“Don’t answer the door if anyone knocks. You know how to use the TV. I made lunch so you just have to microwave it so do not on any circumstance try to cook something while I’m not here. I don’t need you burning down my apartment.” I lectured Luhan as I shoved my mobile phone into the pocket of my blazer. 

Luhan sat on the kitchen island table, munching on cereal I gave him for breakfast. I looked down at my wristwatch and noticed the time. Shoot, I’m going to be late for the meeting with a bunch of the company's shareholders. 

“Don’t worry about me, Minyoung. I’ll be fine!” Luhan replied cheerfully with his mouth full of cornflakes. I gave him a quick glance before running into my bedroom to grab my planner and shoes. On my way out of the door, I saw Luhan’s bowl of cereal sitting on the counter with Luhan nowhere to be found. I groaned internally when I saw that Luhan had split milk all over the counter. I was already running late. Luhan can clean it up. For a moment, I thought about it and soon concluded that Luhan wouldn't clean the mess up. That angel is so messy. I let out a sigh as I dropped my things onto the table and pulled out a cloth from the sink to clean up the mess.

Where did Luhan go?

“I’m in the bathroom!” He called out as if just he read my mind. I dropped the wet cloth in the sink and washed my hands before gathering my things again.

“I’m going now. If you need anything call me on my mobile, okay?” I said, wearily.

“Kay!” He yelled from the bathroom.

Pure dread washed over me as I punched into the code to lock the apartment. Leaving Luhan was one thing since I didn’t have to put us with his annoyingness but leaving him alone in my apartment didn’t seem like the greatest idea but I couldn’t possibly take him to work with me because he’d just get in the way and then I’d have to deal with all the nosey gossipers at work. I said a quick prayer in hopes that nothing would go wrong but knowing my luck, something’s bound to go wrong.

On my way to the garage downstairs, I passed by the apartment two doors down from mine. The front door was wide open and the smell of fresh paint filled the corridor. A couple of middle-aged men dressed in white walked by and disappeared inside the apartment. The previous owner of the apartment, Mrs. Zhang had passed away two months ago and left the ownership of her apartment to her only grandson. Apparently, he was going to move in according to Mrs. Jung since he was going to be working in Seoul.

I dumped my bag into the back seat of my car and started my car up. I didn’t end up driving far as I managed to get all the way to the car parking exit but there was one of those furniture removalist trucks blocking the exit of the underground car parking. Bring my window down, I stuck my head out of the car and called out to the man standing next to the truck.

“Ahjusshi, could you please move your truck?” I asked, slightly irritated. I was already 20 minutes late for the meeting. I heard my phone ringing and I looked down at the caller ID. It was Tao. He also happened to be my personal assistant.

“Ahjusshi?” The man repeated, his back still facing me. His Korean sounded slightly funny – he didn’t sound like he was from around here. I pressed the answer button and as soon as the call got through I could hear Tao yelling at me telling me to get my into the office as soon as possible.

“Minyoung noona, where are you?!” He literally screamed into the phone.

“I’m still at home. I’ll be there in 15 minutes. Tell my dad-” I was cut off when a tall, skinny guy with a pair of cute dimples tapped on my car. Man, I wish I had dimples. Dimples would probably make me look less intimidating.

“Yes?” I asked as I looked up at him, holding the phone away. I could hear Tao’s voice muffled though the speakers.

“The exit’s clear now. You can go.” I stated, pointing at the exit. The truck was no longer blocking the way.

“Uh, thanks.” I said quickly, before speedily driving off.

Could that be Mrs. Zhang’s grandson?

As I thought back to when I was stuck in the parking lot, I mentally hit myself. Why did I thank him when it was his fault that the truck was blocking the exit? You idiot, Minyoung.

As I snapped out of my thoughts, I realised that Tao was still on the other line of the phone. I held my phone up to my ear, only to hear that Tao had already began his whining phrase. He always gets jumpy whenever he has to deal with my dad when I’m not there. Tao may look like a fearless idiot around me but he’s terrified whenever he has to face my father. Apparently, I got the same intimidating look from him except for the fact that I looked like my mother.

