It was already night when Chanyeol gave up on pretending to concentrate on his research for the project. Leaning back on his chair, he sighed. His mind just kept on flying back to Suzy. He wondered in which hotel she was staying with Lay and itched to call her. Suzy wouldn't like that though, he reckoned. So, he held himself back and placed his phone back down on the table. Resting his elbow on the armrest, he pursed his lips and rubbed his temple as he stared at the wedding picture he had placed on his table.

Even back then, Suzy looked cold. Beautiful. But cold. While he who stood beside her sported a small smile. At that moment, he was only smiling for formality's sake. She was only a stranger he had only met several times and knew would benefit his family's business.

Then suddenly, just in the span of a few months of their marriage, Suzy had become the center of his life. Chanyeol just wanted to give her everything she wanted. But what should he do when everything she wanted always involved having distance between them? It drove him crazy!

Chanyeol continuously found himself conflicted. Even with this little competition for the position in the company! That competitive businessman him wanted to better Suzy. Yet, the husband Chanyeol wanted to give in to her. Should he win over her to show her he was in control, or should he relented and let her take control? He felt like his brain was about to explode.

Then, there was this family feud between her and her father that he still couldn't figure out. He only knew she hated her father so much.

"You're doing okay there, boy?"

Speak of the devil. Chanyeol thought when he was snapped out of his thoughts and found his father-in-law already entering his small office. "Father." He rose to his feet and bowed to greet.

The older man took a seat across him and gestured for him to sit down again. "I hope this small room doesn't inconvenience you."

"I've told you it's fine, Father." Chanyeol smiled.

"This is just temporary. Once you win over my daughter and become the President, you'll have a bigger office." The man chuckled and Chanyeol felt uncomfortable.

He didn't like how the words made it sound like he was already winning over Suzy. 

"I know you have been purposely slacking off in doing this project while Suzy is already a few steps ahead of you," Mr.Bae spoke again. "You're trying to be the good husband by giving her the head start, aren't you? But I suggest you be professional in this matter. This is a company matter, not a marriage matter, Chanyeol." The man smiled. "I hope you don't mix business with family matters."

Chanyeol pursed his lips and nodded, but he couldn't fully agree with what the man said. "But, Father, haven't you been postponing Suzy's promotion because of personal reasons? I mean"—Chanyeol cleared his throat—"I appreciate your support for me to be your heir, but has Suzy not worked hard for this company all these years. Professionally speaking, she's competent enough to be the President."

His father-in-law had suddenly looked even more serious; it made Chanyeol nervous. But he mustered his courage and didn't break their eye contact. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't take back what he had said. Then slowly a corner of Mr. Bae's lips curled up and his gaze was lowered. There was a tinge of sadness in his lopsided smile, Chanyeol noticed.

"Yes. Maybe I do mix personal matters with business matters after all. But I have my own reasons." His eyes darted back to Chanyeol who subtly gulped. "Chanyeol, I think it's time I tell you something about my family."

Hyejung hesitated and stopped few feet away from the soju tent. From where she stood, she could see Chanyeol was already drinking. She bit down her lip and tightly gripped the strap of her bag. She had to repeatedly tell herself that she was just being a good friend here when the other part of her kept on reminding her of his status. 

She thought that this soft spot she had for Chanyeol would be the death of her.

Taking a deep breath, she headed inside the tent. Chanyeol looked up from his drink and waved at her to come over; a grin was plastered across his face.

Don't grin like that, idiot! She mentally cussed before sauntering to his table and took a seat adjacent to his. "You should stop calling me for a drink, Chanyeol!"

Chanyeol smiled and poured her a glass of soju. "You're the only safer drinking buddy I have." He handed her the glass. "Compared to Sehun and Baekhyun," he added with soft chuckles.

Considering their drinking habits and the mess those two usually created when drinking, Hyejung had to agree with Chanyeol.

"Besides"—Chanyeol took a shot of the drink—"we're not in a club this time. You don't have to worry about drunk me letting girls latch onto me. Also, it's far from the office. No one we know will see us." He take another shot, almost slamming the glass down afterwards. "And you know too that Suzy won't be back until tomorrow." A sad smile appeared on his face.

Hyejung sighed. Sometimes she just could not understand why her boss couldn't appreciate a guy like Chanyeol. He might sometimes be too dominant; nonetheless, he was kind and loving too. He would do anything to please the person he adored just so he could get a little attention from that person in return. Bae Suzy should be lucky to have a husband like Chanyeol; and yet, she wasted him. If it were her, she wouldn't have his love go to waste.

Realizing what she had been thinking, Hyejung downed her soju in one shot. These thoughts of Chanyeol were dangerous to her. 

"And I want to thank you for telling me where to find her last time," Chanyeol continued.

