The delicate ting! of a bell sounded as Aileen entered the Chinese restaurant, followed by Kris who wasn’t that far behind.

“Ah, Aileen, dear!” A middle-aged woman appeared, ushering the girl over as Kris momentarily wore his signature judging-you face. “You’re here~” Aileen ran over to be enveloped in a motherly hug.

“Good evening, Mrs Kim!” Albeit her family was not of Chinese descent, the woman owned the restaurant. The place still did well and the cooking was still delicious. Being hugged by the woman reminded Aileen of her mum and made her miss her real mother greatly. At least she knew her family were having fun on holiday. Kris was still behind her, his eyes starting to judge everyone, the customers, judging everything, from the tables and chairs to the lanterns and decorations which hung over their heads. Aileen rolled her eyes at his skeptical personality.

“Gosh, always so polite,” Mrs Kim sighed contently. “Xiumin-ah,” she called. “Isn’t she the perfect daughter-in-law?” At those words Kris’s ears perked up. His eyes found a better place to look at and glued themselves to the plates of food on a random table, the couple sitting at the table giving him worried glances. No one noticed him. Aileen simply blushed.

“What?” A boy walked over from behind the door of the kitchen in a Chinese-styled waiter’s outfit. Kris’s eyes picked up from the freaked-out couple’s table and moved the glare to the boy who just appeared, looking him up and down. Xiumin threw Aileen a sympathetic grin. “Mum, me and Aileen are just friends.” Obviously, Kris thought.

“That’s right, Mrs Kim.” She nodded, smiling genuinely. Kris glared silently.

Suddenly, Mrs Kim finally noticed the tall boy who just stood there looming (rather obviously) over everyone. “And who is this young lad?” She smiled at Kris. “Your boyfriend, Aileen?”

The said girl opened into a small “o,” eyes widening. “A-aniyo!” She flushed deep red. Kris blinked at this.

“That’s good, so I still have a chance of making you my daughter-in-law,” Xiumin’s mum chuckled heartily.

“Mum?!” Xiumin exclaimed, exasperated now.

Aileen spoke up quickly, dismissing the very idea of being his wife. Not that it would be horrible, he was just a friend is all. She tried to change the subject. “Isn’t it time to work, now?”

“Ah, yes. Go get changed, dear.” She blew a sigh of relief.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kris sat at a table alone, still judging everyone and everything. A few minutes followed and then someone new appeared in front of his eyes. Aileen emerged from the dressing room in her own waitress’s dress, the fabric styled intricately like in any quality Chinese restaurant. Kris took this as a chance to take in as much as possible. The dress was a deep crimson, with a bit of shine to add to the classic air of it. Kris hardly noticed that, because he only saw how the outfit hugged at her body and surprisingly, the girl had curves. They weren’t seriously emphasized, but they were there, and he couldn’t miss them since the dress flattered those bits ever so nicely. Her waist was slim and her hips poked out inside the material a tiny bit. He mentally smacked himself. He also remembered the fact that she was an A-cup, but the size actually looked good on her. If they were bigger, well... What the am I thinking. He couldn’t help but stare though the guilt making his ears grow hot told him to look away now. It wasn't safe to say he kinda found it hot that this girl was in his home country's traditional clothing. He never really expected the fragilely structured girl-next-door to hold such womanly features.

Aileen looked anywhere but at Kris as she couldn’t bear to witness how he saw her now. She felt his eyes boring into her, but tried to ignore the feeling. You’re imagining things. She didn’t know what “things”, though. He’s probably glaring everything down from top to bottom since the moment we stepped inside. What is he doing now, though? She suppressed the urge to look and was finding every possible way to hide herself, flipping quickly this way and that at the same time as using the board in her hand as a body shield.

“Hey, Aileen! Psst!” The girl blew out a sigh of relief as she found someone to distract her for the while. She chuckled at Xiumin seeing as he called for her so loudly then for no reason went all quiet with the little “psst”.

“Yeah?” She went over to her friend.

