“I’m sorry, but, we’re clos—”

Choi Young Do entered the coffee shop just the same, not minding that it was closed. “I know,” he looked at Cha Eun Sang and he shrugged. He dragged the chair from under the table she was cleaning and sat across from where she was standing.

She looked down at him and frowned.  “What are you doing here?” 

“Taking you home,” he said, trying to appear as casual as possible. His eyes grew wide when he realized what he said.  He suddenly felt embarrassed but he did his best to appear anything but. He sat lazily and brought his feet up the table.

Cha Eun Sang clicked her tongue and said, “You’re crazy.”

“And we’ll have dinner. You didn’t buy me lunch for three days,” he added, an attempt to clarify that he was just there because of the lunch meals she promised she’d share with him. That’s about it. Nothing more.

“You were absent,” she argued.

“Because of reasons,” he responded, starting to feel irritated.  

“That I don’t care about,” she retorted.

He made a face, “this girl, really—”

His irritation grew when she ignored him as she went to the counter. He just shook his head as he looked at her from where he was sitting.

“Chan Young,” she shouted from the counter, “I’ll go ahead.”

“Okay,” he heard Chan Young shout from his office. “Enjoy your date with Choi Young Do,” Chan Young added. He almost choked when he heard what Chan Young said.

“I’m not on a date with him!” Cha Eun Sang protested before he could even say something.

She heard Chan Young chuckle. “Whatever you say, Cha Eun Sang.”

“Whatever, Yoon Chan Young,” she shouted back.

She went out the coffee shop and he trailed behind her.

He could tell just by looking at her that she didn’t know it was this cold outside. He saw her clench her jaw, attempting not to grit her teeth when the cold wind blew.

He debated with himself for a few seconds then he sighed and shook his head. He took off his jacket as he walked towards her. She looked at him when she felt him wrap his jacket around her shoulders

He raised an eyebrow.  “You’re welcome,” he said before she could even thank him.

She smiled a little. “Thanks.”

He frowned when Cha Eun Sang started walking towards the bus stop; he grabbed her by the arm. He pulled her to the opposite direction.

She tried to jerk her arm away, but, he held on to it tightly. “Hey! What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you home,” he said without looking at her.

He was on his way home earlier when he decided to stop by the convenience shop he usually goes to. He decided to just buy a cup ramen on his way home when he overheard two students. Judging by their uniform, he could tell they were from a different school.

“I heard, they were meeting along Maple Drive,” one of the students said.

“For what? For their initiation rites?”

He shrugged. “Fraternities,” he thought.

“Yes,” he heard one of the students again. “And if you’re unlucky to be passing by that street even when you’re not a member of that organization, you’ll have to do the rites.”

He walked towards their table and he sat down from the chair across them. The two students looked surprised, but, he just shook his head. “No, don’t worry about me. Go on. Talk.”

The two students looked at each other and made a move to stand up, but he glared at them so they sat back. He looked at them and shrugged, “talk.”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “What were you talking about? What about Maple Drive?”

One of the students looked at him, “w-we were told that a fraternity,” he paused. “f-from our school will hold its initiation rites later tonight.”

He looked at him, urging the student to tell him more. “A-and it’s dangerous if someone happens to be there when the initiation rites begin.”

He leapt to his feet when he remembered that Yoon Chan Young’s coffee shop is at Maple Drive. He ran to the parking lot when he remembered that Cha Eun Sang usually works until 10 or 11PM. She might be caught in the middle of the ruckus.

Cha Eun Sang’s voice woke him from his reverie. “Choi Young Do, news flash: you can’t just order people around!”

He frowned at her, “why not?”

She rolled her eyes. “Uh, because people aren’t puppies?”

He ignored her sarcastic remark and led her to his car as he gripped her arm. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

“I’m fine, Choi Young Do. I can go home by myself.”

He tried to sound irritated so she would not hear a trace of worry in his voice. “It’s already late. It’s dangerous for you to be taking the bus home. And alone at that.”

