He said what? Ji Hyo couldn’t believe her ears. She stared dumbfounded at the older man; her heart beat so fast that she wouldn’t be surprised if she had a heart attack any time soon. There were butterflies in her stomach, making it flutter. She lowered her eyes and found Jong Kook’s lips and went dry. What is this? Come on, Song Ji Hyo – don’t be silly, she berated herself. Ji Hyo cleared and whispered softly, “You don’t love me.”

Jong Kook thought he heard a hint of regret in the way Ji Hyo said it, but he waved it off as hallucination. The question was right up close and personal and Jong Kook knew it would be unfair to lie. “I don’t,” he agreed. “I don’t think I do; at least not in the way that you’re suggesting. And that’s why I pulled away. Ji Hyo, I was supposed to be your friend – I was supposed to be your big brother. Brothers don’t think that way about their sisters.”

“What way?”

He blushed when Ji Hyo pried on. “Brothers don’t think about kissing their sisters.”

 “How can you want to kiss me if you don’t even love me?” she said curiously.

For the same reason why you wanted to taste my lips even though I heard nothing about you loving me? Jong Kook didn’t voice his thought. This was not about Ji Hyo; this was about him avoiding her. He rubbed his face with both his hands before answering, “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately, Song Ji Hyo? Do you realise how attractive you are? A man – Any man would think of you ually. I’m not immune to your appeal.” He stopped short, petrified when he realised that he had just admitted that he was attracted to this young woman ually. When the hell did I start thinking about her like that?! He panicked and tried to backtrack.

“Then you’re saying it’s just lust? You really don’t have any romantic feelings toward me?” Ji Hyo asked again, wanting to make sure.

“No, I don’t.”

His answer was so definite and without hesitation that it couldn’t possibly be a lie. Ji Hyo felt sick all the sudden – it was like somebody tied her heart on a boulder and threw it into the bottom of the sea; she felt cold inside. Hugging herself to ward off the imaginary cold, Ji Hyo scooted away from Jong Kook. Her pride was wounded at the fact that Jong Kook – the Oppa she adored – thought of her only as an object of lust instead of a human with feelings. “Then it’s best that we end this all before either you or me do something stupid,” she said coldly.

 “Oh, here we go again,” Jong Kook growled, flailing his arms exasperately; he was completely unaware of the change in Ji Hyo’s tone and the paleness of her cheeks. “Can you stop asking me to end this relationship with you? I don’t want to!”

“Why? So that you have a free access to lust over me and maybe, with a little push, I will be willing to comply?! You are being selfish, Kim Jong Kook!” Ji Hyo’s anger flared – fuelled by the shame and hurt she felt. “Can’t you for once stop thinking about you and think about me instead?!”

Jong Kook smacked a fist on the wooden porch, making Ji Hyo jump. “I am thinking about you!” he roared, “And don’t think that low of me!”

The woman scoffed condescendingly, “Of course.” She raised a warning finger at the older man. “Don’t yell at me, Kim Jong Kook – I hate when people yell at me.”

 Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Jong Kook looked away to the direction of the house – he was sure that his mother heard them arguing; they spoke very loudly. He really dreaded the conversation he would have with the old woman later. There was little doubt that she was going to give him a piece of her mind later about him treating a woman like a piece of meat. He glanced at Ji Hyo and found that she was still fuming where she sat, picking at a loose thread on her jeans. “You are angry,” he said in calmer tone.

 “No , Sherlock!” Ji Hyo retorted.

“Don’t curse; this is my mother’s house,” Jong Kook stated calmly and decided it was the wrong thing to say as Ji Hyo growled under her breath as a response. He closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Look, Ji Hyo-yah – you asked me questions and I answered them truthfully. Why are you angry with me?”

“Because!” Ji Hyo stood up and tried to leave, tired of the neverending argument. “Why can’t we have a normal conversation that doesn’t end with you and me jumping on each other’s throat?” She didn’t look at Jong Kook when she spoke. Then she left for Jong Kook’s room to find a bit of quiet – this was suffocating, this place. Everywhere she looked there was Jong Kook and his family and she felt so trapped. She wanted out.

