Sehun found Haerin sitting at the bottom of the stairs in front of the entrance of the building. She was hugging herself due to the cold night breeze and her jacket wasn’t keeping her warm at all. He sighed and shook his head. Aish, this idiot. She could’ve worn something thicker.

“Aigoo, you said you’d be here in ten minutes!” Haerin exclaimed after catching a glimpse of Sehun who just crossed the street. She didn’t need to be too loud because the streets were almost too quiet. It was after midnight after all.

“I was late?” He arched a brow as he fished his phone from inside the pocket of his jacket and when he checked the time, he was indeed late—by only a minute and a half—much to her dismay, “I’ll treat you anyway, that should even things out, right?”

“Good. Let’s eat now, I’m hungry!” She exclaimed as she nonchalantly linked her arm with Sehun’s own and dragged him. The skin contact made Sehun to freeze in his place, making Haerin to stop her tracks. He swore he felt his heart skip a beat. Sehun looked at her, bewildered but she looked confused.

Realization suddenly hit Haerin as she looked down on their linked arms. She mentally reprimanded herself for being careless. Haerin reminded herself that Sehun isn’t like her other guy friends who were used to skinship—throwing arms around each other, dragging them by their wrist, nonchalantly link arms while walking, punching each of their arms and hugging them—as much as she is.

“Sorry. I-” She was about to remove her arm but Sehun stopped her by holding onto her hand. She looked at him in surprise with his sudden action.

“We’re friends now. It’s okay.” He smiled and the two of them walked with linked arms. Haerin looked nervous though, it was like she was feeling guilty. Well she was. She didn’t want him to think that she’s the clingy kind of friend. She was just really used to skinship between friends, “You’re a little tensed up. Is there anything wrong?”

“Um no-nothing,” She stopped after realizing that she was stammering.

“I thought we promised that we were going to be open to each other…well, at least that’s what I thought,” Sehun said, looking ahead.

“I just…I’m sorry I keep doing this skin contact with you. I was just really used to skinship with my friends because it’s totally normal between us and I know you aren’t comfortable so I totally understand if-”

Sehun cut off her statement by chuckling and shaking his head lightly, finding this side of her—the guilty-for-no-reason side of her—cute, “I told you it’s okay, didn’t I? Besides, we’re friends now too, I can adjust,” Sehun looked at her and ruffled her hair. She looked up at him and he just smiled at her before looking ahead.

Haerin was a little surprised with what he said. She didn’t expect that he’d try to be this friendly at this extent. She always thought he’d get annoyed when she do these kind of things carelessly and that’s the last thing she wants to happen. Other than feeling relieved because Sehun was willing to adjust, curiosity took over her thoughts as she wondered why Sehun was acting a little too different. As far as she remembers, before their talk earlier, he wasn’t like this. He was friendly but never to this extent that he’d let her link arms with him or hold his hand when she carelessly does it. She thought maybe the talk they had earlier had a little effect on him.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He asked, dragging Haerin’s wandering brain back to reality.

“Just thinking about food,” She chuckled, rubbing the back of her head as Sehun sighed.

“I won’t even be surprised if I won’t be able to carry you during practice,” He teased as Haerin grimaced. Well after practicing Symptoms by SHINee successfully, Sehun changed their routine to a different one. They switched their song to ‘What is Love’ by a popular boy band called EXO.

“Speaking of practice, we’re still not halfway through the song,” She reminded as Sehun nodded.

“I haven’t thought of any steps further but don’t worry about it. I got it covered,”

“I’ll help you…I’ll try to eat less,” She joked as Sehun rolled his eyes but his lips curved into a smile. Haerin chuckled, “Kidding aside. I’ll try to think of steps,”

“Alright fine, but you should be careful. I don’t want you to be irresistibly stupid to trip on your own foot,” Haerin hit his arm playfully as Sehun chuckled with the thought of Haerin cutely tripping on her own foot. He admits, though she was clumsy every time they practiced, she was cute, though he doesn’t particularly like it when she gets hurt.

“I’ll also ask Luhan hyung to help us,” He added.

“He dances too?” Haerin asked as she looked at Sehun. The two of them made a turn on the next street, still on their way to wherever the Ramyun shop was Sehun talking about earlier.

“Yeah, he does but he doesn’t really pursue dancing. It’s just one of his many hobbies,”

“Wow, it sounds like he likes to do so many things,”

“He does. He sings too and he’s writes his own songs too. He’s pretty talented,” Sehun said nonchalantly, looking ahead as Haerin nodded in understanding.

“I like guys that writes songs. I think guys who can express themselves through music is very ideal,” She blurted out as she looked ahead, this time Sehun was the one looking at her. Her statement was full of nonchalance as if it didn’t matter that much—well it doesn’t—but to Sehun that statement caused a sting inside. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like the fact that she just indirectly told him that her ideal type is someone like Luhan.

“What’s so ideal about song writers?” He asked a little bitterly than expected.

“It’s the fact that they can create music, they can transcribe their feelings through lyrics. But hey it’s just what I think. I don’t know about other girls,” She chuckled but it faded when Sehun was stiff again, it was like his aura turned cold and he didn’t even react to anything she said.

