The clock struck eleven and Jiyong couldn’t sleep. He was pacing the living room back and forth, once in a while staring at the door expecting it to open.

 

“It’s late,” he said for the nth time. “Why am I even worried though?” he asked and dropped himself to the sofa where she usually slept. “That’s right, I’m not worried,” he said as he tried to relax on the sofa, sprawled on it. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes only to open it again and sit right up. “What if she’s kidnapped? Or harassed by a criminal?” he asked. More unwanted thoughts came flooding his mind that he didn’t dare to speak them out because of the shiver he was feeling right now on his spine.

 

Jiyong stood up then, finally deciding to look for her. He went to his closet and pulled out some cozy sweater, a scarf, and a mask to disguise himself. He was brisk-walking towards the door while putting on his coat. Suddenly, he heard the code being punched and he knew who it was on the door right now.

 

He panicked, staring from his right to left and towards his room. There’s no way she would catch me trying to go after her, he thought. He then looked back towards his room which felt like miles away from where he was standing and then back to the front door which was starting to open a little and then towards his clothes. He looked like really ready to go out to look for her with his warm clothes.

 

But he could see her already coming inside. Without much thought into his upcoming actions, he removed his scarf and threw it backwards to wherever and quickly get the sweater off his body and threw it away too.

 

By the time he finished, Dara was already inside and was staring at her in confusion as he was standing stiffly in the middle of the room with a stupid grin on his face.

 

“Wha—“

 

“I’m hungry,” he said the first thought that came to mind. He mentally slapped himself at his excuse at that time. He also belatedly realized he could have lied about going out at that time instead of going through all the trouble of throwing away his clothes just to escape her (might-be) suspicions. He realized he was just overthinking.

 

Hearing that, she started heading to the kitchen. “Were you waiting for me that long? I’m sorry it took me long. I wa—“ she cut herself off when she saw a piece of a scarf and sweater on the floor. She picked them up and stared back at Jiyong. “Why were these on the floor?”

 

“I… I… there was a cockroach in my closet,” he said.

 

“There are cockroaches in your apartment? We have to exterminate them. Where are they?”

 

When Dara passed by him, he held on to her arm to stop her. “No cockroaches anymore. I killed them myself,” he said, sweating profusely.

 

Dara stared back at him, wondering what the cause of him acting strangely was. She then looked down at the hand that was encircling her arm and then back at him. She then smiled widely. “Additional salary for me,” she said, raising her brows suggestively, taking a mental note of that fact.

 

Jiyong immediately let go of her and jumped back, making sure he was at least a meter away from her. However, from his jump, he was already more than five meters away from her. Too safe.

 

Dara laughed but Jiyong noticed that her laughter didn’t quite reach her eyes. Her eyes actually looked swollen like she was crying. “Go to your room or studio. I’ll call you if the food is ready,” she said, passing by him again.

 

Jiyong stared at her retreating back. “I’m not even hungry,” he said but went to his room, waiting for her to call for him. It would be weird to admit that he wasn’t actually hungry and just said that so that she wouldn’t be suspicious of him right?

 

However, a few minutes later, while Dara was almost done preparing his food and his cup of Hot Choco, she heard him screaming from his room. “DARAAAAAA!”

 

She immediately ran to his room, already nervous on what she would witness. What if there was danger – like a criminal climbing on to his window with a dagger or a serial killer coming out of his closet or something?

 

However, the moment she arrived in his room, she almost felt the second-hand embarrassment as he was standing on top of a chair, throwing his slipper to some cockroaches that were crawling on the floor.

 

“YAH! What are you standing there for? Kill them! AAAAAH!” he screamed again as one of the cockroaches flew to him. It was his most hated thing in the world.

 

Another one flew towards Dara so she screamed as well and ran towards his bed.

 

“YAH! GET OFF MY BED!” Jiyong exclaimed. He lost his balance and fell from the chair. The chair also stumbled back. Several cockroaches crawled on him that his screams filled the entire apartment (even his neighbor felt annoyed at the noise he was making). At that moment, there were at least five or four cockroaches crawling on him, excluding those disgusting flying ones.

 

Dara barked out a laugh but was cut short when another one flew towards her. However, she was able to slap it on the wall using her hand. She shrieked in disgust as she saw the gross thing squished on to her hand. She bent down to wipe them off on Jiyong’s bed.

 

“YAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Jiyong exclaimed as he joined her on his bed. The remaining cockroaches then flew towards them causing the two of them to shriek and hold on to each other, literally hugging each other as if it could really help.

 

Tears were already b on Dara’s eyes but it was mainly her who was killing the cockroaches by stepping on them and slamming them on the wall. Jiyong was able to kill some too when he fell on his and a cockroach was caught squished.

