27

I slowly opened my eyes. Wow, I hadn't woken up feeling so relaxed in such a long time. Before I could ask myself why, I heard the shallow breathing of the person lying right next to me. Oh, the throwing against the wall, carrying, throwing me on the bed, yeah, it was all coming back to me. I chuckled as I remembered how psycho I'd been that I'd almost broken his pants zipper.

Our first time together had been rushed, desperate, uhm… quick but the second time around? Hmm. I let my fingers travel down the places his lips had been and just thinking about it was already getting me aroused again. I felt come cold air float against my naked chest so I pulled the covers up to protect myself.

I shut my eyes and remembered the way he'd held and touched me, the way he'd gotten so deep inside of me like he wanted to get into my heart, just so that he could show me what he felt. And the time and care he'd taken to please me, listening with both his ears and his body, reacting and matching my every move. He'd been so attentive that I wondered if he'd acquired mind reading powers overnight. I giggled to myself. How blind could I have been? I knew that there was a risk he could still hurt me but now that I had felt just how much he cared about me, I could at least be confident in the fact that he'd try his best not to.

I felt a little stir inside of me. I smiled, how bad would it be for me to wake him up for an early morning 'chat'? When I turned around to wake him up for round three, I caught a glimpse of my clock. Oh what the freaking hell? Had I somehow forgotten to set my alarm? I had an 8 o'clock teleconference with an overseas client and I was in bed reminiscing about sex? Maybe it wasn't the orgasm that had made me feel so damn relaxed – I'd overslept!



***



I looked at my watch for the tenth time in the last minute. What the fu.ck was going on? I asked myself as I drummed my fingers on my desk. Seriously, what the hell was going on? When I walked back to my office after the conference call in my boss's office, I'd expected to find a sweet message on my answering machine – but instead, I found some annoying calls from clients. I checked my cell phone and heard a message from my dentist reminding me of the next week's appointment. I checked my email and didn't find a thing from him. No IM message, not even a thank you card. What the hell? Even if I was the worst sex he'd ever had, didn't I at least deserve a little acknowledgement? Like, 'Thanks for trying?'

When a guy has sex with a girl, isn't he supposed to call her immediately to reassure her that she wasn't simply a booty call? Oh, sh.it. Had I just been used? And not in the way couples pretended to be in love just so they could both receive a steady supply of guilt-free sex but in the way a horny guy called a clingy ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night because he knew she was still so in love with him that she wouldn't refuse him? Had I been reduced to that?

I knocked my head a few times. Why had I been so weak? I shouldn't have answered my phone, I shouldn't have let him in, I shouldn't have let him kiss me, I shouldn't have torn open the condom wrapper and put it on him, I shouldn't have moaned, panted and twitched like a damn fool who was so grateful to finally be getting some. No wonder he thought I was so pathetic. Why had I liked it so much? I frowned. But really, had I been used?

"Hee Soo yah," Ah Ran said, walking into my office without knocking first. "Do you want to take a look at this month's report?" She waved the brown folder in front of herself.

Report? Who gave a fu.ck about a report? A sweet, sexy bast.ard who'd rejected me had just helped me begin my 26th year on earth as an unpaid prostitute and I was supposed to give two farts in the wind about a report?

"Hee Soo yah, are you okay?" she asked, peering into my face as she walked further into my office.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm okay."

She placed the report on my desk. "I'll leave it here for you?" she asked unsurely.

I shook my head. "No. You can take it with you -I'm sure it's fine."

Her eyes grew to twice their size. "Are you sure you're okay?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"So," she said, slowly picking the folder up, "you don't want to look it over?"

I sighed. Why couldn't she just scram? "It's a copy and paste job, right?"

She giggled sheepishly. "Yeah."

"So it should be fine. You can have someone .pdf it and email it to SGH."

She made a face and scratched the back of her head. "You know what? We'll take another look at it first, alright? I hope you feel better."

Feel better? The only way I could feel better was by making Park Ji Tae feel as bad as I did!





***

I hit his doorbell. A whole day. Almost an entire day after sex and he hadn't called me? Was he freaking kidding me? What a fu.cktard! I placed my finger on the doorbell and kept it there till the door opened.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ji Tae yelled the second he walked through the door.

