I spent the majority of my social sciences class that afternoon staring holes through my notebook. I could feel almost every pair of eyes in the classroom glued to me, including Jonghyun’s. So I sat slouched in my seat beside Amber at the back of the class and, for once, I didn’t raise my hand to answer any questions. I slipped off to my final class of the day the second the bell rang so no one could talk to me, but the stares continued even in my math class. And, when I finally made it to my locker after the last bell of the day, Jonghyun was waiting for me as promised.

I gave him a disgruntled look. “I sort of hate you right now,” I informed him glumly, opening my locker.

He chuckled, leaning nonchalantly against the locker next to mine. “And why is that?”

“Everyone has been staring at me since lunchtime,” I complained, collecting the books I would need for homework. “Everyone thinks we’re dating.”

“And that’s a bad thing why?” he demanded, plucking my books out of my arms before I could protest.

I glared at him. Even at my last school, where I hadn’t been a complete social enigma, no one had ever carried my books for me. “Because we’re not,” I pointed out acidly.

He simply shrugged and led the way out to the parking lot. He was driving his McLaren Roadster that day, which was my favorite of all his cars. He held open the passenger side door for me like a gentleman even though there were loads of people staring, and then he slid behind the wheel and we were off towards his house.

“Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?” I asked suspiciously as we drove. “Last week at school, you wouldn’t be caught dead even talking to me and now you’re fine with people seeing us leave together in your car?”

He was silent for a moment, as if trying to gather his thoughts coherently. “What you did for me, Kitten…I’m not sure that even my closest friends would’ve done the same. I owe you more than just my open friendship for that, I just don’t know quite how to repay you. Besides.” He flashed me one of his signature cocky grins. “I’m so popular that nothing can ruin my reputation.”

I couldn’t help but laugh even though he was being disgustingly egotistical.

When we arrived at his house, he had Mr. Kang bring us some snacks and then we shut ourselves up in his private sitting room, which I was quickly growing comfortable with after the amount of time I’d spent in it. He shrugged out of his blazer, loosened his tie, and got comfortable on the couch.

I crossed my arms over my blouse and gave him a flat look. “I thought we were here to work on our project?”

He grinned lazily at me and flipped on the enormous television. “Can’t we just hang out? You take school way too seriously, Kitten.”

I scowled at him for a long moment, contemplating just leaving and going home, but then he smiled again and patted the seat beside him and so I sighed and sat down. It wasn’t like I had a television to watch back home, so I may as well watch when given the opportunity.

Jonghyun had turned it to a drama, and I got in pretty easily. It wasn’t long before we’d adjusted to a more comfortable position with me half-reclining on the couch with my legs in Jonghyun’s lap and him lying with his head against my legs.

His hand rested casually on my thigh, like that was the most natural place in the world for him to put his hand. His palm, pressed against my bare skin, burned like fire and I had to resist the urge to squirm. I kept my eyes trained on the television and tried to concentrate on the drama, but my focus was quickly drifting.

His hand slowly slid up my thigh, brushing aside the pleats of my uniform skirt, pushing the fabric up to the junction of my thigh and groin so my whole leg was exposed. He ran his thumb over the bandage there, staring intently as if he could see the extent of the injury I had sustained on his behalf.

“Does it hurt?” he asked softly. He gripped my thigh with both hands, the tips of his long fingers dangerously close to the edge of my , and he put his lips ever-so-gently against the gauze that covered my stitches.

I in a breath, eyes squeezing shut at the strange sensation. One of my hands automatically came to tangle in his hair, trying to steady myself. “No,” I finally managed to say, my voice embarrassingly higher than normal and my heart racing. “Himchan-oppa has been making me take pain medication, so it’s not unbearable.”

“I’m sorry you got shot,” he murmured against my thigh, his breath warm and enticing.

The hand that wasn’t laced through his hair gripped the blunt edge of the couch cushion as I struggled to keep the mood light. “Eh, I’ll live,” I joked. “Plus it makes for a pretty interesting story when it leaves a scar.”

He chuckled. “And what about this scar?” His hands released my thigh and began to push my blouse up, all the way up until he reached the bottom of my plain bra. Then his lips moved to the jagged three-inch long scar running up my scar. “What interesting story gave you this scar?”

