“Hey Raein.”

Raein put one foot before another, trying to gain balance due to the sudden force he threw on her.

She turned to see the person she did not want to have any connection with and tried to shrug off his arm. When that didn’t work, she hit his arm with the back of his hand, making it clear that she didn’t like his action at all.

The male student seemed oblivious to that fact and placed extra force on her shoulder on purpose and Raein sighed.

“Jared, arm off.” She glared at him and started to move away from his arm.

Jared’s hand was met with air as she moved away and walked quickly towards the gate.

“Hey, hold up! Seriously.”  Jared laughed, picking up his pace until he was right alongside of her.

She ignored his voice and kept going. He’s the last person she was willing to talk to right now. She then felt a grip on her shoulder and she was forced to stop in her track and turned to him.

“What do you want Jared?” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh…you know what I want.” He moved his face close to hers.

She instantly held her hands up and pushed against his chest, creating more distance between them.

“ Off.” She flicked her fingers in the international sign for scram.

He held his hand up in surrender, shaking his head when he says, “ Raein, it would be a lot easier if you just stopped running. The more you do that, the faster I chase.”

Raein narrowed her gaze and put her hand on her forehead, wondering why this person was born into this world in the first place. This guy never quit to try to gain her attention.

Before she got to rebuke, she heard footsteps behind her before feeling a presence next to her.

 “What are you doing to my girlfriend?”

Upon hearing the voice, Raein immediately turned her head to the right to see Bobby’s face so near hers. She took a step back to regain her balance.

Taking in his dark jeans, dark shirt, dark jacket and his dark fluffy hair, she felt her heart skipped two beats. She had a hard time withdrawing her gaze but she had to focus on Jared for the time being. All questions were thrown to the back of her mind as her gaze became hard.

Bobby’s face was dark as he looked at the male student, arms placed protectively thrown over Raein’s shoulder, holding her close to him.

“And you are?” Jaehyun arched one eyebrow of his. He had never seen him before.

He glanced at Raein before smiling at him.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Bobby, Raein’s boyfriend.”

The male students had his eyes wide opened before letting out a laugh.

“Boyfriend? Wow, Raein. The non-existent boyfriend finally reveals himself.” His fingers moved in the air to make the quotation symbols when he mentioned boyfriend.

In this campus, it was not new to know that Raein had a “boyfriend”. None had ever seen her boyfriend before and rumours said that she was only using that as an excuse to reject courtship.

“That’s rude.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at him.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Bobby looked at Jared with grim judging mouth, squinty narrowed eyes and a superior tilt of his chin.

“Hm…maybe if you quit your act, we’ll have no problem between us.” Jared scoffed at Bobby acting all mighty and confident.

Bobby scoffed as well, pressing Raein closer to him. “You should be the one to quit your act.”

“Oooh.” Jared winced, body flinching, eyes widening as though he had been offended. Raein rolled her eyes at that, knowing well that he was just practicing a few facial expressions for dramatic effect.

“Off. You’re wasting our time.” Raein ushered Bobby to move with her.

“If you are her boyfriend, which I doubt, why haven’t I seen you with her?” He ignored her and turned her attention back to Bobby.

Bobby bit a corner of his lip, trying to think of a way to reply but he made sure that his glare was still strong.

Raein sent Bobby a worrying look. Her hands tugged on one end of his jacket.

“As a matter of fact, why has no one seen you with her?” He pressed his finger against his chest, trying to provoke him.

Bobby swung his hand away as he merged his eyebrows. “ Why should I explain it to you?”

“I don’t know, for the sake of clarity? You don’t just jump in and declare someone as your girl.” It was rather suspicious that Raein always avoid the topic about her boyfriend. No one really know much about him except that they had been together since they were 16 years of age.

“Jared, stop it!” Raein came in between both of the guys, pushing against said boy’s chest.

“Or…you are just embarrassed to show him to us?” Jared directed the question at Raein. He smirked as he saw Bobby’s facial expression dropped.

