‘Are you feeling better now?’ Shin Hye asked him. The three of them were sitting in Hong Ki’s living room. He looked like he lost a lot of weight. He was also considerably mellow when they arrived, which isn’t normally the case. Hong Ki was always bright and cheerful.

‘Yeah. But I still feel awful about the drama filming being pushed back because of this,’ Hong Ki replied, sullen.

‘I felt the same way when I was in that car accident,’ Shin Hye told them. ‘Except that was even worse because the drama was already airing. Don’t worry, I’m sure the production understands. Your health is more important, Hong Star.’

Hong Ki beamed. ‘Heokshi, you always know how to brighten up my mood,’ he told Shin Hye. ‘So what’s new with you? Aside from the fact that you’re really, really popular right now.’

The first thing that Shin Hye thought of was Min Ho. But she wasn’t sure if she should tell them about him yet. Especially after the latest meeting with their agencies, she figured that the less people who know for now, the better. Although it made her feel guilty that she’s keeping it from her friends.

‘I’m shooting a movie next month,’ she said calmly. ‘It’s a sageuk so I’m really excited.’

‘Oh yeah! I read about that. You’re going to be a queen, right?’

She nodded her head. ‘I’m actually more excited to be working with very respectable sunbaes. I'm a bit nervous, too.’

‘I’m so jealous! You’ll do really well for sure,’ Hong Ki smiled at her before turning to Geun Suk. ‘Hyung, why are you so quiet?’

Shin Hye looked to her left and noticed that Geun Suk was just staring blankly at her and Hong Ki. She furrowed her brows, wondering what was on his mind. He was normally very chatty – especially around them. She realized he hasn’t really spoken more than a few sentences since they arrived.

‘Oppa, are you okay?’

Geun Suk’s eyes focused on her and she was a bit startled by his stare. It was stern – like she did something he disapproved of. felt dry all of a sudden, but he smiled slightly before looking down. ‘I’m okay,’ he leaned in to get his glass of water. After he took a sip, his smile widened. ‘Shall we have dinner together?’

Shin Hye was fazed by the question. She doesn’t know why or how, but the way Geun Suk asked seemed like a challenge. A few seconds went by and she hasn’t said anything.

‘I can’t go out,’ Hong Ki replied, breaking the silence. ‘But you two can have dinner together, I don’t mind.’

‘Yeah. We haven’t had a meal together in so long, Shin Hye,’ Geun Suk told her, smiling. ‘My treat.’ He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. It was a simple enough question, but somehow, it felt like a trick. Shin Hye was going to have dinner with Min Ho. That, she was sure of. They didn’t make plans yet, but she wanted to see him. And a part of her knew that Min Ho was waiting for her, too.

She was still struggling with the answer when her phone rang. She looked down at her screen. OH MY GOD, PERFECT TIMING. YOU’RE NOT AN UNLUCKY PHONE AFTER ALL. ‘Excuse me, I just have to take this,’ she told the two guys.

She stood up and walked to the kitchen counter, which was a considerable distance from the living room. ‘Hello?’

‘Where are you?’ Min Ho asked.

‘Still at Hong Ki’s. You? I’m sorry about the phone call earlier.’

‘It’s fine. I’m just at home, waiting for my girlfriend,’ he replied. ‘Let’s have dinner together later.’

Shin Hye breathed a sigh of relief. Now, she can clearly reject the dinner offer from Geun Suk.

‘You didn’t make any other plans right?’ Min Ho continued.

‘Anya, none. Hong Ki can’t go out of the house anyway.’

‘How about Jang Geun Suk-ssi?’

‘Eh?’ Jang Geun Suk-ssi? That’s weird. ‘I don’t know. He’ll probably have dinner someplace else.’

‘Why don’t you invite him to join us?’ Min Ho asked.

It took a while before what Min Ho said sank in. ‘Meo?!’ Shin Hye blurted out loud. She turned around and saw Geun Suk and Hong Ki look at her with puzzled expressions. She smiled weakly before turning her back to them.

‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea,’ Shin Hye whispered to the phone.

‘Why? You said he’s one of your best friends. I already met your other friends. You met Il Woo. Doesn’t it make sense for me to meet him?’

Shin Hye closed her eyes and steadied herself. She wasn’t going to lose this. ‘Oppa, I haven’t even told him we’re dating yet. And now you want to have dinner with him? Why?’

‘We can tell him together. And uhh… I always wanted to meet him, you know, since we’re the same age… and we’re both kind of popular… and we get compared a lot…’

‘You’ve never met?’ That’s hard to believe, Shin Hye thought.

‘We have, we have, but I’ve never hung out with him. He sent me a message once but it was kind of weird so…’

Shin Hye cut him off. ‘Don’t you want to have dinner with just me? We haven’t seen each other in a while. Do you really want to have another man there?

Min Ho was silent for a while. Yes, you’re winning this, Shin Hye.

‘See? Let’s just have dinner, the two of us. We can do it at my place. We can order in. Is that okay?’ Shin Hye asked.

She heard Min Ho sigh from the other end. ‘Okay.’

