Hyuk’s POV 

I tapped my finger absentmindedly against the steering wheel, waiting for the light to turn green. When it did, I stepped on the gas and veered the car left, taking the turn onto a street where the houses— or should I say mansions— kept at a distance from one another and had long, cobblestone driveways that created much unnecessary anxiety from the amount of time it took to actually get to the house. 

“Why do people even have houses this big? I bet you only three people live in that one, four at max” Sungmin jabbed at the window, pointing at a grand house sitting at the top of a miniature hill. 

“I don’t see why it bothers you where people choose to live. And try not to get your fingerprints all over the glass. I went to the car wash yesterday and I don’t want to have to go there again tonight,” I replied casually, making a right this time. 

I heard Min let out a scoff and glanced to the side to catch him angrily rubbing his palms on the window and his side of the windshield, creating big, ugly sweat stains on the glass. 

“Hey, stop that! I just told you not to do it!” My right hand let go of the steering wheel and I tried to make a grab for his hands in a failed effort to restrain him. 

“You can’t tell me what to do!” He was making a fuss, flying his arms this way and that while I was still swatting in his direction. 

“It’s my car! I can sure as hell tell you what to do!” I guess that answer didn’t really work for him because the next thing I knew, he was pulling at my hair, yelling that he was going to spit in my coffee tomorrow and every day after that. 

“I’m still driving here!” I really don’t understand my best friend sometimes. It’s like he would rather us die than not get his way. 

He reluctantly retracted his hands and folded them tightly against his chest. “Hmph. I’m seriously spitting in your coffee tomorrow.” 

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t drink coffee, remember?”

“I don’t even know the point in coming to these stupid parties. They aren’t even parties. It’s just a bunch of people standing around and talking— that’s what meetings are for. It’s pointless and boring. I don’t see why you have to drag me with you every time.” He was fiddling with the radio, changing the station that had just started to play Super Junior. 

“It’s because you’re my closest assistant and know about all the affairs going on in the company. Basically, you’re kind of there as backup in case I forget something about a proposal or policy or whatever else,” I said. 

“Yeah, right. It’s just because you’re scared of going alone. You’re lucky the food is always good.” he said, finally settling on just turning the radio off as there was nothing decent playing. 

“It’s not because of that.” Yes it is.

Just as Min was about to say something, the navigation system chimed in, telling me that I had arrived at the intended destination. When I slowed the car to a stop, both me and Min looked out of our respective windows (although Min had some trouble as his was covered in palm sweat) trying to locate where exactly this place was because from where we were, there was nothing on either side of the road expect for high brick barriers that blocked outsiders from seeing what lay behind. 

“Maybe you should drive up a bit. There’s gotta be an entrance or something.”

I did as was suggested and after driving at a very slow pace for a couple of minutes, found what we were looking for. 

I pulled into the driveway, but didn’t get very far, seeing as the heavy metal gates were shut tight. I inched up to where a man was sitting in a booth at the entrance, poking his head out as he watched us approach him. As I eased to a stop, I rolled my window down. 

“Name?” He held a tablet in his hand, looking at the screen as he waited for my answer. 

“Lee Hyukjae,” I said, although I felt a nudge at my side. “What about me?” Min hissed. 

I rolled my eyes. “And Lee Sungmin.”

I watched the guard scrolled through the list. There must have been some kind of memo or note next to my name because when he finally found it, he fumbled out, “Mr. Lee, I didn’t recognize you. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Please have a lovely evening.”

I nodded his way and he pressed a few buttons before the gates parted to the side. I drove up the incredibly long driveway before rounding up to where the main entrance was. It was dusk; the sun was stretching it’s last rays over the horizon in the west, fighting against the darkening sky overhead. Thus, the lights were on, illuminating the mansion magnificently. There was a small climb of stairs that added to the richness of the house and massive amounts of flowers draped along the sides. These people sure knew how to dress up for the occasion— but I guess seeing as how the owner of this place is also the owner of a fashion company, it makes sense. 