 

After a while of chaos, there weren’t remaining cockroaches and Dara and Jiyong dropped to the bed. Jiyong felt a cockroach he was lying on so he picked it up and threw it away not without being disgusted at it, of course.

 

The both of them panted for air and sighed in relief as they decided to stay down with their eyes directed on the ceiling. Laughter slowly built up and bounced back on the four walls of the room.

 

When the laughter subsided, Dara decided to speak. “I thought you said you killed them.”

 

Jiyong panted and said. “I lied. I didn’t see the cockroaches in the closet,” he said and laughed louder.

 

Dara was about to ask why he lied but she decided to let it go. “And, you also called me by my name for the first time.”

 

Jiyong laughed awkwardly. “You must have misheard. I called you Dora, not Dara.”

 

“HAH!” Dara turned to him as she was glad she caught him in the act of him knowing her name. She was about to accuse him and say: ‘You knew my name!’ but her tongue seemed tied as she realized how close their faces were from each other, the tip of their noses almost touching.

 

Jiyong’s eyes also widened as he also realized their position. His cheeks also flushed when he saw Dara’s cheeks turning pink.

 

Before things got awkward though, Dara got up and ran to the doorway before she turned to him again. “You violated the one-meter rule again! HAH!” she exclaimed before running outside to fetch the broom. “That was awkward,” she whispered to herself.

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

Day 26

 

It was past nine when Dara woke up and she was practically panicking while she prepared for the breakfast, running around the kitchen looking for ingredients and such. After a while of panic, she realized why there wasn’t a voice nagging her around and that was the time she realized that he might still be sleeping at this time.

 

She tried listening through his door but heard nothing. She strained to listen but she couldn’t hear even a faint snore from the other side, and he was known for snoring so much in sleep.

 

“What are you doing?” a voice came behind her.

 

Dara let out a shriek. “You scared me!” she exclaimed, clutching on to her chest.

 

“What were you doing?” Jiyong asked again.

 

“You’ve been awake before I did?” Dara asked.

 

Jiyong nodded. “You looked like you were tired so I didn’t wake you up so I decided to go to the studio to kill some time.”

 

Dara’s eyes widened. “Do you have a fever?” she asked, almost going to touch his forehead to feel his temperature but immediately withdrew it. “You’re kind today.”

 

Jiyong shrugged. “I’m actually kind the more you get to know me.”

 

“That’s a great idea. I want to get to know you,” she said and immediately flinched at how her words sounded like. “I mean, we still have seventy-four days together. We might as well try to, you know, treat each other better.”

 

Jiyong headed to the kitchen as he waited for the breakfast. For some reason, Dara felt restricted and her actions felt limited. It was as if she felt heavy and could almost feel his stares burning through her back.

 

Why the fcuk am I feeling awkward all of a sudden? She thought. She then remembered what happened last night with their noses almost touching. Her cheeks flushed and she shook her head as if it would shake off the memory.

 

“YAH! DORA-YAH, ARE YOU NOT DONE YET? I’M STARVING!” he nagged.

 

“YES, YOUR MAJESTY,” she said as she put down the food in front of him. She pulled another chair and sat on it across him.

 

“There’s nothing interesting about me,” he said while he started munching on his breakfast.

 

“At least say something about your family and maybe your life as a celebrity.”

 

“Well, I have my mom who’s operating a restaurant in Seoul. My father is a manager of a villa I gave my parents as an anniversary gift. I have a noona. Her name is Dami and she owns an online store for clothes. And…” he trailed off. “That’s about it. And oh, I have a dog named Gaho. He’s staying at the villa with my parents.”

 

“That’s it?” she asked as he nodded.

 

“I’m more interested in your life,” he said. “I seem to have crossed the line before when I…” he trailed off, his hand midair while holding the chopsticks. He then ate the meat and continued, “…when I asked you just how exactly poor you were.”

 

Hearing this, Dara couldn’t help but smile. Although it wasn’t really an apology, she thought it was almost considered as one.

 

“Well, I have been in Seoul to continue studying my university course to earn my diploma. However, I wasn’t able to finish my final year because I couldn’t pay for the tuition fees. So I stopped and looked for several jobs to earn money. I met my bandmates even before I stopped my university schooling and so it was an additional source of income for me, playing with the band. I also do busking, being a waitress in a café, and a lot more,” she started.

 

“Why did you once say that your bandmates are your only family here in Seoul?” he asked.

 

Dara’s heart warmed as she heard that. He really did listen to her even though most of their conversations were just made up of insults and such. “I was going to that. So, I’m originally from Busan where people humbly and simply live life. People in villages know each other. We’re friends with each other. I studied my first few years of university there. But I wasn’t satisfied with their education system and I was an ambitious person. So I tried my luck here, much to Omma’s dismay. I didn’t ask permission from them. I just came here with just my money in hand. I just left a note for them.”