“Just stall him for ten more minutes. I’m nearly at the office.” I told quickly before ending the call. Seconds before I ended the call, I heard Tao curse me for hanging up on him again. Just as I told Tao, I reached the office in about ten minutes… Actually, I lied. There was serious traffic and so I ended up being an hour late and the meeting went on without me – it wasn’t like they needed me to be there since my father was present.

The moment I stepped through the office doors, all I could hear was yelling and complaints coming from my personal assistant. It’s funny because I’m supposed to be the boss but it often seems like it’s the other way around. Tao began lecturing me on my responsibilities and tardiness; like he’s one to talk. Tao’s always the one who’s always thirty minutes late and I’m the one who’s thirty minutes earlier. I only managed to be late thanks to Luhan’s sudden appearance. Plus, Tao’s only acting this way because he hates being alone with my father; apparently, he’s really scary according to him.

 “You’ve worked hard.” I told him as I patted his shoulder and took the folders from his hands. He paused halfway of his long speech and gave me a cold glare.

“You know you can be such a bitc-”

“I know.” I replied, unaffected. I know my personality and everyone else in the company knows that too. Tao gave me my schedule for the day and handed over any messages clients had left for me earlier this morning. As Tao was about to leave my office, he turned around when he was right at the door.

“Is something wrong?” I asked without looking at him. It was silent for a few moments and I thought Tao had left but his voice startled me.

“Your father wants to see you.” Tao said. I glanced up at him from my desk before looking down again.

“Why?”

“He wanted to run by some of the latest candidates.”

“I’m busy.” I lied. I wasn’t busy at all. I just didn’t want to deal with my father right now. Especially, ever since started nagging me to attend arranged dates with potential marriage partners. I’m twenty-two for goodness’ sake – I don’t even have plans of getting married anytime soon.

“You know you still have go whether you like it or not.”

“I know.”

“I’ll pass on the profiles to you before you leave for lunch.”

Ever since the company’s stocks went down last year, my father was hell bent on finding the best candidate to marry me off to in hopes that through a business marriage, it would allow our company to expand all over Asia and possibly the rest of the world. Over my dead body, my father won’t be able to get rid of me that easily.

Despite, the fact that my father knows that I’m strongly against the idea of it all; he still strongly insists that I go on these ridiculous dates (I’ve been arranged on dates with some of the strangest men). Actually, it was more like he threatened me to go on these dates or else he’d find someone else to take over the company when he retires but now that I’ve been taken off there’s no legitimate reason for me to attend these meetings besides the fact that my father’s so obsessed with making money.

Money is truly a scary thing. For example, if you have no money, you can’t buy food and if you can’t buy food, you’ll starve and ultimately if you starve, you’ll die.

People can get so easily blinded by money, all they think about is how to gain more money and they forget the better things in life – just what happened to my father. I’m not going to lie, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I soon learnt that money wasn’t everything in life. I’ve always wanted to live a simple life but it’s hard since my father already had planned out my life for me the minute I was born. The moment my father realised my academic ability he constantly pushed me to be the best; to be number one. I can recall that there were times when I couldn’t handle all the pressure and his expectations of me that I nearly pushed myself over the edge. I’ve hurt myself and gone to hell and back to get to where I am today so when I heard that my father had reappointed his heir, I finally realised that my life so far was a complete and utter waste.

I finally made it home after what seemed like eternity at the office. I couldn’t even do my work properly since I was constantly worrying about Luhan. I didn’t get one call from him so I was assuming that everything was okay and that my anxiety was getting the best of me.

The moment I opened my eyes when I walked in through the door my apartment, I was pleasantly surprised to see my apartment was almost in the same state that I had left it in earlier this morning although, there were few dirty plates sitting on the kitchen bench and pillows lying on the living room floor. When I examined things closely, nothing was broken or missing. It all seemed surreal considering I learnt how messy and clumsy Luhan tended to be all in spending than less than twenty-four hours with him. 

