"Do you think girls would like it if the female lead is strong or if the male lead  is strong?" Kiha asked one day when he and Jieun were at his house, having tea.

"I think both are nice," Jieun said casually.

Everything felt too surreal for Jieun. It wasn't normal for her to visit other people's house just for company. Or maybe it was, since she remembered visiting Jiyong often. She couldn't tell. She just liked visiting Kiha's house. Even though Jungkook wasn't here often, Kiha was always here. If Kiha wasn't here, then Chanyeol would be lingering somewhere in the house, doing the house chores.

However, according to Kiha, Chanyeol wouldn't be coming for the next two days due to some other part time jobs. Was this a good thing or not? Again, Jieun couldn't tell.

"Maybe, but it's either one or another. I think if both leads are strong, they wouldn't be compatible," Kiha said.

"Why?"

"There won't be a mutual understanding. They'd clash and fight for power, don't you think?" Kiha asked.

"I think both can be fine," Jieun said again. "A strong female lead that the girls can look up to, and a strong male lead for the girls to crush on."

"Mm…" Kiha pressed his lips together and glanced at Jieun. "Don't girls just like a good-looking cartoon character?"

Jieun scoffed. "A cartoon character? I don't think anyone would actually fall in love with a cartoon character."

"People can fall in love with a cartoon character, especially the ones that look really good."

"That's ridiculous."

"It's true! That's one of the reason why my webtoon is popular," Kiha said. "The male lead is so handsome and the girls are crushing on him. It's all in the comments."

Jieun laughed and smiled at him. "Why are you so worked up with this all of the sudden? You don't answer my questions regarding to your webtoon."

"Chanyeol passed me a message from my producer. If I develop either the female lead's or the male lead's character, then I might score myself a possibly drama or movie," Kiha explained.

Jieun widened her eyes. She dropped her jaws and stared at him.

"T-That's huge!" Jieun exclaimed. "What's it even about?"

"You mean you never read it? I'm a little hurt," Kiha said playfully.

"I don't have the time to pick up a comic book."

"It's all online."

"Now I know that you're trying to make me buy your books."

"Okay, okay. I'll let you in with the summary that's posted online." Kiha looked around, even though there was no reason for anyone suspicious to be lurking in the house. Then, he leaned closer to Jieun. "The setting takes place in the first year of high school. The female lead is reserved and quiet. She doesn't have much to stand out or anything, and she's not interested in getting along with people after what happened with her ex-boyfriend. In comes the male lead—"

"That character is based on Jungkook, isn't it?" Jieun asked.

"Correct!" Kiha smiled. "The male lead is popular, but he has a bad mouth. The two meet and eventually learn how to properly talk to people, and so on. I haven't figured out the ending yet, but they'll probably get together when the story ends."

"That sounds so cheesy," Jieun said.

"I'm sure it'll turn out better when it becomes into a drama," Kiha said.

 "You could rake in a lot of money from that," Jieun commented.

"I know, right?" Kiha said, grinning. "I don't know what I'll be doing with that money, but I'll be doing something with it."

"Jungkook would be proud," she said. She stopped and looked around. "By the way, is Jungkook here?"

As if on cue, the front door opened. Jieun and Kiha looked up and noticed Jungkook dragging his feet towards the kitchen. He had a look of exhaustion on his face and his cheek was quite red with finger prints on it. 

Jieun gave Kiha a sharp look. He raised his hands up to his shoulder.

"I didn't tell him to go on dates or anything," Kiha said. "Whatever he did, it's his fault."

"Jungkook, what happened?" Jieun asked, ignoring the uncle. She got up from her seat. and walked over to him. Extending her arm, she gently placed her hand on his reddened cheek. 

Jungkook flinched and slapped away her hand, surprising the adults. The young boy looked at her with complete shock, then looked at his hands, as if he couldn't believe that he had slapped away a girl's hand.

Kiha frowned at him. "Jungkook, I'm not sure what you went through today, but don't hurt a girl because you're angry."

"I—" Jungkook quickly closed his mouth. There was no need to defend himself. He already knew that he did wrong. He only lowered his head. "I'm sorry…"

Jieun broke into a small smile and let out a fake laugh. Jungkook suddenly felt miserable when he saw her cautious smile.

"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't be putting my hands on a student like that," Jieun said.

Jungkook frowned, but stopped himself. He only grimaced and clenched his fingers into a fist.

"Right," Jungkook muttered. "That's right… A teacher…"

"What'd you do today?" Kiha asked. "Got any interesting story?"

Jungkook looked at his uncle, then took a deep breath. Maybe talking to Uncle Kiha would help. After all, Uncle Kiha always knows how to bring up my mood.

"I went on three dates today. Each of them was two hours long," Jungkook said. "I picked them off the street."

Jieun widened her eyes. "Jungkook! That's dangerous!"

"Is that why you got slapped?" Kiha asked. "It looks like you got slapped more than three girls."

"One girl really knew how to slap," Jungkook mumbled. 

"You should put some ice on that," Jieun said.

