Ji Hyo yelped and literally jumped in her seat when somebody knocked on her side of the window. For a fraction of a second, she was flooded with fear that Baek Chang Joo finally caught up with her—her mind berated her about staying in that place for too long—but then she caught a panicky tone of the person’s calling out her name. She turned her head at the window and was met with Jong Kook, who was still knocking at the window and was looking at her with worry.

Still trembling, Ji Hyo unlocked the door to her father’s car. She didn’t have time to open it; Jong Kook flung the door open the moment he heard the click. He knelt on the street, next to Ji Hyo.

“Ji Hyo? Ji Hyo? What happened? I came as quickly as possible!” Jong Kook’s voice was alarmed. He observed Ji Hyo, trying to see if there were any injuries. “Are you hurt? Did you crash your car? What are you doing here in Anyang?” He couldn’t help but barrage her with questions. Jong Kook made sure that he didn’t touch Ji Hyo; he didn’t want to crowd the clearly distraught woman.

Anyang. Ji Hyo repeated the word in her head. I drove to Anyang. She couldn’t avert her eyes from Jong Kook, seeing how his still-damp hair clung to his forehead and there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Indeed, he’d come to her as quickly as possible.

“Ji Hyo-yah?” Jong Kook said again, more slowly this time. The lack of response was disquieting. “Seong Im? Sweetheart?”

Ji Hyo blinked at the term of endearment—one that she thought she’d never heard again coming from this man, not for her. Yet here he was, coming to her aid at her first call without even asking why even after weeks of being ignored. What have I done good in the world to deserve you? I don’t deserve you.

Tentatively, Jong Kook raised his hand and ran the back of his finger on her cheek, wiping the silent tears that were beginning to drop from her eyes. “Hey… it’s okay,” he whispered, wanting nothing else than to get Ji Hyo out of there, out of public eyes. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Was she, though? Ji Hyo wasn’t sure. But the warm touch brought her back to herself, and things that she’d kept at bay was starting to burst at the seams. “Oppa… I went to see Baek Chang Joo.”

Jong Kook stilled. His hand was still on Ji Hyo’s cheek. He was going to say something, but then he noticed her heaving like she was unable to breathe. Jong Kook recognized the signs all too well: Ji Hyo was getting a panic attack. He knew he had only a few seconds before she began hyperventilating; he had to act quickly. Jong Kook reached into the car to unbuckle her seatbelt, all the while commanding Ji Hyo to follow his instructions to breathe in and out according to his count. “Come on, come on—breathe in. Good, good. Now breathe out. Slowly, Ji Hyo. That’s it—good girl,” he said. He took Ji Hyo into his arms, tucking her head under his chin to control the amount of air she took in; there wasn’t any time to find a paper bag or anything else.

It felt like forever, but finally, Ji Hyo was able to control her breathing. She rested her head on his chest for a moment before reluctantly letting go, feeling a tad colder when she didn’t have his arms around her anymore.

“Are we good?”

Ji Hyo nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t say that,” Jong Kook rebuked. He looked around, worried that they’d attracted unwanted attention from passers-by. Thankfully they were parked in quite a quiet area of the park. “Let’s get you out of here,” he finally said. “Can you drive? We can leave your car here and use my car instead. Yes, that’d be better. Come on. I’ll get you somewhere safe and warm.”

***

“I’m so tired of crying,” Ji Hyo mumbled into her hot coffee.

“It’s been a rough year for you,” Jong Kook pointed out. He wasn’t judging. “I’d be crying as much, too, if I were in your position.”

That brought a tiny smile into Ji Hyo’s face. “Right.”

“What? It’s true.”

“You’d be exercising yourself half to death, not crying.”

Jong Kook opened his mouth to deny but was silenced by Ji Hyo’s raised eyebrow. “Well.” He shrugged. “I guess that’d be the case, yes.”

They exchanged a smile before looking away and stared at different spots in Jong Kook’s very bare studio apartment, the one he bought out of impulse and had been repurposed as his makeshift personal gym instead of a house. Jong Kook still preferred to live at his parents’ home.

“Oppa?” She broke the silence again after a while. Jong Kook tilted his head in her direction. “Aren’t you going to ask?”

“About what?”

“Me… and Baek Chang Joo.”

Jong Kook sighed, stretching his arms and legs to buy some time as he thought of the best response. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready. If you want to.”

“I want to,” Ji Hyo replied quickly. “And I’m ready. It’s just… I don’t think you want to hear it.” She added when he expressed his curiosity, “I’ve been turning your world upside down with my problems. I don’t want to add more burden to it.”

“I like working out, you know?” Jong Kook said out of the blue, chuckling when he saw her confused face. “Adding weight, or ‘burden’ as you call it, is what I do all the time.”

“It’s literally not the same, you fool.”

