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She’d been crying over lemon tart?

He said the first thing that came to mind.  “Well, you know what they say…when life gives you lemons, make lemon tart.”

Her lips quirked for a moment, but her eyes were still hiding from him.  He didn’t like that.  He wanted to see those twin beauties.

“Nari, I don’t understand what happened…on our date.”

She swallowed, but she continued to evade his gaze.  She closed her eyes.  Thinking that would be the best way to hide from him.  But she was wrong.

He gazed down at her as his heart did a hundred somersaults.  He was still lightly grasping her upper arms.  But that no longer satisfied him.  So he slid them around her waist and drew her near him.  Still, she didn’t lift her gaze to meet his.  So he lowered his head.  Until the tip of his nose touched hers.

Startled, she glanced up at him.  Then he slid the bridge of his nose along hers.  

She couldn’t breathe.  Yoongi’s own hot breath was slipping across her lips.  And his warm nose was canoodling with hers.

Canoodling?  Where on earth had she come up with a word like that?

But it was.  And she was captivated by the soft brush of his skin against hers.  She felt an odd longing erupt from the pit of her stomach.

“Please,” she begged him, “don’t toy with me.  I can’t take it.  I really can’t.”  

Another sob tore loose of her lips.  She had just had a flash of that other girl in his arms in the elevator.

He released her instantly.  As though her words had burned him.

“I don’t understand.  What are you doing here?  In my parents’ house?”

“Don’t you get it, Yoongi?” She gazed up at him in surprise.

“Get what?” He furrowed his brow.  

Was everything so fuzzy because he’d had so much to drink?

“Your parents and mine – they want to marry us off to each other.”

—

He stared in consternation at her.  Why would his parents want to marry him off to a poor girl?  To a waitress from a hole-in-the-wall diner?  It didn’t make any sense.

He shook his head.  “No.  You don’t understand my parents.”

“No, Yoongi.  You’re the one who doesn’t understand.”

His eyes probed hers as he sought to comprehend her words.

“Our appas are going into business together.  They want our engagement party to be the launch party for their new business.”

Stunned, he stared down at the girl with the sparkling, obsidian eyes.

—

For several moments, they simply shared the same air.  She could feel the sweet wind of his lungs invading her mouth.  And he could feel her breath whispering over his skin.  Making him desire things that…his parents wanted him to have?

This was certainly a change.

Could it really be this easy?

But, no.

“But you don’t even like me,” he murmured as his eyes delved deeply into hers.

She swallowed.  “That’s not true.  I…” Her voice trailed off.

“You…what?”

She frowned.  “Why did you ask me out?  For real?  I need the truth.”

“Because you’re stunningly beautiful.”  

His words slipped over her and penetrated her heart all the way to its core.  Against her will.

Then her face crumpled.  She turned away from him and fled out the front door.  It slammed shut behind her retreating back.

Those were the exact words that other boy had used.  Right before he’d stolen her heart.  So he could earn her appa’s favor.  

It was happening all over again.  Yoongi’s parents were using her to get what they wanted.  And so was Yoongi.

What had they promised him?  A life of comfort?  He must want to spend her inheritance.  He must have known who she was when he’d found her in that diner.  That’s why he’d bought her the shoes.  He’d been trying to buy her favor.  Woo her so that the road would be easily paved by the time their parents introduced them to each other.

But the truth was that he really liked that girl she’d seen him with in the elevator.  After all, he’d been taking her back to his apartment.  Her eyes widened as she realized what they must have been doing together.  And more tears cascaded down her cheeks.

Ridiculous!  This is ridiculous!  I can’t be in love with a boy I met two weeks ago.

But how else to explain this inexplicable and heartrending pain?

She had put her scholarship on hold to take a year off school.  To find herself.  To make a way for herself.  She’d been shocked that her parents had allowed it.  But, truthfully, her appa had always had a soft spot for her.   

He had only insisted that he supplement her income so she could live in a good neighborhood.  So she’d be safe.  He covered half her rent.  Without that help, she never would have made it.  It chafed at her. 

Still, she’d gotten the freedom she desired.  And what she had discovered over that year was that she was lonely.  Terribly lonely.  Perhaps that was why her heart had gone out to the dejected boy the other night.  

She’d watched the girl hand her engagement ring back to him.  And Nari had imagined he was heartbroken.  Until he’d opened his mouth.  

Still.  It couldn’t feel good to be rejected by someone.  Even if you didn’t want to be with them.  When he’d explained that he had endured an arranged engagement, she had felt even more drawn to him.  For she expected to endure the same thing someday.  

Then he’d been so sweet, helping her mop and put up chairs.  

And then, the next day, the shoes.  And his ready defense of her.  But now she had to wonder if it had all been a ruse.  To soften her up for tonight.  

She ran down the street.  Awkwardly.  She was wearing heels.  That were killing her feet.  She hated heels.  She’d only worn them to please her eomma.  She much preferred Yoongi’s tennis shoes.

