❝Chapter Three

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✎His Hunger

“OH MY GOD.” Eunyoung dropped the four bags of McDonald’s from her hands, along with her jaw, when she saw the nuclear explosion that happened in her precious living room.

Everywhere there were emptied bags of chips with diagonal slashes cut through the fronts scattered across the carpet; candy wrappers that must have been thrown messily like confetti; a tall soda can pyramid surrounded by an ocean of torn-up cookie bags; and—most weirdly (?)—a shirtless Luhan lying down on the couch while scratching his tummy like a monkey.

“What the hell did you do?!” she shrieked loudly, instinctively crouching down and picking up trash. Luhan finally noticed her after taking a fluffy couch pillow off his face, and he carelessly tossed it over the couch.

“You’re ba—“ He stopped rather abruptly, his smile flickering on his pretty face. His eyebrows knitted together, and his eyes closed as he—

“Are you sniffing the air?!” Eunyoung’s face fell as she stared incredulously at him, her thin brows furrowed as she squinted her eyes, trying to see if she really just saw him do that.

“That smell.” He held a hand up in defense, chewing nervously on his bottom lip as he locked his gaze onto the bags she had dropped earlier. “W-wh-what is it?” he asked, stuttering fearfully almost. She looked at where he was looking, realizing he was practically drooling over the fast food she had brought. She couldn’t help but snort at his senselessness, before she resumed her cleaning.

“They’re called burgers,” she explained as he stumbled off the couch and ran to the food, splitting the bag open with his eager hands. “You’ve never had one?” She raised a brow at him as he took out one burger and started sniffing the wrapper. He looked at her with eyes widened in cute curiosity as he swiftly whipped his head left and right. She laughed, mentally admitting he was really cute when stupid; and he carefully unwrapped the paper around the burger, almost as if he was afraid it would explode. When he unwrapped it completely, he gasped in surprise, the smell of delicious grease hitting his nose. He lifted the burger, examining it at different angles, sniffing it from different spots. After a few (weird) seconds of smelling the fat burger, he started looking inside it, analyzing the different aspects of it.

There was some thin green stuff, which Eunyoung told him was called “lettuce,” apparently; moist red things called “tomatoes”; thick, liquidy sauce; and, best of all, meat. Juicy, hot meat. Luhan’s mouth watered just staring at the thing. After taking a breath, he slowly bit into the crispy buns, and the taste of it made him sigh out in satisfaction.

“Oh meat.” He sniffled at the burger in his hands, whimpering quietly to himself. “I missed you so much,” he whispered softly as he took another small bite out of the burger, again sighing in content while Eunyoung gave him a weird look, wordlessly questioning his sanity.

With a subtle shake of the head, she continued on with picking up his trash, mentally cursing him for making such a mess. So first he jumped through her window. Then he ate her ramen. Then he made her cook for him. Then she let him take a shower in her bathroom; bought clothes for him; let him sleep on her couch; made him breakfast; ran into a brick wall because of him; didn’t get her raspberry iced tea because of him; bought enough orders at McDonald’s to make the employees think of her as some kind of fatty who was going to get heart disease from eating so much fast food; and this—this was how he repaid her? By trashing her apartment and eating all her not-so-secret-anymore stash of junk food in the cabinet?

Good to know how much you appreciate my kindness. She made a face at nothing in particular, angrily shoving a handful of trash into the pink bin in the kitchen. When she turned back around to face the living room, there was already a messy stack of crumpled wrappers from the six burgers she ordered laying on the coffee table. And, of course, right in front of it was Luhan scratching his tummy—again.

If she wasn’t in such a grumpy mood right now she would have really found him cute. Annoyingly and frustratingly cute, she added, again making a face. How could someone so rude and irritating, be so cute and innocent at the same time? Just utterly impossible! Gah. Damn you, Luhan. She growled lightly, narrowing her eyes at him as she continuously cursed him for being so darn cute.

Not that he noticed anyway. He didn’t even glance at her once, which was why he didn’t see the blood rising in her cheeks and the fire shooting out of her eyes. With an approving shake of the head, he started rummaging through the other two bags, and pulled out a large fry holder with crispy yellow sticks in them. Curious, he held the red box a little closer in order to sniff it. “What are these?” he asked, still not looking at her. But that didn’t matter anyway. She was too busy looking at the baseball bat resting against the wall, wondering how nice it would be if it smashed through Luhan’s thick skull and—

“Hellooooo? Earth to Eunyoungieeee!” Luhan called out, waving his arms around high in the air as if he was an embarrassing parent trying to catch his kid’s attention in a crowded place, and she finally snapped at her daydream of killing him.

