emotions | love alarm

22 ~

Chapter Twenty-Two

"You're joking," Ae-ri deadpans as she stands in her mom's home office.

Her mom looks over at her in confusion, "I'm being 100% serious. Why do you take it as a joke? You are offending our guest."

Ae-ri glances over at In-ho and feels her body silently seethe with irritation.

"No offense taken," In-ho grins at Ae-ri's mom before giving Ae-ri a smile too big to be innocent.

"Why me?" Ae-ri questions.

"Because he needs to be acquainted while he is here."

"But why me?"

"Ae-ri," her mom says her name in utter exasperation and Ae-ri groans before glaring at In-ho and gesturing for him to follow her.

When Ae-ri had been disrupted from her morning routine, she did not think it was because she was going to be given the role of being In-ho's guide while he is getting accustomed to his new town and school. She could not give less than a fuck about him or his getting accustomed; he was already on fragile ice for being obnoxious but now she had to deal with the dent in her relationship this man had made and that alone was reason enough for her not to like him.

"So what's first?"

"Shut up."

"Fiesty."

"I don't like you."

"Funny, because I like you."

"Cry about it."

"You're so fascinating."

"Why are you still talking?"

Ae-ri rips her keys from where they hung and shoved her backpack on her shoulder before turning to In-ho to ask, "Are you ready to leave?"

After the question leaves her lips, Ae-ri freezes. In-ho was less than a foot away, his eyes tantalizing, his smile gentle. "I'd go anywhere with you Ae-ri. You are the most interesting person I have ever met."

She feels her anger flare up at his audacity and she takes a step forward large enough to make him step back in surprise. "I want to make something glaringly clear here, In-ho. I don't like you and I never will. I don't care how fascinating I am to you, you will never have access to me or my mind so kindly cut the bullshit. I have bigger fish to fry than some stuck-up manchild that thinks he runs shit. Choose another girl to get your dick wet because I'm not the one. Got it?"

In-ho tilts his head and smiles, brushing past her with a satisfied look in his eyes, "Okay, princess."

***

"You're joking," Sun-oh says as he looks at In-ho then back at Ae-ri.

"Exactly. That's what I said," Ae-ri sighs.

In-ho smiles at both of them and continues to look around. He was already gaining attention and he hadn't been there for more than an hour.

"All-day?"

"More like all week."

Sun-oh bites his lip and sighs. He was aware of his rising jealousy and his protectiveness but he couldn't help it. They had just repaired the gap that In-ho's arrival had made in their relationship and now they had to deal with this too. He wanted to be supportive, but he didn't want to share his person with someone like In-ho.

In-ho was everything that Ae-ri deserved and that terrified Sun-oh; In-ho made Sun-oh feel like he was inferior and he despised it. In-ho was Ae-ri's intellectual equal and Sun-oh was painfully aware of this.