don't page me, nishimura riki

seoul, 2004.

kang nabi's life was supposed to be simple: keep her scholarship, survive college, and spend whatever money she had left on low-rise jeans and lip gloss.

then her car broke down, leaving her indebted to nishimura riki, the irritating automotive student from across the hall.

what begins as tutoring sessions and late-night drives quickly becomes something neither of them is willing to name. riki pages her after midnight, sleeps in her dorm, and acts like she belongs to him when nobody else is around. but in public, he insists that they aren't together.

nabi pretends she doesn't care. she ignores his calls, flirts with other boys, and leaves angry messages on aim whenever he disappears. still, every time her pager goes off, she secretly hopes it's him.

because riki wants her loyalty without giving her commitment, and nabi keeps accepting pieces of him while convincing herself they're enough.

until the girl he supposedly left behind shows up in seoul.

"you keep saying i'm not your girlfriend, but every time i act single, you punish me for it."

in which kang nabi learns that sometimes the hardest person to ignore is the one you told not to page you.