“Hey, uh—um, I was thinking,” he stuttered. Aileen raised an eyebrow. “Can I have Ami’s number?” He scratched his head. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as a small smile touched her lips. Aileen wondered if she should. Well, she knew that Ami would give her phone to any cute boy, and Xiumin was a cute boy. Plus, it was so obvious that the cutie had a crush on her friend.

“Okay, baozi.” Aileen grinned and proceeded to help out her friend, jotting down the numbers on a small notepad.

“Excuse me; I’ve been waiting here for quite a while now!” A rumbling deep voice spoke up out of nowhere. She snapped her head at the owner of the bossy voice—none other than Kris. Aileen hurriedly scurried over to the older boy who sat alone; again aware of how revealing her dress was, hugging her board to her body again. She used a plate of cake to her advantage by lifting it to near her chin, hiding her chest.

“You hold plates really weirdly,” Kris commented, but he was staring at the table.

“May I help you?” She spoke through clenched teeth.

“Mm.” He took his time opening the menu, tediously trailing his index finger from one choice to another pausing at one dish (to Aileen’s glee, he’s finally found his ideal dish), then flipped the pages, starting from the beginning again.

“Will you hurry up!” She cried, throwing her hands in the air.

“Hey, you’re still on your job.” He smirked. No matter how right he was, she wanted to wipe it off his arrogant face. Her face fell. He’s just doing this to piss her off now.

The bell chimed again as a group of boys bustled into the restaurant. Her eyes grew wide as she recognised one of them. It was Kai and his friends.

♥

Sooyeon, Luhan and Ami were waiting at the bus stop. The D7 came first and it was Sooyeon’s time to hop on.

“See you tomorrow, guys!” She waved, earning a cute smile from Luhan and an ecstatic wave back from Ami. Wait. Scratch that. Did she just say that Luhan’s smile was cute? Aniyo, aniyo, aniyo!

Mentally beating herself up, Sooyeon officially made it on the bus without tripping over clumsily because of the cloud of thoughts that was now occupying her mind. She couldn’t deny it, though. Luhan’s smile was cute. But was he, as a whole, cute to her? Aileen was right. Sooyeon did have a thing for him. She just wouldn’t admit it. She admitted that she fell for a lot of guys mainly because there are so many hot people in the world, but Luhan? She didn’t even know if he felt the same. Wait, did she just admit that she liked him or something? Stop being silly, Sooyeon, she scolded herself.Why would he fall for you?

Too busy beating herself up, a revelation hit her like a football bonking off her head. She was so occupied fighting with herself; she forgot her school bag by the bus stop!

Sooyeon jabbed at the “STOP” button on one of the poles inside the bus, panicking as the bus almost rounded the corner. Luckily, it didn’t. Breathing a sigh of relief, she hopped off and hurried back to the bus stop. She couldn’t wait to see her friends again, but as soon as she neared the bus stop, she heard suspiciously hushed voices.

“You better not touch her.” It was Luhan, and his tone was low and heavy. She wondered why.

“Who?” Ami’s voice was high and questioning. She could ask the same thing.

“Them. Both of them.” What the hell is going on? She moved to the back of the bus stop for better hearing. She couldn’t help but give in to curiosity. Thank you God because there was a poster at the back of it that was huge enough to hide her.

“Oh, you mean Sooyeon.” She flinched at the mention of her own name. Why were Ami and Luhan talking like this behind her back? Before she could even get upset, Ami carried on, “of course, I wouldn’t do anything to her.” Like what? She was so confused now.

“The same goes for Aileen.” Luhan’s voice was rushed. “If you lay a hand—”

Ami’s bus arrived and the girl took this as a chance to escape the building fight. “Arasso~” she sang, waving away. Sooyeon watched as her friend disappeared, just like that. Luhan’s face fell and his eyes narrowed after Ami. Friend, she repeated in her mind.

She stiffened as she caught movement by Luhan. Not moving an inch from her hiding spot, Sooyeon’s eyes trailed along Luhan’s hands reaching for the object on the bench of the bus stop. He held it firmly, shaking his head and blowing a sigh as he looked down at the ground, burying his chin into the reason why she was still here. It was her bag, and he was hugging it to himself. She blushed, but blushing didn’t last long as she realised something big had just happened.

