By the next time I heard about Sehun, two weeks straight had passed by.

After the initial anger I felt towards him had disappeared, I decided I would simply not give him the privilege of occupying my mind and time. Living his superstar life, he may have had the chance of coming and going, and expecting everybody to be down at his feet the moment he wanted them to, but I was not going to play along. I had a job to do, a completely unsuccessful carreer as a model to try to make work and a couple relatives to improve my relationship with before my grandmother finally decided to find me a suitor. By no means was I going to let Mr. Oh Sehun distract me from all that because playing with me was his temporary bratty whim.

But alas, once again, he stormed in through the door one morning, more than determined to make me falter. At that moment, I was attending another customer, so he just came over to me, crossed his arms over the counter and waited while staring at me intently. I caught a glimpse of him through the corner of my eye as I counted the money and gave the change to the customer. He looked impatient, biting down on his bottom lip as his eyes never left me. But I was still convinced of what I was doing, so just after the other customer left, I turned around and came into the kitchen to ask MinSeo to cover up for me and attend Sehun while I did her chores for a while. She supported me completely in my decision, and was even more shocked than I was about all of this. As Lee had joked about when I first met him, MinSeo used to be a little bit into Sehun as well, and finding out how he behaved in real life was no less than a disappointment for her.

I had already started washing up the pile of plates at the sink of the kitchen, when MinSeo, whose face had become harder than usual before going out to meet Sehun, came back in.

“He does not want to buy anything, he says he just wants to speak to you.”

“Did you tell him I don’t want to speak to him?” I answered without looking away from the running water.

“I have, but he insists.” I started drying what I had just washed with a piece of cloth. “He seems to be very sorry.”

I looked at her when I heard those words.

“I thought you were with me in this.”

“I am!” she said coming closer to me and taking the cloth and the plate away from my hands. “But he has explained a couple things that make sense to me.” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, he has an offer I think you may be interested in.”

“What offer?”

“Why don’t you go out, talk to him and find out yourself?” I looked at her hesitantly. “If you don’t like what he tells you, just tell him to go away, we have plenty other more regular clients either way. But listen first.”

Sighing, I came out of the kitchen while rubbing my hands on the apron to take all the wetness away. I found Sehun in the same spot he was when I left, but he was resting his chin on the palm of his hand and staring at the floor, with a tired expression. He stood up straight when he saw me and smiled at me, but I kept my distance and crossed my arms over my chest, with an arched eyebrow, waiting for him to do the talking.

“Grace, I’m sorry, I’ve been an for the past few weeks.” I rolled my eyes and changed the weight to my other leg, still silent. He his lips before speaking again. “I really mean it.”

“Is it that difficult to maintain a normal relationship with people you see almost every day? I mean, you see them, say hello, ask them what’s up. A minimum courtesy.” He nodded quietly. “Then, if it’s not that difficult, I don’t know why should I believe you when you say you’re sorry.”

“You don’t know anything about my life, Grace. Or me. You shouldn’t be judging so early.”

“It’s not like you’ve given me many chances to find out about your life, Sehun.”

“I am doing what I can!” He closed his eyes for a moment and run a hand through his hair. “Listen, we’re not getting anywhere if we go on like this. I don’t want you to be mad at me and don’t want me to get mad at you, or to make a scene.” I backed off and kept quiet. “We should meet out of here. Do you have free time for lunch? I’m buying it for you.”

“I already bring my own lunch, thank you,” I answered stubbornly.

“Don’t make this more difficult than it already is, will you? Just put it in the fridge for tomorrow. Is twelve ok? I will come and pick you up.” I simply nodded. “Okay. Please, try not to make assumptions about me without having seen the whole picture, will you?”

“Neither should you, Sehun.” He nodded back in response and said goodbye after repeating he would come for me at twelve.

When he left, MinSeo came out and curiously asked whether we had made up and if I had taken the offer. I had forgotten about that. As soon as she noticed I was not aware of what she was talking about, she closed up and refused to tell me more about it. Luckily, it was already 10:30, so I wouldn’t have to wait for too long.

******

“I didn’t know this was so close to the café,” I said admiring the view.

Just as he said he would do, Sehun was in the shop at 12 o'clock to pick me up, but he wasn’t driving his motorbike as per usual. In fact, we just walked a few blocks, making a stop in the way to grab some food from a street vendor and arrived at a huge park I had never been to, as I thought it was much farther than it actually was. Except for a few groups of elderly people who walked around or did their exercises and the occasional suited man who ate on his own sitting on a bench, the park was pretty much desert, as kids were still at school and grown people would be doing their shifts. It was the perfect time for us to be there.

We sat in the grass next to the lake in the centre of the park, under the shadow of a huge willow, and began eating in silence. I noticed he was not wearing socks and the leaves of grass were probably tickling his ankles, but he seemed more at ease than he was when we talked in the café.

“MinSeo told me you had an offer to make me.” I was the one to break the silence.

“Did she tell you what it is about?” I shook my head. “Good. There are some things I want to talk about before that.”

“Go ahead,” I said, this time more willing to listen.

“The other day, when I came into the café, I was with my band mate, Chanyeol.”

“I remember him.”

“He is not…” he hesitated. “He’s not the most discreet person there is.”

“I noticed that,” I smiled. “But he seems nice. What’s up with the discretion anyway?”

“He is nice. Don’t get me wrong, I love him as if he was my brother and have a very close relationship with him,” he smiled as well. “The office of our company is very close to the café, he knows I usually go there because I will sometimes bring something for my hyungs to eat or drink, so that day, he wanted to visit it himself.”

I just nodded, not knowing where he wanted to get and without having gotten an answer for my question.

