“I could have freaking died.. DIED, Jae. Yes you would have to go to jail for manslaughter or something, but I.. I would be lying DEAD buried in a coffin somewhere!” cried Zico, flustered as he paced up and down in front of the woman who was seated on the musty-smelling couch. As if punching me in the face wasn’t good enough..

“I was only doing it to protect myself, damn it! Do you have any idea how many crazy weirdos are out there, waiting to pounce on any woman whose stupid enough to answer their doors in the wee hours of the morning without proper back-up??” Jae Kyung raised her voice, eager to get her point across.

 “Pssh. Don’t flatter yourself, puh-leaseee. Even the most desperate of men wouldn’t want anything to do with you..” he rebutted stoically. You hit like a freaking man for crying out loud.

Jae Kyung widened her eyes in absolute disbelief at the insult before managing to regain her composure.

“Ok, fine,” she conceded after a few moments worth of hesitation, causing a smug smile to appear on Zico’s face as though he had just won the lottery. Hahahahaah oh yeah~ Stunned now, aren’t you?

“But what the hell does that make you, then?” the woman continued.

Zico couldn’t help but to raise an eyebrow. Huh?

“After all, unlike ‘even the most desperate of men’, you are the one that’s here, wanting something to do with me.” she replied flatly, squaring her shoulders and crossing her arms in front of her chest in the process as she looked Zico over from head to toe.

His face instantly fell. He tried opening his mouth, desperately trying to find the right words to say in hopes of a good comeback, but, nothing. Zico, like most other times, was trapped, tongue-tied, once more. He closed his mouth and looked away, eyebrows knitted furiously together, seemingly annoyed. Darn freaking it.

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Watching the man’s face stiffen as it began to dawn on him how he absolutely had nothing on her, it was Jae Kyung’s turn to scoff loudly. Hahahahaah stupid wimp.

“Shut up.” he ordered, upon recovering, with a scowl that reminded Jae Kyung of a spoilt brat. What a big baby.

And that caused her to laugh even harder, clutching her sides as she cackled away uncontrollably. Oh the amusement. This is actually much better than beating a deserving guy to a pulp!

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Zico rolled his eyes. Just what the hell’s so damn funny now??

But as his sight went from her deranged looking expression to that of her plastered fist which had come slightly undone, he felt a sudden wave of concern washing over him.

“Do-does your hand still hurt?” asked Zico quietly, staring intently then at her semi-revealed wound. Man, it sure looks nasty.

“Wh-wha-aaaat?” went Jae Kyung’s voice choppy and high-pitched amidst her glee.

She was having way too much fun by herself then to have been able to process Zico’s question.

Little did he know that the thought of him wearing a bib and a baby headband going ‘gugu gaga’ proved to be too much for a girl to handle, especially one who had just come back from a rough day.  

Slightly infuriated, and a teeny weeeeeeeeeeny bit hurt, at his sincere question being dismissed, Zico raised his voice to cut through Jae Kyung’s hilarity, “First-aid kit. Where?”.

Amazingly enough, though that wasn’t able to stop Jae Kyung from acting as though she was high on laughing gas, it did get her to point Zico to the direction of the highest shelf in the kitchen. At that, Zico took his cue and hurriedly proceeded to look out for the kit, which he found almost instantly, thanks to his height, and easily managed to swoop it off at one try.

As he made his way to the woman, whom people might have mistaken to be either totally insane or possessed, while clutching the white box in his hands tightly, he wondered whether or not he was doing the right thing. Like, shouldn’t I be jubilant that she got what she deserved for assaulting me in the first place?

“But no~. Here I am actually taking the liberty to dress your wound properly in your literally ‘humble abode’.” Zico sighed as he made himself comfortable beside her on the couch that smelt like unwashed socks. I should really go for a CT scan first thing in the morning..

“H-huh??” Jae Kyung was still at it, laughing her guts out.

