I sit unmoving as the servants place platters of porcini mushroom and garbanzo bean dips, oven-baked black sea bass, racks of lamb with ricotta cheese, and foie gras with black truffles on the table. After about 20 minutes, the servants enter the room again and place rich, beautifully decorated desserts on the table. This entire meal costs more than the rent on my apartment. It’s obvious that Kai is totally comfortable with eating such an expensive dinner.

A servant steps out of the kitchen, cradling a tall, translucent bottle. “Would you care for some wine, young master?” he asks Kai.

“Thank you,” Kai watches me with piercing eyes as he swills the wine in his glass and takes a sip.

“Delicious,” he murmurs. His husky voice sends shivers down my spine.

“I see you haven’t touched the food,” Kai remarks. “Why not? Is something eating at you?” He cracks a smile at his own joke.

What a cheeseball. That was ing pathetic.

“Sojin,” he drawls, “if you don’t eat, then you won’t be able to leave, baby.”

Baby? I have to struggle to keep my stoic demeanor, but it is paying off. As I continue to stay unresponsive, I can sense Kai’s irritation increasing.

“Since you won’t eat by yourself, looks like I’ll have to help you out. Sojin, get over here.” Kai condescendingly beckons me with a finger. When I don’t budge, he sighs heavily.

“That’s too bad,” he says in mock-sympathy, and withdraws a white Galaxy S4 from his pocket. “Yes, I have some personnel changes to make,” he tells the person on the other end of his call. “Dismiss Park Sojin from her position as a paid intern in the Biotechnology Research Department. Oh, fire the rest of her team as well.”

“You can’t do that!” I screech, shooting up from my chair. “Fire me, but don’t fire Dr. Zhang or Dr. Ahn or anyone else!”

“That’s what you get,” Kai mouthes to me, a nasty smile on his face. “Yes, all of them. Inform them of their dismissal tomorrow morning...,” He trails off as he sees me walk to him.

“Fine,” I whisper, my chest aching in despair. “I’m... sorry. I’ll do what you want.”

A moment passes before a victorious smirk appears on Kai’s face.

“Actually, cancel that,” he tells the person on the phone. “I’ve changed my mind. Yes, I won’t be calling you again tonight... hopefully.” Kai shoots me a meaningful look. “Good night.”

Fear rises up in the pit of my stomach. What is he going to do to me?

“You finally decided to be obedient,” Kai traces the contours of my face with a finger, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.

“This is what happens when you don’t eat by yourself, Sojin- I’ll just have to feed you myself.”

When I grab a chair from the side of the table, Kai chuckles and shakes his head. “You won’t be sitting there,” he tells me, and pats his lap.

Oh no. He doesn’t possibly think I’m going to do it. He can’t. But when Kai’s expectant expression begins to turn into one of displeasure, I slowly inch towards him.

“Straddle me. Hands around my neck.” Kai instructs. As he takes a fork and spears a glazed strawberry with whipped cream from a shot glass of fruit, I can see his anticipating expression. The sick bastard is actually excited about this. My hate for him flares.

“Now say ahh,” Kai purrs, guiding the strawberry into my mouth. I reluctantly open my mouth and take the strawberry in my mouth. Kai purposefully moves the fork a little bit to the side so I get a spot of whipped cream on my lips.

“It looks like you need help cleaning up,” he speculates. The next thing I know he’s placed his lips on mine and drawn me into fiery kiss. His tongue traces my lips as he roughly on my mouth. I try to push Kai away but he keeps a firm grip on my shoulders, securing me into place. When it feels like I’m going to pass out from lack of air, Kai finally detaches.

“There. All clean!” His eyes smolder with victory and loathing and lust all at the same time, mixed up in a blur of emotions that I can barely decipher. My body is frozen with shock. Kai’s always verbally tormented me, but he just violated me right now.

He obviously thinks nothing of what he did, however, because he’s eager to get the next strawberry on the fork.

Don’t cry, Sojin, don’t cry, I silently chant to myself as I shut my eyes and open my mouth. Do it for Dr. Zhang and Dr. Ahn and Dr. Hwang and Dr. Byun. They all love you. Stay strong for them.

The fruit never enters my mouth.

Instead, a pair of firm arms slides up my back and grips my arms.

I slowly open my eyes. Kai is staring at me with a strange, unreadable expression.

“You’re trembling,” he remarks quietly.

I look down at my hands, afraid that Kai will see my face.

“Are you scared?” Kai asks softly.

Yes, of course I’m scared! I want to say. You’re doing these detestable things to me that I’m not comfortable with at all, but I have to allow you to do these things because I don’t want my coworkers at the lab to lose their positions! You’ve hurt me every single day by putting me down, turning the entire school on me. I tried to stay calm and ignore you, and tried to tell an adult to get it to stop. But no one listened to me.

Instead I simply stare at him, tears threatening to spill out of my eyes.

"Don't," Kai whispers. He tentatively cups my face with his warm hands. The act is supposed to be reassuring. Supposed to be.

"Sojin, I'm not going to hurt you," he tells me softly.

"It's a little too late for that," I say thickly, a lump forming in my throat. "Please, Kai. Why are you doing this to me?"

Now he's the one that doesn't reply.

"Tell me," I demand, my voice shaky. "Why?"

"Why don't you pay attention to me?" he asks.

"How can I not pay attention to you? You make my life hell every day."

"But why do you act like you don't care?"

"I don't want to let your actions affect me."

He doesn't say anything, only holds me against his chest. He places his head on my shoulder.

"Jongin," he suddenly whispers in my ear. "Call me Jongin."

"Why? Will you stop if I call you Jongin?" I say dully.

"Please," he murmurs.

My eyes widen. This is the first time he's asked me of anything so tenderly. I don't like it. What hidden motives is he hiding behind his soft words?

"What are you trying to do?" I say warily. "One moment you're taunting me, the next you're embracing me. What do you want, Kai?"

He gently tucks a strand of hair behind my hair. "You."

I scoff, pushing his hand away. "Yeah, right. So you can embarrass me even more? You're better than me in every way. What more could you gain from continuing to mess with me?"

Kai just stares at me blankly.

"You're sick, Kai." I tell him angrily. "You're awful. I hate you. I hate everything that you've done. There's no point in me pleading you to stop torturing me because you won't listen. I can't wait till we graduate, so I never have to see you again."

And I push myself off of Kai and storm out the door.

A/N: This chapter was kinda embarrassing to write >//< 

And it ended up snowing.