A/N: Hello readers! I said I would be back the following day, haha. There is a preview below but before everyone goes on and reads this extremely long chapter, I want to say something. Thank you for all the comments and thank you for always reading no matter how slow my updates are. I noticed most recently about some comments that I just wanted to get out. This story does have a lot of characters and sometimes I will focus on them rather than just Kai & Minzy. However, all my characters do play a role in this story, I’m not adding them there for no reason. I just want you guys to know that my story will focus on all of the other characters for a reason, and I hope you will enjoy reading it no matter how much I sound like I drift away from the main characters (which is of course, Kai and Minzy). But thank you very much to all the readers that understand and who always motivate me to write this story. Don’t worry, I’m still continuing this Kai Minzy story and I’m hoping to update very soon after this (and have it be shorter). Thanks a bunch, muah muah.

-Marisa

When Minji was coming out of her bedroom, she heard sounds of Dara talking to someone around the kitchen area, wondering who it was. She got to the counter table where Dara was sitting at, being able to see her video calling Yuri on the Ipad that they shared. 

She saw Yuri's face clearly, along with Young Joon right next to her, with his little head popping up and having a small little snapback placed on it. Dara was currently making a funny face in the camera for them to see, so Minji slowly went on the side to see what they were talking about.

“How am I not cute though, Mama?” Young Joon asked Yuri, Minji being able to see him looking up at to his mother with a cute, pouty face. Dara was still laughing, when she turned to see Minji, raising both of her eyebrows at her as a small hello. Yuri snickered and replied, “Umm because… You’re ugly, child.”

“Yes, but you, Dong Yuri, are my mother.”

“Okay, and your point?”

He started smiling cunningly and responded, “Well, you’re beautiful.”

“Well, I know that,” Yuri said proudly, while Minji and Dara were starting to grin amusingly at their interesting conversation. Young Joon then said, “Well, if you’re beautiful, how am I not cute then? I am your child, of course I have to be cute. I am the child of two beautiful people.”

“Hold your horses, child. You are beautiful because of me, not because of your daddy, nuh uh, you better take those words back,” Yuri started laughing, rolling her eyes at her ridiculous son, looking back into the camera. Afterwards, Minji pushed herself in to be presentable in the camera, beginning to wave at the two of them. Young Joon's eyes lit up happly and yelled loudly, "MINGKI!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was so loud that the speaker sounded like it was about to explode. She jumped real quick then laughed right after because his cute, little button nose scrunched up everytime he got excited. "Hi baby. Could you be any louder though?" 

"I know, damn," Yuri spat, shaking her ears. "Your Mingkki is ugly. Why are you so excited to see her?" Minji squinted in response, giving her a playful glare. "Excuse me, Unnie. I am your sister, how can I not be cute?" Young Joon smiled amusingly at Minji copying his words in a different way. He also nodded and added in, "Mingkki is beautiful." 

"You tell your mother, baby," Minji jokingly agreed, putting her thumbs up. Young Joon looked at Yuri with his eyes widened, very determined, and said, "Auntie Dara, Mingkki, Yoogeun and I are all cute people. Auntie Dara is made beautifully. You and Mingkki are made by beautiful people, like grandma and grandpa. And Yoogeun and me are made by you and Daddy. We're all a cute, happy family." Everyone froze up to those words despite how cute and adorable he sounded. The mentions of their parents and Yoogeun being made by who was quite a sensitive topic, no matter how many years had passed by. The three girls made eye contact with one another, while Yuri yelled at him first. "Yah, you child! You are not at the age to talk about whose making who. You better hop on a time machine back to get back to your regular age." 

Right after, Dara added in, "Speaking of cute, baby... You look so adorable today. Where are you going?" 

"I'm an adorable person, Auntie Dara," he said confidently, getting Dara to roll her eyes upwards. Never compliment this child, his confidence level goes higher than it already is. Dara sighed and made herself clear. "Okay, you adorable, cute, handsome child. Where are you going though?" 

"I'm going to school, Auntie Dara. Daddy dressed me up today," he answered, playing with the snapback on his head. Yuri snickered, patting her son's head and also said, "The one day where I didn't have to hit Young Bae for dressing him up. Young Bae actually had style today... Surprisingly." Young Joon just kept on smiling and went on, "I have another hour left before Mommy drops me off at school, that's why I made her call you guys. Mingkki, why'd you come so slow? Do you know how many things Auntie Dara and I discussed while you were in your bedroom?" 

"I was trying to make myself look cute, baby." 

"No need to try," he said sweetly, lighting his eyes up. "When it comes to you and Auntie Dara, it just comes naturally." Dara and Minji had wide smile on their faces, trying to take in the overly sweet compliment their nephew was giving them. As they shook their heads, he continued smiling sweetly at them, laying his head upon Yuri's shoulders. 

"Where are you guys going anyways, you punks?" Yuri asked, assuming she was asking from the work attire they were both wearing. Dara looked down at her knee-length black dress and long gray cardigan, pursing her lips at the older girl. "I'm going to work, Unnie. It's the first day. My boss at the magazine place said that the work setting was casual, but I am a casual person with style so I need to look like I'm ready to meet my future bae there." 

Yuri scratched her head and rolled her eyes. "I thought your future bae was there." Dara's eyes widened as Yuri made fun of her by sticking her tongue out, remembering that she had told her the story about getting to work at the same place as Mino. She even felt her cheeks become hotter, which meant that she eventually started blushing. To cover up the shyness, she responded quickly while Minji was just giggling up a storm. "There could be more, I gotta look good anyways." Rolling her eyes, Yuri sighed and nodded her head, "Yeah, yeah yeah. I guess you're kinda cute, just don't forget to make some progress by the way you be talking about him." 

When Dara became flustered again, Minji nodded in agreement and mouthed, "I know, right?" Right after Dara saw her, she hit her best friend in the stomach with the back of her hand, and tried to hide herself from turning red because she felt her cheeks becoming warm. The topic about Mino somehow always made her want to blush for some reason, when she tried her best to control it. Laughing for a bit, Yuri nudged her head towards Minji's direction and questioned towards her, "How about you, child? Are you dressed to see bae to for your first day of work?" Once again, Minji froze, not understanding why Jong In suddenly popped into her head. She wanted to tell Yuri about her working at the same exact place that Jong In happened to be the general manager at, but she was just afraid that Yuri would flip out if she actually knew where he was. Yuri was a lot more vicious than anyone in the family, she would go through a lot just to say what's on her mind, and make sure he knew it. Minji, on the other hand, just wanted to move on; not necessarily put it aside, but it'd be good for herself to just move on. She wasn't going to be weak in Jong In's eyes anymore, if that was to anyone's concern. 

Dara sensed that something struck Minji as she got quiet, so she turned to look at her, tapping her back to her senses that Yuri was waiting for an answer. Minji shook her head in realization and coughed out a bit. Scratching her head, she said, "I'll leave that all for Dara, Yuri Unnie. I don't need to look good for bae, unless bae is like, Justin Bieber or something. Then I'll look good." Yuri lolled back in her chair, rolling her eyes up, with Minji's mention of Justin Bieber. Of course, what else was new? "At least Dara has a chance with her bae." 

As Young Joon was listening, watching them back and forth, he suddenly asked, "What does bae mean? It sounds weird." 

"Your face is weird," Yuri answered like the speed of lightening, getting Minji to widen her eyes. That tough love she was always giving him.  

"My face is fabulous," Young Joon stated, being so serious that it was actually hilarious. "That still doesn't explain what bae is." 

"It is something you'll know and have when you get older." 

"If Mingkki approves though," Minji added in, demandingly. Young Joon looked at them like they had multiple heads, because he looked so done with them. "Oh my gosh, you guys are hurting my head. I was just asking a simple question!" 

"Okay, you dramatic one," Minji shook her head, laughing at Young Joon's silly comments. Young Joon narrowed his eyes together, giving her a cute glare. She gave one back until he bursted out laughing at her best to give out a glare. "Where's the sassy one?" Minji asked for her baby, eagerly wanting to see his precious, round, scrunched up face. Young Joon clapped his hands once and answered, "He went to work with Daddy." As Minji's eyes lit up, Yuri elaborated on her son's answer. "Daddy has a kid's day at his workplace today, so he brought the little one in. He's being Daddy's little intern."

Aww, Minji thought to herself. Guess she had to wait until tonight or tomorrow so she could see that sassy little boy of hers. Yuri cleared and said, "I'll have Young Bae send you a picture of that chld. He's wearing the checkered shirt you got him. Looking mad cute and ." 

Young Joon gasped, widening his eyes. "Ooooh Mama, you said a bad word." Yuri looked at him meanly and replied, "Don't act like you've never heard me say it before. But don't you dare copy my words though, or else I will throw you." 

"You throw me everyday, Mama," he said truthfully, with a matter-of-fact tone. "Anyways," Yuri tried to ignore him, probably avoiding the act of throwing her son in front of his favorite aunties. "But yeah, that baby is with his daddy. You will get a picture of that child." 

"Can you tell Young Bae Oppa to send a picture of Yoogeun when he's not eating though? Like, a picture with his teeth?" Minji requested nicely. "Or him not holding chicken?" This was quite true. Everytime, Young Bae sent a picture to give to Minji and Dara, Yoogeun was always eating, or always having some sort of edible object in his hands. There were pictures of him smiling decently, but most of the pictures she had were just him hungry, him eating, and him holding something to eat. 