Sungmin was looking out the window with wide eyes in awe as we pulled up in front of the steps where a valet was waiting. “This is, like, the prettiest place we’ve ever been to,” Min said as we were stepping out of the car. I handed my keys to the valet before rounding the bumper to join him as we headed inside. 

It seems as if we’re a little late. There were only a handful of people loitering around in the foyer. As we walked the grand corridor, Min kept commenting about how big and expensively decorated the place was, to which I responded with a mini speech about who exactly we were merging with and how well known she was in the business, but Min just ignored me, choosing instead to pause and admire the flowers that were sitting on little side tables throughout the high ceilinged hall.

“Maybe you should grow some of these in your office. They say it’s good for your soul or something like that,” he mumbled out, pinching the petals between his fingertips as if testing their quality. 

I rolled my eyes. “If anything, you’re the one that’s going to end up eating my soul one day.”

“Ew. Keep your soul. I don’t want it. I bet it tastes disgusting— like baby vomit and carrot juice.” 

I couldn’t stop the offended look that formed on my face, but brushed it off, not really in a mood to argue about how my soul would taste. 

We found our way to the main ballroom where a majority of the guests were standing around, chatting casually with one another. 

As soon as we entered, I saw the woman in charge of the party tonight. She had on a sleek black dress that lined her body nicely with her hair falling into curls down her back. She looked a little stressed as she kept glancing around the room from her place close by the entrance. When she spotted us, she looked relieved. I guess having your main guest not arrive on time could be pretty nerve wrecking. We did show up pretty late. 

She rushed over to us. “Mr. Lee, welcome. I’m so glad you could make it,” she stretched out her hand and I shook it, returning the formalities and greeting. She did the same for Min.  

“It’s really is an honor that you decided to merge our companies. I can assure you that it will be a beneficial move on both our parts.” I offered her a nod and an ‘indeed’, but it seemed as if she wanted to keep going, and so she did, moving on to talk about issues that we had already discussed weeks ago in the office. Why do people feel the need to do that every time? Do they really think I’ve forgotten about all of this since then? 

As Sungmin and I stood around listening to her talk about the new store she was planning on opening in New York, a couple of other people, whom I recognized from other smaller companies in partnership with hers, joined in on our little discussion. Most seemed to want to talk about me doing business with their firms. 

I was getting annoyed with all of this and glanced at Min to see him staring intently at the elder man who was currently speaking. Knowing him, he was probably zoning out, not even listening to a thing the poor man had said in the last ten minutes. And how would I know that? Well, you aren’t best friends with someone if you don’t know all of their silly little habits and actions. Not to mention he’s pulled that trick on me too many times to count.

I’m not one for conversing with people I don’t know, which makes business parties annoying, and gets me anxious as I try to avoid anyone I don’t need to speak to. Min usually takes initiative in those things.  

I shifted from one foot to another, purposefully brushing him on the shoulder to get his attention as discreetly as I could. It worked, and he twitched his head slightly in my direction. I gave him a teeny tiny eye roll and he seemed to get the hint. We’ve been to countless of events and, every time, something like this tends to happen, so we’ve developed little signals to use that help us tell each other when to get out a certain situation, although, I’m usually the one wanting to get away from something and Min is the one to get us out. 

Sungmin raised his hand a bit in a polite manner to get the speaking man’s attention. “We would love to continue this conversation perhaps later into the evening but I can see that Hyukjae here has been eyeing the desert table for a while now. Right, Hyuk?” He grinned as I shot him a glare.

Turning back to face my little audience, I managed to pull on a small smile and responded that I was interested in having a look at the brownies. 

“Oh my, I didn’t realize. Sorry to keep you here. Please, make yourself comfortable and enjoy what has been prepared.” She pointed us off in the right direction and I stepped around the group to make my exit, Min following right behind. 

After putting some distance between them and ourselves, Min took the lead and navigated us through the crowd, looking for a place to idle around until we were needed, while I trailed behind, no really caring where we ended up. He didn’t stop until we were on the opposite side of the hall and brought us over to stand by the wall, next to nothing in particular expect for a lavish painting hanging right above our heads, depicting a scene of what looked to be a romantic picnic date. How lovely.

