The bell rang, and Eunji packed her books as fast as she could trying to get out of the room as soon as possible. However, she wasn’t fast enough.

"Eunji ya, you don’t have classes now right? Let's go have coffee together." A sunbae asked, while trying to grasp her arms.

Eunji hurriedly snapped her arms off him in pretense of adjusting her bag

"Umm, sunbaenim I told you before and I'm telling you again that I'm not interested in having coffee or anything with you. I'm sorry but my friends are waiting for me.." Eunji made an excuse and headed her own way hurriedly without giving him any time to respond

Honestly, she was running out of excuses to give to him. She knew he was interested in her. But she also made it more than obvious that SHE wasn't interested in him in any romantic way. It had become daily ritual for him to ask her out and for her to refuse.

The excuse that she gave earlier wasn’t false though. She did have plan with her friends for lunch and she hurried down to the canteen, making sure that the guy wasn’t following her.

"Eunji ya, did you come here running?" Bomi asked as Eunji placed her books on the canteen table.

"Bbom ah, don’t turn around suddenly, but is there that glasses sunbae entering the canteen?" Eunji whispered to Bomi, who as casually as possible looked behind Eunji

"Ya, isn’t that creepy sunbae? Is he still bothering you? Bomi nearly cursed out loudly

At the mention of creepy sunbae, the two guys who were engrossed in video game looked up

"What creepy sunbae? Is someone pestering you?" Seungyoon asked with half worry and half anger

"You would have known sooner if you had listened to us talk before." Bomi rolled her eyes

Here they were- Bomi, Jaebum, Seungyoon and her. Bomi and Eunji were in same department. Eunji and Seungyoon were high school friends. And Seungyoon and Jaebum or JB as the friends called him were in same department. So somehow they started hanging out together and had somehow become what others would call 'a gang'. Even though she said they were friends, for some reason she was still really awkward with Jaebum. Bomi seems to get along just fine with him, but Eunji didn’t know how to do the same.. even though it had already been more than a year since they started hanging out as a group. It probably was because how aloof Jaebum generally is around her. Even now, when they were talking about her stalker he was just observing the conversation.

"Stop changing topic. Is someone pestering you Eunji?" Seungyoon looked really concerned now, and Eunji's heart warmed at his concern.

"It's that sunbae with glasses. He keeps asking me out even though I keep refusing him. "

"Ya, you should be careful of guys like that! They may end up being a stalker or something!" Bomi warned

Eunji did feel like she was being watched these days after the part time job, and she tried becoming more careful going home taking detours or taking taxi. She wondered if she should tell her friends about it, but didn’t want then to worry about it for no reason

"I have been trying to be more alert while going home…but maybe I should start carrying pepper spray with me or something.." Eunji wondered

"Don't you have part time job this evening? Why don’t I come get you and drop you off home?" Seungyoon suggested

"That's sweet of you Yoon. But I'll be okay. My apartment is not far from the café. Plus your mom is coming here from Busan today, did you forget?"

"Eunji ya, if you find anything suspicious make sure to call us or call the police okay?" Bomi made her promise and Eunji nodded in agreement

They parted after lunch for respective classes, and Eunji was in really good mood forgetting about the earlier incident. It sure did feel good to have friends that cared about her so much.

The rest of the day went without much incident. She went to her part time job as usual, and looked around just to make sure she wasn’t followed. Seeing nothing out of place, she started to wonder if she was getting too paranoid

She worked in the café near the university and she happened to have evening shift today. It was around 8 pm when she finished her shift. The reason she chose this job was because it wasn’t that tiring and that she still had the energy left to study later on.

She changed out of her uniform and was heading out of the staff door when she felt like she was being watched.

She looked around, and in the darkness she noticed the reflection of someone's glasses. This was the first time that she actually saw anything remote to a person and it sent a shiver behind her back. The moment Eunji faced towards that person, that person hid behind the pole

It couldn’t be,….

Instead of heading out, she did the reasonable thing and headed back in. Her heart was beating crazily now.

What do I do now?

She was on verge of panic, but then calmed down when she realized she could just use the front door instead of staff door

"Aah! I forgot my phone!" she said loudly, just so the stalker could hear and closed the door.

Eunji hurried out of the changing room, running into one of her co-worker.

"Eunji ya, there was a guy searching for you earlier. So I told him you had gone to change."

Eunji paled at the thought of her sunbae asking about her whereabouts to her co workers

"How did the guy look like? Was he wearing glasses?" Eunji asked

"No.. I don't think he was"

What route should I take home today…should I call Yoon?..but he is with his mom..Bomi has her job…

She was deep in thought as she headed out of the café and let out a scream when someone tapped her from behind

"I'm sorry. I did call out your names many times.." the familiar voice apologized from behind and Eunji let out the breath that she didn’t even know she was holding in.

