CHAPTER TWELVE: The New Seo Joohyun.

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Every man in the room looked at the couples in the dance floor with jealousy, except one person. He had been standing around the food area and trying everything he could see, looking like there was nothing better than the food in front of him.

- Changmin oppa, your Joohyun is going to be snatched away if you only focused on food like that. – SooYoung was bored once HyunKi became the winner, so she decided to find another target to ‘torture’.

Changmin just shrugged and continued to eat with even a faster speed.

- So Seohyun can wait then?

Choi SooYoung would never give up that easy, and this time, she forced Changmin to face her.

- Isn’t this all thanks to you? – He glared at her angrily. He could no longer pretend that he didn’t care that Seohyun was in the arms of another man. He did. A lot.

- Yah, I gave you both equal chances. Why didn’t you come over early and asked for her hand?

Changmin sighed quietly.

- She would be more than happy to accept it. I saw it all, oppa.

- Young, you know she would have to make a choice sooner or later. And she did this time.

- Does it mean that you should just stand here aimlessly like this?

- She is not someone who falls head over heels for another, or else I would be her boyfriend by now. I know her well, Young.

Changmin smirked. He was jealous, no doubt. However, a guy whom she met for once would never be a threat to him, or to their relationship. HyunKi might have to take more time for Changmin to consider him as his strongest competitor.

- Yah Shim Changmin, don’t be so full of yourself. – Kyuhyun happened to pass by, and he couldn’t help but correct his twin. – I know her for a long time too.

- I knew her first!

- I had so many moments with her. We even held hands on stage!

- Yah Cho Kyuhyun, stop showing off.

SooYoung didn’t want to stay there to listen to their useless argument, but before she left, she had to warn Changmin

- Oppa, don’t be a coward and worry about being hurt, or hurt other. You said it yourself, sooner or later, Seohyunie would have to choose and someone will be hurt. It’s fine to be selfish sometimes.

They stopped the argument at her words and turned to look at her, speechless.

- And you too, Kyu oppa. Friendship is not the only thing that matters.

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As HyunKi pulled Seohyun closer, he looked down and whispered to her ears

- So tell me, princess, why not Minho?

- Can’t it because I like you more than Minho?

Seohyun looked at him, trying to sound genuine.

- You do. – HyunKi nodded. – I know that, but it wasn’t the main reason. I was only happened to be there. If it was someone else, you probably would choose them too.

This time, she kept quiet. She was once again surprised by how well HyunKi could see through her. Oddly, she didn’t feel threaten by his understanding despite the fact that she was the secretive type.

- Let me guess then. You don’t want to date Minho.

It wasn’t a guess. It was a confirmation. Seohyun could only nodded.

- I’ll take it that at least you consider me as dating material.

HyunKi smiled like the happiest man on Earth, which in the eyes of the men in the room, it looked extraordinarily arrogant. Seohyun giggled and then signed. She wasn’t sure if HyunKi was too perfect for her.

- Oppa. – She spoke softly. – Thank you.

- Judging from how your fans have been looking at us, from a business man’s perspective, you do owe me, Seohyunie.

HyunKi winked and grinned, and then let go of her hand for Seohyun to make a spin, making Seohyun startled. As quick as he let her go, he pulled her in for their final steps. Instead of put his hand on her back, he hugged her waist and closed all the distance between them. Seohyun was surprised at the move, but as her nose touched his shirt, her sense was aware of his familiar comforting scent more than ever.

- And I’ll take this as a payback for now.

He leaned in and gave a peck on the cheek, before freeing her and bidding goodbye.

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The aftermath was literally chaos. All the men were envious, but their attentions were divided into two groups: her SM oppa wanted to murder HyunKi, while the outsiders were motivated with the belief that they could steals the SM maknae away. As such, the men who weren’t in SM tried to grab Seohyun’s attentions as much as possible. It’s not that they didn’t act so before, but after seeing Seohyun’s cheek burning with the kiss from an outsider, they were no longer hesitant to shower her with affections.

VIXX N told her how lovely it would be if they could meet at a coffee and enjoyed a book together. MBLAQ Thunder told her how he had been admiring her from afar. 2pm Junsu asked her if she knew that she had been his ideal type for the longest time, his “Seohyun shidae”. And they were only the most noticeable ones.

Everyone tried to show off his skills, from dancing, singing, rapping, to even random magic tricks and childish actions. All knew well that it would be so much harder after this party to meet her, not to mention to impress her.

