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A few minutes after Jung Sook arrived at home, a knock sounded on her front door.  Curiously, she approached it.  She hadn’t arranged any tutoring sessions with her ladies tonight.  She’d just planned to enjoy a good book before heading to bed.  Perhaps one of her students was having difficulty with her studies and needed some help.  She sighed as she leaned towards the door to open it.  She really didn’t want to assist anyone tonight.  She was still feeling unaccountably down after her confrontation with Soo Ho early this morning.

The boy ruffled her feathers more than was comfortable.  She admitted it to herself.  Grudgingly.

She really should put some distance between them.  Before he became a problem.

The last thing she needed was for a man to intrude on her evenings.

Or to threaten her serenity.

She swung the door open.  And jumped as her eyes collided with his.  He had followed her home!

A sense of alarm was going off on the inside of her now.  Soo Ho knew where she lived.  She felt her heart picking up speed.  Was he going to push past her and invade her private sanctum?  Or maybe shove her inside and force his lips upon her? 

Like he had in that disturbing dream?

––

Soo Ho stared down at the girl.  Panic was flooding her eyes as alarm overtook her countenance.  He furrowed his brow and spoke.

“What’s wrong?”

She ignored his question.  Choosing instead to ask one of her own.  “Why are you here?”  She tore her eyes from his and glanced behind him.  “Did you follow me home?”

“I’m sorry,” he rushed ahead.  “I upset you.  I didn’t mean to upset you.  I came to apologize.”

His serious tone drew her gaze to his once more.  And she was flooded by his remorse.  She drew her dark eyebrows towards her nose as she gazed up at him.  He seemed truly repentant.

“What are you sorry for?”

“For upsetting you.”

“But not for mistreating those girls?” she asked in her best schoolmarm voice.

Reminding him of the many times his own mother had berated him for his foolishness.

He gulped.  “Of course, I’m sorry I mistreated those girls.  I just…”  His gaze slid away from hers to study the ground at her feet.

“You just…what?” she queried sharply.

He heaved a deep sigh.  “I didn’t realize that I’d hurt them.”

She stared at him in disbelief.  “How could you not?  I saw at least two women slap you across the cheek!  Did you think they liked your behavior towards them?”

He shrugged.  “I just thought I irritated them.  Like I irritate my sister sometimes.  It never occurred to me that I’d made any of them weep.  But after watching what my sister went through when her beau ignored her for a while…now I can understand their upset, I guess.”

She stood, her eyes scrutinizing his countenance.  Looking for clues to his sincerity.  She frowned.

“Do you really mean your words?” she finally asked softly.  On a sigh.

His gaze riveted to hers.  “Yes!  Of course, I do.”

Her eyes delved the depths of his for a while.  “You’re such a silly boy,” she murmured abruptly.

Making him square his shoulders and draw himself up to his full six feet.  Outraged, he glared at her as he ejaculated, “I am not a boy!  I am a man.”  Then he pointed out logically, “I’m the same age as you!  How can you call me a boy?  I’m a fierce hwarang!”  He thumped himself on the chest.

“So you’ve said,” she muttered after an amused puff of air flew out of her mouth.

“I am!” he insisted.

She considered him for a moment.  “Do like words ever pass your father’s lips?”

Perplexed, he stared down at her.  “What?”  A little wrinkle invaded his smooth brow.

“Does your father ever brag about being an adult?”

“Of course not!”

“Why not?”

She was distracting him from this confusing conversation with the lights that she’d hidden in the depths of her deep obsidian eyes.  Every time she blinked, those lights seemed to shift minutely, drawing his gaze in a slightly different direction.  He didn’t want to lose sight of those lovely, little lamps.  They fascinated him. 

Rather like her infrequent smile.  He felt greatly rewarded every time he could tease it into appearing.  It completely transformed her face each time that it showed itself.  Her rather plain countenance grasped both character and joy when her lips curved upward.  He wished that he could convince that arc to dwell there permanently.

“Well?” she prompted him after several quiet moments passed between them.

Confused, he responded, “Well…what?”

Exasperated, she rolled her eyes at him.  “Why doesn’t your father brag about being an adult?”

“Oh.  I…I don’t know,” he replied lamely.

“Because he doesn’t feel the need to!  Because he is an adult and has been for a long time.  He proves it all the time with his actions.  He has no need to use his words to convince people of what his actions already reveal.”

A deep ravine now carved itself through his once smooth forehead.  “Are you saying that I have to say I’m an adult because my actions are childish?”  He could feel his ire growing.

“You tell me.  Does a grown man have to play with the affections of a gaggle of girls?  Or would he bend his attention on just one girl who really means something to him?”

He thought of the affectionate relationship that existed between his parents.  And smiled. 

She wondered at that sweet curve lighting up his face in a completely different light than his usual grin.

He nodded his head.  “I see what you mean.”  He cleared his throat.  And squared his shoulders again.  Then he bowed respectfully to her.  “I won’t take up any more of your time tonight, fair lady.  Have a wonderful evening.”

Then he turned and strode away.  Leaving her to stare after him in some wonderment.