Jong Kook followed her inside. He didn’t want this argument to end up like their other arguments – not finished. Closing the door to his room behind them, the tall man thought about what his mother was going to think; he decided that whatever it was, that could wait. He would deal with it later.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Ji Hyo asked him, quite apprehensive of his following her. “Go away!”

“This is my room,” he pointed out matter of factly but at the same time not budging from where he stood, positively blocking the only way out so that Ji Hyo was trapped inside the room with him.

Ji Hyo rubbed at her right temple in frustration, feeling a migraine coming. Before he could snap at him, though, her phone began to ring. She glared at Jong Kook all the time as she rummaged into her handbag on the bedside table to retrieve her phone. Glancing at the caller’s name, Ji Hyo decided to pick it up. Her eyes never left Jong Kook’s as she started speaking on the phone – challenging him to do something about it.

He waited impatiently as Ji Hyo talked on the phone. Jong Kook didn’t know which bothered him more – the fact that Ji Hyo was talking to Choi Min Soo on the phone with such sweet voice or the fact that the Sunbaenim even had her phone number in the first place. He decided it was the first one as she continued to speak with the same tone – he didn’t even know what they were talking about; his hand was itching to snatch the phone off of her and told the older man to stop flirting with his girlfriend. Misplaced jealousy grew on him like a green monster that Jong Kook couldn’t stop himself from lashing out to her the moment she ended the call.

“He’s married, you know,” he reminded spitefully, feeling only slightly guilty at the flash of hurt in Ji Hyo’s eyes when he said it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ji Hyo’s tone was dangerously low.

“I’m just saying. What did he want?” he said, shrugging.

“That’s none of your business,” she retorted angrily. Her voice cracked as she spoke, “And damn you for thinking that I’m seducing a married man!” She slammed her phone on the bedside table and turned around, unable to look at Jong Kook without being physically violent. Get a grip and don’t cry! She chanted the words in her head.

Jong Kook bit his tongue hard that enough to draw blood. That was low of him to say that about her and if Ji Hyo slapped him, he deserved it. Heck, his mother would smack him senseless had she heard. He didn’t mean what he said – he only said it because he was jealous and he wanted to hurt her, which backfired quite instantaneously. Hurting Ji Hyo was a stupid thing to do, Jong Kook should have learned enough by now, because hurting her meaning hurting himself tenfolds in the process.

Taking a tentative step toward the woman, who was now hugging herself as if bracing for any more verbal attacks directed at her, Jong Kook called out softly, “Hey.” Ji Hyo didn’t move and Jong Kook’s heart broke into pieces as he realised how small she looked. He took another step, and another, until he was standing right behind her. “Hey, I’m sorry,” he offered. “That was uncalled for. I was out of line.”

Ji Hyo kept silent, facing the window as silent tears rolled down her cheek. She was so hurt at the accusation – it was as if Jong Kook took a blunt, salted knife and started to pick on her old wounds to make them bleed again. He was supposed to be her wonderwall; and yet here they were – she hurting and he implying her to be a . It was all Frozen Flower all over again. She tensed when she felt Jong Kook closed the distance between them and s an arm around her waist, pulling her to his front. “Why do you keep hurting me?” she asked quietly.

The question was so full of pain and Jong Kook had to clench his jaws to stop the emotional pain from wrecking his body. “I’m sorry,” he whispered the only thing that he could offer.

“You don’t get to say ‘sorry’ and keep hurting me, Oppa,” Ji Hyo said. “You always said that you wanted to protect me – that you wanted me to be happy. But in truth, you’ve been hurting me more than others have. At least they never promised me anything.”

 Sighing, Jong Kook pulled her even closer to him, thankful that she didn’t resist even though she kept her posture rigid. “It’s never my intention to hurt you, Seung Im-ah.”

“You keep saying that.”

“I know.”

