Chapter 7

Valentine's Day was coming up, and Jan Di was freaking out. She didn't know what to get for Jun Pyo, the guy who had everything, so she dragged Ga Eul out on a shopping spree. Ga Eul was beat while Jan Di made her go into every shop they stumbled upon. They still hadn't bought anything, and she regretted the day she reconciled the couple. While looking around at a store, something caught her eyes. A pair of grey arm warmers. They were tacky, but they reminded her of someone's cold hands. It had been a week, and they hadn't contacted each since. She took the arm warmers of their hanger and decided to buy them. She laughed at the mental image of these arm warmers with his high-end brand suits. She knew he'd never wear something like that. It was more of a joke.

After following Jan Di around all day, she didn't end up buying anything and decided to make him cookies. Only Ga Eul ended up with the arm warmers which she hid from Jan Di. After a tedious day of useless shopping, Ga Eul fought the urge to strangle her dearest friend for making her suffer for nothing on her day break.

Ga Eul had forgotten about the arm warmers, and when she remembered, she didn't have anytime but Valentine's Day to give them to him. She hoped it wouldn't give him mixed signals, but she knew he was smarter than misinterpreting her gift. No one in their right mind would give such a gift for a romantic pursuit. She went to his studio but didn't find him there. Saving herself another trip, she hung a bag with the arm warmers inside on the handle of the studio's door with a simple note before hurrying back to the workshop.

Yi Jung's POV

The sun had just got down when Yi Jung made a small trip to his studio. It was Valentine's Day, and the number of gifts he had gotten was overwhelming. His hands were overloaded with gifts he had no place but to put in his studio. He was already late, and he had numerous dates to attend to. The mount of boxes on his hands blocked his line of vision, so he put them on the ground to open the door to his studio. Another gift bag was hung to the door with a note attached to it. He removed the bag in order to put his keys in, and his eyes travelled to the inside of the bag. His eyes caught a pair of atrocious grey arm warmers. Curious, he opened the note.

"Now I owe you one favor."

Yi Jung didn't need a signature to know who gave him this gift. He found himself laughing a little too loudly to himself as he entered the dark studio. He hastily put the mount of boxes on the first table he saw and put the little gift bag Ga Eul got him on the other side of the table, so it wouldn't get lost with the other gifts. He closed the door behind him to resume his day of fun with whoever appealed to him today.

Yi Jung was sitting at the F4 lounge with the rest of his friends. A place only for them away from the raucous the other students made when they saw them. It was too much of a hassle to be around any of their 'classmates'. They might've gone to the same school, but the F4 were different. They never had to share anything with the rest of their class. They attended classes in their own private classroom. They were simply too distracting for the other students. Apart from going to the same school, they never had reason to interact with any of the other students. Well, except for the red card, or now because of Jan Di.

He was enjoying his cup of tea after a splitting headache from partying too hard. He eased back into the leather couch while Jun Pyo was rambling on about how late Jan Di was. She was supposed to join them a few minutes ago, but she was running late. He would've done anything in that moment to make Jan Di appear out of thin air to shut Jun Pyo up. Woo Bin was sitting next to him looking obnoxiously too pleased with his current state of torment.

As if his prayers were answered, Jan Di finally came, and Jun Pyo stopped complaining for a whole two minutes. That was of course before he started arguing with Jan Di, Yi Jung could almost cry. Woo Bin suddenly grabbed his arm by the arm warmers he was wearing.

"What is this thing? It doesn't suit you at all."

"It's a little tacky, but it's surprisingly warm." Yi Jung said. Thought of Ga Eul put a smile on his face.

There was no valid reason he had visited Ga Eul that day. Seeing his dad with drastically younger women was something that he never got used to no what matter how often it happened. Every time the image was carved into his mind, it made him sick to his stomach. He had wanted to divert his attention to anything else. He would've gone to a club like his usual when he needed to hideout from his thoughts, and no better place was a club loud with ear-ringing music, and strangers he barely cared about. But on his way there, a black sedan drove past him. The same model Ga Eul hopped in when he saw her. He was reminded of his favor to her and changed his plans last minute. He rang her phone several times, but she didn't answer it. As his last resort, he went to the porridge store.

It wasn't in his plans to see her broken down around a mess of broken glass on the kitchen floor. Her tear-stroked face, and even her severely bloodied hand, were no match to the look in her eyes. They were bleak and lifeless. Like they had gone blank. It was only for a moment since she gathered herself quickly after he called her, but it couldn't be ignored or forgotten. He was never one to help someone in trouble, and he never bothered to do so. Nonetheless, he couldn't leave her like that even when she clearly didn't like his presence. He hated to admit it, but seeing Ga Eul like that reminded him of his mother, after she found out about one his father's affairs, she would always wound up harming herself in one way or the other whether intentionally or not. As a child, he couldn't help his maniacal mother. It was only after he grew up a bit that he started to feel pity for her. He sometimes tended to her wounds, but that was before he realized that her outbursts were nothing but attempts to gain his cold father's attention. Her 'depression' that Yi Jung felt pity for only resurfaced when it came to his father's womanizing ways. Now he still felt pity for her, but a different kind. It was entirely meaningless to wait for love that will never happen. It ruined both his and her life.

