It was one of those days. It was so hot outside with the sun mercilessly beaming down that every movement was exhausting. Kim Jong Kook burst into his apartment to escape from the suffocating heat and peeled off his sweaty shirt, tossing it into the hamper near the bathroom. He dropped his gym bag with a loud thud and headed to the kitchen to down a glass of ice water where small trickles splashed out in his haste and slid down his neck.

With a quiet song humming on his lips, he leisurely turned the knob to his bedroom to head for the shower. He froze midway as he was met with the image of a woman tangled in his sheets, sprawled out in his bed still in deep sleep. He had figured Song Ji Hyo would have left by the time he returned but, seeing as it was only 3:00 pm, he argued that it was still to be expected.

There was a glint on the inside of her left hand that lay above her head, and he was suddenly curious about it. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, he grabbed a jacket off a nearby chair and covered his chest as he inched towards her. He was bed-side now and he could plainly see that it was a diamond ring. The rock caught the light of the afternoon sun and shone radiantly, as if boasting the title that she had acquired without his knowledge. Jong Kook felt a knot in his stomach at this realization, as if somehow a small flame in him at been cruelly extinguished, no matter how unlikely or faint it had been. It was pretty obvious what the ring had symbolized but he didn’t quite want to believe it, so he leaned in to take a closer look. Maybe there would be some kind of inscription that would tell him it was all a huge misunderstanding, and he could breathe a sigh of relief and revert back to nursing that small flame back to life again.

His face was hovering over her forehead now as he studied the rock and metal band, moving his head to view all of its angles. Unbeknownst to him, from all his movement, a straying water droplet had begun to slide down his neck and collected dangerously at the bottom of his chin. And with another tilt of his head, it dropped and landed on the corner of the sleeping woman’s eye. He felt her stir and looked down to notice the fresh water droplet on her face, before he recoiled instantly and his eyes darted over her form to deduce if she was going to be awakened. After a few nervous seconds, Ji Hyo relaxed again and fell back into slumber.

The man took this as an opportunity to sneak back and try to dab away that water to prevent it from running into her eyes and disturbing her once again. He reached for a sleeve of his jacket and folded it into a point before pressing it lightly against her skin. It was at that moment that her eyes sprang open and he dropped the jacket entirely on her face in shock before running out of his room in sheer terror. He took cover behind his couch and started lamenting all the things he had never gotten to cross off his bucket list. Before he got to the fifth item, a forceful but adorable, he was sorry to admit, yell echoed through apartment, “YAHHH!!! KIM JONG KOOK!!!” He wracked his brain for excuses but instead found himself cowered below a fuming Song Ji Hyo, who stood towering over him in a messy bun and lopsided t-shirt. He wanted to laugh at how non-threatening she appeared, but he knew she would feel no remorse delivering a swift kick where it counted, especially when he was in such a compromising position.

She slammed his jacket onto his .  “Why were you shirtless on top of me? Huh? I’d like to know?”, she quipped, folding her arms as she leaned onto her left hip and glared at him. She would rather not admit the fact that her heart had fluttered rapidly in the brief seconds their eyes met and she genuinely thought she was living in a dream before she came to her senses.

“I can explain”, he retorted, slowly rising up from his crouched position with his arms raised beside his head and gingerly facing her.

“You better”, she warned as she forcefully pushed his firm chest, but found him unmoving. She felt incredibly puny compared to her usual Amazonian behavior on set.

“Well, you see…”, he trailed off, wondering if he should bring up the fact he had saw her ring. Firstly, he didn’t want to come off as a creep, and secondly, he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to know the backstory to it. He last saw her only two days ago from the latest Running Man filming where she was perfectly fine, and he hadn’t seen the ring then. It was likely that yesterday’s events were associated with her breakdown. Despite the fact that he was still itching to find out the cause of last night, he didn’t want to find out by confirming the symbolism behind the ring. It pained him to knowingly cross off Ji Hyo from his list of women who…what? Women-he-would-have-liked-to-have-asked-out-but-never-made-the-move-because-he-was-always-too-scared-of-rejection?

Ji Hyo heard his voice in the background as he explained himself, but she didn’t listen to a single word he said, especially with him standing in front of her shirtless. She had tried to count his number of abdominal muscles with her eyes but had gotten lost in the smooth shapes and grooves of his body. When she detected a silence, she figured, his sorry excuse had ended and she looked up at him menacingly, “Fine. I’m letting you go this time, but no more funny business from now on, okay?”

