“But we were supposed to get into trouble,” I told Jongin. The roof was chilly that day, and he had apparently thought that it was a good idea to sit closer to the edge, right where we could nearly fall off. Supposedly, that had been why we were going to get into trouble. Because of the roof. Because it was restricted and apparently a safety hazard.

Jongin shrugged as he shoved in a huge mouthful of his lunch. For someone who barely opened his mouth to speak, he could sure fit a lot of food inside. “Don’t know,” he said around the mouthful. “I like it here. There’s not as many people bothering us like there would be in the cafeteria.”

“Bother you,” I corrected him. “Hey, didn’t Seo Yuhui give you a love letter last week?”

The tips of his ears got slightly red. “That was horrifying,” he muttered. “I’ve never even talked to her!”

“Right, I don’t see why anyone would write you one.”

It was his turn to look offended, and Jongin pointed at the side of the roof. “Another word and I’m pushing you off,” he threatened.

Chapter 38

Training was absolutely brutal. And I was pretty sure that if we went on any longer, I would puke.

Thankfully, Kai called for a break just when I was sure I was either going to pass out or die. I made my way to my water bottle, completely collapsed, and promptly downed the whole thing. By the time I had finished, I was still out of breath and the soreness had caught up because my whole body hurt.

It was, admittedly, more useful because there was much more to do, but quantity didn’t make up for my lack of quality, and I still practically failed most of it. Kai crouched down next to me as I lay down on the concrete floor, too tired and hot to care about the fact that the floor was probably dirty. It felt cold, and that was all that mattered.

“You still a lot,” he noted, “I’m embarrassed to be called your teacher.”

I would’ve kicked him in the shin if I could move. Fortunately for him, I was pretty much incapable of doing anything else. “You’re a teacher.”

“I was going to say that I was joking and you actually improved quite a lot since we started, but since you think I’m that bad, then I guess you are too.” He offered me a hand. “Get up. It’s almost six o’clock.”

“I feel like I’m going to die and it doesn’t matter what time it is.”

He tilted his head. “Not even if I made the hotpot reservation at six thirty?”

I genuinely hadn’t known I was capable of it, but I sat up without taking his hand and scrambled to my feet. “Six thirty? How long does it take to drive there?”

“Walk,” he corrected. “And it’s ten minutes from here, which should give both of us sufficient time to shower and change. The girls’ change room is down the corner to the left. I’ll meet you at the benches in twenty minutes.”

I hadn’t noticed before because I had been too absorbed in my self pitying and pain, but he was also sweating, which hadn’t seemed possible because I normally managed to train with Kai for hours and he would be bored and completely fine after, never breaking a sweat. Except apparently he had this time, which felt like an achievement in itself, and then I realized that the shirt he was wearing was extremely well-fit and Kai was toned which was probably why a fourth of my gym class had decided to watch when the boys had played football and why he could fight so easily and then I realized I was staring before ripping by eyes away.

“Okay,” I muttered, hoping my face wasn’t red. “Yeah, see you in twenty.”

He raised an eyebrow in my direction, obviously noticing something off about the reaction, but I was off and running (again, something I had thought I wasn’t able of doing two minutes before) towards where the change rooms were supposed to be.

A shower was definitely nice, but when I had come out, wrapped in the towel I had grabbed from the Byun manor, I realized that my change of clothing was one of the dresses from the closet. Of course, I’d chosen the one that didn’t seem as fancy and as revealing and I could wear without looking too bad, but it was still way too fancy for my taste. The only thing that was good about it compared to the rest was that it wasn’t as revealing and perhaps a bit more casual, but even then, it wasn’t the sort of thing I was used to wearing or would wear.

The design was summery, different color printed on white. It came a bit below my knees (or maybe it was supposed to be shorter and I was just… too short), and sleeves cut off at my shoulders before connecting again and flaring out. It was fashionable, maybe. And pretty. And definitely not me.

I managed to blowdry my hair until it was damp, and, finding nothing else to do, I hurried outside, all the while adjusting the dress and wishing that Ignis provided me with better clothing.

Kai was already waiting outside when I scrambled out, stuffing the rest of my belongings into my backpack. My legs still felt sore from training, which I supposed was inevitable at that point, but actually having food made up for the pain.

He didn’t stand up from the bench until I was next to him. I was only slightly taller than him despite the fact that he was sitting and I was standing, and I could almost picture the height difference as soon as he did stand up.

“I’m hungry,” I told him to break the silence.

That made him snort. “I think the best question to ask is when you’re not hungry.”

“And the answer’s obviously never. You owe me food after all that training.”

“But did you get any better?”

I contemplated the answer a little bit, having forgotten all about what I was wearing (given that Kai hadn’t commented on it; that made it seem slightly more normal). Then, decidedly, I shook my head. “We already established that you’re a terrible teacher. Lead the way, Kai.”

Like he knew it was a lost cause, he stood up. As predicted, I immediately felt much shorter standing next to him.

For a second, he stood still, and I glanced back up at him. “You’re actually wearing a dress for once,” Kai noted.

That made me remember. Tugging at the material of the skirt, I shifted my weight uncomfortably. “Yeah,” I replied. “There was nothing else in the closet, and I can’t wear what I wore here because… it’s all sweaty. I should’ve brought more clothing if I knew beforehand.”

He scanned me once. Then, nonchalantly, added, “It looks nice.”
 

In any other case, I might’ve been embarrassed, but Kai sounded so nonchalant about it that it made me laugh. “Was that a compliment?”

He glanced at me. “If you want it to be,” he replied, which definitely wasn’t nearly as satisfactory an answer as I wanted. It was, however, a very Kai thing to say. “Hurry up. Hot pot’s not going to wait for you and if we’re late, the reservation might be cancelled.”

***

By the time we had made it to the restaurant and sat down at the table Kai had reserved, it was true that the place was full of people. The chairs were comfortable (I ended up at the side with the couch), except I wasn’t actually wearing jeans and a hoodie or anything of the sort and I couldn’t sit criss crossed.

We ordered shortly. I watched, slightly amused, when he crossed out the spicy options on the list, then checked the six boxes he could to choose for what he wanted in hot pot. When I peeked at his sheet, the list of what he had chosen either fell under noodles or meat.

I pointed an accusatory finger at his sheet. “No vegetables? Seriously?”

He made a face at me. “I’m not paying them to give me vegetables. No thanks.”

“You need greens every meal.”

“That’s why you never managed to grow. You need protein. And watercress is gross. You could’ve gotten anything but watercress.”

I snatched his sheet from him. “Sliced beef, sliced lamb, ew, octopus? Octopus is disgusting.”

“Watercress,” he muttered under his breath. “You get it every time and you actually enjoy eating it.”

“Watercress tastes good, it’s healthy, and at least it’s better than octopus!”

Just then, the waitress dropped by. She stood next to us silently for a couple of seconds before Kai realized that she was there, and then she cleared his throat awkwardly. “Can I take your orders now?”

“Uh, yeah.” I handed her my paper, and Kai did the same. “Thanks.”

She was a couple of steps away when he turned to me again. “Watercress deserves to burn,” Kai half-whispered to me when the waitress finally disappeared, and I tried to stifle a laugh.

Somehow, we managed to lapse into small talk as we waited for the food, and even more surprisingly, it felt normal after a while, like it was nothing out of the ordinary. After all, it wasn’t as if we hadn’t gone out for food before. If I ignored the fact that we were currently in Ignis, we were technically dating and all of that, then it was a perfectly normal day.

Almost.

As it had the past couple of days, the topic shifted back to Eunhae and telling her mother. I had guessed