Hongbin and I said nothing in the taxi. He decided to just go home and get his car before going to meet with his boss. It would be easier that way according to him. Probably just so he didn’t have to worry about me getting home and paying a ridiculous cab fee.

When we got back to the house, Hongbin changed his shirt and grabbed a jacket and his keys and he headed out the door. I stood by the door to see him off.

“Don’t wait up for me, okay? I’ll see you in the morning.” He kissed my cheek and smiled. “I could get used to this.”

“Thank you for going tonight. You were very considerate. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime, noona. You’d do the same for me.” He smiled at me. “See you tomorrow.”

Hakyeon and Mihyun totally misread Hongbin. If I could just sit down and talk to Hongbin and ask him all those silly questions, I’m sure he’d answer them and clear all this right up. So I planned out in my head to ask him tomorrow morning about his life. However, things weren’t going to run as smoothly as I had thought.

“Why are you asking so many questions?” Hongbin complained, backing away from me on the couch. “Is all that really important?”

“I’m just curious, Bin-ah. You know so much about you but I feel that I don’t really know anything about you.” I tried to act cute. “Come on, Hongbin.”

“No. Now stop annoying me.” He got off the couch and headed to his room.

I sighed and tried to think of another way to get the information out of him. I wasn’t able to come up with much when he stepped out of his room again and headed into the kitchen.

“Bin-ah, why is it such a big issue to ask you those questions? Hakyeon and Mihyun were asking and I found that I wasn’t able to answer properly. That’s all. I didn’t mean to annoy you.”

“Why do they need to know anything? All Hakyeon is going to tell you is to move out and live with him again! It’s all a part of his plan, Inhye! Don’t you see?” Hongbin was all worked up now. The look in his eyes didn’t suit his appearance. The happy, cheerful bean was not there. It almost seemed like someone else was yelling at me.

“Hongbin, calm down. I’m sorry okay but Hakyeon understands that I want to live on my own. He’s just looking out for me.”

“Tell him to just mind his own business.” Hongbin went back into his room and closed the door.

I sighed and went back to sitting on the couch. Maybe he was stressed out. I just caught him at a bad time, I told myself. But Hongbin had never gotten angry at me like that before. In fact, I have never seen him angry like that. He is always so cheerful and kind. Something must really be bothering him for him to be this upset and to yell at me.

Hongbin came out of his room dressed in a white button up shirt and dress pants while messing with a tie. He seemed to be having a hard time tying it. After hesitating, I walked over to help him. I sent him a gentle smile as I placed my hands on his, a sign to him to let me take over. His expression softened and he allowed me to tie his tie for him. When I had successfully tied the tie, I placed a kiss on his cheek and made sure his shirt was nice and neat.

“You have your internship?” I asked. He nodded. “Do your best and don’t stress out too much okay?”

“How did I get so lucky to have you in my life?” Hongbin questioned, looking me in the eyes as if he was looking for the answer.

“You’ve helped me and now I’m doing the same for you.”

“I’m going now okay? Don’t be afraid to eat without me. I don’t know how late I’ll be.” He kissed me on the cheek. “I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I understand. Now go before you’re late.”

Once Hongbin left, I staggered around the apartment. I had no work that had to be done. I had nowhere to go. I didn’t want to waste my time on the internet. There was nothing for me to do. I began thinking about what Hakyeon and Mihyun had warned me about and kind of shook their words off. Hongbin wasn’t like that.

A thought came to mind after a quite a few hours of pacing around the apartment. I grabbed my jacket and my purse and headed out of the apartment. I walked into the little restaurant and greeted the ahjumma. Hongbin would be surprised to come home to find her cooking on the table. I think he would like it a lot.

“Ommo, my dear. Are you meeting Hongbinnie here? You’ve never come in by yourself before.” Ahjumma sounded kind of taken surprised to see me.

“I’m going to surprise Hongbin. Can I get his usual to go? He’s at his internship right now and he said he would be late so I think this would make him feel better after a long day.”

“Aigoo. You are so sweet.” Ahjumma placed the order and I paid for it. “I’m so happy he finally started bringing you around. After how much that boy talked about you I was really beginning to think I would never get to meet you.”

“He’d talk about me?” I chuckled and found myself blushing a bit.

“OH MY DEAR! That’s all he ever talked about. He’d tell me about everything. He’s so head over heels for you. I told him. I said, Bin-ah bring her here for one of your dates. I won’t embarrass you I promise. But he said you were too busy. I understand though. You’re studies are most important. I don’t get how you even had time to date each other if you were so busy.”

That last sentence confused me. “But ahjumma, we’ve only been seeing each other for a short while. We didn’t date back when we had class together.”

“What do you mean? Hongbin’s always called you his girlfriend so I only thought you two had been dating for a while now.”

Hongbin has been calling me his girlfriend since we would study together? Maybe she’s been getting her times mixed up. Not to be rude, but she was getting older.

“Ahjumma, what else would Hongbin say about me?” I pressed.

“Oh all kinds of things. You know he was rather jealous that you were living with another man, but now that you are living together he seems to be doing much better. He said that man you lived with was a womanizer. Living with you while he had a girlfriend in and out. How did you put up with that?”

Jealous of Hakyeon? “Ahjumma, do you know a lot about Hongbin? Like what he was like when he was younger? Where he’s from? Stuff like that?”

