Jong Kook rushed to the waiting lounge when he glanced at the large digital clock hanging from the ceiling, hoping that he arrived just in time to catch Ji Hyo before the woman left for Jeju. To his defence he had left Anyang quite early that morning but there was a matter of traffic because of the constant rain since the previous day; plus, the barista in the coffee shop he stopped by at seemed to be determined to make his life more difficult by making him repeating his order over and over again. He counted it as a blessing when he found a parking space quite easily when entering the parking building at the airport.

Ji Hyo didn’t know that Jong Kook would be at the airport to see her off; Jong Kook was tipped off by her manager about their departure time because the stubborn woman refused to disclose anything to Jong Kook. He never thought that convincing Ji Hyo to stay with their plan would be this difficult – she was adamant about terminating this after having had enough time to think. She mentioned in their last phone call last night that the idea of them being together was in all respects illogical because they didn’t know what to achieve from it other than making Chang Joo angrier.

Even though Jong Kook couldn’t argue on the matter, he couldn’t help but feel frustrated and a little bit annoyed – but not at Ji Hyo, never at her. He bit the inner part of his cheek as he mused over it while still looking for Ji Hyo. It was true that after a second thought the idea of this fake boyfriend thing sounded very silly; what on earth made him think that it was a great plan in the first place? There was nothing to be accomplished by doing this – he could protect Ji Hyo by other means, couldn’t he? It wasn’t like he was looking to date the woman for real in the future. On the other hand, if the idea was as absurd as Ji Hyo kindly put it, why did Jong Kook feel the need to keep pushing for it? Why didn’t he just go with Ji Hyo’s plan of keeping their distance off each other until everything cools down? It wasn’t like he and Ji Hyo were that close of friends before the scandal about them surfaced. Jong Kook didn’t understand and he was reluctant to put an effort to understand.

He halted when he saw a familiar figure standing in the middle of the busy airport with at least ten other people. She wasn’t easy to miss, Jong Kook noted vaguely as he drank the view of the woman thirstily with his eyes. He knew he would be able to recognise the younger woman in an instant no matter what clothes and hairstyle she has. Today she was wearing a very stylish red suede coat and what seemed to be a blouse underneath it with a pair of dark jeans and ankle-length boots; she looked absolutely stunning and Jong Kook wondered why she never dressed up like that when she filmed Running Man. He thought of what reaction she would be getting if she wore those clothes to Running Man set and he frowned, not liking the possibility of Ji Hyo getting that much of attention from the other members.

Seeing how many people there were around Ji Hyo made Jong Kook halt. Was it a great idea to advance at them so casually as if he had had the right to? Should he just leave without speaking to Ji Hyo at all? He glanced down at the cup of coffee in his hand – the beverage would be a waste if he went home; he didn’t drink coffee. But that was not an excuse, or was it good enough? He contemplated for a second before coming to a decision.

Ji Hyo was talking animatedly in her half-healed voice with one of the senior actor she was working it when she saw Jong Kook walking towards their direction and she stopped mid sentence, mouth hanging open. She had actually seen a man that looked rather familiar just a few seconds ago but she never thought that it would be Jong Kook. Her eyes widened and apparently her expression of surprise was enough to make her conversation partner turn around to see what she was staring at.

“Good morning.” Jong Kook bowed politely at the crew and celebrities around Ji Hyo before he turned his attention to the younger woman. “Hi,” he greeted.

“Jong Kook Oppa,” Ji Hyo said in disbelief, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m seeing you off,” he replied casually, like it was ridiculous for Ji Hyo to be asking in the first place. “Can we talk?” he lowered his voice, sighing in relief when the younger woman excused themselves for a minute before reaching for the hem of his sleeve to drag him away from the rest of the group.

“Who told you what time I’m going to be here?” she demanded when they were out of others’ earshot. She saw him throw a fleeting glance at her manager and she knew immediately who the culprit was. “Yah, Kim Jong Kook!” she hissed, hitting him on the arm, “That is very low of you, using my manager to spy on me!”

“Ouch! That hurts,” he feigned a complaint, “You need to be a bit more gentle to this Oppa, Song Ji Hyo – I am not that young anymore.”