He nodded back at her obediently. It seemed to Jong Kook that the woman was back to her regular self again. He couldn’t find a single trace of the despair that had marred her face yesterday, so he thought better than to bring it up again. He would just treat it as a momentary lapse in her usually tough exterior. She had come to him looking to be consoled, and it was his duty as her friend to keep the bout of weakness a secret.

She stood unapologetically rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and scratching her sides, before her phone rudely rung her back to reality. She sighed out of dread as she noticed her manager’s name flashing on the screen and reluctantly answered it. “Neh, I’m alright. Sorry I’m late. I’m already on the way. Just in a traffic jam. I will probably be there in the next 30 minutes. Bye”, she spat out in rapid-fire and promptly hung up to prevent her manager from asking questions and poking holes in her alibi. She thanked the heavens that both she and Jong Kook lived approximately the same distance away from Seoul, however scolded herself for thinking up such a ridiculous excuse as a traffic jam at three in the afternoon.

“Well, I think I have to go, Jong Kook-oppa, or else my unnie will have a fit”, she announced nervously as she rushed around to search for her keys and gather her belongings. “Do you have a mirror here?”, before running to his bathroom, not bothering to hear his answer.

Within a matter of seconds, she returned to the living room having straightened out all her clothing. “How do I look?”, she asked, twirling around in her very plain outfit of a t-shirt and jeans.

“Stunning”, he replied without looking up, still tidying up from his makeshift bed on the couch.

“Yah!”, she yelled while stomping her foot. “This is serious, you know. I don’t want to look like I just spent the night at a guy’s house.”

He was sure it was just an innocent comment, but he could feel his cheeks suddenly heat up at the peculiar phrasing.

Not wanting to interfere with her flustered actions for fear of more abuse, he entered his room to reorganize, first starting with the mangled sheets thrown haphazardly on the ground from when the woman had chased after him earlier on. He was still muttering curses under his breath, when he heard a “Thank you, Jong Kook-oppa. See you later!” followed by the hurried slam of the door. And just as suddenly as she had arrived, she was gone.

Finally able to relax, he collapsed onto his bed with a sigh of relief. He was instantly surrounded by the faint scent of cherry blossoms. Even after her departure, she still remained with him. He decided a shower would be best to clear his mind.

As the refreshing water washed over him and rinsed away all the sweat and dirt from his soccer match, he stood unmoving under the steady stream, soaking in the therapeutic atmosphere. Without fail, his thoughts reverted to the woman who had barreled into his apartment yesterday night. Why did she not tell him about the ring and why did it seem like she was hiding it? Why did she not ask about why she woke up in his bed? She was angry enough to wake up with him on top of her, why not the previous? Did it not bother her to be in someone else’s bed? He suppressed a shy smile at his last thought. His mind work furiously to reason out an answer to appease his curiosity. It was only when he noticed his fingers getting prune-y that he finally stepped out of the shower and gave it a rest.

----

Two weeks later, Jong Kook found himself driving to the Mok-dong SBS building for the next filming. He was the third to arrive after Jaesuk and Sukjin, and after greeting each other, they made small talk to wait for the others. It was one of his favorite moments of Running Man. Two weeks was just long enough for him to start missing the gang, but not too long that he felt disconnected to them. Without the cameras rolling, they rambled away about their adventures during the biweekly interval, with each arriving member seamlessly joining into the conversation.

Ji Hyo was the last to arrive and the men spotted her running towards them with her head down the entire way. Starting from her van, she started apologizing for her tardiness until she finally reached them fifty meters later. Jaesuk stepped out to give her a light pat on the back, reassuring her that it was no problem at all since the filming crew had not finished setting up yet. Jong Kook had noticed that her clothes hung unusually loose on her frame. Her usually tight jeans were now a bit baggy and she seemed frail despite the fact that she was greeting him with an infectious smile. As he returned it, he noted the paleness in her skin. Her puffy cheeks were usually brushed with touches of pink, but now they were sunken in and seemed gray. Not wanting to bring down her happy mood, but feeling necessary to express his concern at her appearance, he ended up settling with asking her how she had been lately. She replied with the usual “fine”, thinking nothing of it as she moved to position herself between him and Gwangsoo.

