It was the smell of cigarette smoke that brought her back to consciousness. The inevitable headache made its appearance as she opened her eyes. It took a few seconds before she remembered where she was and what had just happened. Heat immediately shot to her cheeks at the memory of a man pressing against hers—kissing and touching her so thoroughly in her almost-drunken haze.

She dared not to move as she heard the flickering sound of a lighter. A waft of smoke came from the other side of the room and permeated the air-conditioned space. Looking at the digital clock on the end table, it read 4:05. She didn’t know how long she had been in his hotel room. Maybe it wasn’t that long… Her sense of time had been muddled ever since she had entered the club. What she was certain of was that they had made out so much her lips felt tender. She had been ready but strangely enough, she had remained fully clothed.

The only sign something happened was her damp underwear clinging to where he had touched her.

Her face scrunched in embarrassment and she still made no decision to move—inwardly screaming at the memory.

What was she going to do then? He was awake and she didn’t want to spend one more second agonizing about what just transpired between them. Especially that moment he had just made her come undone and then he stood up—an unreadable expression on his handsome face as he surveyed her whole form before locking himself in the bathroom.

What the hell was that about?

She must’ve dozed off a little because he was already smoking by the time she woke up. Questions started plaguing her mind: Why didn’t he continue? He said I’m not his type… Did he realize I’m not attractive? Am I too skinny? Too plain? Too inexperienced? Did he notice how much I was trembling?

Embarrassment, confusion, and self-blame convoluted that she squeezed her eyes shut to silence her thoughts.

“You’re awake.”

His deep voice suddenly spoke from behind her and her shoulders lightly jumped in surprise. Gathering all her courage, she sat up and smoothed her hair and skirt before looking at him.

He was sitting on a cream Vintage French chair by the glass windows and was still dressed as earlier—only he looked more unkempt. His perfectly styled hair had become messy… surely the product of her hands. The half-smoked stick was held between his right pointer and middle fingers as he looked at her with that same unreadable expression on his face she saw earlier.

There were no words coming out of despite the loud voice inside her head telling her what to do.

He put the cigarette between his lips, inhaled, and blew the smoke in the air in a way that reminded her of a classic Hollywood actor. His gaze lingered at her for much longer than necessary and she could feel the tips of her ears warm. The confusion about what had happened took over and she was about to ask him a question when he cut her to it.

“You can go.” The quiet yet commanding tone made her freeze—confounding her for what seemed like the longest few seconds.

He looked away and then continued smoking. It took a lot of energy to make her legs move and rush out of the room.

Stupid! Stupid!

Her mind was shouting at her as she half-ran towards the elevator—her mind foggy with alcohol and extreme embarrassment.

How could you even trust a complete stranger?! That’s what you get for being stupid!

Shaking her head, she refused to wallow in self-pity yet the inevitable tears sprang to the corners of her eyes—thinking how she could’ve avoided this humiliation altogether if only she had made the correct decision.

The elevator descended to the ground floor and the image of his impassive face was burned in her memory.

The smirk that crossed his lips irked her. Quickly wiping the trail of sweat that fell down her temple, she focused once more—moving around the ring like a wild tigress waiting to attack. Something about her expression made him grin and shake his head. He wasn’t taking her seriously and that made the anger bubbling inside her flare up and she attacked. Legs pushed so fast and in a split second, she jumped on his thigh with more force than necessary and used her other leg to kick him on the side. The force had him tumbling down as she bounced back to stand on the ground.

He rolled over quickly and they circled each other. The smug face he had was replaced with wonder. Still, she wanted to kick his for being intolerable. She moved first—attacking him with lightning fast legs on both his sides but he was also quick to block her. One second she got him perfectly and then he had dodged the next. His arm hooked below her right leg and he spun her around once before throwing her not so gently on the floor. The impact making her shout in both pain and frustration.

“Yah! Goo Junhoe!”

He laughed as he held out a hand to help her stand up. “You’re not yourself today.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She glared at him before taking his hand and pouting. “Aren’t you going to be late for your part-time job?”

“Nah. Someone else changed shifts with me so I already worked this morning.”

Her tall friend was casually toweling his sweat dry in front of her. Lisa was used to seeing half- men of all shapes and sizes. She had been in this mixed martial arts gym since she started college and most of the staff and clients were of the opposite . She used to teach beginner Muay Thai to kids but stopped when she started her paid internship a few weeks ago.

“You’ve been weird lately.” Junhoe stated and she only threw him his bottle of water which he caught with one hand. “I mean you’re always so focused but today, I took you down four times.”

She didn’t say anything and another pair entered the ring so the two of them quietly walked back to the locker rooms.

“Chaeyoung and I are going to dinner tonight. Would you like to come with us?” Junhoe had the tendency to look cocky and actually be annoying… but he was genuinely nice which made her warm up to him when they met a year ago.

“No, thanks. Third-wheeling isn’t fun.”

That made him laugh as he mussed her already messy ponytail.

“Go enjoy your date.” She lightly punched his arm with a smile before entering the women’s locker room.

The mention of her change in disposition made her feel uneasy.

It had been two months since she came back from her short vacation in Bangkok. During that time, she had busied herself with her studies and internship applications—desperately trying to erase the memory of that one night. She had been so careless and it was so humiliating to have been thrown out like that. Still, when she was left alone with her thoughts, vivid memories would haunt her without warning and she would find herself trashing her legs under the blanket and wanting to pull all her hair out in embarrassment. She wouldn’t have been this much of a loser if that man didn’t make her feel so unwanted.

A sharp huff escaped when she realized she had been unknowingly thinking about it again.

“Hungry?” A deep voice asked as soon as she stepped out of the gym.

There on the sidewalk was none other than the guy who had been courting her for a month now. His straight black hair looked shiny and the various tattoos covering his upper body was visible under the loose T-shirt he was wearing. She met Kwon Youngdon at the dance academy she attended for a few sessions last month and really enjoyed learning from him. Foolishly, she thought he was just being friendly when he asked for her number and then dinner after the last session. But then he confessed shortly after that… that he liked her and wanted to pursue her. Lisa hadn’t given him an answer since she didn’t know what kind of feelings she had for him. He was nice and quite attractive but there was this confusion bubbling inside her. He was 8 years older and seemed to have a lot of female friends… so why would he take particular interest in someone like her?

“You don’t have to do this.” She said as Dony walked towards her. It was her fault for telling him her training schedule. For the second time, he had waited for her so they could go to dinner and he could drive her home.

His lips pulled into a small frown. “Is that a rejection?”

That made her perk up—suddenly embarrassed at the reaction he had shown. It was truly not in her nature to reject someone outrightly. And it wasn’t like she want