He had been pacing to and fro, in their living room, unintentionally making Rian nervous as well. She eyed his movements like a hawk before bursting out in annoyance, “Yah, would you stop pacing around like that? You’re making me nervous just by looking at you.”

At first, Yoo Jin shot her a glare but the glare was suddenly replaced by an expression equalled to a man who struck a genius idea. Rian who had been leisurely reading her book on the sofa, felt a sudden shift in weight at the sofa, glanced the extra weight sitting next to her. He leaned closer to her, pulling the book out from her hands and etched a happy, hangdog smile. She raised her eyebrow, looking at him in puzzlement.

Gone, the happy expression, replaced with a stoic, serious looking face. He placed the book on the coffee table, closing the distance between them and held her arms with the intense stare of a ual predator. Their faces were just inches away from each other.

If other people walked in on them, especially those of strangers would think of him trying to do something wrong to her and she would admit she thought the situation resembled the scenario a little … but, he looked kind of hot. Snap out of it, the voice echoed in her mind.

“We’ve been friends for a very long time, haven’t we?” he started off, bringing himself even closer to her, almost touching her lips. Rian nodded. “I need your help, especially you as an actress.”

“Okay, what do you want me to help with?” she asked, trying to pull her hand from his grasp and avoid staring longingly at his lips. Yoo Jin replied, “Swear to me that you will never tell anyone about this and I will let you go.”

“Alright, alright. You have my word. Now, let my hands go,” Rian demanded. Yoo Jin did as he promised and leaned against the sofa. “I am filming a CF for Cass Beer. A photo-shoot and a music video,” he paused, his cheeks reddened.

“What’s the concept?” she asked, taking her book from the coffee table and resumed reading.

“The theme is beer and love. The concept is beer makes love achievable. The music video requires me to film a couple of bed scenes and I need help with … that,” he finished. Rian burst into roars of laughter, nearly falling off from the sofa but was caught in time by him, jerking forward, yanking her free hand up from rolling off the sofa. Her book, unfortunately, landed on the floor without much care.

“Stop laughing. I seriously need help with those scenes,” he hissed. Rian eventually managed to get her laughter under control, and then looked at him sceptically. She tantalised, “Why do you need my help with those scenes? You managed to do it, without any help when we had s-

“Do not say the S word! I forbid you,” he growled at her. Rian tried to stifle a smirk but failed miserably. “And don’t remind me of that horrible, horrible night,” he grunted.

“Like I said, you had no problems, back then.”

“T-that’s because I was drunk. I don’t really remember the whole thing. It happened too fast,” he returned, dejectedly. The smirk on Rian’s face grew wider; she scooted closer to him, boring holes into his face with her eyes. “Oh, I remembered everything clearly,” she returned.

Okay, it was a lie. She didn’t exactly remember everything clearly, just bits of it. Something in her mind clicked at the sudden realisation of Yoo Jin being a at that time. Sure, why not? The man had been crushing on Haesong since high school and never bothered to date a different girl (until she came along). It made perfect sense that he might be a before their night of making love. Oh, more blackmail material. But that’s not the point. The point of this conversation is-

His eyes widened at her words, before narrowing his eyes suspiciously, “Liar! I distinctly remembered your breath wrecked of alcohol the night before,” he accused her. She had the “I’m busted” look on her face, enough to convince him of her lying to him. He sighed.

“So, do you have any ideas?” he inquired, meekly. Rian beamed at him, with a smile that could blind a normal human being, “Well, there was this book I found among the piles of old books Nana told me to give to charity. I thought we could try it out-

“What does that book have to do with my problem? I don’t want to do it, I just want you to show me how to do it,” he conjectured. She smacked her forehead with her palm, shook her head and hollered, “I can’t just show it to you!”

He raised his voice, narrowing his hawk-like eyes at the woman, “Why not? It’s not that hard. I’ve seen you film those scenes without breaking a sweat,” he paused and she stared at him mystified with his words, “When I went to visit you at the set for that saeguk movie staring Hong Doo Hyun,” he clarified.

“Because I’m a woman and I have womanly needs, too! Since you have so much ual energy, why don’t you spare some for me?” Appalled at her words, Rian placed her hand over her own mouth in a flash of a second and cursed to digging a grave for her. Yoo Jin hoisted a brow, gawking at her with his mouth open, inauspiciously. He seemed to give her words a thought.

“You want to sleep with me?” he asked, somewhat proudly.

“I am not going to comment on that. But hear my reasons, sleeping with you means I don’t have to worry about catching STD and if I do get pregnant, I said if. For sure, I know it belongs to you.”

“You want to get pregnant?” His expression twisted into more confusion. Rian spat, “Hell no! I was just saying the benefits of sleeping with people you know inside out.” She sighed at his incompetent brain for taking her words into a different meaning.

“You have a good taste in men,” he said, a goofy grin plastered on his handsome face. “I do make a good looking father and if we have kids, they would definitely be good-looking, thanks to me,” he said, smugly. Rian just stared at him, speechless at the direction of their conversation heading to.

“Why are we even talking about this? I thought you wanted my help? Otherwise, you can find someone else. But that’s like broadcasting to people that you are still a .” He looked more alarmed as she finished her words, returning her attention to the book lying on the floor.

“No! Fine, let’s do it your way then, you are the expert after all,” he replied. Rian frowned. “You make me sound like a person who sleeps around.”

“I mean you are the actress, the one with the experience. So, whatever you say, I obey.” Rian plastered a satisfied smile on her face, then got up from the sofa and disappeared into her room but her voice echoed to the living room, “By the way, we are going to practice a lot. So, we need to lay out some ground rules. You can add if you have any, but I only have one which is our relationship remained the same.”

“Oh, don’t worry. If you ever need to release all that , I’m at your disposal,” she continued, with a casual tone. He was caught in astonishment that his brain went numb at her words. He only blinked rapidly as a response when he heard her muttered, “Friends with benefits, you know. Friends, with just the occasional . I think this arrangement is one of the highlights of my life. You don’t get to do that very often with friends. Thank God, you’re one good-looking friend.”

Coming out from her room with a book in her hand, she ended their conversation on the topic with a sly grin and “I’m going to rock your world, my friend.”

That night as she rested on her bed, with him fast asleep next to her, she thought to herself. They have a lot to work with it. But he can improve, he just need a little time. And she has all the time in the world, so she definitely had patience for it.