•I realised that some of you may hate my OC, but it's ok, she hates herself too. :)

I See You As a Woman

"Moon Sik?" Ji Ah read his name from the notebook where he had scribbled it.

Moon Sik nodded, looking at her curiously. "What's your name?"

"I am Cha Ji Ah." She gave a small smile.

He rested his elbow on the empty counter. "You live alone?"

Ji Ab hesitated. Moon Sik didn't look like danger, still she was on good terms with paranoia a lot nowdays.

"Yeah, I live alone." She said. "What about you?"

"I live with my grandmother."

"What about your parents?" The question was out of her mouth before she could stop herself..and the answer was nothing unexpected.

"They are dead." He signed.

Ji Ah didn't say anything. She always felt people's sorrys were merely false sympathy whenever someone she had hardly known would say sorry about her mother.

"What about you?" He signed and peered into her eyes, as though looking for the answer there. "Where are your parents?"

"They are dead, too." She said tonelessly, averting her gaze.

He also didn't sign a sorry, though something did change about his expressions. After a silent moment between them, he motioned toward her Jeguk uniform hanging on a wall. "Do you go to that school?"

Ji Ah hadn't thought much about it. She hadn't thought think how pecuilar she must appear to him.

"Yes." She said, as she glanced at her uniform once. "Do you go to school, too? What year are you in?"

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Ji Ah had just put on her uniform when the doorbell rang.

Mr Seo stood outside with an unconcealed faint grimace crossing his face. Ji Ah's heart gave a leap. She was in trouble.

She greeted him, as he walked in, holding some bags, which he placed on the pale counter.

"You have been living here?" He scrutinized her apartment with distaste.

Ji Ah screwed her face in confusion. Wasn't he the one who found this apartment for her?

"Ofcourse, you found this for me." She said, politely.

He gave her a faint frown. "I didn't. I had told Dan Te-ssi to find a suitable apartment for you. He didn't tell me that he found this--," He threw a disgruntled look at the apartment. "--for you."

"Ohh.." Ji Ah didn't know what else to say. She didn't mind living here at all. "Please sit down." She gestured toward the sitting area.

They both arranged themselves across from each other in the sitting area, and an awkward silence settled over them. Ji Ah toyed with her fingers while Mr Seo stared off into space.

Then unexpectedly, he flipped out the notebook from yesterday and placed it on the table in front of her. He still didn't look at her.

Ji Ah's eyes bounced back and forth between him and the notebook, befuddled.

Eventually Mr Seo cleared his throat, his face void of any discernable emotion. "You said you would help."

For a few moments, Ji Ah's mind went blank. Then it clicked and her eyes widened.

He was not offended. He wanted her to help him. She found it so hard to believe, but she did.

She began stammering. "Yes... I can. I mean I can try..."

Now he looked at her slowly. Ji Ah thought he seemed rather embarassed, but surprisingly not as embarassed or angry as she had expected him to.

"How?" He asked.

"Umm..let's see." Ji Ah reluctantly picked up the notebook and flipped it open. "We need to see where do you need to clear your misunderstandings, and where do you need to apologise, and... well where do you need to.. change your behavior..." She said uneasily.

Nevertheless, he seemed eager to know.

Ji Ah straightened up and began. "Is it true you have been too cold with her?"

"No." He replied at once. "Maybe just a few times, but not really.." He didn't sound sure at all.

"Umm.. maybe you should ask her when does she think you have been cold with her and then apologise snd change your behavior in future then..?"

He averted his gaze as though embarassed.

Ji Ah coughed and continued. "I don't have much knowledge or experience, but I do know that in a relationship, there should only be warmness, not coldness.

How are you supposed to melt someone else's heart when your own is frozen cold?"

A clear frown appeared on Mr Seo's face, and Ji Ah wondered nervously if her words were too harsh.

She worked furthe on the list and they discussed everything. Mr Seo's mask melted away gradually, as he dived down into the emotions, seemingly unconsciously dropping his guards.

By the time they had reached the 6th reason in the list of reason why Park Soo Mi left Mr Seo, while having breakfast, he appeared to have forgotten altogther that Ji Ah wasn't his actual niece, and Ji Ah had forgotten that Mr Seo wasn't her actual Samchon.

Though while leaving, when it was time for Ji Ah to also leave for school, Mr Seo picked up his mask and fixed it on his face again, and Ji Ah crawled back into her awkwardness and timidness that she always felt with him.

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The first gossip of the day at school was that Moon Joon Young had left.

Ji Ah felt a pinch at her heart. She knew what dreams he must have, being a scholarship student, and how desperately he would have wanted to achieve them for him to last this long in this school filled with these spoiled rich brats.

Though, she had also heard that Young Do took back the lawsuit. It had both surpised and confused her.

Ji Ah gave a deep sigh, looking up at the desolate blue of the sky. Just then Kim Tan appeared in front of her out of nowhere, for the thousandth time.

"I told you not to wear this clip." He whined like a child.

"I like it." Ji Ah decided to be stubborn too.

"I don't." With that, he snatched the clip from her hair again.

"Ya, you are breaking my hair!" She brushed back her hear neatly. "Give me my clip back."

Kim Tan dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out a pretty sparkly white hair clip. "I have something else for you."

Ji Ah scowled. Why didn't he understand?

