Ha Neul's POV

When I entered the café I got the usual hug from ahjumma and she told me with a big smile that my boyfriend (well, the evidence is pointing against us; I showed up with him twice already =.=) has been waiting for a long time and that he must really like me. I just smiled back at her and walked over to my ‘boyfriend’ hiding in the darkest corner of the café.

I put the bag with the hoodie and the sunglasses on the table in front of him. “Here you go…” I grumbled. “You owe me big time, you know! That was my favourite lecture!”

“I know. And thanks.” And he put on his killer smile again. It really should be censured…!

But it disappeared in an instant when he pulled the hoodie out of the bag. “What the hell is this?!” He stared at the screaming green cloth with disgust.

“The perfect disguise,” I smiled sweetly. “No one’s going to expect you in it!”

“Yes, and for a good reason! Because I’d never, NEVER wear something like this!” He shoved it away. “Buy me another one!”

“Like hell I will! It already took me forever buying this one!” I nodded at the hoodie.

“No wonder! You must have searched whole Seoul until you found that!” He scoffed.

Just then, ahjumma came walking over and saw the hoodie. “Omo, Ha Neul-ah, did you buy this for him?!” She exclaimed excitedly. “That’s so cute! Let’s try it on!” And she practically forced the poor guy into it.

When she was done, I had to look away in order not to laugh out loud. He looked simply hilarious. Even his usual disguise was nothing compared to this!

“I DARE you to laugh!” Alien Terrorist hissed under his breath while leaning towards me.

“Aigoo! You guys are so sweet!” Ahjumma gushed. “Let me take a picture, oh?” And she held out her hand. I readily handed her my phone. A picture of Alien Terrorist? Anytime! Kekeke

I leaned towards him and smiled.

“Now, the boyfriend needs to smile too,” Ahjumma encouraged him and he faked a smile. A professional, huh…

“Okay. And now yours!” Ahjumma held out her hand towards Alien Terrorist.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re cell phone. Don’t you want a picture too?”

…

Well, in the end she got his phone and took a picture of us with it too. And don’t ask me where she learned to take pictures with smartphones…!

Also, Alien Terrorist kept the hoodie on because he realised that I wasn’t going to buy him another one. I on my side figured that going back to university now equalled a never-ending interrogation by Hyo Rin and decided that I might as well skip the remaining lectures. Ahjumma then served us some cake and drinks, saying it was on the house because we were such a sweet couple and Alien Terrorist almost choked on his coffee hearing the word ‘couple’…

Well, that’s how we ended up sitting in that café with cups in our hands and sweets on a plate in front of us.

“I can’t believe I’m actually wearing this!” Alien Terrorist muttered and pulled a face while tugging at the feelers of the hoodie. I bit back a smile.

Suddenly he let go of the feelers and leaned forward. He rested his head on his hands and looked straight into my eyes. “But you know what?” He asked seriously. I slowly shook my head and eyed him apprehensively. “No matter how I think about it, this is just not fair,” he continued. “While I need to walk around in this… this thing what are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“I asked what about you!” And since I still didn’t get it: “I can’t be the only one suffering! So how do you plan to make up for it?”

“Ehhhhh?!” So you’re saying… that because you have to wear this hoodie… I have to do something inconvenient as well?! Ha! That’s ridiculous!

“Oh, I know!” He exclaimed. I just stared at him in disbelieve. Oh, you do?!

“Just tell me why it bothers you so much when people judge others just based on appearances and I’ll call it even. Oh?”

Bwoh?! ‘And you’ll call it even’?! Ha! Just who do you think you are?! Do you think that story is something you can just trade like some piece of cloth?! It’s a very sensitive topic to me! It’s not something that can be told just whenever!!

“Kim.Jong.Hyun.” I stressed every syllable. “That is not something I will tell just to appease your hurt pride! So, if you’d excuse me?”

And I pushed my chair back, stood up, and headed to the restrooms before my hands could throw the remaining liquid in my cup into this conceited alien’s face.