"Jaebum ah!" Eunji let out a breath of relief " Thank god it's you." Her knees gave away and Jaebum quickly gave her support

"You…were talking about that sunbae earlier…and I was worried….so to take you home.."he replied in broken sentences

"Are you okay?" he asked after seeing how fidgety Eunji looked

Eunji narrated what happened earlier and suddenly Jaebum looked more alert than before

"I don't want him to follow you home… to know where you live.. let's take detour if you don’t have any other urgent stuff to do." he suggested and Eunji nodded in agreement

Eunji didn’t quite know what to make of this situation. She also realized that even though they met often in group, she had never really been alone with him before, so she didn’t really know how to act around him.

"Eunji?" he spoke, breaking her train of thought

"Yeah?"

"If you don't mind.." he held out his hand to her

Eunji looked at him quizzically, so he took hold of her hands and put it in his coat pocket

"Don’t you think it would be more effective if he thinks you have a boyfriend?.. do you mind?" he asked hesitantly

Did she mind? Not at all actually. Why would she mind when he was going out of his way to make her feel safe?

"I don’t mind at all. In fact, I appreciate it. Plus my hands were freezing, so I doubly appreciate it." She gave him her hundred watt smile

He looked away, unsure what to do and blush creeping up his face

"Where are we heading to?" Eunji asked, realizing they were heading to opposite direction from her home

"Hmm, I thought we would take the bus few stops to opposite direction and then take the bus to your place. It would surely make him confused. Does that sound okay?" he asked tentatively and Eunji nodded

It was weird that she was noticing small things about Jaebum. And liking it. Unlike many people she knew, she liked how he kept asking for her opinion on the matter instead of just shoving it at her.

They boarded the bus and sat down on the last seat together. It was mainly to observe the others who boarded the bus, and also to look behind to make sure that sunbae wasn’t following them in car or something

When they became sure that they weren’t being followed, they got off the bus.

"Umm, you can let go of my hand now." Jaebum nodded towards their clasped hands

She knew she could. But she felt loathe to let it go for some reason

"What if I tell you that I want to keep holding it?" she asked boldly unsure what made her say that

Jaebum looked surprised by that statement but replied softly

"Then… you don’t have to let go."

They walked in amicable silence, and got on the bus that went to Eunji's apartment. This bus was more crowded than the last one but it was only few stops away so it was not a big deal. When they got off the bus, they made sure to look around and see if the sunbae was around anywhere just in case. It was only when they didn’t see him anywhere that they boarded the elevator

Eunji lived on the third floor. Jaebum had never been there before, but knew that she lived alone and that her brother came home on weekend sometimes.

"Here. This is my apartment." Eunji stood before the door labeled 303 and Jaebum tucked away that information in his brain

"Umm..Do you want to come in? I'm sure you haven't had dinner and I cook a killer spaghetti." She opened the door invitingly

"I don’t know.. but spaghetti does sound pretty tempting" Jaebum hesitated

"Oh, just come in already!" Eunji gently pulled Jaebum 's jacket and pulled him into her apartment

"I apologize for the mess in the living room though. I was..uh making some key rings with beads. Do sit on the dining chair." Eunji blabbered on

Jaebum took a look around the living room, and noticed that the room seemed exactly like Eunji's; warm and welcoming.

This was not how he imagined to be invited to Eunji's apartment but he would take whatever he could.

Eunji was already in the kitchen, preparing ingredients for spaghetti.

"Do you want some help? I could peel the garlic or something?"

"Next time I'll make you help. But today, this is my token of thanks for you."

Her promise of next time somehow made his mood better. She was quick with her hands, and the spaghetti was ready in no time

Like she claimed earlier, she did make killer spaghetti. Jaebum acknowledged that.

"And I have a perfect dessert for you. " She pulled out strawberry pudding from the fridge and handed it to him

"How am I supposed to say no to strawberry pudding? I don't say no to anything strawberry related. But I'm going to need to go exercise because of you today." He joked

"Yah, you can afford to gain some weight. And it's good thing that Minki likes strawberry flavored stuffs too, I have those pudding stocked up" she sat down with him with a packet of pudding of hers

They cleaned up after finishing the pudding in amicable silence.

" Jaebum ah..I'm really thankful that you came to pick me up today.. Earlier, I was really really scared and nearly panicked. If not for you, I would not know what I would