"It's nothing." She waved her hand dismissively. "I just happened to meet her when she was going to the restroom. You were lucky she told me she might go to the rooftop afterwards. She doesn't usually tell me this stuff you know, but she looked rather more frustrated than she usually is anyway. Were you perhaps her source of frustration?"

Chanyeol clicked his tongue. "Yeah. Maybe. But I was even luckier that Lay was with her." He suddenly paused before mumbling Lay's name again then downed his drink. 

"Marriage is such a headache!" He suddenly confessed. "But it's weird though. I just get addicted to her even more. It's like she's always inside my head. She's that ache I don't want to let go." A scoff escaped his lips before he turned to her and smiled. "What about you? Are you sure you haven't found anyone who makes you feel that way?"

Hyejung stared at his face and lightly bit her tongued. She was so tempted to tell him who's been inside her head for the longest time but held back. Pulling her gaze toward the road ahead, she answered, "No." 

"I'm sure someone must have approached you, right? I mean... You're cute. Why wouldn't there be a guy looking your way?" He teasingly grinned and she felt like smacking that grin away while trying to ignore her racing heartbeat.

Snatching the soju bottle from him, she poured some for herself. "Don't say stuff like that."

"Like what?" Chanyeol knitted his brows. "That a guy might like you?" He then raised a brow. "Or that you're cute?" He smirked and Hyejung glared at him. "Alright! Alright!! I'm just messing with you." He chuckled then propped his head on his palm looking at her again with a forlorn smile that prompted her to avoid his gaze. "I wish I can talk with Suzy like this. It's always fun with you."

Hyejung softly groaned. "Chanyeol—"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll stop." He finally looked away from her and ordered another bottle of Soju. "It's not like anyone will be bothered or jealous." A heavy sigh escaped his lips and he poured the new bottle of soju to his glass before he poured it for her. "Thanks for coming though. Really! Thanks." He clinked his glass with hers before downing it in one go and pouring another.

The night went on with seemingly bottomless drink. Hyejung just silently listened to Chanyeol's vent of despair while continuously trying to stop him from drinking or ordering more soju (which she miserably failed to do every time). Seeing this hopelessly-in-love Chanyeol was like looking at a mirror of her past self whose remnants—she realized—were still present inside her. She remembered loving him this much though they were in such a short-term relationship. And maybe she still loved him. There was still a part of her that wished he wasn't married; but she understood that even so, he wouldn't look her way.

She was no Bae Suzy. She was far from being one. He would not look at her the way he looked at Suzy.

Hyejung couldn't count how many glasses of soju he had drink when she saw that he was already knocked out with head resting on the table. Being only a little tipsy, she tried to wake him up while shaking his shoulder several times. It took quite a while before Chanyeol sluggishly raised his head from the table and turned to look at her with hooded eyes he could barely keep opened.

"Oh!" He pointed at her then gave a drunk grin. "You're here! I've been waiting for you! Let's drink!"

Hyejung snatched the half empty bottle of soju Chanyeol was about to grab and huffed. "Chanyeol, we've been drinking for hours! You're really drunk, aren't you? I'll call your driver." She took out her phone, but Chanyeol snatched it and placed it down beside him away from her.

"Chany—"

"Don't call the driver," he sternly told her; his deep voice sending tingles in her stomach. "Let's stay here longer, hm? Just you and me." 

Hyejung was suddenly aware of how close Chanyeol was leaning to her and got a grip of herself. "No. You're drunk. I'll call your—" 

"You're pretty," he sang as he gazed at her with a grin. Her heart skipped a beat without her permission, and she hated that. She was going to reach for her phone again when Chanyeol cupped the side of her face to gain her attention and continued, "Really pretty."

Hyejung was frozen when he immediately kissed her. Her heartbeat skyrocketed and she felt like her soul just jumped out of her body. Thankfully, she was still sober enough to push him away. "Chanyeol! Get yourself together! It's me—"

With one big hand, he strongly grabbed and held down her wrists yanking her forward for another kiss. His other hand held her face. Hyejung felt her mind spinning into a craze while she tried to free her wrists. Yet his grip was too strong; it surprised her because he was supposed to be really drunk.

He pulled away only to smile and gaze at her widened eyes with his half-lidded ones. "I love you! I love you, Su!" He kissed her again; and in that moment, Hyejung realized it wasn't her that he was seeing. 

The realization came like a lightning bolt and it stung. Her heart was stung. It just suddenly hurt so much that she felt her energy instantly out of her, so she stopped struggling to free her wrists. There was no point in trying to beat his strength. Feeling his lips against hers, she wanted to cry. Her eyes dropped to a close as Chanyeol kissed her more passionately, and she wished this would quickly pass.

