Brazen Love [Chapter 14]

 

Chapter 14:

Hyun Joong felt like screaming…ripping his hair out…but he knew that wouldn’t accomplish anything. He had already known that Hwang Bo didn’t care about him the way he cared about her. He couldn’t go off the wall and throw a tantrum every time she threw that in his face. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. If she didn’t care, he wouldn’t care either. He looked at his watch. He had to be on a program in a couple of hours. He might as well start preparing and maybe head over early. He needed to keep his mind busy.

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Jung Min stared at the side of Hyun Joong’s head. Hyun Joong had been spacing out more than usual on this program. He normally didn’t seem completely there, but today, it didn’t seem like his mind was with them at all; questions directed his way had to be asked three times, until the interviewer just gave up and started directing the questions to the rest of them. After the program was over, Jung Min walked up to him to ask what was going on, and if it was the same problem that had been bothering him for the last few weeks, but at that moment, their leader got a phone call. Hyun Joong looked around to see if anyone was listening, but didn’t notice Jung Min pressing himself against a wall around a corner. Jung Min listened intently, but only caught a few words. “I still have a lot of stuff I have to do today, I’ll be over as soon as I can.” Then silence as Hyun Joong took in the words from the other end. “I don’t care, I said I’ll be there when I can. Don’t call me again, or I won’t come at all.” He heard Hyun Joong pound his fist against the wall. He slipped out of the room as quietly as possible and wondered if his Hyung was in some kind of trouble.

Jung Min went back and reported what he had heard to the rest of the members. “Do you guys think maybe he’s been mixing in with the wrong crowd?” Hyung Joon’s eyes widened. “Like loan sharks?” Jung Min hit him on the back of the head. “Why would Hyung need to deal with loan sharks? Not loan sharks, but maybe just dangerous people. It would explain his mood swings.” Young Saeng shook his head. “I could swear it’s relationship problems though.” Kyu Jong bit his lip, thinking. “Maybe we should follow him…see where he goes…”

After the program ended, Hyun Joong excused himself from his group of friends and didn’t miss the significant looks they gave each other as they walked away. He felt their eyes on him all the way to his car. He frowned, ‘Are they going to follow me?’ He smirked as he watched the group of them in his rearview mirror as he pulled out. He didn’t bother to hide his actions, he was just going to the convenience store to buy ramen for Hwang Bo since it would be simple to make for the times when he wouldn’t be able to be there to make her something. He would just lose them later.

He made it to the convenience store, and smiled at how ridiculous his bandmates were being. They had all come into the convenience store behind him. If they were trying to be inconspicuous, shouldn’t only one have come in? He stored it in his mind to tease them about later. Not only that, but they kept shushing each other. He was finding it hard pretending not to see them. But no matter what, he was very grateful to them at the moment. Because of them, his mood brightened a little bit. He bought his ramen and went back to his car. He took a long way to Hwang Bo’s house so the guys couldn’t follow him. He lost them somewhere along the way on a crowded street. When he made it to Hwang Bo’s house, he let out a long sigh, preparing to face her again.

He knocked on the door, when he got no answer he tried the knob; open. ‘Why did she leave her door open?’ He remembered that when he had left her apartment that morning he hadn’t locked the door behind him. ‘Has it been opened since I left?’ He walked further inside, placing the bag of ramen on the counter. “I bought you ramen for later since it’s easy to cook, you won’t have to use your ankle much.” Again he heard no reply. ‘Is she giving me the silent treatment for the way I acted on the phone earlier?’ he wondered. He walked into her bedroom and flipped on the light since it was dark now, and the curtains were still drawn. “I think you should give me a key to your apartment so I can lock the door behind me when I leave if you’re not going to.” He was surprised what he found when he finally turned around to look at Hwang Bo. She was curled up on her side in bed, she looked like she hadn’t moved since he left that morning. He rushed over and pressed a hand against her forehead then ran a finger along her chapped lips. He had given her toast this morning, nothing to drink, and she hadn’t eaten much the night before either. When she had called him, her voice hadn’t sounded much different than it had earlier, so he hadn’t been too worried, but if she had told him she had reached this state- he went into the kitchen to get her some water to moisten her lips so they wouldn’t crack when she opened them. She looked up at him and smiled briefly then looked at the time blinking from her bedside alarm clock; 11 o’clock PM. “I called you at two, what took you so long to get here?” she asked sadly.

