Three days had passed and everyone was back at the court room.

Yoona’s skin prickled with nervousness once again as she entered the court room for the second time in her whole lifetime. Her hands were restless and she constantly avoided other people’s curious gaze by gluing her eyes to the wooden floor board. Her mid length silky hair shadowed over her face due to her face that was constantly looking down. Kyuhyun walked beside her, their steps were synchronized as he guided her to her seat. He sported a professional expression, trying not to let people know how nerve wrecking this moment was even though he was dying to know what the verdict was. He never wanted to win a case this bad. Kyuhyun sort of felt guilty feeling that way, for not having the desire to win a case this bad for every client. Of course, he had a strong passion and fought for who he thought was innocent, but he wanted to win this case so badly and beat Henry up to pulp for accusing Yoona of such thing. He wanted to win.

For Yoona.

He wanted to show her that he believed in her. He wanted to show her his best. He felt like a little kid over again, trying to appeal to his mom in every way possible by showing her his best works and hiding his worst. He wanted to show her that he was capable. Kyuhyun didn’t know why he felt this way. He didn’t know why he wanted to impress Yoona so much. It’s just that he has this feeling, the feeling of wanting to protect her. During the times they met, he learned that Yoona pretended to be an independent woman. That’s right, pretended.

She reminded him of his favorite candy, Mentos. She’s hard on the outside, but if you stick with her long enough, you’ll find that she’s actually soft. Kyuhyun has been observing her and realized that Yoona was fragile. She looks solid, anyone who would give her a glance would immediately run away at her menacing glare but that was just a façade, a mask that Yoona built over the years to keep her from getting hurt again. Underneath that façade was actually a little girl.

A little girl who wants her family back.

A little girl who does not want to get hurt again.

A little girl who does not want anyone to leave her.

That is why she built that mask. To shield herself from other people, to lessen her chances of being hurt. To lock her heart in an ice cold box that can never be opened again.

But Kyuhyun strongly believes that box can be opened again. He believes that it’s him that holds the key to that frozen box. He believes that he can crack open Yoona’s shell and warm that cold heart of hers. He believes that he can protect her, stay by her side, and take care of her. He believes that he can-

“Kyuhyun?” Yoona’s sweet voice pulls him out of his world.

Kyuhyun blinks. “What?”

“You been standing in the middle of the hall for a minute now and people are starting to stare.” Yoona whispered and lowered her gaze when another passerby gives Kyuhyun another dirty look. Kyuhyun looks around to see what she was talking about and quickly apologized to the crowd before scuttling to his seat. Kyuhyun chuckles and turns his head to the side to give Yoona a meek smile to which Yoona only shook her head at.

Everyone suddenly stands up. Yoona looked around and was confused on why everyone stood up. Kyuhyun saw her moment of confusion and nudged her to stand up. “They’re going to announce the results,” Kyuhyun whispered, his hot breathe hitting Yoona’s ear.

Yoona’s eyes widened with anticipation when she heard what he said. She has been waiting for this moment.

For the moment of truth.

“Really?” She asked. Kyuhyun nodded and shushed her and motioned her to face forward and listen to the judge.

Yoona felt her palms turn sweaty when she saw the piece of paper being passed to the judge’s hands, the piece of paper that could change everything.

Yoona swore she could feel her heart stop beating for a moment once the judge opened his mouth.

“This court, finds Im Yoona, innocent for the murder of Jung Daehyun.”

Yoona’s hand automatically flew to , overwhelmed. Kyuhyun shouted out of pure joy and immediately swooped Yoona in his arms to give her a congratulatory hug, momentarily forgetting her hatred for physical contact. Yoona too, was overwhelmed with joy and unknowingly hugged Kyuhyun back; her long slender arms fit perfectly around his neck. Kyuhyun lifted her and spun her around in a circle, “We won! We won! Yoona, we did it!” He screamed. Yoona laughed, the sound played like a melody in Kyuhyun’s ears, a melody he could never get tired of hearing. “Yeah, we did.” She whispered.

