“Baekhyun, welcome to the family.” Chanyeol stood up and smiled.

Chanyeol was tall too; maybe he was few inches shorter than Kris. His smile was boyishly charming, which Baekhyun found endearingly pleasant. His gray hair was perfectly styled, revealing his forehead. Wearing a black hoodie and a pair of dark blue wash skinny jeans, he looked dashingly handsome.

“Oh, right. Thank you.” For a moment they both hovered awkwardly, uncomfortable silence sitting between them.

“Well… bye, then.” Baekhyun began to walk first, not wanting to be there any longer.

“Do you want a lift?” Baekhyun stopped in her tracks. Did she hear right? Baekhyun turned around.

“No, thanks.” The smile that she gave was quite curt. She mentally cursed herself for that. Way to go, Baekhyun.

“Bàbà,” Chanyeol began. It was just only Chanyeol and Mr. Wu having breakfast together in the dining room.

“Hmm?” Mr. Wu hummed while flipping through the newspaper.

“Who’s this Baekhyun?” Glancing up from his newspaper, Mr. Wu fixed Chanyeol with a stare. “Kris’ fiancée.” He replied before continuing with his reading.

“Why did she sneak out this morning?” Mr. Wu looked at Chanyeol, a frown clouding his eyes.

“She has an early morning job.” The answer his father gave was not satisfying enough.

“If hyung were to get married, wouldn’t he announce it to us first?” Chanyeol probed further. He didn’t think his brother would be this secretive especially when it came to marrying someone. Despite living on his own and rarely came home to visit in which Chanyeol could count the number of times he sat for dinner together with their family on the fingers of one hand, Kris shared everything with him. Didn’t Kris mention before about seeing a girl whose name he could not remember properly? Strange.

“Don’t worry about your brother, Chanyeol. How’s the contract? Did you inform the board about the meeting?”

“Yes.” Mr. Wu nodded. “How about Mr. Lee? Have you personally informed him that he needs to attend the meeting?”

“Not yet.” Chanyeol shook his head.

“Chanyeol, you are in the business now. The meeting is four days away.” Chanyeol was staring at his plate. His bottom lip stuck out petulantly.

It took Baekhyun half an hour to get from her house to Kris’ apartment.

Baekhyun went through Kris’ belongings that the hospital handed to her. Since they thought she was his fiancée, they passed her his belongings. She hesitated at first and then curiosity got the better of her despite she was fully aware that she did not have the right to go through his personal things.

Wallet, keys, laptop, notebook and cat food? Kris has a cat, huh?

Baekhyun gulped as she stared up at the towering, modern skyscraper. She gripped the keys tightly. Stealthily she passed the lobby without a hitch. She was lucky as the guards seemed too busy handling a group of fussy visitors.

Baekhyun whistled the moment she stepped inside Kris’ apartment. The interior was a simple combination of black and white but it completely screamed luxury.

“Hmm. Very clean.” Baekhyun hung her coat on the rack and started to wander around the house with interest.

“Kitty… Kitty? Rich Kitty? Come here. It’s mealtime.” Baekhyun tried to call. She was busy looking for the cat in the kitchen that she was oblivious to the sound of someone unlocking the front door. She moved towards the chase door that connected the kitchen to the living room and pushed the door fairly hard, not noticing that Chanyeol was behind the door too, ready to push open the door as well.

“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”

“Oh, God! I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Ugh, nice shot” Chanyeol was rubbing his throbbing nose.

“Oh, no. Your nose… it looks red, must be very painful. I’ll get you some ice. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t expecting anybody.”

Baekhyun tiptoed, leaned forward, her face inched away from his face. She touched his nose before she realized in utter mortification that she was invading his personal space. She quickly removed her hand, afraid that she had crossed the line. She even was too close to her liking.

She opened the fridge and grabbed a handful of ice cubes. She hastily dumped the cubes in Chanyeol’s hand.

“Hey, how did you get in here?” Chanyeol looked from the ice cubes in his hands to Baekhyun’s flustered face. Faint pink tinted her cheeks. He could not help but notice how cute she was.

He put the ice cubes in the sink; the cubes would not make the pain fade away anyway, he decided.

“Ugh, key?” Baekhyun said innocently.

“Key? You stay here a lot?” Chanyeol raised an eyebrow. He ran his hand through his gray hair and sat on the stool. The action had made her focus on his hair. Baekhyun could not stop from looking at it as she peeked up from her lashes.

“Baekhyun, you stay here a lot?” Chanyeol repeated.

“Huh?” Baekhyun mentally cursed herself. Stop staring, Baekhyun.

“Oh, yeah. You know, feed the cat.” Baekhyun shrugged nonchalantly and looked at his hair again. Crap.

“Kris doesn’t have a cat.” He gazed at her intently. There was a gleam in his eyes.

“I, uh…” Baekhyun stuttered, a little hot under his gaze.

Just then a white Persian cat came out, walking towards the kitchen lazily. There was a deafening silence. Chanyeol looked astounded.  

“Hello, baby.”  Baekhyun cooed. She picked up the cat and read the tag hanging around the neck. Fluffy. “Hello, Fluffy. You must be so hungry.” Baekhyun breathed a great sigh of relief. Phew, that was close.

Baekhyun was patting the cat absentmindedly while Chanyeol was toying with his glass of water when Kris’ landline telephone rang suddenly, shrilling through the silence and making both of them jumped.

Chanyeol smiled mischievously. Baekhyun swallowed, face kind of froze.

“Are you gonna get that, Baekhyun?”

Oh, god. Not again.