Hyun Joong felt a wave of guilt wash over him, and he hated the feeling. How did she always make him feel as if he was doing something wrong when she was the one who wasn’t doing anything right to begin with? “Why couldn’t you get up and get something to eat if you were hungry!?” he burst out angrily. He looked away from her stricken expression. “I’ll…get you something. Wait here.”

Hyun Joong pressed his hands against the counter top, then looked over at the bag of ramen he had bought. She needed something healthy to eat so her ankle could heal, but he had bought ramen. He looked through her cabinets , but all he could find were a few fruit, so he peeled and halved two oranges and sliced a few apples for her. He carried them in on a plate, she was sitting up and drinking the water he had brought in earlier. He speared a piece of apple on the fork and held it out to her. “Open up.” Hwang Bo looked up at him. He scowled. “Hurry up while I’m offering, or I’ll just leave and you can feed yourself.” Hwang Bo smiled and willingly let him feed her, while Hyun Joong enjoyed taking care of her much more than he should. When the plate was empty he sat it to the side. “I’ll bring in a few bottles of water so you won’t have to go all the way to the kitchen for them and I’ll put some snacks in your drawer. And also, I’m going to need a copy of the key to this apartment so you won’t have to get up and let me in every time, or leave your door open. It’s dangerous.” Hwang Bo smiled and touched his hand. “Are you worrying about me?” Hyun Joong snatched his hand away. “I’m just trying to do the job you asked me to do.”

Hwang Bo sighed. “Was last night part of your job too?” she mumbled under her breath. Hyun Joong turned to face her. “What?” he asked. Hwang Bo shook her head. “Nothing. I’ll have a key made for you.” Hyun Joong nodded and looked at her ankle. “The swelling already seems to be going down. Hopefully, it’ll only be a couple more days.” Hwang Bo scowled at him. ‘Do you want to get rid of me so quickly?’ she thought to herself. She was about to demand him to clean up her room when the doorbell rang. Hyun Joong looked at her questioningly. Hwang Bo shrugged. She hadn’t invited anybody. Who could be coming at this time of night? “Answer it,” she said.

Hyun Joong walked into the living room then peeked out of the viewing hole in the door. It was a man he vaguely recognized. He came back into Hwang Bo’s room and described the man to her. She sighed, it was the wavy haired doctor whom she had seen twice, she couldn’t remember his name now. “Send him away.” Hyun Joong stared. “And what reason should I give for being the one who sends him away. Who is he anyway, how does he know where you live?” Hwang Bo glared at him. “He’s just a doctor I’ve been on a marriage meeting with once or twice, now just do what I say.” Hyun Joong shook his head. “No, someone needs to look at your ankle, even if it’s him.” ‘What does he mean by that?’ Hwang Bo wondered as he walked away. ‘Is he… upset?’ Hyun Joong unlocked the door then called out in his best Hwang Bo impression. “It’s open.” Then found a place to hide as the man quickly walked into the apartment. Hyun Joong watched him as he turned, searching for Hwang Bo, then made his way into the back rooms toward her bedroom. ‘At least he doesn’t know where her bedroom is,’ Hyun Joong thought with satisfaction, then tamped down the thought.

Hwang Bo pasted a smile on her face when he walked in. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Ah, yeah…” the doctor said, feeling a bit overwhelmed being in Hwang Bo’s house. Hwang Bo…who he had been a fan of since she debuted. “I’m sorry to come here so late. I had called your mom because I couldn’t get in contact with you, and she told me that you had a little problem with your ankle so…I just thought I’d check over it for you once…Can I?” He had started to touch her ankle to examine it, but he pulled back, unsure. Hwang Bo sighed and nodded. “It’s really nothing though,” she said. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here.” He gently looked over her ankle. “It’s okay. It’s no trouble. Your mom also told me that maybe you had something to tell me? I…wasn’t sure what she meant. Does that hurt?” Hwang Bo shook her head. “Wow,” she said in amazement. “Your touch is really gentle! No wonder you’re a doctor.” She was just stating a fact, but to Hyun Joong who was listening intently from the hallway, it sounded like she was flirting. He scoffed in annoyance and clenched his fist.