But that didn’t stop Zico from doing what he had been set on doing initially anyways. Roughly, but with a hint of tenderness, he reached out for Jae Kyung’s injured hand and brought it onto his lap. That caused the woman’s laughter to die down slightly.

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Dubious by his sudden niceness, Jae Kyung tried to wriggle her hand out of the man’s firm grip, but to no avail. At his touch, her body jolted as she felt her heart skip a beat (or two). She blinked, completely ceased from hilarity at that point as she stared at the man who was making her stomach flip. Nervously, she gulped the seemingly large lump which had formed in . What exactly is he trying to do??

As if able to read her mind, Zico, with eyes glued intensely on her hand, answered her question, “Stop moving, damn it. I’m trying to be helpful here. And you struggling isn’t actually going to do any of us much good.”

Jae Kyung couldn’t help herself but to wince slightly at his reply. Ok, that was rude. But the message is pretty much clear, Jae. So let’s just co-operate and hope that at least he’s better than you and Pyo where providing first-aid is concerned.

She tried her best and was finally able to find it in her to swallow her huge pride and prevent herself from acting up. Not like you would be able to do it by yourself anyways.. Right?

Jae Kyung’s injured hand was then placed palm down as it rested on Zico’s thigh. She watched him intently as he gingerly peeled the plaster off her wound to fully reveal the skin of her fist which had torn open, thanks to that punch. She grimaced. Nastyyyyyyyyy~

“This.. Now this is what you get for throwing punches on innocent people, Jae. I suggest you learn something from this.” preached Zico in a soft murmur as his concentration remained focused on nursing the wound.

“Excuse me?

 So I’m guessing the ‘innocent people’ here refers to you?” asked Jae Kyung as she shot him a bewildered look.

“What? Why are you giving me that look now?” Zico finally turned to look at Jae Kyung, equally as bemused.

And then, it happened.

For what seemed to be the longest few seconds of Jae Kyung’s life, she found herself to be gazing straight into the man’s eyes. And he, surprisingly, was apparently doing the same as their eyes remained locked on each other while silence began to fill up the cramped room.

It wasn’t the norm for these two, who were constantly at loggerheads, to be staring at each other for that long without exchanging rude comments with one another. But strangely enough, neither of them flinched nor said a word, as though not wanting to break the fragile moment.

Or, at least that was what Jae Kyung had thought of it anyways.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, at that point, all she wanted was for it to last just a little bit longer.

It was so..

So..

Hypnotic.

Jae Kyung felt as though she was being in right there and then. Like there was no getting out of it. She realised how his stare was so piercing, to the point that it felt as though he was able to see right through her;

See right through her and notice how her brain was going haywire.

See right through her and notice how her stomach was doing back flips and somersaults.

See right through her and notice how he was causing her heart to race madly.

And, that scared her.

Because most importantly, Jae Kyung was afraid that he would be able to see right through everything and eventually realise just exactly how much she was feeling for him then..

Oh stopppppppp!

Then, as though she was being struck by a hot iron, Jae Kyung jolted back to reality and quickly turned away, embarrassed, with her cheeks flaming ever so hotly.  

There was no way in hell she was going to be seen as a desperate and lovesick wastrel by anyone. Especially not by the most obnoxious man she had ever met! Well, technically, even though she had lost most of her heart to that certain someone, she still had a whole lot of pride to her name to admit it. He must NOT know anything about this, Jae. Absolutely nothing at all.

...

Wait but was I too obvious just now..??

But as it turned out, she later realised how there was practically nothing for her to worry about.  

Apparently, the man had gone on as though nothing had happened as he continued to examine Jae Kyung’s wound thoroughly.

She heaved a sigh of relief. This guy wouldn’t know anything even if it were to punch him in the face.

As she side-glanced him while throwing a disapproving look in his direction, she finally came to notice his plastered nose. Lol ok I meant that in a figurative sense.

Feeling herself still slightly blushing at the close proximity between the two, she then sank into her tattered sofa set, seemingly more at ease with herself. Jiho will never know.