Baekhyun was only half joking about Hera owing him dinner so if it was two months ago, he would’ve let it slide but a lot has changed in two months and the thinks this might be an opportunity for them to better sort things out between them. When he arrives at Hera’s apartment, he’s slightly disappointed but more so surprised when he notices Chanyeol at the door with an armful of groceries.

“What are you doing here?”

Chanyeol casually looks up from his phone to Baekhyun. “What do you mean? You didn’t perhaps think that you’d be the only one invited, did you?”

Baekhyun furrows his brows. “I kind of did… Was I supposed to think otherwise?”

The door snaps open and both the guys turn to Wendy who is already reaching for the groceries from Chanyeol.

“Oh, did you two come together?” She asks with her bubbly eyes darting between the two SM producers.

“No, we just met here,” Chanyeol says and leans in to kiss the top of Wendy’s head as he enters. “Smells good in here!”

“Hi Wendy.” They exchange a friendly hug before Wendy pulls the door shut behind her.

When Baekhyun steps inside, he inwardly sighs when he spots Sehun outside on the balcony with a metal tong in his hand.

“Yah, Hallyu Star.” Baekhyun points to Sehun who glances up at the familiar voice. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Japan?”

Sehun purses his lips. “I just got back. Came here straight from the airport.”

Seulgi purposely heaves a loud sigh when she marches from the kitchen to the balcony entrance with a tray of freshly washed vegetables. She passes it to Sehun and he silently starts placing them on the table. “I’m also wondering why he’s here too, cause I didn’t invite him.”

Baekhyun snorts and Sehun shakes off the slight annoyance in her voice with a smirk. “Do you know how many people would die to have dinner with me?”

“No.” Seulgi bumps him aside with her hip to rearrange the vegetables to her liking. “And I don’t want to know.”

“Why are you so mean?” Sehun whines and tugs on her elbow with a pout.

Seulgi frowns. “Well, why do you keep randomly showing up at my door?”

Baekhyun heaves a sigh and turns towards the kitchen to leave the bickering ex-lovers alone but he stops at the entryway when he finds another couple in the kitchen. Silently, he leans against the entryway with his arms folded against this chest. Although Chanyeol’s hands are too big and too clumsy, Wendy is patient as she helps him pipe the tray of cupcakes cooling on the rack. They laugh at the giant lump he creates and Baekhyun can’t help but smile seeing his giant friend so genuinely happy. He then frowns when he realizes he’s literally in between two couples. When he tilts his head back slightly, there’s Sehun and Seulgi laughing over inappropriate pepper jokes on the balcony, then when he faces forward, there’s Chanyeol and Wendy laughing over cupcakes. Baekhyun purses his lip and heaves a sigh. This is not what he signed up for.

“Urgh. Couples.” Hera makes a shivering sound as she casually strides past Baekhyun into the kitchen with a bag of paper towels and napkins. Her hair is up in a high ponytail which bounces slightly when she walks. She sets the bag on the counter and turns around to glower at the lovers in the kitchen. “I’m over it!”

“I can invite Youngho if you want.” Chanyeol shoots her a hopeful grin that gets shot down with Hera’s sharp eyes. Across the tiny kitchen, Baekhyun’s ears perk up at the mention of Johnny.

Hera inhales slowly through her nose. “Let’s not go there today.” She then glances at Baekhyun who finds himself subconsciously straightening up.

“Before I forget, I need to show you something.”

He a brow at her and she motions for him to follow her to her bedroom. Baekhyun’s steps slow down significantly when they reach her room and his eyes begin to dart everywhere.

“Come here.” Hera motions for him to enter and pats on the chair in front of her desk.

Baekhyun swallows nervously as he sits down while she sits cross legged on her bed with fingers furiously typing away on her laptop. After a moment, Hera slides it over to him and points to the screen.

“Unnie said La La Land for her concept. This is what I have so far. What do you think?”

Instead of looking at the screen, he blinks at her for a few seconds and notes how his heart flutters. It’s because of the ponytail. Hera doesn’t wear her hair up often but right now, at this moment, Baekhyun feels like someone had just plucked Soondeok right out of Goryeo and had her slip into a pair of boyfriend jeans and a white tee. He likes her hair up, it really brings out her soft features.

“Oppa.”

Baekhyun blinks hard and his eyes refocus on Hera then at the laptop. “Oh. Um. What?”

Hera shoots him weird look. “You just zoned out. Did you see something?”

He shakes his head and leans over to get a better look on Hera’s creative brief. “No. You just really look like Soondeok at the moment.”

She snorts and curl her legs up to her chest to wrap her arms around them. “I am Soondeok, if you haven’t already noticed.”

Baekhyun grins while scrolling through her work so far. “I mean the ponytail. I feel like you’re supposed to be wearing your armour and slicing your sword through the air.”

“It’s a ponytail.” Hera shakes her head. “You dummy.”

“Yah,” Baekhyun hisses. “How dare you call your boss a dummy.” Hera snickers and he turns to her with a thumbs up. “It’s great. I think overall you captured it well. I think she’ll like it.”

