Fake Dating... or is it real?

20

Turns out hiring Kai wasn't such a bad idea after all, despite the fact he was annoying sometimes. He was like an over-eager puppy. He found a lot of good people for her.

They traveled all around Korea and Lisa had to admit he had been a lot of help. He had a good eye for finding people with a story and Lisa almost thought it might be because he had been hiding for so long he could easily spot his kindred spirits.

Lisa kind of hated that she started to become fond of him. He was annoying and would wrap his arm around her shoulders when they walked in order to annoy her and he started calling her his best friend after their first month of traveling and Lisa always had to shove him off and punch him in the shoulder and he would just laugh in response.

By the second month Lisa had to reluctantly admit they might be friends.

"Best friends!" He would correct her, every time they would introduce themselves to a random stranger on the street.

"He's delusional." Lisa would always say and he would laugh that boyish laugh at her. "She's just in denial. I'm her best friend."

"Rosie's my best friend."

"I'm her best friend behind Rosie." He nodded.

"No, that's Jisoo, but don't tell her that I said that or I'll never live it down." Lisa said, shuddering at the thought.

"I'm her best friend behind Jisoo." He would continue unfazed.

"Nope. That would be Bambam."

"The truck guy!" He said indignantly. "He does have really good food though." He admitted. "Fine, after Bambam. I'm her best friend behind Bambam." He would continue.

Lisa shook her head at him.

By their last month Lisa would always roll her eyes when he called her his best friend but she let him. She stopped arguing with him over it. Despite Lisa's reluctance he had become her best guy friend besides Bambam. They were really the only two men in Lisa's life that she allowed. She didn't really trust men, not after her father left her. She couldn't believe that of all the men in the world she had learned to trust, Kai was one of them.

They got really close. Three months of traveling together and being around each other pretty much 24/7 would do that to you. They got to know each other pretty well and Lisa started realizing Kai wasn't really an asshole after all. He was just a stunted traumatized sixteen year old gay boy trapped in a grown man's body who had learned to cope from the guilt of his uncle's death by becoming something he wasn't.

She couldn't even recognize this man anymore. It wasn't the Kai she had known. It was the true Kai.

They had one more week before Lisa would finally finish her fellowship and move back to Seoul. They had just finished their work so they were going to go eat and have a drink. They were walking towards the night market but were planning on stopping at the first random Pojangmacha they saw if they ran into one because they were both starving.

They'd run around a lot that day. Lisa wanted to get as much as she could this last week and Kai was a surprisingly hard worker so they had talked to entirely too many people that day.

Lisa noticed Kai was kicking the ground like a sad lost puppy though and Lisa raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's wrong with you?" Lisa asked.

Kai shrugged.

Lisa sighed.

"I'll let you take the decent camera tomorrow if you tell me." Lisa said. She had gradually started teaching him how to use certain cameras. Sometimes she needed different angles when she was taking a picture in tandem of people so she had taught him some stuff. She also basically just used him to curate her instagram when she needed to be in the shot and Lisa had found that Kai really liked photography and learning about it.