‘Taeyong’ a text reads on said male’s phone display when he wakes up the next morning. The last morning in Seoul for a good while.

Taeyong reaches out for his phone, sees that it’s from Inhye and calls her. Because they said that they wouldn’t be texting each other anymore. That Inhye texted was probably just to check if he was awake (which he wasn’t) or get his attention.

When Inhye picks up, Taeyong doesn’t get the chance to greet her. ”What should I bring?!” the voice on the other side exclaims as soon as the beeping sounds comes to an end.

Taeyong chuckles. He can’t help it, because he can hear the panic in her voice. ”Clothes for a week, unless you want to return earlier. Your card maybe? A bag and a suitcase with clothes? I don’t know, that’s what I’ll bring.”

”Perfect, see you soon!”

Then she hangs up. Her voice is still echoing in the painfully empty room. He misses his dog. He misses some company. He’s well aware of the fact that Inhye is just supposed to be his lawyer, but she’s a nice company to him. He feels a lot more at ease now than he thought he’d ever do after their first meeting. 

And it’s about the same for Inhye. She actually agreed to go on a trip with her client; a said murder. Most of all; she agreed to it without Inseong telling her to. It’s unusual for her to make own decisions these days, or well, it’s been that way since forever, which makes the adrenaline rush through her.

As if on cue, a pair of hands help Inhye with folding her clothes. ”Need help with packing?”

Speaking of the Devil. Inseong flash her a smile, but Inhye can’t answer his smile. She’s feeling more and more distant to him these days. Because he’s becoming more and more distant, there’s something he’s hiding and it’s bothering her. Since she feels like it’s something important that she has to know.

So she takes the piece of clothing out of Inseong’s hands, puts it into the suitcase by herself. ”No.”

Inseong doesn’t let himself get trodden on, so he gives his sister a back hug and kiss her cheek kindly. ”I love you,” he tells her. ”Thank you for doing this. Be careful; don't forget the fact that he is stilled charged for murderer. You’re a good girl.”

Then his arms disappear and Inhye can hear the sound of a door closing. That is the thing with Inseong. Whatever horrible things he may do and say, Inhye is still going to give in to him and forgive him. Because she loves her older brother, no matter what. She hates it, but what can she do? She is indeed a good girl after all.

•  •  •

Inhye actually takes a cab to their cafe, because she didn’t feel like walking all the way to there with her suitcase. And because Inseong is in charge of her bank account. At first, she felt bad when she spent money but now she couldn’t care less. A few minutes later, Taeyong arrives.

”Hey,” he greets with a somewhat foolish smile that Inhye hasn’t seen before. ”Our ride is on his way.”

”So we’re just going to stand here outside of a cafe with huge suitcases until he arrives?”

”I don’t see why not?”

Inhye smiles, and Taeyong returns that smile. Same, foolish smile. Inhye’s insides melt just by that foolish smile. Because she’s so unused to it. The excitement of what more she’ll find out about Taeyong in Busan is overwhelming, and she can’t stop her knees from shaking by the thought. Maybe she can forget being a lawyer in Busan? Maybe they can be just friends?

They sit in silence in patience waiting for the ride (which Inhye is still clueless about) to arrive, but it’s a pleasant silence. It feels relaxing, that neither of them have to speak to entertain the other.

Inhye sadly doesn’t get to enjoy that silence for much longer, since their ride pulls over right in front of the cafe. Of course, Inhye doesn’t recognise the black Kia car at first. It’s when Taeyong rises from their seat on the stair outside of the cafe and a very tall male gets out of the car that Inhye finally recognises the man.

”Johnny!” Taeyong greets, gestures for Inhye to get to her feet and make her way over to the car.

”Fake taxi arrived,” he tells them with some kind of teasing bow. ”What would be your destination for today?”

”Cut the act and help us get our bags into the car.”

Johnny grins, walks over to Inhye to take her bag. He looks her straight in the eyes as he grabs the suitcase. ”Hello, should I call you Miss. Lawyer Kim or is Inhye enough for this trip?”

Inhye is almost in shock by his charismatic personality. Fortunately she remembers to at least answer. ”Whatever you’re comfortable with, Mr. Fake Taxi Driver Seo.”

”Wow,” Johnny says with a somewhat satisfied smile on his already up-curved lips. ”You’re not as boring as I thought you’d be?”

”I’m flattered.”

”No offence.”

”Not taken.”

”Guys,” Taeyong interrupts them. ”If you two don’t stop your chitchatting we will be in Busan when the midsummer party is over - and there’s a week left to that.”

Johnny pouts as he closes the tailgate, the muscles in his arms showing just the second he does that. ” block.”

”Hopefully,” Taeyong answers. He doesn’t explain his answer, so Inhye guesses that he’s referring to Ten and Johnny. Based on his stories about his summer with them.

Inhye can barely believe that she’s getting a chance to experience a summer with him and his apparently very crazy friends.

They get into the car, Taeyong and Inhye in the back of the car and Johnny into the driver’s seat.

”Seatbelt’s,” he reminds them and then they’re off. ”It will be a long ride, so find something fun to do.”

”What can we possibly do in a car?” Taeyong asks. As soon as he does, his face turns red and he face palms. ”You know what, you ing , don’t answer.”

Johnny breaks out laughing, screaming a lot of things that Inhye can’t really comprehend. ”Wait,” she speaks, trying to break the other man’s laughter. ”I don’t get it?”

”Of course you don’t, sweetheart,” both Taeyong and Inhye flinch by the sudden pet name. ”You’re too innocent to understand.”

