chapter 3

“This is actually kind of sad,” she commented, looking around at their surroundings. He glared at her in response, but didn’t say anything. She’d asked for it, after all.

They had ended up, in all places, on a bench on a large street in the neighborhood of Itaewon, watching the passersby with muted interest. The September evening was warm enough for many to be milling about on a weekend. Sunggyu watched as just a few feet away, a young mother  - no more than in her early 20s - pushed a stroller along with her husband beside her. What was their situation like? Had the child been an unplanned occurrence? Had they been forced into marriage? How did they treat each other at home, hidden from public view? He often wondered these things as he people-watched when he was alone.

But he wasn’t alone this time. He had her sitting beside him, except, for some reason, her presence felt empty, as if her soul could not entirely fill up the space of a whole person. If she had ever once been a whole person, she no longer was one.

“I’m surprised no one notices,” she said randomly. He followed her gaze to see a couple of teenage girls chatter excitedly as they exited a music store, with Infinite’s Reality album clearly in hand, and quickly disappear into the crowd.

“I’m not anymore,” he stated flatly. “People see what they want to see. They don’t expect two idols sitting on a bench.” The same words applied to their sham of a dating scandal, didn’t it? People saw them together and their only conclusion was that they had to be in a relationship. They didn’t consider any other possibilities. That was how humans worked.

She laughed softly but there was no joy in her voice; the hollowness echoed in his ears and for an instance his mind flashed back to the winter, when it was just him trapped inside the dorm with nothing but his own thoughts and the ticking noise of the clock to accompany him. “There are a lot of things people don’t expect us to do.” Like being human, she didn’t say, but he heard the message loud and clear anyway. “We should be friends.”

He turned to look at her in surprise and a small smile graced her features, obviously strained but somewhat genuine, nevertheless. At his silence, she only sighed and leaned back, taking off her sunglasses. She’d already washed off her makeup from her earlier schedules that day, he noticed, and without the eyeliner and fake eyelashes enlarging her eyes she seemed exhausted. She smiled again, this time a little wider, eyes crinkling as she continued, “I just have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other, don’t you?”

It sounded like a bad idea, seeing her again after what she had done to Howon, what she had done to himself, but a sensation of warmth bloomed inside his chest, as if his body was already in agreement before his mind could make a decision. “I guess,” he muttered.

“Good, that’s settled then,” she confirmed before flashing him a brilliant smile, one he’d never seen the likes of, one he was sure Howon had been lucky enough to know. “Take care of me, Sunggyu-oppa, alright?” she joked. But when he looked into her eyes, he caught a glimpse of something sincere, and in that moment he understood – she was asking him if she could trust him.

He cautiously put his hand over hers and this time, she didn’t pull away, although she avoided his stare and instead stared into the distance. In spite of everything, in that singular point in time, he really, truly felt happy. “Let’s get that drink then –“

“Oh my god, is that Jung Eunji?”

A college-aged girl stood nearby, fumbling with her phone, probably trying to take a picture as photo evidence of what she had spotted. “Look!” she screeched excitedly to her friend. “It’s them!”

They weren’t the only ones that heard – around them, the strangers walking by started to stop and stare. “Weren’t they in the news the other day?” one elderly lady said to another ahjumma.

How had they noticed, he wondered, frozen in surprise until he realized – Eunji had taken her sunglasses off and hadn’t put them back on. Her face, as an idol actress and after starring in that drama of hers, was more recognizable then his too to the general public.

Well, . His first time being caught, and it had to be with her. When they were supposed to be “dating” quietly. Why did these things always happen to him?

“Dammit,” she hissed, sliding her sunglasses back on. “We’re dead. We are so dead.”

The company was going to murder him if his manager didn’t get to him first. “Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and she grew rigid and stared back, but didn’t pull her hand away. Around them, more and more people were starting to circle around them, pointing and snapping pictures. “Come on,” he grunted, tugging her along as he stood up. As they took a few steps, the small crowd, having formed in mere seconds, surged to follow them, and he knew then that they were completely, utterly screwed. “Run!”

After fleeing and hiding from the crowd, and ducking in a few back alleys along the way, they somehow ended up at a nearby bar. The two chose a table for two in the very back – it turned out that Sunggyu was a frequent customer and was on good terms with the manager