Seohyun deeply regretted her previous action of choosing HyunKi, when she realized what made all her guests suddenly seem so eager to please her. She tried to keep a polite smile, showing them the respect they deserved, but it had been a long day, so it had been getting harder to be kind or perfect. Thank God, not all her fanboys could present at the same time as they were all busy people and could only stop by for a while, or else she would have fainted just by listening to all of their confessions.

- Seohyun-ah, do you want to sit down, or lean on me for a bit? – Jinwoon cut off N’s performance when he saw how tired his friend look.

She nodded and smiled with gratitude.

- You are the best, Jinwoon.

Before Jinwoon had the chance to say anything, he was interrupted by not one, but a group of crazy, loud and possessive men

- How about us?

- Why are you preferring this ugly one when you have so many handsome men here?

- We are disappointed at you, Seohyunie!

- Yah Jinwoon, don’t try to steal her. Being her friend doesn’t work, understand?

They were no other than her male SM colleagues, with the loudest ones being those from Super Junior.

- Eunhyuk oppa, Yesung oppa, Ryeowook oppa, all of you - Seohyun lost tracks of how many voices were there – All are the kindest oppa I could ever asked for.

- Then who is your number one oppa?

- Neh…? Again…?

She was asked once on the JBJ talk show, but of course no one would be satisfied with the answers she gave. Seohyun really wanted to scream and ran away, but that’s just a dream.

- Don’t even start with Leeteuk hyung. He is a creepy old man.

- Yah Lee HyukJae, even without me, she would never name you as her first oppa.

- And no Jaewoon hyung. Just us, active idols only.

- No Yunho hyung either. He is too old for you anyway.

- Shim Chang Min!!! We are a team, remember?

- Opponent for now, hyung.

The scene became chaos again, but in Jinwoon’s eyes, Seohyun looked much more comfortable and lively than before, when she was surrounded by men from other companies. To avoid being pushed aside like VIXX N or Junsu, he immediately stepped back and watching the scene from afar, just like how he used to admire his friend secretly. He might be her friend, a best friend even, but they had been her family for a long time, so he knew better than to ask for something that would never be his.

Lucky for Seohyun, her unnie had realized the situation, so they came in to rescue her. They reminded everyone that the sun was setting soon, so they better started to clean up. As the guests took turn to say goodbye to Seohyun, Jinwoon, being the last one stayed to help with the cleaning for a while, finally had chance to spend the last few minutes with her

- Thank you for everything today, Jinwoon. – Seohyun reached out first to give him a hug.

Jinwoon was surprised by her action, because Seohyun had never been the one who was fond of intimacy. Nonetheless, he was super happy

- It’s not a big deal. You know you will always have me, right? – He rubbed her head and mumbled to himself. – I will do anything as long as it makes you happy.

- As a friend? – Seohyun looked at him like she knew what had been going on under his warm smiles, and longing eyes.

- Yes, as a friend. – Jinwoon nodded.

Jinwoon knew she was always a smart girl. And thankfully, he didn’t do anything stupid. He realized that they were better as friends than lovers because the feeling always fluctuated. As Seohyun decided to speak up instead of acting like she did know nothing, he knew that she had made up her mind. Jinwoon secretly felt relief as he could no longer have to wonder if they might have a chance, if he should just give up completely and move on.

Suddenly, they heard someone snorted loudly.

- Don’t think that we would trust you by saying that. – Minho looked at his 91-line friend, whom he considered one of his biggest competitors.

- Don’t think everyone is like you, Minho. – Jinwoon rolled his eyes.

- We second Minho. - Kyuhyun and Changmin didn’t miss their chance to attack anyone who dared to stay close to their Joohyun.

- Kyu oppa, Changmin oppa, your sanctions are not lifted yet. Let Seohyun be with other, won’t you? – Jessica looked at them and folded her hands in front of her chest.

- Unnie, what sanction?

Everyone immediately stopped all their work and turned toward them with bewilderment and nervousness. Jessica instantly cover by one hand, hoping that she wouldn’t slip anything else, but the way Seohyun looked at her made her feel that Seohyun had knew everything.

- Seohyun-ah… - Hyoyeon decided to try her luck. – Do you want to go change then rest? You probably are tired from all the standing and dancing.

Even when Hyoyeon looked her with pleading eyes, Seohyun wouldn’t let the opportunity to slip that easily, so she just shook her head. Jinwoon knew that it was his time to leave, so he reached out to grab her hand and said:

- I will be happy too, so don’t worry about me. And I didn’t speak only for me when I said that your happiness is important. Everyone who loves you could only truly be happy if you are happy, Seohyunie.

