"You're awfully quiet," he observed casually, just as the waiter finished taking their order.

Ga Eul took another long look around the restaurant they were in and shrugged. "I've never been in this place before," she said. She then looked down at herself. "I'm-- I'm not dressed properly for this. I look like I should be the one waiting on tables." Ga Eul  then all but wilted in her seat to make herself look as small as possible.

Woo Bin glanced around like she did, and saw the dozens of patrons bedecked in designer clothes and sparkling jewelry, which played perfectly well against the candlelit, expensive ambiance of the room. Compared to them, Ga Eul's simple - yet somehow charming - ensemble almost looked out of place.  

He shrugged, then leaned forward as if to share a secret with her: "I'm not dressed properly, either." Which was somewhat true, despite the fact that his jacket alone probably outpriced any of the others'. 

She rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter, sunbae. They know you here. You could have showed up and they'll still invite you in."

Woo Bin laughed. The things this girl came up with! "I haven't really tried doing that, myself. Care to test that theory?"

Ga Eul looked so horrified he thought she would pop a vein, right there. "You-- you wouldn't."

"You're right, I wouldn't." He smiled at her, just as another server came to pour them their wine. "I'll save that for the next time we meet."

"Next time we meet it won't be in this place," she declared firmly, refusing to be cowed while eyeing her glass with something close to trepidation. "It'll be at the porridge shop."

"Even better," he said. "There'll be more people there to appreciate my glory. The porridge shop will be infamous for it."

She inched her chin up and visibly fought the smile worming its way onto her face. Ga Eul lost this war, grinned, then grabbed a blooming flower from its vase just to throw it at him. It ended up haphazardly resting on his empty plate, its red petals a stark contrast to the gold-plated porcelain.

"Ya," he said, throwing his hands up. "I feel so attacked."

Laughing now, she took her table napkin and threw it at him next. It landed square on the middle of their table, draping half its folded body over the ceramic vase and narrowly missing their candle.

"If it wasn't so heavy it would have hit you in the head already," she said vindictively. "You would've suffocated."

He had the grace to look mildly scandalized at the thought. "I didn't realize I brought a serial killer to lunch. Should I call security? I should call security." Woo Bin lifted one hand, causing one waiter to rush towards him. Ga Eul protested loudly and Woo Bin dropped his hand, dismissing the help with a casual wave. "Ya, Chu Ga Eul. Are you going to behave? Or should I call the police next time?"

"Only if you stop saying you'll show up next time." She made a show of shivering uncontrollably. "I'll have nightmares just thinking about it."

Woo Bin raised a brow at her. The practiced part of him almost jumped at the opening she left behind - ah, so you'll be thinking of me , won't you? I can help you visualize it better... - but the more controlled, logical part of him merely smiled at her in response.

Most women he knew would have purposely baited him with that line.

Chu Ga Eul, however, probably didn't even realize just how she sounded like, right there.

So he shrugged and told her in a blithe tone, "Your loss." I happen to look better , went unsaid.
 
She stuck her tongue out at him in response.

The rest of the meal went well, he thought; Ga Eul's eyes were wide at the sight of the viand he ordered for them, and looked so delighted after the first bite that Woo Bin spent some moments just looking at her, with his own plate going untouched. It was only after she noticed that he wasn't eating that he remembered to, and soon he was eating rather heartily, buoyed at the thought of being with enjoyable company. 

He made sure to order dessert for her, and enjoyed his own coffee while watching her devour the restaurant's own version of an opulent sundae. 

After downing the last spoonful, she leaned back on her chair and fairly beamed at him. "I think... I think I just had the best meal of my entire life," she said, without any small amount of feeling.

A part of him wondered if she meant that, given that Yi Jung must have taken her out somewhere. Still, her effusive praise was more than welcome, and Woo Bin smiled back at her. "Let it be said that I know how to express gratitude properly," he replied. 

"I just left you porridge," she reminded him. "I hardly think a bowl of that is the equivalent of all of this."

"And then some," he said.

"Still--"

"I like treating my friends every once in a while," he said simply, before standing and offering her his arm. "But most of them aren't here." 

It was supposed to sound obvious and as factual as saying that water was wet, but like always, Woo Bin was unprepared for its sting.

