"Ah, I'm probably about to sleep in the hallway now," Yerin sighed as she went out of the elevator. It was quite late in the evening already when she came back to the hotel; she and Sowon enjoyed their barbecue feast too much in the night food stalls near the shopping center that she did not realize the time. And she was sure that Junhui's suite would already be locked.

Each step felt heavier than before, thanks to the thought of sleeping outside. She would not blame Junhui if she got locked outside. It was her fault for not being mindful of the time anyway.

"Tch. I should've brought my blanket with me before I left the room this morning," Yerin thought to herself as she held the door of Junhui's suite. She was expecting that it would be locked, but to her surprise, it wasn't.

"Eh?" Yerin's eyes widened as she slowly entered the suite, "He didn't lock the door. That's weird," she grinned to herself, obviously glad that she was not going to spend the night in the corridors.

The lights were off and the whole room was quiet. Yerin presumed that Junhui might be asleep already, so she carefully tiptoed her way to her bedroom, cautious not to make any sound that would wake the sleeping monstrous landlord up.

But before she could even make her tenth step, a light behind her.

"Welcome home, Miss Jung," Junhui greeted with a sly smile on his face. He was standing beside the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Yerin froze with a devastated expression on her face. She certainly did not expect Wen Junhui to be up that late. Junhui slowly walked to approach her, and Yerin was already preparing herself to receive a sermon for being late that would sound as tantamount to a judge sentencing someone for homicide. She felt her heartbeat climb up her neck, sweat drops already forming on her forehead, readying herself to be bombarded by harsh words from the monstrous landlord.

Junhui opened his mouth to speak, "Ah--"

"I'm sorry!" Yerin cried, "Please don't throw me out of your place!" she clasped her hands in front of her as if she was pleading for her life, "Sowon unnie just invited me to eat so I did not notice that it was already getting late but believe me I did not intend to come home late and I promise this won't--"

"Woah, chill," Junhui remarked, which made Yerin halt for a moment. Junhui took a sip of his coffee before pointing at the couch, "Have a seat first. We need to talk about something."

Just like an obedient sheep, Yerin did follow what she was asked to do without any question. She and Junhui sat on the couch, and the latter cleared his throat before explaining his concern.

"So, you have work tomorrow morning, right?" he asked, to which Yerin responded with a nod.

"Do you have any plans after work?" he added.

Yerin tilted her head; she was carefully thinking about what she would be doing for tomorrow, "Um, I think I have nothing to do after work. Why'd you ask?"

Perfect, Junhui thought to himself. Everything seemed like it was going according to plan. He carefully placed his porcelain coffee cup on top of the table beside the couch. Yerin just watched carefully as he straightened himself on his seat.

"I have a proposition to make," Junhui remarked with such confidence that Yerin would immediately accept.

"I'm listening," was Yerin's only reply.

"Mr. Oh has invited me for dinner tomorrow night, and," Junhui leaned closer, and with his piercing gaze, he continued, "I would like to bring you with me."

Yerin's eyebrows quickly furrowed. She was not quite sure if Junhui was just making fun of her or not, "What? What do you mean 'bring'?"

Junhui scoffed, "Is that too hard to understand? I want to--"

Yerin quickly placed her hand to cover his mouth, which stunned him. His eyes widened at the feeling of Yerin's soft hand on his face.

"I know what that means, you skunk!" Yerin responded with an offended look on her face. She already knew that Junhui was just going to mock her yet again, "Listen, what do you mean by 'bring'? Just because I owe you something doesn't mean you can just treat me like an extension of your possessions that you can drag anywhere you want!"

Junhui was still motionless; his eyes stayed focus on a fuming Yerin in front of him, who was still covering his mouth.

"You can't just 'bring' me anywhere," Yerin added before removing her hand from his face, "Remember that."

Unbeknownst to Yerin, Junhui almost had a cardiac arrest because of what she did. Just the simple contact they had was enough to confuse Junhui even more.  Whatever he was feeling for her was something he could barely comprehend.

Yerin noticed his abrupt silence, so she asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Huh? Ah, yes! Yes, of course," Junhui looked like he had just snapped out of a daydream and he slightly felt embarrassed for looking derailed for a moment, "So, what now? You will come with me tomorrow?"

Yerin sighed, "Well, I am still roiled by how you talked about your proposition, but on second thought, dinner sounds like a good idea."

