Seojun was fast asleep on the mattress right beside Jaehee’s bed. Hakyeon remembered that he wanted to sing Seojun a lullaby to sleep and now, Seojun was in front of both their eyes; fell asleep from Hakyeon’s lullaby.

Jaehee gave him two thumbs up, for singing a great lullaby. He nodded with a proud smile plastered on his face and continued staring to the closed eyes Seojun. Hakyeon studied the slow movement of Seojun’s breathing and his heart felt at ease to the beautiful sight. Seojun is originally a cute little boy but his sleeping sight increased the cuteness to tenfold.

“We should leave him alone,” Jaehee’s whisper pulled Hakyeon to reality. He looked at her instantly and nodded, agreed. He didn’t want to wake the little boy up, after what he considered a hard work of making the boy sleep.

Hakyeon tailed Jaehee to the living room and she plopped herself on the couch, hitting lightly on her shoulders. “What a day,” she let out a heavy sigh afterwards.

Taking a seat not far from her, he could feel his muscle on her arms tensed after lifting Seojun for half an hour. He moved his painful and almost cramp arm, to assess how far he could move it and the action caught her attention.

“You’re in pain?” she asked, eyes filled with concern.

Hakyeon stopped on what he was doing and fake a smile, “It’s nothing.”

“You’re obviously lying, I know how hard it is,” she could detect his lie and moved closely towards him. He didn’t object or moved away and let her hands reached his arm.

“I can massage you, I should at least give you this as a return,” she began squeezing lightly on his upper arm and he leaned back to the couch, enjoying the service. The pain hindered his mind from all the awkward feeling he always had on her. At least, with the small effort of her, he could feel the pain subsided slowly.

She then moved her hands down to his hand. He wasn’t aware of it until he felt that nail poking on his fingers. The image of their intertwining fingers flashed back in his mind in a second, making him to pull his hand away quickly.

“Why? Is it ticklish?” she laughed to his pulling. He looked at her as if he just saw a beard growing out of her chin. He froze in his position but she forcefully took his hand back, “Don’t start on that look.” She couldn’t stop laughing from the disbelief look he gave.

“What are you doing?” he managed to question. He knew she meant no harm but he was feared that the end of the massage would be a sleeping version of him on the couch, just like the last time. “You’re not putting me into a sleep, are you?”

Her laugh never ceased to a stop and she waved both her hands in front of her, pleading him to stop. “What should I do? You found out?” she jokingly questioned him back.

“You can’t do that… You know I won’t stay another night,” he said, feeling bitter. She stopped laughing and looked at him for a moment before nodded hugely, “I know. I won’t force you on things you don’t like.”

She cleared as she squeezed his hand lightly, “I just want to get rid of this bad feeling.”

He felt regret instantly the moment he saw the dark expression sank on her face. She was laughing beautifully in front of him and he had to pull away the short happiness from her. What was he doing? He deserved a smack.

“You don’t have to feel bad on anything, no,” he paused for a thought. “You’re actually aren’t allowed to feel bad at all.”

Her eyes twinkled as the curve on her smile became alive with a wide smile. “You making me want to scream from your cheesiness!”

He chuckled, just realised that he had let those cheesy words came out from his own mouth. If only his friends were around, he would die from embarrassment. He could already feel his ears heated up from the embarrassment. He couldn’t believe he just said those words to her.

“Does it sound so bad?” he asked sheepishly.

“Perfectly cringe-worthy!” she remarked. “I never thought you would be this style as well, apart from a little naggy style.”

He ran out of word as he felt his body temperature raised up. He was extremely flushed and he’d bet he looked like a tomato now.

She exhaled out loudly, tired from the never ending laugh. “You’re good. I don’t really feel bad anymore,” she said as she proceeded with the nail poking on his fingerprint. Since he was still overwhelmed with the heated moment, he said no words on her fingers massaging.

“How does it feel? Does it feel comforting?” she asked a review of her massage. He pulled a small smile and nodded as a response. He began to feel his blood moved soothingly around his body. It was so relaxing, making his eyes to shut slowly but he controlled his mind from falling for its trick.

She smiled, fully satisfied. “My late father used to do this to me while we’re watching television, it’s so comforting and I think you should feel it too. You’ve worked hard.”

He didn’t response to her but he was giving her his utmost attention. He suddenly noticed that her house had no television, making the urge to question her about the absentee to emerge but he held it in. She must have her own reason for not having one.

She was doing well with her doing. His father must have done for her more than thousand times that she looked skilled with her hands. He studied how her hands moved from one finger to another and now she had gestured him to give his other undone hand.

