“This is my cousin, a future stylist, Jihyun Noona,” Sehun introduced the girl who stood next to him to Ara after they had entered a room in the third level of the Oh mansion. One filled with many huge closets and clothes lying on the couch and several chairs and even on the floor. The girl, or woman, had striking features, sharp and defined, which made her look quite mature, and the tall height seemed to be common in the family's genes.

“Nah, nah, Hunnie. Not just a stylist, but I will the stylist in the near future. I will be big, so better be grateful that I'll dress up your girlfriend tonight,” Jihyun stated with a cheeky and confident grin, a huge contrast to her mature features.

Ara bit back a smile at the sight of Sehun's eyebrow twitching; it seemed that he didn’t like to be called “Hunnie”. She then gave her attention the older girl again, as the latter continued, “So you're Hunnie's girlfriend, Ara, eh?” She gave the younger girl a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you!”

Ara bowed lightly, unsure as to how she should react to the older one. Contrary to her appearance, she seemed rather youthful. “Nice to meet you, too, Ji – eh, Unnie,” she quickly corrected herself. She barely called anyone Unnie, so it was quite unusual for her to say it, but she supposed that it was appropriate right now. However, the other girl seemed to think otherwise, “Jihyun is fine, really. Those three years don’t really matter, do they?” She chuckled. “And I'd feel old being called Unnie.”

Sehun narrowed his eyes and turned to face his cousin. “Why do I have to call you Noona then?”

Without sparing him a glance, Jihyun continued, “Because you're a brat.”

“What the heck!”

“Yah! You dare to raise your tone in front of your Noona?”

Despite the unfriendly and sharp tones they were using, Ara had the feeling that they were really close. Actually, it was exactly the tone that made them seem like siblings. Nagging and fighting siblings. She had to press her lips together to hold back her smile. Back then Hyejin and her had also sometimes been like that, but most of the time Ara had given in to avoid all too much trouble.

“Whatever.” Jihyun motioned with her hand towards the door. “Take your leave, Hunnie. It's about time for you to get ready, too.”

“And stop calling me 'Hunnie',” Sehun said, ignoring her request for him to leave.

“Leave, Hunnie. I have to start dressing up your girlfriend,” Jihyun continued undeterred, ignoring what he said as well.

Sehun – knowing that if his cousin felt like doing someone, she'd just do so – scrunched up his nose at his cousin's typical childish behavior before he took a step closer to Ara. “We'll see each other in a few hours. You're in good hands, so don't worry,” he said with a soft smile, reaching out to touch Ara's arm with his fingertips. It was a tiny action, nothing compared to a kiss or the like, but for the two, every single contact their skin made – be it so little – sent a soft prickling across their skin. 

The girl couldn’t help herself but to smile back as she nodded.

Then the male already disappeared, leaving Ara alone with his cousin. Ara, still a bit unsure as to how she should treat the older girl, cleared . Usually, she paid no attention to strangers, which in return got her an image of a rude girl, but she didn’t care all too much about that. However, now she was kind of forced to be polite right now, wasn't she? She had expected Sehun's cousin to act like his mother, but the actuality seemed very different. Seeing how friendly Jihyun had been so far, she decided just to do it. 

“Eh, can I ask you for a favor?”

Jihyun smiled friendlily. “Sure.”

“Can whatever I'm going to wear be not so revealing and flashy?” She mumbled quickly. She really didn’t want to offend Jihyun, but in all honesty, she didn’t want to wear the kind of dresses she'd seen before. Those with a completely exposed back or those showing much cleavage or ending just below the . Ara didn’t want to because she felt damn vulnerable in such dresses. If possible, she'd prefer not to wear a dress at all. A blouse and pants would be nice. But she knew that was impossible. 

Jihyun stayed silent for a minute, as it was shocking and incomprehensible for her that a girl as pretty as Ara would ask for such a thing. At the older girl's silence, Ara already made a face, thinking that she shouldn’t have asked for such a thing, since the other girl probably didn’t want to be so restricted when dressing Ara up. She was probably offended. However, the other girl only pouted. “But why? You're so pretty; I even had such nice dress ideas upon seeing you,” she huffed a bit, but then sighed. “Well, can't be changed, if you don’t want to. I'll see what I can do, alright?” 

Ara was surprised at Jihyun's reaction. She hadn't expected her to be so accepting, but then again, she had maybe been a bit too quick to judge. It wasn’t intentional judging but simply the natural first impression of a new person. 

“Uh, yes, thanks,” Ara quickly said after she had stayed silent for a second too long. She didn’t respond to the compliment because she really didn’t know how to react to that. Appearance had always played a far too little role in Ara's life for her to feel flattered when hearing such comments.

“Let's get started then.” Jihyun smiled before pulling Ara with her into the room behind this one.

They entered an even bigger room, that made the first one look like a anteroom. This one had no closets, only huge mirrors, a table with make-up utensils, another one with hairstyling utensils, and a changing place.

“Okay, first, I need your size and measurements,” Jihyun mumbled, now looking very concentrated, which finally seemed to fit her mature features.

Ara quietly followed the instructions given to her as the older girl gauged her chest, waist, hips and even length of her legs. Truth be told, despite it hard to remain unmoving all the time, Ara found this to be … unnecessary. Maybe it was because she had never engaged herself in dressing up, but to have her body measured to a find a fitting dress seemed a tad too … much.

“Okay, done. Now go over there and just take your clothes off. I'll hand you each dress then.” Jihyun pointed to the changing place before she turned around and walked towards the door. “By the way, do you work out or something? You're so wonderfully lean,” she called out as she stared at the measurements.

Ara, having already disappeared behind the little wall, furrowed her brows at the question. “I work a lot …