She laughed. “I always go home late. I always go home by myself.”

He gripped her arm as he led her to the parking lot. He clenched his jaw and ran his free hand through his hair. He let out a sigh, getting frustrated.

“Why are you so stubborn? Just let me take you home!”

“Why are you shouting? What are you so angry about?”

“I’m just worried that something bad will happen to you if you go home alone at this hour!” he said, raising his voice.

Cha Eun Sang looked at him through wide eyes. She just looked at him and when he realized what he just said, he let go of her arm. He literally pushed her away, hardly so as Cha Eun Sang almost lost her balance.

“You idiot,” he thought. “Just what did you say?”

Their eye contact lingered as neither one of them said anything.  “Awkward,” he thought. They held gaze for a few more seconds. He finally broke their gaze by looking down at his watch. Without saying a word, he walked towards the parking lot, leaving Cha Eun Sang.

“I thought we’re having dinner?”

He almost jolted when he heard her. He frowned when she sounded so casual; it was as if she didn’t hear anything from him earlier. He clenched his jaw.  “What did you expect, Choi Young Do?” he thought, chastising himself. He turned around to look at her. Judging by her protests earlier, he didn’t think she’d follow him here. He thought she just stayed there or that she walked towards the bus station. He decided he would wait for the bus with her had she chosen to stay and commute.

He smiled. “We are,” he answered as nonchalantly as possible.

He opened the passenger seat  and gestured her to get in.

She did. He waited until she was buckled up before he shut the door.

He was driving quietly, trying to calm himself. It didn’t help a bit that Cha Eun Sang kept on asking him about his family. He didn’t want to talk about his family or lack thereof. He cursed inwardly because he didn’t understand why he felt so rattled. He told himself countless times that it was just Cha Eun Sang sitting on the passenger seat. Cha Eun Sang, the charity case from school. The nobody who owed him lunch meals otherwise he wouldn’t drop the lawsuit.

It made him wonder how Cha Eun Sang seemed so comfortable and not awkward at all. It irked him that he was the only one reacting weirdly on this. Cha Eun Sang seemed just like her normal self. Cha Eun Sang seemed anything but anxious, so why did he feel like throwing up?

He saw her shook her head and yawned a little. He looked at her sideways and noticed the dark circles under her eyes.  “You look tired. You can sleep on our way to your house.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

He smirked, “what?”

She narrowed her eyes then frowned at him.

He laughed mockingly when he finally understood what she was hinting at.  “Come on, you’re not even that pretty,” he said, not trying to sound defensive. She made a face at him and he smiled a little just as she faced the passenger seat window.

Cha Eun Sang thanked him by the time they reached her house.

He grabbed her hand just as she was about to open the passenger seat door. She looked and he didn’t say anything for a long time. He just looked at her and he debated with himself whether or not to tell her why he’d been absent.

He cursed inside his head. Why did he feel like explaining to her? He did not owe her anything. Cha Eun Sang was just a nobody whom he was using to annoy Kim Tan. “Really?” his mind . He shook his head.

After that awkward eye contact, he decided against telling her and instead he said, “My jacket.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” she paused as she handed him his jacket, “here.”

He didn’t know what came over him that instead of just getting the jacket from her hand, he pulled her in for a hug and he felt her tensed. He was tensed, too. His hands felt cold and it was as if his heart wanted to get out of his chest.

“Thank you, Cha Eun Sang,” he said almost inaudibly.

She tensed even more when he pulled her closer, just a little bit. And he held there, anything but further.

Out of his peripheral vision, he saw her smile a little as she exited the car. She started walking away from the car and toward her house. He rolled the windows down and called her, “Hey, Cha Eun Sang!”

She turned around, both eyebrows raised. “Yes?”

His heartbeat still violently beating inside of his chest, he cleared his throat. “You look rather pretty today,” was all he said before he drove away.