"Are you an idiot?" Suzy berated Yixing as they entered the convenience store. He held the door open for her while she smacked his arm and showed him the expiry date on the milk's bottle. "Look! I was right. You were scammed." She passed him the expired milk and Yixing rubbed his nape with his other hand. "Why would you even buy a milk from that old lady when we're going to a convenience store?"

Yixing followed her as she walked to the cold beverages section. "Well, I don't have to drink the milk. It's not that bad helping her out. She's already old. I didn't have it in me to reject her plea."

Suzy scoffed and closed the fridge after taking out a bottled mineral water. "Would you even check the expiry date if I didn't point it out?"

Yixing smiled sheepishly at that and rubbed his nape again. He knew he wouldn't. He wouldn't think such an old lady would be a scammer.

"Thought so." Suzy rolled her eyes and made her way to the cashier. "You're following your heart too much."

Her words struck a chord in his heart and wiped away that smile off his face. 

Another reminder to be careful where his heart lead. 

"Do you want ramyun?" Yixing asked as he also took out a can of coffee and sauntered to the cup noodles section.

"I don't want to waste more time here. Aren't we here just to rest a little after the long drive?"

Hearing that, Yixing retracted his hand from wanting to grab a ramyun cup and joined her at the cashier. He could feel Suzy sizing him up beside him before she sighed.

"I didn't say you can't buy one." She told him while glancing at her watch. "There'll be no food when we arrived home. But we're already close. You can buy and make one at home if you're hungry." She then took her bottled water that the cashier had scanned. "Go buy one. I'll be outside."

Suzy left his side and Yixing smiled before he realized what he was doing and smother the smile off his face. He grabbed a cup of ramyun and returned to the cashier to pay, glancing outside to check on Suzy. He frowned in confusion and raised a brow when he saw her just standing there while looking across the street. After thanking the cashier, he immediately headed out to join her.

"Hey, are you oka—" The immediate pause came when he followed her line of vision and looked across the street where there was a line of street food tents. Out of all the tents, one stood out more to his attention.

Even from this distance, he could recognize one person he knew Suzy was staring at too. Two people, as a matter of fact. 

Chanyeol and Hyejung.

Kissing.

His eyes darted to Suzy who was already scoffing to the side and rolling her eyes. He glanced back at his friend and noticed the number of soju bottles on the table. "H-he must've been too wasted," he tried to explained as he stepped in front of Suzy to block her view. "I'll go get him—" 

Yixing was ready to cross the road but Suzy grabbed his arm. Her face bore no emotions as usual, but he was sure that couldn't be the same with her inner self. Could it?

"Let them be," Suzy nonchalantly told him. "Let's just go. I'm tired"—she nodded at the plastic bag in one of his hands—"and you have a ramyun to eat. Let's go." She went ahead toward the car leaving him to sigh.

"What are you doing, Yeol?" Yixing frowned at the scene happening across the road and shook his head.

Once he entered the car, Yixing didn't waste another second to ease Suzy off a possible misunderstanding. "You know, when he's drunk, Chanyeol usually—"

"Stop, Yixing. You don't have to say anything." She turned to him and clicked her tongue. "Alright, I get it," she tiredly said with a roll of her eyes. "You think I'm jealous. I'm not." She clicked her tongue again. "Fine! They're drunk and not in their right minds. That's what you wanted to say, isn't it? But even if they aren't drunk, I don't care, alright?" She looked ahead with a shake of the head. "It doesn't matter to me."

Yixing knew it did. It mattered to her. Even though her words were uttered stoically, he was pretty sure they bore some kind of held back emotions. No matter how unaffected she looked and how many times she said Chanyeol didn't matter to her, what she just saw must have bothered her even a little. Suzy was merely denying it.

"Ah! You're hungry, right?" She suddenly asked. "You can have those blueberry muffins too," she told him jabbing a thumb at the back seat.

"Weren't you going to give them to Chanyeol?"

A loud offended scoff escaped her lips. "Why would I give them to him? You can have them." She silently crossed her arms and peered out the window. 

He reached out a hand to pet her head.

If he could, Yixing would really like to take away whatever unpleasant feelings she had. But he couldn't. He was not in the place to do so. He was merely her bodyguard after all.

The fingers of his outreached hand curled in as he retracted his hand with a sigh.

"What?! You want to back out?" Jongin scoffed to the phone as he threw a dart which missed hitting the picture of Chanyeol on the dart board. He laughed as he replied the caller, "Of course you can't! You really think you can just back out of all this? Ha! No can do! Unless you want me to do something to your dad." His lips curled into a sly smirk as he heard the panic reply from the other end. "That's good if you have finally come back to your senses. Bye for now." He hung up and threw another dart missing Chanyeol's picture yet again.