“Are you serious?” Sarang asked in disbelief. “You washed it all off?”

Myungsoo nodded. “Yes…” He started rubbing the back of his neck as his head hung low. “…I’m sorry.”

Sarang let out a small sigh before asking, “When did you do it?”

He hesitated from answering, but was able to give a small reply. “At the café.”

“When you went to the bathroom?”

He nodded and saw her sighing again. “No wonder you couldn’t talk to Seolhyun after we came back from the café. I thought that it was just because she became a little… well, you know… but I knew that with the face cream, you could still somehow talk to her and I wonder why I wasn’t suspicious when I saw you stuttering,” she said to herself.

Myungsoo heard what she said and decided to apologize again. “Sorry…”

She looked up at him and saw how guilty and apologetic he looked. This made it hard for her to continue to be mad at him, so she forced out a small smile and tried to think of this situation in a more positive way. “There’s no need to be sorry,” she said. “Confident or not, I don’t think that we will progress that much with Seolhyun in the state that she’s in.”

Myungsoo nodded in understanding, but still felt sorry. Sarang already told him to avoid washing off the confidence-inducing face cream, and told him to be careful so that it won’t come off somehow. But he still washed it off anyway when they were at the café since he felt tired and needed to wake himself up by splashing cold water onto his face.

The problem was that he completely forgot that he was not supposed to wash his face, but when he realized his mistake it was already too late.  “Can we… use the item again?” he asked, hesitantly. “I promise that this time, I wouldn’t be careless and wash it off by accident again.”

Sarang sadly shook her head. “No,” she answered. “The number of items I have is limited. Once we use up all of the items that were given to me, we can’t use them again. And I only have one of this cream.”

Myungsoo’s shoulders fell from guilt and disappointment. He had just wasted an item that could have potentially helped Seolhyun fall for him, and not to mention that it was also something that they could only use once. He felt even guiltier towards Sarang because of the latter. Sarang saw him and knew right away what he was feeling.

“Myungsoo, don’t feel bad,” she said as she tried to comfort him.

“But… I just wasted an item,” he muttered, his head still hanging low.

“No, actually you didn’t.” Sarang took out her love planner and showed him Seolhyun’s love bar.

Myungsoo reluctantly looked at Seolhyun’s love bar, expecting for the percentage to stay the same or even go lower than it already was, but was surprised to see that the -21% from last time went up to a positive 5%.

“I-It went up?!” he asked with wide eyes. Sarang nodded in response. “H-how?”

Sarang took the love planner back and smiled at him. “Well, you did do a pretty good job with interacting with Seolhyun before she becam-“

“Don’t remind me of what she became,” he interrupted as he shivered. “I don’t want to remember how you changed my sweet, innocent, and kind Seolhyun into…” He shivered again. “…someone completely unrecognizable.”

Sarang shrugged. “Negative side effects,” she said. “Anyways, you really did do a good job with interacting with her, so now the percentage is finally in the positive! That’s a pretty amazing thing that you just accomplished.”

Myungsoo finally felt the negative feelings subside as he felt a little bit better. He then flashed her a proud smile. “Well, I did do a pretty good job after all, huh?”

Sarang nodded as she agreed. Seeing that he was in a better mood now, she thought that it was the best time to . “But truthfully…” She smiled playfully at him. “…you were pretty stupid to wash off the face cream. I have never seen any of my other ‘love clients’ do what you did when I clearly told them not to.”

Myungsoo frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. “Hey, I’m not stupid!” he defended himself. “For your information, I have studied in Seoul University for only three years before graduating at the age of 22.”

“Now currently I’m 23 years old and working at one of the biggest companies in the country. After knowing that, would you still call me stupid?” He had a proud look on his face, knowing that his achievements were something to boast about.

Sarang smiled sweetly before nodding. “Of course, no matter how amazing your academic achievements are, in my eyes you’re still stupid.” She then turned and walked towards the elevator that would take them to the floor of Myungsoo’s apartment.

Myungsoo stood there, quite stunned by what she said, and scoffed in disbelief. “Wow, and to think that I was nice enough to take her home when she was just a stray cat,” he said to himself. He then stared daggers at her before starting towards the elevator also, but was shocked to see the elevator doors slowly closing in front of him.

“W-Wait! Sarang!”