Raein watched as Bobby lowered his gaze and bit his lips. She lifted Bobby’s arm on her shoulder and laced their fingers together. She sent encouraging smile to him when he turned to meet her eyes. Bobby mirrored her expression before squeezing her hand.

“Did I hit the bull’s eye?” He still doubted the relationship between the two, despite them showing such affection.

Raein turned and glared at him.

“Enough! What are you trying to do?”

“I don’t know, trying to figure what you’re up to? Come on, stop acting.” He shrugged and put both hands into his pockets.

“Face it. He’s really my boyfriend. Now if you may…” She tried to talk to him as nicely as he could.

“You call this your boyfriend?” He motioned his hands towards Bobby.

Bobby knocked his hands off and was moving towards him but Raein prevented that.

“Someone who only appeared now for the past 2 years, making you go to prom alone and spend a partner-less valentine days and Christmas. Please. Anyone could do better than him.” Jared pointed out the things he had noticed and those had sent invisible arrows into Bobby’s heart.

Raein firm gaze dropped at the mention of those. She couldn’t hide her loneliness during those events but it could not be helped. When she felt Bobby had loosened his grip on hers, she found the strength again to rebuke, to defend her relationship with Bobby.

“We have been together for nearing 3 years now and he is the sweetest guy I know. He had always been there for me when I needed him to and he had proven himself more useful that he seemed. Well, he might not be there for all the events I have but at least he had been there for most of the days and that is enough. ”

She did not need proms to remind her that she had a boyfriend. She did not need Valentine day to remind herself of Bobby’s love for her. She did not need Christmas to remind her that Bobby would be accompanying her for the rest of the year to come.

Jared was surprised by her sudden outburst and Bobby could only smile at her speech. He had to suppress the urge to hug her right now. He held her hand tighter in his and promised to be a better boyfriend.

“I am not accepting anything with empty proof.” Jared was still not convinced.

“Fine, you want proof. Here!” Raein had both her hands on Bobby cheeks before dragging him down for a full kiss on the lips as she stood on the tip of her toes.

Bobby eyes were as wide as they can be before closing then as he relaxed into the kiss. His hands slide up her waist and pushed her against him from the back.

He poured all his feelings into the kiss as he responded. Raein’s hands gradually moved to the back of his neck and pushed him to her to deepen the kiss.

Raein then broke the kiss when she remembered the unwanted presence and lowered her head. Bobby opened his eyes when he felt the lack of lips and pouted slightly, showing his disappointment about the short period of sharing affection.

“How about that?” Raein held onto Bobby’s arm and looked back at Jared with confidence.

The latter only looked at her with a smirk.

“That doesn’t prove much.”

“You’re not giving up, are you?” She sighed, feeling defeated by his stubbornness.

“I’ll believe it when I want to believe it.” Jared still wore that confident expression and added it with a smirk that annoyed Raein to no end.

She sighed. “Suit yourself.”

Jared turned to look at Bobby and narrowed his eyes. Bobby tilted his head up and returned his glare. Both had a staring competition for quite a while before the former excused himself and walked off.

Raein only stopped looking when Jared’s figure disappeared at the corner. She let out an exasperated sigh before combing her hair with her fingers.

Bobby’s face softened when he looked at her. Now that she was in front of him, he really didn’t know how to act. He fidgeted a little, all confidence he previously had was out of him and melted into thin air.

“Hahaha,  that was quite an entrance.” Raein broke the silence between them and looked up at him, laughing nervously, casually switching into Korean language.

“I don’t actually want our first meeting to be that way.” He rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously as well.

“Why are you here?” She was still confused about his sudden appearance eventhough she was quite thankful for that.

“Well…” Bobby was finding excuses to dart the question but his brother cut him off before he could.

“I brought him here.” Both turned to the voice behind them to see Bobby’s brother walking towards them with a big smile.