"Girl, that child is always eating. And if it's chicken, you know that he holds onto it with his dear life. Honestly speaking, if I could rename him, he'd have the word chicken in his damn name. He eats like he won't be able to eat tomorrow," Yuri responded, getting them to laugh. She then looked down at Young Joon and complained, "While this one here eats like he's being punished or something." And then there was Young Joon, who most likely would just cry if he was forced to finish something on his plate. It was pretty funny how different the two boys were. Minji pointed a finger at him and demanded, "Better eat, baby boy. Or your mother is going to throw you." 

After, Dara looked at Minji and said with a squinted mouth, "You're acting like he's scared of getting thrown." Taking that Young Joon heard, he shook his head in agreement to what Dara said. Yuri made a clicking sound with and continued on, "So yeah, you're most likely getting a picture with him holding a damn chicken because that's what he breaths off of."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Minji agreed, not arguing back at all. She knew her baby boy pretty well, but she was happy that he had such a big appetite, because it meant that he was doing super well. Young Joon had just been a picky eater since birth, so it wasn't a surprise that he would grow up barely eating. Out of nowhere, Young Joon asked curiously, "Why does Yoogeun-ie love chicken so much? Who in the family likes chicken that much? You love seafood, Daddy loves beef, Mingkki loves pork, Auntie Dara loves Starbucks, and I like nothing. Who does he get it from?" 

"So you're saying if a mother liked chicken, the entire family has to be bonding at KFC together eating an entire bucket of chicken wings and thighs or something?" Yuri questioned backed rhetorically, trying to get him back to his senses, making Dara and Minji chuckling lightly at that ridiculous statement she just made. Minji tried to hide the fact that she had been thinking about Jong In when Young Joon asked who Yoogeun was like. God, she pissed herself off so badly everytime he popped into her head. She tried to block his face, but everytime a little thing was mentioned about what Yoogeun liked, or anything that was close to the topic, the name Jong In popped into her head. And it made herself frustrated. While laughing, Dara cackled and managed to say, "Yuri Unnie, give the poor child a break. He is just a curious soul. Answer his question." 

"Trust me, I answer his questions every single day," Yuri stated with a worn out tone. "But you ready to get going to school, bud? You need to go pick out which shoes you want to wear." 

After a few more minutes of talking to eachother, it was finally time for Young Joon to get dropped off at school, so they blew many kisses at eachother then finally hung up on the video call. When it was just the two of them, without anyone listening in, Dara just laughed and said, "That child is so cute, but he is so full of himself."

"That's probably the reason why Yuri Unnie doesn't compliment him," Minji commented, laughing along with Dara. She flipped her hair and imitated Young Joon. "He would be like... I know I'm cute, Mommy. Don't need to tell me something I already know. Our nephew knows he's cute, he doesn't need anyone to depend on to confirm how cute he is. He has that much confidence for himself." 

"At least we know he'll be getting all the ladies when he's older," Dara said as she scratched her head. She finally hopped off the stool of the kitchen counter, heading towards the refridgerator to grab what she wanted to drink in the first place. Turning around to look at Minji, Dara's eye went a little bigger and said with a higher pitched voice, "Ooh. You look cute. Is that the dress that I got for you?" Minji looked down at what she was wearing, which was a fitted striped sweater dress, with the colors of white and sky blue, that stopped a little before her knees. She scratched the top of her head shyly at the compliment and replied, "Yeah, Tina Unnie told me that the dress code for the office was formal, but not too formal to the extent that we look like we're going to meet with a CEO or something. This was the best I could find. Obviously, it would be the dress you got for me, because we all know that I can't do formal." 

"It looks nice on you," Dara repeated, nodding her head with approval of the outfit. "I still need to finish doing my make-up and my hair. My outfit is on fleek already though." 

"Your outfit is always on fleek," she complimented Dara with a chuckle. "What time do you have to go in?" 

"I have to be there by eleven," she answered, going back to the stool to sit on and turning to face Minji. "I was just grabbing my protein shake and saw Yuri Unnie calling, so I had to pick up." She began whining and touching the top of her face. "I still need to complete them brows." That made Minji chuckle because that was nothing new; Dara could leave anywhere with a bare face, but her eyebrows had to be perfect while having a cute pair of shoes to match her outfit. That was all. While Minji... Yeah, she just wanted to look alive, so she just put light make-up on. Before, when she was younger, she loved dressing up and looking nice, but she sort of gave up with that. Ever since her life took a rough turn, she felt like there was no point in looking nice. Honestly, she just didn't care anymore. 

She smiled at Dara's cute face and told her, "But you already look like you're ready to walk a fashion show."

"Girl, but the brows need to be finished, so that fashion show can be complete," Dara joked back, also pulling Minji's shoulders for her to sit in the stool next to her. "But let me braid your hair though, it's all over the place right now. Besides, it would look cute with what you're wearing." Minji just obeyed as she sat herself comfortably in the stool, because she knew Dara was an expert on going out of the house and looking decent. 

"What time do you have to go in?" Dara asked curiously, starting to braid her hair in a messy form, because she thought that type of braid would go well with her outfit. Sighing, Minji responded, "I have to be in by 9:30." She glanced over the clock to see that it was already 8:35 A.M, hoping time would just slow down because she was seriously dreading walking in that hotel and seeing the guy that despised the most. Actually, she kept hoping for the best, which was not seeing him at all, because the worst of worst was getting to see him. Especially after the night of the event, she just couldn't stop thinking about it. About why he would be running after her, or what he needed to explain? But no, she needed to stand her grounds and not let him get to her. She was going to make it known that they had nothing to do with eachother anymore and if it comes a time where they actually have to talk face-to-face, it only had to be about work, and the hotel. Nothing else. 

She thought Dara was going to say something else, but Dara's phone actually went off, Minji being able to see that she got a new message because it popped up on her lock screen. To her surprise, the person message her happened to be Mino, which worked out because her and Yuri were just teasing her about him. She felt Dara glanced over her phone, but huffed a small breath, going on to braid her hair. Grunting, Dara complained, "Damn girl, trim your hair or something. The end of your hair is down to your waist already. You better cut it before it goes down to your ." Okay, Dara was definitely trying not to show the fact that she wanted to open Mino's message, so Minji played along for a bit, nodding her head. "I will eventually. Are you gonna check that message though?" 

"My hands are occupied," Dara stated, still trying to keep it smooth, because she was increasing her pace with braiding Minji's hair. Minji sulked amusingly; it was good that her back was turned to Dara, because she would probably get smacked with the teasing facial expressions that she was making fun of her with. "I'm trying to make my best friend look good, so all them guys come running to you. The front desk, the back desk, the middle desk, I don't know... You just need to look good so they all come for you, okay?" 

Just chuckling a bit, Minji tapped her fingers against the white kitchen counter. Minji began speaking in an animated tone, high-pitched, wanting to see Dara's reaction. "You have a new message from Song Mino." 

"Song Mino can wait," Dara scoffed, still trying to act like it was nothing, when really, she wanted to see what message he was sending her. Just a simple hello, or a good morning, or even one of the pictures he took was enough to make her smile all day, so she just really wanted to see what the message was. Dara had used her own hair tie to make sure her braid didn't get loose, so she tied the ends tightly. Minji just smiled and started teasing her. "Well, Gong Minji can not wait, let me see what love messages this boy is sending to my best friend." Minji picked up the phone, acting like she was going to unlock it, but Dara's eyes widened and gasped loudly. "Girl, what do you think you're doing?" She snatched her phone from Minji's hands, making her laugh as she turned around. "When you start becoming so eager to read my messages?"

"What?" Minji questioned back playfully. "I have not met this Song Mino yet, and I don't know what he's been doing to you, but it seems to have such a big effect on you. And plus, I am your best friend, why are you hiding things from me? When we were younger, we promised eachother that we would tell eachother everything there is to know about bae." Minji pouted and Dara glared at her. "Mino is not bae." 

"Yet," Minji added in, matter-of-fact tone. Dara became flustered with the topic of Mino, actually feeling her face changing colors right in front of Minji. The thing about Dara was, she didn't want to have high hopes, then ended up getting crushed at the end. She hasn't been in a real relationship yet, and she didn't want to go around talking about Mino, even though she was the one crushing on him. Sure, it was quite obvious that Minji knew about Dara's hopeless crush on him, but she honestly had no idea how he felt about her. She just didn't want to be that girl who talks too much about a guy and then he ends up having no feelings for her whatsoever. She only felt comfortable with Minji knowing about Mino, but she still didn't want to talk too much about him, because she just didn't want to expect too much. It was always came to her mind when he would actually start making a move, which was already an act of her expecting way too much. Smiling at how adorable her best friend was, Minji said, "I really need to see this guy though. Like, you talk to this guy almost every single day, and he sends you his artistic photographs asking for your opinion. You work at the same place as him now, give me a selfie or something. Take a picture of him as he's sitting at his office desk or something, give me a visual of this man that's making you blush everytime his name is mentioned." 

Scratching her head and gritting her teeth together, Dara just sighed loudly. "There will be no point for a selfie, because we're going to get dinner soon." 

"We're?" Minji questioned, pressing her eyebrows together. "You mean... You and him?" 

"No, girl," Dara shook her index finger left to right. "We as in... You, me and him. There will be no need for a selfie because you will be able to meet him, face-to-face. Capiche?"

"Girl, does it look like I want to be interrupting your date?" 

