When Minseok brought himself over to the hospital on the first day of the new week, he wasn’t too surprised to see Kyungjin sitting up and dressed up, ready to go. Nor was he surprised to see a bright smile on her face with her eyes twinkling in suppressed excitement.

What he was surprised about was that there was a young man fussing over her while putting pink carnations into a tall aqua green vase on the table next to her.  

“Kyungjin, are you sure you should be going out?” the man asked worriedly. “I mean, there are dangerous elements out there.”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Like what? The sun?”

“Yes! Did you know that if you stay too long out of the sun, you might get sunburned or even worse, skin cancer? But then again, that may be over a long period of time.” He paused and continued, “Oh, and dear god, even worse, bears. I heard there are bears in the forest. Bears, Kyungjin. Bears.”

“I’m not even going to the forest. Nor am I staying out too long. Look, I’ll be fine. I knew I should have waited to get ready until Minseok came,” she muttered.

“Minseok?” the boy asked in a sharp voice. “Who’s this Minseok? I swear, you would think you wouldn’t be meeting suspicious people while you’re in a hospital. Is he a nurse? Do I need to talk to this guy? Is he harassing you?”

“Actually, I’m unemployed at the moment. And I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. I don’t think I would be a nurse. And I’m not harassing her. If anything, she’s harassing me with her odd demands.”

They both turned to look at Minseok who was staring blankly at them from the doorway.

The boy widened his eyes in recognition and pointed at him. “You’re that guy who watched me crash into the pole and drop my flowers.”

Minseok blinked his eyes several times “I did?”

The other man exasperatedly sighed. “It was only like a week ago. You know? Me running. Me crashing. Me spilling flowers everywhere. And you helping. Though frankly, I had to ask you to help me. Seriously man, have you ever heard of manners?”

Minseok simply continued to stare at him, only slightly narrowing his eyes, trying to remember. He looked at the flowers that the boy finished arranging.

“Oh, the one with the white lilies,” he stated.

“Yep!” He frowned. “Did I really not leave that big of an expression on you?”

Minseok shrugged. “I tend to forget things that aren’t relevant to me.”

The boy gave Minseok a look of incredulity while Kyungjin giggled on the side.

They boy glared at the girl and huffed, crossing his arms and spinning to the side.

Kyungjin laughed again, her eyes sparkling with laughter. She gestured to the boy next to her. “This is Kim Jongdae. My adorable over-protective cousin.”

“Adorable?” Jongdae muttered, giving a dark look to his cousin. “More like incredibly awesome.”

“And this is Kim Minseok. My new-found friend who’s going to take me out to see the world.”

Jongdae narrowed his eyes. “You? You’re the one who’s going to take Kyungjin out?” He paused and relaxed. “Good luck. You’ll need it. Kyungjin can be a pain in a .”

Kyungin wacked her cousin with her pillow.

“What! It’s true,” he sulked, rubbing his arm where she hit him.

“I thought you were against the thought of me leaving?”

“I still am. But you would probably sneak out even if I forbade you.”

“You know me so well, dear cousin,” she smirked.

He simply rolled his eyes at her.

Minseok watched them for a second then at the clock hanging to the wall behind him. “If you want to go, we should go now. And if you don’t hurry, I will count this as our meeting for this week and will not see you until the next.”

She widened her eyes in surprise, swinging her blankets off and jumping off the bed. She quickly stuffed her feet into her shoes and rushed out the door. “You sure know how to get to the point. I’ll go tell Dr. Soo I’m leaving,” she shouted as the door shut closed.

Minseok calmly watched her but he could feel the intense stare the other boy was giving him. But he couldn’t know what he was thinking unless he spoke first.

Jongdae coughed which Minseok knew he was trying to get his attention but simply ignored him.

He coughed again, louder and adding an “Ahem” as well.

Minseok still did not look his way, not very interested in him.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” he muttered.

He stood in front of Minseok who only barely raised an eyebrow at his action.