He picked up his pace and ran towards the elevator, only to see Sarang waving at him with a playful smile. “Mehrong~” she said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

Just as his hands were only an inch away from the elevator doors, it had already closed shut—leaving him standing there, completely shocked by what happened. “How could she not wait for me or at least open the elevator doors for me?!” he asked himself in disbelief.

He then pressed the button for the elevator before waiting grumpily. When the elevators came, he got in, pushed the button to the fourth floor—which was the highest floor in the building—and continued waiting as the elevator brought him up the building. When the elevator opened, he was expecting to see Sarang waiting for him, but there was no one around.

He stepped out and examined the hallway. “Where in the world did she go?” he asked himself.

This scene reminded him of when Sarang was in her cat form, before he ever found out about her being a C.A.I.L. That one fateful day when he couldn’t find Sarang anywhere only to find out that she was somehow standing right there, right next to his apartment door, seemingly waiting for him.

That action of hers caused for him to take the little kitten—turns out that she chose to be a kitten purposefully for the sake of humans to be more sympathetic towards her, since kittens are usually cuter than fully-grown cats—into his house, and also his life.

“She must be in my apartment,” he said to himself. “She probably knows my passcode since I take her out of the house all of the time, and I’m pretty sure that she paid attention when I entered it in.”

Thinking that he was probably right, he then went to his front door and typed in his passcode. There were a series of beeps signaling that he typed in the right set of numbers before the door unlocked. As he opened the door and went in, he could hear sounds coming from the living room.

“Jung Ah, I like you. Actually no, I love you,” a male voice said.

“But…” There was a pause. “…I’m sorry. I… don’t think that I feel the same way.”

“Why not?” Another pause. “Is it because of that Oh Jihoon?”

“Minhyun, I’m sorry but-“

“Is it because of that Oh Jihoon?” the male voice repeated, more firmly this time. There was then a moment of silence, probably because the male was waiting for the female to answer. “Fine,” the male finally said after waiting for a while. “I guess that I really don’t have a place in your heart.” There was a weak, but bitter laugh as a sad ballad was played in the background.

“No, why aren’t you picking Minhyun over Jihoon?” Sarang questioned with slight sadness in her voice. “He cares so much about you Jung Ah! Why can’t you see it?!”

Myungsoo walked into the living room to see Sarang sitting criss-crossed on the couch while eating popcorn. She was already changed out of her outside clothes and into a more comfortable looking t-shirt and shorts. “What are you doing?” he asked as he walked up to her.

She looked up at him. “Watching a drama,” she replied. She then focused her attention back onto the TV as the second male lead started bawling his eyes out, but he was doing it silently of course since it seemed like he was trying to hold it in.

Sarang sighed. “Jung Ah, why didn’t you pick Minhyun? Minhyun is way better! You’re choosing the wrong person, Jung Ah!”

Myungsoo watched her as she looked really into the show that she was watching. “Why are you yelling at her?” he asked. “She probably likes the other guy more, so of course she’ll choose the other guy.” He took a seat next to her on the couch as he grabbed a piece of popcorn from her large bowl before popping it into his mouth.

“But Minhyun is way cooler and nicer!” she said “He was so good to you, Jung Ah! Why didn’t you choose him?!” A huff of frustration escaped her lips.

“Minhyun-ah… why do you have to end up heartbroken?” She mumbled the last part before frowning and leaning back into the couch, depressed that the character she liked ended up getting rejected. “Myungsoo, I think that I have a bad case of second-lead syndrome,” she said as she looked up at him with a pout.

Myungsoo chuckled at her actions before knocking her lightly on the head. “Aigoo, just think about ways to get Seolhyun to like me instead of falling for some character in a drama,” he said as he brought another piece of popcorn into his mouth.

Sarang scrunched up her face and continued pouting. “I will! I’ll just… do it later. C.A.I.L’s need to relax too, you know?”

“Well you don’t look too relaxed right now…” he muttered as he munched on another piece of popcorn.

“I am,” she said in response. She then straightened up suddenly with eyes a lot brighter than it just was before. “But right after I find some other dramas that this actor was in. Maybe he’ll actually get the girl in one of them.”

She quickly took out her love planner and started to surf the internet for the actor, hoping that he was the first lead in another drama.

“Are you looking up the guy?” Myungsoo asked her.

“Yup…” she replied without looking up.

Myungsoo peeked at her phone out of curiosity, and saw her looking through the actor’s Wikipedia page. He then saw a picture of the actor smiling, looking like a total flower boy, and posing boyishly for some clothes brand.