“Order! Order in the court!” The judge knocked his gavel, the sound calling for the attention of the people inside the room; destroying the moment of joy between them. Yoona slowly came to realize that they were hugging when a newfound silence took over the court and immediately motioned Kyuhyun to put her down.

“In addition to Ms. Im Yoona’s innocence, this jury finds Henry Lau guilty under subornation of perjury and the murder of Jung Daehyun.”

‘What?’ Yoona and Kyuhyun thought to themselves, their minds thinking alike due to the what the judge announced.

“What?!” Henry angrily shouted, unknowingly voicing out the thought of the two and gaining the attention of many at the same time but he didn’t care if the whole world was looking at him, all he wanted to know was how they found out. Henry slammed his fists on the table, his knuckles turning white due to him trying to contain his anger.

Henry turned to Jongdae and made his way to him, his eyes blazing with fury. “You traitor. What did you tell them? We had a deal!” His nails imprinted a half moon shape in his closed palm due to the pressure from his fingernails from his hand being balled into fists. Kyuhyun stepped in front and made a protective stance in front of Yoona, his defensive attitude coming out just in case Henry decided to look the other way and lunge at Yoona.

Henry walked over and uncoiled his fists, only to grab Jongdae’s collar. Jongdae did nothing to fight back; he only hung his head low, letting Henry lift him up in the air with only one arm, “What did you tell them, huh? It’s no wonder that you didn’t want to come today. What did you tell them, you little punk?!” Henry took note that other people were listening so he lowered his voice into a mere whisper, “I thought we agreed that you would memorize the script and I would do all the dirty work, was that so hard, mule? I thought we agreed not to tell on each other? We didn’t agree on telling them what we were doing, didn’t we?” Henry seethed through his teeth, no longer trying to hide his anger. He wasn’t doing a good job of hiding his anger, anyway. So it made no difference.

“Answer me!” Henry shouted, shaking Jongdae’s collar when he received no response, only hearing Jongdae's chokes due to his buttoned up collar that was cutting his air supply. “Weakling.” He spat.

  Yoona grew scared of Henry; she had never seen this side of Henry before. She was about to step forward to help Jongdae when she saw his hands tremble from fear.

“What are you doing? Step back.” Kyuhyun demanded, shielding his body over her. “What about Jongdae?” Yoona asked, her eyebrows met with worry. “The security guards are going to come any minute now. Don’t worry.” He gently reassured. “Now stay behind me.” Yoona complied with his demand and took a step back but peered over his shoulder to get a good look at what was happening.

“Order in the court!” The judge knocked his gavel and shouted once again. This time, the security guards had arrived and came to take Henry away. Two tall men wearing clad uniforms walked in, their steps uniform as they headed straight to Henry. They grabbed Henry, making Henry lose his grip on Jongdae’s collar. Henry looked like a whining little boy compared to the two well built men who were now grabbing Henry’s arms, trying to keep him still in order to clasp the handcuff around him. Jongdae was now on the floor, holding onto his neck, trying to gasp for the oxygen that left his lungs a little too soon. “I’m sorry.” Jongdae wheezed out, attempting to apologize to Henry.

“I’m going to kill you, you useless piece of crap!”Henry struggled, trying to release the security guard’s iron grip. He kicked his feet, trying to kick the man helplessly lying down on the floor but missed by an inch. “Stay still.” The taller of the two growled, and roughly pushed his arm backward, making Henry cry in pain. Once they had successfully chained Henry, they dragged him out. However, Henry didn’t want to give up. He elbowed the guard closest to him in the ribs and ran over to Jongdae, driven by anger. He thrashed and did his best to inflict any sort of damage at Jongdae, which he succeeded at. The two men ran over and pulled Henry up, this time with more force. They forcefully dragged him away. Henry was relentless; he continuously kicked and cursed Jongdae until he could no longer be heard from the courtroom. “You better hope I don’t see you again or else I’m going to castrate you and feed it to the sharks, you two faced bastard!” That was the last everyone heard from him.