Jonghyun’s POV

I looked after Ghosty as she stormed towards the restrooms. I guess I should have asked in a different way… I didn’t want for her to feel offended… I was simply curious… But even so I shouldn’t have asked with that reasoning…

I looked out the window and took a deep breath. Since when did I have difficulties talking to women…? Oh, right, I didn’t see Ghosty as a woman… Then what did I see her as…? If neither woman nor guy, then… family? No, definitely not. Then a friend? Like my members? No… that wasn’t it either. I didn’t steal kisses at my friends while they slept… But then what? I honestly didn’t know.

Suddenly, the shop ahjumma appeared besides the table again and tore me out of my thoughts.

“So, did you like it?” She asked conversationally.

“It was delicious, ma’am.” I answered truthfully. I had to admit that Ghosty had taste. In choosing this café I mean.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she smiled. Then she glanced over her shoulder towards the restrooms and I followed her eyes. But Ghosty was still nowhere in sight. “Can I ask a favour of you, young man?” She then asked.

First, I hesitated but then I nodded. I just hoped she wasn’t going to say something along the lines of me treating her right …

“Please look after her.”

I knew it. “Ma’am, we’re not dating. We—“

“It doesn’t matter,” she cut me off. “It doesn’t matter whether it is as her boyfriend or her friend or as something else. Just continue looking out for her the way you are right now, won’t you?”

Huh? I was looking out for her? Since when? “’Like right now’?” I inquired confused.

“Ye,” she smiled. “Like you did today and also the last time you visited. Accompany her to a cup of coffee, open the door for her, talk with her, and, most of all, make her show such a variety of facial expressions.”

I did all that?! I recalled our first visit (A/N: See chapter 20f) and well, yeah, I guess I did… but… eh?

“What do you mean with ‘such a variety of facial expressions’?” Wasn’t she usually like this?

The shop ahjumma chuckled. “She probably never told you but she used to be very cold and emotionless, and still is around people she doesn’t feel comfortable around, I think. When she started working here she was like a doll. She’d cut herself at a shard and look indifferent. She’d be called pretty by a customer and look indifferent. She’d get yelled at by my husband and look indifferent. Once she even got burned by boiling oil, and that hurts like hell I tell you! But she still looked indifferent. Until, after three month, I finally saw a tiny smile on her lips as she patted the head of a customer’s dog.”

I don’t know what had happened for her to be this way but you have no idea how grateful and delighted I am to watch her interaction with you just now. Seeing her finally smile this genuinely and brightly, my heart is jumping with joy!”

------

We were on our way back home and I kept stealing glances at Ghosty while driving. She had her gaze fixated on the cars in front of us. There was no emotion on her face and I remembered what the shop ahjumma had said.

--- FLASHBACK ---

“I don’t know what had happened for her to be this way but you have no idea how grateful and delighted I am to watch her interaction with you just now. Seeing her finally smile this genuinely and brightly, my heart is jumping with joy!” The shop ahjumma said and placed her hand over her chest.

“Like a doll…?” I repeated and furrowed my brow. That Ghosty? “Why?”

“As I said, I don’t know. She never told me.” The shop ahjumma gave me an apologetic smile. “I think that’s something she has to tell you herself anyway.”

Well, that’s the thing; I kinda ruined it…

“And you also don’t remember anything else that was unusual?” I probed hoping to find at least a clue. “Some strange incident maybe?”

“Hmm, I don’t think so… Ha Neul-ah was always very quiet, almost invisible…” The shop ahjumma smiled at the memory but suddenly her face lit up. “Ah! But there is this one thing that I never understood…”

“Yes?”

“When she came to introduce herself and apply for the job, she agreed with everything my husband and I said. She did neither question the wage nor the working conditions. She had but one request… I still don’t know why she asked that until today…”

“And that request was…?” Aish! Couldn’t she spill it already?!

“’Please never mention the phrase ‘must have paid’ in front of me’. That’s what she asked… But why? Do you know, young man?” She looked at me questioningly.

I shook my head. “Ani, I don’t know either…”

--- END OF FLASHBACK ---

 ‘Must have paid’? ‘Must have paid’? Why do I feel like I heard that before…? Did Ghosty say it once...? …no… Then someone else? Where? At work…? University…?