The theme this episode was a throwback to the early show format with Lizzy and Joongki as the featured guests. The final game was the classic hide-and-seek game between three teams, with running balls on the line. Each had their own missions to complete within an hour’s time, but also had the ability to rip name tags. The teams were split with each of the guests as captains who chose two each. In the end, after much fawning and empty promises upon selection, Jong Kook and Ji Hyo were selected onto Joong Ki’s team.

The whistle sounded and the three teams scurried off to discuss strategies. Jong Kook urgently waved over the two members trailing behind him as he entered an empty conference room, hovering by the door and waiting to lock it immediately after their arrival. As he took the position at the head of the table as the group leader, he theorized that if they hid long enough and let the other two teams duke it out, then they would only have to compete with fewer people from each team in the end. Jong Kook would be the main target of their opponents since he was the strongest. To throw them off, he would hide and thus prolonging their narrowed attention to catching him, while the other two would complete the mission and rip nametags during the process, in a much less surveyed atmosphere. The Song Song siblings nodded obediently as he went on, mostly because they knew that not acknowledging him would lead to a good scolding and none of them wanted an angry, nagging Jong Kook around them. And with that, the three dashed off to complete their respective tasks, while the familiar “Ji Suk Jin OUT, Ji Suk Jin OUT” rang out in the background.

Ji Hyo and Joong Ki watched as Jong Kook disappeared down the hallway and it felt eerily desolate as their sole source of confidence and power vanished before their eyes. The mission consisted of finding four notebooks, each of which contained a character whereby piecing them together would reveal the location of the running balls, which they had to acquire to claim victory. They decided to head towards the fifth floor and searched amongst the vast library of books. The library room consisted of over fifty densely packed shelves and just the thought of spotting a single notebook was terrifyingly overwhelming. They scanned the rows together, looking for any objects jutting out from the usual neat rows. Ji Hyo’s experience had taught her that in complicated situations as this, the production team was not evil enough to completely hide the notebook within the books—there would be a hint.

By the time Ji Hyo was halfway through her side, Joong Ki was already near the end and still with no results, the task had become increasingly frustrating. She was about to call it quits and resort to hide and ride out the eliminations by the other teams. The stress was overwhelming and each minute spent in the library felt like a lifetime. She could hear her heart constantly beating in her ears and the paranoia that dictated her every move. She snuck around along the rows even though it was clear no one was around, and paused every few seconds to strain her ears for any noise. Her head was pounding when suddenly, “Ji Hyo noona, Ji Hyo noona! I found it! Where are you?”, and all the pain she was previously in instantly dissipated. She swore that those were the most beautiful words she had ever heard. As they met, he shared with her the notebook marked with the R sticker and she flung herself around him in a grateful hug. Their celebration was short-lived however, for a few seconds later the sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway outside their library and they snapped to attention.

They quickly flattened themselves against the wall, holding their breaths and closing their eyes as the footsteps approached, silently praying to all of the variety gods to spare their lives this particular time. As the person neared, Ji Hyo’s heart pounded madly in her ears, figuring that it was loud enough to give away their location. Unfortunately for them, the variety gods only recognized Lee Gwangsoo and their worst nightmare came true when the person peeked inside and spotted them. Well, they may have been spare a bit though because it was only Haha with his Poporo hat, looking at them with his childish smirk.

“Where’s Jong Kook?”, Haha asked, blocking the doorway. They stared back at him blankly, refusing to answer. Jong Kook was their most precious member and they would rather sacrifice their own lives than give up his location. They watched the man-child’s eyes zone in on the notebook in Joong Ki’s hands. “So that’s your mission then, huh?”, he teased with an evil grin, while carefully padding towards them, slowly corralling them into one corner. It was quite obvious that the two united could defeat Haha with no problem, and feeling threatened, that’s exactly what they did. Ji Hyo grabbed one hand and Joong Ki the other and they flung him behind before making a beeline towards the entrance. They sprinted down the hallway together and never looked back.

Having dodged a bullet and with one mission piece already in hand, their confidence grew ever more and they hid in the staircase landing to discuss strategy for the next location. So invested in their own conversation, they failed to hear the incoming Gary. It was only when the door swung open and slammed into their backs that they looked up to see his face emerge through the crack. Panicking, the two members ran to save their own skins with Joong Ki escaping downstairs and Ji Hyo up. Gary stared at the two directions and without another thought, dashed after Joong Ki, figuring he’d give his Monday girlfriend a second chance. Meanwhile, Ji Hyo, still completely terrorized and feeling the blood drain out of her face, sprinted upwards with the desperation of a safari animal preyed upon. It was only after sprinting up five floors that she realized no one was on her tail. At the next landing, she collapsed into a corner. Leading back and resting her head against the cool cement wall, she savored the brief moment of silence and relative peace. Her thoughts were interrupted with a “Song Joong Ki OUT, Song Joong Ki OUT”.

