Song Ji Hyo’s house

Mapo-gu, Seoul

11 pm

“Oh, My Hotteok…” Ji Hyo cuddled her dog. “Let me talk to Ahjumma. Her retriever shouldn’t be playing with little doggies like you.”

Ji Hoon laughed. “This is funny, babe. It’s eleven p.m. and we’re knocking at your most favorite neighbour because her dog bit your dog.”

“Whatever, babe.” Ji Hyo stuck out her tongue at the still laughing Ji Hoon.

Ji Hyo didn’t really like Kang Soo Lee, her fifty-something neighbour. First, that rich, unmarried woman always picked on Ji Hyo and she didn’t like celebrities (except Kim Jong Kook). Next, she’s a bit arrogant especially to the younger ones in that expensive and luxurious building that they live in. Miss Kang also has issues when she sees Ji Hoon at the hallway or even at the lobby late at night. And she always had a say on things… and about everything.

So, Ji Hyo basically dreaded that she had to talk to her that evening especially that she was about to confront her why her dog bit Hotteok.

Kang Soo Lee was already in her nightgown when she opened the door the third time Ji Hyo buzzed her doorbell.

“Dear, what brings you here at this time of the night?” Her voice was too annoying; Ji Hyo wanted to tell Hotteok to bite her.

“Mrs. Kang, I mean Miss Kang. I think your dog bit my Hotteok.” Ji Hyo told her. “I was told by the housekeeper this morning.”

“Mrs. Kim. That isn’t my dog.” She smirked. “That dog belongs to our new neighbour over there. My little Chocolate won’t bite a toy like your puppy.”

Miss Kang called her Mrs. Kim and she called Hotteok a toy.

Even Miss Kang hasn’t moved on yet.

She is still Mrs. Kim to her.

“Thank You.” At least she was polite enough to say thanks. She didn’t bother to talk to her even longer. No further discussions whatsoever.

Ji Hyo was pressing the doorbell of her new neighbour’s house. It was actually the one next to her very own house. It was a while since the last owner moved out, so she was glad that she finally had a new neighbour. Too bad their first meeting is not going to be pleasant. Ji Hyo will have to ask the dog’s owner to explain why his dog bit Hotteok.

“Hi.” The door opened.

That smile was so familiar.

That Kim Jong Kook smile.

“This has got to be a joke.” Ji Hyo wanted to scream. She can’t believe what she was seeing.

Her heart was pounding like crazy the moment her eyes met his. Not out of excitement though, and definitely not out of love. Ji Hyo was too mad, too enraged that she wanted to throw her injured dog. But that was too violent of her, so she handed Hotteok to Ji Hoon who suddenly stopped laughing at the sight of his rival.

Ji Hoon’s head (and most likely his heart) is rejecting the fact that Jong Kook is living next to Ji Hyo now. Jong Kook went to that extreme of occupying that home next to hers. He was that desperate; Ji Hoon finally realized that suddenly. And the software genius had to listen to his own heartbeat too- he’d gotten too nervous in a matter of seconds. He’s not just messing with somebody negligible. He is Kim Jong Koo. The Sparta. He is not just ‘somebody’ or ‘anybody’. Ji Hoon felt threatened.

Oh, Ji Hoonie…

You should’ve felt that way since the very beginning.

The moment Hotteok was in Ji Hoon’s possession, Ji Hyo went inside Jong Kook’s house and close the door, leaving her boyfriend and her dog speechless. Not that Hotteok can speak, but it didn’t bark. His woofs awhile ago were enough to wake neighbours up, but when Ji Hyo entered her ex-husband’s house and closed the door immediately after, the poor dog didn’t emit sound any longer.

Not even a soft aw-aw, or a gentle woof-woof.

None.

The poor doggie recognized Jong Kook…

Or maybe she felt the tension…

Or maybe he took pity on the guy…

To which guy… Jong Kook or Ji Hoon,

We’ll never know.

“What the…” Ji Hyo was almost out of breath. She still can’t believe it. She wanted to curse; wanted to throw things.

Bottom line: She thinks Jong Kook had gone beyond farther than the farthest.

“ it, Kim Jong Kook!” She shot at him. “ you!”

There.

She did curse.

And while she swore at him, she pushed him hard, making Jong Kook walk few steps backward.

“Haven’t I made myself clear?” Her voice was so angry, it was shaking. “WE’RE OVER. I DON’T HAVE FEELINGS FOR YOU ANYMORE. IT’S OVER KIM JONG KOOK. WE’RE OVER. How many times should I tell you? One hundred times more? Are you stupid? Why can’t you get it???”

Her words were on fire.

And so were her eyes, they were flaring.

But Jong Kook did not reply. He just looked at her with pitiful yet loving eyes. He was still begging.

“I can sue you for harassing me, for trespassing.” Ji Hyo warned him. “I am getting harassed. I don’t live a normal life anymore because of you.”

But wait, Miss Ji Hyo, some reminders for you, dear:

Number 1 – You are the one trespassing; you are inside his house, in case you are forgetting.