The doctor smiled, but continued to concentrate on her ankle. “So what was it that you wanted to tell me?” he asked, just to distract her from any possible pain he would cause. Hwang Bo took a deep breath. “I had a really good time with you on our dates.” The doctor smiled widely, but put too much pressure on her ankle in his excitement. Hyun Joong wanted to rush in at her exclamation of pain, but managed to hold himself back. The doctor quickly released her ankle. “Sorry…sorry.” Hwang Bo waved her hand. “It’s okay, but that wasn’t all I had to tell you. I’m seeing someone, so I won’t be able to continue to meet you.” The doctor looked up. “ You mean, another one of the marriage partners managed to catch your eye?” Hwang Bo decided to go with that. She nodded. The doctor looked down at her ankle to hide how upset he was, he had hoped he and Hwang Bo could meet more, and possibly marry, Hyun Joong however, was trying to figure out exactly who she was seeing that she was letting go of this marriage partner, and she wasn’t serious about him. The man declared that Hwang Bo’s ankle was mostly just badly bruised and she had stressed a ligament from not stretching, then left, his head low and his shoulders slumped. Hyun Joong locked the door behind him, then walked into Hwang Bo’s room as if he hadn’t been listening. “So, what’d he say?”

Hwang Bo sighed. “He said I have a stressed ligament because I didn’t stretch properly.” She gave him a pointed look. Hyun Joong looked away. He cleared his throat. “So…he was one of your marriage meeting dates?” Hwang Bo nodded. “But he’s not the one you’re interested in?” Hwang Bo shook her head. “Nope,” she stated, giving him a look. Hyun Joong nodded, pretending disinterest. ‘So who is it?’ he wondered silently. ‘Is it the restaurant guy?’

Hwang Bo looked away when he didn’t take the hint then, “So, now do you admit that it’s your fault that my ankle is like this?” Hyun Joong scoffed. “It’s because you’re old that your ankle is like that. If I didn’t stretch, I wouldn’t become a cripple just because I fell down on a patch of grass.” Hwang Bo clenched her fist. “I didn’t ‘fall on a patch of grass’, I was shoved down by someone,” she said pointedly. “And my age didn’t seem to bother you too much last night.”

Hyun Joong blushed and turned away as memories of the night before came back to him. He gave a cough. “All you ate was some fruit,” he said, facing away from her. “Are you still hungry?”

“No,” Hwang Bo said falling back against her pillows again. “I’m tired. Can you stay the night again, though, just in case I need anything?”

Hyun Joong sighed. ‘Can she still ask that so nonchalantly after what happened?’ He pushed his emotions down and matched her tone. “Let me just call the guys. They’re already starting to wonder where I’m spending all my time.”

Hwang Bo smiled behind his back in victory. She threw him a pillow from her bed when he came back, then directed him toward the closet where she kept her extra blankets. “You should be comfortable on the couch.” Hyun Joong tried to keep the disappointed expression off of his face. He hadn’t really expected a repeat of last night, or wanted one, he tried to convince himself, but the way she so casually told him to sleep on the couch like it wasn’t even up for debate, upset him for some reason.

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The next morning, Hyun Joong was woken up by Hwang Bo’s voice. “Hyun Joong!” she called. “Hyun Joong!” He placed the pillow over his head hoping that she would think he was still asleep and give up, but it didn’t work. The call was continuous and repetitive with the same time interval in between each call…like an extremely annoying alarm clock. “Okay! I’m coming!” he yelled. Hwang Bo’s eyes flew open and her head came up from where it was resting on the headboard. She had been calling him for the last twenty minutes. She had started to think that maybe he had left when she had fallen asleep.

She hurriedly finger-combed her tousled hair and ran one of the moist tissues she kept in her nightstand over her face, brushed on a bit of lip gloss, checked her breath, then leaned weakly against the headboard. He came into the room rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “What! What do you want?” Hwang Bo smiled weakly. “Could you get some clothes for me so I can take a bath? I don’t think I can handle the pain of walking from one drawer to another, and my closet… so could you?” Hyun Joong nodded tiredly. He reached into her closet and grabbed the first thing that touched his hand, a filmy nightgown. His eyes widened in shock, he was now fully awake. He glared over at her like it was her fault, she stared back at him with wide innocent eyes. He shook his head and put the barely there garment back, then grabbed a large t-shirt and loose jeans, he tossed them over to her. She made her eyes rounder, as innocent looking as she could get. “I-I need my underclothes too.” He looked at her like she was out of her mind. She shrugged helplessly. He growled low in his throat, “Which drawer is it?” He would not lose in whatever game she was playing. She pointed to the one furthest away from her across the room. He opened it and almost died from the rush of blood that went to his face, there were lacy bras and panties wherever he looked. He quickly and blindly grabbed two that didn’t even remotely match, hushed her with a glare when she was about to protest then tried to escape the room. She stopped him with a soft call. “You’re…going to have to run my bathwater for me too, and I might need your help stepping into the tub so that I don’t fall down.”