Ji Hyo rolled her eyes at the comment. She scanned the lounge warily, fearing that Chang Joo or one of hired men were around. “Oppa, seriously, why are you here?”

Jong Kook shrugged. “I’m here to see you,” he stated matter-of-factly. Then he waved a paper cup in front of Ji Hyo’s face and winked at her. “I bring you coffee as I promised – freshly brewed and delivered first thing in the morning,” he said. With his free hand he reached for Ji Hyo’s hand and put the hot beverage on her hand. “For you.”

The woman lowered her head to hide the smile that she was unable to suppress. “You’re crazy,” she admonished, her voice came out a lot more softly than she had intended to. She took a sip and her eyes widened in an instant; she lifted her head and stared at Jong Kook for a second.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is my coffee,” Ji Hyo replied in wonder.

“Of course it is, Miss Mong – I bought it for you.”

Ji Hyo shook her head. “No, Oppa – you don’t understand. This is my coffee,” she repeated. Jong Kook must have looked confused for Ji Hyo smacked her lips impatiently. “Ah, my Oppa, you can be so dense sometimes.”

Despite the insult, Jong Kook grinned at the way Ji Hyo called him. “I don’t understand, Ji Hyo-yah, honest.”

“This is exactly how I take my coffee – perfect amount of sugar and creamer. How did you know? What did you bribe Sun Mi Unnie with to give you information about me? Aissh, you stalker!”

“I didn’t bribe anyone!” he put up a defence, laughing heartily.

“Even my Appa doesn’t know how I take my coffee!”

Jong Kook tweaked the tip of Ji Hyo’s nose with the tip of his forefinger. “I pay attention, Ji Hyo-yah. I saw how much milk and sugar you put into your coffee on our first date.”

It was just their luck that one of the PDs was approaching them and caught the last part of Jong Kook sentence. He stopped short and looked back and forth at the pair, stuttering to Ji Hyo about having to leave soon then backing away in a hurry without waiting for the actress to respond.

“He heard you,” Ji Hyo remarked.

From the top of Ji Hyo’s head Jong Kook could see the said PD talk in a hushed tone with some other crews, who then threw fleeting glances at their direction. “Yes, he heard me – and now they all heard it from him,” he said in affirmation.

Ji Hyo shot him an accusing glance. “Did you do it on purpose?” she asked, rubbing her temple with the base of her palm as if she was having a serious headache. “Oppa, you did it on purpose, didn’t you – saying about our date? You said it so I can’t back away from this arrangement.”

“Ji Hyo-yah...”

She nodded. “I know. We can’t talk now,” she said, reading the pleading in Jong Kook’s tone.

“Safe trip, Ji Hyo-yah,” Jong Kook wished with sincerity but not addressing the accusation.

Ji Hyo finished her drink in three large gulps – the coffee was lukewarm now – and shoved the paper cup at Jong Kook’s hand. “You are impossible, Kim Jong Kook!” she hissed, turning around to leave.

Apparently, Jong Kook had another thing in mind. He reached out very quickly, catching Ji Hyo’s elbow before the woman could walk two steps and turning her around so that they were face to face again. He couldn’t let her go while she was angry at him and he wasn’t thinking at all when the next second he pulled Ji Hyo into his arm to hold the smaller form tightly against his chest. He could sense that eyes were upon them but Jong Kook saw nobody else but the woman in his arms.

Ji Hyo was too taken aback to react; the sound of her heart racing was hammering in her eardrums, deafening her as her body relaxed immediately into the gentle strength which enveloped her like a living blanket – Jong Kook was so warm. She felt him lower his head to rest his cheek against hers; the roughness of his newly shaved facial hair caressed the smooth surface of her face and the scent of his aftershave sent her senses into an overdrive. When he spoke, his breath was hot on her skin.

“Impossible? Me? You are impossible, Cheon Seong Im,” he whispered; his lips were very close to Ji Hyo’s ear. You drive me crazy, he thought but it was left unsaid.

“Oppa,” she whimpered.

Jong Kook swallowed hard and he tightened his arms around Ji Hyo for a split second before releasing her and taking a step back to give the woman a space to breath. He could hear Ji Hyo’s colleagues whistled and taunted – one person even clapped! – but he paid them no attention. He would worry about it later. Ji Hyo, tears b in her eyes, was still staring at him. Jong Kook sighed. “Don’t cry,” he begged her. “Call me as soon as you land, will you?”

