.  He used to play pranks to her in his own sweet time; however, he showed a cold look to strangers sometimes. He had frigidly and fiercely glowing black eyes under his frosty white hair and spoke with an icy-cold voice that seemed to conceal a knife in it.

  Choi Yuri turned stiff. She knew who stood behind her, which made her hardly turn back to see him. The owner of the voice then walked past by her without a hitch and stood next to Ham Donnie. He then grabbed Ham Donnie’s arm and pulled to his side.

  Now that he came in front of her, Choi Yuri could clearly see his face. Jesus…… she felt that her vision was blurring.

  Who would it be? It was indeed him, Eun Jiho.

  He was staring at her with his eyes burning with flames of rage, which Choi Yuri never wanted him to have them on her. His hand was grasping Ham Donnie’s hand in a rush as if she was a fragile objet d’art. Having them in her sigh, Choi Yuri mumbled, ‘Come on, no……’


  A cold silence hung among them. Eun Jiho then quietly detached his lips.

  “What did you just try to do?” he asked, frigidly.

  His ice pick-like voice stabbed Choi Yuri’s heart as if it had life. She tried to take it out and let it slide by her, but it didn’t work at all. She even felt hard to breathe.

  ‘No…… this wasn’t what I tried to do,’ struggling with that thought in mind, Choi Yuri lifted her furiously shaking eyes to look at Eun Jiho.

  “Jiho…… I…… I…… it’s not what you’re thinking……”


  “If I didn’t get it wrong, you were trying to push Ham Donnie.”


  “No!”


  Choi Yuri shrieked unconsciously. She gasped with her palely turned cheeks. ‘No, it isn’t late yet,’ Choi Yuri murmured, clenching her fist. ‘It’s still retrievable! I can just make up a story that Ham Donnie was the one who first poured out insults to me.’


  The situation was, however, worse than she anticipated. Eun Jiho’s remark that came after made Choi Yuri’s face turn pale.

  “Since when do you think I’ve heard it? Almost from the beginning to the end. I don’t know what you are trying to say but I don’t think I’ve misunderstood. You said to her, don’t mess with you. Am I having some hearing problems? And now you’re trying to push her down the stairs? How could you……”


  While Choi Yuri turned stiff at a loss of words, Eun Jiho had his arm around Ham Donnie’s shoulders then pulled her down to the stairs. Ham Donnie stared at him in wonder.

  He said, “Hey, Ham Donnie, come on, your ears will rot. You tried to leave, but she kept messing with you from a while ago. Let’s just get out of here and forget about her. It’d be a hundred times worth for you.”


  “.……”


  “And Choi Yuri, you…… if you really try to hurt Ham Donnie again, believe me. I’ll kill you.”


  “Ji…… Jiho!”


  “You told Ham Donnie earlier that she and her family will get paid? I’ll return those words exactly to you. Try to mess up with her, the war will begin between you and me.”


  As if she was his little sister, Eun Jiho had Ham Donnie tightly in his arm then strode down the stairs. He took a fast pace, which was inconsiderate of Ham Donnie’s step. She narrowly followed him while leaping down two flights of stairs at a time. Both then turned the corner and disappeared from Choi Yuri’s sight.

  Choi Yuri, left inside the dark alone, was now just staring at the bottom of the stairs where silence prevailed on.

  She then murmured, “What the……”


  Did Eun Jiho just say that he heard…… everything? All the things that I said to her? No one came up to the rooftop while she and Ham Donnie was talking; however, Eun Jiho was standing right behind her.

  He might have been in the rooftop for the whole time. As soon as she realized that fact, a cold shiver rose from her wrist.

  Of course, he heard everything from the beginning to the end!

  Eun Jiho took Ham Donnie with him and left just a few seconds ago; however, everything felt like a scene inside a dream. ‘No, please…… I wish it was just a dream…… I wish even calling Ham Donnie to this place could be just a dream……’ It was the moment when Choi Yuri murmured in silence.

  A cold hand held her shoulder. Choi Yuri looked back involuntarily with tearful eyes. She then became speechless again. There stood another familiar face right behind her, who she never anticipated encountering in this place as much as Eun Jiho.

  A boy with big brown monolid eyes was smiling na?vely. The burning sunset showered down on his gold hair. The word, angel, would better suit his pure appearance. When he handed out something with a bright grin, Choi Yuri, however, felt as if she was falling to a bottomless hell.

  “I think this belongs to someone you know.”


  “.……”


  What Woo Jooin handed out was a coal-black phone without any decoration on; the text message on the screen was such a familiar one.

  Sent from: Miss Choi Yuri

  Mr. Kang, help me. It’s about transferring a girl to another school, and I really need your help.

  The vibration sound was real. I wasn’t getting it wrong…… Looking at Choi Yuri’s hopeless eyes, Woo Jooin still had a bright smile on his face.

  The look on her face changed slowly. First, she displayed a feeling of astonishment then her facial expressions scattered away gradually, and now, there was no vestige of emotions left on her face, except for her pale cheeks.

  A cold breeze suddenly reached the rooftop and blew away. Choi Yuri’s hair waved a bit but soon stayed calm. In the meanwhile, she was just staring at Woo Jooin.

  He was just smiling for the whole time whereas Choi Yuri was remaining silent. She feared the unbearable situation. She doubted if he was even a human being. Choi Yuri, however, bit her lips firmly and thought, ‘No, maybe he didn’t find out yet what the text meant……’


  Choi Yuri said, “Oh, yeah. It’s someone I know.”


  “Of course, yes. The number of the person who sent this message is yours.”


  ‘Oh, yeah,’ Choi Yuri replied while stretching out her hand with a bitter smile.

  “If you give it to me, I’ll give it back to……”


  “This is your bodyguard’s phone.”


  “.……”


  Choi Yuri’s face got frozen. Standing still with her hand stretched out, Choi Yuri lifted her eyes and scowled at Woo Jooin. Gasping and gulping, she snapped at him.

  “Did you just peep someone else’s phone? How can you be so rude……?”


  “Oh, yeah, it was a bit rude.”


  Unexpectedly, Woo Jooin admitted apathetically. What he said next appalled Choi Yuri while shoving her into a deeper shock.

  “I defrauded someone else’s phone on purpose, so that could be indeed rude. I mean, it should be more than just being rude, right?”


  “What do you mean?”


  Tapping his chin with his long white finger, Woo Jooin put a swiveling smile on his face as if he just finished his thought process. He then detached his lips.

  “I didn’t have a choice.”


  “A choice?”


  “Creating a haters’ club over Ban Yeo Ryung and laying the blame on Donnie…… I didn’t have a choice to prove that it was you. Except for using this one.”


  He returned in a relaxed tone of voice; however, his words seemed like a cold fingertip pressing from her spine to the back of her neck. She couldn’t move as if her whole body was frozen. ‘How could he……?’ Only these words hovered inside her head.

  How could he? How could he know that it was she who committed everything and defraud her bodyguard’s phone? I mean, how did he know that it was Choi Yuri herself who used her bodyguard to plan all these in the first place?

  Choi Yuri then bit her lips and wrapped herself with both arms.

  The way he took to grasp all these didn’t matter. ‘It doesn’t matter but the problem is……’ She then lifted her eyes. Their eyes met in the air. Woo Jooin removed the smile from his face for the first time. He now had a straight face like a wax figure. Under the sunset, he looked even more devilish.

  She felt a chill again and shut her eyes tight. The problem was Woo Jooin got aware of everything about this situation.