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"Actually, Director Kwon isn't that bad," Seungri whispered to Jessica. "He can be strict, but he's a nice guy." 

Jessica looked at him confused. "You're lying," she told Seungri. Jiyong always seemed serious at work. She was surprised Seungri would say that when he seems to give Seungri a pretty hard time too.

"It's true," Yuri joined in, sitting across from Jessica. "Especially if you compare him to the directors of other departments, Director Kwon is probably one of the best. No one else treats their employees out as much as him."

"Yah, are you guys talking bad about me?" Jiyong's voice popped up behind them and squeezed himself in between Seungri and Jessica. She gave him an annoyed face as she was forced to scoot over to make room for him. 

"Director Kwon, there's more room over here," Dara commented as she gestured to the space besides her. 

"So," Jiyong looked over at Jessica and Yuri, ignoring Dara's suggestion. "What were you guys talking about?" 

"We were talking about what a wonderful boss you were, boss," Yuri replied and grinned. 

"Okaaaay," Jiyong said in an unbelieving tone. 

"Why'd you choose to get korean barbeque anyway," Dara asked, trying to get Jiyong's attention again. "You usually always bring us to fancy restaurants."

"I like this restaurant," Seungri commented. "It feels comfortable and you can let loose." 

"You should thank this girl over here then," Jiyong told him, gesturing towards Jessica. "She's the one that wanted korean barbeque."

"Wow, he listened to your request? That was nice of you, Director Kwon." Yuri asked, surprised, and let out a chuckle. "Dara-shi always asks him to take us to a nice Italian restaurant, but it still hasn't happened."

"Yah!" Dara turned to face Yuri and yelled at her.

"Listen to my request? He was the one that asked me what I wanted," Jessica scoffed under her breath, just loud enough for Jiyong to hear.  

Jiyong nudged her when he heard her muttering to herself. "Yah, can't you just let me look good for once?" 

Jessica ignored it and proceeded to talk to Yuri, "Where is Taecyeon oppa? I thought he said he was going to come after he took care of some business."

"Oppa, oppa, oppa," it was Jiyong's turn to scoff under his breath. "You've been using that word frequently lately haven't you?"

Jessica elbowed him in the stomach as she continued looking at Yuri. She could see Jiyong cower in pain in the corner of her eye and the edge of her lips perked up slightly, not wanting to bring attention to herself.

"Oh, he said something came up so he couldn't attend and apologized for not being able to make it today," Yuri stated. 

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"Director Kwon, are you sure you don't mind taking Jessica home?" Yuri asked once again, taking a look at a, now, slightly buzzed Jessica.

"Yes, it's fine," Jiyong nodded. "Go take care of your family matters." 

"Of course it's f....fine, we live t..." Jessica began, stumbling a bit between her words, but was cut off by GD. 

"Near each other," Jiyong chimed in quickly. "We live near each other, so it's fine. I can take her home." 

"All right then," Seungri responded, getting ready to leave. "I'll take Yuri home and you take Jessica home safely."

"Byeeeeeee!" Jessica shouted after them with her eyes closed and a silly grin on her face, even though the two were already out of earshot." 

"Yah, can't you act more mature?" Dara scolded the drunken Jessica, clearly sounding annoyed in the way she spoke.

"Why are you yelling at her? Let her let loose a little and have fun." Jiyong defended Jessica. "Why are you still here anyway? I think you should head home too." 

"You're not taking me home?" Dara questioned upset. 

"No, you live in the opposite direction," Jiyong blatantly told her. "I already called the taxi for you, it's waiting for you outside." 

"Why are you taking her home then?" Dara asked, pointing at Jessica and emphasizing "her" in a upsetting tone. 

"Like I said, we live near each other," Jiyong stated. 

"Near each other..." Jessica giggled and leaned towards Jiyong's ear to whisper into it while continuing to giggle to herself as if she was like an excited little girl keeping a secret from someone. "She doesn't know we live right across from each other?" 

Jiyong slightly froze at the touch of her breath on his cheek and stared at her, the distance between their faces was practically nonexistent. The way she was giggling to herself made her look cuter and happier than he's ever seen her before. It made her look kind, and he's never seen her kind side before. "Yes, she doesn't know we live together," Jiyong whispered back soothingly, in a gentle voice, and gave her a warm smile as he continued to look at her. 

"Okay, I'm leaving then!" It made Dara feel uneasy to see Jiyong looking at Jessica the way he did so she broke his attention, or at least she tried to. It was in vain because all of Jiyong's attention was placed onto Jessica, holding her hands so that he could try to calm her excitement down. Dara, annoyed, unwillingly had to leave since they acted like she had already left anyway.

