The afternoon carried on for a short while and after we ha eaten our dish, that I personally didn’t call a dish because it barely had anything on it, we decided to head home. As I gathered my bag and stood up, my mom stopped me. 

“Daehyun-ssi,” my mom called. “Would it be okay for you to take our daughter back to her apartment. You’ve been there before, would you mind taking her back?”

No! I wanted to squeal because Yongguk could be around and he could accidentally open the door when I got home. I also didn’t want Daehyun to get too familiar to where I lived, it would be inconvenient for Yongguk. 

“Mom, no.” I declined calmly. “He’s busy. I can just go home with you.”

“No, no.” Daehyun insisted. “Please. I wouldn’t mind at all. I’d like to get to know you better anyway.”

I internally sighed as my mom smiled in delight.

“That sets it.” she cheered. “Daehyun’s taking you home.”

Before leaving, I excused myself and went to the toilet, taking my phone out immediately and calling Yongguk. 

“Baby.” he said after a few rings. “Something wrong?”

“Yongguk listen to me carefully.” I whispered quickly. “I don’t have time to explain now but when I get home, don’t open the door and when you hear me open the door, go into the bedroom, okay?”

“Babe, what’s wr-“ he stuttered.

“I’ll tell you when I get home.” I said. “Do as I said, okay?” 

Quickly hanging up the phone I put it back into my bag and walked out of the toilet. I came back to the table and saw that both my parents and Daehyun’s dad were gone, leaving Daehyun waiting for me at the table. 

“Did our parents leave?” I asked.

“Yeah.” he laughed. “They were pretty eager to leave us alone.”

“Sorry about my mom.” I laughed. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had a boyfriend so she’s really eager.”

I felt a surge of guilt hit me when I said that. I had a boyfriend. One that I loved a lot but in order to protect him and to protect our relationship I had to lie.

“Oh really?” Daehyun said. “I thought someone as beautiful as you would have many admirers. But it’s alright. It’s been a while for me too.”

I nodded and we began walking out into the parking lot to his car. He approached a car that I gawked at and stood frozen in front of it. He had such an expensive car while I had a really old and lousy car. We were very different from each other. 

The car trip went on with conversations that I paid very small attention to because I was thinking of Yongguk. What if we happened to stumble across him. Getting to my apartment, Daehyun parked at the sidewalk and I unbuckled my seatbelt. 

“Thanks for the ride home, Daehyun-ssi.” I said. 

“Daehyun would be fine.” he laughed. “No need for formality.”

I nodded and got out of the car, hoping that Daehyun would just stay in the car but mentally cursed when I heard the other car door open as well. We walked to the front of the building and I turned back to face him. He shot me a small smile. 

“Thank you for taking me home.” I smiled slightly. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You too.” Daehyun nodded. “Hopefully I’ll see you sometime soon?”

Daehyun stretched his arm out and offered me his hand. I took it a shared with him a handshake although my hands were already shaking. I quickly turned around and dug my shaking, clammy hands into my purse to find my apartment key. I found the key and began opening the door, hoping that Yongguk heard the noise and went into the bedroom. The door clicked open and I held my breath. 

“Bye.” I said softly, making my way into the apartment. 

I closed the door and immediately locked the door. My heart pumped in my chest but I also felt it in my ears. I turned back around and leaned against the door, trying to calm myself down because it was all over. After regaining myself, I took off my shoes and made my way into the bedroom. 

“Yongguk?” I said softly, inspecting the room. “You here?” 

“Hey.” I heard him say, closing the wardrobe door. “How was it?”

I sighed and threw my purse into the corner of the room. I then marched up to him and draped my arms around his shoulders. I really needed his presence. I’ve grown a really unhealthy attachment to him, because now, I couldn’t ever live without him. He placed a hand around my waist and hugged me too. 

“What’s wrong?” he said, pulling away. “You’re heart is beating like crazy and you’re all pale.”

