Lee Daehwi was almost frantic and clearly not impressed by how the receptionist was giving him a poker face as if he should have known the fact that Park Woojin has moved room. “What are you talking about?” He raised his voice that got him a glare from the older woman. “Daehwi-ssi, please, I will ask you to tone down your voice one more time, or else, I regretfully will have to ask the security to guide you out,” The woman replied.

Maybe Daehwi went a little overboard with all the shouting earlier when he found that the bed where his hyung supposed to be, was empty and clearly disturbing the other patients inside the ward, which was why he was standing in front of the nurse’s desk and looked like he was ready to fight everyone. “Here’s the thing, Ma’am, me and Woojin hyung have no one to do such thing as upgrading rooms,” Daehwi retorted.

“Yes, you do, and here’s the thing, Daehwi-ssi, she has legal files that can prove her standing.” The nurse sighed and Daehwi was so ready to snap. “You cannot just let some strangers upgrade Woojin hyung room, what kind of hospital does that?” Daehwi widen his eyes in disbelief as he scoffed. “Let me get this clear, I want you to contact that person for me so I can tell her that I don’t know her and to stop meddling into my business –,”. “Nonsense Daehwi, how come you forget about me?”.

Kwon Jieun suddenly showed up beside Daehwi at the receptionist’s table as she offered him a polite smile when the younger just stared at her in confusion. “Who are –,”. “I guess we do have a lot of catching up to do, how about we go to Woojin’s ward together, shall we?”. Jieun gave no when the younger tried to escape from her grip as she pulled Daehwi to the elevator – and fortunately for her, it was empty that morning.

“Look, you know it yourself that I don’t know you,” Daehwi retorted as soon as the metal door closed. “That’s right,” Jieun said as she pressed the emergency button, which caused the elevator to stop moving, and Daehwi become alarmed just within the same second. “But you are about to, so in order to do that you have to calm down first so we can be civil to each other,” Jieun stated.

“Are you going to kill me? Or Woojin hyung?” Daehwi asked immediately. “No, why would I move Woojin to get a better treatment when I wanted to kill both of you?” Jieun raised her eyebrow skeptically. “People wanted to kill me, every day,” He stated. “I know,” She replied as she pressed the button again as the metal box started to move again. “What was that for?” Daehwi protested. “Scare effect.” Jieun shrugged nonchalantly, which made Daehwi frowned.

“Who are you?” The younger male asked again. “Kwon Jieun,” She replied flatly. “I kind of don’t need your name, more like, what do you want from me actually,” Daehwi said as he crossed his arm in front of his chest, looking annoyed. “How about, I will show you instead of explaining to you? Woojin can wait, why don’t you go with me first?” Jieun proposed which Daehwi gasped in disbelief as the response. “Hell no, like you could be some serial killer or someone that they hired to make me injured or stuffs, no,” Daehwi complained nonchalantly.

“Daehwi, you should really stop spoiling that you are a target to a stranger,” Jieun replied instead. “Yes, but I know you know what I am talking about,” Daehwi said. “Daniel didn’t give me a heads up that you are most probably as irritating as I am,” Jieun stated out of the blue that made Daehwi froze. “You could be a scammer, did you really think you could trick me with Daniel hyung’s name?” Daehwi replied nonchalantly.

The elevator’s door opened at the eighth floor as soon as Daehwi talked but Jieun leaned at one of the wall instead and smirked. “At least you acknowledged that you know someone named Daniel, despite not knowing whether your Daniel and my Daniel is the same person or not,” She said, which Daehwi frowned by the statement.

“I will personally chase after you, Ma’am, if you decided that this is a good time to scam me,” Daehwi snapped afterward as he pressed the ground floor button on the elevator. “Don’t worry, Daehwi-ssi, I don’t have too much time in my hand to scam you into some stupid scene,” Jieun replied nonchalantly.

