The sound of Kyung’s footsteps softly creaked the ground as he walked towards us. I was still lying on the couch, so I couldn’t see his face, but the sudden change of facial expression from Taeil told me that Kyung did not look so happy. Taeil stepped back from me and put his hands up in the air.
“Okay,” Taeil said, “I let go of her.”
Kyung said my name, “Get up,”
I was too confused to able to move.
Kyung clucked his tongue and grabbed my arm, forcing me to stand. He walked me around the couch to be at his side. I glanced at him, seeing that he was doing the same too. “You touch her again and I’ll make sure that arm of yours is unable to move.”
Taeil scowled and lowered his arms, “Get out,”

Kyung pulled me and dragged me out of the house. We passed by the guys, getting looks from each and every one of them. As soon as we were far enough from the place, I jerked my arm away from Kyung and ran towards my bike. Kyung followed from behind; every step he took made me jump because I was expecting his presence to be nothing but a figure of my imagination. But as he stopped beside me, it made clear that he was definitely here and standing next to me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, picking up my bike.
“I should be the one asking you that,” he growled, “have you always been this stupid to walk towards a group of men like that?”
“I don’t need you to be telling me this,” I countered, “it’s not like you really care for me anyways.”
“What the hell were you doing there?”
I looked the other way and began to walk, ignoring him.
“You should be grateful that I came or else something could have happened,”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, “but I won’t be needing anymore of your help.”
“What,” Kyung exhaled, “do you plan to go back so Taeil could continue with whatever he was doing?”
“No,” I gritted, “I don’t need you to be saving or helping me at all because I’m not your responsibility.”
Kyung laughed to himself, “Your attitude has definitely not changed. Always doing whatever you want because you think nothing bad will result from it.”
“Leave me alone,” I stopped walking and lifted my right leg over the bike to get on. I rode away, resisting the urge to look back at him.
“Don’t want to make your boyfriend worry if something happen to you, right?” He shouted. “Better fix that bruise on your face!”
I touched the left side of my face with one hand and immediately felt a sting right on the bone of my cheek. I clenched my jaw and pedaled faster. Taeil was going to get it the next time I see him.

It didn’t take me long to get back home, and when I did, Jaehyo called me. Entering in, I answered my phone and greeted Jaehyo, “Hey,”
“How was your night?” He asked, “I hope I didn’t wake you up from sleep or anything,”
I shook my head, “No, you didn’t. Surprisingly, I am still up.”
“Really,” Jaehyo asked, “and what has kept you up so late?”
“I…” I debated to whether or not lie to him about what I had done after work. He would worry which I don’t want him to. I cleared my throat, “I decided to ride around town after work.”
“How was that?” He took the bite.
I shrugged, “The air was nice.”

We talked for 30 minutes; I decided to hang up because I was tired. We said our good nights and I walked to the bathroom. Looking at my reflection in the mirror I quickly noticed the bruise on my face. It had already turned a dark bluish color, which was bad because that would mean it would look horrible tomorrow. I frowned and walked out, turning off the bathroom lights. I walked into my small room and lied on the ground. Closing my eyes, I let my mind wonder off into thoughts. The first thing that came into mind was what Taeil had told me about Kyung. He knew your dad before he met you. Taeil could have been lying to me about that, but it could explain why Kyung had this pained look every time he saw that picture I had of me and my dad. I knew something was up, but I didn’t think Kyung would have known my dad. Heck, my dad never mentioned a word of Kyung… well, maybe he did and I wasn’t listening. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered my dad mentioned about teaching some kid math. He had told me that the kid was a math genius and, at the time, it had made me mad.
I sighed and opened my eyes. Then again, if it was Kyung that my dad had called a genius, why did he act so dumb? Unless it was just an act by him and he wanted to get close to me. I quickly thought of that day the teacher had asked the class if anyone had an answer for the problem on the wall and Kyung had raised his hand. He told me that the kid next to him gave him the answer, but the kid couldn’t have told him all of that within seconds. And Kyung wouldn’t have been able to show his work like that.

I frowned. I had been conned by Kyung. He knew exactly what to do with me.