‘What!?’ He took a deep breath. He couldn’t lose. “Okay,” he said. He went to the bathroom and ran the water carelessly. When he was done, he came back into the bedroom. “Done,” he stated proudly. Hwang Bo didn’t move. She stared at him. He stared back at her. “Well?” she said. “Aren’t you going to carry me there? The doctor said I should stay off of my ankle as much as I can.” Hyun Joong sighed, closing his eyes. “Of course,” he said, walking over. He picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. When they got there, he stood her carefully on her two feet, continuing to hold her up from the side. She stared at the water and sighed. Hyun Joong rolled his eyes. “What is it now?” he asked. “There are no bubbles.” He looked around. “Hold on.” He transferred her hold from his shoulder to the edge of the sink, and went to look for something. He returned with the bottle of blow bubbles he had seen laying around. “Here you go,” he said, handing them to her. Hwang Bo looked up expectantly and then burst into laughter. She tried to hit him, but Hyun Joong had been expecting her reaction so easily stepped aside. When her laughter became a little too violent, and he became afraid that she might hurt her ankle more, he held onto her arm. “Be careful,” he said, smiling at her uninhibited laughter. “Why are you so ridiculous?” she asked, coming down from her laughter.

He smiled and got the bubble bath. He squirted two full blasts into the water and swirled his hand around in it to make sure they foamed. ’So this is why she smells like that,’ Hyun Joong thought as the aroma wafted up from the water. He breathed it in, then remembered Hwang Bo was standing there with him. He changed the gesture to a sniff and wiped his nose as if he had a cold. He went back over to Hwang Bo and picked her up to set her down in the water. “You don’t expect me to get in there fully dressed do you?” Hyun Joong groaned. “What the!” Hwang Bo laughed and pointed toward a bath robe, “Hold that up in front of me while I undress.” Hyun Joong decided to play a game of his own, he was certain she wouldn‘t get undressed in front of him. “It’s not like I haven’t seen everything already, and what will I do when I drop you in? I might as well see it all now.” ’It had been dark that night, so he really hadn’t seen much of anything, but he had felt everything. Hwang Bo blushed. Did he think she wouldn’t undress in front of him, he had another think coming. She pulled her shirt up over her head and dropped it to the floor. “You make a good point.” She undid her jeans and pulled them down to the floor, one leg at a time, a bit clumsily when she had to stand on the sore ankle. Hyun Joong couldn’t look away. “What-What are you doing?” Hwang Bo looked up defiantly, her hand on the clasp of her bra. “Getting ready to take a bath.”

“Wait,” he said, in a sudden panic, before her hands could undo the clasp. He picked her up and sat her on the side of the tub. “Now you can just slip in when you get undressed.” Hwang Bo laughed, a little disappointed at his quick thinking. “Okay,” she said, bringing her hands back up to her bra clasp. Hyun Joong hurriedly turned to leave. “I’ll make breakfast,” he said. As he was closing the door behind him, he caught a glimpse of the bra unsnapping and Hwang Bo’s bare back. He closed the door a little too loudly and took a couple of deep breaths. “She’s crazy!” he whispered to himself, convinced.

Hyun Joong concentrated all of his efforts on making the ramen as delicious as possible and chopped fresh vegetables into it to make it more nutritious, then he poured Hwang Bo a healthy cup of lemon tea and set the table. He looked up at the clock. Hwang Bo had been in the tub for thirty minutes, shouldn’t she be dressed by now. “Hyun Joooooooong!” Hyun Joong hopped up from his seat and ran to the bath room, worried. Hwang Bo was looking at him teary eyed, a hand on each side of the tub. “I didn’t want to bother you, so I tried to get out by myself, but I kept slipping down and.” Hyun Joong rushed over and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around her before pulling her out from the tub, he got another one and started drying her hair for her. “I feel useless,” Hwang Bo said as she sat quietly, getting her hair dried. Hyun Joong held back a laugh. “I finished breakfast, I made ramen. And I also made you some of that lemon tea you like so much.” Hwang Bo glared at him. “Get out so I can get dressed.”