He gladly held his other hand out and let her doing what she was doing. She looked happy just from the massaging; he thought it was best for him to learn it secretly so that he could return the favour.

“You’re the first person I do this with. I hope you don’t practise it to other people,” she asked nonchalantly but why did he feel as if she had warned him not to practise it on other girls? She simply said ‘other people’ but he was certainly sure what she meant was the opposite gender.

“How can I?” he chuckled, not taking the situation seriously.

“Who knows? You might do this massage to your next fake wife,” she shrugged and her words immediately sent a sharp tug towards his heart. He lost contact with her hands as she finished his last pinkie finger and he noticed her refusal to look back at him.

“Choi Jaehee?” he called and she hummed for a response. What was wrong with her? She suddenly looked like a sulky possessive girlfriend that moment.

He called her name once again and had an exact same response from her. He breathed out audibly as he shifted on his seat. “What happen?” he asked. He didn’t know why he asked the question but those words just randomly popped up in his head.

He might not notice the source but he could clearly see that she was upset. It shouldn’t be because he refused to stay, it was something else that was bothering her.

Their eyes locked finally as she shifted on her seat. She took a while to speak but she let it out eventually. “Just now… When we’re watching Seojun’s sleep… I suddenly feel that I’m gonna miss that moment…”

He became lost of words all of sudden.

“I don’t know how to explain this… It’s…” the words got stuck on . “I suddenly think that I’m not doing the right thing. Like, I will regret on my decision.”

She looked frustrated as the words got tangled on her tongue.

“Like I... I-I shouldn’t rent you at the first place.”

The world suddenly felt as if it was crashing down around him.

Her shoulder fell as she looked away. Guilty feeling flooded in and it shone in her eyes. He wore an expressionless look on his face, worrying that he might add up her already guilty feeling. As much as he opposed her decision at the first meeting, he somehow felt frightened towards her statement.

He suddenly feared of losing her.

Not wanting to let the sudden tension to grow, he got up from his seat and forced a smile on his face. It was night and he knew the fact of people tended to speak out their feeling at late night conversation. Perhaps she was affected by the time and he thought she should clear her mind from the bothering thoughts.

“I stay more than I should…” he started. She was not responding to him but he knew she was listening. Bending down, he gave her a small hug and slightly bowed to her, “I’m going. I’ll meet you at usual time tomorrow.”

With the last words, he walked out the apartment with an ache heart. She buried her face in her palms, thinking that she should arrange the words carefully, to avoid misunderstanding but she knew she had screwed up with her own words.

What she wanted to say was that she feared that their days together would finally reach the end of the road.

She always thought that having a real husband wouldn’t guarantee her that he would stay till the end but she just tricked herself. Fake husband was the one that had guaranteed her that he would leave at the end.

Silently, she cried in her palms…

---

“Don’t cook for me. – Cha Hakyeon”

Hakyeon had sent her a text message, not to cook dinner for him. That made her to have a dinner alone but she did cook a little extra, in case he changed his mind but…

Looking at the time, he was late for hours. She clearly remembered his final words before leaving, that he would come at the promise time but he hadn’t show up until now. Could it be because of her yesterday’s statement?

Now she started to feel anxious.

Did his text hinting her that he wouldn’t come tonight?

Well, if he decided not to show up, he better gave her the reason why he couldn’t show up. She was still his legal employer; he shouldn’t mess with his works even though she had stated that she shouldn’t start dwelling her life into the rental business.

She didn’t say that she stopped hiring him and their contract was still going on.

Her phone notified her for another coming text message. Her hands rushed to her cell phone and her eyes lights up to the name of the sender.

“Is Seojun home? – Cha Hakyeon”

She sighed out loud.

She somehow felt disappointed of his question. Did Seojun paid for his work? Why didn’t he ask for her? He should at least had sense and told her what was going on, if he would come or not tonight. She had been waiting like ages for him to come.

“I’m all alone. Why?” Jaehee typed and sent it to him.

She waited for a reply but her phone never sounded for a notification. Her disappointment increased every second added after her text message. She almost swore that she would reply his text message five days later if he decided to reply her text.

Then, the sound on the door caught her ears.

Her head quickly turned to the sound and her heart raced at the thought of seeing Hakyeon on the door. She had been cursing him in her mind and suddenly feeling anxious to face him. But what happened if it was actually Hongbin and Seojun on the door?

That would only increase her disappointment and she definitely had to forget her five days late reply.