“Huh?” she answered blankly, still a little dazed, and he waved the fry holder at her as she walked into the living room.

“What are these?” he asked again, snapping a little at how he had to say it twice in order for her to hear. Man what a waste of oxygen.

“They’re called french fries, ,” she replied, muttering the last word under her breath as she took a seat next to him. He nodded in understanding, examining the so-called fries once again.

“What are they made of?” he inquired interestedly, and then shot a side glare at her. “And I’m not a .” She sank in her seat a little, flustered as she mentally questioned how he could have heard her quiet voice.

“Um.” She cleared , shifting around awkwardly. “Potatoes.” He stared at her, squinting his eyes as if she was a blurry picture he couldn’t quite make out. Then he looked back at the fries and inhaled its salty scent through his crinkling nose. After smelling it to his satisfaction (?), he turned his attention back to her, blinking slowly.

“What are potatoes?”

“Roots.”

“What are roots?”

“ . . . . . . . . . Just eat the damn fries.” She waved her hand dismissively, groaning as she restrained herself from face-palming right now in front of him. With a sigh she grabbed an empty bag of McDonald’s and filled it with the burger wrappers he had tossed around carelessly. She went into the kitchen to throw away the trash. Luhan, more than happy to oblige, nibbled cautiously on one fry as if it might burn his tongue. His eyes grew in amazement as the salty goodness hit his taste buds like a pile of bricks. Man! If they had this stuff back at the laboratory, he would have never ran away! He tipped the fry holder over his mouth, making all the fries fall into his wide-opened mouth.

Her jaw dropped when she saw that, and by the time she walked from the kitchen to the living room he had already finished swallowing all the fries (she honestly wasn’t sure if he chewed or not, because he ate it just so fast). He was going to eat more, but realizing he ate pretty much all the food made him feel a little guilty (just a little), so he saved the rest for her.

“Thanks for the food.” He kicked his legs up onto the coffee table, forgetting how that little action annoyed her greatly. She stared at him in disbelief, and then slapped his thigh. Getting the hint, he immediately put his legs back onto the floor so that she could start wiping the table with a wet rag. She muttered curses as she did so, and Luhan frowned with his eyes still glued to the TV.

“That wasn’t a very nice word,” he mumbled when he heard her say the word “bastard” under her breath. She pulled back from cleaning, her eyes widened as she questioned how he could have heard her, but when he subconsciously put his feet on the table again she had another mini heart attack.

“Y-yah.” She on her teeth to stop herself from yelling, and forcefully threw his legs off the table, shocking him. “Look. You, Mr. Luhan, are being very rude, you know that? I’m giving you a place to live and food to eat. It’s only right that you treat me with more respect!!  It’s very impolite of you to eat almost all the food I bought, and to put your feet on the . . . the table—the table! It’s where we eat, for crying out loud! Do you even know how many germs—“ She averted her gaze from the table to glare at him, just completely and utterly furious, only to have her face fall when she found him snoring. Her eye twitched in irritation as her fists clenched and her teeth gritted. “LUHAN!!!!” She chucked a couch pillow straight at his face, making him jolt back awake.

“Huh? What?” He rubbed his slightly dazed eyes, his head spinning around as he let out a small yawn similar to way a little kitten would yawn. She stared at him, her glowering turning into a soft, admiring gaze as she groaned lightly. Why did he have to be so damn cute? It just made it so. Freaking. Hard to be mad at him. With a tired sigh, she simply shook her head, deciding to let his insolent acts go—but just this one time. He nodded, not forgetting to glare at her for waking him up, and started watching TV again. He brought his legs off the couch and put them on the floor, allowing her room to sit. He leaned more into his seat, sighing out peacefully.