She stopped to take off those painful heels.

—

He found her wandering down the street barefoot.  He winced.  What if she stepped on a piece of glass?  Without another thought, he swooped in and picked her up in his arms.

Nari screamed.  Right in his ear.

“Why can’t you just wear the shoes I bought you!” he thundered, his irritation reaching the clouds.

Why couldn’t this girl just love herself enough to take proper care of her blessed feet?

Nari stilled as she realized who was carrying her down the street.  Interestingly, he wasn’t returning to his parents’ house.  

“Put me down.”

“No, you stubborn wench!  You’re not cutting your foot on my watch!”

She sighed.  “Look, I get it.  You didn’t want me to argue with you.  So you decided to make it look like you actually wanted me.  I understand.  You’re as tired as I am of being set up by your parents.  Who wants an arranged marriage?

“You discovered I was their next target.  So you thought you’d beat them to the chase.  Give us a proper chance to know each other first.  What would it hurt if I thought you were in love with me before we met officially?  Then I’d go along with the whole thing so much more easily, right?

“Your plan might have worked too.  But for one thing.”

Shocked, he murmured, “What?”

She grimaced.  “You didn’t plan on my catching you in the elevator with the girl you really like.  Why else would she have been on her way to your room?”  She swallowed.  “So…the game’s up.  You didn’t deceive me.  Nice try, though.  I gotta give you points for the effort you expended.  The shoes were a nice touch.  But the jerk in the diner was the pièce de résistance!  I take it he’s a friend of yours who did you a favor?”

He stared at her in stupefaction.  “You think I encouraged one of my friends to touch your butt so I could look like your hero?”

“That about sums it up,” she whispered.  Her eyes wouldn’t meet his now.

“Wow.”  He puffed.  “I have never been so insulted in my whole life.  I mean, you just painted me to be the blackest of devils.  Sleeping with one girl while I wooed another girl through deceit and sexual abuse.  Just so…what?  I could make my parents happy?” His eyes narrowed.  “Or… you think I’m after your appa’s wealth?  So I can spend it on the girl in my bed?”

She flinched as her eyes filled with tears.

“I can’t believe you.  Either your self-respect is non-existent.  Or you think all men are monsters.  But, pray tell me, what did I ever do to deserve your low opinion of me?” he whispered in her ear.  

His hot breath was passing over her face again.

She couldn’t look him in the eyes.  She wriggled in an effort to get out of his arms.  He was striding across a walking path.  Suddenly, he deposited her on a park bench.  She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.  She was not going to lose it in front of him.

“I won’t agree to it.”

“What?”

“Being married to a man who could put a ring on my finger while he takes another girl to his bed.  I do have some self-respect.  See?”

He gave a short nod.  “Glad to hear it.  I won’t sully your presence with mine anymore.  Since I am so repugnant to you.”  

With those parting words, he turned around abruptly and strode back down the block towards his car.  He was getting out of here.

—

“That girl is madly in love with you.”  His eomma’s opening words shocked him.

He breathed into the cell phone.  “What girl?”

“What girl?  The one you’re in love with!  Nari!”

He sighed.  “Nari can’t stand me, Eomma.  You’ve got this all wrong.”

It was her turn to sigh.  “Oh, Yoongi.  You understand nothing of women.”

“I can tell when someone hates me.  Woman or man.  It’s obvious.  She actually believes I set her up!  That I conspired to make her fall in love with me.  While I slept with another girl!”

She gasped.  “You slept with another girl?!”

He closed his eyes in frustration.  “No!  I took that girl out last week.  The one Appa set me up with.  She cut her arm on the door of the restaurant as we left.  It was a couple blocks from my apartment so I took her to my rooms to get my first aid kit.  I didn’t want her developing an infection.  The date was bad enough.  I didn’t want to leave her with a scar too.”  He sighed.  “Nari saw us in the elevator on our way to my floor.  She watched us get off on the same floor.  She assumed the worst.”

“Did you tell her the truth?”

“Why would I?  She already believed the worst of me.  I can’t be with someone so suspicious.”

“Maybe she had a reason to be.”

“Eomma!  Don’t you know me better than that!?  I would never so misuse a girl!”

“I didn’t mean you, son.  I meant maybe some other guy did her wrong.  And now she suspects all men.”  Her voice was sad.  “I’m so sorry.  You two were really cute together.  I mean it.  I don’t care who you marry, Yoongi.  As long as you’re happy.  I have no machinations up my sleeve.  It’s your appa who wants to arrange your life.”

It was strange to be this loved by a stepparent.  More loved by his stepmother than he ever had been by his own appa.  But for some reason, Yoongi had always been close to her.  Even though Eunji shunned her, he couldn’t treat the sweet woman poorly.  He didn’t have it in him.

“You need to tell Nari the truth.  If nothing comes of it, all right.  But then, at least you’ll have something between you.”

“What?” he asked, confused.

“The truth.”