Everything seemed too good to be true and it turned out that I was absolutely right when I made it down the hallway, closer to my bedroom. When I passed the bathroom, I could hear the water running and Luhan’s falsetto voice through the door.  I felt my toes suddenly go cold and wet and when I looked down, my socks were completely soaked and I was standing in a puddle of soapy water. Bubbles had begun to seep through the bathroom door and Luhan kept on singing his little heart out. I groaned as I pulled my socks off and tossed them into the laundry basket. I grabbed some towels from the closet before trudging my way back in front of the bathroom.

 “Yah! Luhan, you’re going to flood my apartment!” I yelled as I banged on the bathroom door. I heard Luhan gasp before quickly turning off the water. After a few minutes, Luhan swung the door wide open and there he was standing in front of me, wearing my bathrobe with a towel wrapped around his head. The wave of water flushed itself out of the bathroom and into my carpet.

“Minyoung-ah, you’re home!” Luhan called out to me before pulling me into a tight embrace. Getting hugged by Luhan was equally traumatising as getting sat on by him. I squirmed in discomfort but Luhan couldn’t get the hint and kept on squeezing me. 

“Let go of me, you idiot!” I managed to breathe out when Luhan released me from his hold. When I managed to see past Luhan, I almost fainted at the state of my bathroom. The bathtub was overflowing with soapy water and bubbles and toilet paper decorated the sink. The toilet seat was left up and potpourri was scattered across the tiled flooring. My shampoo and conditioner bottles were basically empty and I was on the verge of having a panic attack.

“You! Look… what you… my bathroom…” I stuttered. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even form sentences properly. Of course, Luhan didn’t understand what was going on as he just stared at me with his huge eyes.

“You… My bathrobe!” I spat out as I turned to him. Luhan’s eyes widen as if it was even humanly possible for his eyes to get any wider and looked down at his attire. His mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape before he gave me a small grin.

“I told you that the pink bathrobe is mine and the blue one is yours!” I screeched at him.

“You want me to take it off?” Luhan asked, as he began to undo the tie holding the bathrobe around his waist.

“Oh my god, no! Don’t take it off!” I shrieked loudly as I grabbed his wrists away from the bathrobe but it was too late, my attempt to get his hands away from the one thing holding the robe together only made it worse. The tie fell and the robe opened up.

 “My eyes! Oh my god!” I screeched at the top of my lungs. Luhan realised what had happened and pulled the robe tight to his body, covering everything I didn’t need to see. If I had a dollar for every time I saw Luhan , I’d probably be able to buy myself a new Chanel bag.

“I’m sorry, Minyoung-ah!” Luhan cried as he ran into the guestroom (which was now his room). I stood there, looking at the bathroom and wanting to cry my eyes out. I was too exhausted to clean Luhan’s mess but it had to be done.

It was about an hour later when Luhan came out of his room, dressed in grey sweatpants and a white tank top, and joined me at the dining table. My fingers had gone all wrinkly and prune-like from cleaning the disaster in the bathroom. In his hands was my bathrobe folded neatly into a pile. I glanced at him before returning my attention back to my laptop. Luhan didn’t say anything but I could tell by the way he was acting that he felt really bad and I may have also overreacted.

 “It’s fine. You can have it.” I said with a small sigh. Luhan’s face let up like light bulb and hugged the bathrobe.

“I promise I’ll treasure it forever!” He exclaimed happily. I looked at him confused, at his sudden change of mood. One minute, he could be moping about as if his cat died and then the next minute, he’s over the moon, way beyond the moon to the point that he’d probably be on Pluto. Just when I thought I was going to be able to get some peace and quiet tonight, I was wrong again.

Luhan got up and poured himself a glass of milk before sitting down and watched me write my essay. Of course, Luhan being Luhan, he had to take notice of every little thing. Even including the yellow, paper folder filled with the profiles of men that my father thought would make a suitable husband for me. I completely forgot about the folder and the fact that I even brought it home until Luhan started messing around it, laying all the profiles onto the table side by side. I knew I should have thrown it out when I was still at the office when Tao first handed it to me. He scanned each page carefully and didn’t say a word until I asked him what he was doing.