To be honest, he knew quite well that he had been acting like . . . well, an . But all the he had gone through made his actions at least reasonable. Because, really, he was really just . . . grumpy—to be put it simply. Until the night he jumped through her window, Luhan hadn’t had anything for almost a whole week—no food, no water, no nothing. The past few days of his life had consisted of fighting, running, some killing here and there, but mainly just running. He didn’t even know where the hell he was running to, but he ran so much it felt like he went all the way across the earth and back. He was tired, exhausted, beaten up, and starved to death. And, truthfully, he reacted more calmly than a lot of other people would have. Sure, he might have been a little too abrupt with the breaking and entering (or maybe a lot, considering he shattered her whole entire window), but, oh man, he was so hungry.

He had endured almost a whole week with no food or water, and just running nonstop through the great unknown. All for the sake of freedom. And now that he finally had it, he really wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He had lived his whole life (or at least the parts that he remembered) in that white room, his hands and feet shackled whenever he slept. He had lived his whole life staring at four white walls, knowing that he was being watched, being examined like he was some kind of rare species (which, truthfully, he was). He had lived his whole life having painful substances injected into his skin, his arms, his body. He had lived his whole life being thrown into a pit and being told to kill—be it a large animal, a man-made beast, or a human being. Killing was his only purpose in life. Killing was the only reason they brought him to lab. Killing was the only thing he knew how to do properly.

But now none of that mattered. None of that mattered because he didn’t belong to them anymore. None of that mattered because he would never see them again. None of that mattered because he had escaped. And without a plan. So now that he had his precious little freedom, what the hell was he supposed to do? Luhan was never really much of a planner. He often just relied on instinct and guts—and that got him pretty damn far in life. But now he really wished he would have thought ahead, because he had no freaking clue what he was going to do.

But, he figured he’d think of something later. In the meantime, he would be relaxing and staying on the down-low in order to not get found; it was a well-deserved vacation, wouldn’t you agree?

After eating and resting in Eunyoung’s apartment, Luhan realized he had never felt so good in his life. How long had it been since he had gotten more two hours of sleep? How long had it been since he had been fed so much? Never. Because he had never gotten more than two hours of sleep. Because he had never been given so much food in such little time.

No.

He had never been given food, period. Back at the lab, experiments were mostly just fed these energy pills that the scientists had worked years to perfect. The only time Luhan would actually get to eat real human food was when he followed directions. Basically, Luhan and the rest of the experiments were kind of just treated like dogs. For animals, if they performed a certain trick correctly, their owner would throw them some nice treats to eat, right?

Well, that was the same case with Luhan. The only difference, though, was that they didn’t ask him to do fancy circus tricks. They asked him to kill. And, if he succeeded, they would give him food. But, honestly, it wasn’t even good food. Leftovers, that’s what they were. They’d just toss him some stale bread, maybe some very slightly rotten fruit, if he was lucky. But, really, eating that was just so much better than swallowing those large energy tablets. Because at least eating food—old or not—made him feel a little more human than he was.

But, now, with Eunyoung, he didn’t have to soil his hands with blood to be fed; he didn’t have to eat hard bread, or warm strawberries; he didn’t have to sleep on a hard mattress, on a bed that was too short for his legs; he didn’t have to do anything like that. And, really, this was a change he could get used to easily.

But, for Eunyoung, she wasn’t really sure how long it’d take to get used to having this random idiot in her apartment. She honestly face-palmed so many times, not believing she seriously just took a stranger under her wing. Oh God. How would she take care of him? It was like raising a child! And she wasn’t ready for children! She was just a poor twenty-two-year-old university student barely getting by in life! Okay, maybe not poor.

Her parents, truthfully, were quite rich. It wasn’t that they owned some kind of famous company, but her parents were very conservative—and she was, too. Mrs. Lee, her mother, was a piano teacher—a very talented one—and she earned much money from the lessons she gave out to children. Mr. Lee, on the other hand, was really just . . . not musically talented (to put it nicely). He was intelligent, though, and therefore became an outstanding literature professor. Eunyoung, however, didn’t like to use their money too much despite the many times they offered to spoil her. She had accepted them paying for her tuition to the reknowned private school Hongik University, but promised she would be paying for herself later. She was really independent, explaining why she had chosen to move out from her parent’s house.

Although she missed her family a lot, she was really satisfied with her choice because she had one thing she had always wanted: freedom. She no longer had to worry about her father’s protective interrogations whenever she would go out with friends—guys specifically. She no longer had to worry about an early curfew. She no longer had to worry about having to blow off friends just to babysit her annoying- little brother. Ah, freedom. Good old freedom. But, of course, being the older sister, she did still have some responsibilities for the little brat.