“Oppa, it’s too late to return to the way it used to be, isn’t it?” Ji Hyo said tiredly. She wanted to go home and slept for a long time until she didn’t feel hurt anymore. “You and I are such a mess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it too much to ask that I want us to be like before – as friends without complications? Sometimes I wish that we never went for that first ice cream treat; this wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t picked me up that day. And how I wish you never saw that bruise on my wrist because it would make things easier. We wouldn’t have been in this mess had you not seen it and tried to play hero.”

Knowing where this conversation would lead, Jong Kook kept his silence. He knew that everything that Ji Hyo said was true – he also often wondered about where they would be now if that fateful day never happened. Now what was he supposed to do? He told himself that if it were his true intention to help her then it would only be right if he respected her will. He had been pushing her to do things on his terms this far and it wasn’t fair for her. “Tell me what you want,” he said quickly before he could change his mind, “Tell me, Ji Hyo-yah, and I promise I will do it – whatever it is you ask of me.”

“I want us to end this nuisance,” she said definitely. “I want us to go back to the way we were before this mess happened – you not giving me attention more than you give others and me not having contact with you other than during filming. We don’t have to say anything to the other Running Man members or to anyone; we just go with the flow.”

Somehow Jong Kook had a feeling that there was something that Ji Hyo didn’t say. He knew what it was – she was trying to drop the fact that their breakup would secure his safety because that was what Baek Chang Joo wanted. Jong Kook wanted to throw up; she kept trying to protect him in her own way when it was him who promised to protect her. Why did everything become so ed up? His throat closed up and his voice came out as a croak as he agreed to it. “Okay,” he said, “Friends, then?”

“Yes,” the woman replied.

“Friends,” he repeated affirmatively. Jong Kook tightened his hold on her, not ready to let the woman he truly cared about slip away from him just yet. As she started to detach herself from him, Jong Kook felt a tug on his chest, followed by a sharp pain like someone had reached into his chest and ripped his heart away. A chunck of his heart was missing and the moment she took a step away he realised that it was Ji Hyo who had taken it with her. What is this feeling? He asked himself. The last time he felt this way was when he broke up with his high school sweetheart, his first love. Realisation hit him like a brick that very instant. His mother’s voice rang in his ears – think less and feel more.

And that what he did. In a split second of a decision, Jong Kook reached out and took a hold of Ji Hyo’s forearm, making her lose her balance as the back of her knees hit the edge of his bed. Unceremoniously she fell flat to the bed on her back with him on top of her. He ignore the surprised look on her face as he lowered his face to capture her full lips that were slightly open.

“What are –..” She didn’t have the chance to finish her sentence for the next thing she knew Jong Kook’s lips was on hers, kissing her fully on .

The brief touch of his lips on hers sent Ji Hyo’s system into an overdrive. She was unable to think – as if all that mattered was the kiss. There were sparks of stars and every single particle of her body hummed in pleasure; it was as though she hadn’t been alive before and now she was – and it was him who gave her life. The scent that was uniquely Jong Kook surrounded her, making her dizzy as their lips moved in sync. For a moment there, she forgot where they were and who they were; she even forgot her name. She felt like dying and going to heaven when she felt his lips parted and he darted his tongue to bottom lip, asking permission to deepen their kiss. Just then, though, a very tiny part of her that apparently was still sane despite all this screamed inside her head, he doesn’t love you – he was taking advantage of you!

He could feel her suddenly stiffened under him and before he could react, Ji Hyo had given her a push, hard enough to send him tumbling off the bed onto the floor. She bolted straight up, still panting out of breath from the kiss, looking at him with wild eyes that were still glazing with combined passion and wrath. Her nose flared in anger as she wiped her kiss-swollen lips with the back of her hand, disgusted at herself for letting him kiss her and disgusted at the fact that she enjoyed it. “How dare you!” She was trembling.

“How dare you!” She was trembling.

“Ji Hyo...” Jong Kook scrambled to his feet and tried to reach out to her, wanting to explain. She was too angry to listen to him, though, and he didn’t flinch quickly enough even when he saw her hand moving. The hand landed square on his cheek with a loud smack. It stung, the slap, and Jong Kook didn’t need to look at the mirror to see that he now had a hand-shaped mark on his face.