Jongdae pointed at him, shaking it threateningly. “Look, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me.”

“Excellent observation. I would have never figured that out,” Minseok blandly replied.

The other boy scoffed. “Geez, do you ever smile? You look like my pet snake. No emotions whatsoever, just staring at you. But I digress, what I really wanted to say was that I’m watching you.”

“Watching me,” Minseok stated questionably.

“Kyungjin is one the nicest, good-to-honest girl I know. She’s gone through some tough times, but she’s never failed to find the good things in her life. Now, I know that she’s wants to go outside and all, but you have to make sure she doesn’t kill her herself in the process. That includes…” he stopped talking and looked at Minseok when he heard him utter a few words.

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

“Your concern is misdirected.”

“Excuse me?” Jongdae let out with disbelief.

“Yes, in fact, I believe you should be saying these things to Kyungjin herself. Not me.”

Jongdae gaped at him. “And why shouldn’t I be saying these to you?”

“Because I am merely only accompanying her. Whatever she does to herself is her decision,” Minseok explained to him.

Before Jongdae could retort, a voice called out, “Minseok! Let’s go!”

They turned to look at the door which burst open with Kyungjin radiating with excitement.

“Kyungjin, don’t go with this guy. He’s crazy. I’ll go with you. Heck, take that punk friend of yours that I hate. Don’t take this guy,” Jongdae cried out to Kyungjin.

She gave her cousin a strange look. “What are you talking about?”

He pointed at Minseok who was standing there unconcerned with the other’s shouts. “Have you heard him talk? It’s like he’s removed from the world.” He leaned in and whispered loudly. “What if he’s an alien? That would explain everything.”

Kyungjin snorted at her cousin. “Alien? I thought you stopped watching those science fiction shows of yours.”

Jongdae tsked. “No changing your mind?”

She shook her head and grinned.

Despite Jongdae’s attempt to make light of the situation, Minseok knew that Jongdae was wary of him. But he didn’t want to worry his cousin, so instead he was trying to convince her in a more light-hearted way. But Minseok knew what was really going on in his head.

As Kyunjing yanked Minseok out the door, Minseok barely let a smirk rise on his face and he knew the other saw it.

He could see Jongdae shaking his head furiously as if he was trying to clear his thoughts. He stood there watching them, pointing two fingers at his own eyes and then at Minseok, mouthing “I got my eye on you.”

Minseok knew he was threatening him not to make Kyungjin depressed, but really, what would he do that was going to make her miserable? It seemed impossible to damper her constant exuberant mood.

After dragging Minseok out of the hospital, Kyungjin threw her hands in the air and twirled in a circle. “Freedom! Good ‘ol freedom! The smell of fresh air never smelt so good.”

Minseok watched her with an uninterested expression. “What now?”

She turned to him and grinned, pulling out the notebook from her mustard yellow shoulder bag. She flipped it open, dragging her index finger down the page before stopping at one line.

She turned it around to show Minseok where he then leaned closer to get a better look at what she was pointing at.

He looked up at her. “Eat the most expensive thing in the priciest restaurant in town. Really?” He then frowned. “But the word priciest is crossed off.”

She hastily closed her book. “Yeah because I want to go to one specific restaurant.”

She frowned at him. “And you don’t get to insult my list. Only I get to, which will never happen because it’s what I want to do. You’re only tagging along.”

“You know, I never asked, but why exactly can’t you go alone?”

She laughed, “Obviously, it’s better to do these things with two people instead of one!”

“I see.”

“Well, come on! To the restaurant we go!” she shouted, once again grabbing the sleeve of Minseok’s jacket and dragging him along.

If one thing Minseok knew about small towns, it was that each person at least knew everybody else. Which goes unmentioned for Kyungjin as well. It was as if every five minutes she was stopped by someone new, surprised to see her out and about.

“I didn’t think this through,” she whispered to Minseok, as she urged him on after being stopped for the fourth time.

