She ruled out ax murderer. Why would a murderer need to hire a journalism student (unless he wanted to kill her.) Maybe he was using her as a guinea pig for future GrandLens products. Or could he possibly be luring her in for the sake of power and authority?

Or maybe, he really needed her help.

She shook her head and walked faster, her canvas sneakers beating relentlessly against the pavement. The world was corrupt, people used to think knowledge was to understand the world, now people use it to ruin each other. What could he be using her for? As that thought flashed past her eyes, she turned the corner. She felt her whole body start to recoil, as her face dove nose first into a navy collar that smelled like mint tea leaves and aftershave.

Myungsoo steadied her by his free hand, and chuckled. “Are you okay?”

Her whole body went rigid at the sight of him, her knuckles curling white against her notebooks. He looked so normal to her, contrary to the last time they had met. He wore a navy v-neck and jeans, without the sleek suit and tie, he looked like the average student. It was strange, and nearly foreign for Suji. Only after they met, they seem to run into each other during school.

“I’m fine.” she replied breathlessly, almost cursing herself for looking so naive in his presence.

“Sounds like you’re in a rush,” he commented, taking in her wind-fresh form. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yes, boss.” she replied automatically.

“Myungsoo is fine.” he waved off handedly, turning the corner for his next class.

As quick as they crashed, they parted. Suji’s hand flew to her cheeks, checking the warmth which adorned her usually placid face. She internally groaned, and slipped between the glass doors of the student center. She had the feeling that his face would appear more frequently in her day, it was only a matter of time until his face invaded her life. A pleasurable sigh escaped her lips as her body met with the cool air conditioning, relieving her from sticky, sweaty arms.

Her eyes quickly scanned the room for her best friend, who was elegantly propped up against the wall, his lean legs criss-crossed under his laptop. She had  to wait an extra second to make sure he was real, sometimes she wondered if Sungjong was birthed right from a high school romance comic. She walked over and snatched  the laptop from under him, holding it in her position beside him.

“Took you long enough.” he said dryly, his phone in his palm, a motion completely automatic. “I saw you talk to the chaebol outside.”

She shrugged, trying to keep calm. “What of it?” she asked, her fingers mindlessly typing on their own.

“Nothing,” he replied nonchalantly, “it’s just strange to see you so, complacent.”

“Complacent?” she spat, insulted.

In a way, Suji’s amity was selfish, in order to avoid more confrontation than needed. After she had completed Myungsoo’s first task, she had earned a well-deserved pat on the back. He had promptly stated that they’d be meeting the following week, and dropped her off to her apartment. She had been complacent then, out of obligation, because he was her boss and he technically had just paid off her rent. It was an instantaneous lift off her shoulders that she had to bear on her own for months, and with a flick of his wrist, he was able to make all the pain go away.

“For once, you were.” Sungjong said. “What did he tell you out there?”

“Nothing important.”

Sungjong rolled his eyes, unconvinced. “He told you something. You’re all red.”

“No I’m not!”

“Defense mechanism: denial.” he shook his head.

It was no use hiding anything from Sungjong, nothing went past him. “He just told me to call him by his first name, that’s all.”

“At least he doesn’t have a strange kink for you to call him boss,” Sungjong reasoned. “but I thought you quit.”

“I never said I would.”

“I told you to.”

“Well, you’re not in control of me.” she bit out, obviously deterred by his overprotectiveness. “I can take care of myself, I’m tired of you thinking you need to constantly watch over me.”

“He’s letting you call him by his first name, he’s obviously trying to get closer to you for his benefit.”

“Am I that unlikable, that no one wants to be my friend but you?” she muttered lowly, her eyebrows knitted together. Her eyes reflected pain and confusion, suddenly feeling firey and frustrated all over again. She stood up, and ungracefully dropped the laptop back on Sungjong’s lap. “I’m not a social butterfly like you, Sungjong. But I’m not impossible, it may be a shock that I’m spending time with someone other than you,” her gaze was relentless, burning into the shock of Sungjong’s delicately sculpted almond eyes. “But at the very least, Myungsoo’s been nothing but nice to me. And I don’t need your opinions to mess that up.”