She was still frozen in her place. After all that eavesdropping, she couldn’t just magically reappear and greet him. The smart choice was to stay until he was gone because any movement now would blow her cover. She didn’t like hiding things, especially not from Luhan, but she was scared. Confused.

Why were Luhan and Ami keeping things from her and Aileen, and what was it that they were hiding? Why did Luhan sound so angry at Ami? Was Ami about to do something? She never had expected anything like that.

She had loads of questions and they weren’t about to be answered by neither Luhan nor Ami. But one truth stood out and that was the fact that she did not like the way Ami dismissed Luhan’s words like they were nothing. Ami said that she would not do anything to her, but she ignored Luhan’s request about Aileen. If anything had to do with her best friend, Sooyeon was a part of it. No matter how big or small. And this sounded serious. She will find more about this and what it is that Ami was planning to do, if she were planning anything at all. From today, she’ll be more wary.

It felt like hours for Sooyeon who stood there until it grew darker by the evening. She stayed until Luhan’s bus finally came and she watched as he took her bag with him.

Her mum will shout like crazy at her by the time she gets home.

♥

“Kay, bye.” She pushed Kris’s head to the side and abandoned him happily by rushing over to the newcomers.

“Hey!” Kris called.

“Can I help you?” She grinned, overjoyed that she didn’t have to wait on Kris and have him humiliate her for longer. One by one, heads turned up at her. They gave her snarky looks, and then one by one again, grinned hugely. She felt uncomfortable. Kai didn’t meet her eyes as he looked down and focused on the menu.

Without warning, one of the guys pulled her down onto his lap. “How ‘bout I have some of you?” Frozen in her spot by full degradation, her eyes and mouth were hanging open wide. "Since it won't be the first time," he whispered into her ear. She was about to throw herself off and consider to sock the guy’s nose off, when suddenly a heavy noise echoed.

On the other side of the room, Kris got up; hitting the table loudly with his legs but the tiny impact didn’t affect him. He was already charging at his target. In no time those extra-long legs got him looming in front of the moron who decided to pick on his Aileen. He didn’t think as he punched the guy in the jaw, throwing the worthless scum on the table. Aileen was now standing close, unmoving with double shock. The abstract crack told her that that jaw won’t work for months. Unanticipatedly, Kris took the plate of cake in her hands and dumped it on Kai’s head. Aileen’s eyes grew triple their size with horror.

“What the ?” Kai slammed his hands on the table, getting up and glaring back up at an equally angry Kris.

“For doing nothing,” he almost spat back, the venom in his voice malicious. But somewhere in the corner of his heart, not mind, Kris knew he dumped the cake on Kai for one other reason, too. He just didn’t like the idea of the guy getting close to his Aileen. Wait, when was she even yours? He asked himself.

Kai’s group of so-called “friends” abruptly departed through the door and dashed quickly out of the restaurant like scared chickens. Kai glanced at Aileen. For a second there she thought he’d say “sorry” or apologise somehow, but he looked down at the floor and found his way to the exit, not looking back. Her eyes filled with bleakness as she watched him leave.

Mrs Kim and Xiumin re-entered the scene just as they saw the tail of his jacket fly out the door. “Oh my!” The woman exclaimed, seeing the overwhelming mess on the table and an upe on the other side of the room. “What happened?! How did you wreck this place?” She yelled at Kris, unfortunate to be the closest to the destroyed table. The people at the tables sat there staring in silence. He faced the wall stubbornly. “Get out!”

Flaring his nose and forcing his neck away, he stormed out the damned place feeling frustrated by his actions and confused with his unnamed emotions.

▌A/N: So this one had a lot of action, neh? :D I hope you liked it~
What I had originally planned turned out to be too long so I split the chapter in two. For readers who are waiting for Chanyeol, thank you for being so patient! :) He will arrive... SOON. If you don't see me updating for a week it's cuz I'm procrastinating. xD I've still got about 3 v. important exams coming up so please bear with me! I've got this story roughly planned out so I know where it's going. ;D
Do leave thoughts & comments~ RLAB!