“This is so boring,” Min said, moving to lean against the wall, I doing the same. 

“Well at least now you can look for some guy to talk to since you’re single and back on the market,” I placed my hands in my pockets, simply having no use for them, scanning the crowd for no particular reason. 

Min raised his eyebrows. “Back on the market? What am I? An animal? And besides, everyone here is either way too old or too ugly for my preference. Well, except Yunho over there, but he’s too much of a prick.”

“You’ve talked to him before?” I was now lazily looking at Yunho, along with Min. Yunho was a guy that worked down in marketing. I’ve never met him before because there wasn’t a need for it, but I’ve heard that he’s the best one they have in that department. 

“Yeah. I had to go to one of his meetings recently and, afterwards, just wanted to correct him about an error he had made in his statistics from his presentation. He got all defensive and what not. Never doing that again.” 

We fell silent and both continued to look over the crowd. Everyone seemed to engaged in conversation. 

“She seems nice, though. Mrs. Lee, I mean.” 

“You can’t really judge a person by how they act on a good occasion,” I said, giving a bit of my philosophy.

“Just like how you act all cold and mean when you’re really just a big softie that likes anything strawberry and cries every time you watch the Lion King,” Min chuckled.  

I refrained from flicking his forehead. “What do you have against strawberries? And the part where his dad dies is just too tragic. You can’t not cry and still call yourself human.” That’s the best defense I can come up with. But really, who doesn’t agree with me on the Lion King part? 

We returned back to silence and I kept roaming the hall until my eyes fell into a corner not very far from where we were standing. There was a young boy who was standing by himself, looking disconnected from everyone else, with his hands fiddling his suit jacket and his eyes randomly moving about the room. I locked my gaze on him for some reason, and upon looking more closely recognized him from the night I picked up Min at the bar a couple of days ago. My eyebrows pulled together a bit. 

Wasn’t he too young to be here? Was he with someone? But who would bring their kid to a business party? Why was he standing around by himself?

I nudged Min with my elbow. “Isn’t that the kid you were with at the bar a while ago?” 

Sungmin turned with a confused look to the direction I had angled my chin. 

When his eyes found the boy, he instantly seemed to recognize him. He let out an excited squeak and rushed off to meet him. And, of course, I was right behind, although moving at a much slower pace, not wanting to seem as anxious as Min. 

As we got closer, the kid looked up our way, first noticing Sungmin. Min can be ignorant to personal space sometimes so he attacked the boy in a hug even though he probably doesn’t remember his name. The kid looked a little shocked but then Min pulled away, sporting a wide grin. “Hey there, cutie! Do you remember me? From the bar?”

“O-Oh. Minnie Hyung. Hello,” the boy flashed a hesitant but genuine smile at my friend and then his gaze shifted to me, who was standing awkwardly at the side.

When he met my eyes, his widened a tiny bit and he suddenly looked overly shy, his face coloring under the warm lights of the chandeliers. His shyness got me feeling nervous all of a sudden and I averted my gaze.  

Min saved me by interrupting our little exchange. “I feel terrible. You remember my name but I can’t recall yours. Do you mind telling me again? I promise I won’t forget,” he said expectantly, his bunny smile stuck on his face. 

“Oh, uh,” the boy shifted his eyes from the floor to glance my way for a millisecond and when he saw I had resumed staring him down like some sort of creep, he snapped his head away, turning to give Min his full attention. “D-Donghae. But y-you can call me Hae.” 

“Oh, now I remember. And I don’t know if we got to this part last time but this here is Hyukjae, my best friend,” Min said placing a hand on my shoulder. 

Donghae looked back my way timidly and I cleared my throat. “Lee Hyukjae. Nice to meet you,” I offered my hand and he shook it. His hands were smaller than mine and really soft. 

It was really itching me to know why he was here, so I kind of blurted out the question unexpectedly. “What are you doing here?” I think it came out a little ruder than anticipated, earning me a slap upside the head by Min for being impolite. Donghae blinked a couple of times before answering the question, stuttering out that he was here with his mom. 

