Chapter 7

The Mistake

So, Kai wasn't lying when he said they would be running every morning. No, he was dead serious. 

It was bad enough already that Sungmi went to sleep late everyday out of habit, but now she also had to get up at five in the morning to run with Kai. Actually, it was more like she was running behind him because he could never get it through his head that she wasn't all that fit and wouldn't be able to run nonstop for two hours straight. So she tailed behind him, sweating profusely and counting the lines in the sidewalks hoping they would eventually end somewhere. 

The soreness came sometime during the third day. When she had woken up, Sungmi had barely been able to move her limbs without letting out a painful whimper. She felt like her muscles had been twisted and yanked, and she had pleaded with Kai to let her off from his strenuous morning exercise. His reply? 

"Good joke. I didn't laugh." 

She couldn't understand why Kai was making her run anyways. It wasn't like she was there to keep him company; after all, he would sprint off fifty yards ahead of her as soon they walked out the door. Once in a while, when he noticed that she had gotten too far behind and was walking instead of jogging, like he had instructed her to do, he would come running back to scold her. 

"You have to run faster, you slow poke."

"Why can't you step up the pace? Even my grandma is faster than you." 

Well, thanks a lot. She would always think. But I'm no Usain Bolt; you are obviously talking to the wrong person. 

But Sungmi couldn't actually complain to Kai. Aside from the ice water threats to wake her up, he had been using the excuse of making her meals and helping with classwork to guilt-trip her. And it worked. Kai was a freaking genius because he had apparently already "learned everything years ago" (for what reason, she didn't know) and completed problems that would've taken her days to do in a matter of seconds. And when she had asked him for the secret to his euridition, he had merely shrugged and replied, "I just learned it." Way to be obscure. 

Sungmi appreciated his help a lot. While everyone else in her class was still struggling with their individual equations, she---well, Kai, to be honest---had already solved all of them in two days. She didn't know about Luhan's progress or whether he would be ready to begin their group work yet, but she didn't feel like reliving the awkward conversation they had had the last time she had attempted to say something. In fact, it wouldn't even matter if he wanted to work or not. She would just do the equations on her own and simply ask Kai to help. He was a jerk, but a savior nonetheless.

Sungmi was beginning to feel happier by the day. She anticipated coming home from school to see Kai, whether he was sleeping or cooking or flipping through the TV channels. Even though he didn't often say anything to her aside from the occasional "Hey, grab me a drink" or some small talk, Sungmi was content that his mere presence was keeping her company. She had never realized how lonely her life had been before Kai stepped in. She had always been greeted with an empty house, an empty fridge, and an empty heart. But now, this one person had changed everything. He made her feel content and made her heart swell with every word he exchanged with her. Slowly, she began to crave for him, wishing that he would never leave. She didn't want to go back to her former disposition. She didn't want to lose the homely atmosphere.

Last of all, she didn't want to lose him.  

It was Thursday night after Sungmi had finished doing the dishes for the two of them after a delicious dinner that she saw Kai looking through her stack of drama DVDs. He had this look of confusion on his face similar to how one would look if one saw something interesting for the first time. 

"Min," he called. "What are these movies? Why have I never seen them before?"

She gawked. "You've never watched a drama?"

He gave her a blank look. 

She facepalmed. "You're kidding." 

The look on his face said the opposite. Suddenly, Sungmi was excited. She took ahold of her favorite drama, Secret Garden, from the shelf and pushed it into the player. Then she pulled Kai towards the couch and hopped in beside him. His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her in question. He was SO missing out. 

Kai kept quiet for the first half of the first episode, but after that, it was like he turned into a gossiping girl. 

"That tracksuit is really ugly. I've seen better ones handmade in Italy."

"Oska can't sing."

"He cannot be smooth. At all. Maybe I should give him some lessons." 

Sungmi thought he was the most adorable thing in the world. Without even noticing it, she had begun to observe and stare at him instead of the drama onscreen. A million thoughts floated in and out of her head, but nobody could've mistaken the look in her eyes as she gazed at the man in front of her. Her lips were lifted in a wistful smile, her dark pupils glassy and dreamy. And there was no doubt about it to anybody if they could've seen her face: Park Sungmi was in love. 

She had only known him for under a week, yet the difference he had made in her life made her wish that he was hers. She had never felt this way before for anyone else in twenty years of her life, but this former stranger had come in out of nowhere and taken her heart. It was so sudden, yet Sungmi felt sure of it. She knew that her feelings wer