Sehun stopped his tracks and so did Haerin, they both stood out of a ramyun shop. They had three customers inside—a couple and a man. He pushed the door open and the bell chimed, signaling that they have entered the shop. Haerin unlinked her arms from Sehun—much to his dismay—as she walked ahead and rushed to look at the menu board. She looked so excited and happy as she looked up, scanning their menu. Sehun couldn’t help but chuckle and shake her head at how cutely pathetic she looked but he liked it.

“Annyeonghaseyo, what would you like to order?” A guy around the same age as Sehun and Haerin asked, appearing across the counter behind the cash registry. Sehun looked at the guy who seemed to be having a nice time looking at Haerin who innocently looked up at the menu board.

“Have you decided what to eat?” Sehun purposely walked next to her to intimidate the staff as he took his eyes off of Haerin as soon as Sehun approached him. He gulped and hesitantly looked at Sehun in the eyes and within a second he was intimidated by his cold dark look.

“I’ll have curry ramyun, what about you?” Haerin asked.

“I’ll go decide. Why don’t you find us a seat? I’ll take care of the food,” Sehun said as Haerin gave him a look and the glanced at the area. She sure didn’t understand why she needed to ‘find’ them a seat because the entire shop was basically empty of customers. The male staff glanced at Haerin, a little to dreamily this time and Sehun arched a brow at him.

“Haerin, just go. I’ll take care of the food,” Sehun ordered as Haerin hesitantly complied. She wasn’t used to having someone else take care of her food, unless it was Kai because Kai always beats her to it before she could protest. And she was always used to ordering her food with her friends. She was never the first person to sit down.

Sehun placed his order and the staff computed the bill after commanding another staff to get the ordered food. Sehun was growing annoyed with how the male staff kept glancing at Haerin every now and then when he gets the chance. He looked at the staff’s nametag with the name ‘Tao’ written on it.

“Are you going to give me my receipt or you’re going to keep checking her out?” Sehun sternly said catching Tao’s attention. Expecting a better response, Sehun was surprised when Tao only smirked and his eyes landed back on the cash registry in front of him. Just when Sehun thought that this Tao guy was done occasionally glancing at Haerin, he found him looking at her once again and this time his smile was more pleasing as he nodded once. From the looks of it, Tao was encouraging someone. Sehun looked and saw Haerin look away from Tao and her eyes landed on Sehun’s own orbs.

“Your girlfriend is pretty. You’re lucky. But she looks really giddy and bright. I’m sure she can be a pain in your ,” Tao commented as they waited for the receipt to finish printing.

“Mind your own ,” Sehun bit back and just as he was about to start a glaring contest, another staff placed the tray of food that he ordered. He took it after giving Tao one last glare and walked to their table.

He placed the tray on their table and transferred their food on the table, “Um why is the cashier guy staring at you like he’s going to kill you?” Haerin asked, looking away from Tao.

Sehun shrugged, “His must be in pain,”

“Oh. That’s terrible.” Haerin said pitying the poor staff who wasn’t even feeling the slightest pain in the . But she doesn’t know that.

Sehun sat across Haerin, knowing full well that if he did that then the Tao guy from the counter wouldn’t get the chance to look at her now because he’s in the way. She clapped her hands and thanked for the food in front of her. She was like a kid that got a cookie from the cookie jar. Sehun admired her actions, how attractive she looked as she opened wide and welcomed the hot ramyun in . closed and her face scrunched as she chewed her food. Any girl in front of Sehun would have shyly started eating, taking small amounts of food and would wipe their mouth every five seconds but Haerin was different. She ate to her hearts content.

Haerin was nothing like the girls that Sehun has eaten with—yes, even Youngmin. A few months back, Luhan tricked Sehun into going shopping but his stepbrother actually set up a blind date. Sehun was more than willing to ditch it but he didn’t want to be like his father who ditched girls like they were trash so he just went on with it though at that time, he was really cold. The girls he’s been arranged with to date weren’t amusing to him. They were too pretentious, too sweet, or too easy to get but basically all of them just threw themselves at Sehun. The girls he had ‘blind dated’ were always so cautious of their looks and would take out their compact powder every five seconds to check if their lipstick is fading out or whether they had an oily face or not.

Sehun discovered that Haerin wasn’t like any of that at all. She was simple and she was real. She wasn’t too conscious of her looks though she’d brush her hair with her hands occasionally but she had never brought out a compact powder to retouch her make-up nor did she wipe her lips every five seconds whilst eating. She was very regular. She didn’t have any of those girl rituals unlike the ones he encountered in the past. Sehun was accustomed with Haerin’s little things. He has grown to like the way she eats and how much she appreciates food. The way her face scrunches when she chews a huge amount of whatever food she’s eating. The way she would sip her bubble tea to the last drop, making noisy sounds as she sipped to clear the cup. The way she would wipe after everything was finished and the way she’d shyly apologize for eating like such a pig in front of him. Sehun liked the way she’d laugh out loud without minding one bit if people were looking and excuse herself after carelessly doing so. He liked the way she’d chuckle at cute actions and she appreciates the little things in life. He liked how it’s never hard to make her smile. He liked how encouraging she is and optimistic. He could go and on about everything he learned to like about her that he felt lucky enough to know these things about her.

All these thoughts about her was making him feel a lot more different than how he felt earlier before they met. Something was building up inside him. He could feel something in his stomach rummaging as his heart started to beat in an unusual rhythm. It’s not what I think it is, right? Sehun thought to himself.

“Sehun, why aren’t you eating?” Haerin curiously looked at