"Baby girl, you are not going to be interrupting anything because we are not going on a date. Mino and I have ate a few times together, but it was not a date," Dara stated, fidgeting around a little bit, feeling a bit timid. "And besides... He even said that we should grab food together when we're out of work sometimes. So, I want you to come along because I actually want you to meet him." 

"Oh shoot, it's getting serious, isn't it?" 

Another glare was shot at her as Minji scrunched up her shoulders cutely at her. Sighing, Dara slightly hit her on the arm, which got her to leap backwards a bit. "No, you . Things are not getting serious. We are just friends, and because we are bff's, you need to come out and meet my friend. And plus, I've been mentioning you, so he said to bring you as well."

"Yeah, I'm BFF while he is BF, right?" She wiggled her eyebrows, starting to use the term boyfriend, because Dara's flustered reactions were the cutest things to her. However, Dara wasn't finding it cute, so she responded with a straight face, "Girl, you're about to be BFD if you don't stop the teasing." 

"Girl, what the heck is BFD?" 

"Best Friend Down. You like?" Dara questioned sarcastically, twinkling her eyes and wiggling her fingers under her chin. Minji just sighed, trying not to laugh, and shook her head at Dara's silliness. Once again, Dara playfully shoved her shoulders and demanded, "Yah, quit playing so much, Minji. I just want you to finally meet Mino and see who I'm talking about." As Dara softened her tone, she lightly scratched the top of her head and shyly said, "So you don't think about I'm lying about how cute he is." With a very satisfying grin, Minji nearly squealed and waved her arms up like a little child... Something she always did when she found something cute or adorable. She found it absolutely adorable to Dara admitting that Mino was cute, because she was so stubborn sometimes, it was ridiculous. 

"Girl, I never once doubted your instincts for cute guys," she smiled amusingly, leaning her elbows on the counter. "Because trust me, it takes a lot for you to call a guy cute, so I'm pretty sure Song Mino fits your standard of cute guys." Dara just nodded and shrugged, pretty much in agreement with that statement out of . As they were just goofing around, Dara just pointed at her and told her brusquely, "But yeah, save a dinner night for next week, so you can finally meet him. It's not a date though, nor have we ever been on dates, so you will not be embarrassing me with that. Also, do not mention that I'm forever calling him cute."

"Oh definitely," Minji scoffed, rolling her eyes upwards. "Because the first words I'm going to say to him is 'Oh my god, it's finally nice to meet you. Dara always says that you are a fine man, so I had to come out and meet you to see if it was true'." Squinting in response, Dara wanted to smack her for the silly teasing she kept coming at her with. Minji just slapped Dara's legs lightly and exclaimed, "Yah! Chill. I just want to see what this guy looks like, trust me, I would never embarrass you. I'll just sit there, smile and laugh at whatever he says. Because you know that is my specialty." 

Letting out a sigh, Dara just nodded her head, seeing something else popped up on her phone. Her eyes widened quickly when she saw a friend request on Facebook from Park Chanyeol. Holy crap, how the heck did he find her? She shook her head and quickly snatched her phone before Minji could even see it, and unlocked it with her password, seeing that he even sent her a message.

Park Chanyeol: Told you I would find you eventually. Good friend I am, right? 

Oh gosh, this guy was another one who played too much. However, she didn't want Minji to see because Chanyeol was still connected to Jong In, so she slid her phone back in her pockets and just awkwardly giggled at Minji. 

Minji just thought it was another message from Mino, because she was acting all giddy and bubbly for no reason. Shaking her head to ignore her shyness, Minji tapped her legs lightly, hoped off the stool of the kitchen counter and announced, "Alright, I should get going before I'm late. Are we having dinner tonight? Or..." Dara quickly interrupted her before she could even go on. "No, I'm not going to have dinner with Mino tonight. So yes, we're getting dinner tonight. I will message you what time, okay girl?" Immediately, Minji just scrunched her shoulders up again and giggled cutely, moving her head around jokingly. She went to the fridge so she could grab the small snacks that she made, since she was obviously going to be hungry throughout the day, and a water bottle. To her knowledge, everyone and her department gets to grab lunch at exactly 12:30 to 1:15 PM for their break, and that was a lot of hours to go, so she needed to fulfill her stomach beforehand. 

"Oh, heads up," Dara told her as she started walking away from the kitchen. Minji stopped at her tracks and looked at her with a questioned face. "Try not to get a heart attack when you open that door. Consider yourself warned." 

Minji's eyes shot wide open, that small warning scaring her a bit. "Girl, what the heck is that supposed to mean?" Dara was acting like there was a serial killer in front of their door or something; that just frightened her. Dara pointed to a random spot and said, "Yeah, that little boy next door... He seriously does not give up. All I wanted to do was go buy some juice at the convenient store downstairs and this boy pops out of nowhere with a damn bouquet of flowers in his hand? Like boy, number one, stop buying us flowers, we are old. And number two, why aren't you going to school?" That made Minji lighten up a bit since it was only Bobby that was popping up, so that didn't mean any harm. Starting to laugh, Minji just said, "That teenage boy is so determined. It's actually pretty funny." 

"Girl, he's lucky he's a teenager. I would legit pop out those puny  eyes that he has just so he can't see even more," she mentioned, pinching her fingers together to indicate that she would punch him if it was not Kim Jiwon doing all of this. Not to mention, he was pretty adorable, so it was hard to get mad at him. Yes, Dara just got annoyed because she didn't want a heart attack as a daily routine, and Minji certainly did not want that either. Snickering, Minji sighed, "Alright, thanks for the warning. I'll see you later tonight, girl. Bye bye." When Minji waved and started heading for the door to leave, Dara called her, "Minji," which got her to stop right at the front, in time to put her beige flats on, and to grab her long black jacket. Minji looked at Dara real quick, who seemed to have a serious expression upon her face, so she looked at her for a few moments.

"Just remember what I said, alright?" Dara reminded her, a small part of Minji's throat tightening up from her mentioning it. With that, Minji just forced a grin and nodded her head, giving her another wave to leave. Before she stepped foot out of the condominium, she replayed Dara's words in her head a few times, so that she could remind herself that everything had to keep moving foward. 

Running away from your problems is a race that you'll never win. 

All she could do was hope for the best, she just had to fight her own nightmare. It was the only way of taking another turn from the dead end that she hit so many years ago. 

If it wasn't strange enough dragging something heavy when you weren't a delivery person, it was probably even stranger for Tina, a well-known employee that most people knew, to be dragging two huge laundry baskets across the hotel lobby. Right now, Tina really wished Jong In was here so she could actually drag him out of his office so he could help her drag these ridiculous chair cloths to the laundry mat located right downstairs. 

She really wanted to strangle all of her employees when she got an urgent phone call from one of the head managers at The Oakwood Hotel in Incheon; saying that the employees must've mistaken the chair cloths for belong to their hotel in Seoul, so they requested it back and also wanted it to be washed when it got returned to them. 

Of course, Tina had to follow their orders, since that guy had pretty high authority. If it was up to her, she'd throw it for her employees to do because this wasn't her fault, but she was afraid of them messing up again, so she was seriously better off doing it herself.

"Tina!" A voice that sounded like Hyoyeon called out loudly for her. She turned to face that front desk area towards her left, and it was indeed her, the girl who worked as a front desk receptionist five days a week, and everyone pretty much knew her. "What on earth are you doing, girl?" 

"Girl," Tina sighed back, shaking her head stressfully. "I am working." 

"Did you change from being the marketing director to the head of the housekeeping department?" Hyoyeon asked as a joke, seeing two laundry baskets filled with fabric cloths inside of it. Smiling amusingly, Tina joked back, "Yo, if they gave me the job, I might take it." That made Hyoyeon laugh as she was working freely behind the counter, since no customers had come up to her yet. The front desk associates always consisted of Hyoyeon, Hoseok, Vichinny, Soyou, Sooyoung who everyone called Joy, Seungyoon and Seunghoon. Everyone in the hotel basically knew eachother; it was just a matter of people who were closer to one another. The entire hotel staff was basically family to one another. Basically, Jong In was known as the father of the family, since he was general manager, while everyone else were the mother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, kids, the siblings, the grandchildren, and any other title that a family member had. 

Tina kept groaning and said, "I don't think I'd have to deal with a lot of people in the housekeeping department. I just gotta clean after them, that's all." As Hyoyeon laughed, Tina explained, "The cloths that belongs to the new hotel in Incheon accidentally came back with us so I have to get it washed and send it back to them. That was their request, so I gotta go through with it." 

"That is a struggle," Hyoyeon said truthfully, nodding her head in agreement. "Girl, you right. The housekeeping department sounds less stressful. I would move there, but I gotta be clean and I am certainly far from that. And I'm an angry soul; if I see a stain on the sheets, I might go hunt down and slam the person who made me struggle more than I need to."

"Damn girl, you're mad violent." 

"Exactly why you have to stick with to the marketing department cause your face sells and I have to stick here, because... I can't go anywhere else. Otherwise, people are gonna get slammed, yo." 

"I'm surprised you haven't slammed anyone yet. You're a full-time front desk receptionist. I am sure you deal with a lot more people. Customers are complicated." 

