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.

+++

‘We promise to give up on trying to get you and Seohyun-ah together,’ Jungshin and Minhyuk repeated in exasperation.

And “repeated” was an understatement. Yonghwa had been making them recite the same phrase for the past five minutes because he was suspicious of their sincerity.

‘Because you guys know that—,’

‘—that Jonghyun-hyung likes Seohyun,’ Minhyuk finished his sentence.

‘Yes. And because everything is—,’

‘— is new, so we shouldn’t try to add extra pressure on them and just leave them alone,’ Jungshin interrupted him again.

Yonghwa grinned, satisfied that his message was getting through. While he didn’t doubt the good intentions of his dongsaengs, he also didn’t doubt that sometimes they were just a little too gung-ho about everything.

‘Okay, well now that that’s settled—I have something else to talk to you about.’

‘What is it? A new song?’ Jungshin asked.

‘Not quite,’ Yonghwa replied,’ It’s—,’

‘—a new gig?’ Minhyuk guessed.

‘This is not a guessing game. If you stay quiet for more than a few seconds I’ll tell you—,’ and satisfied that they weren’t going to interrupt him again, he continued, ‘—I need your help with something.’

‘Anything!!’ Minhyuk and Jungshin instantly replied.

‘When Jonghyun or Seohyun asks you to go to the theme park—say no. I don’t care what excuse you give them, just make it believable.’

‘Why wouldn’t you want us to go? I haven’t been to Everland in awhile!’ Jungshin complained.

‘You can go another time—maybe you’ll ask Sooyoung-ah to go with you,’ Yonghwa said.

Jungshin blushed and fell quiet, unable to think of a witty response.

‘And me? Who am I supposed to take?’ Minhyuk whined.

‘You won’t need to take anyone—aren’t you busy with the play anyway?’

He groaned, ‘Don’t remind me!  She’s trying to kill me.’

Yonghwa and Jungshin exchanged an amused glance.

It was obvious that despite disapproving of her, Minhyuk had a thing for Tiffany. Why else would he have let himself be railroaded into playing a part in the university’s musical when there weren’t enough guys to make the numbers—and why did he agree to take the role of the male lead who’d broken a leg two weeks from opening night?

For all his complaints, he was happy to be able to spend long hours “learning lines” with Tiffany.

‘I have to go,’ Minhyuk looked at his phone, where it played a ringtone that they’d all become familiar with because it was assigned to Tiffany.

‘Jungshin-ah?’

‘Yeah hyung, I understand! I’m busy from now until you tell me I’m free,’ his maknae assured him.

Yonghwa grinned in satisfaction.

+++

‘Hyoyeon-unnie!’

Hyoyeon turned to see where Seohyun was standing next to Jonghyun, waving to get her attention. She grinned and bounded over to greet them.

‘Thanks for coming unnie,’ Seohyun linked arms with her, ‘I feel embarrassed that I have to keep calling you out to chaperone—I should be old enough to do this on my own but...’

‘Seohyun-ah, what else do I do as your unnie? I should at least do this, right?’

‘You do lots for me!’ she argued, ‘but... actually, I just wanted to warn you.’

‘Hyung, you came?’ Jonghyun called to someone behind them.

Hyoyeon turned around, a little bit excited to see Yonghwa, but also Jungshin and Minhyuk, whom she hadn’t spoken to for a few days. Not since the time with Jonghyun at the restaurant.

 ‘Where are the other two?’ she looked behind him.

‘They were really sad that they couldn’t make it today,’ he replied, ‘but we’ll be fine like this right?’

Hyoyeon shook her head in disbelief and wondered.

Was it not weird for him to be chaperoning his ex-girlfriend’s first date with his best friend?

She stole a glance but was shocked to catch him staring at her quite unashamedly, ‘What is it? Is there something on my face?’

‘Yeah,’ he leaned forward, and brushed his thumb over her cheek, lingering for what Hyoyeon felt was forever, ‘I got it, all done!’

‘Thanks,’ she muttered, trying to get her heart to stop racing.

She touched her hand to her face, but before she could ask him what it was—since she hadn’t eaten anything in awhile—he spoke up.

‘Hey guys, we’re all adults now—Hyun-ah, Jonghyunnie, you can go on your own right? We’ll meet you for lunch.’

‘What? That’s not—,’ Hyoyeon protested.