 

“Why did you do that? You could have asked her. She might have permitted you to go, even may be supporting you.”

 

“Impossible. We were poor enough. She couldn’t support me even if the fish she sold in the market would be sold out every day for a year. Most of her income would go to my sister who’s sickly and she would put some to the side for tuition fees if ever they would go to school. They should have been in high school but they’re stand-by at home. I feel so bad for them,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “That’s why I wanted to finish school immediately so that I could send them to school. They’re missing a lot.”

 

“Do they know you stopped your education?”

 

She shook her head. “I wanted to tell them but me running away from home was already too much to take for my mother. I want to make her proud. So I’ll be continuing what I had started and at the end of the day, they’ll be proud of me.”

 

“With how hardworking you are, they will be,” he said.

 

They already finished their breakfast with their plates empty but nobody among them decided to leave. Both of them were immersed at the story.

 

Dara smiled at him. “Thank you.”

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, where’s your father?”

 

The atmosphere immediately turned sour and Jiyong regretted asking that question. He wanted to withdraw but she spoke:

 

“He left,” she said briefly. She looked down and wanted to cry but stopped herself. She didn’t want to look weak. She was always like this – not wanting to show how weak she was in front of everybody when in truth, inside, she was crumbling. “He left when our youngest brother was still a baby. I was seven years old then and I can still remember everything, from how he didn’t look back even once while he left to the indescribable pain I felt in my heart watching him leave while not being able to do anything because my mom was stopping me.

 

“I didn’t know what was happening then. I was closer with my Dad than I was with my Omma. He would take me to school. He would sing me to sleep. He would play with me no matter how senseless my games were with him. He would…” she trailed off as she finally felt a tear falling from her eyes. “…he would always push me on the swing after a long fight he had with Omma. He feels the happiest whenever I enjoy the swing, he would always say. So, I always accompany him during those down times he had.

 

“But I never realized how it was always his fault why they fought. He was cheating on Omma, I learned a few years later,” she paused as she was thinking of the bitter memories she had before. “But I can’t find the heart to get angry at him. Maybe because he was my father but I just can’t be angry at him even through the years.”

 

“Do you still want to meet him then?”

 

There was a bitter smile on her lips as she shook her head. “I miss him, yes. But I guess it’s better this way. I have a lot of shortcomings as a daughter to my Omma so I guess I’ll be focusing on that aspect. Also, going to the playground and playing at the swing alone once in a while helps every time I miss him,” she then laughed while wiping off her tears. “Sometimes, I play alone in the swings to the extent I’m imagining he was the one pushing me to go higher. The comfort the swings give me even reaches to the extent that every time I feel down, I would just go to a nearby playground and stay there for hours until I feel better.”

 

Dara sighed. It was a thorn pulled off her heart when she was able to talk about her family. She didn’t normally talk about it to anyone, not even her bandmates. It was a surprise that she could easily talk about it to a stranger she just met weeks ago, especially that this stranger was some jerk who pissed her off every day of her life ever since she met him.

 

Suddenly, she felt a hand on top of her head. It was just there until the hand messily ruffled her hair. She looked up and saw Jiyong looking down as if he was embarrassed about it.

 

“It’s alright. Don’t cry,” he said.

 

It made her smile; smile foolishly, giddily. It was a new side he had shown to her.

 

He pulled back his hand and folded it on the table, underneath his other hand. “I would like to apologize for my recklessness before. I should have tried to know the story before thinking of saying that.”

 

Dara wiped away her tears and her smile widened. She didn’t know what to say but she had completely forgiven him. Who knew that there was this side of him he was willing to show to her? She had always thought he was someone with a hard shell that didn’t want to show everyone what he truly was inside. He was a naturally mysterious man.

 

Seeing the lack of response, except for the stare and smile he had grown awkward to at that moment, he started to speak again. “Do you want to drink?”

 

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 

Laughter was shared. More tears were shed. Drinks were toasted. Funny stories were told.

 

But, the most important thing (for them, at least) was rules were broken, mostly the one-meter rule. But neither of them actually cared. It was the night to not mind about those things.

 

Because it was a night when friendship was built.

 

The next thing that happened was both of them falling asleep in the living room, with lots of chips, foods, and bottles of soju around them. Dara was on the sofa, sleeping uncomfortable with her stretched arm used as her pillow. Her legs were dangling on the edge, which were used by Jiyong as his own pillow.

 

“Sandara Park,” he muttered in his sleep, finally learning her name.