Jongdae was still on the floor, his eyes lifelessly looking at the brown floor. He had bruises all over his face and a shoe print proudly stamped on his left cheek.

Once Yoona was sure that Henry was gone, she pushed Kyuhyun aside and walked over to Jongdae, silently helping him up. Jongdae was a great man. She didn’t know why Jongdae lied about her killing Daehyun.

She helped him sit on the chair and was about to turn back to her seat but stopped when Jongdae said, “Thank you.”

He spoke again, but in a hushed tone, “And I’m sorry.” Yoona nodded and wordlessly walked off, not even sparing him a glance. Yoona went back to her seat and waited for the court trial to formally end before walking out, the air in there was suffocating her, giving her a headache. Kyuhyun, startled by Yoona’s sudden leave, hurriedly grabbed his folders and carelessly stuffed them into his empty brief case and ran off to catch up with Yoona. “Hey! Wait up!” Now that they had grown close, Kyuhyun was able to form sentences without stuttering and grew more confidence every time he was around Yoona. Hearing Kyuhyun’s sentence, Yoona slowed down her pace, waiting for Kyuhyun to catch up. Yoona hadn’t even gone that far but by the time Kyuhyun had caught up, he was already huffing and puffing like he just ran a marathon. “Slow poke.” Yoona said in a teasing tone. “Hey! You walk too fast!” He complained. “Grandpa.” Yoona teased once again, going back to her fast pace. “Wait up!” He shouted before rushing over.

Kyuhyun and Yoona were walking side by side again. They were on the way to the parking lot, just like the day before. “So,” Kyuhyun spoke up, breaking the silence. “We won the case.” He grinned, flashing his mega-watt smile at Yoona. Yoona smiled, “We did.” She spoke softly. Yoona has been starting to smile more. More than she had ever done these past few years. She didn’t know why, but she’s starting to smile more around Kyuhyun. Maybe it was because of his goofy actions, or his dorky attitude, she didn’t know.

“I guess we won’t be seeing each other anymore.” Yoona spoke up after a few seconds of silence that always seemed to engulf them. Kyuhyun looked to her, surprise that she said that. “It was nice working with you.” She gave him a meek smile, giving him this chance to get away from her and walk out of her life.

“Hey, now, who said we weren’t going to see each other?” Kyuhyun slightly nudged her, making Yoona stumble a bit. “I’m like glue. I stick to you. You can never get rid of me, no matter how hard you try.” He laughed. “But glue doesn’t stick all the time. There are some times where your glue just doesn’t work and doesn’t stick to the surface.” Yoona remarked, sticking her tongue out. “Super glue then!” Kyuhyun retorted, sticking his tongue out too. Yoona laughed at their childish actions and felt a rare feeling of warmth spread through her chest. She stopped walking for a second, wondering why she felt a feeling she hadn't felt in such a long time. “Are you okay?” Kyuhyun asked her when he realized that she had stopped walking. “Y-yeah. I’m fine.” Yoona spoke, trying to shrug it off.

“So, it’s settled then. We’re friends forever,” Kyuhyun said, resuming back to how they were. Yoona chuckled, “You sound like a middle school girl,” she teased. But deep inside, she felt happy. Happy that Kyuhyun wasn’t going to leave her because she has just started letting him in. She just started to trust him.  If he left now, Yoona didn’t know what she would do. She would probably never trust a person ever again and her hatred for the whole human civilization would grow even more.

“Let’s go out since we won the case. I’ll treat you to a celebratory dinner.” Kyuhyun suggested.

“I have w-“ Yoona wanted to decline but Kyuhyun interrupted her, “-yeah yeah. You have work. But you can’t decline me now. I invited you last time and you refused that offer too,” Kyuhyun pouted. “Im Yoona, are you trying to avoid me now that the case is over?”

