Code RED!
Code RED!
Code RED!
JANDI!
ARGH! Stop texting!
This is IMPORTANT!
Why Red? Why not Blue or fucking orange? What is code red anyway? House on fire? Flood? Your stupid boyfriend forgot his key?
Damn it Jun Pyo. Why are you reading JanDi's phone?
Why are you so noisy!
Put it on silence then!
Or better yet! Give it to your WIFE!
She fucking locks me out
Did you insult her patients again?
WHY WOULD SHE CARE!
D'oh! Moron.
It's not like you never locked Woo Bin out.
Nothing more than he deserved
HA! Birds on the same weather fly together
Sometimes I really wonder how you passed high school…..

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It's been more than a year since Ga Eul woke up in the morning with a man in her bed. That was her last boyfriend. She could hardly even remember how she felt about him. It was not an unpleasant relationship in any case. If she had been honest about it, he was actually a perfect gentleman. Maybe a little too perfect, with kind eyes, wide smile and floppy hair. He even cooked for her once or twice. He liked to call her 'princess' even though she rolled her eyes every single time.

They had been dating for months (he was working at the marketing department, which made an office meeting slightly awkward for a while) when one day she decided to put a stop on the relationship. They were sitting in her living room that day, watching a new drama on TV while munching on a big bag of Doritos and salsa dip. She liked to take hers with an extra dollop of sour cream and guacamole, even though he scrunched his nose and warned her not to mix the salsa with those abomination. She had laughed at him.

Why? He had relentlessly asked her about it. Was there a third wheel in the relationship?
She said No, of course not. She's not that kind of girl.
Was she angry at him for something he'd done, then?
No, it was not like that.
Was she jealous over his past relationship?
Well, that would be stupid, wouldn't it? So she shook her head.

So why?

But she didn't really have an answer. It just wasn't working the way she wanted to.

They never fought, he was too nice.
They talked about everything. They talked shop at home too.
He never even made her cry. Not even once.
But then he also never made her heart ran a thousand beats a minute like a certain someone used to.
At the end, it was a classic 'It's not you. It's me,' excuse she had been shilling so many times before.

The autopsy of their relationship began even before the day ended, as she sat there on her couch, eating popcorns from a giant bucket and flicking the remote to find something entertaining on TV. No such luck except for the conclusion that their whole course of relationship was too vanilla for her liking, and she always preferred her ice cream dark chocolate with loads of whipped cream, peppered with generous amount of oreos and chocolate pieces.

Sometimes she questioned herself if Yi Jeong had single handedly ruined every other male for her. It sucked, quite frankly.

'Morning.'

'Hmmmmm,' the first thing Ga Eul noticed when she cracked open her eyes was that her hand rested quite happily over hard abs, her fingers slowly tracing the smooth ridge of his stomach underneath the soft cotton shirt.

The second one was how her cheek felt warm and snug against his arm and that her nose and mouth were dangerously close to touching his chest.

The third one was how their tangled limbs felt perfectly aligned, not a single thing out of place, like puzzle pieces on the board.

The fourth one and the one she was most embarrassed about was that she heard herself yawning and sighing happily as she stretched out, nose gently nuzzled his side just moments before she remembered where she was and who was sleeping beside her.

Quick like a recoiling snake she rolled her body away; almost fell from the bed as a result.

'Uh, sorry about that,' she mumbled. 'I'll go and take a shower.'
'Ga Eul, wait….'

She didn't pause to listen but instead got out of the bedroom and into the bathroom.

One time during college years she fell asleep in the class. She didn't have breakfast that day since she had woken up late due to an F4 (or F3, she should say) party she attended the night before. It was a fun party, too! Song Woo Bin was obnoxious on the dance floor and he made her and Jae Kyung clutching their stomach from too much laughter. Anyway, what happened then was that she came home very late that night (or should she say early in the morning?) and as a consequence she didn't hear the one-hour-before alarm rang for the blasted class (and it wasn't even a morning class!).

She almost decided not to go to school at all if she had not remembered that there was an assignment she had to hand in to her lecturer that day. Thankfully, being the dependable student that she was, she had already finished her paper a few days before. After a quick face wash she took the bus and arrived at school just before the class started.