Daehwi was still hesitant about going with the woman, he even more become anxious when they arrived at a hotel. They went up to the certain floor before she was guiding him to one particular room as she ring the bell. Daehwi could hear a fuss from inside which feels strangely familiar – and at first he couldn’t really see who was opening the door because he was standing behind Jieun.

“I’ve told you I am not going to scam you,” Jieun said and that’s when Daehwi let out a small whimper, “Daniel hyung,”. Daniel was gasping as he stared at both Jieun and Daehwi back and forth as if asking for some decent explanation. “Daehwi-ah.” It was a scream from inside the room and Daehwi knew exactly whom it belonged to. “Jinyoung-ah.” Daehwi immediately stormed inside the room, ignoring the still-confused Daniel and hugged the latter.

“Oh my goodness, where did you find him, really?” Seongwoo said as he pointed at Daehwi who was still hugging Jinyoung when Jieun closed the door. “Hospital,” Jieun answered nonchalantly. “You are not a scammer.” Daehwi managed to let out a whimper when he turned his head to Jieun. “I’ve told you since the first time,” Jieun replied. “Wait, hold up, like how?” Daniel raised his eyebrow at Jieun.

“She upgraded Woojin’s hyung hospital treatment,” Daehwi stated as the rest of them turned their attention to Jieun immediately. “You, Woojin, what?” Minhyun and Daniel were the first one that reacted in unison. “Long story short, but, I found Park Woojin, he’s in the hospital, they beat him up but he’s going to be okay, oh and I found this kid on the receptionist’s desk this morning, so I thought you guys would want him too?” Jieun explained.

“Really, why drag us here if you could do it all by yourself? You even find Daehwi,” Jihoon pointed out which she responded by a shrug. “It’s all luck, really,” She added.

“Shouldn’t we all like, visiting Woojin hyung or something then?” Guanlin suddenly asked. “Yes, yes, Guanlin, oh my goodness, I miss you so much,” Daehwi said as he pulled the taller male into a bear hug. “Yeah, we could all go back to the hospital, of course,” Jieun said as she got up again from the couch and when the rest is busy getting ready to go out, she felt someone grabbing her arm firmly. She found Minhyun staring at her before he let out a sigh.

“We need to talk,”.

---

Kang Daniel just had to stop Jieun from entering the ward with the rest – who immediately overjoyed by the presence of Woojin. “It’s all luck, really?” Daniel raised his eyebrow in amusement when Jieun tilted her head confusedly. “It’s hard to believe but, yeah.” Jieun shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t trust you.” Daniel smirked at the statement. “We settled that down already that we don’t trust each other, Daniel,” Jieun deadpanned.

“It’s different, it’s more like I don’t trust you in this one, there is no way you could find Woojin just like that.” Daniel chuckled. “How about, I did just find Woojin like that? This is purely all my luck.” Jieun sighed. “Can I try my luck then?” Daniel grinned cheekily instead. “What is it?” Jieun raised her eyebrow in slight annoyance. “So, there is this cool seaside bar and restaurant –.” “Did you just really question about the credibility of my luck just to ask me out on a date?” Jieun snapped.

“Well, yeah, since we are talking about pushing our luck at some point then might as well taking us to the next level.” Daniel shrugged before he smiled again. “First of all, Daniel, I am definitely questioning your concept of us and second, do you really want to talk about this when your friend are basically lying on the hospital’s bed?” Jieun snapped.

“You are right, since we have to talk about this, you should definitely say yes to my invitation.” Daniel grinned in which Jieun only rolled her eyes as the response before proceeding to enter the ward. “And then I was just trying to buy some snacks and suddenly all these men were attacking me, frankly they dressed up like a high school students so I did not expect anything,” Woojin explained.

“And they left me just like that, fortunately a lady was kind enough to call the hospital, and yeah, here I am – oh, hello Jieun-ssi, Daniel hyung,” Woojin greeted but immediately beamed when he saw the sight of Daniel. “Hello, Woojin-ie, how are you doing?” Daniel said as he ruffled the latter hair, avoiding the wounded part nonetheless. “I’m fine mostly, Jieun-ssi upgraded me last night so it’s definitely better now.” Woojin gave Jieun a slight smile.

