“Kevin, stop playing with your food,” Nara scolds, glaring at him from under her eyebrows.

“I don’t like prawns,” He grumbles.  “And I did so bad at my last photoshoot,”

Nara grunts when she stretches, rubbing the back of her head.  “So that explains the rough ,” 

Kevin throws her a sheepish smile.  “Sorry.  I was angry,”

“Don’t take it out on me, Kev,” Nara pulls up one of her legs and sets her chin on her knee.  “Do better today,”

The man, clad in nothing but his jeans eyes the woman in front of him, wearing his shirt.  “Since when were you so nice,” He mumbles.

“Since never,” Nara snaps, standing up to take off Kevin’s blouse, tossing it to his face and walking into the bathroom with her clothes in her hands.  She locks the door behind her and sighs quietly inside the bathroom. Ever since she told Kyungsoo, she had been less angry towards Kevin.  Less curt, more friendly.  Well, friendly is an overstatement, but at least she doesn’t yell at him anymore. She doesn’t curse at him.  And that’s nice, for someone like her.

Despite her frequent with Kevin, she holds back on Kyungsoo, still.  She’s no longer sure if she’s the one holding back, or him.  She asked him, once, about why he hadn’t been hinting on sleeping with her.  He simply said, “I may not be the best of your life, but I kind of want to be your last,”

She had blushed deep red at his answer and he had been laughing at her back then.  

At his graduation and Haerin and Kai’s, she was present, clad in a gorgeous red dress, Kyungsoo’s arm around her waist.  Yunjae was there too, standing beside Haerin, making fun of her height along with Kai.  The other boys, too.  Suho, Chanyeol, Baek and Sehun, throwing their hats to the air and taking the happiest picture together which has now permanently turned into her phone background.  Only three out of those people know about her situation.  And despite its complexity; Nara was content with what she had.  She could have wished differently, sure, but if things were just to stay the way it was, she would be fine.

“Are you done?” Kevin’s voice comes through the door.  “I have a schedule, I can’t be late,”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nara wraps a towel around herself and walks out the door.  

Kevin gives her a suggestive once over and in a breath through his teeth.  “Do you think my schedule can wait,” He tugs at her towel and marvels at her body as the towel falls to the carpet.  “And we’d have time for one more?” He pulls her close and snuggles her neck.

Nara sighs, letting him kiss her for a moment before pushing him back.  “No,” She shakes her head.  “Your schedule starts at 8:00, and it’s currently 7:45,”

“, right, you’re right,” He backs away and rushes into the bathroom, crying in pain after he closes the door on his own fingers.  “!” He curses and closes the door properly.

“He’s such a kid,” Nara mumbles to herself, picking up her fallen clothes and tidying up Kevin’s at the same time.  She makes the bed and puts their bowls into the sink, leaving a note for him to wash the dishes when he gets home.  She takes out his clothes for the day and sets it on the bedside table, just by the bathroom door before putting on her own clothes and cleaning up more of his apartment.  

“How’d you know I wanted to wear these?” Kevin calls out to her as he puts on the clothes she picks out.

“Don’t know,” Nara shrugs.  “It’s a nice shirt,” She walks over to him as she ties her hair up in a ponytail.

“They’re a nice color,” He nods in agreement, pecking her on the forehead.  “This is also nice,” He adds quietly.

Nara meets his eyes and pats his shoulder.  “It isn’t bad,” She throws him an apologetic smile.  

“Does your boyfriend know?”

Nara pauses as she tidies up her bag, but continues with her business before answering.  “How’d you know I was dating someone?”

“Of course you are,” Kevin rolls his eyes.  

“Yeah he does,” Nara shrugs.  “And he’s fine with it,” She frowns.  “Maybe not totally, but partly,”

“Why?”

She hesitates before shrugging again.  “Don’t know,”

“I don’t want to be a charity case,” Kevin walks over to her and corners her to the wall.  He was glaring down at her with weak resolve in his eyes.  “I don’t want you to just pity me,”

Nara stayed mum.

“I want me to mean something to you,” Kevin hits the wall beside her head.  “I want to have a place, somewhere in there,” He points at the spot above her heart.  “I want to matter to you, I want to be important,” He clenches his jaw.  “I want to be—“

“Hey,” Nara puts her arms around his neck and places a chaste kiss on his lips before pulling him into a hug.  “Hey, it’s okay, I’m here,”

“I’m just so alone all the time,” Kevin clutches at her clothes, hugging her back tighter.  “I know asking to be a priority is too much, and I know everything I’m asking for is stepping over the line but—“

“I’m here,” Nara rubs his back.  “I may not stay, but I’m here.  You may not be the one I lo—ah!”

Kevin had bitten on her earlobe as she was speaking.  “Don’t say that,” He nuzzles her ear and goes back to hugging her.  “Don’t say it,”

“But you have to know, Kev,” She tries to pull him back and look at his face, but he kept still.

“I don’t want to hear it,” He shakes his head.

Nara grunts and successfully pulls him away before she cups his face with both of her hands and makes sure he meets her eyes.  “I don’t love you, Kevin,” She traces his eyebrows, his nose.  “I am not in love with you, and you are not in love with me,”

“What?” Kevin retorts.  

“You’re mistaking love with need,” Nara meets his nose with hers.  “As I did in the past,”

“What do you—“

“I had believed that every man who had slept with me in the past could give me the love I think I deserved,” Nara chuckles at her own naivety.  “But I guess, only one person could give me more than that,”

Kevin kisses her slowly and pulls away, setting his forehead on hers.  “Can’t I go out on dates with you?”

Nara smiles apologetically at him, pecking his cheek and pulling away.  “Our world is here, Kev.  In your apartment.  This is where we’re free.  But out there; we don’t know each other.  We’re strangers,”

“Can’t we be friends, outside?”

Nara looks back before she walks out his apartment.  “Who knows,” She winks, grinning.  “Maybe we can start over,”