"Ta-daa!!" He appears excitedly with 2 bowls of cooked ramyeon in his hands. "And -" He ran back into the kitchen after placing them onto the coffee table. "We shall not forget this!" Feeling playful, he shakes the pack of dried seaweed in one hand while the other places a glass of plain water in front of her. "You drank quite a bit...you'll get a headache tomorrow if you don't wash it down,"

She only stares at him, not quite saying anything in return. Wondering if his gestures were a bit over-the-top for 4 in the morning, Jungkook proceeds to take out a couple pieces of the seaweed from its pack and puts it in her bowl. He then does the same to his own. When he looks back up to her, he notice the slight shake of her head. 

"Hot - hahhh - hot-fuckity-hahh-hot!!" She hissed when the noddles entered her mouth. Aishh cute!!

"It's uh...it's hot," He can't help the amused tone. 

Lalisa gulps on the water but her eyes never leave his. It feels like she's planning a murder so Jungkook took her bowl closer to him and began blowing on the stretched noodles. After a few attempts to soothe the heat (of both the ramyeon and the girl), he pushes it back to her. There's a glint in her eyes and he wonders if her tongue is blistered.

"You okay?"

She looks down and he saw the heavy heave left her shoulder. "Of course. It was just...the burning - just eat your damn food!"

Mmm...I guess I should get used to all of her tones from now! What was it that Jisoo said...that she's been living on her own for a while? Why? He wonders if they are no longer around, and that's why it seemed like a touchy subject for her by the river. But if it's not her parents...how can she afford to live even more lavishly than him and his friends?  

. . . 

Bare-faced Lalisa without her glasses on looks like an angel. An angel baby, more like it! Her eyes are still her most prominent feature and her pink, plump lips are still lusciously inviting...but her cheeks look even softer than all the time he'd seen her. It makes him want to touch and squeeze it - just to confirm the gentle elasticity but of course, he keeps his itchy hands to himself.

"Will your parents...or housemate - will they not mind if they find me here?" He tests the water, breaking the silence between them since they finished the late (or early) meal.

"No housemate. My parents aren't in town but even if they are, I'm sure they won't chase you out,"

Oh...so her parents are still around. Are they traveling? What kind of work do they do? And does that mean they're used to her bringing guests back home? Guests...who? Do you really wanna know, Guk?? 

"They must've trusted you enough, huh?" He failed to build up the courage to asks any of the former, so he plays it safe. Again.

She glanced at him briefly and he wishes it was longer. "They're too nice. They'll trust anyone,"

"Ahh...okay,"

He is sure that the sounds coming from the television sounds more and more like crickets in his ears. Her eyes are fixed on Big Earth and he wonders if watching penguins constantly slipping on ice is more interesting than having a conversation with him. Not that I have a bunch of interesting tales to share anyway...and those penguins does look cuter -

"You're actually the first guy to sleepover here," She suddenly says, taking a sip from the glass before wrapping her lean arms around her folded knee. Jungkook was sure that his eyes are sparkling happily by the information. "The others would just leave after,"

Oh...

The others, huh? How many others? Does it mean I'm more important than these 'others' or is she saying it to get me to -

"Would you prefer it if I leave?" The question slipped past his mouth without much thought. 

Lalisa stares at him for a good few seconds before she says, "No...it's kinda nice to have someone around when you wake up too early to even do anything. It's gets too quiet sometimes,"

He smiles, feeling warm to see her soft cheeks blushing pink. "Then...whenever you want me here, I'll be glad to come over,"

"What I want..." She sighed. "What about what you want? What are you expecting out of this, Jungkook-ssi?" She tilts her head slightly and her mouth clipped into a straight line - looking so cute with her cheeks puffing out. 

"I um..." His brain scrambles for words - trying its very best to form a sentence that will not scare her away. "I..."

"Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet...I let you spend fourteen hours with me - by far, the longest I've let anyone be in my company," She snickered.

