A/N: Fast update! I just couldn't leave Ga Eul in that apartment with an insane Rang for too long...There's some discussion about stalker-ish behavior in this chapter and also just a lot of Ga Eul being very afraid, but it gets better (somewhat) by the end of the chapter.

Ga Eul was on the floor, and the cat who was her boyfriend who was a cat was crawling over her legs, then up her stomach, then up to her shoulders, where Rang/the cat perched and began licking her cheek demurely. Ga Eul's chest heaved with the effort to breathe properly. The cat purred and rubbed his head against her neck. She supposed the gesture was meant to be calming or affectionate, but it only made her panic more. She detached the cat's claws from her dress and practically tossed him onto the floor.

"Rang, if that's you, please change back," she begged weakly. To her relief, the cat did, indeed, change form. In the blink of an eye, her boyfriend was sitting on the floor next to her, leaning towards her with what looked like concern in his eyes. Ga Eul didn't know that she believed it.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," he said, reaching for her, but she scrambled to her feet. He stood up too, but she backed away from him, clutching her arms around herself protectively. He glanced over her hunched figure and took a step back, giving her space.

"I'm sorry I made you cry," he tried. "I didn't mean any of those things I said."

"You...y-you changed into a cat."

"Yes, I can shapeshift." Rang gave her a soft smile. "Surprise."

"You can...shapeshift?" Ga Eul repeated dumbly, her voice thick with unreleased sobs.

"I can do other animals too, not just cats," Rang continued enthusiastically. "Name anything, and I can do it. I can do butterflies, foxes, puppies, kittens...but no elephants. Too big for this apartment." He laughed at his own joke, but Ga Eul didn't smile.

"Rang?"

"Yes?"

"Why have I seen that cat before?"

Rang didn't say anything for a long moment, but his silence told Ga Eul all she needed to know. That cat...No wonder it had shown up at both her school and her apartment. She should never have chalked it up to a cat's natural tracking abilities. But then, she hadn't been expecting a nine-tailed fox to be stalking her.

"You were spying on me, weren't you?" she asked.

"No," Rang protested, but he didn't deny that the cat had been him.

"You pretended to be a cat to get inside my apartment," she accused.

"No."

Ga Eul raised her eyebrows.

"I mean...yes...but it's not what you think. I wasn't stalking you. I was trying to take the charm from you. Remember the charm? You gave it back to me because you thought I wanted it? You were right. I'd been trying to get it for weeks."

Ga Eul frowned.

"So why didn't you just take it then?"

"Because I like you." Rang laughed nervously. "And if I took it, I wouldn't have been able to see you anymore. The charm...It made it so I ran into you all the time. I liked running into you." His face softened, and his voice dropped. "I like you."

For a second, Ga Eul almost found herself mesmerized by his stare, that wonderful look of total devotion to her that he'd perfected over the past month. Then she remembered that it could just as easily be creepy as romantic and that only a few minutes before he'd had her trapped inside his apartment, right after he'd insulted her lifespan and her job, the one thing that had made her feel good about herself for the past few years, like she had a purpose.

"You like me?" she echoed. "But I'm an insignificant human with an insignificant job, and when I die you're going to forget me."

"I didn't mean that." Rang's face dropped. He looked pained, but Ga Eul was in pain, too. He wouldn't get off that easily.

"Even if you didn't mean it, you still said it," she persisted. "So if you didn't mean it, then you just wanted to be cruel. But if you like me, why would you ever say something like that?"

"I was just…" Rang ran his fingers through his hair frustratedly. "You didn't like my present!" he accused like a petulant child.

"Living with you isn't a present!" she cried. "It's a decisionmy decision—that we're supposed to discuss together. And you have a lot of nerve asking me to stop teaching. What else haven't you told me, besides the cat?"

"Nothing," Rang answered quickly. Too quickly.

"Are you sure?" Ga Eul pressed.

"Why don't we sit on the couch?" Rang suggested, not answering the question. He took a tiny step towards her.

Ga Eul shook her head. She stepped back until she felt the door handle behind her in case she needed to make a run for it. Maybe he'd be too fast for her again, but she could try at least.

"Answer my question," she said.

"But—"

"Answer my question, Rang."

"I can explain everything if we sit—"

"Answer my question! You're really scaring me. Do you want me to be scared of you?"

"No!"

"Then tell me what you did!"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing!"

"Really?!"

"Yes!"

"I really wish you wouldn't lie to me."

"Well, then, make me sign another one of your contracts!"

"I don't want you to sign a contract. I want you to tell me the truth because you want to. Because if you don't, I can't trust you. So I'm going to ask you one more time. What did you do?"

Rang shoved his hands into his pants pockets and shifted his gaze to the side like a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar—guilty and horrible at faking it.

"I was just…" he began, then tapered off again. He looked up at Ga Eul's face, and she stared back at him with hurt, pleading eyes.

Please don't lie to me.

"When I was trying to get the charm from you," he confessed, "I also pretended to be other people so I could get close to you. I mean, close enough to steal the charm from you. I wasn't trying to hurt you, I swear."