It took me a minute to voice my answer. The way his fiery lips were ghosting over my bare skin was very distracting. “Knife fight in second year of middle school,” I finally managed to say.

He arched his eyebrows at me quizzically, meeting my gaze even as his lips continued their agonizingly slow ascent up my side, memorizing every detail of my marred skin. His eyes were lusty, there was no doubt about that, but there was also something else there, something deeper, something that I just couldn’t quite wrap my mind around in regards to Kim Jonghyun.

“I got into a fight with a girl over something silly and she pulled a knife on me,” I admitted, rather embarrassedly. “I was something of a problem child at my last school. I got into fights a lot.”

He chuckled, returning his attention to ravishing the scar on my side. He had added his tongue to the mix now and it was taking all my willpower not to writhe against the couch cushions. “You know, at first I never would’ve believed you, but now…” I let out a gasp as he sank his teeth into my tender flesh. “Who would’ve thought the know-it-all honor student was this type of girl?”

He finished with the scar on my side and moved to the set of cigarette burns on my neck, just below my left ear. There were three of them, of varying degrees, set in something of a circle.

“What about these?” he whispered, kissing and at one of the most sensitive parts of my body. “What are these from?”

The hand that had been clutching the couch cushion released it in favor of gripping the front of Jonghyun’s dress shirt as jolts of electricity went through my oversensitive body. He used his teeth to scrape along the scars and then he bit down, hard. I gasped with a mixture of pain and pleasure.

“Ex-boyfriend,” I gasped out.

Again, Jonghyun pulled back enough to give me a quizzical look as if wanting me to elaborate. Only this time his face was close enough to my own that I could feel his warm breath on my face. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“I was too sassy for his liking,” I muttered, trying to sound casual when in fact the event had been fairly traumatic. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

He left my neck alone and it felt cold and throbbing in the absence of his warm and talented mouth. He pulled up to look at me properly, his eyes dark, his lips twitching up in a smirk. His hand reached out tentatively, the pads of his fingers brushing ever-so-softly across my lips. “What about here?” he whispered, voice hoarse and thick. “Do you have any scars here?”

My heart was pounding so hard that I knew he could hear it; I could hear his as well. He was draped across my body by this point, our chests pressed together. There was a spiky hardness pressed into my uninjured thigh. He didn’t seem embarrassed by his arousal, though. On the contrary, he seemed eager for me to know just how much he wanted me. He rolled his hips, pressing his clothed into my supple flesh.

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how, didn’t know what to say. My mind was reeling and my chest was heaving and his ing was pressed against me and I finally said, “N-not that I know of…”

He smirked, his fingers on my lips becoming more insistent. “What a pity,” he whispered, and he was so close that I could ing taste him.

I’m not proud to admit it, but I was the one who closed the miniscule distance between us and crashed our lips together needily. I hated how desperate he made me, how out of control, but there was really no question about doing it. My only consolation was that it wasn’t our first kiss; he had initiated that one.

He didn’t seem at all surprised by the fact that our mouths were currently attached, like he’d been waiting for it all along. He kissed me back fervently, teeth tugging at my lower lip as he silently asked for entrance. I wanted to refuse him but in the end I couldn’t, and so he his way into my mouth and dominated me at once.

Jonghyun’s kiss was, like everything else about him, pushy and demanding. He pinned my arms down to the soft couch cushions and ravaged my mouth, using lips and tongue and teeth. He nibbled and and bit and tugged, leaving me a panting mess that craved more, more, more.

When he pulled back, his eyes were shining brightly. We sat and stared at one another silently for a long moment, me splayed against the couch cushions with my chest still heaving. I had no idea what to say to him after that. His look as he gazed down at me was unreadable, his cheeks tinged pink.

“Be my girlfriend,” he said suddenly, surprising me. It was more of an order than a request, though I wasn’t exactly sure that it was meant that way. He was just used to getting his own way.

I propped myself up on my elbows, giving him my most incredulous look. “Are you insane, Kim Jonghyun?”

He looked more than a little hurt that I wasn’t jumping for joy or showering him with kisses. “Why not?”