“I hate you!” Ji Hyo choked on her words as she fumbled to her feet and started for the door. Clouds of unshed tears obscured her view and she was trembling so hard that she couldn’t open the door. She felt him closing in on her from behind and thought he was going to kiss her again. Ji Hyo screamed, “Don’t touch me!”

As if on cue, the door swung open from the outside. Jong Kook’s mother was standing at the frame, looking at the two with unreadable expression. The young couple stopped dead in their tracks and Ji Hyo could feel her cheek reddened as the older Kim looked at her from top to bottom – Ji Hyo’s dishevelled appearance as well as the tears on her face spoke louder than words and she knew what Jong Kook’s mother would think.

Mumbling her apology, Ji Hyo walked past the older woman and broke into a run as soon as she was out of the room. She ignored the older woman’s calling after her and kept on running, not even stopping to think as she opened the front gate. She needed to get away from this place and she didn’t care if she had left all her belongings in Jong Kook’s room or that she wasn’t even wearing her shoes. There was no way she would return to that house.

***

“What in the name of the almighty did you do to her?!” Kim Sang Hae yelled at her son the moment Ji Hyo ran away. She could see the fearful expression on the young woman’s face and the way her clothes had been in disarray – one could only think of the worse when hearing a woman scream from inside a closed door, telling a man not to touch her. “Did you hurt her?!”

“I didn’t!” Jong Kook was offended that his mother would think that he could hurt a woman. She eyed him suspiciously but said nothing, urging him to explain. “I kissed her,” he hissed in embarrassment. He really wished that she would stop asking questions now – he needed to go after Ji Hyo. He patted his jeans to make sure that his phone was still in his pocket before walking to the front door briskly. “I kissed her and she slapped me.”

The older Kim raised her eyebrows. “You kissed her?” she asked, following him closely. “Was that before or after you told her that you didn’t love her?”

Jong Kook halted, looking at his mother in confusion. “How– how did you know?”

The woman clucked impatiently. “Ah this idiot!” she chided and smacked him on the back. Glaring at her younger son, Kim Sang Hae pointed at the door. “Now go after her and fix this!” She pushed the tall young man. “Go on now, stop looking at me like that! Go! I never raised you to be a bastard.”

Jong Kook looked around the front garden and his heart sank when he noticed that the front gate was opened. Ji Hyo must have had gone out. As she started for the gate he heard his mother called after him from behind, telling him not to come back without Ji Hyo.

There were times when Jong Kook wished that Ji Hyo couldn’t run as fast as she could, now was one of the times. Cursing under his breath that the woman was so reckless to leave his house, Jong Kook contemplated on which way to take. He decided to take the paved small street to his left, deciding that she wouldn’t be that stupid to take the uneven path that led to the big road only on her socks.

Hoping that everyone would be too busy preparing their dinner to be out in the streets in this quiet neighbourhood, Jong Kook started to run. He was so tempted to call out for her but noticing that it would do more harm than good – attracting unwanted attention was the last thing he wanted. Then he remembered something that sent chill to his bone. What if Chang Joo’s men saw her? If he recalled correctly, the man seemed to always know where they were. What if this time he decided to take action instead of taking pictures? Jong Kook’s ran faster, praying that he would get to Ji Hyo before someone else could find her.

Ji Hyo, Ji Hyo – my sweet Cheon Seung Im, where are you? 

A/N: And here's the next part of the previous chapter. Now I'm going to hide under an invisibility cloak in case someone decide to hunt me down to kill me.

Anyway, this is unbetaed and I know I reread it several times before posting but I can expect some typos and grammatical errors. Please be kind and point them out to me so I can fix them. 

Thank you for still reading this and for leaving comments, people. *waves* Hello, new subscribers :) 

Ps. The next chapter won't be up for a while because I'm going to write a lighter one-shot as a token of appreciation for my 100th reveiwer, Miss Woosoogyu.