Third Person's POV

“Are you alright?” Nayoung asks, distracting him from growing skeptical to Donghae. Hyukjae looks up from the little trance, rubbing his left shinbone that Donghae just kicked and nods sheepishly to her.

Leaving the door opened, Nayoung takes a step back to give Hyukjae some space to lay his cousin down on the back seat. Donghae is grinning widely all the time before he pulls Nayoung over to sit on the back seat with him.

“Let’s sit here!” he exclaims childishly. Hyukjae’s eyes bulge out when he catches him sneaking his arm around her waist.

“Yah, Lee Donghae!”

“What!” Donghae replies with an overly cheered giggle. Hyukjae shakes his head, perhaps he really is drunk.

“It’s okay, let him.” Nayoung tells him with a small smile. She frankly didn’t expect she would have the chance to witness this overprotective side of Hyukjae once again, and in some way she can feel a spark of happiness erupting inside.

But Hyukjae is anything but happy with this view at the back of his car. With one last glare for Donghae, Hyukjae closes the door shut and climbs into the driver’s seat. He ignites the machine to life, driving his white SUV away from the car park in front of the mansion. The security staffs at the gate quickly open the gate for him with a respectful, uniform bow.

The ride is filled with silence as the car streaks on the length of the road. It feels like the quietness is slowly swallowing them down, but none of the three has the intention to break it. Well at least none of the two; Nayoung and Hyukjae.

Nayoung is staring away out the window and biting on her lower lip, suddenly she finds the whizzing night lights outside the car as the most interesting thing in the world – while Hyukjae is busy fixing his gaze on the road ahead of him, trying his best not to keep glancing at the rear view mirror to look at a certain someone.

However, Donghae, who watches the pair zipping their mouths shut the whole time, decides that the silence is getting too irritating. He couldn’t stand it anymore. If the two wouldn’t speak, then he will make them. Well that’s part of the plan; to ease away the awkwardness. He rolls his eyes and murmurs something as incoherent as he can, risking his life to Hyukjae by resting his head on Nayoung’s shoulder. She gasps softly, surprised at the sudden weight on her side.

At first, Hyukjae didn’t realize this. He was too deep in his own thought and dumbly shooting his gaze at a silver car in front of him to distract himself away.

Annoyed, Donghae daringly ignites the fire. “Babyyyy~” he calls out to Nayoung, looking up to her with his forehead buried into her neck; his fingers skimming down her smooth cheeks gently.

Hyukjae finally glances at the rear view mirror, and almost immediately he feels his heart leaping up to his throat. Out of shock, he steps on the break violently. The whole car jerks stopped and Donghae almost falls off the seat.

“LEE DONGHAE!” he turns around and roars angrily, giving no attention to the cars honking behind them for almost making several cars behind to piling up. His glare seems dangerous. Donghae restrains himself from cackling loudly and continues looking drowsy.

“Aish! Drive safely, Hyukkie!” Donghae pouts hazily. This time, he nonchalantly rests his head on Nayoung’s lap, intentionally setting another fire into Hyukjae’s nerves.

Hyukjae groans with his deep voice and turns to Nayoung. His eyes soften a bit. But that’s it; just a bit. He can never be too gentle when he's practically burned by possessiveness. “Nana, move to the front seat.” He commands.

Nayoung blinks, her cheeks reddening from his dark stare. “But Donghae would-”

“Kang Nayoung. Move to the front seat.” Hyukjae repeats gravely emphasizing on each word, almost giving her a ‘don’t-make-me-repeat-myself-twice’ look. This side of him is pretty much new to her.

Nayoung feels her heart skipping a beat as she carefully removes Donghae’s head from her lap. She opens the door next to her and proceeds into the passenger seat beside Hyukjae. Donghae doesn’t give them a protest. When Hyukjae turns to Nayoung who is now fastening her seatbelt, Donghae almost does the victory dance at the back seat for the little achievement.

Soon, the car starts accelerating again. The situation is back to silent but for Donghae, at least Hyukjae doesn’t hold back his expressions like how he did earlier. He’s finally letting the anger out of his overprotective nature – or Donghae would refer it as a jealousy – and sometimes stealing a few glances at Nayoung when she looks away.

The car comes to a stop at the parking lot of a tall building.

“It’s Donghae’s apartment.” Hyukjae informs her when she looks up at the building with a confused expression.

“Ah.” Nayoung nods her head. She then glances at Hyukjae only to blush, surprised to find his almond shaped eyes set on her. Hyukjae fails to suppress a smile.

“I’ll bring him up to his unit. Is it okay for you to wait here?”

“...Can I come with you two instead?” she questions silently, fidgeting with her fingers. “I mean, the parking lot is a bit dark and all...”

“Oh, of course. I’m sorry.” Hyukjae mentally bangs his head to an imaginary wall of bricks. He forgot that she always has some certain paranoid for dark places. “Then let’s get outside. And uh, I think you should wear the coat more properly, I bet it’s freezing outside.”

Nayoung blushes a deeper shades of red and obediently nods her head. She pulls her arms through the jacket sleeves that were only hanging on her shoulders beforehand, while Hyukjae hops off the driver’s seat and walks to the back seat. He pulls the ‘sleeping’ Donghae by his arm and gives him a piggyback ride up to his unit.

