"That's the second time tonight you've called me your girlfriend," Ga Eul complained exasperatedly.

"You know, for someone who once asked me out, I should think you'd be overjoyed."

"Wow, my mom said boys are really dumb, but I never believed they were this dumb until right now."

"There goes that mouth again. Didn't anyone ever teach you to respect your superiors?"

"You're older than me. That doesn't make you superior to me in any respect."

"Doesn't money make one person another's superior?"

"There's a lot of people with money who are complete cowards, so no."

"Ah, but Ga Eul-yang isn't scared of anything, not even that gang in the park back there."

"Who said anything about a gang?"

"I wonder how many knives they had between them."

"Sunbae!"

"Are you two going to order?" A middle-aged lady stood in front of them who Ga Eul thought owned the restaurant. She had immediately deduced that Yi Jeong and Ga Eul were a couple when they came in and had seated them at a table in a dimly lit corner. Of course, Yi Jeong had played along with the ridiculous idea like he had been for the entire evening. At least now it was payback time.

He has no idea what he's in for, Ga Eul happily thought, becoming practically giddy at the genius of her idea. She was still upset with him, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to be quite mad at him anymore. The fury she had felt earlier had dissipated little by little as she had walked toward the park, and now that she sat across from him, the butterflies in her stomach had returned. She stared at a newspaper clipping on one of the walls and tried to breathe normally.

"Jagiya? What are we having?"

Ga Eul shot her head back to Yi Jeong, who wore a smug grin. She stared at him for a long, hard second then answered, "Chitlins."

"We'll take an order of chitlins, please," she said to the lady, who nodded her head and marched over to an adjacent table.

"Chitlins?" Yi Jeong asked when the lady had gone.

After gulping down some of her water, Ga Eul answered seriously, "Yes, they're very good. You can call them a commoner's delicacy."

"If they're so good, why didn't you place two orders then? I'm starving. And when are you going to give me my dare?"

"Be patient," Ga Eul said, glancing toward the entrance to the restaurant. "Unless you want to kiss the next person that walks in the door, instead."

Yi Jeong leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "That could be a hot young model, you know." Though he doubted it, from the looks of the place.

Ga Eul smiled. "But it isn't. Look." She nodded toward the entrance, and Yi Jeong turned his head. A balding elderly man entered just then, yelling something at the lady who had taken their order and waving his cane so wildly it almost knocked over a whole row of glasses from a countertop. The ruckus continued for a few minutes as she attempted to calm him down, drawing the attention of most of the other patrons as well.

"What a shame he had to be dragged out before we made eye contact. It could have been love at first sight," Yi Jeong commented when the man had been effectively removed from the premises.

"You don't believe in that, remember?"

"I said it could have been. Do you really believe I'd end up with him?"

"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be," Ga Eul said knowledgeably.

"Then that has to be the best argument for fighting fate I've come across," Yi Jeong muttered. Only it wasn't really. Both of his parents had been shoved into a loveless marriage for the sake of upholding the family name both in social status and economic security, and as soon as he had been born he became a mere asset in the whole business deal. His brother, it turned out, had been a liability, but at least now he seemed content with his small café and his budding relationship. Yi Jeong envied him in that respect.

Looking around, though, Yi Jeong couldn't exactly say he wouldn't miss all the comforts and luxuries of life his position had afforded him if he found himself cut off from the family one day. It looked like his long-ago wish to experience a commoner date was coming back to haunt him. The place they had come to was little more than a dingy hole-in-the-wall with stools instead of chairs, scratched and weather-beaten wooden tables, and yellowed newspaper clippings framed on the wall from some distant heyday in the restaurant's history. To be honest, Yi Jeong had almost been tempted to wipe the seat before he sat down. Although he couldn't see anyone smoking, a thin haze of smoke hung over everything, appearing vaguely tangible in the dim yellow light from overhead. Furthermore, he couldn't help but notice that all the other patrons had been whispering and staring at him and Ga Eul—almost like they were about to start snapping pictures—ever since they had walked in the door. Being stared at wasn't an unusual occurrence for Yi Jeong by any means, but tonight it annoyed him if for no other reason than that he had thought he would be spending the evening with Ga Eul, just Ga Eul, and once again they had been interrupted.