The woman nodded repeatedly for she was still too overwhelmed to speak or think. Every particle of her body screamed in protest when Jong Kook loosened his embrace and Ji Hyo felt as if she was robbed of something that really mattered to her – too bad she was too dumbfounded to think of what it was. In that instant, while looking at Jong Kook’s eyes that spoke more than his mouth did, Ji Hyo had this odd urge to pull the man into a kiss. Later when she thought about it she thanked the universe that her short-circuited brain still had some common sense left to stop her from doing so. She cupped the older man’s face with both her hands, again moving closer so there were no space left between them. “Don’t you get hurt, Jong Kook-ah. Don’t you dare get hurt!”

Ji Hyo didn’t give Jong Kook any time to react; she gently pushed him and walked away without giving the man a second glance. She could hear people teasing her – and she swore she heard someone throwing her a snide remark about them being overly dramatic for a four day separation. Ji Hyo was thankful when Sun Mi made her beeline, looking at her in concern as she whispered to the older woman over and over again, “Sun Mi Unnie, I’m going crazy – I must be going crazy!”

He didn’t move from his spot until he could no longer see Ji Hyo’s red coat from where he stood. His brain was fuzzy as it kept replaying what just happened. Jong Kook-ah? He thought dizzily, she called me Jong Kook-ah – what was that?

The singer stayed in his car for several minutes longer to clear his mind before turning on the ignition of his car. He knew that the stake had been raised now that he made their fake relationship public but it was too late to back down now. If we are to burn, Ji Hyo-yah, then let us burn together, he said in his mind.

***

At about the same time in a luxurious house in the outskirt area of Seoul, Chang Joo hung up the phone with a grim expression. He threw his phone across the room in anger and roared in anger. How dare she defy me! he screamed in his mind.

“What is it now, Chang Joo Oppa?” a female voice asked sleepily from his bed. “Is it that Song Ji Hyo again?”

“I told her to stay away from Kim Jong Kook and she doesn’t listen!” Chang Joo growled. He slammed his fist forcefully on the wall; in his mind he was hitting Ji Hyo – and Jong Kook.

The woman combed her long hair with her hands and tied it into a loose bun before she said anything, knowing that the slightest thing could aggravate her man when he was displeased. “Oppa, why do you care so much about her? She is nothing to you now,” she queried with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

“She broke up with me,” retorted Chang Joo as if it answered the question. “Nobody breaks up with me unless I break up with them.” He hopped into the bed and pulled the woman into a sloppy kiss. “I’ll make her pay.”

“How, Oppa? Are you going to hurt her?”

He let out a cruel chortle. “Hurt her? Oh, no – that would be too easy,” he said, “I’ll watch her suffer by targeting Kim Jong Kook instead. Isn’t my plan grand?”

“You say Song Ji Hyo is away now. Isn’t this the right time to go on with your plan?” the woman suggested, resting her head on Chang Joo’s chest. “Kim Jong Kook seems very gullible, Oppa. It is easy to target him now.”

“And what fun will that be? No, I will let him be – I want Ji Hyo to be there when I launch my plan. I want to see her face when she realises that it is too late for her to save her precious Kim Jong Kook.”

The woman contemplated for a second. “Does she love him?”

“Oh yeah.” Chang Joo had no doubts on that part. He had seen the way she was looking at Kim Jong Kook – it wasn’t the way she was looking at him even when they were still together and Chang Joo had begun hating the other man for stealing what was his. “She does love him – she just doesn’t know it yet.”

“What about you, Chang Joo Oppa? Do you love her?”

He was silent for a couple of second, thinking about the question. “No,” he decided. “She was just convenient.”

A/N: Before I start babbling randomly I'd like to personally thank Benavidas and Racheose for giving me their two-cents, both of you are awesome *hugs*

So I decided to keep the story in its current pace; I don't want to make myself confused if I happen to reread this in the future - so I'm giving my future self a favour XD

I hope this is quite enjoyable. Thanks a lot for riding with me :)

Ps. I didn't reread this so if there's any grammatical mistakes and/or misspellings, please inform me so I can edit it.