'You know...' Minhyuk thought, 'you're not her brother! At the very least, not her brother-in-law anymore... she doesn't need you to protect her.'

'I DONT FEEL LIKE HER BROTHER!!!' he yelled so loudly that one of the neighbours banged at the wall in annoyance, ' AISH!! I'm going for a walk. Lock the door when you leave... SINCE YOU HAVE A KEY!!!'

And then he slammed out of there. 

Yonghwa was not in a good mood.

Translation: He needed a drink.

And he would have gotten it too, if not for the fact that he bumped into Seohyun. Fate must be laughing at him somewhere up there, because this was definitely not the confrontation he wanted.

'Yong! Long time no see,' she greeted him.

And of course, if you were a jerk to Seohyun, you just felt like the lowest of the low, so he gave her his indulgent smile,' Hyun-ah, you're out pretty late tonight.'

She lifted the small plastic bag in her hands, 'I realised I needed pencils for my exams.'

He laughed. It was just like her to go out tonight when she could've easily waited the next day, given that her exams were at least a few weeks away. But she'd always been the conscientious type, and once she put her mind to it, she didn't like to procrastinate.

'Glad you were able to get them. Are you going home now?'

'I guess so,' she sighed and checked her phone again, 'I wanted to meet up with Hyoyeon-unnie but she's not answering her phone. I'm a bit worried.'

Yonghwa's smile faded a little bit, remembering that she was probably also angry with Jungshin and Minhyuk about their earlier conversation. Heck, he was angry with them, and he could just imagine how embarrassed Hyoyeon had been in front of Jonghyun. Seriously, he needed to have a talk with his dongsaengs about tact and sensitivity.

'You shouldn't be,' he said, processing Seohyun's last comment, 'I'm sure she's probably just letting off steam with Jonghyun-ah.'

'Jonghyun-oppa?'

Yonghwa looked at Seohyun funny, and she in turn looked at him guiltily, 'Since when have you started calling him oppa?'

'Well...' she coughed lightly before giving him her innocent eyes, which he knew were not quite as innocent as people thought, 'all the girls in class call him "oppa", and they tease me for being too formal and calling him "Jonghyun-sshi"... so I changed it.'

Yonghwa laughed, 'Yes, it always did hurt his feelings a little that out of everyone, he was the only one you called with "-sshi".'

Seohyun suddenly looked pained, 'It was hard.'

'I know, and he knew it too,' Yonghwa assured her, 'How's school going?'

He realised they were standing in the middle of the street, and it was actually getting quite chilly, 'I was just going for a drink, I know you won't have alcohol, but do you want to have a coffee?'

'Ah, that's a good idea, you're not busy?' Seohyun grinned.

''Not really. And I can't go home as I have a pest problem,' he thought of Jungshin and Minhyuk, 'But before that-- can we pass by a club? It's where CN Blue will be performing gigs from now on. It's a new place and they said they should be almost done constructing a stage.'

'Oh, that's great, Yong! I want to see it!'

'Let's go then,' he grinned.

Yonghwa was actually in high spirits as he pushed the doors open for Seohyun. His eyes were on the stage already, and he was excited at how great it looked and actually wanted to get up there and just play around with the guitar lying idly for awhile.

Plans changed when Seohyun exclaimed, 'Hyoyeon-unnie!'

+

It definitely didn't look good.

Hyoyeon was a little bit intoxicated, she could feel it. Everything was light and happy, and she and Jonghyun had been laughing like idiots for awhile now as they spoke of being unlucky in love.

But when they heard Seohyun's voice, and what was worse, turned around to find both Yonghwa and Seohyun there...

Things got serious.

As the smile dropped off from her face and she re-arranged her clothes (nothing suspicious, just that she'd been moving around a lot on the bar stool), she was relieved to realise that most of her intoxication was from good company rather than alcohol.

Jonghyun sat quietly next to her.

'Seohyun-ah, you're here with Yonghwa?' she cleared .

'Unnie! I tried to call your phone, but you didn't pick up.'

Hyoyeon was confused why Seohyun looked so jittery. She would've expected a similar response if she'd been sitting there with Yonghwa but she was here with Jonghyun...

Suddenly she looked at Jonghyun, who was looking at Seohyun like he wanted to say something or explain himself and suddenly everything clicked.

However, before she could comment, her eyes moved to Yonghwa, who was looking at her with such coldness, that she was surprised she didn't freeze.

Suddenly she snapped.

'Yah! What's your problem?' Hyoyeon guessed her tongue was looser than she expected, as she called him out on his glare.

'Me?' he shook his head in disgust, 'Nothing.'

And then he just turned and walked out, leaving the three remaining people looking at each other, shocked.

'Seohyun-ah, let Jonghyun take you home,' she patted her best friend's arm, before bolting out the door after Yonghwa.

Possibly, the alcohol had given her the extra courage.

+

'JUNG YONG HWA!!! You bastard!!!'

Yonghwa had been doing fine ignoring the noisy, pint-sized girl calling after him for the last few minutes as she tried to get him to stop, but at her last angry yell, he spun around and grabbed her in the arm and pulled her to a quiet side street.

'Could you be any louder?!'

'Do you want me to try?!?' she challenged him.

'Try!'

She went to yell again, tilting her head up at him angrily, when he moved forward and slapped his hand over .

