Relief washed over Jong Kook when he finally found Ji Hyo in the playground a couple of blocks away from his house. She hadn’t run that far, which was expected considering her lack of footwear, and Jong Kook counted it as a small blessing – who knew how far this woman could have gotten had she worn proper shoes? He stood several paces away from her, taking a few deep breaths to calm his erratic heartbeat, before approaching her tentatively lest she should try and run again. He needn’t worry, though, for Ji Hyo didn’t seem to move when he got closer.

Ji Hyo had heard his footsteps even before he got too close, his sneakers made loud crunching noises as he walked; she could run again if she wanted to but she had no intentions of doing so, partly because the soles of her feet hurt like mad. The other part was that she knew running away would be futile – he would easily overtake her again. She hung her head low and kept shut, unwilling to acknowledge his presence when he eased his large form into the empty swing next to her.

Seeing the woman again, being in this proximity with her like this created goosebumps all over Jong Kook’s skin. He shuddered at the sensation and thought about how he could be so stupid as not to notice the effect this young woman had on her before – whenever Ji Hyo was close, his world always seemed to be better. However, the sight of Ji Hyo now broke his heart; she sat with slumped shoulders, hunching forward in defeat as if she was carrying too much burden on them and she could take no more. The body language in which she carried herself now was so different from the usually confident Ji Hyo; this woman was broken, all fights had left her tiny form leaving her with only empty shell. It hit Jong Kook hard to know that he was the cause of all this.

Without a word, he began to trail his eyes on her form to check for any possible injuries. He was thankful for the bright light on the playground that helped him assess her condition better. He sighed sadly when his eyes reached her feet – her socks were badly torn and especially dirty, and there were blotches of bloodstains on them.

“You’re bleeding,” he pointed out softly, pained at the way Ji Hyo flinch to the sound of his voice.

Ji Hyo said nothing. She knew that she was bleeding – the throbbing pain on her feet told her enough. The woman felt a pressure on the base of her skull and she knew that a severe headache was bound to come. She leaned on the metal rod that held the swing up, resting her heated forehead on the cool surface; she felt so exhausted for being in this emotional roller coaster and thinking about it only confused her more.

She admitted that her ego was badly bruised when Jong Kook told her that he didn’t love her but that was not all – she was hurt mostly because even though he denied loving her, he still had the guts to kiss her like she was nothing. Ji Hyo realised that she may have been overreacting; he had confessed that he was interested in her physically and most women would be proud if they could make men attracted to them carnally – too bad she wasn’t one of those women. She couldn’t help but feel so dirty that she had let him touch her in such a way, kissing her like that – using her and taking advantage of her. What made her even angrier was that she thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it; the kiss they had shared elicited something in her. She couldn’t put her fingers on why her body reacted so strongly to Jong Kook. Even now when they were not touching she could feel her skin hummed expectantly, every particle of her body begged to be close to him. It never happened before – not before the kiss and not with anybody else.

Why she had been so affected by a simple kiss was truly beyond her. It wasn’t like she had never been kissed before – oh no, she had had enough share of kisses, both in her previous relationships and in her many roles as an actress – but she was sure that this was the first time a kiss affected her so much. Her tired mind was unable to fathom her reaction; did it mean that she had feelings for Jong Kook, feelings that was more than friendship and respect, feelings that she didn’t even knew existed? Or was it purely physical – some lust that would be easily tamed down once they scratch the itch? Ji Hyo’s head pounded and she found it harder to think.

“Ji Hyo.” Jong Kook’s voice caressed her ears deliciously as he spoke. “Ji Hyo, we need to get your wounds cleaned. You don’t want them to get infections.”

“Don’t tell me what I want or do not want,” she retorted coldly. It was a defence mechanism – lashing out when she felt threatened – and Ji Hyo closed her eyes to stop herself from looking at the man next to her.

Jong Kook exhaled audibly; he had suspected that it wouldn’t be easy to talk reason to Ji Hyo now. The woman was too hurt emotionally and physically and she had every reason not to listen to him. “I’m not trying to tell you anything.” He tried again, “It was merely a suggestion, Ji Hyo-yah. I’m worried for you.”

“Don’t be,” she grunted her reply.

There was something that piqued Jong Kook’s worry from the way she slurred her words. It was like talking to a very drunk Ji Hyo but this time she wasn’t really drunk. Tilting his head to get better view of the woman, Jong Kook was surprised at how flushed she looked now. Her eyes were rimmed red and there was this glazed, unfocused look on them. Ji Hyo didn’t look well and from the way her eyes kept closing, he was afraid that the woman was going to faint any time. “Ji Hyo?”