“What? No! I wasn’t doing that!” Yoona exclaimed, bringing her arms up to the front and waving it in an ‘X’, trying to defend herself. Kyuhyun chuckled, “I was kidding.” He raised his right hand up to pinch her soft cheek, “You’re so cute.”

Yoona’s cheeks were faintly tinged with pink due to Kyuhyun’s endearing action, but it was unnoticeable because she quickly turned her head away, avoiding his line of sight. She slapped his hand away, “Shut up.” Kyuhyun only laughed, his laughter echoing and breaking through the peaceful silence like a knife.

“But I can’t skip work. My boss will kill me.”Yoona brought the subject back up, trying to convince Kyuhyun that she couldn’t go, but he wasn’t buying any of it. “What’s your boss’ number then? I’ll call him and tell him that you can’t come. Being a lawyer has its perks, you know.” Kyuhyun brought out his cellphone and gave her a cheesy wink, to which Yoona gagged at.

“So? Number?” Kyuhyun asked, raising his sleek black cellphone when Yoona hadn't said anything.

“Nevermind. I’ll just tell him myself.” She mumbled, admitting defeat. “But it’s only for an hour!”

“Two hours!” Kyuhyun bargained, walking over to his car.

“One hour and a half.” She insisted.

“Three.” He smirked. “Get in.” He unlocked the air and motioned her to get in.

“That’s more than two!” Yoona exclaimed but nevertheless, she walked over to the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt.

“Two hours and a half, then?” Kyuhyun asked, batting his eyes innocently.

“Two.” Yoona said, dejected.

“Deal!” Kyuhyun shouted, doing a victory dance in his car. Yoona laughed at Kyuhyun’s silliness. A grown man in a suit dancing a dorky victory dance with a goofy smile on his face in the driver’s seat would brighten up anyone’s day, especially if it was Kyuhyun.

“Let’s go, go, go!” Kyuhyun shouted, jabbing his index finger in the air.

“Where are we going?” Yoona asked when they were on the road, curious on what he was planning. She wanted to know what they were doing since she hasn’t gone out and had time for her to enjoy herself in years. She was always busy working, running around town so that she wouldn’t be late for her next job and was constantly worrying whether she would be able to buy food or pay her rent.

“We’re going to have dinner. How does pork belly sound?” He asked, momentarily giving her a glance through his peripheral vision.

“Can’t we just go to the park or something?” Yoona said, not wanting to go out to eat since Kyuhyun would be paying and she didn’t want him to pay for her all the time. She wanted to chip in too but she didn’t have enough money to spare, so the best way for him to stop spending money is to go to places where they didn’t need to spend any money.

“You want to go to the park? Maybe we can go afterwards. I’m starving right now. I was so antsy during the trial that I almost peed my pants.” He chuckled at his own sentence. “Being nervous got me so hungry. So let’s just eat first. You’re hungry too, right? I bet you are. So we can go to the park once we’re done with dinner.” He suggested.

Seeing that Kyuhyun wouldn’t budge on cancelling their drive to a restaurant, she conceded. Besides, it would take longer for her to go home if they went to the park. “I’m fine. Let’s just have dinner. We don’t need to go to the park.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

“Yeah.” She smiled.

---

At the restaurant

“Three servings of pork belly, please!” Kyuhyun ordered, rejecting the menu he was given since he knew what he wanted going to eat. He smiled at the lady who was taking his order. “Three servings? Is someone going to join us?” Yoona asked with her senses on high alert. She hated meeting new people. Kyuhyun patted the crown of her head, “Calm down, my grasshopper.” Kyuhyun said, he squinted both of his eyes and puckered his lips a bit, speaking in a calm voice, trying his best to imitate a sensei to which Yoona admits that he looks nothing like one.