"And weird," Hyoyeon snickered, saying that a little too loudly that a customer checking in with Hoseok turned to give her a strange look. That made her stop talking because she was being too herself, forgetting she was at work. Hyoyeon mouthed to her, "I'm going back to fake mode." Right after that, the phone in front of her rang in which she greeted so brightly. "Hello, this is Hyoyeon speaking, how may I help you?" Hyoyeon just threw Tina a wave before she went off, going back to what she had to do. If it's one thing Tina liked about this hotel were basically everyone who worked here. Even though not everyone was close as she was with Jong In, all the people who worked at this hotel were all basically family. There was barely any drama within the staff members, and everyone had eachother's backs all the time. The only drama for her ever started from Krystal, but at least she didn't work here, so it wasn't that problematic. 

She went back to dragging the two laundry baskets once again, trying to get to the basement laundry mat as fast as possible. 

Before she even knew it, she started losing her balance with her feet, because the heels she was wearing wasn't working out with what she was doing, and also the marble floors weren't doing her any justice. She did her best to hold steady, but it wasn't going to work, because she could feel herself sliding.

Without being able to control it anymore, she slipped onto the floor, landing on her first, while one of the baskets she dragged came down with her, the other still standing. 

"Ow," she let out a simple grunt, trying to absorb the mental and physical pain she felt right now. Mental from falling in front of everyone who was currently in the lobby right now and physical for the pain on her bottom part of her body right now. A minute hadn't even passed by yet, when she heard a familar male's voice from above ask, "Holy crap, are you okay?" She sighed loudly, immediately knowing who that voice belonged to. Why... Why... Why... Did it always have to be him? It took her a few moments to bring her head up to look at him, and indeed, his tall self was staring back down her with his cheeky smile. 

"I'm fine," she answered simply, slightly lying. "I just fell." 

"I can see that," he responded with a small chuckle. He tilted his head at her cutely and said, "We need to stop meeting like this though." 

She glared at him unpleasantly. "The only way to stop meeting like this if you stop coming by the hotel." Chanyeol put his hand on his chest and tried to act hurt, but it just ended up looking silly. "Damn, I need an ice pack for that burn though. Why does it always seem like I want to see you more than you want to see me?" 

"What are you even doing here?" Tina asked, very curiously, because she felt like he was stopping by the hotel way too much for a guy who doesn't even work here. Actually, who works at a medical therapy building, that was literally ten minutes from here, so she didn't really understand what he could be doing here. "Jong In isn't even here, but I am pretty sure you know that." Actually, Jong In wasn't even in Seoul right now, so he definitely wasn't here for that reason. 

"I know he isn't here," he said with a cheeky smile wiped across his face, his hands in his pockets. "You know, Jong In isn't my only reason coming to this hotel." 

Raising an eyebrow, she questioned back, "Then what other reason could you possibly be here for?" 

"If you wanna talk to me that much, can I at least help you get up first?" Chanyeol said amusingly, always finding it pleasing everytime he was able to put in some of those words in with her. Chanyeol willingly put both of his hands out, not really giving her any space to even back away, since he bent down towards her while he was at it. Hesitating for a bit, she just scratched her head and groaned lightly. Surprisingly, she put her hands into his hands, then Chanyeol began pulling her up and she forced herself up as well, trying to make her legs as steady as possible. 

When she got up, he didn't necessarily let go of her hands, so she shot him a glare that said quite a lot. All he did was laugh at her facial expression and quickly let go of her, putting him hands up to tell her that he basically surrendered... Sort of. Cross smiling, he asked, "You still wanna know my reason for coming here?" 

For some reason, Tina somehow knew what he was going to say, which involved something really flirt and probably was going to involve something that would make her face become really hot. At this point, she wanted to avoid that right now. She put her hands up and replied, "I'm good, I don't need to know your reason." When Chanyeol knew that he was able to somehow play with her, he smiled and pouted. "Ah damn, that stinks. I need to know where Restaurant 39 is, because I have no idea where the heck it is." 

“Restaurant 39?” She questioned, raising her eyebrows in response. That was the only restaurant that was under Oakwood’s supervision, why was he asking for that place? “Are you meeting Jong In there or something?”

“You said so yourself that Jong In wasn’t here,” Chanyeol played around, raising his eyebrows at her.

Oh shoot, he was right. Why did she even ask about Jong In? He was an hour away from Seoul right now… That was just stupid on her part since she wasn’t thinking. Chanyeol smirked at her confused face and went on, “Nervous?”

“Why would I be nervous?” She immediately spat back, rolling her eyes at him. “You’re out of your damn mind.” He just laughed at crossed his arms, staring down at the shorter girl, who probably reached up to his chest area. He sighed and said, “No, Jong In’s not going to be back until later today, so I’m seeing him then. Even if he was, he wouldn’t tell me to come to the hotel for his lunch break. Half of the time, he’s trying leave and take mad long to come back. I am meeting one of my patients here though. He said he wanted to have lunch with me to thank him for being the person he is today, so he chose this Restaurant 39 place that happened to be a part of Oakwood.”

“Look at you… Making people become a better person. Show me your ways,” she snickered. All he did was laugh, shaking his head at her sarcastic comment. Finally, she pointed to the other side of the hotel where she just came from and told him, “You have to go pass the elevators and take the stairs down to get to the restaurant. It’s on the bottom floor. When you see the sign with food names, you have arrived to your destination.”

“Thank you very much, Miss Marketing Director,” he laughed, trying to make sweet facial expressions at her to see how she would react. So far, she was just glaring and looking unpleased, which amused him so much. “But where are you going?”

“To somewhere that’s not the lobby.”

“Like?”

“Is there any benefit in telling you where I’m going?” She asked back, playing off how shy he was getting her to be right now. Those damn eyes were wandering towards her face too much. “Like, are you paying me to tell you where I’m going?”

“I can pay you with food, if you’d like,” he teased, eyebrows flashing quickly at her. She groaned, fixing herself up to regain her balance of walking with these two laundry baskets with her. As she held the two baskets firmly, she said to him, “Okay, I’ll see you later, man.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” he caught her before she could even leave. She turned around to look at him with widened eyes as he said, “Give me one. I’ll help you.”

“What? Don’t you have to meet up with one of your customers? Don’t keep them waiting, Chanyeol… They need you to be there for them right now.”

“I am fifteen minutes early, so I am all yours right now.”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to be all mines.”

Chuckling, Chanyeol bent down to reach her height as he said closely to her, “What if I said I want to though?” She her breath in, preventing the warmth she felt all over her face. Playing it off, she aggressed, “I would just say you’re out of your damn mind because clearly both need to go back to work.” She was about to step foot out again, but instead of calling her, he just grabbed one of the laundry baskets from her, which made her turn around anyways. She groaned, “Ugh Chanyeol, I don’t have time for this right. I have to drop these off so I can get back to work.”

“Okay then,” he started to demand, spreading his right arm out for Tina to lead the way. “I am helping you drag this basket to the laundry mat that way you don’t have to fall again. Unless you want me to help you up, then fall all you want cause I don’t mind doing that all day,” All she did was gave him an unpleasant look, trying to indicate that she was in such a hurry. She was in such a hurry right now, she had no idea why he was in such a good mood to just tease and play around the time. Also, she just wanted to stop the god damn blushing already. Before she could say anything else, Chanyeol just kept being stubborn and said, “Lead the way, boss. I’ll be right behind you.”

Great. Just great. Did it really have to be Chanyeol? Where was Jong In to save her right now? Where was anyone to save her from Park Chanyeol causing her face to turn red all the time? She groaned and just walked ahead of it, dragging only one laundry basket with her. Chanyeol laughed amusingly, following her from right behind. Fifteen minutes of the day seeing her was a pretty good for him, if anyone asked him. It was a nice start to his day, that he completely forgot about the patient he had a lunch appointment with today.

****

“Are you picking up or dropping off?” The older lady asked the two as they entered the laundry mat, smelling the refreshing scent of freshly washed clothes. The rather happy lady smiled at them so brightly as she asked. Tina was about to answer but Chanyeol joked with her in response, “Can I drop myself off?” Tina’s eyes widened so much, trying to figure out if her ears were playing tricks with her. Was he really flirting with the laundry mat lady? She was a cute lady and all, but Chanyeol flirting with her was a bit strange because she could literally be his mother.

“Sweetie, you drop yourself off that just means you’ll be helping my daughter fold clothes,” she responded, getting Chanyeol to look at the young teenage girl who was folding clothes at the other end of the counter. She looked up and her eyes sparkled at the sight of seeing Chanyeol. All of a sudden, she got super shy, scrunching her shoulders up and everything. Laughing at the young girl’s reaction, he teased, “You better teach Oppa how to fold clothes then.”

“Okay, Oppa.”

Alright… Now, Chanyeol was just being straight out weird. He flirts with the mother first, then he goes on to flirt with the daughter. And clearly, he was having a ball seeing the reaction out of these girls. However, one was a tad bit too old for him, and the other one was way too young for him. He was clearly out of his mind because it did not seem like he did any choosing when it came to girls. Feeling a little irritated, she narrowed her eyes and said, “Okay, thanks for helping me and all, but I have to get back to work. Can you flirt with them on your own time, please?”

“Flirt with who?” Chanyeol asked confusingly, narrowing his eyes as well now. What was she talking about? Tina rolled his eyes at his confusion. Of course, a person who forever flirts like Chanyeol will always think that they’re not flirting, and see nothing wrong with what they’re doing. Tina just waved her hands a few times and responded, “Flirt with whoever your ideal type is. Clearly that’s not specific because you don’t seem to care about age either.”

“Huh?”