“Thank you Jieun-ssi, again, where’s your friend from last night?” Woojin said out of the blue, which made every attention in the room turned to the only female figure. “Uh, he’s not available at the moment, he wished you to get well soon, though,” Jieun said – definitely avoiding Daniel’s glare from the side. “Oh, okay, well at first I did not believe when she said that she knew all of you though.” Woojin shrugged.

“I thought she was going to scam me,” Daehwi snapped, shifted the topic just like that. “I am not,” Jieun stated. “Wait, hold up a second, are we just going to not talk about it?” Seongwoo suddenly burst out and Jieun wanted to shut the latter’s mouth for a second right there. “You know, how did Daehwi end up in Busan? Like, what?” Seongwoo continued and Jieun has never felt more relieved than that.

“Yeah, I tried to contact you, Daehwi, don’t do that ever again, me and Jihoon thought you were dead or something worse,” Jinyoung snapped. “I was panicking, okay?” Daehwi frowned.

“Remember when I told you I was going to Seoul Station? Yeah, there are guys that I positively think almost kidnap me? That’s why I just went straight to Busan, because I know Woojin hyung is here and if I went home then they will also know yours and Jihoon’s exact workplace if they didn’t know that already,” Daehwi said nonchalantly.

“You cannot just end up in Busan without contacting me, Daehwi, that is not right,” Jinyoung protested. “I can’t, they hijacked our connection,” Daehwi stated as he searched for Woojin’s eyes for help. “It’s true, they hired the gang members and mafias here to locate us and most possibly disable us.” Woojin shrugged. “How did you even find Woojin then, that makes no sense, Daehwi,” Seongwoo snapped. “I got lucky,” Daehwi replied nonchalantly.

“You don’t just get lucky, Daehwi,” Minhyun added. “Yes, he can, if I can find Woojin, then Daehwi can find Woojin too,” Jieun suddenly snapped as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking unimpressed when Daehwi shot her his widest grin. “I like Jieun-ssi already,” Daehwi said as he happily skipped to link his arms to Jieun’s one.

“I really did get lucky, Woojin hyung was in the station at that moment when I arrived, and we decided to settle down a bit until we figure things out.” Daehwi pouted. “I am sorry Jinyoung-ie hyung and Jihoon-ie hyung, I didn’t mean to make both of you worried,” Daehwi added. “The most important thing is that you are safe and alive, honestly.” Jihoon gave the younger a smile. “But, he still can’t just do that,” Jinyoung said sternly. “I know, since we are together again, there is just no way I would do that again,” Daehwi replied immediately.

“So after Woojin is free to go home, we will return to Seoul,” Jaehwan said out of the blue. “Yeah, we should do that.” Minhyun nodded immediately. “Well, I mean, that’s a great idea, but Minhyun hyung’s apartment won’t fit all of us together.” Guanlin shrugged nonchalantly. “We can figure something out, okay?” Seongwoo tapped the youngest’ shoulder as Jieun raised her eyebrow.

“You all know that Kwon Jiyong technically give you all an access to his penthouse, right? I mean, it’s up to you, but it’s a solution,”.

---

“I have a request,” Minhyun said when both him and Jieun were seating at the coffee shop near the hospital building. “What is it, Minhyun-ssi?” Jieun replied as she watched the latter was touching his coffee cup constantly and avoiding an eye contact. “It was kind of too much to ask, considering how many times you have helped us up until this point,” Minhyun continued. “It doesn’t matter, if I said I want to do it then I will,” Jieun replied.

“You know I was associated with another group, right? I mean, we didn’t really hit it big, but, yeah.” Minhyun scratched his hair. “If it’s up to my opinion, I think Nu’est is doing pretty well these past two years, well, your records are better than before, Minhyun-ssi,” Jieun stated. “Well, the thing I wouldn’t say that we are that established,” Minhyun said.