At the sound of her partner’s name, her eyes sprang open and she could feel the energy draining out of her. Searching for three notebooks on her own while avoiding the others seemed like an impossible task that would only leave her incredibly sore the next day. She grumbled why she hadn’t called in sick today. Taking a big gulp of air, she willed herself up and decided to proceed, checking the door for sound, she carefully pulled it open, checked both directions of the hallway and sprinted into the unknown.

It was only her own footsteps echoing through the corridor and nothing else. The strange tranquility bothered her and she glanced around suspiciously with every step. She began to think that everyone had left her and returned home when a member elimination announcement negated her suspicions, which only began to brew again after another five minute period of silence. Ji Hyo looked down at her map and compared it with her surroundings, to find the office in front of her as the next location of her notebook mission. Relieved that she had made it there relatively unscathed, she entered the office more relaxed than usual knowing she had all the time in the world to search for it since no one knew of her location.

After searching the initial row of cubicles, she walked down to the next row when suddenly Gary’s face appeared around the corner, sending Ji Hyo in a mad dash to the next closest hiding spot. Screaming in terror as she sprinted down the hallway, she tried all the doorknobs but found them all locked. She thought of hiding under a table but knew that it would lead to certain death if he discovered her. As the woman continued to run around the office space, she could hear Gary behind her yelling out her location and for his backup, Gwangsoo, at the top of his lungs. As a player always hungry for a win, she knew he’d show up in no time. She turned another corner to duck out of her Monday boyfriend’s field of vision. Gary’s footsteps echoed in her ear and she grew more flustered as her eyes darted rapidly across the empty hallway. To her left, she noticed a closet and threw herself towards it with a desperate hand clinging to the knob and turned it with her entire weight.

Miraculously, it swung open and she found herself face to face with Kim Jong Kook. Already in a heightened stage, her sudden encounter with yet another person completely caught her off-guard, and flung up to scream in surprise. Reacting instantly, Jong Kook’s right arm reached out to yank her inside the narrow closet. With his left hand clasped tightly over , he pressed her flat against him to maintain balance as he leaned over Ji Hyo to pull the door locked with a swift but gentle click. Inside, they could hear the muffled shouts of Gary and a few seconds later, Gwangsoo as they hovered near the closet door and searched its perimeter.

Ji Hyo felt like she was going to explode. Between trying to catch her breath from her near-death escape and now trying to hold it in to avoid detection, Jong Kook’s hand was over , further constricting her airways. She could feel herself excessively blowing hot streams of air through her nostrils as she exhaled, embarrassed at, but unable to prevent the fact that they were aimed directly at his hand. He was probably grossed out by it. She would have been.

The two maintained their positions motionlessly as they waited patiently for the two predators to abandon their closet. His left hand was still covering , pulling her tightly to him, so that she was practically leaning on him. He rested in an awkward diagonal against the boxes. His back was forced against the wall while his feet occupied a space towards the door to avoid the boxes bunched up in the back on the floor. In their current hypersensitive state, all Ji Hyo could hear was the sound of their heavy breathing mingling in the darkness. Her body burned where it came in contact with his front as she felt his tense muscles through their thin shirts. She became painfully aware of his protective hand over and the warm, prickling sensation of skin contact.

So flat against Jong Kook, she started to lose her balance and her arms sprawled out to grab onto anything in space, trying to avoid completely collapsing onto of him. She heard him grumble behind her ears, a rumble felt against her back, and apologized for the movement, thinking that the disturbance would cause noise and attract the other teams. She probably would have slapped him had she known that it was actually his guttural reaction from her sudden and vigorous rubbing up against him in the process of regaining her footing.

He laughed inwardly at the ridiculous situation at hand. If not for the excuse of Running Man, she definitely would have called him a ert and punched him in the face for getting so friendly with her. As she nearly laid on him, her soft tresses brushed against his face and her faint fragrance lingered around his nose. He was grateful for the black blindness that shielded his rosy-red cheeks from her ridicule. His right arm easily circled around her side and he had found her extremely easy to pull in; she was far lighter than he last remembered. It alarmed him how natural her body felt against his and he tried to not to think any deeper given their close proximity.