He missed his friends terribly, and perhaps it was a conscious effort on his part that, in the absence of any concrete plan he defaulted by bringing Ga Eul in the restaurant the F4 frequented most, that he ordered the food Yi Jung liked, that he requested the wine Ji Hoo favored, and that he asked for the coffee Jun Pyo tolerated. But it was not something he was fond of admitting, because there was no point to it - his friends were still beyond his reach, and no amount of feeling could haul them back to him.

It was odd, then, how something like that could easily roll off his tongue when he was around her.

She must have shared the same sentiment, because her eyes were soft as she regarded him. "Woo Bin-sunbae--"

He took the initiative by taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. "Just let me, Ga Eul. I promise I won't spoil you often."

Unless you let me, went unsaid.

-

They were both quiet as they left the restaurant. His car was parked on its left side, but Woo Bin moved them towards the right - towards the garden beyond it - and Ga Eul didn't say anything. 

It was a comfortable, companionable silence, something Woo Bin didn't dare break. He was, after all, content for as long as Ga Eul walked beside him.

So he was a bit surprised when she asked, "How are you, sunbae?" A beat, then, "We've been talking all this time and I don't think I've ever asked you that yet. I'm sorry."

Woo Bin glanced at her, and her earnestness made all thoughts of answering the question in a jesting manner fly out of his mind. "You can say I'm still growing," he said, and Ga Eul must have recognized it as an honest answer because it made her smile. 

"You're working for your father, aren't you?" At his look she added, "People at the university still talk a lot about the F4."

He squared his shoulders. "What can I say? We're legends." Wryly he thought about what they said about them. About him. Whereas the other members of the F4 made names for themselves in their respective fields, here he was, left behind and chest-deep in the murky activities his family was well-known for.

And they weren't exactly wrong about that.

"Do they talk about how well you know us?"

She slid her hand up, then down, the strap of her bag. "They know I'm on scholarship courtesy of Go Jun Pyo," Ga Eul said, sounding so cautious right then.

"And?"

"And nothing. I let them assume whatever they want. I'm there to study, not talk to petty, rich girls." 

Ga Eul looked so mutinous he would have found the situation funny if he wasn't overtaken by concern first. "Are any of them giving you a hard time?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine, sunbae. They won't be able to find any dirt between me and Jun Pyo anyway - no matter how hard they try."

"You... and Jun Pyo?" He sounded so incredulous that Woo Bin almost didn't recognize the sound of his own voice.

Ga Eul grinned at him again. "Jan Di thought it was funny."

Jun Pyo would not, Woo Bin thought, but didn't bother saying it out loud. His cranky friend would most assuredly not find anything amusing about people linking him to a commoner who wasn't Geum Jan Di; he wasn't even sure if Jun Pyo knew the name of any other commoner besides Geum Jan Di.

Still, he would have to mention this to the Shinhwa heir. Someone needed to look out for Ga Eul, and without Jan Di and Yi Jung here it would be up to him - naturally - to step up to that role. He just... needed to omit this part, that was all.

"Do you find it hard? Working for your father, I mean."

He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up. It took him some moments before he found the words. "Ga Eul, have you ever tried moving against a flowing river?" Woo Bin didn't mean it to sound like that, but at the back of his mind he recognized that his words conveyed exactly how he felt.

She must have sensed it too, because she said, "That day, when you found me crying on the streets? It felt like I was." Ga Eul paused. "But you found me, and now... here I am." She wore this small, shy smile that made her look so... soft.

Woo Bin looked away, kept on walking.

Kept on ignoring the uncomfortable way his chest hurt, at that moment.

But she tugged at his arm and told him, "Maybe... maybe you just needed someone to help you, too." A beat, and then, "I can do that. I can help you. Just... tell me how. It's the least I can do, for all that you've done for me."

And the lurching in his chest kept getting worse.

He was capable of saying so many suave things; he was Don Juan, for god's sake - this moment shouldn't have reduced him to a tongue-tied fool. It wasn't supposed to. He should have been able to think of something to say to diffuse this, to make it seem like he wasn't feeling feelings.

And yet--

And yet.

"Ga Eul--"

The loud ringing of his phone, absurdly enough, made him jump. Frantically, Woo Bin took the offending device out, intent on shutting it the hell up.

And yet the name revealed by the caller ID made him pause--

--because it was none other than So Yi Jung.