"I got it," Kiha said. 

He got up from his seat and walked over to the cabinet to grab a plastic bag. Then, he filled it with ice and sealed the bag. He handed it to Jungkook, who took it and placed it against his cheek. He groaned in pain, but held the ice close to his face.

"So what's she doing here?" Jungkook asked, looking at Jieun.

"Visiting," Kiha said.

"Why?"

"It gets a bit lonely when you live alone," Kiha reasoned.

"When is she leaving?" Jungkook asked.

"Oh, come on, Jungkook. I know you don't hate her," Kiha said.

"No, it's fine. I should be going, anyway," Jieun said, glancing at the clock. She smiled at him. "Thank you for letting me stay over again."

"No problem. Come visit any time. I'd like to discuss about my webtoon with you again," Kiha said.

Jungkook stared at him. "You let her in with the details?"

"Yeah. I figured that there's no harm in that," Kiha said.

The younger boy gave him a look of betrayal. "I thought I was the only one outside of the business who would know…"

"Cheer up, Jungkook, okay? I didn't tell her everything," the uncle said. He patted Jungkook's shoulder. "I'll always give you the best details."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jungkook mumbled. He glared at Jieun. "I hope your happy."

"Now, Jungkook—"

Before Kiha had the chance to say anything else, Jungkook had already stormed into his room. Kiha sighed and placed his hands on his hips. Jieun bit her bottom lip.

"I'm sorry," she said. "This is all my fault."

"What? No, it isn't. The boy just needs to know how to grow up a little, that's all," Kiha said. "Don't blame yourself, alright?"

Jieun forced a smile. "Okay, I'll try. Goodbye, Kiha."

"Goodbye, Jieun," Kiha said. He sent her out and watched her leave until she disappeared behind the hills.

As Jieun walked down the hill, she stopped when she heard her phone ring. She glanced down, then gasped when she realized who the caller was. In a blink of an eye, she found her phone besides her ears.

"Hello?" the male asked.

"Jiho!" Jieun exclaimed. "How are you?"

"Good, good," Jiho said. "Since it's the weekend, there's no school today, right?"

"Yeah, no school," Jieun confirmed. "How are you guys? Where's Minah?"

"Minah can't be on the phone right now. She's doing a photo shoot with some guy from a popular boy group. Minah was going crazy about them a few minutes ago," Jiho said.

"That sounds like something she would do," Jieun said, smiling softly to herself.

"I'm thinking of turning her into an idol-actress," Jiho revealed. "I talked it over with my company, and they're a bit iffy with my proposal. Minah's looking forward to it."

"That's great! More exposure is wonderful."

"But Minah didn't do any lessons for acting. It was always singing and dancing. Plus, a lot of people don't like it when an idol becomes an actress."

"Why?"

"Because ninety-percent of the time, they ."

"Does Minah ?"

"She says she can act. I don't know if she understands that being two-faced is a lot different than acting."

"Oh, come on, Jiho. You don't mean that."

"I think she got more bipolar."

"You're being mean, Jiho."

"I'm serious. You know, she always complains about not having a boyfriend or a lover, so I told her that I'd set up a blind date for her. Then she started glaring at me and yelled at me before leaving. She's twisted.'

Jieun laughed. Her echo shot right up to the night sky, making the stars shine brighter than usual. She heard Jiho's soft chuckle on the other end of the phone, but his voice faded into a contented silence. Jieun, realizing that he wasn't laughing anymore, soft laughing, but smiled.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"I miss you," he breathed. An awkward pause filled a minute of their conversation. "W-Well, not in that way. I'm just saying that I miss you. I haven't seen you in months."

Although he stuttered and denied, it was clear that a part of him meant the words he spoke.

But Jieun decided to pretend along with him.

"Yeah, I haven't seen you guys for a while," she murmured. "It would be nice if you could visit…"

"We can't since Minah has a tight schedule, but you might be able to…"

"I can't. I have students depending on me," Jieun said. When she arrived at her house, she took out the keys from her pocket and entered. She closed the door behind her and let out a small sigh. When there was another odd pause, Jieun asked him the same question: "Is there something on your mind? What's wrong?"

"…Jieun, can I ask you why you decided to become a teacher?" Jiho asked her softly. "Even if you wanted to become a teacher, you could've worked around here…"

She only kept quiet. "No reason. I just wanted to see how I would do with this opportunity."

"But…" Jiho sighed. "Never mind."

"Are you lonely?" she asked him.

"A little," he replied honestly.

"You have Minah."

"I know, but…" Jiho didn't say anymore. "Well, it's getting late. The photo shoot is done. I'll call you again some time."

"Sounds great," Jieun said. "Goodbye, Jiho."

"Goodbye," Jiho said.

With that, Jieun hung up. She let out another sigh and walked to her room. She tossed herself on her bed, clutching her phone in her hand. She closed her eyes and kept quiet, listening to silence.

"You're so mean, Lee Jieun," she murmured, looking back at her phone. But not as mean as Kwon Jiyong, thankfully.