

He looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at me. “There will be no later.”

I tightened my hug and looked up to him with a pout and puppy eyes (although I knew they wouldn’t work…) “Never-never?”

I could have sworn his eyes widened a nanometre before he narrowed them even more. “Only over my dead body!” He smirked.

I put a dejected look on my face and unwrapped my arms. Then I broke out in a grin. “Well, it’s not like you’ll be keeping an eye on me for the rest of my life…” I said lightly and turned to flounce away.

But he got hold of my collar and pulled me back against his chest. “You’re walking a dangerous path, Ghosty,” he whispered warningly into my ear and I caught my breath.

Damn, this was not good for the heart. To be precise, he was not good for the heart! There had been too many beat-skipping incidents lately… And he was responsible for every single one of them… How did he do that?!

And I really needed to sue that company of the shampoo he used… They must be mixing some addictive substance into it!

Narrator’s POV

That night, Jonghyun’s nightmare was worse.

The past week he’d gotten better every day and Ha Neul had already been looking forward to sleep in a bed again. But this night was even worse than when he’d returned home drunk.

Instead of tossing and turning in his bed or sleepwalking he just lied there, rigidly and tense. There was sweat pearling on his forehead; his expression distressed.

Ha Neul grabbed a towel and wiped off the droplets. She checked his temperature but he wasn’t running a fever.

He was just dreaming…

Ha Neul looked at Jonghyun’s sleeping face worriedly. He really must miss his mother to be dreaming about her this heavily. Or maybe there was even more to it she wondered. And why would a mother refuse to see her own children? Just to ‘proclaim her resentment’, as he’d put it? Ha Neul shook her head. Maybe it was because she’d grown up in a complete family, but to her that was an explanation she just could not accept.

But that was not her problem. It was his. And she had no right or reason to get involved in it. She wasn’t a friend or family. She was a female whom he could not trust and she hadn’t done anything that would have changed his opinion: She had blackmailed him, sneaked into his room when he’d clearly told her not to, and so on.

But she couldn’t just walk away while he was suffering from his nightmares either. That’s why she continued to hold onto his hand and pat his arm in a soothing manner until she drifted off to sleep beside his bed yet again.

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It wasn’t too long after Ha Neul had finally fallen asleep when Jonghyun woke with a start. He turned his head to look at the clock when his eyes fell on Ha Neul and their entwined hands. Looks like even Ghosty’s presence hadn’t helped tonight he thought and tiredly rubbed his eyes.

He sat up and studied the sleeping girl. How could she even sleep like this? He leaned in to get a closer look on her face but her hair was obstructing his view. So he slowly reached out and gently tugged the hair behind her ear. He then let his eyes wander over the features of her petit face. It was dark as it was a cloudy night but it was still bright enough for him to make out her eyes with the long eyelashes… her small nose… …

It must have been fate that just at that moment the clouds decided to part ways for Mr Moon and that the angle happened to be such that his light fell right onto Ha Neul.

She was damn pretty. Jonghyun couldn’t help it. Her by moonlight illuminated profile with slightly parted lips was simply breath-taking. And he was looking at her close-up. There weren’t many girls he knew who looked pretty even when observed from a close distance and without make-up. And he knew a lot of girls…

But if he was being honest, he’d known since that morning he’d driven her to SMent the first time. Because no matter how much he told himself to forget those two hours, his brain just wouldn’t cooperate. Whenever conversation touched on the subject of beauty, in any way whatsoever, her sleeping figure or her dark doe eyes would be the first to cross his mind.

And now this girl was lying here, on his bed, sleeping defencelessly like a child. Even if he were to steal a kiss she wouldn’t notice, right?

Before he could think of anything else he’d closed the distance and tenderly brushed his lips against hers. They were as soft and luscious as they looked. Who knew that those lips that could say words as sharp as razors – Jonghyun recalled her outburst at the cafeteria – were actually this soft? He chuckled lightly.

If he thought about it, she wasn’t half as harsh and unyielding as she first appeared to be. A truly ruthless person would have never spent every night for more than a week beside a stranger’s bed. No matter how famous he was. She wouldn’t have obeyed his grounding sentence when it was this inconvenient. She wouldn’t have kept the secret when it caused her so much trouble. Actually, now that he thought about it, there were countless incidents like that. He just never noticed. Or didn’t want to notice. Because he was afraid of what would happen if he did. Like earlier.

He had known clearly that she didn’t pity him. Because, once he had stopped trying to apply his understanding of the opposite on Ha Neul, guessing her current state of mind had become a piece of cake. Because he no longer had to question her every action, he now could read her like a book.

That’s why his earlier accusation of her pitying him had been nothing but an excuse to run away. For he was too afraid to continue the conversation.

“I’m sorry for accusing you of something I know you didn’t do,” Jonghyun silently apologized to Ha Neul’s sleeping figure. “I know that what you were feeling for me was not pity but compassion…”

He then reached out to pull the extra blanket back over Ha Neul when a thought occurred to him and he cursed himself for not having thought of it earlier. The bed was big enough after all! He got up and squatted besides Ha Neul. He then pulled the blanket down again and carefully lifted her up bridal-style. She was surprisingly light… (A/N: Yeah, yeah! Either she’s anorexic or he’s a bodybuilder or a liar!) He carefully laid her on the bed and covered her with the blanket.

He then walked around the bed and slipped under the blanket as well. He once again made sure that Ha Neul was lying comfortably and really tucked under before turning around and closing his eyes.

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Sorry for not updating for so long!!! >< I had to pull out (or more like operate) my wisdom tooth and the painkillers are really killing me... =.=

Anyway! Now I'm back!

PS: Also, very sorry for not answering your comments!! Will do so right now!! ><