No, Jong Kook won’t let her overthink everything and he, himself, doesn’t want to overthink. They have to finish their conversation now. He still doesn’t understand what she wants and what she’s thinking.

He catches up with her when they’re in his bedroom. He takes her arm. “Let’s talk now.”

“We shouldn’t.”

“I want to understand, Ji Hyo-yah,” He softens up. “Why would you care if I slept with her?”

“I don’t care!” Ji Hyo’s fury level rises again. “Go bang any girl you want, see if I care.”

“Judging from this conversation, I’d say very much.”

This time, Ji Hyo wipes her tears angrily and stares straight into his small eyes. “How would you even know? You don’t even know me anymore.”

She was right. They should’ve talked later when they’ve calmed down. Now, this conversation only leads to another huge argument. They’re both still guarding themselves with huge, tall walls.

“That’s right, I don’t. You’ve changed way before we split up. If you didn’t, this all wouldn’t have happened.” He’s accidentally saying his inner thoughts, which somehow makes him feel guilty.

Ji Hyo snorts. “So, this is my fault?” Yes, she has considered and admitted herself that this somewhat her fault, but hearing straight from his mouth pierces right through her heart.

“I told you that we didn’t have to come down here, didn’t I? But you insisted. Then you hated being here and wanted to come back. I said I would come back with you, but you didn’t let me and said you didn’t love me anymore. What was I supposed to do?” Jong Kook also lets out his frustration.

“You’re supposed to not believe me!”

Jong Kook’s sharp gaze turns into a soft one. “Mwo?”

Her tears are running freely. It doesn’t matter what she has said, she has run out of explanations, out of lies. Things can’t get worse than that and now her chest is about to explode. Gosh, he shouldn’t have prevented her from running out of this room.

She’s tired and she can’t control her actions anymore. She collapses down onto the floor and cries.

Jong Kook kneels down next to her, feeling dumbfounded by the sudden confession. “Ji Hyo-yah, mworahgo?”

Ji Hyo removes her hands from her face and looks at him. She knows she must look terrifying right now, but she can careless. “Did you really believe I had stopped loving you?”

His heart is torn. Should his heart be filled with warmness or break into pieces? Her words are more than he can ever expect, but the knowledge of what happened hurt him too much.

“Why did you tell me you had? I couldn’t read your mind.”

Ji Hyo shakes her head. “I don’t know, Oppa. I just wanted- I wanted to hurt you, so you would let me go, because I didn’t want to say no to you to move down here, but I also didn’t want to stay here.”

Hearing her answer only increases his frustration. “And that’s the choice you made?”

“No matter what happened, things would end badly.”

This time, Jong Kook shakes his head. “No, it wouldn’t. How would you know? I told you I would go back with you and the children.”

“And because of that, you would be mad at me!” Ji Hyo still defends her choice of action.

“Oh, so now you’re Mrs. Know-It-All.”

Ji Hyo shoots him a look and stands up again. “Like you would want to leave all this. You love this, Oppa, I know it. You love the money, the scenery, the people, the cars, the girls-”

“No, Song Ji Hyo!” Jong Kook cuts her sentence immediately. “Do you really think this is a way of living? Do you really think I’ve been happy these past few years?”

“Then why didn’t you come back?” She challenges him.

“Because you said you didn’t want me to!” Jong Kook is tired answering the same question over and over again. “God, how many times do I have to tell you this?”

“Then you shouldn’t believe me and just do what you think is good for you.” Ji Hyo answers in a whisper. She is drying her tears and taking a deep breath.

Jong Kook just chuckles. “Can’t you recall those last few months? How many arguments and yells we threw at each other? It was pretty hard to believe you still loved me after all of that. And when you said exactly those words, what did you expect me to do? Go after you and beg you to take me back?”

Ji Hyo just stands there, unable to speak. She knows it’s her fault, why is she still blaming all of this on him? She sighs, can’t figure out how to explain the way she felt back then, of how irrational she was. “I don’t know, Oppa. I didn’t know what I wanted back then and I don’t know what I want now. Yes, I’m too much. I needed some time to figure things out back then and yet, I still can’t figure them out.”

“But what you said before about how I shouldn’t have believed you-”

“No, Oppa. I get it. Everything has changed and I should accept it. Your world doesn’t revolve around me and I shouldn’t be mad because you have a new girlfriend now. I’m sorry. Good night.”

Before Ji Hyo can turn to leave, Jong Kook yanks her arm and makes her turn around facing him. “No, nothing has changed, Ji Hyo-yah.”

They keep looking at each other’s eyes for a second. A second Ji Hyo never knows can be filled with so many feelings. Guilt, rage, regret, frustration, love, lust, and raw ual desire.

Finally, Jong Kook leans in and finally kisses her.

His lips meet hers so quickly she doesn’t know exactly what is happening. Before she can begin to understand it, she is already taken over by that familiar feeling. Her knees go weak, her stomach is filled with mad butterflies, and she loses control of pretty much every inch of her body. Her lips caress his, gladly kissing him back. Her arms embrace him tightly around his waist and she welcomingly opens , craving for more.

Instinct.

Something she has repressed for so many years, and yet he manages to bring it up in her. It is the right thing to do… the only thing to do.

After all, there is no one out there who can ever make her feel the way he does. Who can deprive her out of reason like that? She knows things will not get easier this way, but she can’t help but get lost in the moment. She has to have him. It has been so long, she has almost forgotten what it’s like to have his arms around her, his lips press on her.

And now there he is, refreshing her memory. Opening cuts, but also heals so much. The pain suddenly vanishes. He can take it all away like that, so easily. Their tenderness, intimacy, and connection are still there.

There’s no stopping now.

Jong Kook can’t let go of her. He has promised himself if one day, he ever gets a real chance to be with her again, he will grab it with both hands and never let go. Even though this vow is alternated with another one, which tells him that he shouldn’t fall for Ji Hyo’s uncertainty again, he chooses to follow the first one for the time being. Because having her in his arms is beyond description and all he can think right now is having her again is worth any pain it might cause in the future.

So, to hell with everything else.

He finally takes his lips from hers to kiss her perfect neck and down to her collarbone. He presses her against the bedroom wall as she moans quietly. He smiles and continues to kiss her everywhere he can, even through the fabric of her clothes. Whenever they are together, he always wants to make sure she is enjoying herself, and it isn’t a hard thing to do. Not only he loves pleasing her, it makes him enjoy himself even more.

Sensing things are getting t