chapter eleven: So you thought when I asked you to go out, you thought I'm comforting you?

Both of them were seated silently as Rose sipped on her espresso. Jin-Rae brought her to a coffee shop near her apartment, she felt a little chilled up the mountains, upon arriving, she felt warm with the coffee-scented atmosphere.

She sometimes looks casually at Jin-Rae who was also silent, but in a straight face looking at her. Making her feel uncomfortably embarrassed.

Rose cleared her throat. "Why do our colleagues think you're unapproachable? Why do they say you're scary?"

Jin-Rae chuckles and looked at her honey eyes with warmth. "Do you believe them?"

Rose shrugged her head, "No. The look on their faces made me look like I don't know what they are talking about."

Jin-Rae put down his tea after sipping. "Then you shouldn't mind them." He said as a matter of fact.

Rose frowned. "But it's bothering me."

Jin-Rae leaned forward, putting his hands together and tilted his head. The gesture made him look statuesque, like mythical god carefully sculpted. His delicate eyebrows rose and his lips slightly curving upwards. He was amused. Rose raised her eyes and met his intense stare, making her regret her decision to look at him.

"Do I bother you?"

The seriousness in his voice made her heart jump.

'Yes, you bother me. You bother my mind. You bother my time. You bother my life. You bother the thing inside my chest' Was what she thought of saying, but flustered when Jin-Rae opened his lips to repeat the question, but this time there was a hint of warmth in his voice.

"Yu yan, look at me. Do I bother you?"

"No, you don't." She answered simply, composing her face. "After this, please take me home. I need to study and I don't have any more time to put on my night routine."

Jin-Rae's eyebrows connected and leaned back in confusion. "Night routine?"

"yeah?" Rose answered indifferently, "I wash my face with a mineral foam, put on a mask, and then my serum. I need to let it dry on my face before I go to sleep because it's sticky and I don't like the feeling of being sticky when sleeping."

The look on Jin-Rae's face made Rose giggle silently, he looked like a lost man in a puzzle. Stuck on the first clue.

"Women," he muttered.

"I've been testing a lot of face products, like serums, facial cream and stuffs since I plan to major in the "field of beauty" and open up a business on that. That's why I thought of entering Professor Lee's class." The enthusiasm in Rose's voice as she spoke made Jin-Rae realize that she is truly happy that she's taking the path on her own decision. Unlike the last time they spoke, she was crying because her father enrolled her in a med school.

"You're worried that my father is pushing me into something I'm not comfortable again aren't you?" She asked him after putting her cup down.

Jin-Rae only looked at her.

"I'm fine." Rose simply answered.

"I know you are," Jin-Rae answered unhurriedly.

"Then you don't have to do this, taking me out and comforting me again and again--"

"Comforting you?" Jin-Rae interrupted her, his tone serious.

"That's not what you're doing now?" Rose asked in confusion.

"So you thought when I asked you to go out, you thought I'm comforting you?"

Rose folded her arms on her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Stop beating around the bush and just tell me."

"I did all this because I like you. I asked you out because I've been meaning to ask you the same question since we entered our adolescence. we haven't seen each other for five years and now do you think I'm going to let this chance slide now that I get to see you every day for the next three months? Hell no."

"..."