“Apparently,” Minseok replied.

She gripped his arm when she realized that someone in the distance was waving at them.

“Hide me,” she murmured to Minseok as she tried to conceal herself behind him, glancing every so often from behind to peek at the person in front of them. “I can’t deal with so many ‘How you’ve been’ and ‘Are you still sick?’ anymore.

He glanced at the girl behind her to the one person in front of them who was walking steadily towards them.

Minseok stood motionless, unable to move anyways due to Kyungjin having a tight hold on him.

“Kyungjin!” the man in front of them cried.

She perked up, peeking behind Minseok to look at the man. “Kris?”

She stepped behind around, smiling brightly, and gave the man a hug.

“This is Kris,” she gestured to the man. “He’s a good friend of mine. We’re actually going to his restaurant,” she told Minseok.

Minseok nodded, remembering that that name was the one he heard Kyungjin thought before. He then tried to walk off to a close enough distance where he could see them but not be able to hear them.  He had enough of distracting thoughts from random people for today.

But Kyungjin noticed his subtle attempt to leave and wouldn’t have any of that. She grabbed his arm as he was about to leave.

“Where you think you’re going?” she half-whispered, half-hissed.

He looked at her and then pointed at the light pole where he was planning on leaning against while he waited.

“You’re not trying to run away, are you?” she asked suspiciously.

He blinked several times. “I said that I would you once a day wherever you wanted. I always do what I say.”

She hesitantly let go of his arm, unsure if she could trust his words. “This is Minseok. He’s my companion for a while,” she introduced to the other man.

Kris looked at them, at their proximity and then at Kyungjin’s animated face and Minseok’s unenthusiastic one. “It’s nice to meet you,” he smiled uncertainly.

Minseok stared at him for a lingering second before speaking up and saying, “I’m not her boyfriend.”

Kris looked at him in bewilderment, tripping over his words, spluttering out, “What? I… what?”

Kyungjin looked at Minseok with avid amusement, wondering why he would suddenly say that. “He never asked, you know.”

Minseok shrugged, not bothering to explain how he knew what Kris was thinking.

Kyungjin laughed. “But even though he’s not my boyfriend, it would be nice if he was.” She paused. “Maybe except for his personality,” she mulled over contemplatively.  “Yeah, definitely not his personality.”

Minseok glanced at her. “Then you would go out with me only for my looks?”

She grinned. “Oh, you found out?”

“Um,” Kris interrupted. “It’s nice that we’re finding out that Kyungjin would like to go out with someone who looks like Minseok, but you mentioned something about going to my restaurant?”

Kyungjin brightened up and nodded cheerfully. “I’ve always wanted to eat your restaurant, but I never got the chance to.”

Kris smiled. “Well, let’s go.” He paused. “But I have to do some errands first before opening up. You want to tag along?”

Minseok was about to say no because he believed there was no reason for him to, but Kyungjin grasped his wrist and raised it along with hers. “Yes!”

“You can go if you want,” Minseok told her. “But I don’t believe I need to.”

She gasped in fake surprise. “What? But you’re supposed to accompany me while I’m out. You dare let all those people who are trusting you with me down?”

He looked blandly at her, trying to figure out why she was so insistent on him going as well, but all he could hear was her saying, “Go, go, go.”

He sighed in defeat. “Fine, I’ll go with you.”

She grinned, “Score. Kyungjin wins another battle.”

A/N: Minseok just can’t say no to Kyungjin.

Still a bit slow? I have certain plot points in my head, but I have to make them all connect. Plus, I've been attempting a new Chen fic, which I shouldn't. Must...stay...away...from...new...plotlines....

Sorry for not updating earlier. I was so busy with school with midterms and quizzes that I couldn’t do anything else. But I finished one midterm today, so this is sort of a celebratory reward for me and you. But I’ll be going back to studying.

The lamentations of a stressed out college student. *cries*