Chapter 9

I was abruptly cut off by JaeSeop’s lips, which were firmly pressed against mine.

                His lips were warm. For a moment, that was the only thing my mind could register. And then suddenly, the pressure of his mouth became uncomfortable, and my eyes grew wide. My hands found purchase on his shoulders and I shoved him with all my might, desperate to get away. I couldn’t speak for fear of my voice betraying me, so instead I simply turned around and tried to leave. Once more I was stopped by JaeSeop.

                “Please…” he said.

                I turned around, cocked an eyebrow, waited for him to continue.

                “I… have no idea why. I’ve tried to stop myself, to convince myself I’m crazy, but nothing works! Kevin, I… I like you. Despite everything that’s wrong with this situation, I like you.”

                “Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “You’re crazy, Kim JaeSeop!”

                “I don’t know why I like you, I just do, okay?!” He protested. “I told myself it wasn’t worth it, I tried to stop it, I promise I did! But I like you, Kevin, and there’s nothing anyone can do about that! I don’t want to, but I do!”

                “And you expect me to be okay with that? ‘Kevin, you’re not worth it, and I really don’t want to like you, but since I do, I guess I’m stuck with you.’ That’s what you want me to fall for?!” I found myself literally laughing aloud at the whole situation. “You’re horrible, Kim JaeSeop.” With that, I quickly my heel and ran off in the direction of my house, giving my boss no time to stop me.

                “So you’re telling us that our plan… worked?” DongHo smirked devilishly. I shot him a searing glare from behind the rim of my uber-caffeinated iced coffee drink with a name so long and French that it was impossible to remember. Hoon reached across the table and jokingly high-fived DongHo. I slammed my mug down on the table, little droplets of coffee-rain flying across the table.

                “YOU GUYS IT’S NOT FUNNY!” Both men paused and turned their shocked eyes on me. “Look, it’s gonna be really awkward at work now, and I don’t know if he’ll fire me or what! But if he fires me, then that means I’ll have to pay for that ridiculous suit of his, and I can’t!” My head fell into my palms, a distressed noise that sounded something akin to two monkeys fighting over a banana while trying not to get stepped on by an elephant escaping my mouth. I felt a hand on my back.

                “Look, Kev, he can’t fire you just because you’re not head over heels for him,” Hoon chuckled. “When you go to work, just act normal. Forget anything ever happened and go back to the way things were. Once he picks up on the fact that you just want to erase everything, there isn’t much he can do but go along with it, right?”

               I raised my head and smiled at my friend. “Thanks, Hoon.”

               “Sailor Hoon to the rescue again!” DongHo cried at the top of his lungs. Hoon looked at him with his infamous grin that read, sleep-with-one-eye-open-because-I-swear-one-day-you-will-wake-up-dead.

               I laughed at my friends’ antics and sipped my drink, resolving to take Hoon’s advice and act as normal as possible. It couldn’t hurt, right?

               That day, I walked into work an hour late and sat through a thirty minute lecture on the importance of being at work on time before being put in charge, once again, of researching venues. When I reached my office, I felt the tension of the past half hour finally press down on me. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and counted to ten. By the time I opened my eyes again, I was ready to do some research.

               With my nose buried in piles of information, the hours passed quickly. When lunch rolled around, I felt myself wishing with all my might that JaeSeop wouldn’t come find me. Fortunately, when I walked onto the balcony, Kiseop was there waiting for me instead. “Hey,” he smiled.

               “H-hey…”

               “So what happened yesterday? JaeSeop seemed a little… weird,” he chuckled.

               “Y-yesterday…?” I’m pretty sure my anxiety was obvious.

               “Kevin?” Kiseop gave me a strange look. “Are you okay?”

               “Y-y-yeah… Why wouldn’t I be?” I forced a laugh, hoped to throw him off, but he somehow sensed that something was up.

               “Tell me what happened.”

               “We went to GongWon, and I got mad at him and then he just…” I trailed off, not wanting to explain the rest. For some reason, I felt tears pricking my eyes.

