hyuri never liked trusting strangers, not even a man who saved him a couple of times. she was never the friendly type, growing up abandoned and left to her grandmother. although seokjin had never seen her around there or in the old woman's apartment, it was true that she had been living there, too.

but there she was, suspicious and unwelcoming glare fading when seokjin flashed him a sweet smile. hyuri herself rarely smiles, and being that - she wasn't the type to receive smiles for random people.

life was always terrible for her, an extreme hellhole which only her grandma could save her from. but now that she was gone, hyuri's life was so messed up - even though it was already messed up to begin with.

seokjin couldn't help but chuckle at hyuri's reaction; she was lowkey cringing at a handsome guy. no girl could ever do that better than her. but that was the point, her being not easily attracted to an almost perfect guy was attractive to seokjin.

"no thanks." she walked into the living room with her arms folded over her chest. being the careless guy he was, seokjin ignored her and prepared some plates and utensils, placing all of it down on the coffee table.

hyuri never kept his eyes off the moving seokjin, here and there. "i didn't know you lived here." he stated, sitting back down comfortably on the sofa.

sensing that the girl was still a little dazed and unfaithful, he tried to ease the tension in between them by beginning to eat. wait, that only made things worse. she was only staring at her plate, finally seated on the other couch across seokjin.

"are you gonna eat or does staring at a plate fill your stomach?" he asked, voice laced with sarcasm though he tried to make it sound as humorous as possible. being too serious wasn't seokjin's favorite game.

hyuri abruptly shook her head and said, "i'm not eating with a stranger." seokjin gasped, furrowing her eyebrows at her. "hey! woman, i am not a stranger. i saved you two times, remember?" he protested, a little bit of rice still in his mouth as he spoke.

this ungrateful child! seokjin thought. he tried to keep his patience and fed himself with a mouthful of food instead, thinking it would stop him from badmouthing hyuri.

after swallowing the food in his mouth, seokjin turned to her and asked again. "you're really not going to eat? you're gonna miss out on my delicious cooking."

"no thanks." she deadpanned. a playful idea suddenly came to his mind; and being the joker he was, seokjin had to do something.

"ah, right. i should've known. you want me to feed you?" he teased, holding up a piece of the dish with his chopsticks. hyuri's expression turned sour, resulting her to eat instead of being fed by a 'stranger'.

seokjin couldn't stop himself from looking at her. she was eating quietly, calm as a stone. he wondered if he was related to his friend min yoongi who wanted to be reincarnated into a stone.

aside from that, it wasn't the first time where seokjin took time to observe her face. she wasn't super pretty at first look, but maybe if those dark circles and eyebags disappeared and she would stop crying, hyuri would've looked like a model. she was thin, like most koreans but just a little thinner than usual. maybe it was because of how she once starved herself when she had to pay the hospital bills for her grandma.

five hours. it was all she had to live and seokjin was aware, since his gaze once again fell on her wrist. it's a common thing he couldn't avoid, because it felt like every single person's wrist enticed him with words like 'hey look at me!'

"why do you keep looking at my wrist?" she pulled down the long sleeves of her sweatshirt, hiding almost everybit or herself. "nothing. in case nobody told you today, you're beautiful."

"if you're aiming to win me over, find another woman because i hate men." she emphasized the last three words like she really meant it.

maybe she acted that way because she had never been in a close relationship with men. seokjin was determined to earn her trust, even just as a friend and nothing more. he only wanted to help her - save her.

"trust me, i'm not like everyone else."

— 信任 —
T R U S T

"but you sound exactly like everyone
else when you say that."