Hyun Joong left the bathroom and waited for Hwang Bo at the table. His phone rang as he waited. “Hello?” he answered. “Hyung,” Hyung Joon’s voice came through the speaker. “The manager told me to call you. He wants you to attend this party. And you have to bring a date.”

Hyun Joong slumped in his chair, seemed like frustrations were piling up on him from every side. “When is this party?” He watched as Hwang Bo limped around to her side of the table, stopping along the way to look into the ramen pot and give him a grateful look. *About two days from now, they didn’t really give us much time to find a date. I’m going to see if Krystal is available.* Hyun Joong nodded and held the phone against his shoulder as he sthingyed ramen soup into the bowl Hwang Bo held out for him. “That’s a good idea. Get her to ask Amber for me, she’s the only one I can think of that I want to go with.” He glared at Hwang Bo as she dropped her bowl, spilling hot soup across the table. *What was that noise, Hyung?* “Nothing, I have to go.” He hung up the phone then went to get towels to clean up the spill.

“Why have you been so accident prone lately?” he asked. Hwang Bo watched him clean up the spill. “Who was that on the phone?” she asked. “Hyung Joon. Apparently, we have to go to some party in a couple of days.” She nodded. “And you’re going with Amber?” she asked. “Yeah,” he answered. “For some reason, we have to bring dates.” Hwang Bo scowled. ‘The only person you can think of to go with? What about me?’ she wondered, forgetting for a moment about her ankle and the fact that it was her idea that they shouldn’t be seen out together. “What kind of party requires that?” she grumbled angrily. “What if I need you that day?”

Hyun Joong shrugged. “Apparently it’s some sort of new romance movie promotion that our company is involved with, so we all have to have a date for the… romance theme.” Hwang Bo rolled her eyes, silliest thing she had ever heard of. She got up from the table and limped to her bedroom. “Where are you going?” Hyun Joong asked, catching her arm. “I’m not hungry anymore.” Hyun Joong was getting tired of her temper, it usually flared for no reason, and when it did, she always made him feel responsible and guilty. “Whatever! If you’re not eating, then I’m leaving.” Hwang Bo paused for a minute then came back to the table. “If I don’t eat now, I don’t know when I’ll get to again,” she conceded quietly.

Hyun Joong was glad to see her eating. “It’s not as good as what you cooked last time, but it’ll work,” he said, starting in on his ramen too. Hwang Bo smiled at the compliment. “We seriously need more groceries, though,” Hwang Bo said. “Let’s do that today.”

Hyun Joong nearly choked on his noodles. “Let’s…as in both of us? As in… let us?”

“Yeah,” Hwang Bo said, nodding. “Why? You don’t want to go out with me?” she asked, feeling insulted. “No,” Hyun Joong said quickly. “It’s just…weren’t you the one who always gave me all the reasons why we shouldn’t go out together!?” Hwang Bo sighed. “I’ll stay in the car. I just want to come with you when you go.”

Hyun Joong looked at her. ‘She’s been acting so weird since she injured her ankle. When she fell did she hit her head too?’ Hwang Bo caught his look. “What?!” Hyun Joong quickly went back to eating his ramen. Then he went to get Hwang Bo’s car keys, then remembered that her car was still sitting in the park where she had gotten hurt. He pulled his own keys out of his pocket. “Don’t think I’m going to buy the ingredients for you as well. Write down what you need, I‘ll go in and get it for you, that‘s it.” Hwang Bo pouted but went to get her money. ‘In the past, he would have leapt to buy everything for me.’

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“Do you want me to go get your car from the park later?” Hyun Joong asked as they drove up to the supermarket Hwang Bo had indicated. “Would you?” Hwang Bo answered. “But do it when I’m asleep.” Hyun Joong sent her an irritated and questioning look. ‘She just expects me to do whatever she wants whenever she wants!’ he thought. “Why? When am I supposed to sleep?” he asked.