"More soju please~" Jessica waved her hand at the ahjumma and gave her a huge grin, slurring the words in between her sentence. 

"Yah, do you like korean barbeque or did you just want to go here for the soju?" Jiyong yelled at Jessica.

"Soju," Jessica gave a goofy laugh and stuck her tongue out at him.

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"Aish, this silly girl," Jiyong muttered to himself as he looked at the girl on his back. "I can't believe this is happening all over again. But I guess it's better to see that you're a giggling drunk than a crying drunk."

"I'm not drunk," Jessica uttered, breathing onto Jiyong's neck. "I could have walked by myself." 

Not hearing a reply, Jessica continued, "But I guess it feels nice to be on your back. It just feels nice to have someone carrying you and feeling a sense of protection." 

Jiyong's eyebrow perked up, his head tilting to face Jessica's face a bit. "Yah, why is it that you always say these things that make me confused after you've been drinking?" 

"I guess what I'm trying to say is..." Jessica explained herself.  

".... thank you Kwon Jiyong," she finished her sentence as she leaned her head up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

"What are you doing?" Jiyong asked, flabbergasted, not expecting that kiss from her. He could feel an odd, kind of feeling inside of him, but couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was. "You're drunk," he concluded.

"I told you, I'm not drunk," Jessica defended herself. "I'm just thanking you for having my back, I heard you yelling at Dara. And thank you for coming to get me at the hotel last night even though you were being annoying. I'm grateful for stuff like that." 

Jiyong looked at her, surprised. He thought she was drunk and wasn't paying attention to anything. Seeing his unsettled expression, she laughed, "See, I told you I wasn't drunk! Slightly buzzed, but not drunk. Seungri and Yuri was right, you're not that bad I guess."

"I guess, you're welcome then," He let out a laugh and laughed along with her. "You can express that gratitude by calling me 'oppa' instead of calling 'yah' out all the time." 

"If you've noticed, I haven't yelled at you nor shouted 'yah' at you all day today," Jessica smiled triumphantly. 

Jiyong pondered back on the day. She was right, she even called referred to him as 'Jiyong oppa' earlier today even if he was the one that made her. But she hasn't yelled him at once today. "I see we're making improvements then," Jiyong smiled back. 

"That guy looks familiar," Jessica mumbled to herself as she looked at the guy standing in front of a restaurant they were about to pass by, but it was still heard by Jiyong since her face was laying right beside his ear. 

He looked over to his right, where Jessica had brought his attention to, and his eyes landed on a very familiar person indeed. "He should look familiar, you've met him before you silly girl," Jiyong told her. 

Jessica furrowed her eyebrows, "How would you know if I met him before or not when I don't even remember?" 

"You were probably too drunk to remember," Jiyong laughed to himself, knowing full well what he meant as he thought back to that scene. However, it made Jessica think he was making fun of her so she scoffed at him and landed her head harshly on his shoulder to inflict pain on him in return and pretended to be mad at him by choosing to ignore him the rest of the way home.

Jiyong heard something ring and realized the sound was coming from Jessica. "Hey, pick up your phone," Jiyong jerked his shoulder where Jessica's head was resting to signal her to pick up her phone. 

The phone continued ringing, which made Jiyong stop in his steps to look at Jessica to yell at her. His expression softened when his eyes were met with a peaceful Jessica who was sleeping soundly on his back. He let her get off his back as he held onto her waist to support her weight and searched for her phone in her bag. Without looking at the caller ID, he picked up the phone for her. 

"Hello?" Jiyong answered the call. 

"Who is this?" a mature, yet soft voice of a woman was speaking from the other line. 

"This is Jiyong speaking," he replied. "I'm sorry but Jessica cannot come to the phone right now."

There was silence from the other line, making Jiyong feel more anxious. For some reason, the woman's voice made him feel like he needed to straighten his back out even though she couldn't even see him.

"Can you let her know that her mom called and tell her to give me a call back please? Thank you." the woman's voice could finally be heard from the other line before she hung up, this time with a hint of anger, suspicion, anxiety, confusion. Jiyong couldn't tell what it exactly was, but now he knew why. That was her mom and he picked up the phone - a boy. "Oh god, she's going to get wrong ideas and she knows my name," Jiyong muttered under his breath. He hopes he won't have to ever see her mom because he's probably already made a bad impression without saying much, and he doesn't do good with parents who have a bad impression of him. 

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A/N: Hey guys, I didn't have the time to edit this yet but I wanted to put the chapter up for you guys to read first anyway. Hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes, but I will come back to edit this tomorrow. Enjoy!