Karen's POV

We had been walking quietly alongside each other. I was preoccupied by Hyuna's comments and Jiho's disturbing gaze that travelled down my body to start a conversation.

I glimpsed at Jiho and he wasn't too bothered by the silence between us. He was relaxed, strolling comfortably with his long legs as I fastened my pace to catch up to him.

"Are we going somewhere?" I finally asked as we kept on walking straight.

Jiho shrugged his shoulders, "Nah." He scrunched up his face, trying to think but ended up shrugging again.

He looked at me and pointed out, "Your face is still puffy from the crying so we'll just hang outside till it calms down."

Feeling self-conscious, I put my head down and away from him.

"I'm tired," I stated, stopping in my tracks. Jiho swung around on one foot and stood directly in front of me. "I'll just sit here. You can keep walking."

I grabbed a seat at a bench close by and Jiho followed suit despite what I said. 

After a few minutes of more silence, I couldn't help asking, "Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

"Do you want me to talk?" Jiho asked, amused. "Is the silence bothering you?"

"No," I said, massaging my temples, "But it makes me curious about what you're thinking."

Jiho's POV

I stared at her as she continued to massage her temples. 

What was I thinking? I was thinking of wrapping her in a thick woolly blanket so I could help her look more of a prude and hide her assets (Yeah, I heard Hyuna clearly and I saw what I saw).

I was thinking of how relaxed I was with her - how I did not have to be cool in front of her. How I was comfortable being like this in front of her.

I was thinking of how to apologize to her after all I've done because I didn't want us to ever have a final conversation ever. 

"I want to be friends with you," I finally said, sighing heavily. "You're so determined to stay away from me though."

"Only cause you've been a to me," she countered, looking up at me. Wow, language! "You confuse me. You treat me so badly! But now you want to be friends? You don't make friends by insulting them."

I leaned forward, pondering deeply. "If I promise to be nicer - and I do mean, relatively nicer than before - would that be okay?" I asked, gazing into her eyes.

We stared at each other for longer than a second and I took a big gulp. I saw her hands softly disentangling and intertwining themselves together again and again as we kept our eyes locked on each other.

Karen's POV

"I don't think my boyfriend would like that," I blurted out without thinking. Oh my God! What was I saying?! "It's a bad idea."

"What boyfriend?" Jiho asked, staring at me in disbelief.

I put up my hand in defense and lied right in his face, "My boyfriend." 

Jiho's mouth was wide open and his eyebrows knitted tightly together. "What are you saying?" he said, throwing his arms around. 

I didn't mean to do this but the 'I have a boyfriend' white lie was a self-defense mechanism I put up whenever a guy approached me. I've used it on nicer guys than Jiho, honestly, so it wasn't wrong to use it on him. 

It was only logical to protect myself. Jiho might have not been trying to 'approach' me anyway but...

His gaze...

His tone....

Even if he didn't like me, what if I started to like him? And him being the guy who kept hurting my feelings these last few weeks? 

I really needed to end this relationship with him. 

"I'm saying that I don't want to spend time with you, Yukwon or your crew or any guy, really, because I'd hate for my boyfriend to see that," I continued my white lie confidently. 

Jiho guffawed so loud that his head was thrown backwards towards the bench. I knew he wouldn't believe me but that wasn't the point. He just had to get the message though.

"Right? Okay, I'm going home now," I said, matter-of-factly. "Wait, in fact, I'm going to meet my boyfriend."

"Well, you can tell your boyfriend that I borrowed you that tshirt," he said, pulling my backpack. "Don't forget to tell him I got a good look on your babies too. Yums. Yeah, give my regards to him."

My whole body was flushed from his remarks. How dare he make such rude remarks! 

He let my backpack go and I stumbled forward. I picked myself up, brushing off dirt from my knees and made my way back home.