Myungsoo’s POV

I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing, but before I can register anything and get it, someone else gets it for me. I sit up and bed and rub my eyes. Once I am able to fully see, I see a girl on my phone. Now, either one or two things could possibly come out of this situation. One is that this girl will be angry at the phone call; the second is that the girl on the other line will get angry. A third possibility could be that Sungyeol is on the line, but I don’t think that that happened.

“Ya!” I yell to get the girl’s attention. She looks at me innocently as she says something on the phone and hangs it up. “What are you doing with my phone?”

“Just getting rid of unwanted people, oppa,” she states.

“What are you talking about?” I ask her as I grab the phone out of her hand.

“There was a girl on the other line, I told her that you weren’t available right now, that’s all.”

I go through my phone and look at the recent calls. It’s an unknown phone number. Well that doesn’t help me at all. I look at the clock and it reads three thirty. Three thirty… three thirty… Something was going on at three thirty…

It takes a moment before it finally hits me, the tutoring. The unknown number is probably Allie’s. I decide to call it back, but she angrily picks up. “If you’re not serious about this tutoring thing, then why didn’t you just say so?”

“I slept in,” I tell her.

“You slept with another girl you mean to say,” she says.

“I take offense to that,” I say pretending to be hurt.

“Well, you should.”

“Give me five minutes, I’ll be over there, I promise.”

“Oppa, are you leaving me to go to another girl?” the girl in my house asks. Once again, I don’t know her name. I just decide to ignore her as a whole.

I hear Allie sigh on the other line; she’s probably thinking about it. “Sure,” she finally says. “Five minutes, nothing more.”

“Good,” I say quickly hanging up the phone and dashing to my bathroom. I have to wash up, get dressed, and kick this girl out of my house in five minutes. The washing up and getting dressed are no problem; it’s the method of getting this girl out of my house as quickly as possible. “Hey,” I say grabbing her attention as I come out of the shower and pulling my shirt over my head. “I have to go somewhere, let yourself out.”

“I thought you were going to spend the whole day with me, oppa,” she says.

“No can do, made other plans,” I comment as I grab my phone and my wallet and shove them into my pants and grab my backpack. I quickly leave out the door and go down to my car to drive to Allie’s house.

Allie’s POV

Does that Myungsoo guy take me for a fool? What’s wrong with him? Does he think that I would’ve just forgotten about our tutoring session? I tried to, believe me, I tried, but I think he really does need the help. If he doesn’t show up here in five minutes, our deal is off.

I glance from where I’m sitting in the kitchen to the living room and see Cecelia happily coloring in some coloring books. That should keep her occupied for a good while; it’s her second most favorite thing besides the park, or maybe the third since she likes watching television more.

Actually, why do I care if that Myungsoo guy passes or fails? It’s his fault if he decides not to show up at our scheduled time and it’s his fault for not showing up in the first place and deciding to spend his time with a girl. A hard knock at the door kicks me out of my trance. It must be Myungsoo. I look at the clock and see that there was less than a minute left, probably. He made it just in time. Should I be happy or disappointed? Strangely, a smile creeps up on my face as I get up to open the door.

“Sorry I’m late,” Myungsoo says panting. “I overslept. I promise it won’t ever happen again.”

“It better not,” I say. “Were you sleeping or were you hanging out with some girl?” I ask as I let him inside the house.

“Sleeping, I swear,” Myungsoo says taking a seat at the kitchen table. “That girl, I have no idea who she is. I just woke up and there she was answering my phone. It wasn’t one of my maids.”

Myungsoo begins going on a long rant about how it wasn’t his fault that there was a girl in his room, but a guy with his type of personality was probably out clubbing last night since it was Friday and picked her up at the club. He just can’t remember that. So he has maids, huh. That probably means that he’s a rich boy. Great, horrible personalityand he’s a rich boy. This guy definitely isn’t my type.

“Okay, okay,” I say cutting him off. I can’t stand to hear him attempt to make a lame excuse. “You don’t need to tell me your whole personal story.”

“Ah, true,” he says scratching the back of his head. Is that an embarrassed look on his face I see? And Myungsoo throws me another curve ball about his true personality, or is this a fake? It makes me frustrated that I can’t tell who he really is.

“Whatever,” I say disregarding it. I sit down at the table as he pulls out his math textbook and a notebook, at least he’s come prepared.

I open my math textbook that they found at the café that day. “Well, shall we start at the beginning?”