               “Go on,” Kiseop urged.

               “He… kissed me. And then I shoved him away and he started talking about how he liked me and I called him a liar and ran away…” Kiseop’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. I didn’t know whether it was the retelling of the experience or the look on his face, but right then and there I crumpled up and sobbed. It felt good, really, to get it out.

               Arms slowly wrapped around me, pulling me close. “It’s okay,” Kiseop whispered. “You’ll be okay.”

Meanwhile…

               The man had been ready to march in and disrupt the two. His long, slender fingers rested on the cold metal of the door handle, and his mind was made up. But when the tiny man had folded in half and burst into tears, somehow he knew it was because of him. So he slowly pried his hand from the knob, painfully tore his eyes from the sight, and walked at a snail’s pace down the hallway, feeling himself grow further away from the object of his heart’s affection.

               The rest of the day was routine, and was also a heck of a lot easier after my little episode on the balcony. I climbed into Kiseop’s car with a smile plastered on my face. “Hey, wanna go see a movie?” he asked while I buckled myself in.

               “Sure,” I grinned. In all honesty, a movie sounded like the perfect distraction. The drive was pleasantly quiet, and we quickly agreed on what movie to see. As Kiseop bought the tickets, I noticed a person in another line giving us strange looks. He was tall, blonde, and somehow strangely resembled a pigeon. I pointed it out to Kiseop, and his face lit up like a firework.

               “Eli!” he called, waving like mad at the stranger.

               “Fancy meeting you here, Lee Kiseop,” Eli grinned, sauntering over to us. He and Kiseop embraced quickly, and then Eli turned his gaze on me. “Your boyfriend?”

               “Author,” Kiseop quickly corrected. “Eli, this is Kevin. Kevin, this is Eli, an old friend of mine.”

               “Nice to meet you,” I smiled. To my utter shock, Eli enveloped me in a quick hug as well.

               “You’re seriously an author?” he asked, looking extremely intrigued.

               “Ehh, it’s a work in progress,” I shrugged. Our conversation continued in quick whispers throughout the entire movie, and I was thrilled to have found a friend in Eli. Kiseop seemed excited, too. Every time I glanced at him, he was beaming brightly at the two of us. Being there with friends was a pretty decent way to end the day, I thought.

               I’ve learned since that I should never jump to conclusions.

A/N: HAII~~! So, how 'bout that new U-Kiss song, eh? xP It's been awhile, and this isn't that long of an update, but... I hope you like it? I'm slowly counting down the days till November!

@CuriosityShapeMaker: I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY DID IT JUST HAPPENED.

@UbiquitousxSS: WOOT!

@inspirit_kissme: YOU HAVE NO CLUE I FANGIRLED TOO. IS IT LEGAL TO DO THAT WITH YOUR OWN STORY...?

@Yuukey: This wasn't supposed to happen for, like, four more chapters AT LEAST. It wasn't gonna happen till AFTER Eli showed up! But, of course, AJ has a mind of his own...

@I-love-kevin-woo: He rushes into things. It kinda flipped my whole plan upside down, too.

@kaachan: I think they've realized that teasing Kevin means having a death wish, but they think it's a little too fun to give up xD 

@you--monkeyballs: Eh, not quite. Kevin's not really at the whole slapping point yet. :P

@mipocai: I'm sorry it took so long! This one isn't much of a cliffie though, so I hope it's better!

@samsonite77: JaeVin... Hmm... VinSeop? Hmm... I'm not sure how many JaeVin moments we'll see in the next few chapters. Kevin seems pretty pissed.

@kagaki: You're forgiven. AJ decided that plans were for weirdos and just kinda threw caution to the wind. Thanks, JaeSeop. Thanks a lot.

@KevLene91: IT TOOK FOREVER BUT IT'S AN UPDATE RIGHT

Also, I'd like to note that I will be replying to comments via the comment-reply feature now instead of through Author's Notes! I've been waiting for this! Now all the site needs is a beta program... xD