boyfriend for rent • kim yohan

023

"Hey," Jiwoo greeted the boy on the ground softly, sliding to sit next to him.

Wooseok gave her a small smile, his hand holding up two lunch boxes. "I got your favorite scrambled eggs for you."

"Thanks." The girl beamed.

Lunch went on in a comfortable silence, the two staring at the sky while eating. It was comfortable, Jiwoo thought, with no heart fluttering moments for her to be shy about.

"So, I thought about what I did." Jiwoo said once she saw Wooseok packing his finished lunch. She wasn't able to finish hers, so her lunch rested by her side. "I'm sorry."

The boy raised an eyebrow at her. "Why are you apologizing? If anything, I should be the one apologizing. I almost kissed you without your permission."

"Such a gentleman." She teased, watching as light pink dusted his cheeks.

"I mean," he continued. "Usually, by the 4th or 5th day, my 'girlfriend' would be willing to kiss me already. Seems like I wasn't observant enough with you to notice the signs that you weren't ready, I'm sorry."

Jiwoo was shocked. Not by the apology, but by the break in his character. He was referring to Jiwoo as a friend, consulting with her. He was talking to her not as Kim Wooseok the boyfriend, but Kim Wooseok the person who was talking about his job and his past experience. She was so flattered that he trusted her this much that she almost forgot to reply him.

"...oh." Jiwoo was very coherent. Most of the time.

"Is that all you have to say?" Wooseok asked, and even though his face was straight, there was a teasing glint in his eyes.

"I-I mean," she was getting over her shock. "It's alright, I guess. You can be very charming, so I'm not surprised other girls would want to kiss you after three days."

"I sense a 'but' coming."

The shorter girl sighed. "You know, at first I didn't know why I avoided you either. You're literally the epitome of a perfect boyfriend I had in my mind."

Wooseok nodded along. "Well, I am perfect."

"Wow, once you break this boyfriend character, you are quite cheeky." Jiwoo noted dryly, watching as the boy in front of her looked a few years younger than he actually was with the carefree smile on his face.

"I actually thought about why I backed out of the kiss all night and morning. I mean, you're handsome and all," she said, ignoring his smirk. "But, it didn't feel right."

"What do you mean?"

"I wanted my first kiss to be with someone who wants to kiss me with sincerity, you know? Wooseok, you're great with actions and words, you know what to do and say to make a girl on cloud nine." Jiwoo patted his shoulder. "Don't wanna brag, but I'm pretty good with sensing people's feelings. The thing was, I couldn't feel any sincerity from you."

Jiwoo took Wooseok's silence as agreement.

"Not saying that you're bad at your job." She quickly said, before Wooseok could sulk like a certain passive aggressive friend she knew. "But I feel like your attention wasn't on the kiss."

"I mean," Wooseok said. "As a boyfriend for rent, I sell dreams. I sell dreams to girls with an illusion of a perfect boyfriend. Sometimes, I love what I do because I get to see so many happy people because of my actions, but sometimes, I just feel like I can't be myself around them like I can be with some people." Wooseok held this faraway look that didn't go unnoticed by the observant girl.

"You know," He said while turning to look at her. "I actually was a stay at-home boyfriend for one of the girls in this school before. She, like many other girls, was heartbroken when they couldn't afford to have me for one more month. It was once of the more difficult aspects of my job."

He swallowed hard. "I think people deserve to experience love at least once, the kind of love that is so true and sincere that your heart breaks a little even just thinking about how perfect it is."

Wooseok was opening up to her, which was an unexpected turn of events. He was spilling everything out like he had been holding this in for a very long time without people to listen to him.

It was funny when Jiwoo looked at the events unfolding in front of her. It seemed like she was befriending every boyfriend she rented instead of dating them.

Jiwoo slung an arm around Wooseok's shoulder, her voice held a teasing but sincere tone at the same time when she spoke the next words.

"So, who's the lucky person?"