I' just set another record - yes!! "I know it...I'm just scared to say it,"

She squints her eyes, as if assessing what she should say or do next. After a minute, she stacks their bowls together and says, "That's too bad...this is the only time I'm asking," She got up and saunters over to the kitchen. 

Jungkook sighs to himself, feeling like a defeated loser. What if I say it and she chases me away? I can't have that...we're making progress here - huge progress within a single day! I can't mutter things like 'I want you to be mine' when she clearly said she doesn't do boyfriends only a few hours ago! 

As these battles run through his mind, he somehow recalled Jisoo's words at Outlaw earlier. 

"You know you need to tell her things...or she'll just keep doing whatever fits her best,"

Maybe I should just wing it? She's been very vocal about things and she did seem to like my honesty... Jungkook got up and ran towards the kitchen. 

"What I want is..." He huffs, containing his nerves as he hovers by her side at the kitchen sink. "...to be with you. For a longer time...any time...that you want me around, that is. I know you said you don't do boyfriends and I won't force you to call me anything. I just...I like you...and I want to be with you," He blabbered and waited for her response.

It's only when she's done with the dishes that she turns around. Her pretty eyes gazes straight into his and he spots the hint of smile, just at the corners of her addictive-looking lips. Like being caught in a trance, he can only watch her taking a step closer - leaning forward until her face is only an inch away.

"So whenever I say 'I want you now'...you'll come to me?" She breathed and her eyes dropped to his mouth. Jungkook could feel the tingles coming, all over again. 

"Run...I'll run to you,"

The smile finally appears and she kisses him gently...seductively gently.

. . .

There is no denying the pure awe he has over Lalisa. It was sheer madness to think that she had chosen (out of all) him to make love to her. Did we make love though? It was raw...and passionate...and sexy - nothing like I've ever experienced before! Such confidence and cockiness - jeez...I'm a lucky son-of-a-gun to still be living!

There were only 2 girls that he had been with before her, and both of them were his girlfriends. They were both a little shy and reserved. They made love under the duvet - an ideal way to not show too much skin. Not to say that they were plain, just that it felt safe...like everything else in his life. While that girl...

She took his shirt off the moment he stepped into her house! She towed him into her room after with a single smile that says 'you definitely know what happens next!'. And she bravely stripped herself in full view - no covers, nothing!

She called every shots there was and he was just mind-blown at how incredibly attractive that was! She had him come apart 3 times in a single night and Jungkook can't wait for the next time he gets to touch her again. 

She didn't chase him off after what he had said. No, quite the opposite, she had let him take her against the kitchen counter...to the sofa...before letting him carry her back into the bedroom where she fell asleep in his arms after they are done. She was right...I'll probably have to beg to forget about that Saturday night if this ever ends. 

She sent him home the next day with flirty smiles and feathery touches, and Jungkook's been feeling on air ever since. For the entire day, he's been hoping for time to move faster so that he could see her pretty face and sexy smirks again. And that's why this Monday morning comes off as a surprise...

"Lalisa..." He calls again, chasing after her as she makes her usual exit from the faculty. She did not turn...not even once. "Hey," He managed to grab her wrist once he gets to her Ducati. But his smile is met with a frown. "What's wrong?"

"Funny...why do you ask?"

Uh...okay... "I called for you...since we were in class...maybe you didn't noticed -"

"No, I heard it. I just didn't feel the need to respond to it. We're not friends, Jungkook-ssi,"

I mean...I think we've established that we're already more than that but - "We're...not? But I thought -" 

"You thought cus we fucked, you get to shout out my name here and there?" It hurts him to hear it. Why is she being this way? "I've provided you a good story for your sessions, haven't I? Look," She gestures to his back and he turns.

Jaehyun, Chaeyoung, Eun Woo, and Yugyeom are all standing by the faculty entrance, seemingly watching the two from afar and discussing them. Oh shoot!

