THEN

JULY 2014

JONGIN took out the earplugs off his ears as he reached the driveway of the old shelter house. It was old alright, but not ruined. He stared down at his watch and smiled when he saw the minute hand was very close to number 12.

1 minute till you’re 21, pal.

He rushed towards the big door and inserted a key into its rightful hole. Sister Kim didn’t always trust her kids with house keys, but Jongin and Taemin are exception because they were the eldest, and they were the only pair to have grown of age. Jongin turned 20 last winter in mid-January and Taemin last year on this very day.

The door made a clicking sound before it turned and revealed the inside of the house to Jongin. Everything was still and silent – like how every house would be at 12.00 am.

He ran upstairs towards Taemin’s room and swung open the door. Big smile was hanging across his handsome face when he saw sleeping Taemin tossed around in his bed.

“Duuuuuuudeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” Jongin yelled loudly with delight as he threw himself on top of Taemin’s skinny body and gave his friend a very cozy bear hug – though Jongin did not have that much softness to him to actually wrap his friend in a comforting hug, but he tried his best not to squeeze Taemin and poked him with his own pointy bones.

“What the -” came from Taemin with no feelings as he tried to push Jongin off of him. He was having a great sleep until Jongin decided to pull this rare affection force against him. “Seriously man, get the out. I’m sleeping.”

“Not anymore, dude,” Jongin was still smiling and grinning and staring down at topless Taemin like an idiot. “Get up dude. You can’t sleep on your birthday.”

“It’s my birthday, remember?”

“Yeah, but I’m in charge, you dip. Now get up or I will make love to-”

Taemin’s eyes slit open instantly upon hearing Jongin’s disgusting offer and shoved him off of his body so hard that Jongin lost balance and fell down on the floor with a fairly loud thud, but he never took it personally.

“That’s not very pleasant to hear when you’re stripping in your bed, is it?” Jongin rose back to his feet and massaged at his hurting .

“You need to get yourself a girlfriend so you will lay off of me. You know what, if I live longer, I promise to get you a real woman for your Christmas gift.”

Jongin’s mouth pouted and shut. He looked down on Taemin who was smiling to himself alone and was painfully remembered of Taemin’s desire of ending his life.

Okay. If you lived longer.

“So,” Taemin held up his chin at towering Jongin. “Where’s my birthday gift?”

“You’re looking at it,” Jongin smirked as he leaned in close to Taemin’s face. “And trust me baby I will let you do-”

“You’re ing sick,” Taemin’s face twisted as he shoved Jongin out of his face. But Jongin kept his feet together and even threw his open arms around topless Taemin who looked really adorable when he’s mad.

“Happy birthday, pal. You’re ing 21 now!”

“Thanks,” Taemin patted awkwardly on Jongin’s back as he tried to free his throat for some air. “Some age huh?”

“Yeah,” Jongin nodded as he loosened the hug and settled next to his best friend. “How do you feel?”

“Grateful, to be honest, considering we are parentless and family-less and we live in a shelter.”

“As long as we got one another, I honestly don’t feel lacking.”

“Yeah,” Taemin nodded weakly. “Exactly.”

Jongin chuckled as he looked down on his bear foot resting on the cold cement floor and noticed that his toenails were beginning to grow out.

“On second thought,” Jongin said suddenly, making Taemin turned to look at him. “Instead of a real woman, why not you just give me a nail clipper for my Christmas gift.”

“A nail clipper?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Dude, I could not find my nail clipper everywhere, and I’m sure I saw Junho used it some days ago but when I asked him, he gave me this stupid grin on his fat face and I actually had to hold back from punching his face.”

“Yeah,” Taemin raised a brow cynically, half- nodding, at his angry friend. “Or I can just give a book on anger management.”

“You dip.”

“And you owe me a gift and a birthday cake.”

NOW

MARCH 2017

IT was probably too late to regret the decision of skipping work today considering that her parents came over to her house tonight for some light dinner. Naeun was more nervous about her dad’s reaction about the events she added for the ball rather than fussing over about the wedding details her mom going to drown her into.

“You’re 23 years old Naeun, and as a woman you are of the right age to start making wise decisions, and actually stop taking shortcuts when face troubles.”

Sofia was fairly bothered by her husband’s out of the blue life advice that she turned to Naeun in colliding brows. “Okay what happened in the office today?”

Naeun glanced at her mother quietly before taking her drink to wet . “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Jihoo lifted his head to get a clear look at her daughter’s face. “She made not one, not two but four changes in the ball events and none of them was run through me first. Can you believe that?”

“Are those bad events?”

“She took out my favorite play. You know I’ve always loved Monet with my dinner.”

“I don’t have Monet at my house but you guys still eat well,” Naeun interfered like a tiny mouse creeping silently across the kitchen and Sofia quickly shot a warning look at her daughter.

Naeun looked down and ignored her mom. “Sorry.”

Sofia through her husband’s hand and put out her best smile. “Look on the bright side, honey. Naeun is giving her own ideas to an important event like this, and that’s a good thing. She just wants to be creative. You, of all people should support her, not bring her down.”

