[ JUNG HOSEOK ]
Our bodies melded together, chests rising and falling in unity. His eyes poured into mine longingly, desperately, yet the distance between us remained unconquerable.
"Please, just take it off," came my broken whisper as my fingertip...
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"I'm sorry... what?"
Bewilderment plastered itself all over Jimin's face. The cogs of his brain were spinning furiously as he tried to process what I'd said.
My eyes met his, reflecting the same uncertainty. "I don't know. She just said he's a stalker and that I need to stay away from him."
Jimin furrowed his brows, shaking his head. "That doesn't make any sense."
He was right. Why would Nari have made a bet with her own stalker? Why wouldn't she have warned me before I got together with him if she knew of his obsessive tendencies? No normal person would have continued texting their stalker, either.
I still had to consider her claim. I needed to hear an explanation from her so that I could choose for myself what to believe.
"I'm calling her," I announced, pressing the video call button. Jimin carefully moved out of the frame, presumably so that Nari would think I was alone.
Within a few short seconds, she answered. She looked just as I remembered, with straight honey-blonde hair and chocolate almond eyes. Her nose was soft like the rest of her features, save for the angular jawline.
"Jangmi, look... I know you have no reason to trust me. I know what I did was awful, but just hear me out," she said, pausing for me to respond.
"So far it's not adding up for me. Why would you have been talking to him and making a bet with him if he was stalking you?" I questioned.
Nari sighed, "I never told you when he stalked me. He didn't start until after you two broke up. I saw him following me several times around town and he kept showing up to my apartment. Even when I didn't answer the door, he would refuse to leave until hours later."
"Did you do anything about it? Did you file for a restraining order?" I inquired, observing how she instantly shook her head.
"I told him that I was going to report him, but he apologized and promised he would stop. I didn't believe him at first, but he actually ended up keeping his word."
I simmered in silence. While I remained quiet, unable to sort my thoughts, Nari continued.
"Maybe it doesn't sound that bad, but he was obsessive even when we were still together. He never liked me going anywhere without him. He hated it if I even looked at another guy. He was always texting me even when I told him I would be busy for a few hours. And when we broke up, he was in denial about it for weeks. He kept contacting me and eventually, I made the bet with him as a way to get him to leave me alone. I thought if I could get him focused on someone else, he'd finally get over-"
"Did you not think about the fact that a third person would be involved? Did you not realize that your little game would actually impact someone else?" I was at a boil by then, and my words went spilling over uncontrollably, "You had to have known after so much time passed that your stupid bet would hurt me. Yet you did nothing. You never came to tell me that our relationship was a lie. You never did anything but wait for him to break my heart," I spat, "You're a selfish bitch for sitting back and letting that happen to me!"