“I need you to make sure that the rest of my members are alive and well, for me,” Minhyun added afterward which made Jieun raised her eyebrow. “I know what you are thinking about, if it’s up to my opinion too, Jieun-ssi, I wouldn’t leave them, but this is about not getting them involve anymore in any kind of stupid that syndicate is up to,” Minhyun explained.

“So, you wanted me to keep them alive?” Jieun deadpanned. “No, I just want information about their well-being, Daniel told us that you are good with that,” Minhyun said. “You could’ve checked by yourself, Minhyun-ssi,” Jieun replied. “I can’t, I mean, I kicked them out and made them live somewhere else far from me so that they are untouchable, I can’t just show up and endanger any of them,” Minhyun continued before both of them fell into a silence.

“It’s a deal,” Jieun finally spoke up. “Since it’s a deal, there is a price to pay, right?” Minhyun smiled at the latter knowingly. “Just move in to my brother’s penthouse, Minhyun-ssi, I know you are opposing the idea since it might be a burden but, honestly, it’s barely a burden for Jiyong either.” Jieun shrugged which Minhyun hesitated to answer. “Just say yes,” Jieun said at the end.

They walked out from the shop ten minutes later just to find a certain Daniel just in front of the shop. “Goodness, I feel like I’m borrowing your girlfriend or something.” Minhyun chuckled when Daniel pouted at him. “No, hyung, I was just wondering where did both of you go,” Daniel replied. “No, you don’t really care about my whereabouts, Niel,” Minhyun deadpanned which made Daniel whined. “I care about you hyung,” Daniel said.

“Well, as long as I remember you didn’t really tell me about this cool seaside restaurant.” Minhyun grinned cheekily, which made Daniel flustered and frowned at Jieun. “We spotted you from inside, you know? That’s okay, you both go have fun,” Minhyun added afterward with a smile before he bid them goodbye as he went back to the hospital. “You know you should probably hang around more with your friends than me, I literally have zero fun emitted from my soul,” Jieun deadpanned.

“I don’t like you because you are fun though? I like the fact that you emitted weariness.” Daniel shrugged nonchalantly. “That’s one of the best compliments I have ever heard about me,” Jieun replied stoically as they started to walk. “Why did you tell Minhyun hyung about our date?” Daniel raised his eyebrow in amusement.

“He was asking why did you looked like a lost puppy trying to find it’s owner, and then I said because the owner promised him to hang out at this cool seaside –,”. “Did you just call yourself my owner?” Daniel snapped with a huge grin. “I did not mean it like that,” Jieun corrected herself immediately. “Of course you did.” Daniel grinned even wider. “I don’t mind it if you are my owner though,” He added afterward with a slight shrug.

“Well, I don’t want to keep you, Daniel, I mean, you already making me take care of Peter, so,” Jieun replied nonchalantly which Daniel replied with a frown. “You know, do you really think I am going to let the fact that Woojin mentioned about your other friend slide away?” Daniel asked out of the blue, arms crossed on front of his chest and a smirk plastered on his face. “We can keep talking about owning you if you insist,” Jieun said as she suddenly faster her pace.

“No, Jieun, who are you bringing along to Busan?” Daniel was fast enough to grab her arms and stopped her as he shook his head. “No one,” Jieun responded shortly. “I didn’t bring anyone, they are tailing me,” She added afterward. “Who? Your brother?” Daniel raised his eyebrow. “Park Chanyeol,” She deadpanned and made Daniel fell into silence.

“Uh, how did he know?” Daniel spoke up after awhile. “Myungsoo doesn’t want to tell, or maybe he really doesn’t know since Chanyeol was dragging him here without any of his consent.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Told you that man in love is scary, Jieun, Chanyeol-ssi is going to murder me.” He shivered for real. “Yeah, I will let him do that,” She replied flatly and caused Daniel to let out a whine.

