Hacking Seoul

0.13 - Precarious Camaraderie

She leaned against the building, chest heaving. Her left hand pressed into the wall to support herself as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Whatever wit and charm she put on a show for drained from her face and she was pale as paper, frail enough to be dissolved away by one wrong word. His heart fluttered as he watched all her gloriousness glimmer against the night despite her spent state. He walked over and leaned against the wall next to her.

"What did you say to them?" He kept his tone as mild as he could. The encounter with those men left him feeling useless. She had to single-handedly orchestrate their escape. Though he felt horrible about not being able to help her at the moment, he was glad she was able to wrench them out of there. To say he was impressed would be an extreme understatement.

She tilted her head slightly to look him in the eyes. He couldn't tell what she was thinking but being this close to her was starting to distract him again. He warned his wandering mind mentally and forced himself to focus on their present civil partnership and not her pretty lips.

"Don't speak to me." She turned her eyes away. The annoyance in her voice was undisguised.

She had every reason to want him gone. He was the creepy stranger who forced her to help him and then kissed her against her will. Twice. His shoulders slumped as she moved down the wall to put two more feet of space in between them. Maybe he should just walk away. Her disdain toward him was too much to bear when his feelings for her were the complete opposite.

"I told them you're a marine about to be deployed so they couldn't kill you," she said suddenly in a cold voice but he caught the camaraderie in the undertone. When two people worked together to achieve something, a special bond formed no matter you liked it or not.

"People don't usually want to mess with the Marine Corps."

He bit his lip and acknowledged that with a nod. He couldn't figure her out. Her contempt for him was still obvious but she also seemed to see him as more of a friend than an overbearing stranger now. The relationship they had was an odd and delicate one and he did not want to wreck whatever it was they had going on between them right now. Especially since this was the first time she carried a non-argumentative sentence without insulting him. He carefully ran through his words for the third time in his brain before he finally uttered them.

"That was good thinking. Simple but effective."

She shook her head immediately, "I'm just glad they bought it."

"They had to with that superb acting, girlfriend." He regretted as soon as the words were out. What was he thinking?! He wasn't. This was going to cause a storm. His last attempt at a joke did not work out well at all. He was taken completely by surprise when he heard her laugh.