After they rest Donghae safely on his bed, they head back to the car. The elevator ride to the lobby doesn’t suffocate them anymore. Unlike their first meeting at Kangsan Building, now they are more loosened up even though silence is still covering the air. But still, Nayoung is deadly nervous now. How is she going to act when they reach the car? There will be no Donghae; no distraction. Would he continue their talk earlier at the banquet before Donghae showed up? Nayoung chews on the inside of her cheeks, she can feel Hyukjae’s eyes on her.

“Nana,” he finally breaks the silence.

“Yes...?” she almost stammers, not daring to look up. For some reason she’s getting more and more nervous.

“Uh,” Hyukjae rubs the back of his neck. “I think...”

Nayoung clutches her dress nervously waiting for him to finish whatever he has to say. Her heart nearly bursts out when he trails off, until finally he finishes.

“I think you forgot your purse.”

“What?” she just realizes her hands are emptily holding onto nothing. Oh, she must have left it on the coffee table at Donghae’s living room. How clumsy, she mentally facepalms. “O-oh you’re right.”

Hyukjae smiles softly. Seems like that habit of leaving things around still sticks with her. “Wait for me at the lobby, I’ll get your purse.”

“No, no, I can get it myself.” She says.

“But Donghae is...” Hyukjae pauses for a right wording. Actually he’s just worried Donghae would do something inappropriate to her under the effect of alcohol. He gives her a tentative glance. “Well he’s... drunk.” He hopes she can understand what he means without having to bluntly spill out the obvious consequences.

“I can protect myself.” She assures him.

“But...” Hyukjae sighs in defeat. “Okay. But don’t hesitate to punch him in the face if he... you know.”

“Alright.” She laughs softly.

The elevator door opens at the ground floor and Hyukjae steps out. “I’ll wait here. Be careful, okay?”

Nayoung nods her head shyly, preceding the elevator back to the 17th level. She’s now alone in the elevator and heaving the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She calms down. She can feel her cold fingers warm up while the heat on her cheeks gradually disappears. But her heart is still pounding rapidly.

She lets out a smile – now without the nervousness and awkwardness around – and hugs the black jacket suit around her body tightly. Hyukjae’s scent still lingers on the fabric, letting her to know that he still smells the same; still sweet and musky and of course, intoxicating. Even though the coat is oversized on her petite figure, but it feels very comfortable in it. She doesn’t know if it’s because she knows who the owner of this designer black suit is, or because it’s originally well made. Either way, it gives her off the sensation of being secured and... embraced.

The feeling to be around him is still the same for her; heart-fluttering and breath-taking. Just a few days ago, she hated the butterflies in her stomach whenever he was around. Just a few days ago, she tried to avoid him all costs. But now she’s smiling like a fool just for having his jacket suit on her.

Maybe she just wanted to hear it from Hyukjae; she wanted to know that he’s actually feeling guilty. She has no idea if it's wrong to let her guard down for him this fast, but she couldn’t help it. It felt just enough when she heard him uttered his apology. Moreover, she knows it herself that she can’t avoid him forever. She just wouldn’t have the heart to do that. She wouldn’t be able to do that. Deep inside, she was strongly agreeing with Daeyoung’s statement a few days ago: she needs Hyukjae.

The ‘ding’ sound from the speaker above the elevator doors reels her out of her train of thoughts. Shaking her head quickly, she makes her way to Donghae’s unit. 302, she notes in her head. It doesn’t take her long to find the number on one of the doors lining up at the right side of the deserted hallway.

She raises her hand and is about to knock on the familiar door when she notices it is slightly open. It's weird, she remembers Hyukjae closed it shut earlier. With a frown, she pushes it a little to open it wider.

“Where were you?” Donghae’s voice is heard just when she walks into the doorstep.

She stops momentarily to make sure the voice really belongs to Donghae. The voice is so clear and close, not vague at all. She’s sure it’s really Donghae who’s talking; what makes her unsure about it is the fact that he sounds too sober than he should have been.

“Out.” Oh, someone else is inside.

But Nayoung stiffens. That ‘someone else’ particularly sounds like her brother.

“You don’t seriously think I’d hide in your closet, right?” his husky chuckles make her sure that Donghae is talking to her brother.

“Well Hyukjae was exceptionally suspicious to me, but fortunately he’s still too gullible and distracted to realize the whole thing.” Donghae explains.

“Sometimes I can’t understand how you two are connected by blood when he’s so naive and you’re just so... you.”

Donghae snickers. “And sometimes I can’t understand how he’s a genius in business but a total fool when it comes to love matters.” She involuntarily flinches. 

“Okay, cut it off. How was it going?” Daeyoung sounds impatient.

“I'm the mastermind of this, so it went great.” Donghae states in a shrugging tone. “But you know, I could sense Hyukjae is going to rip my head off tomorrow.”

“What did you do?”

“I did the plan B.” 

Nayoung’s eyes go wide as she keeps her silence behind the wide, wooden partition that hides her location from the living room. Oh God, not this again.

A bit rushed, sorry >.<

Anyways, welcome new readers and new subbies ^^

Thank you for commenters :D