Based on the grin on Johnny’s face, his goal is to trigger and . Sadly, she falls into his trap. ”Excuse me? How do you know if I’m innocent or not?”

She’s not innocent. Truthfully, she’s the polar opposite. And not only because she’s not a . Simply because she’s low-key very educated and well-informed. Only very low-key. She is a lawyer after all. Yeah, that’s why she knows so much. That’s right. That's totally it.

”Everyone’s real sides comes out in Busan,” Johnny tells her, eyeing her through the back mirror. ”Let’s see how innocent you really are, Miss. Laywer.”

•  •  •

”Wakey wakey, you sleepheads.”

Inhye is awoken by the voice, first two words spoken in English. Falling asleep isn’t hard for her, truthfully falling asleep at times is a bad habit of hers, but never did she expect to actually fall asleep against the door of a foreign car, with a stranger and an accused murder. She’s impressed. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

It seems like the boy on her left had also fallen asleep, though, based on Johnny’s sentence and Taeyong’s sleepy eye-rubbing. He looks so lost and confused and ing adorable. It takes a while for Inhye to acknowledge the last, but hey, she’s in Busan. She’s supposed to forget her relation with Taeyong from Seoul. He’s not a murder here. Here, he is Lee Taeyong whose favourite colour is black and who hates nothing more than insects and Johnny and -

”Taeyoooooong hyuuuuuuung!!” a somewhat nasal voice calls out as soon as they’re out of the car, and Inhye sees a short but fast boy with raven hair run towards Taeyong, a soft ’Oh no’ leaving his lips before he’s embraced; back pressed against the car door. ”I missed you sooooo much!”

”I know, I know,” Taeyong grins, pats the other on the back. ”I missed you too, only a little though.”

Inhye carefully walks over from the other side of the car, and that’s when the boy notices her. She was just about to greet him when a wide - absolutely gorgeous - smile breaks out on the other’s face.

”A girl!” he exclaims, hitting Taeyong almost everywhere.

”Yeah,” Johnny jumps into the conversation. ”I told you that TY will bring a girl, didn’t I?”

TY. Did he just call Taeyong ’TY’? That’s the funniest and somewhat silliest nickname Inhye has ever heard.

”Ooooh, right!” His accent reveals his Thai nationality, and Inhye remembers from Taeyong’s summer story that this must be- ”I’m Chittaphon Leechaiyakul, but you can call me Ten, if you want!”

He reaches out his hand and Inhye shakes it. ”Kim Inhye,” she was about to introduce herself as Taeyong’s lawyer, but quickly shuts . ”Nice to meet you.”

”Man,” Taeyong grins, throws an arm around the shorter male. ”Look at you, did you get more piercings?” Now that he mentions it; the Thai-boy do have a hella lot of piercings in his ear. He looks mischievous, like he sneaked out every night as a youngster by jumping out of the window; never getting caught.

Ten nods, carefully the holes in his ear. ”Yeah, does it look good?”

”I’m not gonna answer that, you don’t need any more self-esteem than you already have,” Taeyong shakes his head. ”You didn’t grow much taller though, how old were you when I last saw you? 15? 16?”

15-16 and they drank alcohol? Man, Busan is indeed a wild place.

Ten was about to answer when another voice called from behind them. ”YongYongie!” 

As they turn a blond guy is running towards them while scolding Ten for running away from him. Taeyong pulls away his arm from Ten, to then pull the blonde into a hug. The hug long and very, very soft, Inhye thinks when suddenly an elbow spikes her in the ribs. None other than Ten’s.

”Let me introduce the guys to you as they get here,” he speaks and Inhye nods. Ten points at the guy Taeyong just hugged; now they’re speaking ”That’s Ji Hansol, I guess Taeyong told you about him?” Inhye nods again. ”Good, then lets skip the rest of him. He’s kind of boring, but he wakes up early everyday to ride his horses and harvest the potatoes and feed the animals. I don’t know, really.” 

Inhye laughs. Because Taeyong had said the same about him. Hansol notices her, walks past Taeyong to greet her. ”Sorry! So caught up after seeing our Old Mc’TY back here in Busan.” What. ”I’m Ji Hansol, but based on all the Ten and Taeyong speaks all the time I guess you already knew?”

”Yeah,” Inhye agrees and Hansol nods, somewhat resolute. ”I’m Kim Inhye.”

”And you’re going to be our first hen for this midsummer-party!”

Hen? ”Chick,” Ten translates into her ear. ”The first girl, you get it?”

Another elbow, this time more into her heart. 

Hansol continues his speech, somewhat noticing the culture-shock in her eyes and changing his way of speech - even if the Busan accent is still a given. ”The party is in around five days maybe? Doyoung will arrive tomorrow or the day after that. Johnny said Jaehyun will probably also arrive around then. The others are Ten’s friends and I’m really unsure about them. They’re foreigners, you see. Hard to appoint times with them. Taeil will probably only join the party but he lives a few blocks away from here so we can ruin his garden or fence anyways. Hey, did I tell y’all about the time I actually drove my new tractor into his new fence?”

Taeyong groans, and the sudden change of Lee Taeyong in Seoul and Lee Taeyong in Busan actually surprises Inhye. His facial expressions, whining and groaning. It’s like he’s... Free? Like he can act and do whatever he wishes without getting judged. Like he’s finally able to be the 20 years old he’s supposed to be.

”Hansol hyung,” he speaks, softly but still with a raspy edge to his voice. ”Don’t... Don’t tell us.”

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