Seeing his irritated face only angered me more. I pushed him. "What the hell is your problem?"

After jerking backwards, he stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind him.

Oh, so he wasn't even going to let me in? I pushed him again, causing his back to hit the wall. I was about to push him for the third time when he caught my hands just in time. "What the hell is your problem?"

"My problem!?" I snarled as I struggled to free myself from his grip but unfortunately, he was far too strong. Seeing that I could no longer hit him with hands, I kicked him instead.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled as he turned me around so that my back was against the wall.

Even though he was still holding my hands, I wasn't going to let him intimidate me. I stood up straight and looked directly into his eyes. "What do you think? We had sex last night and I don't hear from you!" I growled. I could feel my nostrils flaring. "Can you guess what my problem is? We had sex and you don't call me!"

He shook his head. "Could you please say it louder? The old couple down the street didn't hear you."

"I SAID—" But before I could complete my sentence, his lips were moving against mine.

Okay, had I somehow stepped into another dimension where nothing made sense? By this point, my hands were trapped between his hands and the wall so I couldn't push him off. He was doing his best to overpower me with his lips but Kim Hee Soo wasn't going to lose this fight. I bit his lip.

"Ouch," he said, instantly taking his lips away although he didn't release my hands. "Why did you do that?" He licked his lower lip.

I was still looking at his tongue when I realized that he was waiting for a response. I gulped. Oh, yeah, what were we talking about again? "Uhm… yes! Why didn't you call me?"

He bent his head down so that our eyes were at the same level. "Why did you leave like that? I woke up to find an empty bed and a stupid note that said that I should make sure I locked the door before I left."

"So?"

"So is that the kind of note you leave for someone you've just slept with?"

I frowned. "I knew that Yun Ah would leave before you did so I just wanted to make sure you locked the door. What's the big deal?" I frowned. "Is that why you didn't call?"

"I thought you were back to playing games and I already told myself that I wouldn't chase after you again."

Oh really? "Then why did you come over last night?"

"I couldn't help myself."

I smiled. I could already feel my chest warming up. "So are you saying that you would have called otherwise?"

"Yes."

I grinned. So he hadn't just used me to fulfill his carnal needs. I looked at his arms. "Will you let go of my hands? They are beginning to hurt."

"Sorry," he said as he released me. He caressed my shoulders as if he wanted to rub the pain away.

"You shouldn't just think the worst, you know? You shouldn't have assumed that I was avoiding you just because I left early."

"Can you blame me?" he said, moving closer to me. "But I'm glad to see that I was wrong," he said before kissing me again.

I slowly wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed me back. Kissing him felt so different from all the other times I'd ever kissed him – maybe it was because I now knew what it was like to physically love him.

He broke away from the kiss then caressed my cheek and just stared into my eyes for a few seconds. Then he tilted his head towards his door. "Do you want to come in? There's someone I'll like you to meet."

"Who?" I asked, my interest piqued.

His face slowly eased into a smile. "You'll see."

I glanced down the hallway. "I have to step out for a quick second."

His brows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

I could feel my cheeks turning pink. "I kinda left my car running. The plan was to run up here, punch you, then drive off."

He stepped away from me and burst out laughing. "Why do you have so many issues?"



***



I followed Ji Tae into his apartment and towards the guests he had in the living room. I bowed and greeted them.

He took my hand and pulled me closer to him. "Appa, Ajumma, I would like you to meet Kim Hee Soo - my girlfriend."

My heart skipped. His girlfriend. I let the words roll around my mind a few times. It sounded about right. I slowly looked up at him and found him grinning back at me. I tried my best not to blush so I turned to look at his father instead. But wait a minute? His girlfriend? He hadn't exactly asked me or anything. How dare he assume such a thing? Hadn't he ever heard of how assumptions made asses out of people? Hmm. But speaking of his ass….

A few minutes later, after exchanging pleasantries about work with them, the lady asked me if I was coming to the wedding.

I turned to Ji Tae. "Wedding?"

He nodded. "Yeah, they are getting married."

"Oh." So she was his father's girlfriend.

"I'm going to be the best man," he finished.

"Congratulations," was all I could say. I couldn't even fathom what it would be like to see my father getting remarried, but Ji Tae's parents had been divorced for a while and the lady had been in his father's life for a good portion of that time so it was probably something he'd long expected.