He had been watching everything unfolding in the background, wondering how long would it take for the drama to end.

“Oh hello.” She nodded slightly to Bobby’s brother as a greeting.

“This guy here had been fussing about not being able to meet you. Had to get him out of the house  because he won’t stop sulking.”

“Hyung!” Bobby whined. “I did not.”

Raein laughed at the exchange of words between the two brothers. How she missed moments like this.

“Anyways, Raein. He’s all yours until 3pm.” He glanced at his watch and mentally calculated the number of hours Bobby could spend with her.

“But I had other plans today….” Raein looked apologetically at Bobby and then at his brother.

His brother saw the dejected look on Bobby face upon hearing the news. His shoulder was sulked and head low, that image was too painful to watch.

“Well Raein, you can bring him with you. I’m sure he won’t mind. Get him to carry stuff for you. Free labour. ” He patted her back and smiled pleadingly at her, hoping that she would get the message.

Raein knew how much Bobby wanted to spend time with her. She had missed the first 5 days since she had a sudden trip to England for student medical conferences and she just returned last night.

She looked at Bobby who smiled hopefully at her, trying to convince her he would not be a bother.

She laughed at the cute antics he was trying to make. “Alright.”

Bobby exclaimed a yes before doing a small dance to celebrate.

“Alright then kids. I’m heading home. Make sure to kick Jiwon back when it’s time or else mum’s going to fuss about it.” 

-------------

Bobby's brother looked at Bobby with disbelieved, mouth wide opened.

"So you're saying that you didn't get all affectionate when you were together with her for the rest of the date."

Bobby barely had his leg set into the living room when his brother dragged him up his room and bombarded him with questions. 

Bobby took off his clothes, revealing the toned abs beneath before rummaging for some comfortable old clothes in the wardrobe.

"We talked. A lot. Definitely feels better to talk face to face. " He shook his head and a silly in-love smile crept up his face.

"Just talk and nothing else?" His brother sat on his bed, looking at Bobby's back as he struggled to get the white shirt under a huge pile of clothings above.

Bobby sighed when he finally got the shirt in hand. 

"Yup. Why are you using that tone?" He raised one eyebrow as he looked at his brother.

His brother shook his head with disappointment, clearly expecting more from him.He gestured Bobby to sit down on the bed.

Bobby pulled his shirt over his head before joining his brother on the bed. Leg crossed, elbows on his knees as he looked at his brother with a blank face.

"I'm expecting something more." He puffed up his chest waiting for more details spilled from Bobby.

Bobby laughed and slapped his brother's thigh. "We just talked." 

They spent the rest of the day in a coffee shop that he was unfamiliar with and just talked to each other. He picked up the fact that he only put two cubes of sugar in her dark coffee and always had to have chocholate chips cookies to go with that. He loved the fact that her eyes would just lit up when she talked about the new book she read. He chuckled at her frustration regarding her studies and projects. He basically felt like he just knew Raein and was learning about her from the very start. He couldn't help but fall in love with her again.

"No hand touching, face touching or anything else?" His brother looked at him suspiciously as he rubbed the site of pain.

Bobby face got pinked before he shook his head vigorously. He was so nervous and guarded that he failed to initiate any skinship. He felt a bit disappointed about this.

"Jiwon-ah, Jiwon.I know you are desperate for skinship. " His brother before laughing. Bobby would only be that shy and nervous when he was with Raein. 

Bobby laughed along with his brother, knowing how true the words were. But he just thought it was not the right time.

"When's the next date?" 

Bobby raised his head and his eyes melted into a narrow line as he laughed.

"Tomorrow." With that, he jumped out of his bed and again went to his wardrobe, urging his brother to help him with picking a better looking clothes.

"Jiwon ah. You'll do fine. But this time, I need more skinship." His brother raised to his feets before pointing at some shirts he liked.

Bobby laughed nervously at that, promising he would do better in the next date.