…

That’s it! That girl yesterday during lunch said something like that! What was it again? ‘Maybe he paid her’…? And it was after that sentence that Ghosty blew her top…! So… does that mean… that the two things are related…? Or… maybe they’re even one and the same?!

I glanced at Ghosty and thought of how to ask her the best when she abruptly turned to me and held her hands into my face. I looked at them surprised; on each hand the middle and index finger were crossed.

“What’s with your fingers?” I asked.

“Please unclasp them.”

“Huh? Wae?”

“If you see a car whose number has the same cipher three times one after the other, you have to cross your fingers like this. And if you then get someone to unclasp them, then you have a wish free. So, please?” She nodded at her hands and tilted her head.

Oh, whatever! I just did as she asked. “And what did you wish for?”

“I can’t tell you of course! Or else the wish becomes void!”

“You really believe that stuff?” I glanced at her again, disbelieving. “You? The girl who alters a saying because it logically incorrect?!”

But she just shrugs her shoulders. “Well, it can’t hurt, right?” And then she pulled the corners of into the loveliest smile I’d ever seen. “So why not give it a try?”

“I guess…” I mumbled absentmindedly.

“LOOK AHEAD!!!” She suddenly yelled and my head snapped around. I only needed to see the red light and stood onto the break with full force. We’d both have flown to the front window if not for the security belts.

The car stopped but a hand’s breadth from the heck of the car in front of us and I breathed out relieved. “Phewww, that was close…”

“Y-ye…”

I turned my head to check whether Ghosty got hurt. “Are you alright?”

“Ye.” She nodded. “Woah, scared the crap out of me…! Just where did you have your eyes?!”

On your smile…

“You were the one who wanted me to unclasp your fingers…” I mumbled more to myself. After all, I knew that wasn’t the truth…

“Bwoh? Now it’s my fault?!” She exclaimed.

I just nodded. It had been her smile that had distracted me…

“Excuse me?!! It was YOU who kept staring at my face instead of looking at the road! So how can you say it was my fault?!”

“I wasn’t staring at your face! I was trying to understand how a computer scientist student can believe in such nonsense!”

“Nonsense?! Didn’t I just say that—“

“Ara-ara! It can’t hurt, so why not give it a try! But it’s a waste of time!”

“How do you know?! Maybe my wish comes true!”

“Maybe. But three same ciphers in a row will never let you be able to fly!”

“What makes you think I wished for the ability to fly?!”

“You like spacious places and your freedom. So isn’t the wish to be able to fly a given?”

“I also wrote that I can’t stand people who act like a know-it-all!!”

“And I wrote that I don’t like people who are disrupting my pace!!”

Narrator’s POV

When they entered the parking lot of the building Jonghyun’s apartment was in and he handed his car to the employees to be parked they were still bickering. The employees turned around to look after them with wide eyes; it was the first time they had seen this particular resident behave like that. And moreover that… hoodie he was wearing…! But they didn’t say a word. It was their job to be silent.

And even when they stood in front of the door and Ghosty fumbled for the key – Jonghyun had come up with some hilarious excuse why he couldn’t unlock the door – they hadn’t stopped exchanging pleasantries.

“Have you forgotten who I am?!” Jonghyun exclaimed heatedly after Ha Neul had called the curtains in his living room an insult to one’s eyes. “I’m the Bling Bling Jonghyun! My taste is—“

“You know claiming that in your current get up is a little…” Ha Neul interrupted him coolly. She’d finally found the key and opened the door.

“That was not my choice, as you might recall!” He hissed and grabbed her arm stopping her from entering the apartment. Pulling her back he went in first instead. “Birdbrain.”

“Gosh, you’re as childish as ever!” Ha Neul huffed and followed him in. “And! I’m anything but a birdbrain! F.Y.I. I’ve got the best grades in-oufff!“

She bumped head-on into Jonghyun’s back. He was standing there frozen; looking at the huge mess that dominated the entrance, the corridor, and even the living room.

Contrary to Jonghyun, it didn’t take Ha Neul long to figure out what had happened. There were too many hints…

She groaned. “Shil Hye…!”

---------------------

Nyahahahahah, Shil Hye, you will be the death of Kim Jonghyun...!