Chapter XXXVIII:

Along Came Seven Odd Young Men

A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature went through Sandara’s body. She turned to look around but the only thing she found were the smiling faces of the men towering around her.

“It’s really a delightful pleasure to finally meet you, miss Park.”

Sandara diverted her gaze and focused on the person in front of her, ignoring the sudden goose bumps she felt. If she recalled it correctly, the name of this beautiful blonde man before her was ‘Suho’, or something close to that.

“Taeyong here had been talking a lot about you,” Suho added in a suave voice, giving her the impression that the man was definitely a player and, probably, the resident Casanova as well since he already had the swooning good looks.

“And I was almost skeptical when he said you were as beautiful as a fallen angel, but looking at you now, wow…” A pause. Then followed by a dramatic heavy breathing. “An angel, indeed,” he said dreamily with a boyish smile and winked at her.

Sandara faked a smile at his blatantly flirtatious remark, straining to hide the discomfort in her face but failed miserably.

“Are you trying to hit on her, gramps?” The tall man beside him rolled his eyes, and by the obvious lisp in his voice Sandara instantly remembered him introducing himself as Oh Sehun, another lady-killer, indeed.

“Stop it already. She wouldn’t be interested with an old fashioned man like you.” He grinned teasingly.

“I’m just telling the truth. And stop calling me that, you short-tongued maknae.” Suho snarled which effectively wiped the grin off the younger man’s face, and the other four men—who she remembered as Chanyeol, Jonghyun, Kai and Changmin—sniggered at the two.

“You’re making her feel uncomfortable, Joonmyeon.” Jonghyun, the shortest among the group, chimed in, stepping forward to reach in and held both of Dara’s hands. “Attorney, would you like to join us for lunch? The food in our cafeteria is impeccable!”

Sandara opened , obviously to refuse but even before she could say anything Changmin blurted out. “Of all places, you’ll invite her to our cafeteria? Are you serious, dude?” Then he snatched Dara’s hands from Jonghyun.

“Let’s eat outside, Attorney. Where do you want?” he asked. “Oh, I know a good Italian restaurant around here.”

“Thank you but I—”

“Around here?” Suho suddenly interrupted in a dubious tone. “Dude, let’s take her outside the city!” he announced cheerily, as if the idea was something so appealing and exciting. “Where do you want, attorney? Jeju? Dongbaek? Mok-po?” 

“I rea—”

“How about outside the country, hyung?” Sehun clapped his hands. “Since she’s Donghae hyung’s girlfriend, we must treat her extra special!”

“Oh, yes. That’s great! We can slip off the country for lunch.”

“Where?”

“China? I crave for their Chinese cuisine.” Kai suggested.

“I would want to eat sushi, let’s try Japan!”

“China and Japan?” Jonghyun snorted. “We’ve been there so many times.”

“Hmm. Thailand, perhaps?” Changmin mused.

“That’s a good idea hyung!” Suho beamed. “What do you think Chanyeol? You’ve been awfully quiet back there.” The blonde asked, gesturing for the other tall young man who stood stiff like a statue with his sheepish grin never faltering from his face as he shamelessly kept his stare lingering on the lawyer, and when Suho called for him his smile only grew wider.

“Please, marry me.” The awestricken rapper suddenly said which caused the others to laugh at him and for their leader to smack him out of his daydream.

“Get your wits together, man.” Kai patted his back and Sandara could only gape at the men in front of her, the craziness of their actions rendering her speechless.

How in the world did she get caught up with these seven odd young men? Seven young odd men who she didn’t even knew personally at all!

“They love showering special women with special attention.” Taeyong whispered at her when the group busied themselves thinking about the place they would go for their lunch. Then the guy turned to smile at her, his piercing almond eyes gleamed with delight. “So, just ignore them, Angel.”

 “You should really stop calling me that.” Sandara sighed.

“But you’re my angel!” he frowned. “Don’t you remember me?”

She panned her eyes from his head down to his feet, and it took quite a while to take his entire tall frame in her scrutinizing gaze. However, even how hard Sandara tried to remember, there was really no image of such man with strikingly youthful features and honest, radiant smile anywhere in her memory—memory of being sober the least.

She shook her head and watched as the enthusiasm slowly seeped out from Taeyong’s form that for a second she almost pitied him.

“I was that boy in the swing,” he said, shoulders sagged. “The boy who you smacked out of his stupidity of trying to kill himself; have you forgotten about that?”

Sandara’s brows furrowed together, confusion and incredulity contorting her face.

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