“So what do you want?” I repeated my question, a little bit irritated by his unclear answers. I was sure he was doing it on purpose just to annoy me even further.

“To prove a point.” he answered, confusing (and angering) me all over again.

“What point?”

His lips slowly curled upwards into a smile that was probably the creepiest thing I ever saw.

 “That I can get everyone to like me even if I’m being immensely rude to them.”  he nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders while staring straight into my – now slightly shocked – eyes.

Yes, his answer surprised me, but not all that much to be honest. Jongin definitely seemed as one of those guys who would insult and torture someone just to show their own greatness. Selfish, sadistic bastard with way too much pride.

My first instinct after his words finally registered was to hit him – the anger was literally boiling inside of me. So he had been insulting me for the whole week just for that? Just to prove some stupid, irrelevant point? Could he be even more childish and irresponsible? But even though I really wanted to hurt him at that specific moment, I somehow ended up laughing instead of actually punching him. The whole situation suddenly seemed funny in some weird ironical way and I simply couldn’t keep it in.

I noticed how Jongin raised his eyebrows in slight confusion. It was the first time he wasn’t in a perfect control of himself and for some unknown reason I found that hilarious. “What is so funny?” he asked after a couple of very intense seconds, his face slightly furrowing.

“You thinking someone could actually like you even though you are throwing nasty insults at them on regular basis.” I replied, trying to catch my breath after a particularly long and loud laughing fit.

“You’re even weirder than I thought.” concluded Jongin, observing me with somehow disgusted and at the same time curious expression. “But anyway.” he continued. “I don’t really think that.”

I blinked a couple of times, confused once again. If I hadn’t been sure before, I was certainly sure now – he was most definitely throwing unclear answers at me on purpose, knowing very well that I was way too curious to actually stop the conversation before forcing some more information out of him. I gritted my teeth in frustration, getting one of his sneakiest smirks as a reply.

“Okay.” I said slowly, trying to – more or less unsuccessfully – hide my anger. “If you don’t believe in what you are trying to prove yourself, then what precisely is the point? And don’t say that you just enjoy bullying. I know that sadistic morons like you, gets the joy out of their victim’s expressions of hurt. And I’m also pretty sure you haven’t gotten much of that from me.”

Jongin snickered. “You’re kind of dense, aren’t you?”

I just stared at him for a moment or two, my lips now almost subconsciously pressed into a thin line. Of course he would insult me instead of giving me a straight answer. I shouldn’t be even surprised anymore. The best I could do in this kind of situation – at least if I didn’t want to lose all my dignity – was to say goodbye and walk away. I was just about to do exactly that, when Jongin decided to open his mouth once again (coincidence? I think not. The whole I-can-read-you-as-easily-as-an-open-book thing was honestly getting kind of creepy).

“Firstly; I don’t need to believe in the point I’m trying to prove as long as other people believe in it. Reputation is important.” he explained nonchalantly. “But I guess a freak like you wouldn’t really understand.” he added a second later, his voice now a mix of mockery and contempt. “Secondly; I’m not a sadistic moron. And lastly; I have to agree with you – you are one truly boring victim. But I guess the pleasure of destroying you is going to be even bigger because of that.” 

“Okay.” I said slowly, still trying to comprehend everything he had just said. “So let me get this straight – you are trying to do something even though you know very well that it won’t work, you are denying the obvious fact that you are a sadistic moron and you plan to destroy me which is kind of on the contrary of what you said you’re trying to achieve. No offence but I really can’t see this working.”  

Jongin didn’t seem even a little bit offended or angry - quite the opposite actually; it looked like he found my words pretty amusing, which – you can believe me – got me even more frustrated than I already was. “You’ve kind of missed the point now, didn’t you?” he said mockingly. “So let me explain in the way you can understand – which means with the same method parents use to explain something difficult to two year old, because honestly, your perceptiveness is about the same as perceptiveness of a very small child - ; everything I said is that I didn’t believe I could get everyone to like me by being rude to them. Everyone as every single person there is on this planet called earth. But I didn’t however said that I didn’t believed that I could get a single person to like me even if I was treating him as trash. You have to agree that you seemed to be a perfect loser for that. No friends, no talking, no brain, so to summon up – the kind of person that is pathetic enough to be around someone immensely rude just for the sake of being around someone. Get it now? Oh and about the destroying you part – telling you would only ruin the surprise and - consequently - also all the fun. We don’t want that to happen right?”

I stared at him for a moment or two, before I actually managed to decide on the thing I wanted to say first. Given the fact he had just thrown the whole explanation mixed with unfair insults at me, the decision I had to make really wasn’t very simple. “Sorry.” I said insincerely. “But I’m not the kind of person who would ever fall for that. And I do definitely not have the perceptiveness of a small child.”

Jongin snickered. “You definitely do.” he said. “And I perfectly understand it’s hard to believe, but I make mistakes sometimes too. I choose the wrong person this time, it happens.” he shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

“So what are… wait. This time?” I felt the need to ask, even though I had a pretty good idea what was he talking about. After all, the favorite hobby of those sadistic bastards was toying with people.

“I think you know exactly what I meant.” he gave me one of his creepiest smiles, before adding; “So I believe you were trying to ask me what I’m going to do now?” I opened my mouth to answer, only to realize his question was rhetorical, because he continued right away. “Maybe I can’t make you like me, but I think we both know I can make you pretend to like me.”