“He’s never told you any of that? For as long as you have been dating you should know.” She still believed we had been dating for years.

I tried my best not to lose my composure. I needed to stay calm and get as much information as I could out of her.

“No. He won’t talk about it. He can be kind of mysterious sometimes. That’s why I was wondering if he’s told you anything.”

“No actually. He’s only ever mentioned you ever since he started coming here. I would always hear about his beautiful girlfriend and how you two would study together.”

That was it. No one knew a thing about Hongbin except for what little he has told about himself. I’m lucky to know his age. Or is that even his real age? More questions arose as I watched Ahjumma bag up my order for me. She probably saw the distress on my face because she placed her hand on my cheek.

“Sweetie don’t frown like that. You’ll get wrinkles.”

I smiled at her and nodded. “Thank you for the food. Hongbin will be so surprised.”

“Send him my greetings.” I waved to her as I walked out the door.

I felt extremely paranoid the short walk back to Hongbin’s apartment. Was he going to pull up any second? Was he already back at the apartment? Why was I feeling this way? It’s Hongbin. That’s exactly the issue at the moment – Lee Hongbin.

I opened the door to that apartment to find it empty, just how I left it. I sighed and set the food in the oven so it would stay warm. I pulled down some plates and set the table so everything was ready when Hongbin got home. Ahjumma’s information still clouded my brain though. I needed to tell Hakyeon. I knew what he would say but I needed to talk about it with someone.

“Inhye, what’s up?” He answered.

“Oppa….”

Hearing the distress in my voice, Hakyeon immediately got defensive. “What happened, Kim Inhye? What did he do? I warned you about him.”

“It’s what he didn’t do.” I then told Hakyeon everything I had observed over the past few days. From Hongbin and mine’s dispute to what the Ahjumma had told me. This seemed so unreal.

“I’m coming to pick you up right now whether you like it or not and you’re going to stay here for a while. I don’t want you in that apartment.” Hakyeon said.

“But what about Mihyun?”

Hakyeon didn’t answer right away. “That’s over with. She’s at her parents’ house.”

“Hakyeon I’m so sorry.”

“We both knew this was going to happen, Inhye. She knows I have feelings for someone else now.”

I didn’t respond. My head turned towards the front door that was opening. Hongbin stepped inside and took off his shoes.

“Hold on.”

“Is he there now? Inhye, I’m still coming to get you! I’ll call you when I’m outside!”

“Bin-ah, how was your day?” I asked, holding my hand over the speaker of the phone and holding it to my chest.

“It wasn’t that bad but they have me running around because I’m the new guy.” He loosened his tie and sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

“I stopped at the restaurant and got you some take out. I just got back so it’s all still fresh. Let me finish this phone call and I’ll serve it for you.” I held up my phone to show him I was talking to someone.

“Is that Hakyeon? I heard he broke up with Mihyun and she moved out.”

“How did you hear that?” Where would Hongbin have heard that if Hakyeon just told me?

“I saw Mihyun today when I was on a coffee run. She told me they weren’t working out and she was going to stay at her parents’ house.” He got himself some water to drink as he spoke. He wasn’t making eye contact with me at all and this made me even more nervous. “I’ll serve the food. Go finish talking.”

I nodded and ran off to my room and quickly closed the door. “Oppa, did you hear any of that? Oppa are you still there?”

“Inhye, I am in a taxi right now. What is the address? I’m on my way right now. I don’t want you there.”

I told Hakyeon the address. “Oppa, I don’t know what to think.”

“Well you’re obviously freaking out, because you have been calling me oppa this whole time.” He forced a chuckle. I know he was trying to lighten the mood but it wasn’t working.

“Look just text me when you get here. I’ll tell him I’m going out with you tonight to help you get over Mihyun and we’ll go from there, okay?” I hung up with him and took a deep breath before stepping out of the room.

Hongbin sat at the dinner table already munching on the food. “Who was that?” He asked.

“That was Hakyeon. I’m going to go out with him tonight to help him get over Mihyun. He’s taking it really bad.”

Hongbin just nodded and continued to eat. I figured he just tired from work and didn’t feel like talking at the moment. I got myself a glass of water and sat down to join him. Neither of us said a word as we finished the food and washed the dishes together. My phone went off on the table and I quickly dried my hands to answer it.

“I’m here. Hurry down.” Hakyeon said.

“Okay be down in a bit.” I replied. “I have to get going. Hakyeon is downstairs.”

“You’re going out like that?” Hongbin’s voice was cold.

“Yes. What’s wrong with how I look?”

Hongbin waved his hand, dismissing the conversation. Why was he being so mean? Was he really just tired? I grabbed my jacket and my purse and rushed towards the door.

“What time are you going to be back?” I shrugged in response. “Well you know how improper it is to go out with another man while your boyfriend is home? People will think you’re cheating.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business if I go out with my friend or not. And you don’t have to be so y about it. “I opened the apartment door. “I’ll see you later.”

“It’s because Hakyeon is finally returning your feelings now isn’t it? You feel into his trap to get you to move back in.”

I closed the door and looked back at Hongbin. He had a crazy look in his eyes, similar to the looks I had seen before that have tainted his beautiful face. This time it wasn’t hatred towards Hakyeon or frustration. The look was pure rage and I was the poor victim that was in direct fire.

A/N: Ah! Another update so soon! I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I hope to update again soon! Thank you so much for reading!!