Hye Jin’s POV

I was hoping Young Jae would forget about the promise I made the night before but of course he wouldn’t. I’m glad he waited to ask me till after school though. I don’t think I could handle telling him at school. 

“He’s the reason I transferred and moved here.” I tell him. 

“Was he bullying you or something?” he asks. Our walk has slowed significantly as we talk. I shake my head, knowing that he’s looking at me even though I can’t look at him. 

“He’s my ex-boyfriend.” Young Jae stops in his tracks at that. I’m a few steps ahead of him when I sigh and turn around to face him. We haven’t made it that far and I can still see the school gates behind him. I decide I want to be a bit further away from the school before telling him the rest of it so I walk up to him and take his hand, practically dragging him away. After a while he snaps out of it and I feel his hand grip mine. He speeds up so that he’s walking beside me again. 

“If he’s your ex, why did you have to move? Did he hurt you?” he asks and I glance at him. He looks angry. Is he mad at me? I shake my head. 

“His name is Hyun Woo and things between us ended badly. We were each others first relationship and after a while I realised he wasn’t making me happy anymore so I ended it. We would fight a lot and break up and get back together. Eventually I realised I was crying more than anything so I broke up with him. He didn’t take it too well. He spent days outside my house waiting to beg me to take him back. Every other time we broke up all it took was for him to cry and I would. But this time I put my foot down. I refused to take him back ever.” I feel Young Jae squeeze my hands, but I still can’t face him. “After about a week he was no longer on our doorstep so I felt relieved. But then he’d appear everywhere else. At school, of course, but even when I went out with friends he’d appear. If I took Tae out to the park he was there, just watching. He would send me messages on my phone everyday and I ended up blocking his number so I couldn’t receive them anymore. He threatened me with suicide once but I figured if he was going to kill himself he would have done it ages ago and wouldn’t bother announcing it. Because he couldn’t contact me anymore he resorted to stalking my SNS accounts and sending me e-mails. I blocked him from those too but he always found a way to find out about me. One day I went to pick up Tae Jin and he was there, trying to play with him. Tae Jin looked scared though so I quickly went over to get him. He tried to pull him away from me but I wouldn’t let him. That’s kind of why Tae Jin is shy around new people, because Hyun Woo gripped his arm so tight that he had bruises for days. After that I would still see him everywhere I went and once when I was coming home he cornered me. He pushed me up against a wall with his hand around my throat. He was telling me he missed me but his hands kept getting tighter. He was crying, begging me to take him back so that we could start over, that he would be better but he never loosened his grip. Eventually I sent a hard blow between his legs with as much strength as I could muster. He fell to the ground and I ran, never looking back. I got home and begged my parents to let me move, that I couldn’t take it anymore. So we did, I changed my number and so did Mum, we moved houses and schools. My parents fight about the move all the time. That’s what we were fighting about last night when I called you. Dad said he’d been getting messages from Hyun Woo because he’s the only one who didn’t change his number. I didn’t think he’d found us already though.” 

I feel Young Jae staring at me as we walk. I let my story settle in with him, waiting for his reaction. I feel myself getting ahead of him and he pulls me back, turning me around so that he can hug me. He has his arms wrapped around my shoulders and I don’t know if I should be hugging him back or not. He pulls back and looks at me. He runs his thumbs under my eyes and I reach up too, only now realising that I’m crying. He pulls me in for another hug, burying his face in my hair. 

“I’ll protect you now. If you’ll let me. I won’t let him get near you ever again. I won’t let him bother you to the point you have to leave. I won’t let you leave.” he breaths into my neck. A tingling sensation goes through my spine at his words and I smile. I lift my arms to wrap them around his waist, hugging him back. 

“Thank you, Jae.” I say. I feel him nod before he pulls away. He takes my hand again, taking a deep breath. 

“Let’s go pick up Tae then shall we?” he says, plastering a smile on his face. I smile back and we start walking again at a faster pace than before. 

When we arrive Tae Jin is already outside and waiting. Young Jae and I glance at each other before he calls out to him. 

“Tae!” Tae Jin looks up and smiles as he runs over, jumping into Young Jae’s arms, as usual. Young Jae adjusts him to sit on his hip and we start walking. 

“What took you so long?” he asks, pouting. “Were you kissing?” 

“Yah! Kim Tae Jin!” I yell, eyes wide. Tae Jin just giggles. 

“Looks like I’m right.” he says, still giggling. Young Jae is blushing even though we didn’t do such thing. 

“No, you are not. We were talking.” I say. I glance at Young Jae. “Why aren’t you saying anything?” 