Huh. I guess someone really would bring their kid to a business party. But he didn’t look like he was enjoying it… not that I care. I’m just making an observation. 

Min then started asking him things like how he was enjoying the party and if he had sampled any of the food yet, trying to get more comfortable. 

I had resorted once again to just staring at the boy, actually praising his outfit choice which made him look handsome but still cute in a way. 

Wait. Did I just call him cute? 

I didn’t mean that. I don’t call people cute. It was an unconscious word choice and wasn’t what I had originally meant to say. I meant that he still looked young even though he was wearing a sophisticated tuxedo like that. Yup. 

But he did look good in it. With the expensive cut, the midnight sheen, and gentle lines around the waist, the outfit looked as if it was designed specifically for him.  

Sungmin all of a sudden went off topic, excitedly pointing to a table lining the wall adjacent from where we were standing. “Oh my god! It’s a chocolate fountain! Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he exclaimed, dashing off, weaving through the crowd like a cat chasing after a red dot. 

I just looked after him, shaking my head slightly at his antics before realizing that he had just left me here alone with the kid. 

I sneaked a peek in his direction to find him doing the same, both of us hurriedly turning away when our eyes met. We spent the next couple of minutes awkwardly shuffling around and avoiding eye contact. 

I really need to work on my people skills. 

It baffles me how I can be the owner of a large, successful company, and be able to speak intimidatingly to people and give presentations and speeches, and yet I can’t do something as simple as start a decent conversation with someone else. 

The awkwardness was killing me so I racked my brain for something appropriate to say. It proved to be a challenge because most of the time when I spoke to someone, it was about business, but I can’t start talking randomly about that with a kid. Maybe a line from a movie would work perfectly now. The first thing that came to mind was ‘The Godfather’ which was one of my favorite English movies. But that wouldn’t work. Imagine me saying ‘I believe in America. America has made my fortune.’ I mentally laughed at the thought of me saying that, but then mentally face palmed, because this wasn’t really helping. 

Maybe I should just comment on his appearance. It happens lots of times in some of the dramas that Min forces me to watch. 

I turned boldly to face the younger boy and tried to sound as casual as possible. “What you’re wearing looks good. It suits you.” 

Donghae blushes and ducks his head, mumbling out a ‘Thank you’ while I internally punched myself because that turned out a little more suggestive than I imagined it would. Not wanting to make to situation any worse, I opted to stay quiet, and we returned to how we were before, waiting around impatiently for Min to come back.

When our savior did  return, he was holding something in his hand, shielding it behind his palm. As he got closer, he stopped right in front of Donghae, pushing a chocolate covered strawberry in the younger’s face. “I brought this for you. They taste soooo good. Go on, try it, Hae.” 

The boy eased the desert out of Sungmin’s hand and uttered a quiet ‘thank you’ accompanied by a smile before he began nibbling on the sweet treat. 

“Where’s mine?” I asked my friend. He couldn’t possibly know about my obsession with strawberries and still not bring me on. 

But it seems as if just that had happened. Min stuck his tongue out at me in a teasing manner and Donghae giggled softly. I glanced over his way to see him off some chocolate from his fingertips. 

Just then, the hall fell silent as the conversations simmered to a stop. The host, Mrs. Lee, was up on the little stage equipped with a podium and a mic, not to mention endless amounts of decorations lining the set up. 

“I hope you are all enjoying the evening,” she said with a wide smile as she looked around the room. She continued to do the opening introductions and moved on the talk about why she was hosting such a grand party tonight. That’s when she began introducing me to the crowd and eventually called me out to go up on  stage to make my speech. 

Out of all the things I hate about parties like these, it’s the speeches that annoy me the most. They all consist of the same thing, never changing no matter the occasion. I have to congratulate the partnership of the two companies, talk about what the plan is for the future, give a little insight into how this will change my business and a lot of useless other things. I can’t wait for this to be over. But I’ve done this before so it’s no sweat. 

I walked up the the stage and faced the guests, putting on my poker face business expression and began.