For the next week, she would come by and visit at the store. She got more acquainted with Baekhyun (much to his pleasure) and I eventually found out that she visited the twins during their shifts as well. I felt a small pang of jealousy but shook it off. I had no reason to be jealous at that time; she was in a foreign land looking for some friends. If I was jealous, I'd have been selfish. 

The next weekend, Baekhyun, Youngmin, Kwangmin and I all had Saturday and Sunday off. Baekhyun and I had never spent time outside of work with the twins, but, we figured we could have a group hangout and Woori could be the bridge between the bro duos. 

We were aware that it was going to be very, very cold that Saturday night, so, we began our day around noon and hung out around Namsan tower.  Woori wanted to ride the rail car immensely, but the twins and Baekhyun had been attracted to a drama shooting. Park Shin Hye was standing with a costar and they watched the directors tell people to not pay attention to the camera. I was a little interested, too, but I decided to put Woori's interests first. 

"Guys, I'm taking Woori on the rail car. Last chance to come," I warned them. Baekhyun waved me away and I smirked. "Fine, suit yourselves." 

I turned back around to Woori. She had her head lifted and was staring at the tower. 

"I'm excited," she hummed. Without waiting for me, she skipped to the ticket office. I had to jog a little bit to catch up with her, but not much. She was short and wasn't going to outrun me any day. To my dismay, however, she bought both of our tickets. "Sorry, I had to!"

"Oh whatever," I groaned. She lightly punched my shoulder, grabbed the arm of my jacket and pulled me to the waiting line. As we got closer to the rail car, I noticed her happy expression fade. "Woori... You're not afraid of heights, are you?" 

"When I'm on fast roller coasters, no," she responded. "But I don't know how I'll feel about this." She hung her head and sighed. "I can do this, I can do this," she mumbled to herself. I couldn't help it; she was acting like a little kid and my paternal instincts kicked in. I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her in for a short hug. 

"You can do this," I encouraged. She nodded and pushed me away. 

"Hwaiting?" She looked up at me with her eyes wide open and bottom lip jutted out. I gently grabbed her chin and turned her face away. 

"Do I really have to say it?" I teased. She smirked and turned away, unsatisfied with my response to her attempt at aegyo. 

"I'll be just as cute as SNSD's Sunny one day. Watch out," she hissed violently. 

"Ah, but my ideal type in SNSD is Yuri." 

"Good for you." She shrugged her shoulders, stood on her tip-toes and looked over the crowd.  I leaned in and placed my head on her shoulder. 

"Woori, hwaiting!" I shouted in her ear. She turned around quickly and shoved me off of her with a smile. 

"Go away," she laughed. Then, it was our turn to get on the rail car.

Woori was shaking from fear once she looked down. Quickly, she grabbed a seat and almost hid her face.  I laughed and continued looking around. When I looked back at her, she looked worried. I looked at what she was looking at and figured out what was wrong. An old man with a cane was standing and no one was giving up their seat to him. She was scared, but her kindness forced her to be brave. 

"Excuse me sir," she softly called out. A few men looked at her in response but realized she held eye contact with the old man. "Here, have my seat." 

"Why, thank you miss," the old man said. He hobbled over to the seat and she got up and tried to remain balanced all by herself. It wasn't that the rail car was shaky; she was just so scared that she couldn't stand correctly. My paternal instincts kicked in again and I pulled her back to me and wrapped my arms around her upper chest/ lower neck area. She tried to pull away but I didn't let go. 

"Tsk, I'm trying to help. Just... Don't worry and enjoy the ride. I've got you, okay?" 

"But-"

"No buts."

"I don't think-"

"Stop," I ordered. She growled a little bit but eventually stopped. I laughed at the situation.  "I guess we look a little awkward." 

"And what makes you guess that," she sarcastically answered. 

"Because the way I'm holding you is most often used by couples to be romantic. But here I am, showing no romantic interest in you at all and helping you stay steady." 

"Oh, shut up," she laughed. "You're making this weirder than it has to be." 

"Excuse me? I can just let go of you, you know," I threatened. I let go of her for a second and she frantically spun around and swallowed me up in her arms. 

"No, no, just stay," she pleaded. The paternal instincts I was previously feeling vanished. At that moment, I felt attracted to Woori. It felt nice to be needed by a woman. To be held by one. It had been a while since I'd had someone force me to mold to them and their hug. I was tense for a moment but softened up and hugged her back. 

"You're a chicken." 

"You're a jerk. Now be quiet. I'm going to look out the window in peace." She pulled back and looked out with her arms still hooked around me. I did the same thing except my eyes wandered away from the landscape outside and I found myself staring at Woori. I didn't understand myself at the moment. I wanted to develop a crush on Woori, but I also did not want to. She would leave mid-July and I wasn't confident in keeping a long, long distance relationship. Also, I wasn't sure if I liked her or not. I did like the fact that she checked up on me and showed me she cared for me, even thought she'd only known me for a short amount of time. I wasn't so sure how I felt about her, though, because it had been such a short amount of time. 

