.  When I saw even teardrops hanging from the corners of his eyes, I felt more confused. While I became quiet for a second from feeling guilty, Eun Jiho, who was scowling at me, continued to speak.

  “If you were in my situation, wouldn’t you feel responsible for what had happened? My goodness, some perverted asshole kidnapped you guys to see me crying! How could I not regard it as my fault?”


  Oh, that was somehow a different perspective. I thought awry of him using such an expression, ‘perverted asshole,’ which didn’t fit the atmosphere; however, reconstructing the case from Eun Jiho’s point of view, he couldn’t help but react that way. Someone kidnapped me and Ban Yeo Ryung to see Eun Jiho crying; wasn’t that person nothing but a fu*king weirdo? Recalling the existence of Choi Yuri, I dropped something out of the blue.

  “Oh, now I come to think of it, that perv… I mean, the culprit… when I talked to Jooin on the phone earlier, I heard that Jooin had grasped the location of the warehouse where we had been trapped at. Is that correct?”


  “Huh? Yeah, if you guys knew how hard Woo Jooin used his brain, you would have…”


  When he tried to complete the sentence by saying ‘freaked out,’ I intervened, “Choi Yuri might still be there with the knocked down remnants.”


  Eun Jiho then asked back with a look of bewilderment.

  “What? Choi Yuri? Why are you bringing up that name here?”


  Regardless of his question, I threw a glance at Yeo Ryung then kept on speaking.

  “Oh, the remnants may probably have some broken bones because of Ban Yeo Ryung and Yi… I mean, a mysterious collaborator knocked them all down.”


  “No, instead of those, what do you mean by Choi Yuri? Hell, no, come on… really??”


  I shrugged at Eun Jiho, who was still grimacing, and replied, “Why not? It’s just what you’re thinking.”


  Eun Jiho then touched his forehead in astonishment.

  “Jesus Christ!”


  “Anyway, if she can’t drive alone, I guess she’s still there. Send someone later to find that out.”


  Eun Jiho nodded weakly at my words and became speechless again. Watching his face returning to having the complicated look, I understood his overall reactions. In his point of view, it was, again, clear that we had been kidnapped because of him. Staring at Eun Jiho blankly, I pretended to lift my foot.

  Eun Jiho then stepped back even though he was lost in thought.

  “Why?” he asked while looking freaked out.

  I responded, holding my chin up high.

  “Dude, why aren’t you apologizing to me?”


  “What?”


  Crossing my arms again, I continued to speak with a triumphant gesture.

  “You said sorry to Yeo Ryung and asked her to still remain as friends; however, when it comes to me, how can you start with questioning me about stop being friends?”


  “That’s because…”


  “Do you really want to end our friendship?”


  When I jumped into that question, Eun Jiho’s head quickly swung from side to side. He then replied almost like yelling.

  “No way!”


  “Then why did you talk like that to me?”


  “That’s because I…”


  Blurting out the words, Eun Jiho slightly bit his lips. His following remark, which he uttered while casting down his trembling lashes, then perplexed me.

  “I don’t deserve it.”


  “…”


  “I’m too sorry to even look at your face.”


  With my eyes fastened on him, I carefully asked, “So, it wasn’t something like… this was a chance for you to clear me out from your life or so, was it?”


  Eun Jiho, who was choked up in the middle of crying, replied, “Hey, if you didn’t get kidnap because of me, I would have lost my temper just now.”


  “I know. That’s why I’m saying it now.”


  “You little…!”


  That was when he lifted his hand to dishevel my hair but expressed a mixed feeling upon my messy appearance. Looking up at him with my arms crossed for quite a while, I smiled faintly.

  “Eun Jiho,” I called his name.

  “Why?”


  “First, say that you’re sorry to me.”


  “That’s not enough to…”


  I interrupted his last word, ‘apologize,’ and rushed him to speak out those words.

  “Oh, come on, just say that.”


  Eun Jiho then uttered bitterly, “Soorryy…?”


  As soon as he said that, I flaunted a manly smile then lifted my hand to place it on Eun Jiho’s shoulder. The moment he tried to grimace, I spoke in a severe voice.

  “Why would you feel sorry to me?”


  Watching Eun Jiho and Ban Yeo Ryung talking back and forth, Ban Yeo Ryung looked so cool when she blurted out those words, so I also wanted to throw that question at him.

  Eun Jiho, who indeed had a good memory, seemed to quickly notice that I was imitating Ban Yeo Ryung’s remark earlier. When his brows met in the middle, there was a burst of pure laughter from beside us. When I turned my head aside, Ban Yeo Ryung was laughing hard over his face.

  Looking back and forth between me and Ban Yeo Ryung, Eun Jiho soon expressed an odd mix of emotions. It looked like he was in a dither about whether or not to get angry at us; even if he did so, perhaps he was at a loss to whom he should be mad at.

  Staring up at him blankly, I opened my mouth with a smile.

  “Hmm, I think three more times will be fine.”


  Eun Jiho seemed to look more baffled. Still expressing his wonder, Eun Jiho asked bitterly.

  “What do you mean?”


  “Getting kidnapped.”


  His face then tinged pale.

  “That isn’t fine!” Eun Jiho shouted.

  Gosh, what a voice. I stepped back out of surprise. Rolling my eyes for a second, I then smiled awkwardly and continued to speak.

  “Hmm, but your teary face just now looked quite pretty, so I think I can understand a little bit about the kidnapper’s feelings…”


  “Where on earth are you gonna use that for? Hey, and you weren’t listening to me seriously from a while ago, huh?”


  Watching Eun Jiho nagging me with a dumbfounded look, I wiped under my nose. Hmm, now I felt better to see the usual Eun Jiho. Someone’s hand was then suddenly put on Eun Jiho’s head. Feeling someone disheveling his hair, Eun Jiho hunched his shoulders for a moment then turned to look beside him.

  “Now it’s you…?”


  Ban Yeo Ryung was ruffling Eun Jiho’s hair violently with a naughty glance. She was over 164 cm tall and was also wearing 10 cm-stilettos, so her eye level almost matched that of Eun Jiho.

  Yikes, thinking to that extent, I suddenly realized something.

  I looked down at my feet. The heels of my sandals weren’t 10 cm but around 7 cm high. I then stretched out my hand to place it on Eun Jiho’s head. It indeed reached the top of his head at ease.

  While his hair became messed up under Ban Yeo Ryung and my touch, Eun Jiho heaved a sigh in perplexity.

  “Ha…”


  Ban Yeo Ryung then said to him nonchalantly.

  “Well, who knows? What if someone kidnaps you one day to see me crying? Just think that you owe me in advance.”


  I added after her, “Yeah, me too. Someone can kidnap you to see me crying.”


  The moment when Eun Jiho tried to reveal how ridiculous he felt, Ban Yeo Ryung, who suddenly narrowed her eyes, uttered, “Oh but what a bummer… If someone’s gonna make me cry, it’s a mistake to kidnap Eun Jiho.”


  As soon as she said that, Eun Jiho furrowed his forehead then slapped Ban Yeo Ryung’s hand to remove it from his head. He then strode forward the black car with incomparably bigger strides than before and flung the door open. Ban Yeo Ryung and I quietly giggled behind him.

  Eun Jiho, however, lost his vigor again on our way back to the hotel. Perhaps the time he helplessly waited for us while having no clear answers about our survival came to mind again. Eun Jiho lowered his head and just kept saying to us that he was sorry.

  In the end, Ban Yeo Ryung and I had to hold each of his hands from both sides during the whole time on our way back to the hotel. We then told him continuously from both sides that things were all fine until he looked seemingly okay.