Number 2- Who lives a normal life if Kim Jong Kook is part of that life? Oh, C’mon. We all know better. Maybe you want this author-nim to be in your place instead. I’ll gladly welcome a Kim Jong Kook.

But Jong Kook still, never felt insulted nor he felt obliged to answer any of her outbursts.

“I hate you, Kim Jong Kook!” Ji Hyo had to bite her lip. “Now, I hate you. You made me hate you.”

“I love you.” He replied.

Ohhhh.

He replied I love you with her I hate you.

If this is how Kim Jong Kook replies to I-Hate-You’s, his fans will create banners and posters in Jong Kook’s concerts with “I HATE YOU KJK” rather than “I LOVE YOU KJK”.

And for sure, they wouldn’t be screaming ‘I love you’ anymore, would they?

Oh, Kim Jong Kook… I hate you.

I hate you so damn much.

“You useless freak!” Ji Hyo’s anger hasn’t subsided. “No wonder, they call you a ‘pabo’. You can’t understand a thing. No matter how I try to explain, you couldn’t…”

She stopped.

Oh well, she had to stop… because he stopped her.

She was talking too much, saying many hurtful words. It was painful already. So Jong Kook stopped her. He hugged her again, more tightly than he did before.

Yes, he did.

And she hugged him back.

Say what?

She hugged him back.

Ji Hyo hugged him back. She held onto him as tightly as he is holding onto her. It was like the hug that they used to share before: warm and possessive.

That Mr. and Mrs. Kim Jong Kook embrace.

They paused for a while to look at each other’s eyes and then they continued to do what they are doing. Jong Kook had very much longed for this moment and he held her with so much love and emotion that he almost shed tears. Ji Hyo held onto him too with the same intensity.

“I love… Ji Hoon.” She smiled evilly and turned her back on him and walked away. “That should make you understand.”

Jong Kook froze.

Ji Hyo was just pretending; it was all play.

Oh .

She was holding the doorknob when she spoke again. “It hurts isn’t it? To be played like that. Just quit it Jong Kook. Once and for all, just quit bugging me. That hug meant nothing now. I didn’t feel anything with that hug.”

She really didn’t feel anything.

“Oh, I felt something.” Ji Hyo took it back. “It was disgusting. I felt disgusted holding you…”

Singer/Variety Star Kim Jong Kook exudes that image that he’s an elite idol, definitely unique from all the rest in the KPOP world; nobody expected (and probably nobody will ever believe) he would be crazy enough to be going after one girl. He comes of as someone who women would run after, and not the other way around.

But desperate and pitiful that he might seem, he did things unimaginable. And the great and the very handsome and hot, Kim Jong Kook of course didn’t leave his villa in Hannam-dong and moved in Mapo-gu just to do nothing.

Things had become harder since he moved in next to Ji Hyo’s home. He had waged a war. Ji Hyo hates him now.

‘Love-turned-hate-turned-indifference’ is not a dead-end after all. It can still go back to hate. And that’s what happened to Jong Kook.

Song Ji Hyo hired more men to guard her 24/7. She was always with someone all day, all night. Jong Kook can’t get anywhere near her at all times. Even Kookie (his dog) can’t play with Hotteok (by the way, Jong Kook never got to explain that it wasn’t Kookie who bit Hotteok the first time. It was really Chocolate, Miss Kang’s dog).

But Jong Kook, despite being frustrated and lonely, was surviving each day by the mere glimpse of Ji Hyo going to and leaving her house. And he had memorized her routine:

What time she’d pick her newspaper up from her door.

What time she will go for a morning jog.

What days of the week she’d take her breakfast outside her home.

What time she goes to the gym on the 30th floor.

What days of the week she swims in the indoor pool.

What time her yoga classes are.

What time she walks Hotteok around the vicinity of their place.

Jong Kook had it all covered. But he’d watch her from afar. Because there were security with her all the time. There were even some at her door now.

The poor (but hot) ex-husband had to be contented watching and loving her from a far. He smiles by himself when he sees her smile. He laughs alone when she laughs. It gets to a point where he could even smile when he sees her having a good time with Ji Hoon now.

Her happiness is his happiness.

Her eye-smile makes his eyes smile.

Damn.

That’s love.

But Jong Kook is a stubborn guy. If he can’t get anywhere near her, at least he can, and he will do something for her. When Ji Hyo finally thought she was free from him, Jong Kook had connived with one of his security.

Wow, that’s smart.

He’s indeed a smart Sparta Kooks.

She would always get strawberry milk, her favorite drink, everyday from him. That was the first. It was right at her doorstep when she gets her morning paper. When Ji Hyo would ask the guard, she would get an “I don’t know where that came from” as an answer. Every freaking day, she would get that drink. Ji Hyo knew of course. She knew it was from her neighbour Kim Jong Kook. So, that strawberry milk always ends up in the trash bin. After a few weeks, the guards or the staff was the ones drinking it. Then it was her manager. After a while, some of her co-stars were alternately taking turns on who gets to drink that ‘strawberry milk’ that Ji Hyo never seem to run out of supply of.

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