Ji Hyo: So... when are we going to finish that kiss? 

Jong Kook bit his lip as he read Ji Hyo's text. When he had kissed her in her room a few hours ago, it was the heat of the moment and he was carried away with the idea that Ji Hyo had at all found him attractive. But they had gotten interrupted halfway by phone calls from the other members, calling them to dinner. And that dinner allowed his mind to wander and over-analyze everything again.

He got worried. He knew that he was deeply in love with Ji Hyo, but he worried that she wasn't. What if she was merely attracted to him? When they had kissed, things got rather heated and they nearly went all the way. What if a physical relationship was all Ji Hyo wanted to pursue?

Jong Kook didn't want to get his heart broken by Ji Hyo. The reason he had kept quiet about his feelings for years was because of his fear of rejection. Jong Kook wasn't sure he would be able to refuse if Ji Hyo were to offer him something like- being friends with benefits.

He thought about that for a bit. What if Ji Hyo wanted to be friends with benefits and he accepted? Could he slowly make her fall in love with him like friends with benefits did in certain movies? 

No. He couldn't take the risk. Jong Kook might get carried away and accidentally confess his love too soon, and Ji Hyo might get freaked out and he'd lose her forever. 

He looked at the text again. So what was he supposed to say? Ji Hyo was probably expecting him to sneak into her room and he was tempted to do so. But he had let his insecurities get to him. He was too afraid to follow his heart because he couldn't trust that Ji Hyo felt for him the way he felt for her. 

And so he didn't respond to Ji Hyo's text. The next day there was this distance between them. Jong Kook felt Ji Hyo cast looks at him and those looks held uncertainty. 

For the next month, there was no filming scheduled for Running Man, and the two were too busy with their schedules to really talk to each other.

When Ji Hyo had sent that text and not gotten a reply, she got a bit worried and thrown off. Did Jong Kook change his mind? Had he satisfied his curiosities after kissing Ji Hyo and decided he didn't want more? 

Or could it be as simple as Jong Kook not receiving her text? Ji Hyo decided to give Jong Kook the benefit of the doubt. The next day during filming however, Jong Kook didn't even so much as look at Ji Hyo. He was clearly avoiding her, not even sitting next to her during meal times. 

But during the month that they didn't see each other, Ji Hyo tried to think from Jong Kook's perspective. She knew he was the type to critically analyze situations, so could he have done the same thing with regards to what happened between them? 

Maybe he was afraid to pursue things between them. After all, if they got together and the media found out, it'd be the biggest scandal ever. And if things didn't go well and they broke up? It would hurt the show. Jong Kook was an honorable man and she knew he wouldn't want to hurt the careers of the members and staff behind the show.

But if that was so, why kiss her? And leave her yearning for more? Ji Hyo felt herself get ticked off. She had to confront him about this somehow. She wouldn't let him break her heart by dragging out this ignoring game they had going on. 

And so Ji Hyo decided that she would not let Jong Kook ignore her any longer when they were back to film Running Man again.

"Ji Hyo-yah! It's been so long!" Jae Suk greeted Ji Hyo happily and they hugged. It had been an entire month without filming after all, and as the cameras were on the members all started hugging each other and pretended to be over-emotional about seeing one another.

Ji Hyo used this as an excuse to pull Jong Kook into a hug. "Oppa, I missed you." Ji Hyo was using a voice of a higher pitch, and though it could not be considered aegyo, she knew she was trying to sway Jong Kook to talk to her by being a tad bit cuter than usual. 

By some miracle, it worked. "Oppa... Oppa missed you too." Jong Kook caressed Ji Hyo's head and she blushed. Finally he was talking to her. 

"Where's Kwang Soo?" Jae Suk asked. They ha