It was only when his fingers were pried off and he received a small elbow jab into his side that he finally returned to reality. Maybe he had held onto her for a few seconds too long, but he convinced himself that she would think nothing of it since it was all for the game’s survival. Better safe than sorry. The coast was now clear for his long-forgotten mission of hiding from the others. Disappointedly, he let her go and she walked out to check for enemies before helping him up with her extended arm, pulling him from the bed of now bent and dented cardboard boxes. Squinting from the brightness, he stumbled to steady himself, feeling so strangely empty without the warm weight of Ji Hyo against him. The two proceeded as usual for the rest of the match, their behavior never revealing the fact that their encounter in the closet had sent blistering sparks through each of their bodies.

After a long twelve-hour filming, it was time for closing remarks. After Joongki’s and Lizzy’s comments on how nice it was to return again and how much they wanted to thank the crew for inviting them back again, Jaesuk stepped up to make space for one more person’s announcement, “Our Ji Hyo here has something to say to everyone.”

The woman shyly took a step forward and nervously opened to speak. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her and all the cameras zoomed in on her face. Her mind started to blank and it was only muscle memory that allowed her to utter a single sentence, “Over the break, Baek Chang Joo and I got engaged”. She quickly retracted back into her usual spot in the lineup, devoid of any emotion. It was only when Jaesuk started leading the congratulatory song and applause that she realized she actually needed to smile.

Amidst the laughter and shouts echoing in her ears, the slightly heavy-handed happy pats, and overenthusiastic hugs, she spaced out from the member’s celebrations as she lost herself in an unsettling feeling that had overcome her. The declaration felt like she had just released some monster into the public and now she would forever be held responsible by the public for those words. It seemed strange that the finality of the sentence scared her when she had had the past two weeks to sit on it.

It was at that moment that she caught sight of Kim Jong Kook standing on the outskirts of the cast who was mobbing her. He was clapping along with an unchanging smile plastered onto his face and wearing an indifferent expression. She couldn’t reason why she felt such heavy disappointment at his behavior, but it upset her that he, a normally very supportive person, wasn’t participating in the festivities like everyone else. Trying to disguise the sudden pang in her heart, she turned her attention to the doting men around her who were spouting up wedding suggestions and requests.

It was 2am by the time filming ended. Ji Hyo was exhausted both physically and mentally and ready to collapse into her bed. She was thinking of how to passive-aggressively harass her manager for being thirty minutes late as she waited with the crew while they cleaned up. Mindlessly, tapping her foot on the ground, she anticipated the routine post-filming conversation between Jong Kook. She heard his conversation with his manager grow louder behind her, and she turned eagerly to flag him down, having not been able to catch up for much of the day. She spotted his figure walking down the hallway towards her. Her smile grew as he drew ever closer, and she raised herself from her chair to speak; they were close enough for her to hear their exact words exchanged. She opened to speak, but he walked right past her without even an acknowledgement and she gaped at him in shock. grew dry and her words locked in as she watched his conversation with his manager continue through the lobby and then outside as they exited together.

Left standing embarrassingly by herself, she slumped down into her chair, hoping no one else had witnessed the miscommunication. She wasn’t quite sure whether she was more offended or confused since his demeanor towards her was perfectly fine even during the final round. She’d ask him about it tomorrow, she reminded herself as she watched through the glass front doors, his van pull out and away. Her sneakers scrubbed against the marble floor in frustration as she sat immune to the squeaky streaks that resonated through the hallways. It was yet another complication to add onto her ever-growing list of wrenches thrown in her life in just the past month. The last thing she needed was to doubt her presumed solid relationship with Jong Kook. He had never been so rude to her before, and she wondered if he always had this side of him and it was only now just showing through. She wished her unnie would arrive quicker so that she could sleep and temporarily relieve her mind of analyzing her troubles. Her wish was granted minutes later as her van pulled up, but Ji Hyo was already asleep by then, lax in her chair, her head leaning against the wall, and her thumb resting on the speed dial number for her manager.

Author's Note: Sorry for the really long delay and thank you for keeping up with me! If you find any typos please note them for me! If you have any suggestions for my writing or future plot lines, don't hesitate to comment! Thanks!