Eunhyuk only grins in front of her, his gums are showing and he has this mischievous glint in his eyes.

“What?” she laughs, tugging on the end of her ponytail as she normally does whenever nervous. Their order has long since arrived yet neither succumbs to their hunger and dig in, choosing gossip as a better appetizer than sushi.

“Nothing,” Eunhyuk continues to grin cheekily as he finally picks up chopsticks. Ri Young returns his skeptical grin with raised brows before picking up her own utensils and violently stabbing the rice with both sticks in order to let the steam out.

“Seriously though, Ri Young. I ask you to describe him for me and the first word that pops into your head is that the guy’s good looking?” Eunhyuk seems amused, but his tone says another thing altogether. Is that jealousy she hears? Nah.

“I didn’t say that,” Ri Young counters with a mumble. She pokes around her pork cutlets before picking them up with her chopsticks and chewing violently. She picks up some rice with and shoves it in , still chewing yet concentrating on Eunhyuk’s distractingly bright banana hair. The young woman swallows and continues, “I-I only said he was attractive.”

“Same difference,” Eunhyuk huffs out. “I’m probably just as ‘attractive’ as he is, you know.”

It’s her turn to grin cheekily as she points the sticks accusingly at him.

“Jealous, are we?”

He scoffs and waves off her claim. “What? Me?” he feigns surprise before snorting. “Get real, Ri Young, like I would be insecure with this handsome face,”

“Where?”

He deadpans at the younger police officer from across him. Is it just her, or is his eyes getting glossier?

“Ha ha, you are so hilarious, Han Ri Young.”

“You were the one who brought this up, Lee Hyukjae.”

“Okay, not funny anymore. Let’s drop the issue.” He says. His threatening gaze tells her it is definitely not a suggestion. Ri
Young laughs anyway, not afraid of the sunbae in front of her.

“Whatever you say, Hyukkie,” Ri Young says, grinning and putting another scoop of rice into .

“I hate you,” he mumbles, pouting and stabbing his chopsticks into his bowl of rice. She laughs at his childishness.

“It’s going to be fine, Hyuk. You’re still my number one.”

Ri Young isn’t all too sure which one is redder, Eunhyuk’s cheeks or the strawberries he ordered.

.oOo.

Eunhyuk’s phone rings as the two of them start walking back to the station. Upon reading the text message though, he groans.

“What? Can’t they get their own coffee?” he grumbles, heading towards the nearest Starbucks joint. Ri Young laughs and assures him it’ll be okay. Though her laugh is immediately cut short once he says that the both of them would have to pay for the coffee, for now. Suddenly, the young police offer seems to have the strangest urge to want to strangle her officemates. And if she was lucky enough, that good for nothing old witch too. She hands him her share nonetheless and tells him she’ll be waiting outside.

“I hate crowds?” She tries to reason out. Eunhyuk definitely knows her better and rolls his eyes.

“You just don’t want to stand in line.”

She pushes him towards the door with a cheeky grin, pretending not to hear him rambling on about how lazy she was getting. Like he wasn’t that way when she was new and was assigned to coffee duty every morning, such a hypocrite Eunhyuk turns out to be.

“Have fun, Hyukkie,” she comments and manages to get him inside the coffee joint while she practically skips down the steps.

Ri Young beams and stands outside the café for a while, stretching and basically saying hi to the few people she recognizes. She realizes Seoul was enormous, or at least it seems like it for the petite form of Han Ri Young. To think, she only knows a few people when she practically grew up in the streets of the metropolis.

And although Ri Young is definitely entertained easily, she gets bored equally quick. Fishing out her phone from her uniform pocket, she quickly types out a message for Eunhyuk.

<< User; 3:14:22 pm: It’s so boring out here. How much longer? >>

She taps her foot impatiently, waiting for a reply. Eunhyuk does not disappoint and with a few minutes gone, she already receives his message.