"I only told one of them, I'm sorry! Cus I...I wasn't home that night and my eomma was worried so she called Jae! I only explained to him alone because I felt bad -"

Her snickering stopped him mid-sentence. "Well, thanks to you being such a good boy, Jungkook-ssi...I now have to struggle extra hard, holding my fucking fists to myself for every time I hear the word 'Heulg' and 'slut' being whispered whenever I walk the damn halls!"

What? Who dares to call her that - my friends?? "I'm sorry - I promise you, I didn't mean any harm -"

"Of course you don't..." She laughs bitterly, fastening the straps of her helmet below her neck. "The world keeps spinning regardless, right? So why mind if I don't answer your fucking calls?"

"Lisa, wait -"

"Don't call me that! You haven't earned jackshit to be calling me that!"

He sighed. "Lalisa, please..." Jungkook held her by the arm when she climbed on her Ducati. "Can we please talk about this -" 

She looks down to his hand before giving him a piercing stare, chilling him to the bone. "Let go...or I'll break all of your pretty fingers, you'll be calling for 'eomma' under a minute,"

She has that same look that she gave to the kid who robbed the store and he knew it was a serious threat. There's nothing Jungkook could have done to prove her wrong...not now anyway. He lets go and watches the girl and her bike racing off in full throttle. God - how - how did it get to this?! With frustrated, angry eyes, he turns to his friends.

I don't care who it is, someone needs to pay for this!

. . .

It was no use. The confrontation he had with his friends provided nothing but more disappointments. Jungkook can't believe what an idiot he was for telling Jaehyun about the date and his night with Lalisa - for forgetting the fact that the guy shares even the most non-sensical news with his crush, Chaeyoung.

And of course, being the blab queen of the batch that Chaeyoung is, she had gone to her friends and telling them about it. Words do get around faster than lightning when you're someone important enough to be talked about, he now learns. Now he's wishing that he's as unnoticeable as Lalisa is!

Another thing that he wishes for is that they spoke more about him than about Lalisa. Why should she be called a 'slut' when it was Jungkook who's been chasing her around like a puppy? She doesn't deserve that...she doesn't deserve to be called a 'Heulg' either, mainly since she's not even from Heulg to begin with but what can he do to fix what the mass thinks?

It would be hilarious for anyone to think that Jungkook has not once, thought of the repercussions of getting close to Lalisa. In his heated conversation with his friends earlier, they mentioned how he's somehow 'changed'...simply because he asked them to stop calling her a 'Heulg'. For the first time in his life, he felt embarrassed to be in this world.

There is no doubt that Lalisa and him are river's apart...and maybe our personalities are extremely, anxiously the opposite of one another. But we've been meeting in-between, haven't we? Suddenly he recalls what she said by the river,

"You can start regretting crossing the river for me, right about now,"

If anything, she kept trying to push him away before it even started. It's as if she knew how incompatible they were from the very beginning. Jungkook has been so wrapped up in the thought of her, so much so that he refused to back down - no matter the many times she pointed it out. 

He realized only now that he's been selfish in getting what he wants. He never thought what it could do to her. She's been keeping herself unnoticed around here and because of him, she is now 'existing'. Sitting by the stairs on his own, Jungkook lets out a deep sigh for the umpteenth time today - feeling so lost and angry, all the same. 

"What about what you want?" He heard her voice again.

What do I want? Why have I been going out of my way for her? Chaeyoung and Jaehyun was probably right...there are probably many girls prettier...better than her. A 'Soulite' - like what Lalisa and Jisoo called us. We'd have the same interest...go to the movies and everything will be easy. Simple...and safe.

But maybe I don't want 'safe'. All my life, I've been dealing with 'safe'. She asked me what I wanted to be and she was the first to hear about my longing to get out. The fire in her eyes and the bravery in her heart challenged me...and maybe I'm just a man who wanted to taste the sun. She gave me a glimpse of the world in her mind and I ache for more...for her. 

Can I just go back to Saturday...when everything makes perfect sense and Lalisa was smiling at me? Deep down, he knows that it was no one's fault but his own. If he had only informed his mother that he won't be coming back that night...then this wouldn't have happened. God, how do I make this right??

. . .