“Do you travel often?”   Hyun Mi blinked her eyes in surprise as she handed her passport to the two guys behind the check-in counter. They looked back at her with an anticipating grin. She knew as well as they did that this question would only lead to one ultimate question at the end.   “Yes. How did you know?” she questioned them back, managing to press a smile on her lips. Her eyes, the color of dark chocolate, shot a quick glance towards their nametags.   “Yes, we see you quite often,” the taller guy she had identified as Chan Yeol said with excitement.   “I see you roam around often, in my dreams,” the shorter one, Baek Hyun, remarked before he burst out into a chipper laughter.   Hyun Mi started to chuckle along with them, using her hand to cover her lips. It was perhaps the millionth time she had heard this kind of cheesy line, but every single time, it still managed to surprise her.   “Really? To that extend?” she playfully asked them back.   “Yes, all the time,” Baek Hyun confirmed as his fingers started to enter her information into the database. “So what year were you born in?”   “1991,” Hyun Mi answered honestly, though he could see it from her passport if he wasn’t so desperately trying to strike up a conversation.   “Oh, we were born in 1992!” Chan Yeol yelped out. “We don’t differ that much!”   “Haha… That’s doable,” she answered with a sheepish smile, wondering what she even meant with her own words. She quickly tugged her dark brown hair behind her ear, waiting for them to finish.   “Do you have a boyfriend?” Baek Hyun suddenly dropped the main question.   Hyun Mi watched their eyes flicker with hope as they looked at her. Honestly, what were they even expecting? However, this wasn’t the first time this had happened. And every time, she managed to display her sweet smile before she replied with a lie: “Yes.”   “Oh.”   The joy in their face fell instantly. Baek Hyun quickly finished processing her information and handed her the boarding pass. “So your flight will be at gate D6. Have a safe trip to Jeju Island, Miss Jang,” he said kindly.   She took her passport and boarding pass from him, politely thanking him as she went.   One might wonder what triggered those people to blurt out those cheesy pick up lines at her. Was it perhaps the way she always smiled so genuinely to strangers to the point she seemed approachable? Was it her short height and petite frame that stood out from the crowd as if she was an easy target? Or maybe it was her bright yellow cardigan that exerted a warm and welcoming aura to strangers?   No, that was not the case.   Ever since birth, she was gifted with a strange ability to bring the cheesiness out in others. Whenever people were around her, it was as if their cheesy drive gauged out to its maximum state. They suddenly lost their rationale to speak properly, and soon, they could only say cheesy pick up lines one could find on Google. One might call it a gift, but she was sure it was more of a curse.   “Oh, are you alone?” another guy suddenly asked when she handed her passport again to enter the airplane. His eyes nearly disappeared behind his smile.   “Yes,” she replied with a friendly smile. It was quite amazing how after all her 23 years of hearing these lines, she still managed to be surprised and genuinely laugh at it.   “Sung Gyu, maybe you should accompany her,” another guy asked, nudging his friend who was still staring at her with a grin.   “Do you want me to accompany you?” Sung Gyu boldly asked.   Hyun Mi’s eyes slightly widened, in disbelief he actually said the shameless line out loud. “Thanks, but no,” she replied shortly before he handed her passport back. With that, she quickly escaped to the plane, hoping she wouldn’t meet another weird person.   Sometimes, this strange ability could be quite useful since it prompted people to help her out. When she tried to push her luggage in the upper compartment, a guy behind her quickly offered some help. In exchange for it, she just had to deal with another cheesy line.   “Do you need me to help you out for the rest of your life?”   “I’m good, thanks,” she quickly replied the guy with an appreciative nod before she quickly sat down in her seat. In her state of rush, she did not realize how she accidentally elbowed the guy besides her.   “S-sorry!”   The guy looked up at her with a blank stare. Seeing the panic written all over her face, he flashed a smile in response, displaying the dimples at the corner of his mouth. “It’s alright,” he said, and continued reading his book.   Hyun Mi blinked her eyes again, continuing to stare at him. This was usually the part where a person would say a cheesy line, but with him, there were none.   “It’s alright, really,” he repeated after noticing her constant stare.   “Ah, yes.” Hyun Mi straightened herself on the seat before she buckled up her seatbelt. She tried to maintain a composed state, which was soon ruined by random passersby who stated the things she was tired of hearing at the moment.   With a small sigh, she squirmed her body sideways, closely leaning against the guy besides her. At this point, she just wanted to hide herself from any eyesight so that she wouldn’t have to hear them talk.   “Are you okay?” the guy’s deep voice came as he calmly looked over at her from his book.   “Yes,” Hyun Mi answered as she slightly looked up to meet his deep brown eyes gazing back at her from such a short distance. The eye contact was too intense so she quickly averted her eyes from him and lowered her head. “I’m gonna stay like this for a moment. Just ignore me.”   The guy gave her a weird look before he directed his sight towards the incoming people. Whether it were his feelings or not, he did notice people continuing to stare at the random girl. He didn’t think much of it though and continued reading his book, allowing the girl to hide beside him.  