‘Okay then! I gotta go. Can’t wait to see you later,’ she replied enthusiastically before she hung up. She turned around grinning, only to meet the guys’ curious expressions. Geun Suk looked particularly intrigued. She stopped smiling and walked over to them.

‘Who was that?’ Hong Ki asked.

‘Kanyang. Just a friend,’ Shin Hye replied, trying to sound oblivious as she sat back on the couch.

Geun Suk crossed his arms and smirked. ‘So… dinner?’

Shin Hye almost forgot. ‘Ahh, mianhe oppa. I actually have dinner plans. Let’s do it next time,’ she smiled widely. ‘So Hong Ki and Yong Hwa can join us.’

Geun Suk pursed his lips and nodded. ‘Okay.’

It was almost 7 o’clock and Shin Hye and Geun Suk just left Hong Ki’s after chatting the afternoon away. They also watched some episodes of FNC entertainment’s reality show because Hong Ki insisted. She ended up laughing a lot seeing her friends act awkward on screen.

‘I thought you had dinner plans, why are you going home?’ Geun Suk asked Shin Hye as he drove.

Remember, you’re a bad liar. ‘My friend is coming over and we’re just ordering in.’ Yes, just leave the ‘who’ and you’re technically telling the truth.

Geun Suk didn’t reply and continued driving.

When they arrived at Shin Hye’s building’s basement, she unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to him. ‘Oppa, thanks for this afternoon. I had fun,’ she told him.

Geun Suk smiled. ‘Me, too. I really missed hanging out with you. We should do it more often if you and I are both not busy.'

Shin Hye nodded. ‘Although that's going to be hard. We’re both getting busier and busier.’

‘We still have that CF though,’ Geun Suk reminded her. ‘We can hang out after that.’

‘Ah, you’re right,’ Shin Hye tilted her head. ‘Was that finalized already? Joon oppa told me about it a few days ago.’

‘I think so. I already signed the contract. Haven’t you?’

‘Not yet. But it’s probably final if Joon oppa hasn’t told me otherwise…’

Just then, Shin Hye’s phone rang. It was Min Ho.

 ‘Yobuseyo?’ She answered softly.

It took a while before he spoke up. ‘Why aren’t you getting off yet? That’s Jang Geun Suk’s car, right? I can tell because it’s fancy.’

Shin Hye’s eyes widened as she looked around the parking lot from inside the car. ‘You’re already here?’ She immediately regretted her response because Geun Suk also started looking around.

Just then, Shin Hye noticed Min Ho’s car parked just a few meters away from Geun Suk’s car. Min Ho slowly lowered down the window, exposing half of his face. Omo… why are you doing that? STOP. STOP. Alarmed, she turned to Geun Suk, who was now squinting his eyes, looking in Min Ho’s direction.

‘Who is that?’

‘Ahh, my friend,’ Shin Hye replied. ‘Thanks for driving me here, oppa. I’ll see you in a few weeks. Bye,’ she said hurriedly as she reached for the car handle.

‘Is that Lee Min Ho?’

Shin Hye already had one foot out the door when she turned back to Geun Suk, her face pale. ‘Eh?’

Geun Suk looked at her, then at the phone in her hand. Shin Hye realized that she hasn’t hung up yet, and the screen was wide open for Geun Suk to see. She stupidly saved Min Ho’s number as Kim Tan. She immediately put the phone in her ear, but she knew that Geun Suk already saw.

‘I’m coming over,’ she said to Min Ho.

‘I heard him. He knows it’s me. It’s rude to just sit here,’ Min Ho replied. Shin Hye heard him hang up and anticipated what was coming next, although she hoped that he wouldn’t. His car door suddenly opened, and Min Ho stepped out. This time, Shin Hye looked around to see if anybody else was at the parking lot. Thankfully, no one was around. I’m going crazy. This is crazy.

‘Oh. It’s really him,’ she heard Geun Suk say. Shin Hye shifted her gaze from Min Ho who was slowly approaching the car, to Geun Suk who had an unreadable expression on his face. She came back to her senses and got out.

‘Oppa,’ she said to Min Ho, closing the car door. He smiled warmly and walked up to her. He was already standing beside Shin Hye when Geun Suk stepped out of the car.

Geun Suk faced them and smiled. ‘Annyeonghaseyo.’

Min Ho walked over to him and stretched out his hand. ‘Annyeonghaseyo, sunbae.’ He bowed his head slightly.

‘Sunbae?’ Geun Suk chuckled. ‘Just call me Geun Suk. We’re the same age, after all,’ he took Min Ho’s hand and shook it.

Min Ho looked down and laughed. ‘Ahh yeah, yeah.’

At this point, Shin Hye was standing fixedly on the spot. The two men were exchanging pleasantries but there she was, staring at them with no clue what was happening.

‘Shin Hye,’ Min Ho called out to her. She snapped out of it and smiled awkwardly before walking over to them.

‘Ah… uhh… so you know each other of course,’ Shin Hye started to say. She looked at Geun Suk who was smiling cheekily in front of her.