Jimin left shortly after that. I went into my bedroom, lay down on my bed, and screamed into my pillow until my throat felt sore enough to alleviate some of my anger.

What the had just happened? Jimin had been back for less than 24 hours and he had already destroyed all of the progress I had made in the past three months. Well, maybe not all of it. I still had enough resentment left in me to refuse to take him back.

After the anger had subsided, I rolled over onto Jimin’s side of the bed and inhaled deeply. His scent would probably be the death of me. It always caused me to burst into instantaneous tears, like some sort of twisted reflex. Stupid Jimin. Stupid ing Jimin.

He still loved me. He wanted to be with me again. He cried and he kissed me and I wanted him so, so bad. When his hands had tangled in my hair and his tongue had intertwined with mine, I had wanted to trade this new life I had built for myself for one more moment in his arms. That boy made me ing weak and I hated myself for it. I could not allow myself to allow him to waltz back into my life like nothing had happened. Did he really think he could just apologize with an “I really ed up, baby,” and he gets to move back in with me? Sure, Jimin, you ed up, but I’ll marry you now because you admitted it.

I felt furious, miserable, and all at the same time. And confused; confused as . This damn kid. Ruining my life with a simple accidental morning in bed together. Fresh tears came into my eyes when I remembered how he had stretched and answered my question with an innocent “What are you talking about? I live here.” I wished he lived here.

When I first moved in, I had to picture his arms around me in order to fall asleep. When I woke up, I imagined that he was just in the shower or something and not gone from my life forever. This breakup had really worn me down. I still loved him so much it ached. Being around him felt like being electrocuted by and sadness. all of this. I just wanted to go back to sleep and forget for a few more hours.

I briefly considered calling out of work, but Jimin’s mom had done me a lot of favors and I didn’t want to inconvenience her now. I sighed, wiped away my tears, and put on a fair amount of makeup to cover up my dark circles and swollen eyes. Jimin. Stupid bastard ruined my face for the day.

When I let myself in the back door of the restaurant, Jimin was already at the sink washing dishes. He glanced up at me and opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand.

“Don’t even ing say a word to me. I can’t even deal with you right now. Just do me a favor and stay away from me, okay?”

I brushed past him before I could see his expression. I grabbed an apron and some gloves and set to work washing dishes next to him. I couldn’t believe I had to spend the next month standing next to my ex-boyfriend washing dishes in his parents’ restaurant. At least Young Jae was here to distract me.

At that moment, he entered the kitchen with a broad smile.

“Hey!” Young Jae greeted me cheerfully. He bounded over to me. “How are you feeling after last night?

“I feel fine.” I lied smoothly, grinning at him. “How’s everything?”

“Good, now that you’re here.” Young Jae replied. He bent down and kissed me on the cheek.

At that moment, there came the sound of a clatter. We both turned to see Jimin crouching down to pick up the broken pieces of a plate. “Sorry.” He muttered, glancing up at me reproachfully.

Fueled by Jimin’s disapproval, I turned back to Young Jae. “What are you doing tonight?”

He looked at me for a moment, then bent down to help Jimin clean up. “Um, I’ve got to help my dad with something. Do you mind grabbing the broom, please?”

Embarrassed, I went into the closet to get the broom. Young Jae probably thought I was so rude. He had no idea about the scene that had occurred between Jimin and me this morning. He didn’t even know that Jimin was my infamous ex-boyfriend. I just looked like a . I sighed resentfully. Stupid Jimin, ruining my life.

By the time I brought the broom out they had already finished cleaning. Young Jae still took it from me and swept the floor. Jimin refused to look at me and returned to washing dishes.

“Young Jae!” We heard Mrs. Park call from the dining area. “Stop flirting and come and do your job!”

Young Jae and I both flushed and Jimin looked murderous. Young Jae pressed my hand and whispered, “See you later,” to me before leaving the kitchen.

I slowly walked over to the sink, feeling extremely reluctant to wash dishes for the next six hours with an incredibly crabby Jimin. He was a little scary when he was like this.