Tina just didn’t say anything more, dragging the two laundry baskets closer to the scale for the lady to weight. “I’m dropping off chair cloths.” While Tina was basically going back to work, Chanyeol just looked at her confusingly even though her back was faced to him. He scratched his head, wanting to get her attention, but it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t going to turn around to talk to him anymore.

He sighed to himself annoyingly, as she was going in detail what she wanted with th cloths. Damn it, did he mess up again? 

As Chanyeol stared out at the parking lot from where he was sitting right at the window seat of this cafe, his thoughts was filled with worries and concerns, annoyed by the fact that Tina thought he was this guy that played with girls' emotions all the time. It wasn't that he found Tina annoying... It was more towards the part where he was annoyed by everything and everyone who caused this damn misunderstanding. He knew he only had himself to blame for his talkative mouth that tends to be friendly from time to time, but a lot of people who knew him understood that it was his nature. Even though his words came out as flirtacious, people knew it was just Chanyeol. Even Chanyeol himself always felt guilty for all the girls that fell for his words when he actually didn't have any feelings for them, but now that he's grown up into an adult, he's given up that childish part of his life when it came to girls. If it was before, he'd probably be super satisfied with all the girls that fell for it, but nowadays, he's just been annoyed by it.

Especially now that he knew Tina sees him as a guy who flirts with every single girl that he sees just to get them to fall for him. If it was any other random girl that saw him like this, he could've cared less. He's never thought so heavily about a girl before. He just didn't know what he was going to do to make her see that he wasn't that type of guy. It just bothered him more that this might've been the fact that she has always been avoiding him. Never giving him the chance to even prove to her that he wasn't that type of guy at all...

Damn it, he just should've kept his mouth shut. 

"Chanyeol, are you even listening to me?" He heard Jong In's voice, making him snap back to reality that he and Jong In were having lunch together on their break, before he had to go into his business meeting that he had in a bit. Chanyeol turned around, away from the window, looking back at his best friend that was comfortably sitting on these soft chairs, staring back at him with a questioned face. He tried to brush it off, shook his shoulders and asked back, "My bad. What were you saying?" 

He knew it was something about Minji, but his mind was so clogged up with his own problems right now, he couldn't even think straight. Jong In let out a sigh and replied, "Dude, you okay? You seemed pretty out of it since I came in here. Something up?" 

"I'm okay, man," he tried to convince Jong In, but he knew that there was something with Chanyeol. No matter how much Chanyeol tried to say he was alright, his eyes just gave it away, but he had no idea what was going on and why he looked like he was stressed. It kind of worried him because he was never like that. Chanyeol cleared his throat and went on, "So, what was it about Minji? You said you have to find what department she's working in?" 

"Yeah. I can't even stop by the hotel just to look at the updated employee list because I won't make it to my next meeting in time. And the next two meetings that I have for today is talking about negotiations and agreements, and like that. If it was less important, I'd send someone else to go for me and track down Minji for my god damn self." 

"Who would you send?" Chanyeol asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You don't even have your own personal secretary that can help you. Which bothers me so much that you are the general manager of a five-star hotel and you have no secretary. I am music therapist and I still have a secretary. My secretary reminds me about the appointments I have with patients, and that's still little compared to your job. With you, if you miss one appointment with a certain customer, you might as well shut the hotel down and then tell all the employees to go home." 

"Listen, I know how to organize my own . And plus, I got an entire squad at the hotel whose always willing to help me. I got Tina, I got Taehyung, I got Ricky... I got everyone there basically. There's no need for personal secretary when I can actually keep track of everything." 

Chanyeol froze a bit hearing her name, squeezing the bridge of his nose a few times to make sure he wasn't being too obvious. Trying his best to transition back to Minji, he said, "Dude, how would you know she's even working at the hotel? Maybe she and Dara are friends with someone who works there and was just attending the event for a night." 

"Did you not listen to me?" Jong In sassed back, slouching his shoulders after he gave that long explanation to Chanyeol. "When Appa introduced me to her, he said that she was the newest employee working at Oakwood. Beforehand, he kept hyping up that he hired a new girl who was able to speak three different languages and he was mad excited for me to meet her. So yes, I'm sure she works there, I just need to go back to the hotel to find the damn files so I know what department she's working at." 

"Krystal's dad didn't tell you what department she was in?" 

"Nope," Jong In shook his head in response. Chanyeol continuously asked, trying to help. "You can't just ask him directly which department she's in?" 

He let out a stressful sigh, and shook his head once again. "If I ask Appa, I don't want him questioning why I'm asking about her. And I don't want it to get to Krystal because I know it's gonna be a big scene, and I don't want to put Minji through that again. I'm better off findng out on my own. I'm trying to make it up to her, and involving Appa means involving Krystal, and I don't think Minji wants that." Chanyeol just nodded and they sat there in silence for nearly a minute, thinking deeply about what he was going to do. After a while, Jong In pulled his head up and said, "There's a possibility that she's working under the marketing department. Because it did seem like Tina knew who she was when she was cussing me out about running around." 

There he goes again with saying her name. Something was building up in his stomach, slowly moving up towards his chest and feeling like it was creeping upwards as Jong In continuously talked about Minji. He kept guessing and predicting what Minji would be doing working at a hotel when she studied in a nursing field, and Chanyeol wanted to say that he was listening, but his damn mind went back to thinking about Tina again. 

All of a sudden, he couldn't control it anymore, and his words came out like vomit. "Does Tina think I flirt with every girl to get them to fall for me? Does she think I'm like that?" That sudden question shocked Jong In a little bit, actually no, a lot, getting him to move back on the couch and stare at Chanyeol in awe. His eyes were widened when he saw Chanyeol's face so serious about the question and he shook his head in confusion. "The did you just ask me?" When he realized he suddenly said that, he panicked a bit and cleared his throat, trying to correct his words. "Am I considered to be like..." The moment Chanyeol couldn't think about his words, Jong In pushed his head closer to hear thoroughly. Chanyeol scratched his temples and made a tsk sound with his mouth, "A... Playboy?" 

"Playboy?" Jong In raised his eyebrows up again, his mouth moving slightly sideways from the confusion. "The bunny?" 

"No, you stupid," Chanyeol cussed back annoyingly. "Like... A playboy. A player. A guy who plays too much with girls, you got what I'm saying?" 

"Why the  are you asking me this?" 

"Man, I am listening to your stories," Chanyeol reminded him, biting into that turkey burger with this delicious, sweet sauce squeezed onto it. He pointed his fingers at Jong In. "I listen to your problems, all you gotta do is tell me if I'm a player or not? Or at least do I come across as a guy who plays around with girls a lot?" It took a few moments for Jong In to think about the answer, staring at Chanyeol with crossed arms and a thinking face. After staring, moving around and tilting his head for nearly a minute, he nodded his head a few times. With a shrug, Jong In answered playfully, "I guess."

"You guess, what?" 

"That you come across as a boy." 

Instantly, Chanyeol face heated up as he lightly slammed his fist on the table, making very little noise. "I said playboy, not boy."

"Chanyeol, it is the exact same thing," Jong In snickered and rolled his eyes at his best friend. "Playboy is just a g-rated version to say boy. And honestly, you can come across as both terms, so that is the answer to your question, my friend." Chanyeol sighed annoyingly, just digging into his turkey avocado burger that was placed right in front of him, chewing like he was angry at someone or something. While chewing, he mumbled through his words as he pointed to Jong In, "I'm not a boy anymore though." 

With the food that Jong In had, which was some really fancy type of mac and cheese, staring back at Chanyeol with a straight face. Chanyeol's comments about this boy or playboy shenanigans was getting out of hand because Jong In had no idea where his curiosity was going anymore. Staring blankly still, he said, "Man, I don't know if you are a boy anymore or not, I am not one of your girls for you to be confirming that to me. Do you think I'll be jealous or something, because don't worry man, do what you want. I'm not the jealous type. Like, I do not care." 

"Man, I don't care about your feelings either. your feelings," Chanyeol sassed back, knowing that Jong In was forever joking with him at the times he didn't need it. The Jong In so many years ago would never joke around, or even play around like this, because he barely even had any comments about Chanyeol being him that time. If it was before, Jong In would probably warn Chanyeol not to get a girl pregnant, and that was it. But now, he was all playful and blunt at the same time, that Chanyeol couldn't even be straightfoward to why he was asking him these questions. "I'm not though," Chanyeol reassured once again, going back to eat his food. 

With cocked eyebrows, Jong In just nodded his head, "I don't know why you're even asking me this, but alright, dude. I still find it hard to believe that you're not sleeping with any girls, because you know, you're you. And girls are pretty needy these days, so how the are you doing it? From what I remembered, your is still single. Unless you're hiding a secret wife that I don't know of." 

"I thought I told you I'm just not about that anymore. I just don't want to play around with a girl's feeling anymore," Chanyeol stated seriously, his voice getting softer as he took another bite of his sandwich. The moment Chanyeol lowered his voice down and ate his sandwich awkwardly without making any eye contact with Jong In, he knew something was definitely up. Out of nowhere, Chanyeol asked him a question about Tina, then asked him if he came across as a girl who s around with girls a lot. It made him highly confused to what was happening, but he knew something was definitely up. It wasn't anything random, because Chanyeol was not that type of person to ask a random question out of nowhere. He took a brief moment to say something, but when he did, Jong In looked at him. "Dude, do you like someone or something? Because you've been acting really strange. Like, why would you ask me what Tina thinks of you? Do you think I know what she's thinking half the time? I know she wants to slap me half the time, but that's about it."