“My head hurts,” she mumbled with a little sniffle, feeling totally sorry for herself. She didn’t say anything when Jong Kook shuffled from the swing and knelt before her, lifting his both hands and cupping her face to take a better look at her.

“You’re burning up!” he exclaimed. Her skin was hot to the touch and he could feel her shiver. He hooked an arm under her armpit to help her up. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you home.”

The terms of endearment sent fresh tears to Ji Hyo’s eyes with a sting; she never thought she could still cry after all the tears she had spilled today. She hated the fact that Jong Kook could call her ‘sweetheart’ so casually when he felt nothing for her. It was painful because she knew how untrue it was – she was never his ‘sweetheart’; she was never anybody’s ‘sweetheart’. Ji Hyo started to cry openly, heaving as her body tried to control the sobs that threatened to wreck her whole being.

“Don’t cry, sweetie – please don’t cry,” Jong Kook pleaded with her, wiping the hot beads of tears that kept falling from her eyes. He held her for some time and let her cry it out against his chest before deciding that it was best to get her back to his mother’s house quickly as the heat from her feverish body radiated to his own through their clothes.

With little difficulty, he eased the woman on his back and started to stand up once he was sure she had held on tightly. He walked slowly, making sure that he didn’t make her even dizzier after she voiced her protest that he moved too much. “We’re almost there,” he kept on saying – more to reassure himself rather than to reassure the woman.

“Your mother must hate me,” Ji Hyo spoke sleepily. “I’m sorry.”

Jong Kook shook his head. “You have nothing to be sorry for, my darling. You did nothing wrong,” he said. “If it would make you feel better, Ji Hyo-yah, I get the assumption that she was more ready to kill me for hurting you than to blame you about anything.”

Again, the term of endearment stung. “Stop that,” she admonished him feebly as she felt her consciousness started to slip away.

“Stop what, dear?” He didn’t understand.

“That – calling me ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ and ‘dear’.”

“But you are my sweetheart,” Jong Kook replied calmly, thinking about how true his words now. Realisation hit him hard even though it came a little bit too late, and Jong Kook hoped that she would be willing to forgive him – and if he was lucky, learn to trust him again and return his feelings for her. He felt her body moved and instinctively knew that she was crying again. Oh, what he would give to stop her pain! He was so ashamed of himself – promising that he would never let her cry on his watch; and yet, it was him who kept making her cry. “My Seung Im, please don’t cry,” he whispered. “Why are you crying?”

“You don’t love me.”

The statement was uttered with so much sadness and resignation that Jong Kook faltered, unable to form a single word as an invisible lump the size of his fist logged into his throat and blocked any voice he wanted to say. His eyes stung painfully as he blinked back his own tears.

She mistook his silence, thinking that it was a confirmation to what she said, and Ji Hyo heard something inside her break. She smiled sadly, knowing that it was the sound of her own heart shattering into tiny little pieces. As she thought about how many lifetimes it would take her to pick up all the pieces, she came to the conclusion that she had to be the unluckiest woman in the whole Korea – in less than a month she had had her heart broken twice; first by a man she used to call her boyfriend and second by a man whose place in her heart she couldn’t even discern. Exhaustion came over her like a wave and she closed her eyes, surrendering to it.

***

It was early morning when Ji Hyo came to. The first thing she noticed was how weak she was feeling, like she was but a broken leaf. The next thing was the dull ache that spread over her limbs, one that originated from the soles of her feet – she must have scraped them really badly. It took her a while to remember why she was feeling this way but when flashes of memories came crashing in on her, her initial reaction was to bolt. That was when she realised that something, or rather – someone, was holding her back.

Glancing down to see what prevented her from moving, she saw a larger hand covering her own – holding it possessively and sending warmth into her. Jong Kook had his upper body propped on the side of the bed while his lower body was on the floor in what seemed to be a very uncomfortable sitting position. Ji Hyo could only think about how his muscles would be killing him when he woke up later. For a second there Ji Hyo felt her heart swell to see him sleeping like that when watching over her; her smile faltered the next second, though, as she remembered what he had done. She turned her head away, unable to bear the sight of the sleeping man.

“Seung Im?”                      

Apparently, her movement had woken him up. Ji Hyo felt so weak on her knees upon hearing Jong Kook’s sleepy voice calling out her real name and she was thankful she wasn’t standing at the moment. She heard him moving – and groaning – and the next thing she knew, there was a dip on the mattress that indicated that someone was sitting on it.

Jong Kook rubbed his eyes tiredly before looking at Ji Hyo. He knew she was awake. Reaching out a hand, he softly brushed a strand of hair that clung to her clammy forehead, satisfied when he felt her skin was cool to the touch – her fever had broken. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

Reluctantly, Ji Hyo turned her head to see the man that had made her world turn upside down. Their eyes met and she could read compassion inside the dark orbs; it somehow made her even sadder as she thought that it was nothing more than a friendly concern.