Hwang Bo shrugged. “That’s your problem. Now pull over here, this is the store I like to buy my everyday things at. We’ll have to drive a bit further to get to the place I buy my vegetables.” Hyun Joong wanted to scream, but he decided to hold it in, screaming at her never did any good anyway, well he had never really tried, but he figured this wasn’t the time. He took the list she had written and went into the store, trying to find everything as quickly as possible. He carried everything out to the car himself, so that no one inside could get close enough to see Hwang Bo. “Where to now?” Hwang Bo blinked at him, she had fallen into a light sleep while he was in the store. “Oh, go to the end of this street and take two rights and a left, then drive for about forty more miles. Wake me up when we get there so I can tell you which vendors I like.” Hyun Joong blinked. “We’ll be leaving Seoul if we go that way.” Hwang Bo waved her hand in the air as if that were of little importance. Hyun Joong wished he had a schedule today so he would have an excuse to take her back to her apartment and leave her. He gritted his teeth and started the car. Hwang Bo peeked over at him, ‘Shouldn’t have wanted to go to the party with Amber.’

Hyun Joong felt as if he was being punished. He glared at her when she laid her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. Did she think she could just sleep when he couldn’t? Here he was, woken up early to drive her around to weird markets that he had never heard of and he had to stay up late to get her car too… “Wake up!” he yelled. Hwang Bo jerked upright, startled.

Hyun Joong looked over in satisfaction as she rubbed her eyes and looked over at him. “What happened? Did you say something?” Hyun Joong smirked. “No.” Hwang Bo sighed and let her head fall back against the seat, only to be woken ten minutes later by another loud noise. Hyun Joong smiled and once again said that he hadn’t said or heard anything. She glared at him suspiciously but closed her eyes again. Hyun Joong waited until her breathing changed to signify that she was sleeping. “Wa-!” he started, but Hwang Bo had only been pretending so she could catch him. She slapped his arm. “If you wanted me to stay awake to talk to you, you should have just told me.” Hyun Joong laughed and looked over at her. “I’m sorry. You just looked so peaceful while you were sleeping, I had to disturb you.”

Hwang Bo rolled her eyes. She was about to say something when her cell phone rang. She answered it. It was her mom. “Mom!” she said. “Hey,” her mom answered. “I was just looking through my old things and I realized, if you don’t mind, that I’d like you to wear my old wedding dress when you get married. You can alter it of course but…you know…” Hwang Bo blinked. “Mom,” she interrupted. “Slow down, why are you talking about this all of a sudden?” Her mom laughed. “All of a sudden? This is as good a time as any. What, with that young, handsome…” Hwang Bo laughed. “Mom!” She stopped her before she could get started. “Okay,” her mom said. “Just know that I’m expecting you to set a date soon.” Before Hwang Bo could say anything, her mom spoke again. “Well, just think that over. I have to go.” With that, she hung up.

Hyun Joong glanced over, “What was that about?” Hwang Bo stared out of the window at the passing scenery. “The dress I would wear when I marry you.” That comment induced silence throughout the rest of the ride.

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When they pulled up to a busy street market, Hwang Bo told Hyun Joong to stop the car. “I like the fruit from-” she had started to point to a certain stall. ‘Where is the man that usually runs the stall?’ she wondered. ‘That must be his daughter.’ There was a really pretty young woman who was watching the stall that she usually got her fruit from. “Never mind,” she said. “Just get me the vegetables from over there.”

Hyun Joong gave her a strange look before stepping out of the car. Hwang Bo grabbed his hand before he could close the door. She handed him a fake mustache and dark shades. Hyun Joong put them on then stopped. “Why… why do you have this stuff?” Hwang Bo glared, ‘Because Ho Dong left them the last time he was at my place for a party doing a comedy show and I kept them because I thought they were funny.’ “Just because! Now go get my stuff!”

Hyun Joong shook his head and closed the door. It didn’t take him long to get everything that Hwang Bo wanted. He even stopped by and got her some fresh fruit that caught his eye. He was sure she would appreciate it. He walked back to the car, stopping to check his reflection in a mirror. He smirked at the funny image. He made it back to the car, and opened the door. “I told you to forget about the fruit!” Hwang Bo yelled. Hyun Joong sat down. “Wow. You’re welcome,” he said in irritation. ‘Can’t she at least show some thanks?’ he wondered.