“I tried to refuse, but he can be very insistent sometimes,” he went on. “I’m the youngest one in the group, but sometimes he’s like a big baby.”

“A huge baby,” I agreed. “Why didn’t you want to come?”

“I knew you would be there.”

I took a sip of my water bottle and shifted around in my spot to face him.

“And you didn’t want to see me because of what happened the aquarium day, right?”

“That’s not the case.” He let out a sigh and left his foam serving tray which was almost untouched on the floor. “I knew I would have to confront you about that sooner or later. I haven’t even had the guts to send you a text to give you a half-assed explanation, so I definitely did not want to talk about it with ChanYeol in front of us. That’s why I behaved like I did.”

“So he does not know you know me.” He nodded. “And you don’t want him to know. Am I like an embarrassing secret or what?” I could feel myself getting angry once again, and he noticed too.

“You are not. You are not embarrassing and should not be kept a secret.” He looked at me in the eyes. “But I’m afraid you have to be for a while.”

“Why is that?”

“I’m not supposed to have a relationship. Not right now, at least.” I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. “I’m so sorry, Grace. There was nothing I would have liked more than to kiss you that night. We had a great day and you had been lovely all the time. I felt a connection even if I still don’t know you that well. Kissing you was just the next step, but I could not.” He was staring at the ground looking genuinely sad.

“But why, why can’t you? Do you have an infectious disease, does your church not allow it?” The frustration was growing inside of me, as he was talking but not giving every reason away.

“My contract does not allow me to.”

“Your contract? Your music contract doesn’t let you kiss girls?” I scoffed, as it all sounded like a bad joke.

“It is true. I am the maknae of the group, and when I signed my contract I was still in training and very young. They usually make younger idols sign these kinds of things to avoid us from getting distracted and to avoid press scandals,” he explained. “Usually, the younger member of the group is supposed to be the cute and pure one, at least at the beginning, when the groups are launching. We have now been in the spotlight for a few years and they want to make us and I look less innocent, which is why I’m going to offer something to you in a moment. But that clause of the contract is still valid, at least for me.”

“That’s completely crazy. Is that even legal?” He nodded. “How did you even think of signing that?”

“I was young and determined. It doesn’t seem much of a deal for a fifteen year old boy who has recently discovered he can be famous.” His eyes roamed over the water surface, thinking. “My parents agreed because I insisted it was what I wanted.”

“But you do not want that anymore.”

“I’m twenty-two. My older band mates are already free of that clause and are able to date whoever they want bearing in mind they should not make a scandal and to keep focused at work. Some of them never even had that clause.” He drank some water and swallowed hard. “I am grateful for the life I’ve been given, but there are more things in the world I want to experience.” He looked at me and caressed my jawline from the ear to the chin with his long fingers. “I could have kissed you then. We were all alone and there was no way no one could have found out about it. But it wouldn’t have been fair to any of us, because I am not able to go any further into a relationship.”

“So you didn’t tell your friend you knew me to avoid him from asking too much and accidentally having it slip out of his mouth in a bad moment, right?”

“This situation , but I’m glad you understand.” He was looking back again at the lake. “But I like you, Grace. I would like to keep contact with you, to hang out sometimes and chat and be friends. I also believe you have a lot of potential. That’s why I want to help you.”

“Help me about what?” I enquired.

“In a couple of days we are all making a photoshoot for an interview that’s going to be published in an international magazine, as we’re doing promotion for our next album. We have a group shooting and then individual ones. In my case, as I told you before, the company wants to make me lose a bit of the image of innocence they built themselves. We are one of the top selling groups in Korea, but we rely a bit too much on teenage audience. They want us to be attractive for older and also foreign people, that’s why we’re going to be in that publication.” He stopped to breathe for a while. “Luckily, the producer is the one who’s worked with us many times before and is actually a good friend of us and someone to trust. The company wants me to have an individual photoshoot with a female model, though I will not know exactly how it’s going to be until the day comes. I’ve managed to talk to the producer to tell him I have a friend who is looking for an opportunity. That one being you, of course.”

I had listened to the whole speech without saying a word. I wouldn’t have been able to do so anyway, because my mouth flung open when he said the last sentence. He waved his hand in front of my eyes.

“Are you still there?” he asked with a funny look on his face.

“I am,” but my voice felt a bit stuttery. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes,” he smiled. “It’s what you want. You just have to go and worry about doing a great job.”

“Aren’t your bosses going to be angry about it?”

“They might if they found out. But the producer is the one who gets to choose the models and I’ve made sure he’s not going to say a word,” he answered.

“That sounds like you’ve threatened his whole family and kidnapped his dog.” He let out a loud laugh.

“He’s more of a cat person. But I didn’t need to do that. This man is always with us when we have to do some project that’s not exclusively musical; photoshoots, film shooting, TV appearances, etc. His carreer rocketed when he started being our producer and he’s very familiar with us. So I’ve asked him as a personal favour,” he explained. “Nobody else knows, not even my band mates, so you will have to pretend not to know me. You have a tendency to drama, maybe you discover that’s actually your passion.”

“I’m glad we’re back to the mocking,” I stated. “But what about your friend Chanyeol? He knows me.” The smile wiped away from his face immediately.

“I hadn’t thought about that.” He scratched the top of his head. “Let’s hope you two don’t run into each other, and if you do…Don’t know, play dumb and let’s hope he’s oblivious enough not to realize.”

“Okay…”

“So that’s a yes?” he beamed at me.

“I guess…?”

“Awesome! I already gave him your number, so expect him to call you any time soon. Don’t look at me that way, I was sure you would say yes.”

I rolled my eyes but chuckled at the same time. Somehow, I was happy to be back on track with him, even if it was not the track we were supposed to go down.