Opening the door, a tall frame towering over her and her eyes glued on the owner’s chest. She recognised the figure in front of her and slowly lifted her gaze to meet the eyes she had been waiting for.

“Hello?” Hakyeon greeted. After making sure that Hongbin hadn’t send Seojun to Jaehee, he pulled on his sport gear and was ready to hit the track.

“Hi…” she trailed off. She found herself blushing out of nothing. Perhaps she felt as if he lost his way and had finally found the U-turn to her.

He grinned, “I’m thinking of asking you out for a run.”

She was confused for a moment before her gaze dropped on his track pant and sport shoes. Her eyes widened to the realisation and she immediately shot him a disbelief look, unconsciously gripped him on his arms, “Really?”

He chuckled as he nodded as a response, “Of course! What are you waiting for?”

“Give me five minutes! I will not take long!” she said excited as she left the door to him, not even thinking of letting him waited inside.

Hakyeon saw as she hurriedly ran for her bedroom. He decided to stay outside, and held the door open, not wanted to take off his shoes.

After another unexpected conversation last night, he went home sleepless. He had been thinking about it since then, suddenly wished he never heard those words from . He remembered her saying that they wouldn’t meet each other if she dropped her decision of hiring a fake husband.

They were fated to meet in the rental business.

He wondered if he was actually fated to meet her even though he wouldn’t meet him in through the business.

He slowly got used to the idea of being around her and for the first time in his life, he didn’t want to stop meeting his current fake wife. He could say that because he hadn’t a lot of experience working in the rental business since he only worked with two women, but he never felt this way with the two previous women.

Could this feeling be the start of something new in both their lives?

Or could it be a destroyer?

Before coming, he texted her not to cook for him and he even asked about Seojun’s whereabouts. It was not because he disliked having Seojun around, but he had planned to bring her to the park at night. He would like to bring Seojun with them but cold night wouldn’t be good for a little boy. He could join them if they had the chance to go out in the afternoon. It would be fun and they would look like a whole family working out together.

He was busy in his thoughts when she suddenly appeared in front of him. “I’m ready!” she chimed and his eyes caught her ponytail. He pulled his eye smile and nodded, “Let’s go!”

---

After warming up together, both of them started to make a small jog. They’ve arrived at the city’s park and the people that went there for exercising could be counted with his fingers. The next time, he thought he wanted to bring her to a track field, so that both could lie on the grass after sweating out.

They hadn’t said much to each other, to preserve energy or so he thought. After a while, she gestured to stop. He found an unoccupied seat and led her towards it. Sitting down, she was breathing heavily beside him and he handed her a bottle of water that he had carried with him.

She took it without a second thought and drank it as if she had been lacked of water for days. She left a quarter of the whole bottle and Hakyeon drank the rest. That was when she realised she had drink his water and left him almost nothing.

Hakyeon only brought a bottle, thinking it was enough for both of them and it was lighter to bring one in his pocket. He wasn’t mind of the small amount of water left to him because he understood how thirsty it would be.

“I’m sorry, Hakyeon. I wasn’t thinking,” she apologised as she eyed him worriedly. She wanted to bring him a new drink immediately after the thoughtless action she took.

Hakyeon shook his head as he screwed the cap of the bottle. “It’s okay. It’s enough to quench the thirst.”

“I have money. We can buy more drinks,” she still felt bad and wanted to drag him to a nearest shop but he didn’t seem to care and kept refusing her offer.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry. I won’t die,” he joked making her to sigh out loud. “I promise I’ll bring you drinks as soon as we see a shop. Don’t you ever try to refuse accepting my drink,” she suddenly threatened him.

He nodded fast, “Yes, Madam.”

She immediately shot him an irritated look, but Hakyeon just smiled it off. He was leaning on the seat and gestured her to lean back with him. After a moment of staring, she complied and sat beside him. There were no words rolling off of both mouth and they were just staring vacantly at in front of them, resting their strained muscle.

Hakyeon suddenly decided to break the silence as he opened his mouth.

“What do you think of me?”

She hummed in puzzlement. “You?”

He nodded and she could see it from the corner of her eyes. “Well, you’re kind. Responsible… Mysterious…”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Hakyeon interrupted.

She furrowed her eyebrows at his interruption. Did she say the wrong answer? Wasn’t he asking about how was he like? Did she hear the question wrongly?

“I mean… Not as a fake husband. Or a worker… What do you think of me?” he paused for a thinking hum. “Do you ever see me as a man…?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N; Tell me how do you think Jaehee will react?

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