“Are you a stalker, Minyoung-ah?” He asked, sounding so innocent yet I couldn’t sense a hint of maliciousness in his voice.

“No.” I replied as I rolled my eyes.

 “Why do you have these then?” He questioned, holding up the sheets of paper with the profiles printed on them.

“That’s none of your business.” I told him in an attempt to shut him up. I snatched them from his hands and shoved them back into the folder, tossing it to the side. Luhan didn’t stop there; he pulled the papers out of the folder and placed them back into the table again.

“Luhan, what are you doing?” I asked, annoyed. I just wanted to get my essay done in time so I could relax for the next few hours since I couldn’t sleep at all with Luhan running around my apartment, wreaking havoc. It was like having my own child except for the fact that Luhan isn’t a child, he’s a fully grown man with the mind of a kid.

“Who are they?” Totally ignoring my question, he counteracted with his own one.

“I don’t know who they are.” I mumbled as I continued to type.

“Are you looking for a new boyfriend?”

“No! I’m not looking for a new boyfriend.” I looked over at Luhan who didn’t seem to mind that I was now burning holes into his head.

“This guy looks cute.” My mouth gaped the moment I heard Luhan. I glanced over at the paper and saw the boy’s picture. He didn’t look any older than a high school student. His name was Oh Sehun. I recognised his name immediately. His father and my father were friends during their high school and college years. My father couldn’t possibly think that I would consider Sehun as a choice. He was like a little brother to me, an annoying little brother. Sehun really knew how to piss someone off.

“No. Definitely not him.” I grumbled, ripping up Sehun’s profile.

“He looks so adorable.” Luhan pressed.

“He’s like my little brother.”

“Well, what about this guy?” Luhan said, holding out Park Chanyeol’s profile. The first thing I noticed in his picture was his smile. Park Chanyeol’s parents were good friends of my mother but I never actually met Chanyeol before. I’ve seen pictures of him in magazines and newspapers – tall, handsome and slightly on the creepy side.

“His teeth scare me.” I commented. Luhan placed his profile down onto the table and picked up another one.

“Kim Jongin also known as Kai.” Luhan read out. I just had to glance at his birth date to make my mind up.

“He’s seventeen.” I pointed out. Luhan looked at me confused before reading his profile.

“What’s wrong with that? He’s turning eighteen in two weeks.”

“He’s too young for my liking.” I said.

“Age is a just a number.” Luhan waved a hand at me.

“And jail is a just a room.” I scoffed, quoting something Tao said he saw on Facebook. Luhan just sighed as he passed the paper to me. I ripped up Jongin’s profile and placed it on the same pile as Sehun’s.

There were only two more profiles in the folder. Surprisingly, there weren’t as many profiles inside. Last time, I had to scan through forty profiles and I ended up going on twenty or so meetings. I’m guessing my father’s running out of candidates.

I never knew guys were ones to gossip but apparently, the rejected candidates have been warning other candidates about me, which is fine with me; I don’t have to deal with so many of them.  In the past, I sent of the guys to the emergency room after punching him square in the face and he had to get a new nose however, I had my reasons. The guy was a total jerk and a ert too. My father was so pissed after that because he had to shoulder the cost of the guy’s new nose (which didn’t even look any better) and the jerk even threatened to sue me. I just threatened to ruin his nose again and he hasn’t annoyed ever since.

“Kyungsoo and Joonmyun.” Luhan called out the last two and place them side by side.

I’ve never heard of them names before. From the profiles, I learnt that Kyungsoo’s parents own a chain of shopping malls and other small businesses while Joonmyun was a lawyer who’s currently in charge of his running his parent’s law firm.

“This guy’s eyes are huge.” Luhan commented as he held out Kyungsoo’s picture.

“I’m pretty sure your eyes are bigger.” I mumbled under my breath. To my dismay, Luhan heard me and began to whine.

“No, they’re not!” Luhan retorted. I placed the three profiles into the yellow folder again as I let out a sigh.

“Whatever you say.”

word count: 3,541 words

a/n: you can probably guess who's gonna make appearances soon..

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