"Since you're my best man, can I expect to be the same at your wedding?" his father asked with a far too straight face.

Ji Tae made a face. "I don't know about all that, Appa."

I laughed. I couldn't exactly blame him for his reaction. Who the hell had their dad as their best man? No one ever wanted their father to plan their bachelor's party of all things. A trip to Disneyland was no sane guy's idea of a night of debauchery.

"But you will be getting married soon, right?" his father asked, looking at us. As in, looking at us.

What the hell? Abonim, relax.



***



Shortly after they left, Ji Tae and I were in the kitchen looking for something to eat.

"So how come you keep calling her 'Ajumma?'" I asked.

He shrugged. "What do you want me to call her?"

"Something more personal – she's going to be your step mom, you know."

"So what? I already have a mother and your mother is the only other person I can ever call 'Umonim.'"

I smiled.

"And I don't think I can call her 'Stepmother.' Besides, she'll never really be any kind of mother to me – she'll just be my father's wife."

"I guess… and who knows, you might soon have a step dad too," I said with a wink.

I burst out laughing at his reaction because he looked at me like I'd gone bonkers.

"Quit the crap," he snarled.

I had to lean against the counter to steady myself – I was laughing so hard. "Don't you think your mother deserves someone too?" I managed to spit out within all the laughter. "She doesn't even have her only son with her."

He grimaced. "So what? She has her family."

"What's with the double standards? Your mother has needs," I teased.

"Can you please stop saying sick things like that?"

I laughed as I moved closer to him. "You're too hilarious. What will you do if your mother introduces her boyfriend to you?"

"I'll kill him," he said with certainty.

I laughed some more. What a silly guy. I reached across and touched his face. "Why does it feel so good to touch you?" I asked before realizing that I'd actually asked it… aloud. I immediately blushed and retrieved my hand. "I didn't mean to say that."

He smiled. "Why are you acting like this?" he asked as he inched closer to me. "Because only good things come out of you saying things like that," he said before kissing me yet again.

After about five minutes of participating in the huge cliché of making out against the kitchen sink, we were back to attempting to fix some dinner.

I retrieved a bag of frozen chicken from the freezer, placed it on the counter, then turned the hot water tap on and let it run so that the water could heat up. "So, Ji Tae…"

"Ji Tae?" he repeated grumpily. He raised his brow. "What did I do now?"

Huh? "What are you talking about?"

"You usually call me by my name when you're angry with me."

"Really?"

He nodded.

"Okay, then. Ji Tae yah…."


He shut his eyes and shook his head. "Try again."

I laughed. "Okay, Oppa…."

He nodded. "Now, that's better."

I laughed then splashed some water at him.

He jumped a few steps backwards to avoid it. "What were you going to say?"

"Oh. I've been wondering something," I said as I looked through the cupboards to find a bowl I could put the chicken in.

"What?" He bent down, opened a cabinet and threw a big white bowl to me.

"Thanks," I said, placing the chicken in it then filling it with water. "When I spoke to you last week, why did you reject me?"

He sighed. "Because I was angry and I really didn't care to hear anything you said – I was just pissed… and still very much irritated by all the bullsh.it you'd said to me. I'd vowed never to deal with you again so nothing you said was welcome."

I pouted. I hadn't really meant to anger him – I'd only expressed how I felt at the time. "And yesterday, you weren't angry?"

"By yesterday, I was pretty much confused. The fact you'd helped us out and the way you acted when you came by my office…." He threw a towel at me. "You're a very confusing girl. You're lucky I don't have psychosis in my genes otherwise I'd be in a straitjacket now."

"Whatever." I caught the towel and placed it on the counter. "And last night, why did you come to my house? Was it because of what I said to you at my party?"

He shook his head then apparently changed his mind then nodded. Then he shook his head again. Then nodded. Then shook it.

What the hell? "Oppa, are you having spasms?"

He stopped moving his head then let out a belly laugh. "No."

"So why did you come over last night?"

His expression turned serious. "Because I love you," he said sincerely. "That's the bottom line. Hearing everything you said last night suddenly made it okay to feel the way I still felt about you." He lifted his eyes and looked me dead in mine. "It's just because I love you. It's really that simple."