It was seven in the evening when the rain started to pour hard outside. It was raining really hard to the point that I can’t even hear my own breathing. I felt bad though since that means I could not get out. I don’t feel good at all, not when the thought of Kim Myungsoo coming to our house is always lingering in my mind, and that will happen any minute now.

My parents decided to fetch him from the airport, good thing that home works were always an effective reason to dismiss what you had committed to. It was almost nine when I finished my school stuff and the sound of beeping cars, signaling their arrival, roared outside.

Each passing second made my heart beat fast. I felt like I was going to run out of air and pass out because I was so nervous. This is my house, I should not be the one acting like this. The rain outside settled down a bit so I was able to hear their footsteps echoing the hall. I counted up to ten and with a knock on the door, Mom’s face showed up with a beaming smile. “We’re home, darling. Come down for dinner. Myungsoo’s waiting for you.”

I got up and lightly nodded before the wooden door closed once more. I bet he does.

                                                                                                ***

“You don’t have to worry about anything, Myungsoo-ah. We’ve talked to the university director yesterday and they assured me that everything will be taken care of. Anyway, our Suzy will be there to guide you. Right, darling?”

I glanced up from my now tortured steak and nodded once, taking a large gulp of my orange juice. What else can I do?

From my peripheral vision, I saw the corner of his lips rise. He was sitting across me, and at that moment I wanted the ground to eat me alive as I continue to resuscitate myself from his deadly stare. Myungsoo never fails to make me feel nervous with that dark orbs of his.

“She will?” Myungsoo asked as if he was reassuring.

Mom looked back at me with a kind smile while the potatoes became my next victim under the fork. “Of course. You don’t have to worry now. Treat this family like it’s your own.”

“That sounds cool.” He replied while I tried my best to choke down my food and got up first to avoid further questioning and answer portions. Yes, home works always do the magic trick with my parents.

                                                                                                                ***

“Suzy, honey. Please wake Myungsoo so we can have breakfast together.” That’s what greeted my morning before I headed to school, and being the good daughter, I have no other choice but to follow.

Myungsoo’s room is next to mine. It was the biggest guest room in the house and my parents, being generous, wanted him to stay there. I could not sleep well last night because he turned up the volume of the stereo so loud with metal songs I have never heard in my whole life, which makes me wonder why my parents didn’t even flinch to the noise, when they don’t like those things in the house at all. I don’t know if he’s messing up with me, or he just really can’t sleep.

I knocked thrice on the wooden door, loud enough to express how anxious I am. He did not respond. I knocked again, this time louder. Looks like he’s dead. For the third time, I knocked but I did not wait for his response and flung the door open.

I froze. I can’t even move from where I was standing. Myungsoo woke up, rubbing his large, drowsy eyes. It took him a few seconds to realize I was inside, and my cheeks burned more as I saw him smile.

He placed an arm behind his head and stared at me. “I guess you like what you are seeing.”

Kim Myungsoo is three-fourths on his bed, only a pair of boxers on and nothing else, and I stood there like an idiot just staring and could not move. What do you expect? I’ve never seen that too much exposed skin except in Biology class.

Finally, I managed to look away and kept my stance. “Wash yourself. Mom’s calling you for breakfast.”

“Ten more minutes, Mommy please.” Myungsoo buried his face on the pillow causing his voice to come out stifled cutely. I don’t even know why he did not get to my nerves that time. He even called me Mommy for crying out loud.

Today is a Monday and I saw another different side of Kim Myungsoo.

                                                                                                             ***

I leaned against the cold wall as I watched a group of squeaking girls glancing every five seconds at Myungsoo who’s currently standing at the end of the corridors, earphones plugged in while drinking a can of Cola.

In their eyes, he probably looked like a hot manga character brought to life but I cannot see anything else except a premature adult with delayed rebelling hormones.

“Suzy-ah, look. There’s a boy over there staring at you,” Sulli whispered as she stood beside me, a loud squeak following right after.

I glared at her and turned my attention back to the latest book I’m studying. It was a compilation for stars, comets, and heavenly bodies alike. Astronomy recently got into my liking and so it ate most of my time now when I’m not re-reading my lecture notes.

“Oh my gosh, Suze. He smiled! Wait, is he smiling because you’re ignoring him? Or maybe he’s smiling because I’m looking at him? Oh no, I still like Soohyun. But he’s cute, too. No, no. Soohyun is still number one for me.”

Damn you, Kim Myungsoo. I will never let you annoy me in this school. Not in this lifetime. Never.

I closed the book and tugged Sulli by the arm, asking her to accompany me for some snack in which she immediately accepted. She’s easy to read, gullible, and just too kind. An easy target as you can say, that’s why she became my friend.

“Sue!”

My hand gripped tighter around her arm and my walking became faster, pretending not to hear anything when I sensed he’s coming closer as the people passing by started to look past at us.

Sulli came to a full stop when he kept on calling me that freaking nickname so I was forced to stop too. “Is that the boy calling you? Sue? Do you know each other?”

Myungsoo reached us by that time, a playful smirk on his lips again, his hands resting inside his pockets. “Sue, I’m hungry. Take me to the cafeteria.”

“Wait. You’re a new student, right? Why are you calling her Sue? Do you two know each other?” Sulli managed to in, the look of confusion painted all over her face. The same face the group of squeaking girls had on theirs when their apple of the eye started giving attention to a boring student like me.

“Yeah, of course. We live in the same house.”

At that very moment, I wished that the floor would just magically open wide and eat me alive. Sulli’s greatest mission in life is to find the “right one” for me and Myungsoo’s ungrounded explanation just made everything worse.

I wish you can imagine how her face beamed and how a cheeky smile ran across her face. I have never seen her that happy.

“Oh. So, are you her boyfriend? A fiancé or something like that?” She asked again, that same tone she uses when her grade in Mathematics crossed the border line of hell. I rolled my eyes and looked away. This is starting to get out of hand.

He glanced at me once, and turned to look back at Sulli. “I think I’m not the one who should answer that.”

I froze from where I was standing as his reply hit me hard because I know that no matter how far I ran away from him, that no matter how I make alibis to avoid interacting with him, and that no matter how much I hate him, it will never change the fact that I have no other choice but to follow what has been already arranged years ago.