A/N: Another chapter for my awesome readers :) I'm so glad you liked the last one! This chapter is a bit short because in the next one there will be a large jump ahead in time. You can consider this an intermission of sorts, and, in the meantime, enjoy the pancakes :)

"Aren't you going to let go of my wrists?"

"Why? I always hold on to your wrists. You should have complained sooner."

"Sunbae, I have to get up and take a shower."

"Okay, so do I. That should be interesting."

"Sunbae, I'm serious."

"So am I."

"You're also delusional."

"You're not allowed to leave today. I'm going to reschedule your flight."

"Sunbae, I have a test."

"You can make it up, can't you?"

"My parents are going to be worried."

"So tell them you're at Jan Di's."

"Sunbae, don't you have classes?"

"Mmm, what classes? Tell you what. If you can get out of this room…no, out of this bed…I'll let you go back home."

"That's not fair."

"Why? Am I that irresistible?"

"You…I-I-I can't breathe. Yi Jeong Sunbae, let go of me. I seriously can't—"

"If you can talk, you can breathe."

"Sunbae."

"Ga Eul-yang."

"Sunbae, I really do have to get up. And you do too. You have to drive me, remember?"

"I thought you were my birthday present. Most people get to keep their presents. Are you saying I have to return mine? Is this a commoner thing?"

"It will be a good humbling experience for you, Sunbae. I bet you've never had to give up anything in your life."

"You think that because you never had to share toys with Gu Jun Pyo."

"I'm not a toy, Sunbae."

"…I know you're not."

"I know you know I'm not."

"This is fun, though, isn't it?"

Yi Jeong turned over one of Ga Eul's hands and rubbed his thumb against her palm. He kissed her shoulder and adjusted himself so his hard abs pressed more firmly against Ga Eul's back. Extending her arm, he ran his fingertips over the side of it, an action that both pleasured and tortured Ga Eul at the same time. Never before had she encountered something she both loved and hated so much as his fingers teasing her skin—down her arms, up her legs. He'd trace lazy circles on her palms while his lips met the back of her neck just as gently. When she'd shiver involuntarily yet arch her body further into him, he would chuckle and kiss her hard on her cheek like he was doing at the present moment.

The arm that had been teasing her slid under her arm and collapsed lazily across her stomach, and she heard him settle his head behind her on their shared pillow, his forehead pressed lightly against her.

They stayed quiet for a while. Ga Eul didn't think she would ever get used to Yi Jeong doing that sort of thing. She had chased after him for so long she could hardly believe that she had caught up to him.

Or, rather, at the moment, he had caught her. They had been cuddling in various positions since they'd woken up about an hour earlier and had been hiding away in his room almost continuously since the previous morning when he'd finally opened up to her about his life. Although she had been deeply saddened by what she'd heard, she felt relieved that he trusted her enough—that he valued their relationship enough—to tell her that sort of thing. She could tell it wasn't easy for him to talk about, but she was glad for even just that little bit of insight into the mysterious man she had grown in affection towards day by day for the past three years.

Ga Eul had long resigned herself to the fact that any knowledge about Yi Jeong's private life would come to her in bits and pieces. The puzzle piece Eun Jae had handed to her only proved to be one part of the thousand piece box set that was Yi Jeong Sunbae. It was a thousand piece box set littered with mismatched pieces from other boxes that sometimes threw Ga Eul off, but deep down she believed she knew the truth. She could tell when he was faking something and when he was being real with her. At least, she hoped she could.

This, this is real, she told herself, stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

"Ga Eul-yang, what are you thinking?" he mumbled into her hair.

"Sunbae, do you think we were lovers in a past life? Like a prince and a gisaeng?"

"Always with the fairy tales. That's Ga Eul-yang for you."

"Aniyo. People say—"

"All those stories end in tragedy, Ga Eul-yang. Why you would want to think something like that?" She felt Yi Jeong move, and his lips brushed her ear. "Besides, if you were a gisaeng, you would be executed for that tongue of yours."