Hwang Bo had seem him laughing and talking with the pretty young girl at the fruit stand while he had ‘bought the fruit for her’ supposedly. She glared at him as he sat everything in the back seat then brought an orange to her that she could eat on the way back. She threw it on the floor, not meaning to bust it, but the juices sprayed across Hyun Joong’s car floor. “What are you doing?” He yelled. She had wanted to apologize, but now that she saw how angry he had gotten over his precious fruit, she only got angry. “I told you not to buy the fruit!” Hyun Joong got out of the car again, taking the bag of fruit along with him. “Where are you going?!” He didn’t look back at her. “I’m returning them!” Hwang Bo jumped out of the car and limped after him. ‘Does he want to see that girl again so badly?’ “Stop!” He didn’t turn around. She sped up. “I’ll eat them, just get back in the car.” Hyun Joong kept going. Hwang Bo tried to catch up to him, but she tripped over a stray carrot that had rolled from a nearby vender’s booth.

“Ah!” she let out a startled cry as she hit the ground. Hyun Joong turned back at the sound. When he saw Hwang Bo lying on the ground, he dropped fruit and ran back to her. “Are you okay?” he asked. “How many times have I told you to be careful?” Hwang Bo closed her eyes, embarrassed. She knew she was being ridiculous, but all logic always just seemed to go out the window when she was with Hyun Joong. “Just…get the fruit and let’s go,” she said. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

Hyun Joong sighed as he went back to get the fruit and then came back to help her up. Once again she had made him feel guilty and all he had wanted to do was surprise her with fruit even after all she had done. On the drive back he kept looking over at her to make sure she was okay. Hwang Bo felt his eyes on her, she turned around and snapped. “Stop looking at me, I’m fine!” Her eyes finally took in what she was seeing and she burst out laughing. “Are you going to keep those on for the entire ride back?” Hyun Joong was confused until he remembered he still had on the mustache and shades she had given him. He peeled them off and tossed them to her in irritation. She reached over and stroked his hair. “Is our Joongie upset?”

Hyun Joong swatted her hand away. “Don’t pet me like I’m a child or an animal!” he said firmly. Hwang Bo’s annoyance began to rise again. She took some deep breaths, trying to hold it down. “Hyun Joong,” she said. “What’s wrong with us? We can’t go a few minutes without getting into an argument. Let’s talk about what’s bothering us.” Hyun Joong nodded. “Okay,” he said firmly. “I’ll start with just then. I tried to give you a nice surprise by buying you some fruit, but you didn’t appreciate it at all! You just busted an orange on my car floor!”

Hwang Bo sighed and said softly. “I didn’t do it on purpose, that’s why I got mad when you yelled at me. And I didn’t want fruit anymore.” Hyun Joong breathed in through his nose. “And what about that time-!” He stopped. He was so angry he couldn’t remember the rest of their arguments right now. “Let’s just try to do everything more calmly, I’m tired of being angry with you.” Hwang Bo got upset just hearing that. “Why are you angry with me?” she said hotly. “For God’s sake!” he shouted. He pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car. “After what you did to me, here I am, driving you around like your chauffeur. I try to still be nice to you because it’s my fault that you hurt your ankle and you just throw it back in my face every time. The morning after we slept together you told me to call up a restaurant so you could have a date with another marriage partner. Then while I was taking care of you, some guy from another marriage meeting comes to your house to also take care of you, but then you mention another guy you’re seeing to him. And you don’t know why I’m angry,” he finished in a mumble.

A moment of silence fell over them. Hwang Bo wasn’t sure how to respond. “Well…when you say it like that…” Hwang Bo turned back to him, not willing to take all the blame. “But what do you mean after what I did to you. I told you from the beginning that I didn’t want to be in a serious relationship with you. Is it my fault you didn’t listen? And that night after we slept together, you’re the one who just went off to make a phone call, as if it didn’t even happen! And after you said you loved me too!”

Hyun Joong looked away. “That’s because, that’s just… Well, I already knew how you felt about me, so I figured I might as well end it before you did.” Hwang Bo felt stung. “And what made you think I wanted it to end like that?” Hyun Joong started the car. “You were the one who had said one night, only one night. So it was one night.” Hwang Bo had nothing to say. She clasped her hands together. “I thought that if we-” Hyun Joong shook his head and cut her off. “I don’t care what you thought. Every time I try to care, you always toss it in my face. I won’t care anymore.”