“Because a month ago, you wouldn’t have looked twice at me other than to threaten or bully me,” I reminded him. “I was just the poor scholarship student to you.”

He pouted. “That’s not fair. That was before I knew you. Now I know how smart and funny and amazing you are…” He trailed off, pressing more tender kisses to my neck, biting and .

While his lips on my skin were very distracting, I wasn’t about to give in. “That’s beside the point.”

“Then what is the point, Kitten?” he demanded, sitting back with an exasperated smile on his face.

I stared at him for a moment. Since when had he become so attractive? Surely he hadn’t been this good-looking when we’d first been paired together in Ms. Lee’s class. I sighed. “We’re from two different worlds, Jonghyun. Can you even imagine what people will say at school if they found out I was your girlfriend?”

“I don’t care what they say,” he insisted stubbornly, wrapping his strong arms around my shoulders and refusing to let go. “I just want to be with you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and rested my head on his shoulder briefly, wondering why I was the one who had to be reasonable about all this. “It’s not just the kids at school, and you know it. What about your dad?”

At the mention of his father, Jonghyun’s body stiffened. “What about him?” he mumbled defensively. “He likes you. You saved his life.”

“He may like me as the girl who saved his life, but he’s sure as hell not going to accept me as his son’s girlfriend,” I pointed out, voice muffled since my face was hidden in his shoulder. “And the media would have a field day with it. You’re too important of a person to date a nobody like me.”

“You’re not a nobody,” he insisted through clenched teeth.

I sighed again. “I appreciate you saying that, but it doesn’t change my answer.”

He pulled back again to look at me, both incredulous and sad, like he couldn’t understand how I was saying no. “You’re…really refusing to date me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I’m sorry, but I just…can’t. I just can’t, Jonghyun.”

We sat there for a long moment in silence, his legs on either side of my waist, staring into each other’s eyes. It was like he was searching for weakness in mine, but I wouldn’t let any show.

We were still sitting in that position when Mr. Kang came into the sitting room without announcing himself first, a cordless telephone in hand.

He stopped and gaped at us, shocked at seeing something so intimate between Jonghyun and I. I could sense his disapproval of me even though I was too embarrassed to even look in his direction.

Jonghyun, on the other hand, seemed annoyed rather than embarrassed at the interruption. “What do you want, Kang?” he snapped.

Mr. Kang bowed very low. “I apologize profusely for entering without permission, young master,” he said, nose practically grazing the floor. “I’ve just had an urgent call from your father. He wishes for you to go see him at the hospital immediately. He says it’s very important.”

Jonghyun sighed heavily, untangling himself from me and getting to his feet. I was suddenly cold as his arms left me. “Fine,” he muttered. “Tell him I’m on my way.”

Mr. Kang nodded and left, making sure to shut the door behind him.

Jonghyun offered me his hand, helping me to my feet. “Come on,” he muttered, and he just sounded tired now. “I’ll give you a ride home.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said quickly, grabbing my things. “I can take the bus. Mr. Kang said it was urgent, so you should go to your father as soon as you can.”

“It’s not urgent. That old bastard just doesn’t want to wait,” Jonghyun grumbled, taking my hand without permission as we left the east wing and headed downstairs. “Let me take you home.”

“I’ll be fine, really,” I assured him. “Besides, I don’t think my friends have really forgiven you for the whole me-getting-shot fiasco, so it’s probably best if you avoid my neighborhood for a while.”

He gave me a long, hard look. “Fine,” he finally gave in. “But at least let me drive you to the bus stop.”

So I climbed into the front passenger seat of the McLaren Roadster and we were off. Neither of spoke during the five minute drive, both preoccupied with our own tumultuous thoughts.

The bus was just pulling up when we reached the stop, and I made to open my door but Jonghyun’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“I really like you Kitten,” he told me in a thick voice, his eyes betraying the hurt he felt.

I gave him a sad sort of smile and a chaste peck on the cheek. “I know. Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And I got out of the car and hurried to catch the bus. 

Sorry it's taken me so long to update! I moved to Korea last week so things have been very, very hectic for me lately. Things should start settling down soon though and I'll be able to start updating regularly again. <3