-

“What’s that on your face?” Jaehyo asked, already placing his soft hand on the side of my face. His brows furrowed with worry, “Did you get hurt?”
I forced a laughed out and shook my head, “I ran into… the walls last night. Sleep-walking, you know.”
“You sleep walk?”
“J-Just sometimes,” I answered, “I guess last night was just the night.”
“You should be more careful,” he gently rubbed his thumb against the bruise, “or else I’m going to have to spend a night at your place.”
I nearly choked on air at his comment, “N-No need. It was just a one-time thing, you know.”
He laughed and pulled his hand away, “You worry me a lot these days,”
“Um, let’s just get back to working on the assignment.” I suggested.


After all my classes, I found Jaehyo waiting for me outside of the building. I smiled and walked towards him, feeling giddy and all sorts of happy. I wanted to feel the warmth of his hand around mine and hear his sweet voice call my name. Jaehyo extended a hand out for me to grab, which I do instantly, and he pulled me into his arms. His scent took over my senses within seconds and I immediately felt safe and sound.
"You seem happy to see me," he commented with a chuckle.
I nodded, "I didn't expect to see you here,"
"Well, I thought I would ride my bike with you home and maybe to work," he smiled and quickly added, "and maybe do something about that bruise on your face."
I smiled, "There's nothing you can do about it. It'll heal on its own."
"Yeah," he twisted his lips, "but I don't like it on you."

We walked to the rack, grabbed our bikes, and rode to my apartment. I knew that I couldn't keep up the lie about running into the wall because Jaehyo was smart. He would probably corner me and tell me to 'fess up on what happened. I just needed to know how I was going to tell him. Maybe when we get to my apartment. He doesn't deserved to be lied to since he was always honest with me. Coming to a stop, Jaehyo and I waited to cross the streets. I looked off to the side and immediately spotted a familiar face. As if my eyes were camera lenses, the face came into focus; the loud thud of my heart silently shook my ribcage. Just a few feet from me stood Kyung. He wasn't looking my way though, rather his head was turned to the side and he was talking to someone; I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. He was the focus that my eyes were looking for. Thoughts of action began to pop into my head: go talk to him; make him look at you; do something to make him notice you. I wanted his attention—I was greedy for it.
But my focus broke with the sound of Jaehyo's voice. I looked away from Kyung to Jaehyo.

"Come on; it's our turn to go across."
I nodded. Before pedalling after Jaehyo, I looked back at Kyung and was surprised to see him looking back at me with a smile. I quickly tore the connection and rode on. It took us less than 10 minutes to get to our destination. As we walked into my apartment, Jaehyo exhaled and walked into the middle of the room to sit down. He patted the empty space next to him, telling me to sit there. I obliged without hesitation.
He turned to face me, "Now, tell me how you ran into the walls again."
"Um," I gulped, not expecting him to ask me this. I debated with myself to feed him more lies to tell him the truth. "Well, to be honest, I didn't run into the walls." I began, "Last night, after work, I decided to ride around town and—stupid as I was—walked towards a group of guys. I knew someone within that group and had to ask him a question. I asked and he answered, and then things kind of heated up and he..." I stopped, unsure if I should add in that Kyung came to help me.
Jaehyo placed a hand on mine and said my name, "Don't be so ruthless. Do you know how dangerous that is?"
I nodded, "I... wasn't thinking right at the time. I'm sorry." I waited for some kind of lecture from him, but instead, he had pulled me into his arms.
"At least nothing worse happened," he whispered, "please promise me you won't do that ever again."
"I-I promise," I nodded; and decided to keep quiet about Kyung.
Jaehyo pulled back a little and frowned at the bruise on my face, "Well, even though we can't do much to help it heal faster, I think something might help." I furrowed my brows; before I could say anything, he leaned in to kiss my bruised cheek. I sat there for a couple of seconds before hearing him chuckle to my reaction.

"How long have we dated—and known each other—that you still make that face?"
"S-Sometimes it's unexpected," I answered. Jaehyo placed his forehead against mine and sighed. He doesn't say anything to me though; rather he stared into my eyes as if he was looking for something.

author's note; `sank you for reading, my dearies ~ lol
@kissme4life_99: you will see soon!... hopefully. lol mwahahaha! and thank YOU for reading ^^
@Yerlie303: lol ahh well.... /runsaway/ jk! and yeah, that somewhat made sense! lol (: