With Taemin, we kissed after three weeks of dating.

            With Jongin, we kissed before we even dated.

            That was the difference between them. Everything with Taemin had been slow, careful, innocent and pure.

            But with Kai, it was the exact opposite.

           Lunch rolled around the following Monday, and I was sitting with Jackson and the usual when Kai passes by. He and I met eyes, and I got a surge of what had happened just last Friday, the kiss that I was so unable to explain. Kai smirked and his arm grazed the back of my head as he brushed by.

            Jackson raised a brow. “What the hell was that?”

            “Huh?”

            “Don’t play dumb with me, young lady,” Jackson chastised, sticking a finger at me. “What’s with you two?”

            I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. “Um, well…he came to my house last Friday so we could watch Excalibur together for extra credit and we kinda…made out on my couch…”

            Jackson’s eyes widened. “HOLY BUTTCAKES.”

            “SHUSH!” I hissed.

            “Made out?!” Jackson shrieked while I struggled to quiet him down. “Like -grabbing, lip-biting, tongue ?!”

            “Um, well—“

            “How the hell did it happen?” Jackson cried. “Are you two even together?”

            “I don’t know I mean we were just talking and then all of a sudden it just…happens.” Just thinking about it made me blush like crazy.

            “Whoa,” Jackson replied. “That’s way different from Taemin.”

            “That’s what I was just thinking.”

            “Have you ever considered it, though? That maybe you only like Kai because he reminds you of Taemin?”

            I looked out towards the courtyard, where Kai had gone off to. “I have,” I replied, almost absentmindedly. “Many times.”

            “But he and Taemin actually seem really different from each other,” Jackson went on. “So maybe you actually do have real feelings for him.”

            Let’s hope so.

            “Oh and by the way,” Jackson added, “I like seeing you like this. All happy and smiley and stuff. It’s like you’ve gone back to your old ways. It’s great.”

            I laughed. “Really? I wasn’t that bad before, was I?”

            “You were pretty bad,” Jackson admitted. “Walking around like a zombie, soulless and lifeless. But now you actually seem like a happy, go-lucky teenage girl, which is the person you should be. Whatever Kai is doing for you, it’s working. And I’m glad it is.”

            Was Kai the reason for my regained brightness? Jackson seemed to think so. I kind of agreed with him.

            But someone like Kai was a double-edged sword, although I didn’t know that just yet. I didn’t think he was capable of hurting me, I didn’t believe that he ever would.

            When school ended, I was a lot happier than I should’ve been. Because since school was over, I could finally go and see Kai.

Where are you?

I got detention haha

WHY?

Mr. Kim got tired of telling me to take my beanie off :P so now he’s making me pull out the weeds in the school garden

I’ll be there

No hyemi you don’t have to

I want to. I’ll be there in 5 minutes.

            Before Kai could argue with me any further, I put my phone away and immediately headed to the school garden, which was all the way in the back of the school.

            When I found him he was sitting on the grass, pulling out weeds while mumbling an incoherent string of curse words.

            I grabbed a pair of gloves that I found lying by the shovels and took a seat next to him.

            “Hyemi,” Kai snapped. “You don’t need to help me with this.”

            “I have nothing else to do,” I said.

            “I don’t want you to hurt your back.”

            “Oh c’mon, I got this!”

            “Are you sure?”

            “Yes,” I grunted as I pulled out another weed.

            Kai sighed. He clearly didn’t want me to help him. “If I’d known you were going to do this, I wouldn’t have told you where I was,” he said.

            “I’m helping you,” I said. “Deal with it.”

            He stayed where he was, studying my face. I looked up and said, “Why are you staring at me? Hm?”

            “Why would you help me like this?” Kai asked.

            I shrugged. “Because it’s you.”

            Kai laughed, his deep voice rattling harmonically. “Would you help me if I were robbing a bank?”

            “I would,” I replied. “I would convince you to put the money back, thereby helping you and your criminal record.”

            “Smart.”

            “Yup. I just really care about you, I guess.” I was being so blunt about my feelings that it was sickening, but I truly wanted to let him know.

            “Wow,” Kai said with a chuckle. “What’s with you today? All sentimental and stuff.”

            I pulled out a weed and threw it to the ground. “Well, it’s been three days since our kiss and I’m going a bit insane.”

            Kai smirked, amused. “You missed me?”

            “I spent the entire day thinking about you and waiting for school to end so that I could see you, you butthole,” I growled.

            “We can kiss anytime you want,” Kai said, almost quietly. He gazed at me, his signature crooked grin on his face. “Like now.”

            He pulled me forward and before I knew it, he was kissing me. My entire body grew weak as I melted into him, my lips happily kissing him back. Kai had a steady hand pressed on my neck, a thumb right where my pulse was. It sent warm shivers down my spine, making the current within me even stronger.

           Yeah. Jackson was right about one thing. This was certainly some -grabbing, lip-biting, tongue type of kiss. Not that I was complaining. Kai had always seemed to bring out my inner devil, the dark side of me that I never knew existed. But it was a good type of dark, a dark that I liked. A lot.