"What do you mean, you 'pretended to be other people?' You...shapeshifted?"

Rang nodded, shifting his weight from side to side.

"I'll show you," he offered.

"No." Ga Eul held up her hands. "There's no need. I believe you."

"I did nice things for you too," he insisted. "Remember the week you won all those pastries?" Rang smiled. "I paid for those. And the nice lady you met on the bus? That was me. And that cardigan you got in the mail—the one you like so much? I gave it to you." Rang continued rambling, and Ga Eul felt her world shrinking and shrinking as he spoke, as if the walls of his apartment were closing in on her. As if the only person who existed, or who had existed for weeks, in her world was him. It wasn't a bubbly feeling anymore to be caught up in his orbit; she was suffocating in the same air she'd been floating on when she'd walked in the door earlier that evening. Rang was smiling as he talked, detailing his daily interferences in her life like his deceptions were totally normal, even to be praised, like it was just fine to pull all her strings behind the scenes like she was a puppet in his play.

Ga Eul had been so euphoric the past few weeks. Every day held a new adventure, and every day she had someone who cared about her by her side. She'd finally gotten what she'd always wanted: her very own bad boy who made her feel special, who looked at her like she was the only person he wanted in the world.

Only, that was the problem. She was the only person he wanted in the world. Literally.

What was the saying?

When something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Ga Eul had eaten up all the attention he'd lavished on her because she'd wanted to feel special, because she hadn't felt special in so long. He needed her, and she liked to be needed. She liked to feel seen, even if it meant people would only take from her. She'd liked helping Yi Jeong, even when she was sure he'd pick his first love over her. She was a habitual giver, and maybe Rang didn't know her history, but he would have known enough from watching her for weeks to be able to push all the right buttons. Now she was questioning every conversation she'd had with him, every time he picked a dessert she liked or discussed a movie she'd seen. He noticed everything, she realized; he picked up on so many details of her mundane existence. Only a truly obsessed person would know such things about her.

What if every moment between them had been calculated? What if every move he'd made was part of his possessive scheme to suck her in and not let go?

The worst part was the feeling of having been constantly watched, of playing a role in someone else's twisted fantasy without even knowing it. She felt violated in a way she couldn't explain. This was worse than a pretend date with So Yi Jeong or a real date that went horribly wrong. At least both of those things had happened right in front of her face. She'd seen them. She'd been able to call them what they were. But Rang...she'd had no idea what he had been doing, and she would have never known if he wasn't currently spilling his guts in a frantic attempt to pull her back inside his web. Ga Eul had promised herself she wouldn't be some guy's fool ever again, yet here she was, as much a fool as ever.

"I don't understand," Ga Eul cut him off, shaking her head. "Explain to me. Why did you have to be these other people in order to be nice to me?"

Rang gaped at her like she'd missed the entire point of his monologue.

"You were mad at me. That was the only way I could see you. I was trying to make you happy."

"You could have apologized, like you did when you saw me in the café."

"Oh yeah, because I did such a great job with that."

"Still, it would have been better than playing mind games for weeks. Don't you get tired of playing with people's minds?"

"I was trying to make you happy. I didn't do anything to your mind."

"You disguised yourself as other people! I had conversations with you, thinking you were someone else!"

"You think that was me messing with your mind?" Then Rang had the nerve to scoff. He actually scoffed. "You have no idea what I can do."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm telling you you're thinking of this the wrong way." Rang narrowed his eyes.

"No. I'm just not thinking of it your way."

"I'm the one who did it."

"And I'm the one it happened to. I can think about it in any way I damn please," Ga Eul shot back. "I'm so stupid," she muttered.

"You're not stupid," he replied. "You just see good in everyone. People who aren't looking for deception are easy to deceive." He shrugged as though he hadn't just pierced into her deepest insecurity. She was always deceived. Always, always deceived.

"That's not a compliment, Rang," she said.

Rang's mouth twisted, as if he was unsure of what to say to that.

"Look, I've never pretended to like you," he finally replied.

"No. You just pretended to date me."

"No. All of our dates have been real." His brow furrowed.

"I'm not talking about the ones we've been on since December," she said.

Rang paused, realization creeping over his face. He scowled.

"I was looking out for you," he reasoned. "I was trying to make you happy."

"You were looking out for yourself," Ga Eul sadly replied.

"I was trying to make you happy," he repeated.

"No. You were trying to make yourself feel better because you rejected me. It's the exact same thing you're doing now. You don't want me to move in with you because it will make me happy. If you wanted me to be happy, you would have asked what I wanted. You're doing this for you." Ga Eul felt for the door handle behind her; once she had it in her grasp, she continued, in as firm a tone as she could muster, "I'm going to leave now, and you're not going to stop me. Understand?" She held her breath, waiting for another outburst of protest, one final, desperate 'I was trying to make you happy,' but none came.

Rang said nothing; he held her gaze, though, looking altogether lost, like a kicked puppy. When she couldn't look at him anymore, she turned her head away, twisted the door handle, and in one smooth motion backed out the door and shut it behind her.

