How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

"I've never really asked you this, but what made you kiss me on that 'elevator day'?" she asked before popping a piece of meat in .

"Because you looked cute in that oversized winter hat," he said nonchalantly, mirroring her action with a morsel of rice.

"Seriously," she insisted.

He turned slightly in his seat to look at her.

It was a conscious effort on his part to always sit beside her instead of in front of her in whatever occasion, including meal times.

Whenever I can, I don't want to be apart from you; not even by a dinner table, he had said.

"Well, it's the truth, you did look cute that day, as you always do," he smiled. "But that day, because half of your face was covered, you lips just seemed to call out to me, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me."

Jokingly, Jeong Hoo mimicked a goldfish pout at her, slowly targeting her chubby cheek for a kiss.

"Tsssk," Yong Shin dismissed grumpily, pushing him away from her, yet smiling secretly at his antics.

They were out on a date that evening.

At Jeong Hoo's insistence with not much of a protest from his lady love, they were on a mission to re-enact their first synced yet separated date.

Unlike their previous ‘date’, they decided to have a proper dinner, before proceeding with a leisurely walk and ending with a couple-seated movie.

He rubbed her shoulder reassuringly, letting her know with a squeeze, that the moment on the roof meant a whole lot more to him than how he jested it to be.

"I guess..." Jeong Hoo said slowly, "I was so relieved that we both made it alive. You have grown to mean so much to me by then. I was relieved that I got to you just in time. The kiss was unexpected, even by me, but I just wanted to be close to you at a different level that day."

He smiled hesitantly at her, his soft little lost boy smile. Just like he did on another rooftop by a makeshift born fire, many moons ago.

"You only knew me as Healer then, a guy who pops in and out of your life as he pleases. But for me, you were already part of my every waking and even sleeping hours, day and night - when I was both Park Bong Soo and Seo Jeong Hoo and even the night errand boy, Healer. If I were to lose you in any way, I wouldn't be just losing a client, or a source of income. I would also be losing you as a friend, a colleague and possibly a lover."

Yong Shin looked at him, touched with his words, unable to utter one of her own.

"So, yeah," he nodded, slumping in his seat. "I was relieved. But then again, we already established that when you thanked me."

Jeong Hoo absently played with his food, as he continued. "But as I walked away, I remembered how sad you were when Moon Ho-uncle told you the background check on you was nothing more than a routine employee research. And how you thought the Healer was just looking out for you as part of his job. So, I wanted you to know then that you more to me than just something I was tasked to do. I wanted you to know that it was me up there with you. Not anyone else. Jeong Hoo and Healer, but also Bong Soo combined.”

Jeong Hoo smiled to himself, thinking how he lost his footing  after the kiss. His very first kiss ever.

“I heard Kim Min Ho already arriving at the time. So yeah, I wanted you to know it was me. Not your beloved reporter-icon, or anyone else. Wanting you to know it was me, was something like getting someone to assure me I was real. Not some fly by night figure, or an imaginary superhero. Assuring you I was real was also like reassuring myself. So, yeah,” he finally looked up at her. “Saving you was also like saving myself too, I guess."

She cleared . Again not knowing how to response. Perhaps even mentally kicking herself in wanting more gratification moments from him by re-emphasising his love for her. Knowing the even deeper meaning of Jeong Hoo’s feelings and need for her, somehow made her feel like her feelings towards him was an inadequate response to his.

Would I run to save him, if the roles were reversed, she asked herself silent. Would I risk myself that way?

“Yes,” he smiled.

“Huh?” she turned towards him questioningly.

“Yes, you would,” he reaffirmed. “You’d do the things I did for you if the situation was reversed.”

“How?” she asked in surprise. “Did I ask it out loud?”

“I can hear your brain wheels creaking, thinking of what I just told you,” he grinned.

She scrunched her nose at his inference of her old fashion non digital habits.

At her face, he reached out to hug her in her seat; again dropping one of his many little kisses on her temple.

“You saved me many times, or wanted to, at least,” he told her, reminding her of the times she told Bong Soo to run and hide.

“You must think I was a fool then,” she smiled sheepishly.

“Ani,” he caressed her cheek, now fully turned in his seat to look at her. “If anything, it made me love you even more. The old Healer would have just walked away from the situation that night at the alley. But you changed him and made him come back for you.”

He looked down at his knees then.

“I was disappointed many times while growing up, to put much faith in people. So, thank you for restoring that trust in me again.”

Now, it was Yong Shin who turned in her seat, the food totally forgotten.

“I love you,” she said simply. “You are missing link in my life. It may not be a normal life, by many people’s standards, but it’s ours. And I love it. So, thank you for trusting your guts and sticking around in those early days. If you didn’t, we may not have gotten here at all.”

“But, I didn’t give you back that faith, you simply didn’t lose it,” Yong Shin smiled tenderly up at his downcast face. “I didn’t restore it, you just chose to enhance it.”

He gave a small laugh, amazed at how easy Yong Shin made him not only love her, but love himself as well.

Yong Shin, or is it Ji An?

Either or, or both, it just gave him an avenue to love her even more, in all forms and functions.

This time, it was Jeong Hoo who was speechless, choosing to simply stare at her face in wonder, instead.

“Eat, let’s eat,” he finally croaked. “We have a long night ahead of us.”

“Ok,” Yong Shin grinned, before turning back towards her food.

But before she could fully undertake the task, Jeong Hoo pulled her back to him again.

To cup her cheeks, and deeply kiss her.

A kiss so sweet that Yong Shin would need no dessert other than him, after her meal.

-to be continued?-