I can’t seem to figure out if I said those words from my heart or if it was just from the sympathy I feel for the woman next to me.  Obviously she was desperate to try to make herself look better in front of her ex, and a part of me really wanted to help her get over this guy who seems to have jaded her.  He does seem almost too good to be true.  I can see why she would fall for him and later have those high expectations for her next love interest.  Hyungsik has the looks, and for girls, a good-looking guy is a major plus in seeking out a love potential.  He seems nice enough, but idol life must have changed him.  It’s never cool to flaunt your better life to your ex.  Of course, Evey is doing the same thing, only difference is, I’m not real.  I didn’t exist in her life before the night of pizza delivering and drunk ranting.  Geez, what do I know about fate for me to talk about it so calmly.  I almost believed myself for a moment there.  Could I have really fallen for this girl if the circumstances were different?  Why am I thinking about love now, at this situation, when I’ve always looked at girls as objects and play things?  She’s been in the bathroom for a while and the food is already here.  I get up and tell the couple in front of me that I will go check on her. 

I find her in the restroom, staring at the mirror.  Was she moved by my words?  She really does live in a fantasy world?  “You OK?” I surprise her.  She looks down at her hands and closes them into a fist.  Walks past me out of the restroom, “Let’s finish this.”  Her shoulders rub against me and I feel my heart get pulled towards her.  This feeling is foreign.  I commend her with the ability to flip my heart around from disconnect to full attention.  No one’s ever tamed me.  Why do I feel like a strong sense of wanting to be next to her, wanting to protect her, wanting to take care of her?  Maybe I am the jaded one. 

I follow her, and I watch how her long lean legs move gracefully on the tiled floor.  Her stilettos clicking and matches my quickened heart beat, her short skirt has a slit that shows off the back of her smooth thighs, she pushes her hair over her right shoulder and her fine shiny hair cascades along her open backed dress.  Her shawl drops exposing her delicate shoulder.  My mouth start to feel dry and out of habit I my lips.  Is this the feeling I was talking about earlier?  I manage to refocus and pull her chair out for her.  I sit right next to her and I can’t help but stare.  She crosses her left leg over her right and the skirt rides up a bit.  I try not to look.  But I still do.  She removes her shawl completely and places it over the back of her chair.  Her back is completely exposed and facing me; I my lips again.  She uses her left hand to sweep her hair over her ear highlighting a diamond clasp earrings.  I’d love to nibble on…  She wipes the tendrils off her neck with one motion.  Why am I noticing her every little movement?  I see myself leaning over and kissing her neck, and she moans my name, “Kai.”  My name sounds amazing from .  I finally snap out of it.  Who is this woman?  And why didn’t I meet her earlier in my life, before she met this idiot idol sitting across from me?  How could he cheat on her?  Her legs went for miles yet she had curves in all the right places.  She’s perfect.  My fantasy incarnate.  Attraction, a sudden attraction.  Each man has a different ideal, and for me it’s her.  I want her for myself.

“Yo, Jonginnie!” Why is Luhan’s voice in the middle of my daydream?  “What’s up man?”  I feel a hand on my left shoulder and I snap back into reality.

“Luhan, hey, just having dinner, what’s up?”  I forget that three other people are at my table. 

“Hello, I’m Luhan and this is Baekhyun.  We are Kai’s best friends and roommates.”  My friends can be a little too happy sometimes.  Looking at them, one can say we are perfection.  I am not bragging here.  They, WE, are really good looking, we’ve been told many times.  It’s not like we flaunt it or we seek the attention, it just comes with the territory, each of us has certain features that attract the opposite .  We take care of ourselves by eating a lot, but still stay fit.  Dancing is how we get toned.  Luhan and Baekhyun are polar opposites, Luhan has brownish blonde hair and Baekhyun has dark mahogany hair.  Mine is somewhere in between.  Our hair remains messy, up or down, and it always looks like we just got out of bed without the bed head if that makes any sense.  Anyways, with their bright eyes and cheerful demeanor they send arrows straight into women’s hearts.  I am the opposite, I remain ice cold and often look sleepy because I am actually usually sleepy until I dance.  Either way, girls go crazy over us.  It’s a blessing and a curse.  Case in point, Jihyun and Evey are noticeably gawking and so do the rest of the women in the restaurant.  [Sorry for being vain here…forgive me].

“Evey, it’s nice seeing you again!” Luhan smiles at her.  She has a shocked look on her face, and clueless on how to react.  I told Luhan and Baekhyun about the situation.  “You look just as good with clothes on, but don’t get me wrong, you in that bikini was dynamite.”  Baekhyun agrees with a thumbs-up.  Her body closes up, and her leg begins to shake again, I place my hand on her leg to calm her.  I am expecting another elbow to my side, but she actually stops and stares at my hand.  It wasn’t a look of anger, but of wonderment.  Baekhyun and Luhan sit at their table and allow us to finish dinner quietly.  At the end of the night, we say our goodbyes. 

Hyungsik whispers to Evey that he’d like to meet with her privately next time.  What the hell does that mean?  He is still hovering too close to her so I pull her next to me possessively.  Hyungsik gets the point and leaves with Jihyun in hand.  He turns to look at Evey one last time.  It’s obvious that he still has feelings for her. 