“You are not being serious, right? Who is going to kiss you goodnight if you let him kill me?” Daniel pouted with all the seriousness. “Since when you kiss me goodnight, Daniel?” Jieun raised her eyebrow. “We can start tonight,” He deadpanned. “Or now,” He added before he stole a peck from Jieun and grinned widely afterward. “You are unbelievable.” She shook her head in annoyance but let Daniel wrapped his arm around her shoulder nonetheless as he pulled her closer.

“We should stop doing that, you know,” Jieun stated as they walked side by side with the smallest gap between them – Jieun was leaning her temple on Daniel’s shoulder. “What? The kissing?” Daniel replied hastily. “Yeah, all of this too.” Jieun sighed softly. “Why?” He said – even though most probably her answer will be the same with what was playing inside his mind. “Because Daniel.” Jieun paused for a second, complimenting whether to say her next words or not.

“I can’t really afford to fall for someone right now,”.

---

“So, it’s a maybe?” Daniel asked with hopeful eyes. “It’s an absolute no,” Jieun groaned as she sipped her lemonade. “Peter need a playmate, Jieun, it’s a cat thing,” Daniel commented. “Cat is a lazy being, Daniel, the last thing it needs is a playmate,” She taunted. “You don’t know stuffs about cat,” He huffed. “I do, and it’s a common knowledge.” She crossed her arm in front of her chest.

“Fine, I will just take Peter somewhere where she can meet other male cats and mingling,” Daniel stated. “The last thing I need is having kittens so don’t you dare.” Jieun shot him a death glare. “Watch me, Jieun,” He challenged and Jieun just replied with an unimpressed glare. “You are so childish, Daniel,” She scoffed. “I am just trying to make Peter feel less lonely,” Daniel retorted.

“Peter is happy because we surrounded him with expensive cat toys and food,” Jieun deadpanned. “Cat doesn’t live with just that, Jieun, just like human, they need a partner, even you have me,” Daniel protested. “I’ll think about it, happy? So can you please stop bugging me? Thank you very much.” Jieun sighed. “That’s all I need, a maybe,” Daniel grinned.

“No, Daniel, you can’t be satisfied with a maybe, you must retaliate until you get an definite answer,” Jieun replied nonchalantly. “Maybe means there is still some hope, and I like having hope.” Daniel shrugged. “Like you know, a hope that we both can be normal enough to fall in love someday,” He added cheekily, but he made sure that it came out as genuine as possible. “Someday,” Jieun repeated the last word, which made Daniel smiled again.

“You do you then, Niel,” Jieun continued as she smiled back to Daniel. “Ha, funny, because all I wanna do is you.” Daniel smirked before Jieun let out an annoyed groan. “I’m going home,” She announced before Daniel burst into a small chuckle and grabbed her wrist immediately. “Okay, let’s go home,” He said as he stood up and lead her to outside the restaurant.

“We still have all night though, why are we really going home?” Daniel said when they were outside. “Because, I can’t stand you anymore,” Jieun replied nonchalantly. “The bar at the intersection have a really nice atmosphere if I am not mistaken.” Daniel grinned instead. “Daniel, you are just making that up.” Jieun rolled her eyes. “Anywhere with you is nice though? So, I’m not really lying?” Daniel raised his eyebrow playfully.

“I really hate the fact that I’m giving in for your nonsense, every damn time, Daniel.” Jieun exhaled deeply but nonetheless let Daniel pulled her wrist to guide her to the bar he was talking about. “Because you really, really like me, that’s why,” Daniel replied instead with a smile as they entered the bar that turned out just a couple buildings away from the restaurant. “This is stupid, I want to go home,” Jieun stated when the loud music went through her ears immediately when they passed the door.

