Sara dozed off while reading a magazine only to be woken up by Rome in the wee hours and dragged out of the room all the way to the main entrance of the house, with his hand over . What is he doing?! She struggled to escape his clutch but his strength was twice as hers. As he crept open the door as silent as he could, Sara spotted his favourite bike parked under the shady tree where Rome liked to spend his younger days playing his gadgets, according to Mrs Yu.

 

He warned Sara to not make any noise and then finally released his grip a little.

 

“Come.”

 

“Where to? At this unearthly hour do we need to go somewhere?”

 

Rome shot her a blank face before handing over a helmet. Sara was reluctant but eventually put the helmet on and got behind Rome.

 

“If you are not going to hold tight,” Barom warned her, “ you are literally going to fly.”

 

Without a second warning, he sped off down the silent road to somewhere Sara was not sure of. It made her lean her petite body over to his and had her arms tight around his buff upper body. It was Sara’s first time touching Rome to that extent. Rome’s speed was too fast she did not even dare to look up nor tell him to slow down. The night breeze did not manage to mess her hair as she hid behind Rome all the way till he reached his destination. Sara quickly got down from the bike and stood away from Rome.

 

“Where are we right now?”

 

“My favourite sneak out.” Rome took out his gloves and checked his hair over at the side mirror. “In case you need to find me next time.”

 

They were on top of a hill, no one else but them. Darkness was lit with minimal lights from the lamp posts. Barom pointed to the other side and she turned around to be greeted with a beautiful night view. As Barom walked over to join Sara, he threw his jacket over to her in case she could not stand the cold.

 

“Thanks. Anyway this place… is beautiful.” He glanced at Sara secretly and caught her smiling genuinely.

 

“Yeah I have a good taste at everything and this place is like my longtime lover. Beautiful than anything else in the world.”

 

“But why would you share such a precious place with me?”

 

“Hmm… as a form of thank you for saving me from dad’s wrath earlier. Or I would’ve gotten hit again.”

 

“Oh”, Sara shrugged. “My actions were uncalled for. It was like an automatic thing you know?” Sara was trying to piece words together to come up with a sensible explanation for the hug and all but failed. In the end, she sighed and apologized. “Sorry for the… sudden hug. Like I told you its umm, my automatic body reaction to umm, save someone.”

 

“So you are going to hug anyone to save them.”

 

“Why not?” She retorted. “My mum always tells me hugs are warm and never underestimate the energy one can get from a hug. Well I am not going to ask what you felt earlier because its going to make our relationship way awkward.”

 

“Oh yeah I forgot we are strangers being forced to stay together.” Barom smirked.

 

“Mean_90. I don’t understand how those ulzzangs like you so much! Your words are like digging mercilessly into my skin forcefully its like parasite. Ugh!”

 

Barom looked at her straight into the eyes. His forehead wrinkled inward. “You didn’t just call me a parasite did you?” He questioned her with his monotone grave voice which made Sara stammer.

 

“N-no I didn’t? Its only a comparison why are you getting all worked up?” Sara tried to break away from the deadly glare and walked away.

 

“Comparison?” Barom shouted over from behind. “ How about we compare the distance of you walking home from here and me riding home from here?” Sara stopped on her track and turn her upper body and Rome was already on his bike wearing his helmet.

 

“Yah! Where are you going? You are going to leave me here? And let me walk home?!” She ran quickly towards him panick-stricken. But it was too late. He started his engine and sped off for real. Sara tried to catch up but her legs were too short to run quickly. She screamed under the night sky feeling so frustrated and worried on how she was going to go home from there. She did not even know where she was. She was cashless and worse, not even a cellphone with her.

 

Stupid Barom. You brought me here and you left me to die walking home with my two legs. She muttered under her breath. The way down was too quiet and poorly lit that she had to turn around to check her back countless of times in case someone was following her. About 1km ahead, she spotted a bus stop but at 4am in the morning the service was not operating yet. She sighed and scratched her head thinking of alternate ways to reach home at least before 6am so everything would look normal.

 

This is going to take forever! She cried. Because of the cold wind she was already snuffling. Barom’s jacket was not much of a help because she was wearing thin clothing. As she walked past the unlit bus stop, she heard someone sniggered. It was so chilly and it made her want to freeze on the spot out of fear but she convinced herself to get out there as soon as possible. She quickened her pace and muttered some prayers under her breath continuously. Then she heard a small laughter. It was getting weird she wished she could just teleport home.

 

“Yah, you took 30 minutes to walk such a short distance? I must have overestimated your short legs.” The hidden figure laughed. Sara took so long to recognize the voice. Barom.