He ignored her discomfort and stepped closer, into her personal space. He didn't give her the chance to back away, as he fixed the sparkly white har clip on one side of her head.

"Now," He said, smiling heartily. "You are even more prettier."

Ji Ah's cheeks warmed up. Their eyes remained connected for more time than necessary, before Ji Ah stepped back and touched the hair clip, feeling its protruding design.

He pulled away her hand gently. "Don't you dare take it off."

He gave her one last heart melting smile and thrust his hands into his pockets and walked past her to leave.

Ji Ah sighed again, her hand going up on its own to touch the clip one more time. Slumped shouldered, she also turned away to leave, but froze instantly. Her heart gave a jump upon seeing someone.

Young Do was standing on the stairs, hands tucked in the pockets, and glaring down at her with lowered eyebrows.

He saw everything.

Ji Ah removed her hand from the clip and turned away from his wrathful gaze. He looked angry and scary.

She winced, as she had always said there was nothing between her and Kim Tan. This may give Young Do some wrong idea.

She glanced back at him before leaving and he still had a sour look over his features, as though she had done something terrible.

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Ji Ah felt like she didn't come to school to study, but to play avoiding games with eveyone. Avoid Kim Tan. Avoid Choi Young Do. Avoid Yoo Rachel. Avoid the gossip girls.

And on some days, she was a terrible player in this game. Like today.

Ji Ah tidied up her notes, revised them and opened the textbook to study some more. She was studying in the hall today as she was tired of hiding in the library all the time.

But it proved to be a terrible choice when Young Do unexpectedly pulled the chair opposite from her and sat down with a slight tight lipped smile etched across his mouth.

Ji Ah resisted the third sigh of the day. She went back to writing in her notebook, acting as though his presence was unimportant --which really was to her.

"What are you doing?" He leaned over to peer into her notebook. Ji Ah didn't acknowledge him, as she put down a definition she was trying to memorize.

"Don't you always study in the library?"

Ji Ah felt that he was mocking her. She ignored him again.

"Ya!" He rapped a fist softly on the table. Ji Ah stayed resolutely indifferent.

"Don't ignore me.." He threatened.

Ji Ah was considering gathering up her stuff and leaving, but Young Do didn't give her the chance.

He leaned back in his chair, seemingly relaxed. Then with a sudden swipe of his arm, he swiftly knocked everything off the table.

Ji Ah flinched back, dropping her pen on the table. It rolled off to fall down on the floor noisily.

"What's your problem?!" Ji Ah couldn't help her temper rising, along with her voice. Everyone was already staring now. She hated him. He always put her in situations like this.

Young Do crossed his arms over his chest, and he had the constantly angry look. He gave that look to everyone else present in the hall and they stopped staring and went about their business.

He turned back to her. "I told you not to ignore me. I hate it the most when you ignore me."

Ji Ah barely noted the dark edge to his tone. "Do you ever say anything worth paying attention to?"

Young Do raised his eyebrows. "Does Kim Tan says anything worth paying attention to? because you pay him lot of attention."

The meaningful tone of his both irritated and unnerved her.

"Kim Tan is different from you." The words were out of her mouth before she could catch them. She almost winced out loud.

Something changed about Young Do's expressions. It unnerved her even more.

"How so?" He drawled with an eerie calmness.

Ji Ah struggled internally to answer him, but couldn't come up with anything safe to say.

He noticed her discomfort. "What is it about Kim Tan that is so different?"

Annoyance seeped into her again. "He had never been bad to me. That's what's different."

"Aish! Do you only see me as a bad guy?" He made a fake hurt kind of face.

"What else?" Ji Ah replied coldly.

He gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes and lacked the usual smugness. "Too bad, I see you as a woman."

Ji Ah tried to glare hard at him, but it was too much for her. She got up, unsettled by his demeanour and bent down to collect her stuff hurriedly with clumsy movements.

There was a disconcerting feeling in her stomach. He purposely said things that would unsettle her. Perhaps he was trying to play with her because he assumed she and Kim Tan had something.

Young Do also got up, coming to stand in front of her, then stretching and groaning.

Ji Ah almost bared her teeth at him, tempted to curse him when he placed a foot down on her notebook intentionally. What was his enmity with her notebooks?

Suddenly, he snatched out her clip from her hair.

Ji Ah stood up at once. "What are you doing?"

Young Do was scrutinizing the snowy white hair clip with distaste. "What an ugly clip!"

Ji Ah stared at the clip with apprehension and quickly reached out for it. "You are no one to judge."

As usual, he moved his hand out of her reach.

"Give it back." She demanded.

"Okay," He said, too easily and held out the clip to her. "Take it."

Ji Ah reached out again to grab the clip, but he let go of it before she could take it.

"Sorry!" He smirked at her.

Ji Ah stepped back to bend down and retrieve her clip, but before she could even bend down, Young Do's foot came down heavily on the clip and crushed it, like stubbing out a ciggerate.

Ji Ah inhaled a sharp breath, as a few crunching noises came from underneath Young Do's foot. She wasn't certain whether it was the sound of the clip breaking or her heart.

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I upload as soon as I have written new chapters, and I have been writing slowly due to some reason. Though I will never abandone this story. Thank you for reviews and reads. :)

~Fawns.