“Amen to that,” Naeun said under her breath, fork picking at the green peas in her plate.

“I still think that’s a bad idea. All of our important people love Monet.”

“I bet they do honey, but Naeun’s idea can’t be that terrible.”

“She arranges a theatrical play-”

“Okay,” Sofia nodded carefully. “And you don’t like that because?”

“Because it’s a play about Goldilocks and the Three Bears!”

Sofia was stunned – a high-pitched deafening tone went off in her head like a beeping heart machine.

“It has connections to the charity,” Naeun in without any warning. She felt the need to be defensive about her ideas and her parents have no right to make her feel unappreciative.  “Goldilocks was this fussy little kid who came from nowhere-ville and broke into some bear family's house and complained about the soup being too hot or too cold for her.  She only ate the soup that was the right temperature for her. And then she went to sit on a chair, but still complained about a chair that’s too big for her , and would only sit on the ones that could fit her but she ended up breaking that chair and what’s worse is that she ignored the broken chair. I mean she could’ve tried fixing it but no, she just wanted to find some bed to lie on now because she was very sleepy. Like, what’s her deal, huh? Anyway, she went upstairs and tried each bed available and ended up falling asleep on the little bear’s bed because that one has a soft mattress that was right for her. Like she couldn’t be any choosier. And then, the bears- now these bears weren’t that generous either, I mean I know some weird lady just broke into your house but the last thing you should do is not complain about your finished soup or your broken chair, but call the freaking cops. Right?”

Sofia and her husband were very, very speechless. Nothing crossed their minds looking at how passionate her daughter was about putting the play out and they thought that maybe, Naeun was stressed about something else when she decided to pull through with the decision.

“And you said something about the connections to charity – what is it?” Jihoo was careful but he was very close to exploding at her only daughter, and he was not that surprised at the idea of maybe disowning Naeun as her daughter.

Okay. He should probably just fire her.

“Of course there’s connections to charity…” Naeun was gathering her composure and picked up her wine to rewet . “-somewhere – in the play. People just need to dig deeper.”

Jihoo laid back, hand clutching at his heart, whilst Sofia went to grab her wine, completely ignoring her husband, and gulped down the whole drink. She needed to get drunk that night, no matter how many glasses it took.

IT was 12.00 AM and thirty minutes more the guards would probably start chasing people out because the memorial service center will close down for the day. Jongin was still standing inside the memorial room, looking right at the Taemin’s photo behind the glass. He smiled, looking down at the high school graduation photo of him doing a headlock around Taemin and realized that no one could let go the old memories, no matter how bitter and unbearable it was.

Beside the frame, sitting gingerly was the candles to Taemin’s last birthday cakes, a half lit 21-shaped white candle, his favorite color, and he remember having bought the cake only two days after Taemin’s real birthday because Sister Kim did not return from her hometown yet. And then, just behind the candle was Jongin’s watch that Taemin often wore because his was itchy on his skin, so Jongin was willing to exchange it, and he took Taemin’s baseball cap  in return. He never wore the cap after Taemin died, and only kept it among all his snapbacks at home.

Taemin was still smiling broadly at him, in the picture, and Jongin only wanted to remember his best friend like this. He hated the idea that Taemin was probably unhappy when he pulled the trigger and it actually scared him having to think that Taemin could not believe him completely to tell him his real problems.

Was he a bad friend?

“I’m sorry, sir, but we’re closing down the center. Please kindly say goodbye and evacuate the room in less than 10 minutes.”

Jongin lifted up his head and wiped his tears before nodding at the guard.

“Very well,” Jongin forced a smile. “I’m wrapping up anyway. Thank you.”

Jongin took a last glance at the smile on Taemin’s face, and wondered; has the girl in Taemin’s letter come pay him a visit?

Did she even know of his death?

Jongin finally left the center and thanked the guard for his patience. He stepped outside at possibly the worst moment because a thunder just crashed overhead and he had to wait momentarily in front of the entrance, before mentally bracing himself to run in the heavy rain.

Naeun was walking over towards her Audi the next morning, all ready to go the office when she received a phone call from Jongin.

“Hello?” She began, rather confused about receiving his call early in the morning.

“Hi,” Jongin said shortly. “I’ve caught a bit of a cold, so I guess I’m taking a day-off today.”

“Oh,” Naeun gasped slightly. “Have you taken your meds?”

“Not yet. I haven’t gotten to the pharmacy. But I will go, later.”

“Oh okay. I mean, I have some at my house and you can have’m if you’re too exhausted to go to a clinic or something, but whatever.”

“I can manage,” Jongin declined politely. “But thanks for the thought.”

“Sure. Have a plenty of rest.”

“Yes, boss. Just don’t cut off my pay okay?”

“You do realize you don’t get paid as an intern, right?”

“I know. But I didn’t know you know.”

Naeun scoffed a bit before saying goodbye to Jongin. She kept her phone inside her bag back and rummaged through the side pocket to grab the car keys.

She pressed the button to her car key and then tried the handle but a force from behind shut the door back and the whole experience gave Naeun a fair shock throughout her entire body.