Could he really? Getting me to talk with strangers – especially the evil jerk kind of strangers – was an almost impossible task and he somehow managed to complete it in a week. Then there was this strange feeling that he could see straight into my soul or at least read my minds, which was creepy and frustrating at the same time. And of course I shouldn’t forget about his weird and very not-human reactions and way of thinking even I couldn’t understand. He was definitely something else and I didn’t mean that in a good way. So, was he able to trick or bully me into submission? Probably. But I most certainly wasn’t going to admit that.

“Maybe yes, maybe not.” I said slowly while desperately trying to maintain my poker face. I used to think I was pretty good at it, but in a very short period of time Jongin managed to prove me otherwise. “Besides.” I continued. “It would probably take quite some time, not to mention it might turn out I’m a terrible actor and your friends would consequently notice the deception right away. Are you sure you want to take that chance?”

Jongin’s lips formed into somehow dangerous smile. “It’s that or admitting the embarrassing truth.”

I would lie if I claimed I understood him, honestly. I didn’t have a slightest idea why was that such a big deal for him. I seriously didn’t. “Because you want people to idealize you instead of seeing you for who you truly are?” I questioned.

He gave me one of his can-you-possibly-be-serious-right-now looks before answering matter of factly; “There is nothing thrilling about the truth. Even you should agree lies and illusions are much more interesting. Especially the ones that make you seem perfect.”

“Probably.” I said a bit uncertainly. “But you can’t actually form any true relationships with people if everything they know about you is a lie.”

“You’re the one to talk.” mocked Jongin, his typical smirk once again plastered on his face. “You have never seemed to be even a little bit social, so you’re clearly not an expert. Do you even have any friends?”

The way he was looking at me implied that he was already quite familiar with the answer and was asking me only to make me feel even worse about myself. He definitely knew how to hit a particularly aching spot. “Well, neither are you.” I hissed a bit more aggressively than I originally planned. “You have a bunch of people that only like some perfect idea of you. And don’t tell me Kris and Sehun are different – you wouldn’t feel the need to pretend you can do something you actually can’t in front of them if they were.”

It seemed that I finally managed to find his weak spot – his face obviously darkened and if looks had an ability to kill I would drop dead there and then. They luckily didn’t, but that fact hadn’t really made me feel any better, mainly because Jongin was staring at me in the same way I imagined serial killers stare at their victims before they put a knife through their heart.

  “You have no idea what are you talking about freak.” he hissed through gritted teeth, his voice so cold it sent shivers down my spine. “And you will do exactly what I tell you to do; so in this case - play a nice obedient and pathetic puppy.”

“Or what?” I asked while desperately trying to hide the great amount of nervousness I was currently feeling.

He tilted his head a little to the left, giving me a particularly cold look. I did my best to not seem scared, which was frankly pretty difficult given the situation. “I can’t be frightened that easily.” I said stubbornly while trying to ignore the sudden – and strong - urge to run away and hide. I realized I definitely managed to get myself into a pretty intense and horrifying situation and that I had absolutely no idea how to get out of it in one piece. Or perhaps I did, but just didn’t want to admit that I’m actually prepared to stoop so low.

“If you want me to pretend I like you, you will have to offer something in exchange.” I said as firmly as I could.

“Because I obviously can’t get you to do it for free?” asked Jongin who had obviously managed to suppress his previous anger and was now once again making fun out of me. He was clearly convinced he could bully me into submission and I unfortunately had to admit he wasn’t just being delusional.

“No.” I said slowly, searching for the right words. “Just for extra motivation. I mean let’s be honest here – the harder you will try to control me, the harder I will resist and the whole thing will sooner or later end up as a disaster. For both of us. But if we – for example – make a fair deal, then I will do my best which means your little pretense has much bigger chance of actually being successful.”  

Jongin gave me a long calculating look before replying; “Mhm, as weird as it sounds, you actually have a point. So what precisely do you want in exchange for yours – I’m pretty sure terrible – acting skills?”

“Money.” I answered perhaps a little too fast. My words once again managed to slightly surprise the tanned boy in front of me, which was pretty obvious by the way his eyebrows furrowed.

“Wow.” he said. “You’re pretty much a , aren’t you.”

I blushed at that, getting one of his 100% amused smirks for an answer. I had never noticed that side of my request, but now that he mentioned it… I realized he was probably right. Perfect. Just perfect.

“Okay.” he said, holding one of his fingers in the air for a moment or two as to say ‘wait a minute’, before he pulled a pencil and a piece of paper out of his bag and started furiously writing something on it. He handed me the note as soon as he had done. I didn’t really see the point, but I took it anyway.

1. I’m going to be rude to you. Very rude. You better just deal with it now, so you will be able to obey my every word without complaining later on.
2. Never approach me first if I don’t tell you to.
3. Make sure you will look nerdy, pathetic and completely in love with me every time we are around people.
4. I will announce how big of a loser you are in front of the whole school. I want you to cry or at least pretend you are really really hurt when that happens.
5. Never talk to me again when this is over.

I just stared at the paper for a moment or two, thinking; what the hell am I doing? Had I just made a deal with the devil? The only upper side of this whole thing was the fact that I would be now able to keep my apartment. I just seriously hoped it was worth it. 

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hello guys. i really planned this to be more interesting and eventful, but yeah - like that was actually going to happen, seriously. so yes, i hope this wasn't too lame and you enjoyed it at least a little bit despite the slow flow, all the overanalyzing and my crappy writing style (don't judge, this is the first longest thing i'm writing in english :p). anyway i'm really gratefull to all that subscribed and expecially for all the comments.