“I guess so,” Myungsoo says staring at the book. “I don’t really remember anything, so I guess that that would be a good place to start.”

I start teaching him about limits, one of the most basic things in calculus. It takes him a little bit, but he finally picks up on it and understands it a little bit. I think we’ll have to review it again for his exams. Myungsoo is doing better than I thought, though. I can say that I’m quite surprised.

Soon, time starts to creep up on us and it’s already five thirty. “Unni,” Cecelia says coming into the kitchen where I’m teaching Myungsoo, “I’m hungry. Can you make me some food?”

Myungsoo looks at his watch. “It’s already five thirty. Time sure does go by fast.” He looks at me and then looks at Cecelia. “Would you like oppa to take you out to eat? Only if unnie would accept it.” He looks at me giving me a particular look. I think he knows that if Cecelia asks me I’ll agree for sure.

“Unni, can we go out to eat with this nice oppa?” Cecelia asks looking at me. I see Myungsoo smile to himself and he sees me thinking about it.

“Please let me,” Myungsoo says. “It can be a repayment for forgetting about our tutoring session today.”

I look at Myungsoo and back at Cecelia’s face. I guess there’s no way I can object, right? “Fine,” I finally say, “sure, we can go out. What should we wear?” I ask looking at Myungsoo.

“It doesn’t matter, where do you want to go?” he asks giving me a suggestive look. I’m not going to fall for that, I just can’t.

“Well it doesn’t matter…should we ask Cecelia?”

“Well young lady,” Myungsoo says looking at her. “Where would you like to go?”

“Let’s go with oppa’s favorite place,” she says happily. “I’ll go get dressed in my dress.” Cecelia takes off for her room and I quickly follow behind her. “I guess we’ll go to your favorite place. Give us a moment to get dressed.”

“No problem,” Myungsoo says as he starts to pack up his textbooks. I follow Cecelia into her room to help her get dressed in her favorite dress while I think about what I should wear.

Myungsoo’s POV

I walk around the house while Allie and Cecelia go get dressed. I see family portraits everywhere and I can’t help but wonder where her parents are. Did they abandon her, too? Sure, my parents didn’t really abandon me; they just never really cared for me. If they did care, they never showed it.

A certain picture captures my attention, though. It looks like it was taken awhile ago. I bet that the young baby in the picture is Cecelia because there is another older girl there that looks like she’s about thirteen or fourteen. Their parents are in there and they look like a happy family, so I don’t think that her situation s the same as mine. What happened to them?

“How about this?” I hear Allie say. I immediately turn around and see her and Cecelia in matching white dresses. Their dresses don’t really match with my dark jeans and plaid shirt, but I have a white dress shirt in the car and a jacket that I can change into just in case an opportunity like this ever came up. I can’t take my eyes off of Allie, though. She looks really good.

“How do you like it, oppa?” Cecelia asks coming up to me.

“Cecelia is very beautiful,” I say leaning down to her level. I look at her as she smiles and I can’t help but smile back at her. “Shall we get going?” I ask looking at Allie. She simply nods her head and we exit.

“How are we getting there?” Cecelia asks.

“Well you are very curious, that’s good. I have my own driver. He’s going to drive us to the place.”

“You have your own driver?” she asks as her eyes widen. I simply nod. “Oppa, are you rich?” I nod my head again.

“So if there’s anything Cecelia wants, don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Don’t spoil her too much,” Allie warns.

“Don’t worry,” I say fully standing up.

I lead them to the car, or it could be classified as a limo, waiting out front. While they were getting dressed, I called them and told the driver to come. Since we’re going to my favorite restaurant, we should show up in style. I see Allie and Cecelia’s shocked faces at the car.

“Yes it’s mine,” I clarify for them. “Let’s go.” I open up the back seat and let the two of them climb in first before me. I at least know the basic proper manners.

“Isn’t this too fancy?” Allie asks looking around.

“Not for the type of place we’re going to,” I tell them. “Okay, now close your eyes, I just have to change my shirt really quickly.” Without a question, the two do as they’re told and I change my shirt as quickly as possible. “Okay, you can open your eyes now,” I say as I fix my jacket.

Somehow being with Allie seems different than being with any other girl. Normally, by this point, I would be making out with her, not just sitting here awkwardly. I find the silence totally awkward. I’m not sure what to do or what to talk about. Nothing seems to be popping into my mind at the current moment. It just seems completely awkward; this is a new feeling for me.

