7:30 a.m. sharp at the bus stop. The normal routine – with a polite smile on my lips, I greet my neighbours and friends whom I meet every morning of a working a day. There’s Uncle Lee, cycling on his old, trusted bicycle as he delivers the daily newspaper. And then there’s the young teenager who works as a car driver for the rich family living on the top floor of the apartment building, standing at attention beside the luxurious Mercedes. And there’s Mr. and Mrs. Kim, the sweet old couple who’s been married for 60 years now, taking a morning stroll, hand in hand. The sight never bores me as I smile politely at them. And there are those high school kids who take the same bus with me, greeting me politely as I reached the bus stop. I looked around and smiled at all of the other patrons – all the familiar faces I see around my area. Well, except for that one man standing a distance from me, wearing a formal white shirt and office pants, with no bags but shades on the bridge of his nose. Why does he look so familiar?

He started approaching me – the way he walks just rings some sort of bell in my head. I’ve seen this person somewhere, but where? He stood an arm’s length away from me, as I retreated back slightly as though he was some lunatic on the loose. Slowly he took off his glass with his head down and gradually, he looked up. Lee Gikwang. “Oh, it’s you,” I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I believe taking the car would be much comfortable for you, rather than the crowded bus,” he said with much suave.

“No, I’m really fine taking the bus,” I insisted with a convincing smile.

“Joon left a note that you have to take the car to work,” Gikwang said, making eye contact with me, his eyes looking the most serious I had ever seen. “Defying Joon’s words would cost me my job, so please allow me to do my job easily.”

“Why don’t you allow me to have an easy life?” I mumbled under my breath, but he continued to gaze seriously into my eyes without blinking, so I had to take it seriously. “Oh, alright then,” I rolled my eyes. “Where’s the car?”

---

The journey to the school was very awkward. As the icebreaker I always am, I did my job easily. “You know, when you wore those shades, you looked really… cool,” I tried to be comfortable. “Like… G-Dragon-cool, you know.”

The last sentence made him raise his eyebrow, but too bad the conversation had to end then as Gikwang turned the car into the school compounds. He parked the car quietly and I got out, grabbing my bag as well. As I walked towards the school office, I could literally feel his burning presence right behind me, despite his soundless footsteps. Just before I reached for the glass doors of the office, I turned around to face the bodyguard.

“Look, if you really want an easy job, don’t follow me around like this,” I began, trying to sound reasonable.

“I’m a professional bodyguard, not a stalker,” he said calmly with emotionless eyes.

My eyes widened, since I’ve just been owned by my own bodyguard, “Oh, well then, secondly, you shouldn’t be standing anywhere here. The kids here just love new faces here, whether they’re strangers or not.”

That was the first time I saw him smile, or rather smirk in a genuine way. He gave a firm nod as he said, “I’ll still be watching.”

---

[No one’s POV]

The kids were filtering in through the school gates, gradually filling in the classrooms with their presence and noise. Hyosung grabbed her teaching materials as she made her way into class, greeting her class of five-year-olds. She helped all of her students settle down in their seats before officially greeting them. While the kids happily greeted her, she caught a glance of Gikwang standing at attention outside the classroom, looking in through the window. Must he really…?

Hyosung quickly shook her thoughts of her head and focused on the lesson plan. “Now, before I start on today’s lesson, I would like to make an announcement to all of you!” she said in a cheerful tone. “We will be having a school camping trip to Jeju Island this coming weekend!” The kids cheered happily, clapping their hands together, and started chatting with each other about what they’re going to bring and what they’re going to do over there. “Please give these letters to your parents and bring them back to me tomorrow after they have signed, okay?” Hyosung said as she distributed the letters to the students. The students responded with an ‘Okay!’ in unison.

“Ms. Hyosung,” one of the boys by the name of Yang Yoseob voiced out with his hand raised. “Is Joon hyung going to come with us?”

The question almost caught her off guard as she looked at her student. Then his friend, Son Dongwoon, added on, “He hasn’t been coming to our trips often. I don’t think he’ll come.”

Hyosung forced a soft smile as she said, “He has been busy lately. I’m sure he would love to come, but he’s busy with work. He’ll come some other time, alright?” With that, Hyosung quickly proceeded with the day’s lesson.

---

“Goodbye, Ms. Hyosung!” The kids said in unison before rushing towards the door of the classroom, emptying the class within seconds. As Hyosung cleaned the classroom, she heard soft footsteps from the door. She turned around and saw Gikwang helping to push in the chairs.

“You ended pretty late today,” she heard him say quietly. “Its way part your lunchtime. Have something to eat first.”

“I’m fine. Thank you,” Hyosung simply replied as she was done cleaning the classroom, with the help of Gikwang. She went to get her things from the teacher’s desk and headed out of the classroom. Gikwang was hot on her trails, following her all the way to the office.

While Hyosung was inside the office, Gikwang waited outside patiently for her. She came out after half an hour, after going for the brief meeting, officially dismissed from work. She just went past Gikwang without even looking at him and walked towards the gates of the school. Gikwang jogged up to her side and did what he had to do: grab her elbow and force her to turn around.

He met her frowned face and saw that her eyes were b with tears. “Hyosung, are you okay?” Gikwang asked, his eyebrows arching in a worried way. “Did something happen to you?”

Although her eyes looked so pitifully sad, Hyosung said through gritted teeth, “Get lost.” Before Gikwang could say or do anything, Hyosung pulled her arm from his grip and walked out of the gates. Confused, Gikwang just followed her from a distance, making sure she’s safe. He followed her all the way until she reached a small shop a block away from the apartment.

Gikwang let a bit of time pass before going up to the window of the shop to peek in. He scanned the shop and found Hyosung slurping noodles on one of the tables. He entered the shop and walked swiftly to Hyosung’s table, sitting into the seat across from her. She was in the middle of slurping her noodles when he appeared in front of her.

When Gikwang stared at her for so long, she quickly slurped the noodles into and despite her full mouth, she shot at him, “What are you looking at? I eat a lot when I’m upset. Got a problem with that?”

Gikwang only managed a light and soft chuckle as he said, “Eat all you want. As long as you’re happy, I won’t disturb your happy time.”

Hyosung’s eyes widened slightly and gradually continued eating until she noticed something, “Don’t just sit there and watch me, go get something to eat.”

“I’m fine. Thank you,” he replied swiftly, echoing the words she previously said to her.

Hyosung made the decision not to fight back and went back to her noodles, “Suit yourself then.”

Gikwang just sat there, comfortably leaning against his seat and watched her devour her bowl of scrumptious noodles. Maybe I have to go slightly easier on her to know more of her…

you guise will probably hate me for not updating in such a LOOONG time and I do apologize for that T-T

facing a writer's block isn't really such an easy thing to deal with you know...

I guess this chapter's slightly uninteresting as the previous one, but I promise that the next few chapters will be better because someone's going to take action

^^ comment and Happy Reading <3