Looking at Chanyeol curiously, Jong In held up the fork to see his response, and his reaction. There was something up with him, he definitely knew it. But Chanyeol was being very fidgety and extremely tense, that it was pretty suspicious. What was up with him these days? Chanyeol bit into his turkey sandwich with the sauce dripping to the plate as he responded with his mouth full, "I don't know why the everything gets turned back to me when you're the one who called me out to eat lunch at this... Really hipster place. Didn't we come here to solve your problems?" 

"Dude, I just called you out here to eat," Jong In said in his defense. "I didn't come here to get a therapy session from you, I just wanna know what I should do. And plus, you were the one who asked me if you came across as a playboy, so excuse me for me being curious." Actually, he needed to be worried about why he was asking about Tina so much... That was what concerned him the most about this conversation. 

"Whatever, you er. You're still asking me for advice on what to do, so you should be ing honored. You know I charge people money for my words of wisdom?" Chanyeol sarcastically responded to him, trying to change the conversation as much as he could. "If you keep this up, I'm gonna start charging you for real. I'll probably charge you more than my patients, you're the most annoying one, god damn it." Right after that, Jong In sneezed twice rather loudly, which made Chanyeol wince a bit. Still in his joking mood, he pointed at him and commented, "Someone's talking about you." There was always that suspicion that if a person sneezes exactly two times, it means someone is "supposedly" mentioning them in their conversation. Chanyeol remembered learning it one time in one of his high level psychology classes during college. 

Nodding with no comments back to him, Jong In shrugged his shoulders lazily. "It's probably everyone back at the hotel." 

"Nah, it's probably me," Chanyeol joked, getting Jong In to glare at him pretty deeply. When he felt his front right pocket vibrate, he knew it was his phone so he pulled it out real quick. He smiled that Dara's name popped up on his lock screen since he had added her on Facebook this morning and also sent her a message. As he opened the message, he smiled at the response to him.

Sandara Park: Hi friend. 

Park Chanyeol: How goes it?

Sandara Park: Brah, how'd you even find me? You're definitely on some stalking .

Park Chanyeol: Woman, I am a problem solver, I can find out anything.

Chanyeol just smiled cheekly making Jong In stop eating, also raising an eyebrow at who he was talking to on his phone. Jong In coughed to get his attention, which actually got him to look up away from his phone. Resting the back of his hand under his chin, he started to fool around. "What are you smiling at?" 

"Am I not allowed to smile?" 

Very playfully, Jong In waved his left hand up and down his face to say, "I don't get how could you be smiling when your happiness is right here, right in front of you." 

Done. Chanyeol was so done with that statement. He had the most unpleasant stare upon his face and tried to comtemplate what he was going to say next because that came out of nowhere. He squinted his mouth unpleasantly and sassily replied, ", you are not my happiness. You are my sadness, get the out of here with that. Happiness, what kind of question is that?" That just got Jong In laughing hysterically while Chanyeol put his phone back into his pocket and sighed in disgust with this friend of his. Still laughing, Jong In replied, "You're sitting there, staring at your phone and smiling. Are you talking to the girl of your dreams?" 

"Dara just messaged me back on Facebook. So no, that is certainly not the girl of my dreams," Chanyeol answered truthfully, shaking his head. Jong In's eyes started to light up when he heard Dara's name, wondering if he actually heard correctly. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Did you just say Dara?" 

"Yes, I just said Dara." 

"Like... As in Ji Ji's Dara?" 

He rolled his eyes sideways a few times before he replied, "Yeah, I guess. Minji's Dara, Dara's Minji. I guess they belong to one another, you know." Reaching out to tap Chanyeol's forearm mutiple times, Jong In quickly said, "Yah Chanyeol, ask Dara for me what department Ji Ji works in. Ask her where she lives now, is she gonna come back home to her parents? And where did they end up going to five years? As-"

"Yah," Chanyeol interrupted him very suddenly, taken aback by all the questions Jong In was firing at him. "What the , Jong In? Why are you trying to use Dara and I to get to Minji? Dara and I have nothing to do with you and Minji's situation. Dara is my friend, so no I'm not gonna ask her anything that regards you, no matter how desperate you are to make it up to Minji." 

"Chanyeol, Dara is the only person that I can get through to get to Ji Ji. Dude please, it's my only hope." 

"Listen dude, and listen well," Chanyeol demanded him, becoming extremely serious. "Dara and I have gone through a bumpy road ever since high school and we were never able to to come to any conclusions before she ended up being gone for five years. I just got to become friends with her again, with no bumps, and no patches, and you want me to ruin that by helping you find out information about Minji through Dara? I already said that Dara is my friend, and we are not a part of your . Dude, listen to yourself and how selfish you sound." 

"I'm not trying to be selfish," Jong In explained desperately, wanting Chanyeol to understand him and his need to make it up to this poor girl. "I thought you said you were willing to help me."

Chanyeol tapped his fingers upon the wooden table, looking deeply at Jong In. "What you did was ed up. You tortured the poor girl and you made her suffer. Honestly speaking, if I was in Minji's position, I probably wouldn't even be working at the hotel that you're the general manager at. Yes, I said I was going to help you. Help you come to your senses and realize what you need to do. I already told you it's not going to be ing easy to get her forgiveness. You made the mess all by yourself. You dragged her into the mess and she became a victim of it. The only person who can solve the mess you created... Is yourself. Me, Dara, or anyone else around you, won't be able to help you solve anything. You have to do it yourself. You said you wanted to make everything up to her, whether or not she actually forgives you in the end. Well, now you know where she is... Now it's all up to you to prove that you realize your ing mistake. Don't drag more people into the mess that you made." 

"I just ed up with her so much," he admitted after a brief moment, stressfully slouching back into his chair, suddenly becoming full to his stomach. "That's why I need help. I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not." 

"You don't need help with that," he answered honestly, shaking his head. "Nothing can ever go wrong with doing the right thing. It's just a matter of how hard you try and how long you're willing to do it, because, like I said... It's not gonna be easy." 

Shrugging, he replied, "As long as it takes." Jong In realized what Chanyeol was getting at, so he just sat there, nodding his head. He was more than right, he needed to stop dragging everyone else into the mess he created and start taking action on his own. He was the one who wanted to make it up to Minji, so he needed to do it for himself, not with the help of anyone. 

Time is the only answer to this entire puzzle. 

They sat there in more silence as Jong In stared down at his half-empty plate. When Chanyeol noticed, he asked, "You good though?" 

"Yeah," Jong In nodded in response. "Thanks Doc." He picked up his head to look at Chanyeol, with him just giving him a grin back. After the serious talk was settled down, Chanyeol let out a deep sigh, resting his elbows on the table. Staring into Jong In's eyes, he gave an intense look that kind of intimidated Jong In, but he was waiting to see what he would sat. Clearing his throat, Chanyeol shook his head and said, "You better pay me now."

" you." 

"No thanks bro," Chanyeol highly disagreed, waving his hands up to reject him. "There are girls in the world for that." 

Minji made it up until her lunch break without seeing Jong In. Worry and fear filled up her entire system, making it uneasy to work. It was quite at her relief that they didn't give her much to do on her first day since she was still new, but Tina said the work would pick up the longer she is here. For today, she started simple such as picking up phone calls to answer people's questions and answering a few e-mails. 

While everyone was getting ready for their hour and fifteen minute lunch break, Minji still sat in her cubicle, hiding behind her three-sided walls. She was so afraid of seeing him right now that she would rather let her stomach cry than to confront his face. It was that bad.

"Minji Unnie," she heard someone call for her. She looked up to see the adorable fair-skinned girl, Suhyun, standing with Wendy, the girl who didn't talk as much as the other. They must've been best friends because they were always together and Minji could also hear the random conversations between them since their cubicles were right in front of hers. Their conversation went from what they had for breakfast to the pattern of underwear they had on today. It reminded her of herself and Dara, and even Ha Yi at some points, since they were just that comfortable with eachother. 

Remembering that Suhyun and Wendy were standing right there, she just smiled at them nicely. "Do you wanna come eat with us?" Suhyun invited kindly. "We're just going down to the cafe in front of the hotel. They have really good sandwiches! And a bunch of other yummy things you can choose from. You can join Wendy and I if you wanted to. We wouldn't mind having you come eat with us. We talk a lot though, but we can talk a lot together if you wanted to." 

"It sounds like you're advertising and promoting the place we go eat at," Wendy commented amusingly. "And us." 

"Hello Wendy," Suhyun dramatically and playfully flipped her hair. "Sales associate under marketing department. I need to use my work ethics everywhere that I go so I don't lose it." 

"I don't think Minji Unnie wants to buy us though," she sassed, Suhyun glaring at her. Crossing her arms, she said, "You know what I mean, girl." Minji just waved her hands and answered them, "I'm just gonna answer a few more e-mails first. If I finish in time, I'll go join you guys. Don't wait up though, I'm not sure how long it'll take." 

"Okay Unnie," Suhyun said so brightly with a wave. "Make sure to eat though. You don't want your stomach growling at 4 pm! We'll be downstairs if you can join us!" Thankful for the kindness, Minji nodded her head and waved back, then they both walked off to go to lunch. When she was left alone again, she heard how quiet it was. Nervously playing with her side braid, she just sighed a few times. Truth was... She was hungry and she did want to go eat with Suhyun and Wendy because they were adorable, happy girls; but the risk of seeing Jong In was so high.