“Ji Hyo,” he said, trying so hard to keep his hand to himself instead of caressing the silky skin of her face. It was crazy, this temptation of touching her. “You okay?”

“I’m thirsty,” Ji Hyo croaked, frowning at how weak she sounded. She propped herself up with her elbows, letting Jong Kook help her support her back with some pillows. She mumbled her thanks when the man handed her a glass of water, which she finished in three large gulps.

It was then when she realised that she wasn’t in the guest quarter; they were still in Jong Kook’s room, in his bed – the same one in which they had shared their first kiss – and Ji Hyo felt herself blush heavily to the roots. She cleared and glanced at the door to find it opened by a crack.

From the change in Ji Hyo’s expression, Jong Kook knew what she was thinking. He started to feel uncomfortable himself and decided to slide off the bed to resume his earlier position on the floor.

The sudden shift on the mattress alerted Ji Hyo. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” he said nonchalantly.

“Oppa, you’re going to catch a cold if you sit there,” she said softly. Confused as she was, Ji Hyo knew it was unfair to make Jong Kook suffer.

“It’s not the first time I sleep on the floor,” he replied. What he didn’t say was that he didn’t think he could keep his hands to himself if he didn’t create a physical distance with the younger woman. Besides, he wouldn’t hear the end of it if his mother saw him in bed with her even though they did nothing. From the look of it, Jong Kook knew that sooner or later he and Ji Hyo were going to need to talk about things but this was not the right time. Delaying the inevitable, he informed her that her manager called last night.

“Oh god! Sun Mi Unnie is so going to kill me!” Ji Hyo groaned, smacking her forehead. She had completely forgotten about her manager.

“That was debatable,” Jong Kook said. “When I told her you had a fever I could literally picture her with a rifle gun pointing at me – ready to kill me for letting you fall ill. Although she did say something that sounded like she was going to kill me before killing you and then kill me again for making her kill you.”

Ji Hyo laughed heartily. “That sounds like my Sun Mi Unnie alright,” she said. It was odd to have this small talk with Jong Kook and Ji Hyo felt a bit sad about it. When did their relationship start to go downhill? They had used to exchange this kind of light banter all the time before; but now every conversation they had seemed to aways turn into an argument. It was like there was a wall that prevented them to be themselves.

“It’s still half past three, Ji Hyo-yah; you should go back to sleep,” Jong Kook said, breaking her train of thoughts.

“What about you?”

He patted the carpeted floor. “This will suffice for me.” He hesitated for a second. “Unless you want me to sleep outside?”

Ji Hyo contemplated this for a moment before shaking her head. She would bet her arm that Jong Kook’s mother didn’t know his son spent the night in the same room as her – if the older woman had known, she would have had prepared something for her son to sleep on, wouldn’t she? However, she didn’t want him to leave just yet. Somehow she had a feeling that they would no longer share this kind of intimate moments in the future, that when he dropped her off at her apartment later everything that they had – even their friendship – would be gone forever and they would return to square one, being strangers to each other. It saddened her.

“What are you thinking about?” Jong Kook asked when he found her silent.

“Nothing,” she replied too quickly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Ji Hyo scoffed. “And start another argument?” she mocked. “No, Oppa – I don’t want to talk about anything anymore. We seem to have the knacks of making everything more complicated instead of solving things when we have a talk.” She lay down and turned around, effectively ending their conversation.

He nodded, agreeing that they were still too emotionally broken to have any decent conversation right now. He lay on the hard floor, facing the bed and looking at Ji Hyo’s back – she was facing away from him. Jong Kook watched the rise and fall of her body as she breathed and felt his eyes grew heavier, lulled by the steady movement. He didn’t know how long he had been staring before he fell asleep but when he woke up much later, he found himself covered with a blanket that had Ji Hyo’s scent on it – the bed was empty.

A/N: I think it suffices to say that the rating of this story has gone up from K+ to T starting from the previous chapter (too bad we only have general and M rated on here). Yes, I know this chapter is rather short (compared to the others) but I don't want to drag it longer than necessary. As usual, this is unbetaed, and I just spent the whole night (it's now 4.22 AM) typing it so I expect some mistakes on it.

Feedbacks are always appreciated. Don't hesitate to share what you think, I'm always open to interpretations (I don't bite, promise - unless you're into it) and I love discussing about it in a reader's point of view (because I basically don't know what will happen next before I start writing it).

I'd like to personally thank those who have read, reviewed, subscribed, and even voted for this story. You're all awesome.