Getting out of the car, Lina smiled at the generous stranger who had given her a lift to Benji's apartment.

"Thank you, Jackson." She expressed her gratitude by bowing her head at him.

"Hey, Lina. There's no need for that." The man named Jackson waved his hand to make her stop.

"How can I not show my gratitude? I'm so glad that I met you there and also glad that you did not turn out to be a psycho killer!" She sighed but then realized what she had just blurted out.

Jackson shook his head, looking at her tongue pushed into her cheek, and raised his hand to pat her head as one would do to a child.

"Well, you did warn me that you know self-defense and would kick my ass if I tried to murder you." He smirked while repeating the words that she had spoken before she entered his car.

"I really do!" She whined while posing in a karate stance which made him laugh louder.

Lina pouted when she noticed that she was not being taken seriously by this man.

"Okay, okay, enough with the pouty lips and the puppy eyes. Don't you have to get to your friend's place urgently?" He reminded her and chuckled again when he saw the look of surprise emerge on her face.

"I wonder how you function every day with that attention span which could compete with a baby bird." He playfully mocked her, earning a fierce glare from her.

Jackson quickly raised his hands and then pointed at the large building to show that she had more important things to do than argue with him.

Lina scoffed when she saw his actions and nodded that he was right

'Benji is more important right now. What's more important than Benji is killing him!' She smirked after remembering how he had summoned her here so late and had made her go through all this trouble.

'If it wasn't for Jackson then…' She shook her head, refusing to let any negative thoughts enter her mind.

Jackson raised his brows and watched the changes that occurred on her face with amusement.

'She's a weird one.' He labeled her in his mind and cleared his throat to get her attention.

Lina was awakened from the daydream that she was slipping into and knocked on her forehead to remind herself why she had come here.

"Thank you once again, I hope to return this favor if we ever meet again in the future." She offered and then waved him goodbye before walking into the building.

Jackson stayed in the same place until she had disappeared from his sight and only then did he pick up the pack of cigarettes which he had been aching to open.

Flipping the lighter, he lit his cigarette and began smoking as he sat in the silence of his car.

"She is different from the other ones that…" He muttered but could not finish on account of someone's arrival.

"Young Master, have you come here to visit Master?" A security guard from the building asked while gasping for his breath.

The guard had just looked up from his desk when he had noticed a car stopped outside the building following which he had come outside to investigate who the driver might be.

The moment he realized who it was, he ran towards the car which was also the reason for his shortness of breath.

Jackson's eyes which had playful mirth while he was reminiscing his short ride with Lina faded away and bone-chilling coldness merged in them.

"Heh! This young master has better things to do with his life." He snarled at the innocent guard and then snubbed the cigarette into the ashtray inside his car.

His eyes softened when his eyes caught sight of the ashtray that his girlfriend had made for him in her pottery class.

'Babe is so thoughtful! Not to forget cute!' He smiled and his anger due to the guard's words were swept away in the tsunami of love he had for his beloved girlfriend.

The guard was fascinated looking at the soft appearance of this man who always had an undying scowl on his face whenever he was here.

Jackson did not bother about the security guard and without wasting any time he started the car to leave this annoying place.

'Lina Yang, we shall be meeting soon and often too!' He smiled as his eyes darted to the rearview mirror to glimpse at the tall building before it disappeared from his sight.

The guard shook his head after the car sped away from the building premises and then returned to his work post.

___

*Ding Dong* x 5

Lina pressed the doorbell with the same amount of frustration that was inside her heart.

'Stupid Car… Stupid phone… Stupid Benji… Stupid door…' She added another item to her list of stupid things.

Tapping her feet on the floor impatiently, she waited for the man on the inside to open the damn door.

'First, he calls me here but now he doesn't let me inside?' She scowled and pressed the doorbell button one more time.

"Coming, dammit!" She heard Benji's scream coming from inside the apartment and this made her ring the bell a few more times.

"What the hell, Nana!?" Was the first thing she heard the moment the door was opened from the inside.

Lina's mouth which had opened to give her useless assistant a piece of her annoyed mind was left open when she observed the state he was in.

"You couldn't wait for a freaking moment!?" Benji scoffed when rubbing his red eyes.

"My my, Benjamin Douglas! My my!" She smirked while looking at him from top to bottom.

Benji was waiting for her to start drooling at him but he was surprised when she pushed him aside and entered the apartment.

"What? No comments?" He quipped and heard her harrumph in response.

"I would have been all over your amazing body if this was before but now… Now I'm a taken woman who only has eyes for her boyfriend." She proclaimed with her chin held high and nose even higher.

Benji snickered hearing her high and mighty words but decided not to argue with her right now for there were more pressing matters to attend to.

"I'll put on some clothes and be back. You hang around until then." He waved his hand at her and then strode away in the direction of his bedroom.

Lina's eyes which were averted from his body quickly turned to look at the door that he had entered.

"Sheesh… That was harder than I had expected!" She clutched her hoodie and sighed.

When Benji had just opened the door, he had run out of the shower with just a towel wrapped around his waist due to the incessant ringing of the doorbell.

If this was earlier, then Lina would have certainly begun clicking pictures of his bare and wet muscular body.

However, now, just as she had declared earlier, she was someone else's woman, and feasting on the bare body of a man who wasn't her boyfriend was considered a sin in her books.

Benji was surprised to see her changed ways and decided to quickly get dressed in order to not tempt the young girl who was trying hard to be true to her boyfriend.

While Lina was checking whether her phone had a signal or if it was still a useless piece of fiber, the doors of his bedroom were pushed open.

"What the hell is that!?" Lina questioned with her finger pointed at his clothes as she tried her best to not laugh at him.

Coming out of the bedroom was Benji dressed in white pajamas with brown and pink teddy bears printed all over it.

A mountain-sized man dressed in a cute pajama like that one was certainly something she had seen for the very first time.

Benji knew that this would be the response he would get if he ever appeared in this manner before others but he did not mind it when the person laughing at him was his boss and close friend, Lina.

"That idiot, Kirk bought this for me when he first visited this place." He muttered and shook his head at his big brother's weird ways of showing affection.

'Let's just keep it a secret that he too has a matching pair of the same pajamas' He arrived at this conclusion after seeing the evil smirk in Lina's eyes.

He swiftly walked towards the kitchen after signaling Lina to follow him.

"Benji!" She called out to him which made him turn around in an instant.

*Click click*

The sounds of the camera's shutter filled the room as Lina went into a fashion photographer mode with Benji being her prized muse for the day.

The big guy rolled his eyes witnessing her goofiness and then entered the kitchen.

Lina stopped her photography session as her model had disappeared and followed him inside.

Taking her seat across the kitchen island, she watched him stir the pot that was on the stove.

"Mind tell me what was so urgent that you had me come all the way here at this late hour?" She interrogated while peeling a grape and popping it into her mouth.

'Ugh… I'm hungry!' She gazed at the tray of grapes and began eating them while she waited for Benji to speak up.

Benji neatly packed a thermos and a bento after which he turned around, facing her for the first time since he had entered the kitchen.

"Here." He handed the thermos to Lina and watched as she alternated her gaze between the steel flask in her hand and at his face.

"Give this to your boyfriend… He is sick." Benji revealed and in the next second, the thermos fell to the ground with a loud clang.