Words should only hold weight when honest intentions are behind them. Truthfulness, works both ways. To give it is to receive it.

I walked to Professor Lee Soo Man’s class with a heavy heart.

After my ‘emo’ moment at the parking lot, I was afraid to look Jae in the eye. He probably thought I was crazy. Surely he wanted nothing to do with me after that. I mean, I was a mental smashup with emotional hurricane to match.

I couldn’t imagine anyone – especially not the likes of Jae – to stand by me, listen to my sad story and wait for more of what I’d displayed.

I hoped he sat in the back of the class with the chimichangas like he used to. That was his scene. Not someone like me. He should be with some hot girl in one of his cars rather than wasting time with someone like me – a train wreck.

He would get nowhere with me. I’m sure he knew that.

On a sigh, I walked into my class. I tried my best not to look in the direction of the back of the room. I quickly sat down on my seat. So far I didn’t hear annoying giggles from females at the back and I didn’t feel the familiar pull when Jae was around.

That had me thinking that maybe he wasn’t going to attend the class. The thought made me relieved and ill at the same time.  It made me ill because I couldn’t help but wonder if I freaked him enough to stay away from me.

Oh, well, Dara, that’s what you get for being so emotionally unhinged. I guess it’s better this way.

“Hi there,” Jae said as he sat down beside me, sliding a Starbucks cup across the table.

Huh? Again?

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Signature chocolate but I had to put something extra in there – mini marshmallows,” he said as he pushed it closer to me when I only looked at the cup, he continued speaking, “I want you to be happy. You said this morning, you’re sad because Christmas reminded you of this and your family. So I bought another one again today, with extra love on it, so we can make new memory with it. The next time you’ll remember Christmas and Starbucks chocolate, you won’t be sad anymore.”

I frowned, my lips quivered a little.

“What…what kind of memory?”

His eyes glittered and he moved his chair closer. “The one with me. The one where I let you in.”

I smiled a little. “Okay…that’s, well, interesting.”

Jae smirked and he reached into my lap where my hands sat and he covered them both with one of his hands. Instant warmth spread through me like a wildfire and my breath came short. I was blushing bloody red.

“I know what you’re feeling, Dara,” he admitted, pushing his hand through both of mine, forcing me to hold his hand. “I lost my own mother years ago. I was a lot younger than you.”

He ran his thumb over the smooth skin on the top of my hand. The gesture was so gentle and comforting.

“What I’m trying to say is that I know it hurts a lot. It’s not something you’ll ever get used to, or get over with, but you will learn to live on,” he whispered as he looked at me with gentle eyes.

I breathed deeply. “I…I really don’t know what to say, Jae.”

“You don’t need to say anything, Dara. You just have to find a way to keep living,” he told me as he grinned.

“I think I am.”

He nodded. “Yes, you are.” He still didn’t release my hand, not that I was complaining or anything. “I want to be there for you but I want you to let me be there for you. Don’t fight me, okay?”

“I’ll try,” I promised.

“Drink that and enjoy it, Angel,” he said.

When I tried to remove my hand so I can hold my cup, he only released the other hand and held the other one tightly.

“Angel, you have two hands. Use the other one.”

I laughed. “Friends don’t hold hands like this, Jae.”

“We do, Angel.” There was no room for argument in his tone.

“You do know that people are going to ask questions,” I reminded him, noticing that some students were looking at us. I sipped my drink to avoid looking at them.

“Ooh, this is yummy!” I cooed.

He flashed me a y smirk that I was honestly beginning to love. “Do you really care what others think?”

My breath caught.

“I don’t know. Maybe, I guess.”

“Well you’d better learn not to care anymore about that, Angel,” he said as he held my hand tighter. “Because I’m not a normal guy and my friendship with you isn’t normal. We passed normal when you body-checked me in the parking lot just to meet me.”

I gasped. He tried to hide his smile.

“I did not do that on purpose, Jae!”

“Don lie to me. You planned it,” he teased.

“You’re conceited!”

“I know your game, Angel,” he quipped, still smirking.

“Very funny, Jae,” I said as I bumped his shoulder. “I’m not the one who has game to be feared.”

He raised his brow. “Are you saying I have game, Dara?”

“Uh, yes.” I nodded. “Have you seen you? You’re like the biggest flirt there is and the biggest man- I’ve ever met.”

He faked offense. “I’ll have you know my feelings are injured by that assumption.”

I rolled my eyes sarcastically. “You wouldn’t know true feelings if they hit you in the head, Jae. Don’t kid yourself.

“I have feelings for you,” he stated bluntly.

That shut me up looking like a fish losing air and looked at him with wide eyes.

He continued, “I care about you enough to bully my way into your life. You would have been much safer away from me but I bulldozed your life without any warning because I feel a lot for you.”

My heart fluttered non-stop. I was thinking of running to the school clinic for much needed oxygen that seemed to leave my lungs. I tried to calm my beating heart and convinced myself to think rationally.

“Jae…just so you know, you didn’t bully your way into my life. I’m pretty sure I was the one who did the bulldozing. If I remember correctly and accurately, I was the one who almost knocked you over when we first met. And I was also the one who pleaded for a job after you turned me down,” I said softly after a long silence.

He smiled. “You didn’t knock me over. If I remember correctly and accurately, I caught you right before you were about to kiss the dirt.”

I scrunched my nose with that memory.

“Oh my Hero! What would I do without you?” I teased.

He laughed. “If I wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be caught.”

“I wouldn’t have fallen,” I stated matter of fact before I realized how intimate my words sounded.

Thankfully, Professor Lee Soo Man came in and started speaking that Jae didn’t have to see how red my face was.

“I see that.”

“What?” I whispered.

“The blush in your skin, Angel,” he teased.

I frowned at him. I hated it that he noticed that. I tugged my hand from his. He didn’t let go.

“I need my hand and so do you, Jae,” I hissed softly.

“For what?” He looked dumbfounded and I gaped.

“I like to take notes,” I told him.

“Oh, okay,” he said as he released my hand, settling his hand on my thigh.

My heart skipped a beat.

I leaned into him. “That is definitely not friendly, Jae,” I warned. “People are really going to talk if you’re always touching me.”

“I already told you I don’t ing care about them.”

“And if I do?” I asked pointedly.

He chuckled under his breath, scooting his chair even closer to mine. “Get over it, Angel.”

“Move more, why don’t you…we’re practically a Siamese twin,” I hissed as I shook my head.

He was annoying me. Although I was almost certain it was a result of his determination to keep constant contact with me that did me in rather than the annoyance he provoked.

“Jae, you should take notes,” I reminded him.

“I’ll just copy yours,” he replied, his eyes straight ahead.

“Parasite,” I teased.

He rolled his eyes and I set to taking notes.

Jae kept his hand on my thigh throughout the entire class and for a while, I forgot his hand there. But once in a while he squeezed it gentle and I would feel tingling sensation everywhere in my body. I didn’t sit still the entire time, I kept crossing and uncrossing my legs until I was