"Pfft. You are just motivated by food, eh," Junhui grinned as he watched Yerin's expression soften at the thought of food. Her stiff and agitated expression slowly went back to the kind and mellow face she usually had.

"Why? Who would even say no to food, anyway," Yerin smirked.

And with that, their deal was sealed. Yerin would go to the family dinner with Junhui.

-

The morning shift ended quickly for Yerin. For the whole day she had an extra cheerful spirit, happily greeting every person who passed by the counter and was very assiduous in giving compliments to the customers. Of course, it was because of what she and Junhui talked about last night; Yerin was clearly excited to go to the family dinner.

Meanwhile, on the counter beside her was a very cautious Sowon. She wore her make-up differently for that day; she did not want anyone, or more like someone, to recognize her quickly. Her eyes carefully inspected the faces of the male customers, and she seemed like she was prepared to run out of the counter in case she saw someone she did not want to see.

The clock inside the store rang, and it was the signal for Yerin and Sowon to leave their counters for the afternoon shift cashiers. Both of them sighed in relief after getting through another day's work.

"We worked well today," Yerin beamed as they walk their way back to the staff room.

Sowon smiled nervously, "Yeah, we worked well. Good thing he didn't come here."

Yerin paused for a moment and tried to repeat Sowon's words inside her head. She then asked, "What are you talking about, unnie?"

Sowon was startled; her thoughts were all about avoiding Choi Seungcheol that she had sputtered such words, "Um, wh--what do you mean? It--It's nothing!"

Yerin creased her forehead, "You said 'good thing he didn't come'. Who is 'he'?"

"No one! It's no one," Sowon chuckled nervously, "I was not even saying anything. Ah let's go now, you child, you're probably hungry so you keep on hearing stuff."

"Ah, I'm not hungry," Yerin responded, "But later, I will be. My high school classmate invited me for dinner."

Sowon smiled, "That sounds good. Well, since it seems like you have other plans for tonight, I'll just go to the night food stalls alone tonight," she sighed.

Yerin quickly hugged her friend to make her feel better, "Aww, don't feel bad, unnie! I promise, I'll make it up to you tomorrow!"

"It's okay!" Sowon laughed, "It was just a joke. I think I'll just ask Nahyun or Sejeong to come with me tonight. You enjoy your dinner with your classmate."

"I will!" Yerin nodded eagerly.

-

Junhui had just arrived in his suite from the dress store near the hotel. He carefully placed a large blue box on top of the table in the living room and smiled to himself, seemingly proud of the purchase he had made.

"Hah. She's gonna drop her jaw on the floor after seeing this outfit," he thought to himself before opening the box, showing a white dress neatly folded inside. Junhui took the dress and carefully held it in front of him. He carefully examined the dress' details and imagined how Yerin would look in it.

The dress was white, and it had a short skirt which looked like it would reach her knees perfectly. The upper part of the dress had small rhinestones in it. There were slightly puffy sleeves and the collar had lace embellishments on it.

"Ah, I hope she'll like this," Junhui muttered to himself. He was trying his best to requite the unpleasant experiences she had with him by going great lengths to show acts of kindness to her. And buying her a dress that was equal to her five months' paycheck was what Junhui thought of to be a good idea.

"I'm home!" a loud voice was heard from the entrance. Junhui quickly placed the dress back to the box and straightened his shirt; he had to act cool and composed like he was not excited to see Yerin react to the dress he bought for her.

Yerin walked inside carrying a medium-sized plastic bag full of peaches, "I bought peaches! They're on sale today at the market," she remarked before going straight inside the kitchen, "I'll leave them inside the fridge! Feel free to eat some!"

Junhui scratched his head as he watched her occupy herself with washing the peaches and placing them inside a large plastic food container. He could not believe how dense Yerin was to not even notice the large box lying on the table in the living room.

"What time are we going to leave later?" Yerin asked as she went out of the kitchen and back to the living room.

"Didn't you even realize that there is a big blue box here?" Junhui retorted.

Yerin creased her forehead, "What?" her sight shifted from Junhui towards the blue box on top of the table, "Oh, that box. I saw that when I entered the room."

"And you are not even going to ask what's inside this box?!" Junhui asked with an irritated tone in his voice.

Yerin shook her head as a response, "That's just one of your stuff so why should I bother?"

"This isn't mi