“I’ll wash and you dry.” Jimin ordered shortly. “You’re too slow at washing. It’ll be faster this way.” He tossed me a dishtowel, still refusing to even glance in my direction.

“You have no right to be mad at me.” I reminded him quietly.

“Yeah, I don’t, but it’s not stopping me from being angry. I’m not about to pretend like I’m ing overjoyed that the girl I’m in love with is flirting with someone else right in front of my eyes.” He snapped at me. He angrily scrubbed at an already spotless dish.

“Fine, don’t.” I shrugged. “Do whatever the hell you want. I don’t care.” I tried to sound more indifferent than I felt.

Jimin chuckled darkly. “What I would like to do is punch Young Jae in the face. But that’s not likely to happen. I wouldn't want to ruin the lovey-dovey mood between you two.” He added sarcastically.

“Yeah, don’t.” I retorted. “I’d hate for you to mar his beautiful face. Or even worse, split his lip so I can’t make out with him later.”

“Say all you want.” Jimin murmured. “Cause I know that even when he’s kissing you, you’ll be thinking of what it feels like when my tongue’s in your mouth.” He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye to catch my reaction.

“ you, Park Jimin.” I hissed. I stomped on his foot for good measure.

He laughed. “Try and hurt me all you want, baby.” He nudged me playfully with his shoulder. “Did you think I wouldn’t have noticed your reaction to my kiss this morning?”

“Stay the away from me.” I glared at him. Jimin just winked and resumed washing the dishes.

“You know,” He continued. “We could pick up where we left off. That broom closet over there is a pretty handy place to make out, if you remember.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I pretended primly. Inside I was seething. The little prick. Why was he bringing up something from so long ago?

“Oh, you don’t remember? Perhaps I should remind you.” Jimin replied slyly. “We were visiting my parents and they had us working in here. And you were having a difficult time because we had to sleep in separate bedrooms. Don’t you remember how you pleaded with me? ‘Jimin, please. It’ll just be for a little while. They’ll never know we’re gone. Please, Jimin, I just want you so bad right now.’ How could I say no in the face of such burning desire?”

“Shut the up!” I smacked him, hard, across the back of the head. “You bastard!”

Jimin just laughed and rubbed the back of his head. “Seems like you do remember, huh? We could reenact it if you want. I seem to recall you had a pretty good time.”

“I hate you so much right now.” I whispered venomously. “You greasy piece of .”

“Language, language.” Jimin replied mildly, handing me a plate. “This is a workplace, you know.”

“I don’t remember you being this kind of person, Park Jimin.” I scolded him. What a hateful little brat.

“Well, you’ve never let another man touch you in front of me before.” Jimin whispered huskily.

I looked at him in surprise. He avoided my gaze and looked hard at the glass he was cleaning.

“What, are you jealous? Is that what this is about?” I asked skeptically. “Don’t you think you’re being a little immature?”

“I don’t ing care.” Jimin turned to stare at me. The intensity of his gaze made me take a step back. “Of course I’m jealous. I’m so ing jealous right now that I can’t stand it.”

“Well, that’s your own damn fault.” I replied softly, turning away from him.

“You think I don’t know that?” Jimin muttered. “You think I’m not kicking myself for losing you? I know you don’t think I’m serious about you, but damn it, this is pure torture for me. To be next to you, but not be able to kiss you? To wake up next to you in your bed but not be welcome there? You think I just made your breakfast this morning so casually? I ing cried into that ty Hello Kitty apron before I put it on. I don’t know how you feel, but this is killing me.”

Jimin sighed and dropped the dishes in the sink. “I need to take a break.” He murmured, ripping off his gloves. “I’m going outside to cool off for a few minutes. Sorry.”

He disappeared out the door and I swiped the back of my hand across my eyes in an effort to stem the flow of tears.

“It’s not just you, Jimin. It’s killing me, too.” I whispered to an empty room.