*Wow, that actor is handsome. I wish that I was as handsome as him,* he thought as he popped another piece of popcorn into his mouth before realizing something. “Wait a minute…” He looked over at his kitchen. “…is this my last bag of popcorn?” He looked over at her again and saw that her expression changed.

“Um… uh… yes…” She slowly pushed her bowl of popcorn towards him. “…sorry,” she said sheepishly.

He saw her action and held back a laugh. He then decided to a little. “You should be sorry,” he said as he took the bowl and brought it onto his lap. “I fed you for free when you were a cat, and to thank me you’re eating my popcorn without permission?” He faked disbelief in his voice. “Not to mention that it’s my last one too.”

Sarang pouted. “Sorry,” she said. She then looked at him with curious eyes. “But are you going to cook dinner?”

Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re asking me that question after what I just said?” he asked back, truly in disbelief this time.

“But I’m hungry~” she whined. Her pout then turned into a frown. “Also, do you know how painful it was to watch you eat your delicious looking, home cooked meals? I got stuck eating cat food while you got to eat the more appealing, human food. It was complete torture to watch, you know?”

Myungsoo remembered the meals that he had with Sarang, when she was still a cat of course. He remembered how she always stared at him when he was eating and how she gave him those big—ironically—puppy dog eyes which he knew quite well was from her wanting to eat what he was eating.

But he never gave her some since he was afraid that she would get sick from eating human food, unless he was 100% sure that she would be fine if she ate it. Now that he thinks about it, she must have been quite frustrated when he wouldn’t let her eat human food when it was actually completely safe for her to do so.

“And I don’t have any money nor can my bag provide me with food or money,” she continued. “I couldn’t even go out and order anything.”

Suddenly, a low grumble could be heard. As soon as Myungsoo realized what it was and where it came from, he burst out laughing. “Are you really that hungry?” he asked as he continued to laugh.

“Yes,” she answered. She then grabbed onto his arm. “So can you please cook or something?”

Myungsoo stopped laughing and noticed how desperate she looked. “Wow, you must be really hungry,” he said. He then decided to some more. “But I’m too tired now. A whole day of working in the office has totally worn me out.” He laid back into the couch and found a comfortable position before turning his attention to the TV while holding back a laugh in the process.

Sarang glared at him. “Myungsoo, since when we’re you so irresponsible that you wouldn’t even feed your own cat?”

“Well, right now you’re not a cat anywa—“ He stopped midsentence when there was a puff of smoke. He then saw a very familiar Scottish fold cat sitting next to him. “Sarang, are you seriously that hungry?”

There was another puff of smoke and, well, you know the rest. “Yes,” she said while nodding frantically.

Myungsoo sighed and lazily walked over to the kitchen. Even though he was faking tiredness to before, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t lazy to actually cook for her or even himself—no matter how hungry he was. When he got to the refrigerator and opened it, he saw that it was nearly empty with the exception of a lonesome box of half-eaten kimchi that his mom had sent him a few days ago.

“Sarang…” He looked up from the refrigerator. “…I think we have a problem.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“We only have kimchi in the refrigerator,” he replied.

“Are you serious?” she asked. “There’s nothing else?”

Myungsoo shook his head before closing the door. “Nope.”

Sarang quickly thought of something. “Then let’s order food instead,” she suggested.

After hearing what she said, he looked at her like she was a genius. “Oh, that’s right! We can order Chinese food!” he said in realization. He then got his phone as he sat down next to her and got ready to order.

“Hello?” Myungsoo said when the restaurant picked up his phone call. “Yes, I would like to order…” He brought his phone away from his head and looked over at Sarang. “What do you want to eat?” he asked.

“I want jajangmyeon, jjampong, tangsuyuk, mandu—“

“Sarang,” Myungsoo interrupted, causing for her to stop reading off every single item on her food bucket list. “I’m on a budget.”

Her shoulders deflated; she was extremely disappointed that she couldn’t order everything that she wanted. “Then just jajangmyeon would be fine.”

Myungsoo nodded in understanding and brought his phone back to his ear. “I’ll have 2 jajangmyeon please.” He looked over at Sarang and saw her sulking silently to herself. He felt a little bad considering that she hasn’t eaten human food in a long time and decided to do something for her. “Also, I want 1 tangsuyuk.”

Sarang heard what he said and brightened up. It wasn’t much, but she felt happy that she could eat another dish including the jajangmyeon. After Myungsoo told his address, ask how much it cost, and etc, he finally hung up the phone call.