“Well, just think of it as exercising your mental capacity... Ouch!” Jong Kook pretended to get hurt when Ji Hyo swatted his arm, grimacing for a dramatic effect. “Okay, okay… don’t tell me now then. You’re tired of crying and this will make you cry again, won’t it? Let’s just talk about something else. Something nice. Food?”

Ji Hyo didn’t answer. She was staring at Jong Kook pensively. This man was too kind, too nice… too selfless. She didn’t deserve him—even as a friend.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

She shook her head, offering him a small smile. “You’re a kind man, Jong Kook Oppa.”

He blushed. “Why all of a sudden?”

“Did you mention food?” Ji Hyo changed the subject. “I haven’t eaten anything.”

“Ah, yes,” Jong Kook said, following her lead. “What do you want to eat?”

“What do you want to eat? I’ll eat whatever you want to eat.”

They ended up ordering some Chinese food. Jong Kook was grinning from ear to ear when he saw how Ji Hyo’s eyes twinkled the moment the food arrived. They sat cross-legged on the floor because there weren’t any chairs there but a workout bench, which they used as a makeshift dining table.

“I can’t believe you use this place as workout space,” Ji Hyo commented as they ate. “You could’ve lived here!”

“I have another apartment, you know.” Ji Hyo looked genuinely surprised that Jong Kook laughed. “What? I do. I live there most of the time when I’m busy with my work. I only stay at my mother’s house when my schedule isn’t that tight. My mom doesn’t want me to move out completely.”

“Trust me, Oppa, she does. She just doesn’t want you to live alone.” Ji Hyo took a bite of some meat. “And she doesn’t want to cook for two households.”

“Yeah, she keeps nagging me to get married.” He glanced when Ji Hyo shifted and leaned away from him. Jong Kook felt a twinge of guilt for bringing the topic up. “Thank goodness now that Soya is old enough she’s nagging her to get a boyfriend.”

Ji Hyo smiled enigmatically. Then suddenly she said, “I told Baek Chang Joo I’m terminating my contract with his company.”

Jong Kook tried not to act so surprised; after all, he’d known that Ji Hyo’s father had been looking for a way to do it. “Oh?” He opted to keep his response neutral to get her to talk more. Ji Hyo tended to share more when she believed she had control over how much information she wanted to share—asking her questions now would be unproductive.

“He didn’t take it well. He threatened my life,” she paused when she felt Jong Kook tensed up next to her. When he said nothing, she went on, “He said he’d kill my family, too. Then he threatened you. And your career.”

“Please tell me you don’t let him bully you for my sake?” Jong Kook nearly exploded with rage.

“I didn’t.” He smiled at her proudly. Ji Hyo smiled back but it was a little bit forced. “Then he said he’d ruin my career.” At this, she snorted and laughed bitterly. “Ah, really, that man… I said to him ‘what career?’ At this point, I don’t think I even have any more career to worry about.” The nervous laughter started to turn into a sob, and Ji Hyo bit her lower lip to stop her from crying again.

Jong Kook put his chopsticks down and extended his arm, pulling Ji Hyo close by the sleeve of her sweater. “C’mere,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulder. “You’ve been so brave, Ji Hyo-yah.”

“I didn’t feel brave then. I was scared,” she admitted. “I’m still scared now.”

“He can’t touch you, you know? He’s just bluffing. He doesn’t have any powers over you or your family. And he certainly doesn’t have any over me.” Jong Kook shook his head when she was trying to protest. “No, wait—don’t cut me off just yet. He’d threatened to hurt us both even from the start, and yet up until now, all he did was putting you under mental torture by making you paranoid about everything bad that happened to either of us.”

“The lamp?”

“Purely accident. A stupid, really bad-timing accident, but still one nonetheless. And don’t get me started about the car.”

“How are you so sure?”

“I can ask you the same question, can’t I?" Ji Hyo was silent. “I was distracted when I drove the car,” Jong Kook said. “I was thinking about what had gone wrong between us. And about how I should have kept my stupid mouth shut when the reporters asked the questions. But then somebody said something bad about you and I couldn’t help myself—I had to put him back in line. I just didn’t realize that by doing so I was putting the blame on you. Again.”

Ji Hyo sighed, resting her head comfortably at the crook of Jong Kook’s arm. He was so warm. And she was so cold. “We are a pair of a mess,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

“I invited myself to your mess.”

“That’s because you’re too kind, Kim Jong Kook. One of these days, this limitless kindness of yours will bite you in the .”

“I’m not kind. I’m just selfish.” Jong Kook stopped talking. Should he bring his feelings up? He glanced at Ji Hyo, who was still leaning on him like he was a sofa. She looked relaxed. And he’d loathe to take that away from her—this woman clearly needed some break. “But we’re not talking about that now. Let’s just enjoy our food.”

“Yes, let’s. And then you have to drive me back to where I parked my car. My dad is going to kill me if I don’t return it by dinnertime.”

A/N: this is another update because my schedule next week will be hellish and I would only be able to write little by little. I'm also still thinking about how JK can convince JH about his feelings without scaring the helluva the girl.