So, did I decide to pursue her? 

Yes, I did. 

"Hey, Woori, what are you doing this Friday night?" I asked one December weekday at the convenient store. 

"...Trying to stay in the city," she hesitantly admitted. "One of my grandmother's friends is getting remarried... For the third time... And I really don't want to go to the wedding. It's somewhere out in the country, around 3 hours away. But grandmother won't let me stay by myself." 

I gulped. I couldn't tell Woori she could stay with us. I couldn't guarantee that my attraction to her would stay calm if she stayed in our apartment. 

"Why not stay with us?" Baekhyun suggested. I saw an evil plan in his eyes-- Baekhyun was playing with me. My terrified look was seen by Woori and she coughed to break the awkward silence.

"I can see that Chanyeol is against that idea," she mumbled. Just then, the twins walked in. 

"Against what idea?" Youngmin asked. 

"Woori needs a place to stay for the weekend," Baekhyun told them. 

"Oh, come stay with us! Our home is big enough for one more~ you can meet our dongsaeng." 

"No!" I shouted in my head. I noticed Kwangmin had become close to Woori and I was worried he'd start to like her as much as I did. Finally, I spoke out loud. "We've already established she's staying with us. She misunderstood." 

She tried to speak but I shot her an evil glare and her sentence faded. She raised an eyebrow and judged me. I shrugged my shoulders and let Kwangmin come take my place behind the cash register. 

Woori followed me out and grabbed my shoulder. 

"What was that about?" She asked. 

"I'm afraid you would feel awkward around the youngest Jo child. I always do," I lied through a whisper. She thought about it and ruffled her hair. 

"Fine, I guess I'll accept that as an answer. Let me ask grandmother if it's alright with her. She might be hesitant since... Well, you're a guy and I'm a girl, but I'll convince her that nothing will happen." 

"What?! Of course not," I nervously laughed. I hoped that something and nothing would happen; I was conflicted. 

That evening while I was practicing choreography skills, Woori called my cell phone and left a message. 

"Chanyeol! My grandmother agreed to it. She said she trusts you, so you better not do anything to me haha. So... I guess I'll see you Friday. Grandmother is teaching me some cooking skills tomorrow so I won't be stopping by Sunshine Sellers. Thank you so much and see you and Baekhyun then!" 

Thursday, between work and practice, Baekhyun and I cleaned the apartment as best as possible. There wasn't much to clean, though, which made me nervous. Our apartment consisted of one room and a bathroom. The "kitchen" was one of the walls of the room with a bunch of small appliances on a counter. We didn't have a stove.  A little table was a few feet away from the counter with the two cushions Baekhyun and I sat on.  My clothes drawer was by the wall with the window while Baekhyun's was by the wall near the door. There was enough room for one more small mattress to be put down. What was Baekhyun thinking?! What was I thinking?! Woori was going to be sleeping way too close to me, even if she slept across the room from me.

Thankfully, we made everything look tidy. I called Woori Thursday night and told her to roll up her mattress and that Baekhyun and I would come over to pick it and her up after our shift on Friday. 

Then, she broke the news. 

She didn't have a mattress that could roll up, just a sleeping bag. 

So, we told her to bring that instead and that she could meet us at Sunshine Sellers and we'd walk home together and get her situated. Friday at noon, she strolled into the convenient store with a small black suitcase on wheels behind her. 

"I'm ready for the weekend!" she cheered. Baekhyun gave me a menacing glance and I tried to disguise my worry as happiness. I skipped over to her and took her suitcase from her. 

"I'll roll this to our apartment if you don't mind," I said in a gentleman-like fashion. She rolled her eyes and followed me. Baekhyun stayed back with her and they talked about how much of a dork I was. 

I was afraid that she'd judge the apartment for being so small, but, she happily walked in and examined all there was. 

"Awesome," she complimented as she ran to the window to look at the view. She turned back around to face us and grinned. "Where shall I put my sleeping bag?" 

I rolled her suitcase to the back of the room and pointed down the middle. "Here," I instructed. She opened up her suitcase just enough to pull out her sleeping bag (she didn't want Baekhyun and I to see her girly things, I guess.) She rolled her sleeping bag out and climbed into it and rested her head on its built in pillow. 

"Ah, so nice and warm," she cooed. 

"Let me show you nice and warm," I thought to myself. I wanted to hold her so much more with every day that came. It actually became a bother. I wanted just a little skin-ship, but I didn't get it, and it drove me crazy. 

Baekhyun seemed to be the only sane person in the room. He cleared his throat. 

"So, are we gonna stay in here all day or are we gonna do something?"