She roughly grabbed her knapsack and slung it over her shoulder, a little too rough that her body slightly teetered under the weight of her books, and walked away from him.

Suji was already deep within the breezeway before a hand grabbed her shoulder. “Sungjong, I need to be alone,” she shoved the hand away, only to meet eye to eye with another. “Elevator guy.” she breathed out in surprise.

“Hey,” he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the wall. “you remember me?”

“From the company, you study psych.” he smiled a little, genuinely pleased that she remembered him.

“I’m Sunggyu.”

“Suji.” she sighed, tugging at the loose strands of her head in embarrassment. “You heard me back there, talking to my friend.”

“It wasn’t exactly easy to ignore.”

“Well, as you can tell, I’m cruel and awful to my best friend.” she threw her hands up in the air, clearly done. “Go ahead and tell everyone, because maybe Sungjong was right. I’m just not cut out for companionship, especially to people like,” the enchanted name Kim Myungsoo escaped her breath when she noticed how disinterested Sunggyu seemed by her confession.

“Not with that attitude, you won’t.” Sunggyu said bluntly, leading her into the café. They sat down across each other in a table barely the size of a laundry basket.

“Do you need to talk to me?” she asked slowly.

He nodded crisply. “Sitting down relaxes the muscles, which leads to an increase in the production of endorphins,” it was as if he were speaking to himself for self-reassurance. “and will make myself feel more at ease.”

“So we’re sitting here, for you?”

“Precisely.”

“And why are we sitting here?”

“Because,” he spoke as if it were the most natural thing, “you’re spending more and more time with another.”

“If you’re just going to chastise me about how I don’t deserve Myungsoo’s company or he’s just out to ruin me,” her feet were bouncing and ready to stand up, “I’ve already heard it.”

He gently grazed her wrist, “No, I’m asking you to be the way you are now. Like this.”

“It’s a strict relationship, Sunggyu-sshi.”

“I know, and Myungsoo’s a very precious dongseang to me.” he confessed, lacing his fingers together. “And I want you to know, that what you’re getting yourself into is not some sort of sick joke.” he could’ve cut his self-established tension with a knife. “So for the next few weeks, or however long it takes, just please bear with him. I’d be truly grateful for that.”

How bad was this case of his?

“I’ll vouch for him in saying, what people think about him isn’t true. He has no intentions of hurting anyone. It’s true that he’s diligently taking over the company, but nothing more.” he leaned back in his chair, as if he were a proud father praising his son. “He’s Myungsoo, after all. He doesn’t need anyone to get what he wants.”

“Then why did he hire me?”

“Almost everything.” Sunggyu corrected shortly. “And by the way,” the way he cut into his thoughts so willingly seemed to imply something else, something more raw and emotional. “I think he wants to be your friend, too.”

“Why?” when Myungsoo probably had other people internally wishing to be even close to his plane of vision. He definitely had lots of friends, and even if he didn’t, someone would be longing after him regardless.

“Oh, didn’t he tell you?” and by any means, the way Sunggyu uttered it so saucily, implied that this thing wasn’t supposed to be told. “He said that your smile could end the Korean war and cure cancer—at the same time.” Suji couldn’t help but laugh about how ridiculous that sounded, he was totally lying, but it confirmed Sunggyu’s suspicions. “And from what I see, he was right.”

Her thumb traced circles in the freshly washed table, the heat building up between the cool linoleum. Instead of another sarcastic response, she decided to concede. It wasn’t every day she was complemented that her smile could solve nation-wide disputes. “Thank you for letting me know, Sunggyu-sshi.”

“And I was wrong about you. You’re not half-bad.” he gave a wry grin.

“Why, what did you think of me before?” she asked, genuinely piqued.

“I thought you were an antisocial ice princess.” he shrugged as if it were the most nonchalant thing to tell a woman, “and maybe a bit of a brat.”

“A bit?”

“Okay, maybe a lot.”

A smile creeped on her lips, amused. “Only on the weekends.”