I made my way to the bed and sat down, patting the spot next to me. Yongguk took the hint and strolled towards me, taking the empty spot next to me on the bed. I sighed and rested my head on his shoulders and told him everything. About Daehyun being a policeman and how my mom wanted me to go out with him. 

“Well at least he’s a nice guy.” Yongguk sighed. 

“I don’t even know him that well.” I said back. “For all I know, he could be a spoilt, stuck up, conceited rich brat. I haven’t gotten to know him yet so, you can’t really say.” 

I sighed and swiftly spun myself so I was laying in Yongguk’s lap. I looked up at him and smiled, seeing him also look down at me. I felt around the bed for his hand and began silently playing with his fingers. I really didn’t know where our relationship was going to come to, but I was happy with just this. 

“I really can’t live without you.” I whispered.

I brought his hand to my lips and planted a kiss onto his knuckled. I looked up at him and saw him nod. 

“Me too.” he said lowly. 

Weeks or maybe months went on from that day and life had become somewhat uncomfortable. After that one day with Daehyun, my mom was expecting me to continue seeing Daehyun. I couldn’t retaliate because if I did, Yongguk would pop up in our conversation and that wouldn’t be a good thing if Daehyun was around. 

Yongguk’s work became too much pressure because he was starting to not like what he was doing. He really wanted to stop but his gang wouldn’t let him. He’d come home tired, stressed or just angry. That led to more smoking and more sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation led to his health and mental state being very weak. 

“Hey.” he sighed one day as he stepped into the apartment. 

“Oh hey.” I smiled and looked up from my laptop. “How was your day?” 

He went on and didn’t answer me, so I guess the day was bad. I got up and closed my laptop, following him into our bedroom. His back faced me as he went through the wardrobe for clothes to change into. He had gotten so slim. His jawline too define from the weight lost and his ribs sticking out clearly from his skin. 

“You alright?” I asked. “Bad day at work?”

“It’s not work.” he snapped at me. “I never considered it a job and never will.” 

My eyes widened at the harsh tone and loud voice that he used with me. His day must have been really bad because he had never snapped at me like that. Yongguk was a very gentle and humble person and I think that it was his snapping point. I decided to back off and give him some time to calm down. 

“Uh, sorry.” I said softly. “If you’re hungry there’s food in the kitchen. I’ll be doing my work if you need me.”

I staggered back to the dining table defeatedly and slumped back into the chair, opening my laptop. I continued to work through the work that was set but then my phone went off. 

“Hey Daehyun.” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “What’s up?”

“Hey.” I could hear him smile. “Are you busy at the moment?”

“Yeah, kind of.” I sighed. “Doing some work. Why?”

“I was wondering if you’d want to go out for some coffee. A date maybe?”

My breath hitched and I sighed inwardly. I was a terrible person. Daehyun and I weren’t an official label but from the looks of it, Daehyun thought that we had something. I guess you could say that, I’ve been seeing him for about two months and we’ve been doing a lot of couple things. I didn’t have feelings for him but I think he did have some for me. Doing this was like string him along and I guess when Yongguk can get out of the mess, I could break it off with Daehyun. 

“That sounds good but I really can’t, Dae.” I sighed. “My assignments are due real soon and I still have quite a bit to do.”

“Oh.” he said, sounding deflated. “Well okay then. I’ll talk to you some other time. Good luck.”

I hung up the phone and sighed. I was hurting Yongguk and string Daehyun along. What type of a person was I? I really bad one. Suddenly my stomach did an odd turn. It was a very anxious feeling and I couldn’t explain it. It was that butterfly in stomach sixth sense feeling you get when something bad was about to happen. Was something going to go wrong? 

“Babe.” I heard Yongguk call from behind me. 

I turned around to see Yongguk coming out of the bedroom. 

“I uh…” he started. “Are you upset with me?” 

“I-I’m not upset.” I said. “You’re having a bad day.”

“I have something really important to tell you.” Yongguk sounded nervous and I started to wonder, was this something bad that I had felt?

“I think I might have to move away from Seoul.” he said.