‘Sounds good,’ Jonghyun said with a shrug, though it was obvious that he was happy about it. He obviously didn’t want the ex-boyfriend breathing down their necks.

Hyoyeon looked at Seohyun, waiting for a distressed signal, but it never came. In fact, the way she turned away so quickly was almost hurtful to her.

‘If they were going to go off on their own anyway, then why are we here for?’ she muttered.

‘Do you like Jonghyun after all?’ came the blunt question.

‘What?’ Hyoyeon nearly tripped, steadying herself and shrugging off Yonghwa’s arm that was reaching out to help her, ‘are you out of your mind?’

‘I just thought I’d ask,’ Yonghwa shrugged.

She stared at him, but he kept walking and she had to jog to keep up with his long strides, ‘Hey you! You can’t just say stuff like that and then act like it never happened!’

‘Then prove it. Try to enjoy yourself without their company,’ he tossed a basketball at her.

It was only as she reflexively caught it that she realised they had somehow made their way to the gaming centre with all the arcade games.

‘Fine,’ she said, putting the ball down to tie her hair up,  ‘but when I beat you, don’t come crying to me!’

He laughed, and she was shocked at just how happy she was to have been able to make him. She started to loosen up, thinking that perhaps their friendship hadn’t quite stepped over the invisible line and that all would be okay—that the night in the alley would be forgotten.

‘Let’s make this interesting... do you want to bet?’

Hyoyeon’s breath caught at the gorgeous, cheeky smile on his face. She couldn’t help but grin back.

 ‘What kind of bet?’

‘Loser has to obey the winner for a week.’

+++

‘No fair, you totally cheated—you cut me off!’ Hyoyeon insisted, as they got out of their overalls from the go-karts.

‘Play fair—but win by any means necessary,’ he winked at her.

Night had fallen and they were just waiting around for Jonghyun and Seohyun, who had texted to say they would be a little late because they wanted to catch one last ride.

‘So what do you want me to do?’

Hyoyeon had her hands on her hips, looking up at him expectantly. She didn’t like to lose, and was definitely sulky about his cheating, but a bet was a bet and it looked like she was ready to honour it.

‘I want an ice cream,’ he said, pointing to a nearby stand.

It seemed manageable, ‘What flavour?’

‘One scoop strawberry, one scoop chocolate,’ he replied casually, not letting on that although strawberry was his favourite, he knew that chocolate was hers.

He watched her as she ordered and paid, laughing and joking with the ahjussi who was preparing the cup. Even though he was tired, he couldn’t help but be energised by her laughter.

He was itching to reach for her hand and hold it, the easy atmosphere they’d shared all day was calling for it, but he knew it was too much too soon. He was only on phase one of his plan—and he still had a week to convince her that dating him might not be such a bad idea.

‘Here,’ she offered the cup to him grudgingly.

He shook his head.

‘Yonghwa—tell me you’re not wasting food,’ her eyes widened.

‘Try not to get any on my shirt.’

Her jaw dropped as it dawned on her that he intended her to feed him the ice cream, ‘Wait a minute! Are you crazy? Don’t you think you’re going a little too far?’

‘It’s no big deal,’ he said, grabbing the spoon from the cup, scooping a bit of chocolate ice cream on it and offering it to her lips, ‘friends feed friends, right?’

She looked suspiciously at the spoon, before taking a bite.

He then passed her the spoon, ‘Easy, right?’

+++

It wasn’t easy at all.

Hyoyeon leaned against her door, happy to be rid of everyone—even her beloved Seohyun. She didn’t think her heart could handle any more of Yonghwa’s full attack.

She didn’t know what had gotten into him— but he was definitely messing with her.

If she was lucky she could get away without seeing him for a week...

But... she doubted she would be that lucky.

Instead she would have to fight fire with fire, and make sure that whatever he had planned—he wasn’t going to succeed.

She needed to protect her heart, restore their friendship to its previous state... and move on.

+++

Author's Note: Firstly I apologise for such a long delay in updating-- I was just gathering inspiration... and couldn't quite find it. Seeing Jonghyun so much in  A Gentleman's Dignity made me want to make him the lead character-- I had to resist!

Secondly, I apologise for any mistakes in this update-- I lost a whole update I wrote two weeks ago, and it's now taken me 5 attempts to try and post this one... so all my last minute checks have gone out the window. Please enjoy though :)