Ga Eul wasn't like his mother, though. That wasn't the state of a broken-heart, he was too familiar with that, she was hollow and soulless. Like the life had been sucked out from her soul. It was a relief to see her slowly return back to her senses as he bandaged her arm. And that encouraged him to spend the rest of their miserable day together. He wasn't surprised that Ga Eul caught onto his act of nonchalance. He had predicted it. From their first meeting, Ga Eul had been too observant for her own good, and she had let him know it.

He had let their offensive first meeting slide as an excuse of Ga Eul being naive enough to anger someone in his position. It would've been too petty to get back at her for something so trivial. For Jan Di's sake, he had let it go. But he couldn't get past his irritation. She was unabashed in facing him off, and he wasn't used to feeling undermined.

In fact, every time they were stuck together, she had managed to insult him one way or the other. She looked at him like he was too easy to read—and it was true. She berated him like a tired mom sick of her troublesome kid's shenanigans. Under her scrutinizing glaze, he felt so seen, and no amount of covers could help him hide. And after her insults in New Caledonia, he lost the last inch of his patience, and ended up insulting her. Something that he never did unless provoked. He always took pride in being refined and level-headed, that he was a part of the sensible half of the F4 compared to Woo Bin and Jun Pyo, so threatening someone wasn't something he did often because he never had to.

He felt both ridiculed and guilty. The latter because it was senseless to say such words to a 17 year old girl. But he couldn't retain his usual contained emotions. The rest of the trip, he kept inspecting her at the corner of his eyes to find anything on her. It was pathetic, but he wanted to point out a weakness or even provoke her a little instead of the mockery and disdain in her eyes. For once, he wanted to have the upper hand.

He couldn't find anything as Ga Eul was silent most of the trip, only talking when Jan Di was around. But she wasn't like Ji Hoo. While Ji Hoo was detached, and distracted from the world around him, Ga Eul was alert. She always looked at the person talking while at a table, giving the right reactions when needed. She didn't seem indifferent like Ji Hoo. Ga Eul was ordinary. Too ordinary. From the way she looked and dressed. Even her interactions with the rest of the F4. And that nudged him in his pride even more. She was too common a person to figure him out that easily. It made him wonder if it weren't for his looks and status, people would've caught up on his fake pleasantries. That he wasn't as sharp and cunning as he thought he was.

When he found her talking with Jun Pyo on the beach, he assumed that she was trying to flirt. She hadn't bothered to open up any conversation with any of the F4, so he quickly jumped to that conclusion. He had hoped to get a reaction out of her, and while he was successful in angering her, she didn't put up much of a fight. In the end, he just felt defeated. The guilt ate him away the next day, and he joined her on the beach as an attempt to apologize, but his ego got in the way. He could see she was feeling a bit lonely since everyone had a partner, so as a from of apology he stayed by her side.

He was relieved when the trip was over that he wouldn't have to face the chaotic mess of emotions that Ga Eul unleashed. But when he coincidentally stumbled upon her on that street, and she turned her head so quickly at the mere sight of him, he felt a twinge of hurt. He gave the lady on his arm that day a pleasant date afterwards, but he couldn't shake off the cold shoulder she had given him. So when Ga Eul had asked him to keep their little 'meeting' a secret, he had wanted to torment her first. He had no plan for an actual favor nor did he plan to ever contact her again, but he had wanted to keep her on her toes for a while. That was before he decided to put his favor to use when he saw the familiar black sedan.

Ga Eul was too straight forward, and didn't like beating around the bush. And maybe that day he was too tired for his masked persona, and Ga Eul was the perfect person to turn to. Not to mention, as she had said before, he was a stranger to her, so he had felt no reason to share his pain and neither did she. There was comfort in that.

Yi Jung got lost in his thoughts before he realized the conversation that taking was place. Jun Pyo was suggesting they all have dinner together.

"You can bring your friend if you want to." Jun Pyo told Jan Di. Yi Jung knew that Jun Pyo was fond of Ga Eul. She was the one that got them two reconciled, so he could tell that he wanted to invite her as a thank you.

"I don't know about that. She's been very busy lately. She has some trouble at work." Jan Di said.

"How could the porridge store make anyone that busy?"

"It's not the porridge store, you idiot. Her other job." Jan Di argued.

Yi Jung tried not to look like it, but he was dropping an ear into their conversation. He knew Jan Di meant the workshop. He couldn't help his curiosity, so he asked. "Why don't you tell us? Maybe we can help." He tried to ignore the surprised look Woo Bin gave him, or Ji Hoo's too long of a side glance.

"Not everything can be sorted it out with money." She said rolling her eyes at him.

"She works at a garage, and the owner of one of the cars she was working on suddenly backed out, and he's demanding his money, so everything's been a mess. She even hurt her hand fixing that car." Jan Di said.

Yi Jung knew the last part was a lie, but not the first half. He saw the gleam in Ga Eul's eyes when she was talking about that car, so he felt it a shame that she had to give it up. Actually he had invited her to his studio, wanting to brag. Seeing her proud of her work made him want to show her his. That was the first time she had looked at him with respect.

He wasn't lying when he said that he wanted to help. Finding her workshop would be too easy, and he knew he could save her car. So he thought he could lend a helping hand to his 'stranger'.