“I am a growing boy who needs to eat. So it would be logical for me to order one extra serving for myself.” Kyuhyun dropped his sensei act and pounded his chest; Yoona guessed that he was trying to be Superman this time. Kyuhyun immediately regretted his action when he realized he punched his chest too hard. He rubbed his chest, trying to soothe it. “Idiot,” Yoona sniggered.  “And you’re in your mid 20’s. I don’t think you’re considered a boy anymore.” She corrected with a playful smile on her face.

“Smarty pants.” Kyuhyun scoffed.

Kyuhyun looked around while waiting for his plate of meat and lettuce to arrive. He saw other tables, grilling their meat, drinking alcohol, and playing games. The sound of glasses clinking, meat sizzling and people cheering were all Kyuhyun heard. Everyone seemed like they were enjoying their dinner. Kyuhyun smiled at that.

He exclaimed when he thought of a brilliant idea. He raised his hands, calling the waitress once again, “One bottle of soju please!” He smiled pleasantly when the sound of glasses clinking and the sound of a bottle being placed on the table were heard. Yoona’s mouth was slightly open due to surprise, “Hey! Are you going to drink all that? No drinking! You still have to drive me home!” Yoona complained, slapping Kyuhyun’s hand that was reaching for the tiny glass. “Owie!” Kyuhyun whined, rubbing his red arm. He blew on it and looked at her with his shoulder hunched, “Evil!” he shouted.

Yoona rolled her eyes at his childish attitude and crossed her arms. She tilted her head to the bottle of alcohol, “Send it back. You still need to drive me back.” She ordered. “But I won’t drink much! Just a few glasses! I can still drive after five glasses. I have a high tolerance for alcohol, you know?” He boasted, trying to persuade her. “And the rest will be for you! We won this case; this is supposed to be a congratulatory dinner. Loosen up, will you?”

Yoona scoffed. “I am not letting that glass reach my lips. Never.”

“Please?” He pleaded.

“Fine. You drink. I’m not drinking any. But you can only drink four glasses.” Yoona raised four fingers, trying to emphasize her point.

“Four.” Kyuhyun agreed, raising four fingers up too.

“Let’s eat!” he shouted when the meat and lettuce and various side dishes had finally appeared. The bowls of side dishes were neatly arranged on the table, the different colors from the dishes appealing to the customer. The heavenly smell of food wafted through the air and travelled to their noses, increasing their appetite and making them drool in anticipation.

The male picked up his stainless steel chopsticks and scanned the side dishes before settling on kimchi. He grabbed a piece of kimchi and brought it up to Yoona’s lips, “Say aaah!” He mouthed. Yoona looked at him as if he had two heads and picked up her own chopsticks and used it to get the kimchi hanging between Kyuhyun’s chopsticks. “Aaaah.” Yoona said as she fed herself the kimchi. Kyuhyun’s eyes drooped in disappointment and clucked his tongue. “You’re supposed to eat when I feed you, not use your own chopsticks to get the food from my chopsticks.” He lectured. “Again,” He demanded, eyeing the dishes and chose pan fried tofu this time. Yoona raised her chopsticks to grab the food again but Kyuhyun immediately moved his hands away and grabbed Yoona’s chopsticks, “Hey!” He scolded, “Eat from my chopsticks. I haven’t eaten yet so it’s clean, don’t worry. There are no germs or anything.” Yoona grew annoyed at Kyuhyun’s pushy attitude and mimicked him ‘there are no germs or anything’.

Kyuhyun’s arm was starting to ache and he was startin to get impatient since he wanted to eat too so he pushed the tofu close to , urging her to eat it. Yoona sighed and gave in; she grumpily chewed the tofu on one side of her cheek. “Is it delicious?” Kyuhyun asked his tone soft as if he was talking to a baby. Yoona gave him a fake smile and nodded, admitting that the tofu was indeed delicious. Kyuhyun smiled, satisfied and picked a tofu for himself. He grabbed the tongs and picked up the pieces of perfectly aligned pork meat and brought it to the grill, stopping for a second to admire the sound of it sizzling. “Ah! I can tell this is going to be so delicious!” Kyuhyun exclaimed and for once, Yoona actually agreed with him.