 

As hours went by, Hyun Mi did not realize she had blanked out and actually fell asleep in the midst of her amazing hiding skills—even though her yellow cardigan made her more visible to the human eye. She moved her head away from the comfortable though firm pillow, and began stretching her arms.   “You slept well,” the guy spoke, turning his head to her.   It was then when Hyun Mi realized that falling asleep was perhaps the most terrible mistake she could have made. She didn’t know what was worse; the fact she had fallen asleep against him and used his arms and shoulders as her pillow, or the fact that there was a huge trace of saliva hanging on the corner of as a bad sleeping habit.   “It’s okay,” the guy spoke again, seeing how she was dramatically placing both hands against her cheeks, eyes darting everywhere to come up with a perfect excuse. He simply smiled again. “Accidents happened.”   Hyun Mi felt her face flushing red from embarrassment. But no, she could still save her own dignity as long as she had a perfect excuse. “Sometimes, I cry myself to sleep and leave traces of tears everywhere,” she spoke up shamelessly, because that was the best excuse she could come up with at the moment.   “Why were you crying?” the guy asked, seemingly believing her for a moment before he continued. “Because you knew you were gonna drool on me?”   “No, those are tears! My tears,” Hyun Mi said convincingly as she pointed at her eyes: clearly dry, not swollen, and in its perfect condition.   “I see, but you still got a little something by your mouth though,” the guy motioned to his own lips with a small smirk.   Hyun Mi mimicked his action and touched her own lips, surprised there was an obvious wet trail. She squeezed her eyes shut, wiping off the remains of embarrassment left. She felt her pride crumbling down as he simply chuckled before returning back to his book.   “What’s your name?” she asked him, ready to argue her innocence.   “Nam Woo Hyun,” he answered shortly as he turned to her again. “And you are?”   She grinned at him teasingly and crossed her arms together. “You really think I’m gonna tell my name to a stranger?” she asked.   “I don’t think we’re strangers anymore since you practically drooled on me,” Woo Hyun teased.   Hyun Mi looked alerted at once and knew she was already defeated. She didn’t know why this guy wasn’t affected by her ‘ability’ at all. Instead of being overly cheesy, he was just teasing her. And she wasn’t sure whether this peculiar phenomenon was for the better or not.   “The girl who drooled…” Woo Hyun trailed off to remember her by.   “Hyun Mi!” she reluctantly gave her name, tricked by his teasing. “It’s Jang Hyun Mi.”   Woo Hyun simply grinned before he returned his attention back to his book. This was a very unusual situation. After knowing her name, people usually tried out some cheesy lines, but he was blatantly ignoring her.   “You’re not cheesy,” she stated unconsciously.   “W-what?” These words caught his full attention as he immediately tried to hide his book from her. His movements were not quick enough as she managed to peek a glance at the book’s title.   “How to be cheesy 101?” Hyun Mi read the title a little too loud and began to laugh.   “Hey!” Woo Hyun panicked as he immediately placed his hand in front of to stop her from laughing. In a world where cheesiness was highly exploited as a great skill, having none of it could be a great drawback.   “Everything makes sense now,” Hyun Mi said, drawing his hand away from her. She looked at him with a mischievous grin, knowing she had his weakness under her might in case she need to blackmail him—not that she would anyway. “No wonder you were unaffected.”   “Unaffected by what?” he asked.   “Well, it’s a little shameless for me to say this myself, but I have a weird ability,” Hyun Mi said as her fingers unconsciously started to twirl the end of her dark brown hair. “I bring the cheesiness out of others.”   Woo Hyun raised his eyebrows as if she was talking nonsense.   “It’s true! When people see me, they always say a cheesy line!”    “You were right, it is shameless of you to say this yourself,” Woo Hyun confirmed.   “But it works on everyone… Except you…”   Woo Hyun flinched a little at her words as he continued to focus back on the book. “I don’t believe you,” he stated.   Hyun Mi’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Before she could even protest and argue back with him, the stewardess had already arrived besides them to hand out their meals. She thanked the woman kindly before turning her attention back to Woo Hyun who was more than happy to start eating.   “For real… I can bring the cheese out of others,” she whined, not knowing why she even wanted him to believe her so desperately.   “Sure,” Woo Hyun said as he turned to her with a big chunk of cheese on his fork. Without any warning, he placed the cheese into to stop her from talking. “You brought the cheese out in me, literally. I believe you.”   Hyun Mi flattened her eyes as she had no choice but to chew on the food. “Didn’t you eat from that fork? And now you’re feeding it to me?” she asked him, deliberately leading him on to say the typical cheesy line involving an indirect kiss. This was t