****

After sitting there for ten more minutes, turning around and sliding her chair back and forth, she groaned to herself. She was beginning to get pissed off with herself that she was doing what Dara told her not to do.

Hiding and running away from the problem.

She didn't want to do this to herself, she really didn't. She wanted to prove that she wasn't the same stupid person she was before, but just the thought of seeing him again made her weak and scared. For some reason, she knew something about him had changed, to the extent that he was apologizing and chasing after her, and she was just scared of that stupid child coming back into her body again. 

Whatever.

She couldn't keep doing this to herself. The only person she was hurting was herself if she kept acting like this, and she was sick and tired of it. She needed to move; just move on and keep going forward. She was just going to suffer and be unhappy if she kept hiding behind these cubicles. 

"Get yourself together, Minji," she demanded herself in a whispering tone, making sure no one else heard her, if anyone happened to be there. She needed to get out of this trap that she was locking herself in... She just needed to free herself. Jong In... Krystal... everything that was in the past. This was the present, and this was reality, and she needed to get a grip of herself. She was working here and starting a new life for herself, she needed to pick being a coward already. 

Forcing herself out of her seat, she finally was able to leave the office area, bring herself to the elevator that was located in the middle of this floor. Going eleven floors down, she continuously inhaled and exhaled deeply, just trying to get a hold of herself. She felt pathetic for trying so hard, but she really couldn't help it. After a few minutes, she reached the lobby, and the doors slid open. Taking another deep breath out, she stepped foot out of the elevator, and nearly had a panic attack when she saw who was walking at a far distance.

No, it wasn't Jong In.

But it was someone that made her take a step back into the elevator, rapidly tapping the close button so the doors could completely shut. It was freaking Krystal, the girl who hated her with a passion. It slipped her mind that Krystal's father was the owner of this hotel because her mind was consumed with her boyfriend being the general manager here. She groaned to herself once again, shaking her head, and rubbing her face, without giving a care about the make-up that was on her face. 

How was she going to do this? 

"So when exactly are we going to get a couch?" Dara asked Minji as they passed by a furniture store, located right in front of the mall as they were exiting. Dara had the need to say it because the couches that were displayed looked super comfortable. When Minji looked over, she just sighed and said, "I am so tired of eating at the kitchen table. Like, it's mad formal and , and we are not formal people. I want to have a couch to eat on, eat like a pig, then put my feet up on the table like a lazy while watching Grey's Anatomy. We need a freaking couch." 

Laughing, Minji responded, "I know we do. Tiffany Unnie is going to throw us too if she sees us eat on the floor again. She can't handle us being savages." 

"That Unnie is too classy for my liking," Dara playfully said. "This is the girl who can't drink wine out of a plastic cup and who hasn't had with her boyfriend of five years because she's waiting for marriage. She doesn't count for anything. She's so damn classy that she wants to throw us half the time for just wanting to be savages. What is up with all the older girls in our life wanting to throw us so much?" 

Minji shrugged, just letting out a laugh. "Hey, she's Yuri Unnie's friend. You gotta have some violence in you to survive being her friend. She's less violent than the sister though, so be lucky she's the one we see often."

"Not unless we're still couchless," Dara scoffed. "She might be more violent than Yuri Unnie if we eat on the floor one more time. Let's make a deal, by the end of the month... Once we get our paycheck, let's get a freaking couch. Deal?" 

"Deal." 

The two laughed walking out of the mall, heading towards the skytrain station to head back to their condiminium. After both of them got out of work, they both took the train to the mall and ate at the sushi restaurant that they've been wanting to try for a while, and it definitely met up to their expectations. They sepnt the entire dinner telling eachother what happened throughout the day. Dara got to see Mino for only a few minutes because he was sent out on a photoshoot at around 11:30. Other than that, Dara just got to learn more about photography and found her way around the office more conveniently thanks to the person who was in charge of her. As for Minji, telling Dara that she spent the day being paranoid of seeing Jong In and Krystal just resulted in a very long lecture and life lesson. But after getting past that, Minji just said she'll do better the next day, which was obviously tomorrow. 

They were passing by all the stands in front of the mall that were selling cheap merchandise and small food vendors just so they could find the stairs to go up to the skytrain. However, Minji stopped at her tracks when she saw the same bakery store that she was addicted to when she was younger. It was an actual store that was in one of the plaza buildings in front of all these stands. She'd always stop by after school or everytime she came to this mall, just so she could buy their chocolate croissants. It was probably the best croissant she has ever had, and she couldn't even make it herself to compare with how good theirs were. 

Tous Les Jours was the name of Minji's favorite bakery. Words couldn't even explain her excitement right now because she'd remembered their taste so vividly.

She tugged onto Dara's shirt from the back and said excitedly, "Dara, Dara, look, look." Indeed, Dara looked back and saw Minji's rather face, eyes lit up and face full of happiness. "It's the bakery that has the best chocolate croissant. Can we go in there real quick? I need to go buy some!" Without even waiting, Minji dragged her inside of the bakery, making Dara laugh. The one thing that would never change about this girl was her extreme love for food. This girl was always more excited about food more than anything. 

Stepping into the bakery, Minji immediately took a big tray and started picking out the snacks and pastries that she wanted. For later tonight, for tomorrow, for tomorrow night... Just enough days that it won't go bad. With Dara following her, Minji turned around and asked her, "Do you want anything? If you do, just throw it on." Dara pouted and shook her head, "No thank you, girl. I still have a bunch of chocolate bars left... The ones that Tiffany Unnie bought back from Switzerland with her. I need to finish those sweets before moving on to other sweets." 

"You still haven't finished those?" She asked back loudly. "Girl, I finished those the third day after she gave it to us. Those were delicious." 

"Girl, if I could eat sweets like you, we'd probably be fighting over all the damn sweets in our fridge right now." 

Minji just laughed as she casually just took all the chocolate croissants that were inside of the bins displayed on the shelf. Casually following her, Dara just stayed behind her, with her hands inside of her pockets to keep herself warm, watching as her best friend excitedly put all of these pastries onto the tray she was holding. When her tray became filled with all of these pastries, Dara's eyes widened and questioned, "Damn girl. You stacking up for a month or something? You know we can come back, right?" 

"I am getting some for Jimin and Jungkook," Minji chuckled, trying to pick out at least two or three pastries for both of them each. "I'm sure they crave something sweet working that late at night." 

"You got the hots for the security guard or something?" Dara posed, wiggling her eyebrows at Minji. She had the need to ask that because Minji hadn't really been giving a lot ever since this change in herself, so buying a snack for the security guards sort of threw her off. Also, Dara was positive that Minji didn't grow that close to them yet. They barely even talked, how would she become close to them? In response, Minji raised her eyebrows, jokingly glaring at her. "Girl, does it look like I would have the hots for guys who look like they just hit puberty?" 

"Min, who wouldn't have the hots for them? They are fine looking boys. At least they look of age though. And that uniform too, whoo." 

"That says a lot coming from you. I just want to get them something. I don't know, it seems like they always get ignored when people pass by them, so I want to get them something so they feel like they at least matter. Those fine boys need to be ackowledged more than this. And they work all night, they must get hungry," Minji stated, with a smugged smile. It was a known fact that Dara wasn't easily attracted to the opposite gender, so her having a crush on Mino and calling the security guards fine was a big and surprising step for her. And Dara just enjoyed teasing Minji for her own entertainment. In the end, it was impossible for Minji to actually become a cold person, no matter how strong or how tough she appeared to be now. 

Turning around, Minji nudged Dara with her elbow and asked, "What about Bobby though? He's an adorable child too. He's just as good-looking as Jungkook and Jimin if you take a closer look." 

"Umm yeah, he's adorable but he is an annoying boy. Who has that much effort to be buying flowers for us all the damn time? He doesn't take no for an answer either." 

Minji shrugged amusingly, remembering all of Bobby's pick-up lines and his determination in asking the two of them out. "Hey, he has high hopes to get us on a date with him." 

"He needs to be determined with someone his own age. We're almost a decade apart from him. Like, I want to be sleeping on a bed, not on the floor of a jail cell," Dara joked, moving her head around a lot. "Besides, Jungkook and Jimin don't even talk. They just stand there all night and look good. Do you think they ever get hit on when people walk into the building?" 

"I mean, I wouldn't doubt it. A lot of girls like a man in a uniform." 

"Shoot, I'll be one of the girls hitting on them if they take up my offer," Dara bantered, wiggling her shoulders, which made Minji laugh. If Dara was being serious, she'd probably have something to worry about, but she was all talk, so Minji just had to breathe deeply from chuckling so much. Since Dara joked so much, Minji added in as well, "Girl, you can't be doing that to Mino. He'll be devestated." Dara glared at her at the mention of Mino, because they got to actually talk today. It was only for a few minutes, but it still got her to smile that he came all the way from his section of the office just to say hello to her. Trying to hide her emotions before she started to blush a lot, she pushed Minji, nearly knocking the desserts over and exclaimed, "Yah! You play too much!"

After gathering everything that she wanted onto the tray, she went to the counter to pay. As the cashier was ringing up all of the pastries and putting it specially into the bag, Minji's phone let off a ring indicating that she recieved a text message. She quickly got out her phone from her crossbody seeing a message from Tina. 

Princess Tina: Baby girl, do you remember that e-mail I had forwarded to you from the hotel spa's manager? About the promotion and how it can increase the revenue?