“Myungsoo…” Sarang clasped both of her hands onto one of his hands with a grateful look on her face. “Thank you so much for ordering something else for me even though you’re on a budget.”

Myungsoo blushed a little before pulling his hand away from her. “T-there’s no need to be thankful since I ordered it for myself,” he stuttered.

Her shoulders deflated once again. “Oh…” she said sadly. “But you’ll share with me, right?”

Myungsoo nodded since he was intending on sharing the dish with her anyway. He might have bought the dish for her, but he wasn’t planning on letting her eat it all by herself. It was his money and it only made sense that he also gets his share of the food—not to mention that he was also very hungry himself. After waiting for some time, the delivery man came with their food and left after placing it down for them.

“Woah…” Sarang said as she saw the food in front of her. “It looks beautiful.”

Myungsoo looked at her weirdly from what she said, and only got more weirded out when it looked like she was almost crying.

She then sat down on the floor—since they decided to eat in front of the TV—and ripped apart the plastic wrap that covered the top of the bowl. Myungsoo did the same with his and started mixing his noodles with the dark sauce that was also inside the bowl. He then took off the plastic wrap off of the tangsuyuk.

“So we will split this evenly,” he said as he divided the amount of tangsuyuk in half, half was on the side of the plate that was closest to him and the other half was on the side that was closest to Sarang.

Sarang looked up after swallowing her mouthful of noodles and saw that he really did split them evenly, but that didn’t mean that she thought that it was fair. “Wait a minute, why do you get all of the big pieces?” she asked when she saw that some of his pieces were twice as large as hers.

“Because I paid for it with my own money,” he answered. He then dug into his noodles before looking up at her with his mouth full. “If you don’t think that it’s fair then don’t eat.”

His words came out muffled, but it was not muffled enough for her to be unable to understand. “Fine,” she said grumpily. She had to remind herself that it was his money after all and that it was only fair to let him have the bigger pieces no matter how much she wanted to eat the whole thing by herself.

They then went back to eating and in record time they finished everything—well, except for that one piece of tangsuyuk on the plate. But it was still quite amazing that the bowls and plates, that used to have a massive amount of food on them, were quite clean now with barely anything left on it.

“Well, I’m stuffed,” Myungsoo said as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.

“Really? You’re full?” Sarang asked after she also wiped . She then eyed the one piece of tangsuyuk that he was supposed to eat, but was left untouched—and most importantly—uneaten. “Then can I have that piece?”

He saw her look at him with hopeful eyes and trailed his vision down to the last piece of tangsuyuk that they had agreed before was his. He then looked back at her before smiling, already thinking of a way to .

He knew how much she wanted the big pieces, but ended up having to eat the smaller ones because of him and he knew how much she wanted it. If he didn’t take up this opportunity to then it would be like missing an opportunity to get a promotion.

He then shrugged. “I don’t know. I think that I still have room in my stomach for one last piece…”

He picked up the piece with his chopsticks and brought it to his mouth. But before he ate it, he looked over at Sarang to see her reaction. She had the most devastated look on her face, like she had just lost something extremely valuable to her.

He thought that he was going to feel sorry after seeing her expression like that, but he didn’t. Actually, he was completely amused, amused that her expression looked like it was the end of the world when he was about to eat the very last piece of tangsuyuk.

“On second thought…” He brought the piece away from his mouth. “…maybe I’m too full to eat this.” He saw her expression immediately brighten up, and it almost made him chuckle. “Or maybe, I should just…” He started bringing the piece towards his mouth again which only made Sarang become annoyed now that she understood what he was doing.

“Yah, stop playing with me,” she said.

Myungsoo looked up at her innocently. “What do you mean? I’m not playing with you.”

“Yes you are,” she said with a frown.

“No I’m not.” He then smiled at her. “Here, you can have it.” He held the piece out in front of her with his chopsticks, waiting for her to take it.

She then looked at him suspiciously. “You’re not playing with me again, are you?”

Myungsoo looked surprised by what she said. “I wasn’t even playing with you in the first place,” he said. He then smiled at her sweetly. “Just take it. I’m really not playing.”

She stared at him for a moment, contemplating over whether or not she should take it. Then, when she made up her mind, she started moving her head towards the piece and opened . But just when was only a few inches away, Myungsoo immediately brought the chopsticks back and plopped the piece into his mouth before chewing happily.

