Chapter 9

At first, I thought he would ask me to eat at the restaurant he mentioned while we were still in his car before I directed him to my favorite fast-food restaurant.

However, it turned out that I was wrong all the time.

I meant, who would have thought that he would take me to one of the places I hate the most in the world and ask me to do things I hate more than anything?

If only I had known he would take me to this cursed place, I definitely would not have thought twice about refusing his invitation and asking him to immediately direct his car to another place.

It didn't matter where it was as long as it wasn't here!

"Come on, Hannah! Don't be half-assed!" he yelled as he ran facing me, who was trying to match his inhumane footsteps from behind him. "Put all your strength!"

"As if I did it half heartedly! Can't you see that I already gave all the best I could do to match yours!?"

"Huh, for real? All I can see is you walking as slow as a snail, so you better hurry up and keep your pace if you still want to have another date with me at the restaurant I booked for us."

"Ugh.... If I knew it would be like this, I'd better refuse your invitation to come here and go home."

For those of you who were curious about where Richard and I were, we were currently in a city park near my favorite fast-food restaurant.

And unfortunately, with all my wisdom, I agreed to Richard's invitation to go somewhere as a condition that I had to fulfill before going to the restaurant he had ordered for our dinner date tonight.

Without knowing that he was planning to kill me by asking me to run around a city park full of people for one full hour.

It's crazy, right?

I'm sure anyone who heard my story would also be thinking the same thing as me now.

Why did he take me to a place where I obviously wouldn't fit my current office uniform and Mary Jane shoes to run around a bustling city park like this?

At least give me time to change into clothes suitable for running instead of running in my work uniform.

Which successfully attracted the attention of many people in this place.

Besides, I was bothered by Richard completely ignoring the looks of people giving us strange looks for obvious reasons.

It was so strange to the point that I started to wonder about the reason behind his decision, which made absolutely no sense.

Or maybe he had lost his mind to even ask me to do things that I would never have done before I met him?

Ah, I suddenly regretted letting fate drag me into meeting such a strange person.

If only I could change my love destiny and meet someone who fits my preferences...

I definitely wouldn't think twice about turning down the opportunity as long as it meant I wasn't dealing with a shitty person like Richard.

The only human who insisted on coming back dragged me and I could no longer run to catch up with his very, very inhumane footsteps.

"Argh, I can't do it anymore!"

I stopped following him from behind and cast my sharp gaze on Richard, who also stopped running in front of me.

The man, who was also my boyfriend, then turned towards me and looked at me with a confused look on his face, which was starting to annoy me.

Well, I have to admit that his flustered face looked adorable, but when he was going too far like this, I couldn't just stay quiet...

"What's wrong, Hannah?"

"What's wrong, you asked? After you dragged me to this place and forced me to run around the city park with me still wearing my office uniform and shoes like this? You must be crazy now!"

"Me? Out of my mind?"

"Yes. Who do you think I'm talking to if not you, huh?"

"Well, I thought you needed something to reduce all the calories from the food we had earlier, so..."

"What? How could you do such a heinous thing to me and all of us!? You really such a pain in the ass!"

With a loud sound, I shook off his hand that was trying to reach for my arm without taking my eyes off of him before turning my face away from him and folding my arms across my chest.

"Hannah, we're only running here for a bit. Not for some Olympics preparation or anything!"

"Run for a bit, you say?"

I shouted in the highest possible tone so that several people who were running past us, deliberately slowed down their footsteps so they could follow the direction of our conversation.

Which I deliberately ignored because, in short, it was not as important as the problem I was in right now.

"Hannah, please keep your voice down a bit. We're in a public place now…"

"Do I look like I give a damn to whoever is around us right now, Richard?!"

"Maybe... Yes?"

"Of course not, you moron! I don't give a fuck about them! And again, we've been jogging for over an hour in this place, dumbass!"

"Eh?"

"Not 'eh', idiot!"

"Is that how you talk to the person who just became your boyfriend? You are truly a sadistic woman!

"I, sadist, you say? I should be the one telling you that, not the other way around!"

"Oh, come on! We just need to do one more round and it will be over. I promise."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked doubtfully, which he answered with a nod of his head. "All right. Then, let's do it one more round and we will rest."

"Aye, aye, madam!"

He laughed merrily, grabbed my hand, and asked me to run behind him before he let go of my hand.

While I just rolled my eyes while following his running speed which was slower than before.

I had no idea if he deliberately slowed down his pace this time so I could follow him from behind or because of something else.

However, the clear thing was I was dying to stop doing it right now.

After some time, finally, I, who could no longer keep up with the speed of his footsteps, the tempo of which was still too fast for me, decided to give up right then and there.

"Huff… Pufff…. I can't do this anymore! I give up!"

I stopped my footsteps while adjusting my breath, which was out of breath, and let Richard, who was now several meters ahead of me, walked towards one of the empty benches that were there.

I then sat down on the bench, which was full of dust and fallen dry leaves, ignoring the dirtiness of the bench as long as I could rest my body, which was already struggling to tell me not to do it again.

At that time Richard stopped his steps and sat next to me, who was resting my legs, which were no longer able to follow him from behind.

"Didn't we agree to do it one more time? Why did you suddenly give up so easily?"

"It's true that I agreed to do it one more time, but I can't do it anymore. Too tiring."

He frowned when he heard my answer before throwing a question that almost made me want to take off one of my shoes and hit him right then and there.

"Have you rarely exercised during this time?"

"Huh?" I said, turning to him in disbelief. "How dare you say such despicable things!? Of course I do it often."

"Oh really? If so, tell me what kinds of sports you've been involved in so far."

"If skipping ten minutes a day and cleaning the house are included in the exercise category, then my answer is yes. And I do it almost every day."

I looked at him as seriously as I could, hoping that he would realize that I meant it.

But unfortunately, my message didn't get through to him, because next, he blinked his eyes a few times before he burst out laughing.

"Why are you even laughing? I'm serious."

"My bad, my bad…" he said between laughs. "Well, your expression looked really serious when you said that, so I couldn't help but laugh at what you said earlier."

"Ugh… If I knew you were going to laugh at me like this, I'd better not tell you at all! Huh!"

I folded my arms over my chest and turned my face away from him, holding back my irritation at the man who became my boyfriend today.

"Oh… are you sulking now, Hannah?"

"No, I'm not sulking. I'm cool."

"Really? Then, why did you turn your face away from me like that? I can't see your cute face…"

"If you think I will forgive you just because of your sweet words, then I can say with complete confidence that it doesn't work! Dumbass!"

"Ouch… You hurt my feelings, my princess… Is it necessary for you to hurt my feelings like this?"