“Wake up.”

I woke up to the sound of someone blowing (very 
hard) into my right ear.

“! What the…”

“What is this?” Jaejoong pointed to the dirty rag 
that was on the floor. I’d almost forgotten all about that. 
I began to giggle, almost forgetting that it was morning. 
Wait. It was morning….?

Oh, . Had I spent the night over at Jaejoong’s 
apartment? Only then did I realize that Jaejoong was 
missing his shirt, and I was lying awfully close to him.

“Get off me you ert!” I screamed. This couldn’t 
be happening. How did I end up sleeping next to him?

“What’s your problem?”

I grabbed the bucket I used yesterday and smacked 
him down on the head.

“Ow!”

“What did you do to me yesterday?” I held the 
bucket threateningly over his head. He reached up and 
flicked it away, as if it were but a mere fruit fly.

“I didn’t do anything, you moron!”

“Then why’s your shirt off?”

“Because you flipping sweat all over me. Remember?”

“Well, then why are we so close…”

“You kept kicking and yelling, and I tried to wake 
you up, but you just wouldn’t. So I put my arms around you 
to calm you down.”

“Well…”

“Why do you always have to think the worst of me?” 
He stood up and brushed off his hair, mumbled a couple of 
swear words under his breath, and continued to check his 
reflection in the mirror.

I had to admit, I was feeling a little ashamed. 
What had I imagined? That he had seen me lying next to him, 
thought, ‘I must have her now,’ and taken off his shirt? 
Stupid, mindless, brainless. That was what I was.

I managed to steal a peak at Jaejoong, who was now rubbing 
his head with his right hand and fumbling for something in 
a closet. His shirtless body was almost perfect; he had 
those washboard abs that looked as if it belonged inside a 
surfer’s magazine. His skin was the perfect tone; not too 
dark, not too light. He looked even better than he had 
before, with the addition of some bed hair roughness that 
completed his y attire.

Did I just refer to him as y?

“Oh, and by the way,” he said, chucking the empty 
bucket back at me, “I told you to stay and clean the house. 
Not to stay over.”

“It’s not like I wanted to!”

“Sure,” he said. “So you just decided to finish 
cleaning and slipped into bed with me.”

I gulped. Okay, he was right. I could see why he 
would assume that I had actually planned the sleep-over, 
although I didn’t mean to stay the night. I mean, sure, I’d 
wanted to curl up inside him, and I’d thought that it would 
just be for five minutes. It wasn’t my fault that his bed 
just happened to be so comfortable that I’d instantly 
fallen asleep. “I was tired from cleaning.”

“Well, this isn’t happening again. When I made that 
deal, I made it clear that the whole girlfriend-boyfriend 
thing is a cover. We’re not really a couple, you know.”

“As if I want us to be!” I shouted. I hadn’t meant 
to shout; it was just that he was being an arrogant , 
assuming that I actually wanted to be his girlfriend.

“Geez, okay. Chill.” He began to slip into his 
school uniform. “So what happened with flower club, anyway?”

“Rose Club,” I corrected him. “And they hate me 
now, thank you very much.”

“If you had just waited for me a little longer, 
none of this would have happened.”

“If you had been on time, then none of this would 
have happened!”

“We could go on fighting for the rest of our lives, or we 
could go on and try to solve the problem.”

“What problem? There is no problem. It’s over. Rose 
Club is over, and so are we.” I hadn’t actually planned to 
say it, but now that I thought about it, it made perfect 
sense. I mean, I no longer needed him for Rose Club. And 
from what I’d seen, it didn’t seem like he needed me that 
much either. So what was the point of carrying out our deal 
if none of us benefited?

“What do you mean we’re over?”

“I mean, the deal’s over. I don’t need you, and you 
don’t need me.”

“I never needed you,” he corrected, “but the deal 
isn’t over. You’re my slave until I tell you that you’re 
not.”

“What do you mean!”

“What do you mean what do I mean?”

“You can’t just prolong the deal! It’s your fault 
that the Rose Club members now hate me!”

“Well, I kept my part of the deal, so now it’s your 
turn.”

“What do you mean you kept your part! You were 
late!”

“I was twenty minutes—”

“YOU WERE OVER THIRTY MINUTES LATE!”

He looked at me, flabbergasted. “What is with you 
and screaming?”

“I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU’RE SAYING. WE’RE SO 
OVER. THE DEAL IS OVER. I AM NO LONGER YOUR SLAVE, AND YOU 
ARE NO LONGER MY FAKE BOYFRIEND!”

“Fine. If it bothers you that much, we can be a 
real couple.”

“ARE YOU MENTALLY CHALLENGED?”

He undid his tie and threw it on the ground. “What 
is your problem, woman? What do you want from me? I’m 
negotiating. If it bothers you that much, I can allow a 
little bit of cuddling, and whatever the hell it is they do 
in a relationship.”

“OH MY GOD! Listen,” I said, struggling to keep 
myself from pouncing on him, “I don’t want a real 
relationship. In fact, I don’t want to have anything to do 
with you. I just want you to stay away from me. From my 
life.” Because you ruin everything, I added to myself.

Jaejoong stood, for a second, without saying 
anything. He then slowly picked up the tie that he’d thrown 
on to the ground, slung it across his shoulders, and said, 
“fine. I’ll leave you alone.” And left.