'Shut up!' he hissed at her.

He was close, and she was close.

She could feel his calloused palm against her lips, and he wasn't any better-- the softness of her lips against his hand was unbearable.

His scent was enveloping her, and it was driving her crazy as she knew it was the same aftershave he used since high school, being a creature of habit that he was. Her sweet scent was also intoxicating him, it was definitely some sort of flower-- but he couldn't quite tell which one...

Their eyes met like that.

Her hand reached up to circle his wrist, sending a shiver through his gut. She tried to yank at his hand, but his grip stayed firm but not painful.

'Are you going to behave?'

Her eyes sparked.

'I guess not,' he laughed, 'I guess we'll stay like this until you calm down.'

Hyoyeon's first thought was, I hope I never calm down, so that we can stay like this forever...

But after a few minutes, all the fight was out of her and she realised that it was too cold for them to stay like that any longer.

'MM MM MM MM mm mmmm'

'What was that?' he lifted his hand lightly from her lips, just enough to let her voice come out unmuffled.

'I said, I'm calm,' she planted two hands across his broad chest and pushed him away.

They both eyed each other, barely arms length apart.

'Why were you so angry in there?' she demanded, finally remembering why she had run after him.

'I wasn't angry.'

'Then you were just glaring at me for fun?'

'You're imagining things.'

'I'm not!' she insisted, 'we've been friends for years Yonghwa, and you've always been great to me. Even when other people judged me, you always encouraged me. I would know when you suddenly start looking at me with what-- disgust? Annoyance? Anger? I may not know exactly what emotion was in your eyes-- but I know you weren't happy.'

Yonghwa suddenly felt bad.

He knew what emotion it was, but he didn't feel ready to tell her.

Of course it was Jealousy.

To see her laughing there with Jonghyun, in fact-- Hyoyeon probably laughed with everyone. But Jonghyun was the opposite-- more reserved and barely laughed with anyone. To see her effect on him was gut wrenching.

Maybe it wasn't jealousy, maybe it was Fear?

Fear that Jonghyun was going to realise how gorgeous and wonderful Hyoyeon was, and then make a move. And although she denied it, maybe Hyoyeon had feelings for him too...

And suddenly, with the idea of Hyoyeon with another man, especially his best friend, he was back to Jealousy.

'I'm not angry with you,' was what he said.

It wasn't anger.

Never anger.

She stared at him for a long moment, enough to make him uncomfortable, scrutinising his facial expression, before breathing a sigh of relief, 'Okay.'

They stood there at odds, just trying to absorb the last few minutes before finally he spoke.

'Let's go home?'

It felt weird to say it to her, although he'd probably done so a fair few times in high school, and since they started university.

'Yeah, okay.'

But because they'd just done something important, Yonghwa didn't want to let it drift back to the status quo of being "just friends". He remembered the song he'd just written for her, and was suddenly excited for her to hear it. He hadn't yet mixed it, but he could easily play it with the guitar...

'Do you want to...'

'Oh, what's this?' she looked down at her phone which had started to flash, 'Jonghyun-ah?'

She looked at Yonghwa as though checking his reaction. He tried to keep a straight face. Tried to keep from being annoyed at the realisation that not only did Jonghyun have her number, but was actually using it, when he himself didn't.

Yong, Jungshin and Minhyuk have her number too and they also use it... he tried to remind himself.

He needed to be nicer to his best friend. Maybe he was just calling to let her know that he'd taken Seohyun home safely.

'Yeah? That's good. I remember, yeah yeah, I understand. Okay, I will. I'll see you tomorrow then. Good night.'

While she was talking, Yonghwa assured himself that the reason Hyoyeon was smiling so brightly was not because she'd just heard Jonghyun's voice, but rather because once again-- she was glad her best friend got home safely.

Play nice, Yonghwa.

'Tomorrow?' he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

'Yeah,' she smiled, 'Jonghyun has an assignment for school-- and he asked me to sing a song with him.'

And suddenly, he wasn't feeling so friendly anymore.

In fact, he wanted to punch a wall.

But having just reassured Hyoyeon that he wasn't angry with her, he couldn't very well ruin that all now or they'd be moving two steps backwards again. He forced a smile onto his face, 'That's nice.'

'Yeah, it'll be the first time someone's written a song for me.'

Yonghwa suddenly thought punching a wall might be too relaxed. Maybe throwing a chair, a table, an expensive vase at a wall...

He needed to get out of there, fast.

'I need to go,' he said.

He was amazed that he managed to last five hundred metres before making a sharp right and kicking the crap out of a few unsuspecting bags of rubbish that didn't do anything to deserve his wrath.

+

After calming down though, he decided he had to take matters into his own hands.

If he wanted to win the girl, he couldn't keep reassuring her that they were just friends.

He didn't want to be just friends, and even though he had no idea how he was going to do it, he was going to have to convince Hyoyeon that she didn't want to be just friends with him either.

With that, he started to put his plan into motion.

+

Author's Note: Hi everyone, I hope you're still enjoying the fic. I have a question to ask you guys in my next author's note. So I hope you'll anticipate it. Hehe I don't want to ask you yet because it's a bit premature. But I'll see you then! <3 Kei

PS. I started watching Gentlemen's Dignity for Jonghyun, I think its really worth the watch ^___^ he's sooooo cute in it!