Sarang looked at Myungsoo with still agape before scoffing. “Wow, I can’t believe that I got played by Kim Myungsoo.”

Myungsoo smiled one last time before packing up the dishes and bringing them outside where the delivery man will come back to get them. He then came back in and saw Sarang watching TV again. “You’re watching TV again?” he asked her.

Sarang nodded. “Watching TV is a good way to relax, especially after a tiring day of being a C.A.I.L.”

“Wait, are you saying that it was tiring to help me today?”

“Oh, so you understood what I meant,” she answered, a little too innocently.

He then frowned. “You’re mean,” he said.

She laughed before sticking her tongue out at him. “That’s what happens when you tease me with food.”

Myungsoo pretended like he was mad, even though a smile was threatening to form onto his face.

---

 

“So I get the bed, and you have to sleep on the floor,” Myungsoo said.

“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Sarang said back. “Why can’t I get the bed?”

“Because you’re my cat, and you have to obey me.”

“But I’m not your cat anymore.”

“But I even provided you with food for today and even bought you tangsuyuk!”

“But you said that you bought it for yourself,” she stated. “And not to mention that you ate all of the big pieces.”

Myungsoo sighed. “Then let’s play rock paper scissors to see who gets the bed,” he suggested.

Sarang nodded. “Alright then, but you won’t cheat, right?” She gave him a suspicious look indicating that she didn’t trust him.

“Of course not,” he said. He then put out his hand that was now in a fist. “Now let’s play. We still have work tomorrow.”

She also put out her hand, and they started playing to see who would be the fortunate one out of them to get the bed. “Rock, paper, scissors!” they said in unison. The result was Myungsoo putting out scissors while Sarang put out paper.

Myungsoo looked at his hand in surprise before jumping up and down in victory. “Yes! I won!” he shouted out happily. He then ran over to his bed before jumping onto it, ready to end the day by entering a deep slumber.

Sarang frowned before walking over to him. “Fine, I’ll just sleep on the floor,” she said, grumpily.

“There’s a spare mattress in the closet outside in the hallway. You can bring it over and sleep on that.”

“Okay,” she said as she headed out to get the mattress. After a few minutes, she came back hauling the mattress, and placed it at the only area that could fit it—which was on the floor right next to Myungsoo’s bed.

“Here’s a pillow and a blanket,” he said as he threw it over to her. “It’s a good thing that I have a spare blanket, but the only spare pillow I have is that one so don’t complain if it has my scent on it.”

“Isn’t this the one that you hug to sleep as my replacement whenever I don't feel like cuddling with you?”

He instantly blushed at what she said and looked at her with wide eyes. “W-What are you talking about? Since when did yo—“ He then stopped midsentence when he realized what she was talking about before clearing his throat out of embarrassment. “Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you were my cat.”

He could hear her quietly laughing at him, which only made him blush more. “I guess that I was your cat, but I can still be your cat if you want me to,” she said. “Do you want me to turn into a cat again and let you cuddle me until you fall asleep?”

His face and ears became a bright shade of red at her suggestion. “N-No! I-I’m good.”

She saw his reaction and started laughing at him. “I was just joking,” she said while still laughing.

Myungsoo bit his lips and turned off the lights. He knew that his face must be extremely red at the moment, so turning off the lights was a good idea since it let him be able to hide his red face easier. They then both went to bed with Myungsoo lying on his bed, still trying to cool down his face, while Sarang laid on the mattress on the floor.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something,” she said all of a sudden. She then sat up and looked at him. “I have to tell you about the time limit of this mission.”

Myungsoo’s ears perked up as his attention focused onto her. He then saw her holding up her necklace with the silver pendant that caught his eye when he first met her in her human form some time ago.

“This necklace right here tells me how much time we have left until the mission is over,” she said. She pushed up the lid of the pendant, revealing a clock that had all of the hands moving like a normal clock would. The only difference was that there were numbers above the number 6 on the clock.

“Ignore the clock thing. It’s pretty much just a normal clock and just tells me what time it is.” Myungsoo nodded in understanding. He then saw her pointing at the numbers that were above the number 6.

“This right here is what we should pay attention to,” she said. “This tells us how many days, hours, and seconds that we have left before we run out of time. This timer starts right when I reveal myself as a C.A.I.L and tell you that I will help you, and it gives us exactly 1 year to complete the mission. And since that happened yesterday and today is also pretty much already over, we have about 363 days left until we reach the time limit.”