Everything was fine and dandy until she started listening to the actual lecture. The soft hissing of the AC, the grumbling of her stomach, and the flat tone of her teacher voice lulled her into a deep sleep. The next thing she knew, she was lying flat on the floor with other students surrounding her.

That was embarrassing.

But THIS?
THIS thing?
This thing that just happened to her?

She took off her clothes, got into the shower stall and started running the water. She wished there had been a sink hole opened up in front of her that she could just jump into. With head leaned forward onto the wall she let the hot water massaged her tired scalp and muscles.

God, that was completely, utterly mortifying.

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#

Ga Eul's apartment was not big and roomy by any stretch of imagination. The living room was an open plan that was also served as a dining area that linked straight to the kitchen. Apart from the four seater dining table, she didn't keep much furniture. Except for the necessary set of couch, an entertainment set on which she placed the medium sized TV in the corner of the room, and a simple coffee table at the center to help making the room feel more spacious than it really was.

On the wall there were several framed posters hung as decorations. Almost all of them were abstracts except for one nature picture in black and white.

Yi Jeong liked how bare and minimalist she kept the general look of her apartment. Somehow he always pictured her as a lace and frilly kind of girl. Someone who collected Home and Garden magazines, and filled her house with her knitting projects. Not that he would object to that, but he liked what he deemed as surprise.

The only girly room she kept was her bedroom. It was the warmest place in her apartment with windows facing to the east, making oversleep hard when you forget to draw the curtain. A frilly white curtain, in her case. It ashamed him to admit, but he actually kind of like the cozy feel of it, all the way to her white and pink quilt.

He decided to make himself useful and went to the kitchen. A quick search led him to find the container where she kept her supply of tea. He put water in the jug and started to boil while his rummaging the freezer resulted in half a loaf of white bread.

What girl didn't even have eggs in her fridge, he mused, as his goal for an omelet breakfast rudely foiled.

Ga Eul didn't take too long time in the bathroom. Twenty minutes after she hurriedly left the bed, she came out with denim shorts and an oversize floral shirt from the bedroom and into the kitchen. Two cups of tea and a plate of toast were already waiting for her.

Yi Jeong was busy looking at a framed photo of her with Jan Di and Jae Kyung. It was a picture they took almost two years ago, when they decided to have a girls' weekend together and went to Busan for two days. They were rolling on the sand and killed themselves laughing in the picture. She loved that moment.

She started helping herself with toast and strawberry jam, when Yi Jeong came and sit in front of her across the table.

'I think you should come and spend at least a few days with me until we are sure that he's not going to be a danger for you.'

Ga Eul never thought her apartment of being too small before, but Yi Jeong's tall frame and long limbs seemed to fill every space she laid her eyes on. It was silly and of course, totally untrue, but she seemed to see him everywhere.

'I don't think so,' She ran her fingers through her damp hair and sipped her tea. Her hair was getting too long, she thought. It was time to make an appointment with her hair dresser.

'Why is that?'
'Tomorrow is Monday.'
'Yeah?'
'Unlike some people, I have to go to the office every day.'
He shrugged unconcerned, 'take a holiday.'
She gave him a stink eye.
'Okay, you can still go to the office from my house.'
'That's not practical. All my stuff is here.'
'I'll have them packed and send there.'
'No thanks.'
Yi Jeong rolled his eyes.

'Tell me honestly, Ga Eul,' he pressed his elbow on the dining table, his body bent forward and looked at her intently. 'Are you afraid of spending time with me?'

'What? No,' she denied vehemently but avoided looking at his eyes; instead she picked the bread crumbs from her plate and put them into her mouth. 'Of course not,' she added lamely.

'You're lying.'
'I'm not lying.'
'Yes you are.'
'I am NOT!'
'Then prove it.'
'FINE! I WILL!'

Yi Jeong leant back on his chair and smiled widely at her. Without words he took a big bite of his toast and ate it slowly, his eyes never stopped looking at her.

Oh shit.
Did she just fall into his trap?
Did she?

Damn him to the moon and back! She let out a loud groan and put her head on the table.

#

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