“Why are you acting like it’s a bad thing?” he asks, smirking. I playfully hit his arm. 

“Yah!” I hide my face so he can’t see me blushing. He pretends that my hit hurt him and I turn to see him pouting at Tae Jin.

“Tae Jin-nie, your Noona hit me.” he pretends to cry and Tae Jin looks at him, then at me. He starts to squirm and Young Jae puts him down but he stays crouched, hands covering his face, pretending to cry. He watches through his fingers as Tae Jin walks over to me and lightly hits my leg. 

“Noona! Why did you hurt hyung? Now he’s upset!” I stare at him incredulously, not believing the situation in front of my eyes. Tae Jin looks at Young Jae and he starts to ‘cry’ again. He goes over to him and wraps his arms around his neck, patting his back. I see Young Jae have to hide his smile from him. “It’s okay hyung. I won’t let Noona hurt you.” 

He wipes his ‘tears’ out of his face and picks Tae Jin up again, hugging him close. “Thank you, Tae. You’ll look after me, right?” 

He glances in my direction and I glare at him. He starts to laugh as we start walking again. 

“So much for protecting me.” I mumble. He reaches over and puts an arm around me, pulling me closer. 

“Who’s gonna protect me from you then?” he says looking down at me, smiling. I glare up at him again and stick my tongue out. 

“Please don’t kiss in front of me.” Tae Jin says, still in Young Jae’s arms. We both look at him and start laughing. I push away from him and we continue walking. 

We’re close to our building when I feel like something is wrong. I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I glance around. 

“Noona.” I hear Tae Jin mumble. We stop walking and I look over to him and he has his face buried in Young Jae’s shoulder. I go over to that side and put a hand on his back. 

“What’s wrong?” I ask him. He mumbles something else so I lean closer, I see Young Jae lean his head closer too. 

“The bad guy is over there.” he whispers. I look up at Young Jae and we both scan the surroundings. Sure enough there he is, lurking behind a tree but still visible. He has a wicked smirk on his face and I step closer to Young Jae, instinctively. 

“Let’s just go.” he says in my ear, shifting Tae Jin to his other side and putting a hand around my shoulders. I nod and let him lead me away. “I’ll walk you up today, okay?” 

“You don’t have to.” I say, but honestly, I want him to. He just pats me gently on my back and nods. We walk into my building and I realise his hand is on my waist, having dropped slowly as we walked. We go into the elevator and the doors close. 

“What floor?” he asks. I realise I haven’t pressed the button for our floor yet so I reach out and press the number 4. Young Jae’s hand remains on my waist and Tae Jin is still hugging him tightly. We arrive on our floor and we step out. I lead the way to our apartment and Young Jae’s hand never leaves my waist even when I walk ahead of him a bit. We arrive and I open the door. 

“Tae, we’re here.” he says and Tae Jin finally looks up. He hugs Young Jae one more time before hopping down. 

“Thank you hyung.” he says before going inside. I glance at Young Jae and it’s a little bit awkward. 

“Go inside.” he says. I nod. He takes a few steps backwards but I quickly step forward and grab his hand. 

Young Jae’s POV

I take a couple of steps backwards, getting ready to leave when Hye Jin steps forward and grabs my hand effectively stopping me. I stare at her hand in mine before looking up at her. She’s looking at the floor. 

“Do you w-want to come in?” she says. 

“Is that okay?” she nods. Before I can say anything else she goes into the house, pulling me along with her. 

“Noona, can I watch Transfor- oh?” Tae Jin is standing in the hall way, looking at us. “Hyung is staying?” 

I nod. “Is that okay?” He nods and runs up to me, taking my hand from Hye Jin’s and pulling me into the living room. 

“Let’s watch Transformers together!” he says. I turn to look at Hye Jin and she’s just smiling. 

“Have a seat.” she says. She reaches her hand out to me. “Hand me your bag. I’ll put it in my room.” 

I hand it to her just as Tae Jin pulls me to sit down. I sit with Tae Jin in my lap while we watch Transformers and after a while Hye Jin comes out in more comfortable clothes. 

“Tae, do you want to change first?” she asks him and he shakes his head. She comes over to run her hands through his hair. “You want a drink?” 

I look up and realise she’s talking to me. “Oh. Umm, sure.”

She goes into the kitchen and returns with a glass in her hand. She places it on a coaster on the table in front of me and then sits down beside me. 

“Where are your parents?” I ask her. 

“Dad’s at work. A note on the fridge says Mum is out. She should be back soon.” she says, staring ahead at the TV. 