<< Asia's Anchovy; 3:17:42 pm: About two more people, then I still have to order seven Americanos. Ugh. Can’t they just order their own? Better yet, can’t you just wait in line with me?? It’s so lonelyyy. >>

Ri Young stifles her laugh and looks back to the windowed walls. Having able to easily spot the bright yellow hair, she finds Eunhyuk grinning at her and motioning her to come inside. She sticks out her tongue playfully and quickly types back a reply.

<< User; 3:18:12 pm: Still so long! Also, absolutely no way I’m going in there. The smell of coffee is too strong inside, blegh. >>

She can’t see very clearly, but she’s sure he’s rolling his eyes at the text he received. A few minutes later, her phone beeps again, signaling a new message.

<< Asia's Anchovy; 3:20:52 pm: Fine, go to the playground or something, then. I’ll just meet you there. I’m ordering now so don’t go too far. >>

It’s Ri Young’s turn to roll her eyes. Albeit tempted to type out a rant how she’s definitely not a kid and how Eunhyuk should not treat her like one, she decides not to and gives her fellow police officer the punishment of silence instead.

Walking off from the coffee joint, Ri Young finally relishes the cool breeze early September offers. Ri Young thanks anyone up there that Eunhyuk decided to give her his jacket, her clothing and skin proves to be too thin for the slightly cold air. She wraps the jacket around her tighter, looking at the side where children laugh and play to themselves by the sidewalk, ignoring anyone that isn’t playing with them.

Her features grow softer at the scene. How ignorant they were to the crimes surrounding them. Oh, children, so innocent.

Ri Young’s thoughts are trampled as she is shoved to the side by her shoulders.

“Jagiya, I missed you so much!”  All too familiar lovely bright brown eyes greet her before the young man somewhat pinning her to the wall grins at her. The bright smile is familiar – as familiar as the long locks of dyed blond hair and the defined face of the young man. She just can’t quite put where she has once seen it. He doesn’t give her the chance to remember as he crashes his lips on hers.

Ri Young seems to forget everything and is practically oblivious to anything happening around her. Neither does she notice her hands moving to wrap around the taller stranger’s neck nor his own arms wrapping around her waist. She doesn’t even care to give a heartbeat to the thugs running past the two of them, screaming bloody murder of a blond kid stealing from them.

He pulls away in the need for air, panting and hopefully enjoyed the kiss as much as Ri Young did.

He quickly looks towards the side where the gangsters seem to have gone. He grins back at her and releases his hold on her waist. Ri Young confusedly loosens her grip on his neck and instead uses her arms to lean back on the wall, trying to steady herself.

“Thank you,” he cups both of her cheeks and gives a quick peck to her lips. He slips something cold and metal on her fingers and for some strange and odd reason she’s disappointed that it’s not a piece of paper with hopefully his number or e-mail address.

Quickly, the young man sprints towards the opposite direction the thugs had ran, releasing his hold on her once and for all while she slips to a squatting position, still completely out of breath.

A few minutes later, Eunhyuk spots Ri Young still crouching on the ground, trying to catch her breath with her fingers barely touching her still tingling lips. Panicked, he rushes to her side, almost dropping the plastic bag filled with seven steaming hot take out Americanos. Ri Young assures him she’s fine with shaky breaths though not entirely convinced herself.

She takes a glance towards one of her fingers and it takes her a few moments to realize why the young man seems so familiar to her. The stolen limited edition white gold ring sits on her finger, glimmering in the faint sunlight and mockingly winking at her.

It takes her a few more moments to process the fact that the young man who took her breath away was no other than the one and only Aiden Lee.

A/N: Incredibly late- but I managed to fix the font size? :D;;? Orz I hope you enjoy nonetheless though. Next chapter is in the writing already- hopefully, it will be up sometime this month at the very least ORZ

Comments, subscriptions and the like are very much welcome~ :) Thanks for reading!