“Hey, Luhan.” Eunyoung tapped lightly on his shoulder. He closed his mouth, which had been open due to seeing rows of pastries on a commercial for a bakery. Slighty shifting in his seat, he twisted his upper body so that it faced her, and gave her a questioning look. “I have to visit my family tomorrow,” she told him.

“And you’re telling me this because . . . ?” He jokingly rolled his eyes at her, but when she gave him an exasperated look, he realized he shouldn’t have said that so rudely.

Because, now that was actually thinking about it, he couldn’t believe how badly he was treating. Her. The person giving him food. Ah, boy was he stupid. I mean, what if she finally had enough? What if she got tired of his bossy attitude? What if she got fed up with his rude commands? What if she just kicked him out? Oh God . . . . Th-that would mean no more food. No more—oh God. The horror! Had he realized the consquences earlier, he would have been nicer to her! He would have treated her like a goddess! (Totally exaggerating, but you get the point, right?)

But! Seeing how it had only been a day since they met, it wasn’t exactly too late to clean up his attitude. Oh yes. Because, from now on, he promised himself he would treat her better—a lot better. Like . . . a lot, lot, lot, lot better! And the first step to treating her better was to apologize.

“I’m sorry!!!!” he shouted loudly, sincerely, almost desperately even; and she gave him a funny look. When he noticed her confused expression, he cleared his throat, immediately flashing her an insanely bright smile. She then gawked at him, a little taken aback because, one, he actually apologized. And sounded sincere. “Luhan,” “apology,” and “sincere” should never be used in the same sentence—unless the word “not” is somewhere in there. And, two, he smiled at her.

And it was really pretty, she realized, noting how small lines formed around his eyes. Because Eunyoung was just a little too busy melting in a giant pool of feels as his smile permanently imprinted itself into her mind, she had completely forgotten to respond to his apology. So, taking action into his own hands, Luhan steered back to the subject. “So, what?” he asked, the smile smaller on his face but still noticeably there. “You want me to go with you or something?”

“No!” she answered hastily, this time surprising him instead of the other way around. “I-I mean . . . . ” She drew random shapes on the surface of the pillow on her lap. Eunyoung was pretty old-school sometimes, to be honest, and she didn’t want to introduce any boys to her parents—unless they were just friends. And she and Luhan, well . . . they weren’t exactly “friends” in her dictionary. So, ultimately, she really didn’t want him to meet her parents. Correction: She really didn’t want any boy to meet her embarrassing parents. Although she didn’t want to get married until her mid- or late-twenties, her parents have been pushing her into tying the knot, saying they want to see their grandkids before they died. Which wasn’t going to be any time soon, Eunyoung reminded them, as they were still pretty young and healthy.

“Well the thing is,” she continued when she saw his confused face, “that means you’ll be here alone and—“

“Nooo!!!” He practically pounced on her, almost like a cat would to a mouse, wrapping his arms around her waist and his face dangerously (and unintentionally) close to her chest. Absolutely flustered, Eunyoung was still too shocked by the small gap between their faces to respond. “You can’t leave me alone!” he pleaded, looking up at her with those adorable doe-like eyes of his. “I’ll dieeee! Don’t kill me, Eunyoungieeee!!!!” he yelled childishly, shuddering at the memory of how hungry he was before she brought food.

Realizing she was making an idiot out herself by not saying anything, she quickly replied, “Well there’s nothing I can—“ She stopped midway, putting her palm flat on his face and then roughly shoving it away, not liking the close proximity. “—do, Luhan,” she finished, subtly adjusting her shirt that had become slightly wrinkled due to being attacked.

“Can I come with you?” he asked in a spazz-worthy cute tone, beaming adorably up at her. He had learned of this supposedly extremely seductive technique called the “aegyo,” which he first witnessed on a commercial where a girlfriend tried to persuade her boyfriend into buying her this phone (and she succeeded). So, assuming it would work, he decided to try acting cute in front of Eunyoung, and even swore he would use this one thing called the “bbuing bbuing” (or something like that) if Eunyoung should ever refuse to give him food. Which he prayed would never happen, or else his heart would be shattered into a million pieces.

