YoungJi took a deep breath and blurted out,"We actually just started dating. Which is why we felt slightly awkward in the transition from being friends to a couple."
When Leo heard that, his heart stopped but in elated condition. His mother raised one eyebrow and watched the both of them intently. Leo then held her hand firmly and said with respect bow,"She's my girlfriend and I hope Emmoni and Abeoji respect our relationship."
His father looked at the two of them and nodded.
"Very well. We will respect your relationship," His father gave an approve nod.
His mother looked towards her husband and her husband asked Leo to bring Young Ji home. Both of them walked towards the door and when they were out, she heaved a sigh of relief.
"That was close," She gave a relief sigh.
"...Yeah..thanks for helping me out," Leo thanked her.
"You owe me okay?" Young Ji beamed a smile to him and he was mesmerised by how pretty her smile was.
YoungJi was about to let go of his grip lightly but it seemed that her hand was gripped firmly by him.
"Leo ah, my wrist. We can stop acting now," Young Ji reminded him.
Feeling determined, he pulled her towards him and suddenly pressed his lips against hers. She widened her eyes in shocked and quickly pulled away. Young Ji looked at him, still in shock but asked,"W..what are you doing?"
Realizing that she was shocked, he quickly apologised and said,"...I'm sorry. I did not know why I did that to you..It's just that I went ahead with my feelings without considering yours..I'm sorry."
Knowing how he felt guilty about it, she tried to understand the situation and put her hand on his shoulders to comfort him with a small smile. Leo saw how she wanted to cheer him up and he returned the small smile.
========
At their own home, both of them went to wash up and after that went into their own rooms. Young Ji kept thinking of what happened today, so did Leo. Both of them can't seem to sleep and kept thinking of each other. Meanwhile, Hongbin who was reviewing his work in his study room, suddenly thought of Young Ji and his ex-girlfriend, Nara. He wanted to recreate the moments he had with Nara before with Young Ji.
======
The next day, the doorbell of of their house rang. Young Ji opened the door with a slice of bread in her mouth. Thinking that it could be the newspaper boy, she opened the door happily and greeted the person. But only to find out, Hongbin standing at the door. She looked surprised and quickly took the bread off her mouth.
"Good morning to you as well," Hongbin smiled warmly.
"...M..Manager.., what are you doing here early in the morning?" Young Ji asked with surprise.
"Shouldn't you let your guest inside first?" Hongbin asked.
Just then, Leo's voice echoed through the room and asked whose at the door. Not answering to his question, Leo walked to the door and stopped his tracks when he saw who was at the door. He raised one eyebrow and asked,"What are you doing here?"
Hongbin glanced over to Leo who was just about to wore his t-shirt. Then he looked towards her. Young Ji then let him inside and he walked past Leo. Leo looked towards her and she just shrugged. They followed Hongbin to the dining room and sat down together.
"Is this all you have for breakfast?" He turned to Young Ji.
"Yeah..," Young Ji answered.
"Enough for the just two of us until you came along," Leo made nasty remarks.
Hongbin ignored his remarks and said,"Young Ji shii, let's head out for breakfast."
"M..Mwoh?" She sounded surprised.
Hongbin stood up from his chair and walked over to her and grabbed her hand gently. He said with a smile,"Let's have a breakfast date."
Both Leo and Young Ji were utterly shocked by his straight forward confession. He pulled her gently and led her to the door. Then Leo stopped them by pulling her other hand.
"She's not going anywhere," Leo stopped him.
Hongbin frowned towards him while she looked at him.
Hongbin just scoffed and said,"And should I listen to you? I am just going to have a simple breakfast date with her."
"What we are having now, is simple enough. Besides, we have...something important to do together later," Leo tried to find an excuse.
Young Ji who was in the middle of all this was confused by him.
"You can postpone it, can you Young Ji shii?" Hongbin asked her.
"Well...," She looked at Leo and Leo hinted to not go with Hongbin.
"We can't..we have to do it by today. Maybe next time," Young Ji let go of Hongbin's grip gently.
Hongbin's face changed and felt slightly envious that she went along with Leo. Couldn't take any of her rejections anymore, he poured out everything he had hidden inside to he with a simple question,"...Why?"
Both Young Ji and Leo looked confused by his question. Seeing how confused they both looked, he questioned her again,"Why did you have to reject everytime I tried to ask you out especially for the sake of him?!"
"...What do you mean?" Young Ji sounded confused by his questions.
"Everytime I wanted to ask you out on a date, you would either have an excuse or he would literally stop you from going out with me," Hongbin said to her while glaring at Leo.
"Wasn't that day during Soyu's party proved anything to you?" Leo reminded him.
Hongbin just kept silence as he remembered Young Ji's facial expression when being pulled to the dance floor with Leo. Then Leo wrapped his arm around her waist and said,"We were madly in love with each other so you had no right to come between us."
"Tell me it wasn't true, Young Ji shii," Hongbin said while looking into her eyes.
Young Ji finally spoke up and went towards this intriguing question that had been on her mind, the first time she met Hongbin,"Mr Hongbin shii, why are you taking an interest in me? There are other ladies who are more prettier and way better than me. I'm just a contract employee and -"
Before she could finish her sentence, Hongbin said softly,"Because you look just like my ex-girlfriend.."
Their ears pricked at his intention and Leo scoffed while saying,"So to say...you took interest in her because she looks the same?"
"...To tell you the truth..I wanted to make it up the days that we didn't spend time before she passed away..," Hongbin confessed.
Young Ji's heart softened as Hongbin told his story. Leo then interrupted him and sneered,"So you are using her?"
Hongbin did not give a reply. Instead, he continued saying,"I really love her. She was the only one for me and I blew it.."
Seeing how regretful he looked, Young Ji said,"I'll do it."
"W..what?" Leo looked at her in disbelief and was about to talk her out when she stopped him,"I'll be her for the time being so that you can do the things that you wanted to do with her before she passed away."
"R..really?" Hongbin looked elated.
She gave a nod and Leo quickly turned her around and said,"Are you being serious right now?"
"I just want to help him out," She said to him.
"He's just using you because of that excuse," Leo put some sense into her.
"It's only for a while," Young Ji stated.
Leo gave a sigh and walked away in frustration, leaving them alone.