“You still love him?” I finally ask her.  She doesn’t respond.

“Thanks for this.  You were,” she lets out a sigh.  “Very believable.”  She smiles slightly, avoiding my eyes.  She takes 300 US dollars from her wallet and hands it to me.  “This should cover dinner also.  Thanks, Kai.”  She turns and walks away from me. 

“That’s it!”  I yell at her.  She stops and turns around with a confused look in her face.

“What do you mean?”

“No explanation?  You lure me into this make-believe world, and you throw me away after the night’s end?” 

“The explanation is in what you just said, it was make-believe.  I shouldn’t have dragged you into it.  And I am very thankful for playing along with me.”  She turns to leave again.

“He’s still going to approach you.  What are you going to tell him, that you broke up with me?  Me, the heir of KJ Fashion.”

“You got yourself believing that too?”  She closed the distance between us.  “Kai, your looks are straight out of a manhwa (comics, unbelievable good looks) you know that?”  I didn’t actually know how to react to that.  I mean, I know I’m not ugly.  “I was telling the truth about you being hypnotizing and mesmerizing.”  Wait, she never said that out loud.  “And your touch is magnetizing and caused me to have impure thoughts of you and me and my bed…” She stopped herself.  Please, don’t stop.  Tell me everything.  “Anyways, it’s an infatuation, an infatuation I will soon get over and a slight blip on my love radar.  I conjured someone of your description in my fantasies and made myself believe that you are the incarnation of that fantasy, so I went with it.  I was trying to make him jealous with you, and I’m sorry for using you like that.  I’m pathetic, I know.”

“You think I’m hypnotizing and mesmerizing?”  I feel this need to my jacket.  I feel warm in this cold air.

“That’s all you got from what I said?

“You are obviously attracted to me.”  I smile at her devilishly.  Jacket ed and I continue to move towards her.

“Well of course I do!  Anyone would.  Look at you!”  She’s getting annoyed, cute.

“So let’s keep going with this.” I suggest.  I am inching closer to her.  She stops me with her hand splayed on my chest.  It begins to slowly move down towards my abs, and her eyes follow southward.  “You want to see it?”  She snaps back into reality and pulls away. 

“This is dangerous, YOU are dangerous.”  She turns away and hails a taxi.  I stop her and tell the driver that I’ll be taking her home and it drives away. 

“I’m not done talking.”  She looks at me irritated.  Then her eyes do this little squinting thing, like she’s coming up with something clever to say.  “Continue about those impure thoughts about me?” She turns away again, and I grab her.  “I’m joking.  Come on, I’ll take you home.  I already know where you live and work, we’re practically dating for real.”  I pull her and face the direction of my car. 

“I’m promised to someone.”  I turn around, what did I just hear?  “He’s actually the closest thing to my fantasy man.  I should have called him, but, well, we only had our first meeting today.”

“An arranged marriage?”  She nods.  “You speak about falling in love and finding that perfect someone and you agree to an arranged marriage?”

“He’s actually really nice and very good looking.  He is the heir of KJ Fashion.  Well, second heir, but whatever.  He’s perfect, he is.  So I…”

“Why didn’t you call him then?” My blood is boiling.  How irritating to think she met another man.  How could she pull me in her web of lies and make me believe there is something between us and she was hiding this chaebol the entire time.  Could she be lying?  Second heir, huh?

“I told you, I just met him, today.”

“How do I now you are not lying?  How do I know you are not just saying this in order to get rid of me?  If you don’t like me then just say so.  But, I can tell you right now, one night with me and you’ll forget Hyungsik, that second heir chaebol, and any other man you’ve been with.”  And I firmly believe this.  I will rock her world in more ways then one if she gives me a chance.

“I’m not lying,” she didn’t even falter.  I’m losing my touch.  Is she getting bored with me already?  “He really is, his name is Choi Minho, second heir of KJ Fashion.”

My cousin, great.  “Well I’m the first heir, don’t I one-up him?”  I forget that she knows nothing about my background, that I truly am the first heir.

“Kai, we should just end this now.” She extends her hand.  Hell no, your mine, and I am not going to lose to my cousin.  I take her hand and pull her towards me.  I wrap my arms around her slim waist and kiss her, hard.  She tries to push away so I take hold of her tighter and tilt my head enough to deepen the kiss.  She stops struggling and kisses me back.  Ding!  Round 1 goes to me.  She wraps her left arm around my waist and her other hand runs through my hair.  She turns her head this time then pulls away and looks at me with hooded eyes, her eyelashes flutter.  I pick her up so she is above eye level with me and I am looking up at her, her arms are now around my neck.  She places her left palm on my right cheek and touches the skin underneath my eye.  “You are the stuff of fantasies, Kim Jongin.”  Shouldn’t I be saying that to her, I am the guy in this situation?  

“Kim Jongin.”  I say to her.

“I meant to say Kai.”  It wasn’t a question about who I am, I was just surprised that she called me by my real name without actually knowing our lies tonight were mostly truth.  She leans down to kiss me.  If she wasn’t wearing a skirt she’d probably have her legs wrapped around my waist.  No matter, I have my arms around her, keeping her close to me while we kiss under the streetlights of Cheongdam-dong.