Finally, after what seems like forever, the three of us arrive at the restaurant. It’s actually a restaurant that one of my friend’s parents owns, Woohyun, so I visit here frequently. Many of the workers here already know who I am, this is actually the first time that I’m ever bringing a girl to this place, but Allie doesn’t need to know that.

“Let’s go,” I say opening the door and grabbing Cecelia’s hand as she comes out.

“It’s so big,” Cecelia remarks.

“Let’s go inside,” I say beckoning to Allie and Cecelia. Allie must be in shock, too, because she’s not saying anything.

As we walk through the restaurant, plenty of people stare. Most of the customers are regulars to the restaurant so they know me well. I guess they’re pretty shocked about me bringing a girl here, especially a girl and a child. There are probably a thousand thoughts running through their head. The majority probably think that I got married and have a child.

The waitress comes by the table, she also knows who I am, and doesn’t even ask for the order once she sees that I’m there, but she asks what Allie and Cecelia want.

“Do you just want me to order for you guys?” I ask them.

“It doesn’t matter,” Allie says. “I guess you should since you know this place best.”

I order for them. Somehow dinner doesn’t seem like it’ll be too bad.

Allie’s POV

The restaurant doesn’t look bad, it looks very expensive, though, but I guess it’s his favorite restaurant. I noticed all of the people talking when we were coming in, though. Some of them thought that Myungsoo and I were married, like that will ever happen, and that Cecelia is our child. I don’t feel like correcting them anymore, well at least correcting them in a place like this.

I let Myungsoo order whatever food he wants us to eat because he knows this place best, I’m not entirely sure what I would like here. I guess I’ll just have to trust him this once on food.

“Hey, Myungsoo,” a guy says coming up to our table; he’s wearing a chef’s uniform. I watch Myungsoo get up and greet him. “And who do we have here?” he asks looking at Cecelia and me.

“This is my friend, Allie and her little sister Cecelia,” Myungsoo says introducing us. Since when did I become his friend? That word sounds strange coming out of Myungsoo’s mouth. I don’t think I’m anywhere close to his friend. “Hey, this is Woohyun, his parents own this restaurant. When did you come back?”

“About a month ago, but I was busy for that month twenty-four seven,” he exclaims. I take a good look at Woohyun and he looks at me. “Myungsoo, it’s rare for you to have friends,” Woohyun says lightly hitting him on the arm.

“You don’t need to say that again,” I hear Myungsoo mutter.

“Are you sure that she’s just your friend?” Woohyun looks back and forth from Myungsoo to me. Why does everyone keep saying that? I get it that Myungsoo probably toys around with a lot of girls, but I’m not going to become another one.

“Yes, she’s just my friend,” Myungsoo insists. “So what are you doing here?”

“Working,” he says gesturing to his chef’s outfit. “I’m now one of the head chef’s here. I finally convinced my parents to let me come back after they made me go to cooking school in Europe. Ah, it’s so good to be back home.”

“We have to catch up,” Myungsoo says.

“We surely do,” Woohyun says. “I have to go back now, but I heard you were here and just thought that I’d stop by. Nice meeting you Allie and Cecelia.” We both slightly bow to each other as Woohyun leaves.

“Who would’ve ever thought that you have friends,” I say poking fun at him.

“Sungyeol is my friend.”

“True, I forgot,” I admit, “it just doesn’t seem like you would have more than one friend, though.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” he says very dryly.

Our food comes and we eat it, thankfully it’s something that Cecelia’s up to trying and it turns out that she loves it. Throughout the course of the dinner, we make a little small talk so it’s not too awkward. Myungsoo also asks Cecelia a lot of questions about what she likes to do and about things that she’s wished to do before. All in all, I think that it’s a very good repayment for being late, I just hope he’s never late again.

“Are you okay?” Myungsoo asks me as we’re on our way back to the house.

“Acting concerned all of a sudden,” I remark while I look at Cecelia who fell asleep quickly after entering the car.

“Hey, I’ve always been kind,” he says. “It’s just…”

“It’s just what?” I ask.

“Nothing,” he quickly says. “So are you alright? You don’t look well. Did you not like the place?”

“The place was fine,” I say. “I don’t know, there’s just something gnawing at me. Thanks for the dinner, though.”

“No problem,” he says. “It was nothing.” The atmosphere in the car turns awkward. “Are you working tomorrow?” he asks.

“Yeah, why?” I ask. I think it’s weird that he’s asking me my work schedule.