 

She spun around and stomped her feet towards the bus stop. She caught a glimpse of his bike and the man himself was lying down on one of the seats but she was too angry to spit out words on his face.

 

“Oops did I make someone angry by chance?” What a rhetorical question, she thought.

 

”Don’t worry, your prayers to God has been answered”, he said sarcastically. You frowned. “My bike’s got a problem so now WE have to walk home”, Rome told her regrettably. That moment, her anger ceased and she accidentally burst into laughter.

 

“Serve you right.”

 

“Oh thanks. You might as well say ‘Oh Rome, right back into your face!’ I know you wanna say that to my face every single time, don’t you?” he continued while pushing his bike downhill. Luckily Sara recognized the road once they reached the bottom of the hill. One of the roads led to her house.

 

“You mean for the 18 years of your life you didn’t know this hill existed?!” Barom mocked at Sara.

 

“Good kid doesn’t go around to places like this. Plus I have no time to care about anything other than school.” Sara tried hard to cover up her little knowledge about her own hometown. “So do you want to walk back alone to your house at this hour or to my house which is about 20 minutes’ walk from here?”

 

“I haven’t give my parents-in-law a visit yet so why not?”

 

“But please. Behave yourself. And be careful of what you say because my parents have high expectation from you. They are not like me. And if you dare say anything about my house you are done for”, Sara warned him.

 

“I will have to see about that later.”

 

“Let’s see if you could do that before I kick you out.” Sara sniggered sarcastically. Since it was her house, she had every authority to order Barom as she wished. Luckily she remembered where the spare key was located in the backyard and she carefully unlocked the front door to avoid the family members from waking up.

 

As Barom entered the house, he was surprised how Sara’s family kept everything well-kempt though her house is ½ the size of his. It looked spacious for such a small place. He could still smell the aroma of the herbal chicken soup, which was probably their dinner earlier. His stomach growled loudly and he gave angry Sara an innocent soft giggle. He followed Sara over to her room as silent as he could, trying not to hit a vase or anything that could shatter the silence of the night. Suprisingly, he loved the ambience and the comfort of the house. It was definitely different from his own house. This was one thing he secretly envied about Sara. She was raised with much love.

 

Luckily her blanket and heater were still untouched eversince she left the room after her solemnization. Sara laid them out and grabbed two pillows from her cupboard for themselves. At least they could rest till morning came.

 

“I hope my parents won’t get freaked out later on or something. Aren’t you not going to get some sleep?” She asked him.

 

“I’m not sleepy yet. You go ahead. Your dearest handsome Rome Yu is going to be on guard in case there’s going to be a parasite attack”, he replied sarcastically.

 

“I cant be bothered with you anymore. I’m tired. Bye.” Sara slipped into the blanket and turned her body away from him. Rome could not figure out why he kept staring at Sara. He was confused. Was he starting to like her? Earlier when she saved him from his dad’s spank, the hug definitely was a genuine one. It was overflowing with sense of protection and warmth, the same one when his mum hugged him when he was younger. In the end Rome decided to let that thought go. It was near impossible for him to fall for someone who did not even qualify in his personal list of ideal type. He snuggled at the edge of the blanket in case he woke Sara up. He kept tossing and turning and finally fell into a deep sleep.

 

The couple woke up with the sight of Sara’s family members staring down at them looking puzzled. They had daggers, rake and a frying pan in hand as a shield in case the house was broken into the previous night. Sara had to calm them down and explained what actually happened while Barom silently watched his in-laws.

 

“Don’t do that next time. I really thought we got robbed or something”, Sara’s dad leaned against the wall, scratching his head. He felt bad that his son in law had to see them like that on his first visit over.

“Really sorry about that, Barom. Oh, please stay for breakfast since you are here!”

 

Barom was still in a daze and Sara had to nudge him twice before he finally replied. “Your family is weird”, he whispered over to Sara, only to be elbowed by her. Sara helped to prepare the table while her siblings just sat around staring at the rich Barom who was dozing off.

 

“Sister said you have a playroom”, the younger one said.

“Sister said it is huge”, the other one continued. They were speaking straight-faced while admiring Barom’s face.

“Sister said you have the latest GTA.”

“Oppa…”

 

“Hmm”, Barom opened his mouth wide to yawn and stretched his arms. The kids were still staring at him.

 

“Hyung…”

“What? I’m so tired I don’t feel like talking. Say it out quickly.”

“Can… we come and play?” their eyes were gleaming with hope for Barom to give them a green light. Barom looked at them with an irritated expression and finally gave in. As long as they did not disturb his 5minutes sleep. As expected the children exploded into cheers, jumping around, not forgetting to thank their brother in law.

 

Finally. Peace.