Realizing she was free, Ga Eul let out a sigh of relief, but it was a temporary feeling. She didn't know that she trusted Rang not to follow her and do something else rash even though he'd finally let her leave, and she didn't think she would be any match for him a second time. She set a fast pace towards the elevator on Rang's floor, glancing behind her at intervals, but Rang didn't follow her out. All the same, Ga Eul frantically pushed the down button on the elevator and had almost decided to take the stairs when the elevator doors opened. There was no one else inside, and she sagged against the railing once the elevator started descending, feeling completely safe for the first time in maybe a half hour. She dug her phone out of her purse and ordered a cab to pick her up before the elevator reached the bottom floor. Then she put on her coat, cursed herself for wearing high heels in case she needed to run, and made a rapid exit towards the glass doors of the apartment complex lobby, her heels echoing eerily in the wide, nearly empty space.

There was a police car out front when she came out of the building, but that didn't make her feel particularly safe. She bet Rang would laugh if there were a dozen police coming after him. No, she wouldn't feel safe until she was inside her apartment with the doors locked and bolted, and even then…

Ga Eul bit her lip. She didn't want to go back to her apartment. Not when that was the first place Rang would look for her. Ga Eul racked her brain for another solution. Her parents' house wouldn't do; they would ask too many questions. So would any of the casual friends she'd made while working at the school.

Unfortunately, even if she had still felt close enough to Jan Di to suddenly show up on her doorstep late at night with no good explanation for how disheveled she looked except the truth, which she didn't feel like offering, that would only lead to Jun Pyo getting involved. Then there would be an inevitable manhunt and possibly some dead bodies, none of them Rang's.

There was only one place she could go, really. Only one place that made sense. Thankfully, it was the one place that she knew Rang wouldn't follow her to.


"Chu Seongsaengnim?" Shin-joo's eyes widened as he opened the door to his and Yu Ri's apartment. "What are you doing here? Are you okay? Why are you crying?" He looked so genuinely concerned that Ga Eul automatically felt warm and reassured. "What happened to your neck?!" Shin-joo suddenly cried, and his voice rose an octave.

Ga Eul slapped a hand to her neck fearfully. What had she missed?

Oh, right. Shin-joo was referring to her bruises. They were still healing, and she'd forgotten her scarf when she'd run out of Rang's apartment.

Well, she'd tossed the scarf into a corner when she'd arrived, and she hadn't thought she'd be needing it—or clothes—for the rest of the night. Ga Eul's face heated despite the events of the evening.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Really. I don't have any injuries you need to look at," she assured Shin-joo, wiping the tears from her eyes that had developed when she'd been in the elevator and remembered riding up in it with Rang nearly a year before. She'd been talking to his reflection, and he'd been snarking back at hers.

"I'm sorry for showing up here like this," Ga Eul said. "It's just that I figured this is the one place he wouldn't follow me to."

"He? Who?" Shin-joo asked.

"Um...can I come in?"

"Please, please. Come in." Shin-joo ushered her in the door. "Yu Ri's missed you. She's taking a shower, but I'll let her know you're here. Who did you say was following you?" Shin-joo led Ga Eul over to the table where they'd all eaten dinner together some months before, and she sat down in the chair he offered her, realizing too late that it was Rang's old chair. The chair he'd always sat in when she'd come over to tutor Soo-oh. Ga Eul took a deep breath but didn't switch seats.

She could tell it was probably after Soo-oh's bedtime and that Shin-joo was now trying to keep his voice down, despite his outburst upon seeing her bruised neck. Ga Eul lowered her voice as well when she spoke again.

"Well, I don't know if he's...following me, but…" Ga Eul trailed off, tears threatening to well up again. She blinked them back. She leaned forward on her elbows and stared at her interlocked fingers, squeezing them anxiously. "It's Lee Rang," she admitted quietly. "I probably should have told you before, but we've been dating since late December. Everything was going fine until tonight when he...when he…" Ga Eul trailed off again, at a loss as to how to explain the course of the night's events. It was too much to digest in one evening, much less process. The tears fell from her eyes freely, and she didn't wipe them away.

Shin-joo set down the tea kettle he'd been filling with water and walked back over to the table. He yanked out the chair across from Ga Eul and sat down, his eyes now filled with alarm.

"What did he do?" he demanded, and in that moment, he looked so much like one of the F4—Jan Di's avenging angels—that Ga Eul nearly laughed.

Instead, she smiled weakly. Ga Eul was so tired. So tired of the same things happening to her, over and over.

"He made me fall in love with him," she said, "and then he broke my heart."

A/N: I bet some of you were wondering when Shin-joo and Yu Ri would reappear. :) The next chapter will also be in Ga Eul's POV. The angst will continue for a few chapters, but then it will taper off. I know it looks grim right now, but I promise I'm not going to leave Ga Eul in a situation that's bad for her. Rang has a lot of work ahead of him regaining Ga Eul's trust.