“Oh, just wondering,” he says dismissing it once again. He keeps asking all of these questions but ends up just dismissing them in the end. “Because actually,” he says suddenly causing my heart to do a little jump, “do you have someone to watch Cecelia?”

“Why do you want to watch my little sister all of a sudden?” I ask suspiciously.

“It can be repayment for tutoring me. I know that I’m probably a hassle,” he says smiling to himself.

“I thought that me tutoring you was a repayment of you saving me twice.”

“It was, but now I realize what a nuisance I am so I thought that maybe I could help babysit Cecelia.”

“Have you ever babysat someone before?”

“No, but I’m sure I’ll do well. Cecelia’s a good girl, she seems to like me. She’s cute. I’ll take good care of her.”

“Well too bad because she goes to daycare.”

“You can enroll her out of daycare. It’ll probably save you some money,” he says. “Hey, I’m offering myself here.”

Myungsoo’s POV

What is coming over me? First I take a girl to my favorite restaurant and now I’m offering to watch her little sister? What am I doing? I never do these types of things. Kim Myungsoo, what has gotten into you? What force is compelling you to say these things that you’ve never done before?

I watch Allie as she considers the proposal. “Fine,” she says. “I guess I’ll contact the daycare tonight and tell them to take Cecelia off of their list. Are you sure you can watch her, though? She mainly gets put in daycare on Sundays and sometimes Saturdays.”

“I’m sure,” I say as the car comes to a stop, we’ve arrived at their house. “Here,” I say getting out of the car and carrying Cecelia. “I’ll help you.”

“Thank you,” she says as she opens the doors for me. I drop Cecelia off in her room and go back out into the living room, just like the first day that I met Cecelia. I can’t believe that that was only a couple of days ago, it seems like forever. “So I’m going to drop her off at eight tomorrow morning, okay? Where do you live?”

“I’ll just have one of my drivers come,” I say. “That way you don’t have to worry about it. Just pack a bunch of stuff for her, like toys, or extra clothes or something.” I make my way towards the exit. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow,” she says as she closes the door.

“Sungyeol, I need your help,” I say as I call him that night.

“What?” he asks.

“What does it mean when you start saying things that you don’t really mean?”

“You always do that so I don’t see any point in this conversation.”

“Like saying that you’ll help babysit when really you’ve never watched over kids before,” I say explaining the situation to him.

“You said that you’d babysit, for who?”

“Allie. I need your help. I need you to wake me up tomorrow by seven thirty and to help me watch the kid. You’re just like a kid, you should come along.”

“Are you sure you don’t like her?” Sungyeol asks.

“What, are you crazy?” I ask him. “I don’t like her, never, she’s not my type.”

“Well you have been hanging out with her a lot,” Sungyeol says putting reason behind his suspicion. “And you’ve only known her for a couple of days and now you said that you’re going to babysit her child. The next thing you’re going to do is that you’re going to take her to your favorite restaurant.” I can’t say anything to Sungyeol. “You already took her to your favorite restaurant?”

“It was repayment,” I explain, “I was late for our tutoring.”

“But still, you always said that you weren’t going to take another girl there, why did you take her?”

I don’t have a good answer for Sungyeol. It just felt like I needed to take her there, but why? Is he right? Am I really falling for her?

Allie’s POV

I manage to change Cecelia into her pajamas and go into pajamas for myself before collapsing onto my bed and finally closing my eyes.

“Allie! Allie!” a boy yells.

I chase after him on the playground, but he’s too fast for me. I can’t catch up, if only I were a little bit faster. “Hey, wait up!” I yell. My shoelace ends up becoming untied and not knowing how to tie it yet, I fall. Tears start forming in my eyes, but the boy comes back.

“Allie, stop crying,” he says bending down. “I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.”

“You were running too fast,” I complain. It doesn’t bother me that I fell; it bothers me that I couldn’t get up to him. “I couldn’t catch up.”

“You’ll just have to become faster,” he exclaims. “I’ll teach you how to run fast, okay? That way you don’t ever have to fall again. I’ll help you, Allie. I’ll protect you forever and ever.” I smile at him as he opens his arm wide to signal how long he’s going to protect me for. Seeing me smile at him, he smiles back. I feel better now.

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Myungsoo and Allie are awkward with each other, what is their friendship now? Does Myungsoo like Allie? How is he going to take care of Cecelia? Why do they both feel the need that they have to repay the other person?

Chapter 3 is up. Enjoy! :D