A few minutes later, however, Yi Jeong began to seriously question the safety of being left alone with Ga Eul as someone deposited a mass of rubbery looking meat into the skillet in the center of their table.

"Here is your dare," Ga Eul stated calmly. "Have you ever eaten intestines before?"

"Ah, so you want me to eat half of the skillet?" he asked, trying to sound disinterested.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not that mean. That would be too much for your delicate stomach," Ga Eul said, pouring herself some water from the pitcher on the table. "Just, umm…five? I'll eat the rest."

"Five," Yi Jeong repeated dumbly, staring at the chitlins gurgling in the pan.

"Jun Pyo ate a whole plate of those for Jan Di, although I could tell he hated them. I thought it was rather romantic," Ga Eul said, spearing one and popping it into her mouth. "But if you don't think you can handle it, I'll eat them all." Ga Eul reached over to put a few more on her plate. It wasn't exactly a lie. Jun Pyo had eaten one before, and he had hated it, and it had been because he was so gut-wrenchingly enthralled with her best friend.

"Ani, ani, how do you eat so much anyway and stay so thin?" Yi Jeong stabbed at one and held it in front of his mouth, feeling fairly nauseated but trying hard not to look like it.

Ga Eul shrugged and slowed down on pulling the chitlins out of the pan, suddenly a bit embarrassed of her eating habits.

"It's good, I guess."

"Huh?"

"At least I won't have to worry about you starving to death while I'm gone."

He said it in an offhanded way, but from the way his eyes focused in on the chitlin he held aloft, instead of on her, Ga Eul could tell he actually did care about her well-being, though to what extent Ga Eul still couldn't figure out.

"I can take care of myself, Sunbae," she responded simply.

He shifted his eyes back to her, regaining his usual mischevious demeanor.

"What? No 'Oppa,' now?"

"Pabo," Ga Eul muttered.

Yi Jeong laughed, but Ga Eul glared at him.

"Are you going to eat that at some point tonight?" Ga Eul pointed at his chitlin with one of her chopsticks. "It's going to get cold if you just keep waving it around in the air."

"Ga Eul-yang?"

"Hmm?"

"Truth or Dare?"

"Nope. You haven't finished your dare yet." Ga Eul's tone held a warning.

"Alright, alright." Yi Jeong looked at the greasy intestine between his two chopsticks for another long, hard second, then popped it into his mouth, chewing quickly, and swallowed.

It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Definitely not anything he would be requesting from his kitchen at home but not completely unbearable. Still…

"Ga Eul?"

"Hmm?"

"Do I really have to eat four more? Don't you think you've done enough damage for one evening?"

Damage. Ga Eul chewed her food more slowly.

Of course! How could she forget?! She'd destroyed one of his masterpieces earlier that evening, an event that seemed to have happened days ago.

She swallowed.

"Ah, Sunbae, I'll replace…well, I can't really replace it, but what I mean is I'll—"

"So work it off."

"What?"

"You owe me one piece of pottery every month for the next four years. I'll give you the address to ship them to in Sweden."

Ga Eul blinked and nearly dropped her chopsticks.

"That's twelve a year," Yi Jeong continued, "which comes to forty-eight pieces in total if we're going by a full four year—"

"Hey! Who says I'm going to keep doing pottery?"

Yi Jeong looked almost surprised by her statement.

"You like doing pottery. I can tell by the way you handle it. You were actually looking at the pots instead of me earlier."

"Before, you also said I liked Jun Pyo Sunbae," Ga Eul retorted. "Don't be so sure of yourself."

"Either way you owe me a debt." Yi Jeong leaned in closer to her, as close as he could without burning himself on the skillet. "Unless you want me to come up with another method of repayment."

Ga Eul looked up at him then, wide-eyed, and blushed profusely.

"Aniyo, aniyo." She shook her head. "I can do pottery."

Yi Jeong leaned back in his chair again, a contented smirk on his face at seeing Ga Eul flustered once again. If he had thought she had been eating fast before, now she had taken to stuffing the chitlins in several at a time.