“Come on, Jieun, just a couple of drinks, I promise we will be sober enough to go home,” Daniel assured – and that was probably the emptiest promise Daniel have ever told Jieun since they met when Daniel was busy shoving Jieun to the toilet stall’s door, neither of them was sure whether it was men bathroom or women bathroom. Jieun’s head was in daze because of the alcohol amount but she was pretty sure that she didn’t want Daniel to stop kissing her.

“Can’t – do it here,” Jieun managed to let out a whimper when Daniel buried his head on the crook of her neck and on her skin – she was pretty sure he was going to leave a mark there. “Let’s go home then.” Daniel was smirking when he looked at her directly into her eyes. “You have planned this,” Jieun groaned in disdain when Daniel let her go from his previous grip. “I might have,” Daniel replied instead.

“This is not going to work, Daniel,” Jieun let out a sigh, even though her mind was still messy, she did come out with a conclusion. “You have said that.” Daniel said as he her hair. “No, more like I am currently complimenting to throw away all my words earlier,” Jieun snapped which caused taken Daniel aback a little but smiled nonetheless – he didn’t plan the event in all honesty but he was indeed more sober than Jieun right then and he was pretty sure of it.

“So what now?” Daniel raised his eyebrow in amusement. “We are not doing it in the toilet, Daniel, imagine the anticlimax,” Jieun scoffed nonchalantly despite the great urge to just say what has been playing on her mind – and instead of giving his agreement and actually get out from the stall, Daniel put one of his arm beside her suddenly as he leaned closer and kissed her again.

It was less intense and less messy than the previous one, but it was definitely felt more sweet and longing – Daniel loves the feeling of it a little bit more, just because he could feel how Jieun smiled against his lips. “Say it.” Daniel pulled away softly after and smiled back at her.

“Let’s try us,”

---

Park Chanyeol wanted to die when he arrived at the station with the other three, after Myungsoo insisted that maybe he should just let it go and just wait until Kwon Jieun came home and asked her about what the she was doing in Busan instead of making Myungsoo, Baekhyun and Minseok ran around Busan just to find nothing – and worse, the other two actually agreed with Myungsoo.

Chanyeol slowly pulled his hoodie down when he was buying a snack while waiting for their schedule – it was when he was about to go back to his friends, he spotted a group walked passed by on the other side of the station. Chanyeol didn’t really care at first until he noticed a very familiar female figure, along with his ultimate nemesis, who was just walking a couple meter ahead her.

Only a moment later, Chanyeol realized that everyone in the large group seems to know Jieun well. He didn’t know the man that was talking to Jieun right then when he decided to follow their path – he was taller than Jieun, jet-black hair and sharp feature – Chanyeol raised his eyebrow when the male started to laugh and Jieun replied him with a smile.

And when they were about to leave their spot, Chanyeol then noticed that Daniel have move backward to Jieun’s direction and Jieun’s hand immediately reached out to ruffle his hair almost affectionately that Chanyeol almost lost it and also, almost murdered the bodyguard right then – he immediately made a mental note that he will search for whoever those people are.

There are nine boys including Daniel, and Chanyeol almost didn’t recognized any of them because most of them were back facing him most of the times, and Chanyeol didn’t really get the best place to watch since he was too angry about something else happening. “Hold up a second,” Baekhyun said as he zoomed at the picture Chanyeol took – he decided it was the best to only show Baekhyun the picture since he needed someone who definitely will be on his side without questioning too much.

“Please tell me something useful,” Chanyeol replied. “I think I have seen this kid before with someone,” Baekhyun said as he pointed at a certain male, whose face was one of the face that Chanyeol’s camera managed to capture. “Are you sure?” Chanyeol raised his eyebrow skeptically. “Yeah, yeah,” Baekhyun nodded vigorously.

“I remember seeing him when I went to meet Ha Sungwoon,”.

(A/N) I know it's been quite some times since I last updates and I'm really sorry about it :( My uni have been killing me lately and thus the delay :( I hope you will still like this chapter, I wrote this in hurry since I don't want you guys to wait longer, so enjoy! :)) <3

yours truly, karoines.