Ga Eul jabbed the side of his stomach with her elbow, and he let out a small yelp, probably more out of surprise than out of pain.

"Are these the sort of sweet insults you used to charm all those women, Sunbae?"

Yi Jeong clutched her tighter, his breath still hot on her ear. When he spoke again, his voice sounded even huskier.

"Ga Eul-yang, everything sounds seductive if you say it in the right tone of voice."

Ga Eul shivered again. Letting go of his hand, she twisted around in his arms so that she faced him.

"Everything, Sunbae? That means anything, right?"

"Sure." With the faint light from his bedside lamp lending a soft glow to his smiling face and messy hair, he looked completely at ease—practically boyish—almost how he was on their first trip together to New Caledonia.

Ga Eul leaned in toward him so that their faces were almost touching.

"Yi Jeong-ah," she whispered, running her fingers through his hair.

She waited until he closed his eyes to continue in what she hoped was a seductive tone of voice: "My flight leaves at 11:00 AM."

"Nice try, Ga Eul-yang," he mumbled and opened his eyes.

She snatched her hand away.

"One day I'm going to wipe that stupid smirk off your face, and you won't be able to say anything."

"And you think today is that day?" He looked amused.

"Yi Jeong-ah," she complained, a small pout forming on her face. "I'm hungry. Can't we at least have breakfast?"

Yi Jeong blinked, and a serious expression came over his face as he looked her over. She recognized it as that expression he used when he didn't want to give away what he was really thinking. Maybe she had found something that worked.

"Yi Jeong-ah," she continued in the same tone of voice. "Can we have pancakes? Please?" She tapped her fingertips on his bare chest and stared at him with pleading eyes.

He held her gaze for so long that she thought he wouldn't reply, so she lowered her head and repeated, "Yi Jeong-ah—"

"All right, all right." Yi Jeong released her and flung the covers off of both of them. "There's no need to cry about it. Hurry up and take a shower. I know a place."

So Yi Jeong was completely screwed.

He watched Ga Eul devour her enormous plate of blueberry pancakes at the café he had taken her to, one right near the airport.

If she thought making those puppy-dog eyes at him made him want to let go of her, she was sorely mistaken. It only made him want to hold her more, but she'd wanted pancakes, so he'd gotten them for her. He hoped she was happy because he was giving serious thought to strangling her right now in all her adorable childishness. She could soften him with a glance. She could burn him up with a smile, with a kiss on his cheek, with a blush at something he said, with a whisper, and it was far, far worse than anything he'd experienced with any other woman because she didn't even know she was doing it.

He missed her warmth against him already.

He had no idea how he was supposed to sleep by himself after she had gone home.

"Sunbae, aren't you going to eat anything?" She looked at him questioningly.

Yi Jeong fiddled with his coffee mug.

"I don't really eat much breakfast. Besides, are you sure you can finish all of that?" He traced the rim of his mug with his finger. "Need some help?"

Ga Eul nodded and pushed her plate toward him.

"Try it. It's really good."

Yi Jeong leaned over, grabbed the fork, and stabbed it through a few pieces of pancake. Instead of sticking it in his mouth, though, he extended his arm over to Ga Eul and told her to open her mouth.

Her face immediately reddened.

"Hurry up. People are staring," he teased, tracing a small pattern in the air in front of her lips.

Ga Eul took the bite, then quickly snatched the fork back from him.

"I thought you were going to help me eat it."

"I was…helping you eat it."

"Yah…why do you always make me do that?"

"Because it's fun. Because you look so embarrassed, and I can't understand why. Isn't that a normal couple thing to do?"

"We're not a normal couple, Sunbae," Ga Eul muttered and took a huge gulp of milk. She attacked her pancakes again with a fervor that Yi Jeong had long ago recognized as a sign that she was either nervous or embarrassed.

As she ate, Yi Jeong's gaze shifted to the cloud-white airplanes launching into the bright blue horizon in the distance. They kept passing by the window, taunting him, assuring him that no, no, they were not a normal couple.

But he also knew that at the angle Ga Eul was sitting, when she looked up, she would see only him and smile.