Myungsoo nodded to show her that he understood. He then looked at her curiously. “But then how do we complete the mission, and also know that we have completed it?” he asked.

“We complete the mission when you and the person you love/want to be your lover—which is Seolhyun—officially becomes a couple with you and both of you have mutual feelings for each other,” she answered.

“So you both have to agree that you’re boyfriend and girlfriend and/or agree and admit that you both have feelings for each other, and the feelings also have to be mutual before the mission is finally considered complete. Also, we will know that it’s complete when my clock here stops working and freezes.”

Myungsoo continued nodding. He then looked at her curiously again. “But what if your clock pendant breaks or something?” he asked. “What happens then?”

“There’s no need to worry about that because this thing can never break no matter what you do with it,” she said. “I tried hitting it with a rock, dropping it over 100 meters above the ground, using a blowtorch on it, etc., and it still wouldn’t get damaged. There wasn’t even a single scratch on it.”

Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. He thought that it was weird that the pendant just wouldn’t break no matter what happened to it, but thought that it was even weirder that she actually did all of those things to the pendant. “But… why did you do that to the pendant?” he asked.

She shrugged in response. “Let’s just say that I was curious,” she replied. “But back on topic, this thing can never break so don’t worry about it.”

Myungsoo nodded. “So we have 363 days left to make Seolhyun officially my girlfriend or admit that she has feelings for me while I do the same before time runs out,” he summarized.

Sarang nodded before smiling. “Oh~, you listen well. Good job!” She gave him two thumbs up which made him smile a little out of amusement.

But then, another question appeared into his head. “But… what if we don’t succeed?” he asked.

Sarang’s smile immediately fell and her expression darkened. “Well… you won’t be impacted as much since the only thing that will happen to you is that you won’t have me to help you anymore, but for me…” She hesitated before continuing. “…I’ll disappear.”

Myungsoo widened his eyes in shock. “Wait, you’ll… die?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll just disappear,” she replied. “C.A.I.L’s aren’t considered as… alive. We just exist, with no knowledge as to how or why we are what we are.”

“So if you… disappear, you’ll just be removed from existence?”

Sarang nodded before smiling again. “Yeah, so that’s why I have to make the pretty Park Seolhyun fall in love with you, the fashion terrorist Kim Myungsoo,” she said in a joking manner to lighten the mood.

Myungsoo just nodded before lying back down in bed, thinking about the whole ‘completing the mission or she will disappear’ fact. “So… is that why you can’t quit being a C.A.I.L?” he asked. “Since in doing so, you’ll also… disappear?”

She nodded in response. “Yeah, I will disappear if I decided to quit,” she said. “I will also disappear if I fail the mission, so the only option is to complete the mission and help 1,000 people since that would be the only time when I can ever stop being a C.A.I.L and not disappear at the same time.”

She looked outside the window where the stars were twinkling beautifully in the night sky, and smiled at the sight of it. “I heard that after a C.A.I.L helps 1,000 people, they would get to become a star,” she said in a soft voice.

“But why did you choose me?” he asked. “Why did you choose me despite knowing the fact that I need a lot more help than normal people to just get one girl to like me? Why did you choose me when you know that if you don’t succeed then you’ll…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t know why, but this time the word ‘disappear’ just wouldn’t come out from his mouth.

Sarang gave him a gentle smile. “Because I know that you need my help, and I can’t decide to not help you just because it would be harder than normal,” she replied. “Besides, I see potential in you. I feel like with a little help, you’ll be able to win over almost any girl. If I didn’t see that potential, I would have just passed by and not choose you.”

“Why… do you say that?” he asked. “How do I have potential? Don’t you remember how low Seolhyun’s love bar was just yesterday? It was extremely low. It was even in the negative!”

She turned to look at him. “But today it’s not anymore,” she replied. “It’s in the positive now, and her interest in you increased so much after just one day. How can you not call that potential?”

Myungsoo was speechless. He didn’t know what to say to that, so he kept quiet and stared at the ceiling.

“And besides, you’re Kim Myungsoo. And since you’re Kim Myungsoo, you’ll be able to accomplish anything as long as you set your mind onto it,” she said.

Myungsoo looked over at her sadly. He didn’t understand why she had so much faith in him when he, himself, didn’t have that much faith in him to begin with, but because of that, he didn’t want her to face the consequence of failing the mission. He also didn’t want her faith in him to go to waste, so he decided that he would try his best to fulfill their mission and make Park Seolhyun fall in love with him.