EIGHT

“Let go of her,” Kyungsoo said, his voice coming out cold and harsh. He grabbed Seorin’s arm and pulled it out of Seungsoo’s grasp. He started dragging her away back to the elevator when his brother suddenly asked, “Who is she?”

And in that instant, a million questions went running through his mind:
Why was Seungsoo asking?
Did he know Seorin? If yes, how did he know her?
Did he like her? If not, what did he want from her?
What did she have to offer him?

Seorin opened to tell him her name – she didn’t see why it was such a big deal – but Kyungsoo’s hand clamped over and he answered instead. “It’s none of your business who she is.”

“Is she your girlfriend?” Seungsoo asked, his eyebrow raised.

Seorin’s first instinct was to shake her head fiercely, but Kyungsoo’s reply was faster. “That’s none of your business either.”

“W-Wait,” she whispered. What?! She didn’t understand why he hadn’t just replied with a simple ‘no’ – because that was the truth.

“Ah, I see…” Seungsoo tried to hide the disappointment in his voice, but clever Kyungsoo could still hear it – and he couldn’t help but smirk.

Kyungsoo pushed Seorin toward the elevator as he leaned in towards his brother. “You can’t have everything,” he said in a low voice.

Seungsoo glared, his face growing red with anger, embarrassment, and jealousy. “We’ll see about that,” he growled, turning sharply on his heel and storming away.

Kyungsoo felt his heart pounding and he cursed himself for being so nervous of his brother.

“Can you hurry? I’m not going to hold the elevator forever,” Seorin suddenly snapped.

He perked his head up and saw her annoyed face. Seungsoo likes her, he repeated to himself as he slowly walked towards her. At least, that’s what it seemed like anyway…

By the time they reached the lobby floor, it had officially sunk in – Seungsoo was going to try and take her from him. She didn’t exactly belong to him, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let his brother get anything more than what he already had.

He took a good look at Seorin – she didn’t seem too affected by what had happened on the top floor. “Do you know Seungsoo?” He finally asked.

She looked kind of surprised that he brought it up, but she shook her head. “I’ve only heard of him a few times… That’s it really.” She was sure she would have remembered such a fierce, intimidating man like Seungsoo if she had met him before.

“Are you sure?”

She frowned. Why was Kyungsoo so curious? But she nodded nonetheless. “Yeah, this is my first time seeing him… I think.”

She paused and thought back to how he had grabbed her wrist and asked who she was. “Does he know me?”

“I don’t know,” came Kyungsoo’s unsure reply. “But it’s better if you just stay away from him. He’s the scum of the earth.”

She was kind of taken aback by his slander against his own brother, but she already could tell that they had some deep rift between them. She could see the darkness clouding in his eyes at the mere thought of Seungsoo, so she put on a supportive smile. She knew it wasn’t time for her to be argumentative and sassy. “Okay,” she replied obediently. “I’ll make sure I steer clear from him. It sh