Finally she stopped and looked back at him.

"But can we make it one every other month?" Looking down at her plate again, she mumbled, "Shipping fees are kind of expensive."

Yi Jeong sighed.

"Yes, all right, I suppose waitressing doesn't pay that much."

"You've got that right," Ga Eul said, shoving another chitlin into her mouth.

"I'll make sure Woo Bin and Ji Hoo stop by the porridge shop every now and then. That ought to bring in customers."

Ga Eul smiled. "I think Master might like that."

"Are you going to answer now? Truth or dare?"

"But—"

"And don't tell me I have to finish my dare because you just ate the last chitlin."

Ga Eul glanced up at him and then back down at the now-empty skillet and, if possible, turned a brighter shade of red than she had a few minutes before.

"Oh," she replied.

"Come on, come on, truth or dare?"

Setting her chopsticks down gingerly, Ga Eul picked up her cup of water and took a sip.

"Truth," she said, setting the cup down.

"Why did you go out with Su Pyo?"

For a moment, Ga Eul froze.

"What?" she finally answered. "How did you remember that all of a sudden?"

Yi Jeong shrugged but didn't say anything. He looked at her expectantly, like some great truth about the inner life of Ga Eul would be revealed by her answer. She should disappoint him, but one unfortunate truth about Ga Eul was that she was a horrible liar.

"He reminded me of my older brother," she said. "Does that answer your question?"

Yi Jeong looked surprised.

"I didn't know you had a brother," he said.

"I don't. He's dead," Ga Eul said flatly. She bit her lip. "Truth or dare?"

"I'm sorry."

Ga Eul gulped the rest of the water in her glass down and poured herself the remaining water in the pitcher.

"It's okay, Sunbae. He passed away seven years ago. He died in a car accident when I was twelve. His name was Min Hyuk." Ga Eul paused, unsure of whether she wanted to continue.

Yi Jeong could sense Ga Eul didn't talk about her brother often, and he waited patiently for her to continue.

"After my brother died," she resumed, "I saved all of his CDs and listened to them over and over, even the stuff I didn't like. Su Pyo…He came into the porridge shop one day and sat in my section. Jan Di wasn't there. I think maybe Jun Pyo had stolen her away somewhere." She was quiet again for a moment. "When he sat down, he was listening to some music on his phone. He had his headphones on. When I came over to take his order, I noticed it was one of my brother's favorite bands, and we started talking about them. I could tell he was a bit rough around the edges. My brother was like that, too, I guess. He was always getting into trouble." Ga Eul shook her head. "I was just good, unexciting Ga Eul. Talking to him was like having a bit of my brother back for just a moment. Then he turned out to be a complete jerk. That's why I was so upset that day."

"Do I remind you of your brother?" The question came out of his mouth unbidden, though he'd been trying to figure out for a while what exactly she saw in him beyond the obvious money and good looks everyone else saw.

"Yes," she stated emphatically and looked up at him again. "You are annoying, just like him. And that was two questions instead of one." Ga Eul wiped her mouth on a paper napkin. "Anyway, it's getting late. We should probably—"

"I'll pay." Yi Jeong pulled out his wallet.

"Ani, this was my idea. Besides, you didn't really eat anything, and it's probably the only time in my life I'll be able to afford buying a meal for one of the F4." Ga Eul smiled as she pulled her money out of her purse and began counting.

Once Ga Eul had paid and they had set out once again into the crisp, cool night air, Ga Eul said, "Well, you bought me dinner before, and now I've bought you dinner, so we're even on that count. Truth or dare, Sunbae?"

"Dare."

"Are you actually going to do it this time?" Ga Eul turned around to face him, walking backward, and shot him an accusing look.

"Anything for you, Ga Eul-yang."

Ga Eul didn't believe him, but she forged ahead anyway.

"All right, but we have to walk a little further before we get there." Ga Eul set off walking again, keeping herself a little ways in front of Yi Jeong.

"And Sunbae," she called out. "You're going to have to take off that coat and tie for this one."