- Thank you. Same for you: Don’t worry for me, I will be happy too.

His words made her feel better about her decision, so once again, she reached out to hug him

- Thanks for being my friend, Jinwoon.

- Always, Seohyunie.

And with that, Jinwoon left, shattering the hope of everyone else in the room that he might be able to distract Seohyun from the problem.

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Seohyun looked around and decided that she better finished this as soon as possible

- Thank you very much for this party, presents and wishes, and especially, the love you all have been giving through all the years. – She bowed deeply.

- We love you, our maknae. – Taeyeon tried to go with the flow, but she failed at hiding her nervousness. – Do-don’t say thank.

All her male colleagues were still frozen in fear to say anything.

- And I love you all very much and deeply want to say thank you for everything.

- No need to be so formal, Hyunie. – Leeteuk finally regained his sense, but in a blink, he became frozen when Seohyun continued

- I really have a favor to ask of you all: Please consider me as an adult.

Yunho was the one who had to respond as Taeyeon and Leeteuk felt too guilty to say anything.

- W-we do…

- I knew about the sanction

Everyone gulped. The atmosphere was stretched under her words, and everyone was trying to avoid eye contacts with Seohyun

- It was my idea. It wasn’t Kyuhyun oppa or Changmin oppa’s fault.

- Told you. – Kyuhyun mumbled.

Soshi all glared at him. Even though he tried to be quiet, everyone could hear him clearly when the space had no other sound.

- I didn’t want to go to a date when I knew that there would be people following me around. And yes, I knew about the overseeing team.

This time, even Kyuhyun became dead quiet. YoonA tried to speak up to defend all of them

- Seohyun-ah,…

- Unnie, I know you are worried about me and my safety. Please trust that I am fully aware of how to take care of myself. I am no longer a baby.

No one could say anything else. Seohyun usually would keep all her dissatisfactions inside and only let those who were close to her know just enough about it. Thus, they knew that she had made up her mind and being deadly serious about what she would going to say next

- I knew about the Golden Meeting. I was in the room next to it the last time you all met.

Changmin looked at her in amazement. She quickly gave him a nod and continued

- I want you to know that I am not against the idea of you scanning my dates, and I really am thankful that you spend your precious time to ensure that I meet the best guys. I only felt uncomfortable when every detail about my date would be discussed, because…

Everyone sighed in relief. At least she didn’t hate them for being too protective of her, so they looked at her hopefully, waiting for her to continue. Seohyun took a deep breath, what she said may hurt her friends, nonetheless, she needed to make it known:

- There are things that I still prefer to keep to myself.

No one said anything. It was not something new, everyone wanted to keep something to themselves. However, Seohyun had been their maknae for too long that they forgot that their baby had matured. But the moment had finally come.

- I’m really sorry if this hurts you. – Her voice trembled lightly. – But… please?

Hyoyeon could never stand seeing Seohyun’s tear, so she was the first one to come and hug Seohyun

- Seobaby… Aigoo, Seohyun-ah, just know that you can always come to me when you need to talk.

- Me too. – SooYoung and YoonA ran to her, understanding right away because they were part of the maknae lines too.

- I guess we have no choice. – Taeyeon and Sunny were next. They never thought Seohyun was a weak girl who cried for help, but they got carried away by everyone’s attitudes.

Jessica, Yuri and Tiffany were the last, but they just quiet joined the group hug, letting their maknae know that no matter what happened, they were always family.

- We are family. And family loves you for being you, and support you regardless.

Surprisingly, Leeteuk and Yunho didn’t take long to join Soshi.

- Oppa, promise you won’t kill every male that comes near me.

Leeteuk didn’t respond, but Yunho pretended to think hard before replying playfully

- That I won’t promise.

- Oppa!

- But we can promise that we will respect your decision, including whom you want to date.

Leeteuk rubbed her head and then continued:

- But let me see him do anything inappropriate to you, and I can’t promise that I could control myself from killing him.

- Oppa!

- Aigoo, don’t worry Seohyun-ah, we will stop him.

- Or you can just take your future boyfriend to somewhere he couldn’t see and do anything you like for as long as he can.

- Dirty Eunhyuk!

- You dirty!

- She is a grown up now. That’s normal.

The rest happily joined the conversation, smiling, joking, playing around like how they had always behaved when together: a true family.