2 hours later…

“One more -hic-bottle please!” Kyuhyun exclaimed, his eyes were heavy-lidded and his movements were clumsy, showing that he was drunk. “No no no.” Yoona intercepted, “Two more bottles!” She shouted. Kyuhyun cheered, raising his hands up to show his agreement.

Somehow, Kyuhyun had managed to make Yoona drink a shot of alcohol by tricking her into thinking that it was water and that all glasses were as small as shot glasses. That tiny glass was enough to make Yoona feel a bit tipsy. Since Yoona was tipsy, there was no one to monitor Kyuhyun’s continuous shots of alcohol and eventually, he got drunk. So did Yoona, with the help of Kyuhyun’s persuasive attitude. It turns out, Kyuhyun didn't hve a high tolerance for alcohol. He felt tipsy on his second glass and eventually fell drunk after the third glass.

Now, there were two drunken adults who were stuck in a restaurant, and had no clue of what they were doing. “Whoo!” Yoona shouted while laughing crazily on the cold, white marble floor. She pointed to Kyuhyun, “Hey mister, why are you so tall! You’re a giant! I should call you Mr. Giant!” She applauded, mimicking a seal. “And you’re looking a bit green there. I should call you Mr. Green Giant!” She laughed for no reason yet again; she was now sprawled on the floor while the owner of the restaurant tried to help her up. “Hey, hey, hey! Mr. Green Giant! Tell me, do you have any corn?” She prolonged the ‘o’ in corn, finding it hilarious. “Hahaha!” Yoona rolled on the floor in hysterics, her high pitched laugh echoed through the empty restaurant.

Kyuhyun on the other hand was singing to his very own remix of the opening of Pororo and the frog song. He was singing out loud, increasing the tone by singing it two octaves higher. He sang the song in such a high tone that his voice cracked at almost every syllable. He repeatedly sang his own remix for the past 30 minutes, annoying the hell out of the employees who had to stay back and clean up. “Young man, don’t you think it’s time for you to stop singing and take your girlfriend home? Aigoo.” The grandmother, who was the owner of the restaurant complained and slightly patted his shoulder. She gathered his stuff and handed it to him before helping Yoona up on the floor but repeatedly failed when Yoona would constantly fall off whenever her touched the chair, complaining that the chair tried to her.

"Ahjumma! You should hire another chair! This chair is a ert, see?" Yoona claimed, sitting on the chair before springing back up again to justify her point. "Bad chair!" Yoona pouted, slapping the plastic chair.

In the end, the grandma received help from her employee who was also her daughter and successfully pulled her up. They needed to close the shop so once they were done with all the preparations; they took the two drunken people and sent them off in a cab. “Ah!” Kyuhyun shouted, unconsciously raising his voice in annoyance when he hit his head at the top of the yellow taxi.

 “So noisy!” He poked his finger at his ear and complained, even though there was nothing particularly noisy inside the taxi cab and it was his head that was hurting, not his ear.  Yoona had calmed down by now and was staring at the cars passing by, trying to count how many cars there were in Seoul.

“Hello! Welcome to McDonalds!” Kyuhyun's speech slurred when he greeted the taxi driver, his clothes and his breathe reeked of alcohol and his face was a red as a tomato.

“Where to?” The taxi driver asked, looking at Kyuhyun’s dazed eyes through the rearview mirror.

"Home.” He mumbled, his voice was drowsy and barely audible for the driver to hear but he understood it.

“Which is at?” The driver asked again with his eyebrows raised. The driver looked like he was in his 50’s and had wrinkles at the side of his eyes, making the driver look kind, which he was. His tone was soft and gentle, and there was no trace of annoyance in his voice when he was speaking to Kyuhyun. Yoona’s drunk mind had guessed that he had dealt with people like these before, drunk people who couldn’t handle their alcohol, so he must have grown used to it.

“Guess.” Kyuhyun giggled, before dozing off.