We watch Transformers in silence until I realise the weight in my lap has gotten significantly heavier. I look down and realise Tae Jin is asleep. I look at Hye Jin and nudge her lightly, trying not to wake Tae Jin up. She looks up at me and I glance down to her brother in my lap and she leans over to look. She chuckles quietly and goes to pick him up. I stop her. 

“I’ll take him, you lead the way.” I say quietly. She nods and stands up. I shift Tae Jin so that I can carry him easily without waking him up. Hye Jin leads the way to his room and opens the covers for him. I lay him down and tuck him in. We both leave the room and it’s gotten a lot more awkward now that we’re alone. 

“You must be hungry. Let me see if there’s anything I can whip up for you.” she says and goes into the kitchen. Unsure of what I’m meant to do, I follow her. 

“Jin-nie, you don’t have to. I should probably get going now anyways.” I say. 

“Jae…” I look up and Hye Jin’s looking at the floor. Drawing patterns with her toe. I go closer to her and lean down to make her look at me. 

“What’s up?” She looks up at me for a second before lunging forward and wrapping her arms around my neck, hugging me. I freeze for a second before straightening up and pulling her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her waist. 

“Thank you.” she whispers into my ear. I tighten my arms around her and I feel her turn her head so that she’s nuzzling my neck. “Thank you so much. For everything.” 

Her breath tickles my neck and it takes everything in me to not melt right there on the floor. I hear someone clear their throat behind me and we both freeze. Hye Jin slowly pulls away from me and glances at me before peeking over my shoulder to see who it is. 

“O-Omma.” she says. I scrunch up my face, knowing I’m in huge trouble now. Hye Jin slips out of my arms and stands beside me as I turn to face her Mum. I quickly bow and introduce myself. 

“Hello, Aunty. I’m Hye Jin’s classmate, Young Jae.” I say. She looks me up and down, smiling. 

“Hello, Young Jae. It’s nice to meet you. Are you and my daughter dating?” My eyes widen at her question. I look to Hye Jin for help and she quickly steps in. 

“Omma! It’s not like that, at least not yet. I mean-“ I look at her and then look at her Mum who has this knowing smirk on her face. Hye Jin shakes her head as if trying to get rid of a thought. “Young Jae was just about to leave.”

I nod. “It was nice meeting you, Aunty.” I say, bowing. I let Hye Jin push me towards her bedroom door where she runs in and grabs my bag. She hands it to me and we both run out the door. Hye Jin walks me to the elevator and we keep stealing glances at each other. When our eyes meet we both start laughing hysterically. The elevator arrives and I step in, Hye Jin following beside me. 

“Where are you going?” I ask her. 

“I’ll take you down to the lobby.” she says. Before I can argue she’s pressed the Ground button and the doors have closed. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think my Mum would be back that quickly.” 

“It’s fine.” I say to her. “I just hope she doesn’t have a bad first impression of me because of how she found us.” 

I look at Hye Jin and she’s blushing. 

“Speaking of which, when your mum asked if we were dating, you said not yet. What did you mean?” I say as the doors open. We walk out into the lobby and I wait patiently for Hye Jin to answer. I didn’t mean to be so straightforward but I knew that my curiosity would eat way at me until I found out. 

“Umm… I don’t know. It just came out.” she says, keeping her eyes on the floor. I step forward and place my finger under her chin, making her look up at me. 

“Transformers.” I say. She looks at me confused. 

“What?” she finally says. 

“That is our codeword.”

“Codeword?” she asks, blinking up at me. 

“I want you to be my girlfriend, Kim Hye Jin. But I don’t think you’re quite ready to get into another relationship, am I right?” she nods. “So, when you’re ready all you need to say is ‘Transformers’ and I will know that you’ve accepted me.” 

I don’t know how I came up with that idea or where the courage to ask her out came from but I did it. It was out in the open now and I can’t take it back. 

“Okay?” I ask, when I realise she’s just staring at me, gaping a little. She blinks a few times before nodding. “Cool, I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

I lean down and place a light kiss on her cheek before turning and walking towards the exit. I turn back once and wave to her before walking through the doors. 

Once I’m out in the air I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. I spread my arms and take a deep breath. I haven’t felt so alive in ages and she hasn’t even said yes to me yet. I smile up at the sky before running home.

A/N: Yay! I finally got around to replying to all of your comments :) Seriously, you guys are the best. 

Young Jae asked her out. Kekeke. I didn't even realise the scene turned out like that until I went back over it to check for typos. 

Well, now you all know the story of Hyun Woo. Creepy, stalked ex boyfriend. I was gonna get rid of him nice and easily but I think I'll keep him around for some more drama. ;) 

Much love to you all for taking time to read this nonsense :d

xoxo