“Noona, how are you even more beautiful every time I see you?” Chanyeol’s first sentence had somehow made Jieun smiled. She just rolled her eyes at him and took a seat around the circle marble table, between the couple.

Jieun had agreed to have dinner with Luna and Chanyeol since Kris was rarely home early nowadays. But if he was, she would stay late in the office. Almost a week had passed since that ‘kiss’ happened, and they both had been excusing themselves from seeing or even bumping into each other. She had a feeling that Kris was running away from the confrontation, but it was weird because she had believed that he wasn’t that kind of man. She would probably feel better if he had made a joke about it though, like he would always do. Tell her that he just wanted to provoke her action for avoiding him or something—that would have been better than him running away from her. But then again, he was known as a playboy. She had no doubt that he'd gotten various scenes—where he would have to avoid himself from bumping into the girls that he had screwed up over the many nights.

Jieun wanted to blame everything on him. Like how he'd first, but at the same time, she had to have a solid backup as to what had led her to behave the way she did that day. The fact that she was attracted to him could be a valid reason, but she was supposed to be better than that. She hated herself even more when the memory of that kiss had really stuck in her mind for the whole week. It wasn’t like when she had kissed him during their pre-wedding photoshoot, or when he had kissed her on their wedding day, it was entirely different. She just couldn’t forget its taste, the feeling and pressure of his mouth on hers…

“Unnie.”

Jieun blinked and looked at the owner of the voice who was calling out for her.

“Are you ok?” Luna asked her.

Jieun nodded her head and smiled at the younger woman. “Yes, I’m good.”

“Anyway, Noona. I don’t know if you know, but it is Kris’ birthday this Sunday and my friends and I were thinking of throwing him a little surprise party.” Chanyeol had spoken. “What do you think?”

“Oh.” Jieun proclaimed. She didn’t know. “Ok. Yeah, sure.”

“We’ll probably need you to distract him that day though.”

“Oh. But we’re not really in a speaking term at the moment.”

Chanyeol and Luna looked at one another. “Did you guys get into another fight?” Asked Luna.

Jieun took a deep breath and released it calmly. “He kissed me.” She paused.

It was almost in unison when both Chanyeol and Luna’s expressions beamed up.

“Why are you guys smiling? This is bad.” Jieun protested. “We’re not supposed to do that at all. We had our rules.”

“But you’re fine when he kissed you on your wedding day.” Luna chimed.

“No, this time…it’s different.” Jieun shook her head. “I’d kissed him back.”

“Noona, if I tell you that Kris hyung is attracted to you, would you believe me?”

Jieun gawked at Chanyeol, as if she didn’t understand what he was trying to ask her. “Well, he is attracted to every woman for all I know.”

“Well, yes. But you drive him crazy.” Uttered Chanyeol.

“Are you saying that it’s my fault—wait, how do you know I drive him crazy?”

“He came to me that day and told me everything about it.” Chanyeol flaunted a smile. “I’ve never seen him acting that way for all this years that I’ve known him. I mean, he felt so bad because he thought he was taking advantage of you. He said he only wanted to tease you…he didn’t expect you to kiss him back.” Chanyeol stopped as soon as he saw Jieun was burying her face in her palms.

“It’s ok, Unnie.”

Jieun felt Luna’s hand caressing the back of her shoulder in attempt to comfort her. Yet, she didn’t feel any better. So, Kris had only wanted to after all. So, does this mean that I'd led him on?

“Look, Noona. It’s normal that you both are physically attracted to each other. Plus, it was just a kiss, right?”

Jieun finally looked up. “Yeah, it was just a kiss.” She sighed.

Kris was making pancakes for breakfast, when he had heard footsteps. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Jieun’s figure coming into the kitchen.

“Good morning.” He uttered, almost sounded so casual as if nothing had happened.

Jieun seemed to be slightly taken aback as she stood there on the spot, awkwardly. “Morning.” Her voice croaked.

Yes, it would be better if he pretended that the kiss hadn’t happened. Kris had kissed a lot of women and why should he be worried about Jieun the most? Was it because of their rules? He should have told her that the first rule was invalid the moment she wrote it down on that piece of paper, but that was two days after marrying her, he didn’t want to be the first one to cause a problem then. He did tell Chanyeol that he couldn’t do it; he needed the physical interactions if he was to live with her. The first time he met her, she looked as tough as an iron woman. She had no problem of ignoring him and she pushed him away without difficulty; so he’d thought that she would be ok living with him. If she had reacted the same way as every other woman the first time they met, he wouldn’t have agreed to live with her at all.

Did it make Kris a bad guy that he loved women? It was just that he had his own way of appreciating their existences. It was no exception for Jieun. He would be lying if he said he’d never wanted to kiss her. He just didn’t expect that she would kiss him back the way she did. God, her kisses were divine though. Then again, he meant it when he told Chanyeol that he wouldn’t hurt her. He doubted that he would ever physically hurt the petite woman, but emotionally, he hadn’t intended to do so either.

“Would you like pancakes?” He asked her.

“Y-yeah, sure.” Jieun nodded her head, a little hesitantly. “I didn’t know you can cook.” She said as she sat herself down around the island, watching him pour the pancake mixture into the pan.

She couldn’t see his face from the back but she knew he was grinning. “Yeah, I guess I’d make some pretty decent pancakes.” He told her.

So, they were going to pretend like nothing had happened, and she figured she was cool with that, for now. Her mind and eyes consciously lingered on the back of his tall and lean body. Never had she thought that someone’s body size could be the ulterior motive to define their attractiveness, but she had now ascertained—that she was attracted to his tallness. No, Jieun. Snap out of it.

Jieun pulled out of her reverie as Kris placed a plate of two pancakes in front of her. Today was his birthday. Jieun didn’t forget but she just had to remind herself again. She remembered the deal that she had to make with Chanyeol three days ago. She only needed to take Kris out to somewhere today, so Chanyeol and Luna could have the time to decorate their penthouse while they were gone. She had agreed to lend her house for the day too, as long as Chanyeol and Luna would stay to clean up after.

Kris handed her a fork and sat next to her. “How’s our baby doing?” He glanced at her for a second, before started devouring his own cooking.

“Um…she’s doing great.” Jieun replied him and inwardly, her palm rested on her stomach. No one could see that it was bulging unless she wore a tight top, but she certainly could feel its growth. They still hadn’t told the public about her pregnancy, but they had to soon, as her stomach was going to grow bigger. Despite the weight gain, she actually loved the feeling when she rubbed her hand over her round belly.

“What about you?” Kris subtly asked her, his eyes left his pancake as he brought them to her face.

Jieun avoided looking into his eyes and she nodded her head. “I’m ok. Just headaches, every now and then.” She stopped and tore a piece of the pancake and brought it to . “Do you know what I really want right now?”

“What?”

“Hot cookie dough with a lot of cream.” She said as she chewed Kris’ pancake diligently. “Do you have any plans today?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Do you want me to go with you?”

“Only if you’re free.”

“Yes, sure.”

“By the way, your pa