Minji: Yes Unnie, I remember. Is there anything I can help with?

Princess Tina: My dumb accidentally deleted the e-mail. I was opening the e-mail just to go edit it before I have to send it off to Jong In and then President Jung, but I pressed the freaking delete button. Do you still have the e-mail? 

Minji: I do. Do you want me to send it to you?

Princess Tina: Can you please??? Sorry for bothering you at the most unconvenient time but I need to get it approved for President Jung to see before he goes on his business trip to Japan. 

Minji: Okay, I'm out right now but I'm heading back to my condo in a bit. I will send it to you as soon as I get back.

Princess Tina: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Muah, muah, muah. I forgive you for everything.

Minji: Hahaha okay, Unnie. Muah muah.

Putting her phone back inside of her bag, she just laughed, remembering the first thing Tina had said to her walking into the office was about her running around the event trying to get away from Jong In. Luckily, Tina had already let the situation go because Minji just told her it was some sort of misunderstanding, so the conversation was stopped at that. Minji was just told that if there was another important event like that, Tina was not going to go easy on her anymore if she decided to run away. 

"What's up?" A curious Dara asked as she saw Minji stood there texting on her phone without a word being said. Sighing, Minji looked back and replied, "Tina Unnie needs me to send her something. It's on my computer though, so I gotta send it to her once we get back." Nodding in response, the cashier perfectly finished putting everything into a bag and told Minji the price. As Minji was getting money out of her bag to pay, Dara realized something and said, "Wait, we don't have wifi, how are you gonna send it? Tiffany Unnie said that the internet guys were coming to install it for us Thursday." 

"Oh shoot, I forgot about that. My hotspot doesn't cover it either cause the file is so damn big and there's barely any signal up there." 

"You wanna risk going on a date with Bobby just so you could ask for his wifi password?" Dara joked, seductively raising her eyebrows. Squinting her lips, Minji pointed an index finger at her. "No, there will be no date and there will be no asking for wifi. One, that'll probably cause a disturbance to his mother and two, I'm pretty sure it's past his bedtime. His will get slapped probably." The bedtime part made Dara laugh because for some sad and funny reason, it was actually true. As Dara was trying to figure out how Minji could actually do her work, another realization popped into her head, getting her eyes to widen. Minji was holding the bag of pastries she just purchased and saw Dara's face light up, getting her to tilt her head questionably. "Yes?" 

"The lobby downstairs at our condo," Dara stated, making Minji have some hope to do this job more efficiently. "There's free wifi there." 

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," Minji said at relief. Nodding her head, she smiled at her friend. "Thanks girl, I wouldn't be able to think about that." 

"Of course, girl," Dara said, starting to wiggle her eyebrows playfully again, also putting her back left hand under her chin. "Don't forget to thank me when you're staring at Jungkook and Jimin guarding those doors though." 

"Oh goodness." 

"For me?" Jimin asked quite shocked when Minji was handing over the chocolate croissant that was neatly wrapped with plastic to him. Laughing at his adorable reaction, she nodded her head. "Of course it's for you. Do you see anyone else here that I can give it to?" He still smiled very cutely at them as he took the snack out of her hands and bowed very lightly to her. He felt so grateful that there was a kind girl like Minji to acknowledge him so much, but he didn't know what he ever did to deserve this type of kindness from her. All he did was just greet her and made sure she got into the building safely, so he was very thankful that she was being so nice to him. "You really didn't have to, Miss Minji. I'm sure that you want to save some for yourself to eat too. I don't want you to have to think about me everytime you're buying all of your sweets."

Dara poked her head in and flirted, "Trust me, sweetie. Thinking about you is not hard to do." Minji slightly poked Dara in her stomach to calm her hyper self down. Looking back at Jimin, she just let out a deep sigh and assured, "You're up all night working. Don't try to lie and say that you don't get hungry during those late hours, cause I won't buy it. Just enjoy it, because they're really good. I just hope you like chocolate."

"Yes, yes, yes, Miss Minji," he assured, nodding his head so quickly. "I can eat chocolate for days. Thank you again so much. I appreciate it so much, Miss Minji." As Minji was waving him and saying good night, Dara softly added in, "Don't forget to think about us when you're eating those."

"Dara!" Minji hissed, dragging Dara to go inside with her. They went up the five steps of stairs, inside the building, leaving a happy Jimin holding two chocolate croissants in his hands. Throughout the months he's been working here as a security guard, he's never really met such nice people like Minji and Dara. From what he's seen, everytime he greets someone coming in or coming out, they always seem to ignore him or just pretend like they don't see him; it's not that he overthinks about it, it's just that sometimes he feels useless and wonder why he's guarding the entire building for people who don't acknowledge him. But then again, that's just him...  Someone like Minji and Dara really make his job a little brighter. They probably had the same effect for Jungkook since Minji also thought of him too when buying all of these sweets, since he was here for the same reason... Earning money in order for their family not to struggle. 

After Minji gave her share of the chocolate croissants to Jungkook - a very happy and hungry security guard, they were finally headed back to their room so she could grab her computer to come back downstairs to the lobby to quickly send Tina the file that she needed. 

There was one routine Minji and Dara had to get used to before they could actually go inside of their room. An annoying routine that they had sadly gotten used to. That was checking if Bobby was going to pop out of his room next door to surprise them with a bouquet of flowers. If he didn't pop out, he'd be waiting for them right between both of their doors holding the flowers to give to them. 

"Is there any sign of him?" Dara asked Minji as they were both poking their head out of the corridor before turning to their room. Studying very closely, Minji squinted her eyes to see if there were any signs of Bobby. This child always liked to leave something on the door or hanging off the doorknob to indicate he was coming. So far, the coast seemed pretty clear to them. 

"There's no flowers," Minji informed, stretching her neck to see as much as possible. "And I don't see any stickers or post-it notes. Maybe he did go to bed early." 

"Girl, he is a sixteen-year-old boy and it is only nine o'clock. He is not in bed." 

"When did we become scared of a sixteen-year-old boy?" Minji tried to reevaluate themselves. 

"We are not afraid of him," Dara corrected, shaking her head. "We are afraid of his random pop-ups and his flower giving. We are afraid of his annoyingness, that's what." After almost breaking their necks for looking out for him, Dara started to grunt and grab Minji's wrist. "Let's just hurry up and get to our room. Chances of seeing him are higher if we keep being outside of our room." They walked to the door and Dara quickly scanned her keycard onto the lock, while Minji quickly entered the code to get inside the room. It all came to an end when Bobby came out of his room. "Hello, my beauties!" 

Both of them shut their eyes stressfully, letting out a sigh. Dara was not daring enogh to turn her head so she glared at Minji. "You said the coast was clear, fool." 

"He fooled us instead." 

Bobby giggled and said, "You guys thought I gave up, right? Have no fear, Kim Jinwon is here... With flowers, of course." Giving him a straight face, Dara emotionlessly said, "I have a lot of fears when it comes to you, boy." 

Not even acknowledging her snarky remark, he just handed over the bouquet of flowers to give them. Today, it was orchids. Yesterday, it was carnations. He said he would give them each a bouquet every single day until they agreed to go on a date with him. So far, he's been doing it every single day, but they have not agreed on a date because they just thought it was ridiculous. That he was a ridiculous little boy who played around too much. Plus, they were too old for him. Taking him out to dinner was fine, but going on an actual date made them think a bit. They thought he had to eventually get bored and give up somehow. It's only been a week, how long could he do this for? The flowers were going to be endless because his mother owned a floral shop with her own garden right outside of the shop. It was not a struggle at all for Bobby to be picking out flowers and wrapping it himself because they were the flowers that he and his mother planted together, and he helped her work at the damn shop, nothing was difficult for him. 

"So... Do I get my date yet?" Bobby tried asking for the millionth time this week, which got Dara to roll her eyes upward. There it was... The dreadful question that they had to deal with every single day and night. They found him adorable and all, but damn, he was like an annoying fly that kept coming back. He must've gotten glass flirt or friendliest  person in his high school because he was beyond talkative, and went to the extreme of playing around too much. 

"Jinwon, the answer is the same," Minji tried to reject as nicely as she could. "The same as yesterday and the day before that, and all the days before that." Dara coughed and bluntly added in, "That is a no, you child. We are grateful for the flowers but we already told you that we don't want to go to jail." 

"I said you are not going to jail if I am making the choice myself. I am not going to ask you out on a date and then report you guys to the police after. You guys are my Noonas, I would never do that." 

"Trust me, we know you won't," Minji widened her eyes, waving the flowers in the air. "But if someone else sees, they probably will report it." Raising an eyebrow, Dara added in as well, "Shoot, it'll probably be me being the one to report it." She just wanted to prove her point that he was so that she would report her best friend, or even herself to go to jail for underage dating. Bobby just pouted at them, knowing that it didn't work this time, once again. However, his face became serious and said, "Okay. Okay. I'll let you Noonas go for today. But, I'm still not giving up though. I will get at least one date where I'm paying for the meal. Don't you worry, Noona. More flowers will be coming your way. Omma never gets tired of planting new things."

"Oh trust me, I'm worried," Dara stated, shaking her head, trying to reject him. "You know, if you keep giving us flowers every single day, our room is about to become a garden. Your flowers are being placed everywhere and we're starting to have no space to put it anymore. If you want us to consider this date, at least give us a something small so we can actually keep your things." 

Bobby's eyes lit up excitedl