They ran for about five minutes, and Haein was the one who kept pushing forward the entire time. Suho suggested more than once that they should just stop and call the police, but she ignored him completely and only waved her hand for him to keep following.
She kept looking over her shoulder every few seconds while running barefoot across the pavement, clearly worried that whoever was chasing her might still be behind them. Seeing the determined look on her face, Suho eventually stopped arguing and simply followed along, matching her pace without much effort as they turned through several streets and moved farther away from the busy commercial area.
Soon, they reached a quieter part of the neighborhood. Suho slowed down and looked around, immediately spotting his apartment building rising above the surrounding buildings in the distance. It was tall enough that he could still recognize it even from here.
"Haah! That was fun."
Haein finally stopped beside him, bent forward, and placed both hands on her knees as she took several deep breaths, her shoulders rising and falling quickly after the run. Suho stopped as well and looked at her, but his own breathing remained almost completely normal, as if the five-minute run had barely affected him.
GROWLGROWL
When Haein finally stood straight again, Suho saw her smiling as if everything that had just happened was some kind of joke. He was about to question her, but before he could say anything, both of their stomachs growled loudly at almost the exact same time.
Haein immediately grabbed his hand, and before Suho could even ask where she was taking him now, she pulled him toward a nearby restaurant. Suho barely had enough time to notice the large ’Domino’s Pizza’ sign above the entrance before being dragged inside with her. Haein gestured for him to sit at one of the empty tables, then quickly pulled out the chair beside him and sat down.
"Mind telling me what is happening and who is after you?"
"Shush! Just look through that window."
Haein leaned closer to him and pointed toward the window opposite Suho. From there, he could clearly see the street they had just come from, and not long after, two black, very expensive-looking cars slowly passed by.
"Who are they?!"
Suho asked with concern. She belonged to a super-rich family, so of course he could understand that she might have some kind of secret enemy that even the police couldn’t easily deal with.
"My bodyguards..."
"What?!"
[Updated]
[Main Mission: Rent This Apartment for a Minimum of 2 Months]
[Side Mission: Greet Your New Flatmate Elizabeth Martin With a Smile]
[Side Mission: Buy a Fully Upgraded Desktop With Dual RTX 5090 Graphics Cards and a Complete Setup From Compuzone]
[New Side Mission: Don’t Be Angry With Your First Female Friend, Lee Haein, and Treat Her to a Pizza]
God damn it, System!!!
Suho gritted his teeth and looked at Haein, only to see her laughing herself silly. She covered her mouth with one hand at first, but that barely lasted a second before she bent forward over the table, her shoulders shaking as she laughed. Then she leaned back against the chair and wiped the corner of one eye, clearly feeling like she had just pulled off a great prank on Suho.
"No, seriously though, they weren’t letting me see you, so I ran away. I really bought these clothes with the ₩1,430,000 ($1,000) I had on me. I left wallet in the car."
Suho calmed down a little after hearing that and looked outside. The sun was finally showing itself through the clouds, and here he was sitting inside a pizza restaurant. The last time he bought pizza was also the first time in his life he had ever bought one, because Mina wanted to try it. But even then, he hadn’t managed to eat a single slice himself.
"Why do you need to meet me anyway?"
Suho asked without looking her way. He was already fairly certain what her answer would be, and honestly, he didn’t really want to hear it. From the way she had been acting around him, he was starting to get a clear picture of what might have happened while he was drunk. The two of them had probably become quite good friends.
"What do you mean, why? Oppa! I love you!"
"Whaaat?!"
"I’m joking! We’re friends, and I just came from getting admitted into the same university and possibly even the same class as you, so they can’t decide where I go."
Suho could never stop getting shocked by this girl. She had almost made his face turn red, and for a second, he genuinely didn’t know how to respond. But surely she had only been joking. She was so pretty and came from such a rich family that Suho had never even imagined someone like her being interested in him that way.
"I guess... do you want to eat pizza from here?"
Suho asked with a resigned smile, as if he had finally accepted that there was nothing he could really do about this girl. He had already let go of her prank and didn’t have even an ounce of anger left toward her.
Thinking about it, things were probably difficult for Haein too. She was constantly watched, restricted in where she could go, and surrounded by people telling her what she could and couldn’t do, while Suho could pretty much go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted.
"Yesss!!! I’ve never eaten pizza from a place like this before. At home, it was either homemade by our chef or ordered from some expensive restaurant my family trusted."
Haein instantly became excited and grabbed his hand tightly. Suho awkwardly pulled his hand away from hers, only for Haein to grab it again almost immediately. She then looked at him with an expression that clearly seemed to ask, What are you doing? while Suho stared back at her, completely bewildered and unsure what he was supposed to do.