“Come with me?” She raised a brow at him, coughing slightly out of shock. “No.” She quickly looked away to hide her flushed cheeks. He was already cute enough without trying! Gah, this guy. So frustrating.

“Why not?” Luhan poked at her cheek to get her to look at him; he didn’t like not being looked at while talking, so he continuously stabbed her cheek softly. And, after a whole eternity, her head snapped to him, but only so she could glare at him.

“Well.” She lightly rubbed her cheek before stabbing his as revenge, and he winced at how harshly he was poked. “When a girl—“ He poked at her cheek, and she let out a low growl before poking his even harder. “—brings a boy to—“ He poked her cheek again. Okay. Now he was just purposely pushing her buttons. “Stop poking my face, damn it!” She slapped his hand away when he poked her again, and he gave her a boyish grin.

“Sorry. Your cheeks are just so chubby.” He reached out to pinch her cheeks, but then she smacked his hand before it could reach her face. Oh great. So first he annoyed the crap out of her by harassing her innocent face, and now he was calling her chubby? With a pout, she lightly placed her hands on her cheeks, making a mental note to start doing some facial exercises. Whatever the heck those were (she would Google it later). “So what were you saying?” He gently placed his hands over hers, making her blink in surprise, and removed them from her face. He then dropped her hands softly into her lap before letting go and putting his own hands in his lap. He thought her slightly chubby cheeks were cute, and so felt there was no need to hide them. But he wouldn’t tell her that—at least, not now; she still had to finish what she was saying earlier, right?

“Oh.” She straightened up, lowering the volume on the TV so she wouldn’t have to talk loudly. “Well when a girl brings a boy to meet her parents, it means they’re dating and they’re serious and stuff.” She shrugged, casually dismissing the subject despite amost panicking over it a few seconds ago. With a loud, exaggerated sigh, Luhan nodded his head. She nodded back, obviously pleased that he was actually listening to her, and he poked at her arm instead of her face.

“You’ll bring me back food, right?”

Her face fell. “So that’s what you’re worried about?” He tilted his head at her, not really getting where she was going. “Never mind.” She made a face at him before snapping her head away, her hair flying along with her. For a second she thought he didn’t want her to go because he would be lonely with her presence. Gah, of course that wasn’t it. She wanted to hit herself on the head for even thinking that. All he cared about was food, food, food. She was going to go bankrupt soon. Seriously. He was just one person, but his appetite was that of a whole entire football team. Or maybe bigger.

She really hadn’t realized how her financial state would be doomed because of him. I mean, just think about it. She had to buy him clothes, socks, shoes, and food—lots of food. If she already spent so much money on him in just one day, she couldn’t even imagine how skinny her wallet would be after one week. Oh God. She cringed, shrinking in her seat as she thought about what a big problem money was.

No.

She couldn’t be weak. It was her money for crying out loud. She shouldn’t be spending it all to satisfiy Luhan’s needs. No. She had to put her foot down once and for all, before things got out of hand. If she just kept giving him food nonstop, he would start taking advantange of it (not that he wasn’t already). That could not happen. No, no, no.

“Luhan,” she said firmly, confidently. Eunyoung turned to face him, her gaze stern and serious, but then her face just completely dropped when she found him asleep. Compared to how he looked when he was complaining about being hungry, Luhan looked utterly angelic. His eyelids were slightly fluttering, but still closed. His mouth was cutely agape, and his head was leaned back on the couch as his bangs lightly brushed his long eyelashes. There wasn’t any dramatic moonlight shining on him like in the movies, but even without the moon, he still looked so fragile and just out-right beautiful. For a moment, she slightly envied how pretty he was. Why couldn’t her lashes be long like his? Why couldn’t her lips be small and cute like his? Why could her hair be fluffy and soft like his?

“Damn it, Luhan,” she whispered to herself, massaging her temples as she looked away. How could she ever say no to someone so freaking adorable? It was frustrating! So frustrating! Why did she have to be so nice? Why did he have to be so cute? It just ruined everything. Argh. If she could flip a table, she would.

Sighing, Eunyoung grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. Maybe, just maybe, she could still buy him all the food he wants. She would just have to cut down on spending money on other things, like clothes or something. She could make this work, right?