“Really?” Hera smiles. “That’s good then. Out of everyone I know, you probably know her best so your approval makes me feel a lot better.”

Baekhyun leans back against the chair with a slow nod while she starts typing away on her laptop again. He watches as she bites her lip while in full concentration on whatever she’s working on. His eyes eventually start traveling around the room before stopping on a picture on the bookshelf. When he gets closer, he breaks out into another smile at a young Hera smiling proudly with her martial arts team in their matching red outfits.

“That’s strange. They say all pretty girls like flower rings.”

“Cute.”

“What did you say?” Hera looks up to Baekhyun as she closes her laptop.

Smiling still, he shakes his head and spins around to face Hera. “I said you look like a country pumpkin.”

Hera rolls her eyes and slides her laptop onto her bed. She pushes her curtains open to close the window before they start grilling. “Whatever. Flowers from a pumpkin are still flowers.”

Baekhyun freezes but Hera is too busy tinkering with her window to notice. He thinks of Eun and Soondeok’s first kiss and his heart pumps wildly.

“Let’s get out there before Seulgi kills Sehun,” Hera suggests and turns to skip out of her room, leaving Baekhyun a little dazed in the corner of her room. A moment later, she pops her head back in. “Oppa?”

He snaps his head up at her and she waves him over.

“Let’s go.”

He nods and she vanishes out the door again. It takes a second but when it finally hits him, Baekhyun breaks out into a greasy grin and repeats after her quietly. “Oppa?”

***

“You know, when Hera said dinner on Tuesday, I was totally expecting just me,” Baekhyun admits after two glasses of wine and a mixed drink. “I’m kind of disappointed.”

Hera makes a face with busily chewing away. “Why would I only invite you?”

Seulgi clears . “You know, when Hera said dinner on Tuesday, I wasn’t expecting someone to invite themselves over.” She slightly scowls at Sehun who shamelessly continues eating with a big fat grin on his face. “Let alone know that this was happening.”

Hera turns to Sehun and swallows hard. “How did you find out, honestly?”

Sehun immediately points his chopsticks towards Chanyeol. “Hyung told me.”

Chanyeol instantly waves his hands to defend himself. “I said that Hera invited us —as in me and Baek— over for dinner to thank us for helping her out. I didn’t invite him.”

Wendy sighs and slaps her chopsticks onto the table with her eyes a little hazy from the alcohol. She points to Seulgi and blows her bangs out of her eyes. “Are you seriously complaining right now? Dude, we have EXO sitting here having dinner with us. To you, he may just be Sehun your ex-boyfriend but to me he’s the celebrity I was watching on TV earlier; one of Korea’s top representatives when it comes to international recognition. Chill Seulgi, chill. The boy obviously still loves you.”

“Well said, Wendy.” Sehun shoots her a thumbs up of approval. “Well said.”

Seulgi sighs with her body deflating in defeat. When she looks up again, Sehun is playfully smirking at her and it makes her heart skip.

“Gosh you’re annoying,” she mutters quietly with a smile tugging at her lips.

Dinner itself was chaotic. Sehun and Seulgi would be bickering one moment then laughing the next and it was just plain weird. They were in their own world, whether Seulgi wants to accept it or not, they’re a perfect match for one another. Wendy and Chanyeol couldn’t have gotten any louder or any touchier. Baekhyun regrets drinking too fast and Hera just sat there looking uncomfortable the entire time but then there were moments when Hera would just look around the table and wonder how this all came to be. How can so much change in such a short time?

Sehun has to leave first because he needs to get some rest before his schedules the following day but that’s not until he’s done his fair share of pouting and whining about it. Baekhyun swears he saw a look of disappointment from Seulgi when Sehun announced he had to go home. After coming to the realization that he too needed to go home soon, Baekhyun stepped back out onto the balcony with a glass of water to get some air and hopefully sober up a bit.

Hera was putting away some of the unused silverware when Wendy comes tapping on her shoulder.

“I think you need to go talk to him,” she says quietly. “I think he’s actually upset that it wasn’t just you two having dinner together.”

Hera glances at the balcony door and manages to get a small glimpse of Baekhyun’s back. “Urgh.” She closes the cupboard and dries her hand on a towel then a little reluctantly makes her way towards the balcony.

He turns to her when he hears the door slide open and greets her with a small smile. The wind whips her ponytail back and forth as she steps up to the railing beside him.

“Tonight was kind of a mess, wasn’t it?” She asks and he snorts.

“A complete mess,” he corrects but smiles. “But it was fun. The dynamic today was out of this world.”

Hera snickers and leans against the railing. Her lips purse as she tries to get a better view at Baekhyun to see if he was visually upset. When he turns and catches her looking, she makes a small gasp and quickly looks away.

“What?”

Hera shakes her head but Baekhyun turns to face her, suddenly making her nervous and hot in the face.

“What is it?” He asks through a light chuckle. “Is there something on my face?”

She shakes her head once more. “I just wanted to see if you were upset…”

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