“Miss me?” Minhyuk smirked cynically, but his grin was wiped off instantly when Naeun was bold to shoved his hand off of her car.

“Get lost. I can’t deal with you right now, Minhyuk.”

“That’s not for you to decide, is it?” Minhyuk spat out harshly under his gritted teeth as he grabbed Naeun’s hand and dragged her to his car. “We need to talk – now.”

Naeun was surprised to have been forced under such brute strength of his single grip that her feet was involuntarily shuffled across the empty basement towards Minhyuk’s Lamborghini.

“Let go of me, you dickhead! What the hell you’re thinking you’re doing?!” Naeun was yelling at the top of her lungs but Minhyuk didn’t even budge at the warning. He in fact smiled triumphantly because Naeun was helpless and she wouldn’t win this cold war.

He pulled Naeun towards the passenger seat and hastily opened the door to shove her in. He tried to push her in but was rather disappointed by Naeun’s praiseworthy struggle to stay out of the car. She, being a smartypants since birth, raised both her feet and held back her entire body from being thrown into the car like a pile of garbage.

“What the- what are you-“ Minhyuk was honestly baffled when Naeun was holding her body back with her hands pressed tightly along the beam of the car roof that her knuckles turned white.

“I said get the in! We need to talk about what happened!”

Naeun grumbled incoherently as she dismissed his rude demand coldly. “Screw you and your explanation, Minhyuk. You used me for your business, you heartless dog!”

“Which is why we are engaged!”

“No!” Naeun shouted so loud her voice cracked and was off-pitched. “I’m a breathing human being, Minhyuk,” Naeun exclaimed as though she was declaring a law protocol. Her voice was firm and assuring, and the tears that welled up in her eyes was a sign of trust hurt and bent. “I have feelings. I have feelings, okay? You cannot treat me like I didn't exist. You hurt me and you think you can shove a goddamn apology down my throat?! Sorry to disappoint you but I have my own principles and I really cannot stand pigs like you! I may have no power to break our engagement but you sir, have proved to me that you don’t deserve me even trying to win your love. You don’t deserve anyone’s love. You’re too busy loving yourself you forget what it’s like to be loved by someone.” Naeun was half crying, half choking on her sobs when she poured out what has been stuffing her heart and rib and stomach and she didn’t care about the people passing by or even his frozen fiancé.

“Now stop bothering me,” Naeun clenched her teeth and pushed Minhyuk’s hand that were clutching her own. “And see you on the wedding, if I lived longer.”

Naeun walked away, letting her shoulder bumped against his as she made her way back to her car. She fished around her bag for her keys in haste because she needed to leave and be far from Minhyuk. She felt through her side pockets and main compartment but her effort was futile. She looked down on the floor in case her keys were dropped during the drag but there were none. She couldn’t see clearly as time passed because the amount of tears filling up her eyes was intense. She threw a look across the parking space that was taken by Minhyuk’s car and rolled her eyes away when she saw Minhyuk was driving away in full speed. The lot was empty and her hope was crushed.

“,” Naeun cursed angrily and she brushed the teardrops off with her fingers. “When does the joke end?” Naeun pulled her bag from her shoulder and turned it upside down to disgorge all her possessions and notes inside. Naeun then squat down on to the floor and began ransacking through her piles of notes, make-ups, pens and accessories, leaving no stone unturned in search of lost keys.

Naeun cursed even more because she now has all her materials scattered about but she still couldn’t find her keys. She looked around and was compelled to check under her car. She lowered her upper body and heaved a relief sigh to finally discover her keys. She drew her hand forwards and grabbed the keys.

“Don't do that, ever again or I will sell you on eBay."

NAEUN hasn’t always been a fan of meetings and she was always smart enough to bail out from the meeting but this time around her dad has specifically asked for her participation and her presence was announced through the PA system, so obviously, there was no way out.

“Our initial plan was to make a larger scale event than last year’s but it turns out that the participation for volunteer date a.k.a ‘donate for a date’ is unsatisfying. I was hoping that maybe we could gather more money if we set up dinner date between our staff and fundraisers,” Mrs. Yoona, the head of program for annual charity ball began her speech carefully whilst referring to the paper her assistant handed.

“And we are short by exactly how many persons?”  Jihoo asked, lying back in his seat, ballpoint nuzzling against his lips.

“We have first announced the idea of this charity date to our fundraises and sponsors by emails because, as we all know, this is our first time holding this kind of event, but sadly our single staff have no desire of going on a dinner date with someone of a higher class than them.”

Mr. Go, one of the directors let out a dry chuckle. “Are they joking? This is certainly not a real date. The dinner is in the ballroom. And they’ll be enjoying free dinner. And they don’t hook up for good, I mean, it’s for the charity’s sake. Couldn’t they be anymore selfish?”

“Yeah, but how many signed up and we need how many in total?”

“Oh right,” Yoona gasped in a sheepish smile. “According to the last notifications, it seems like the total number of participants are roughly 6-7 when we actually need 13-14 more.”

“That’s a lot,” Mr. Lee sighed sadly. “We expect dinner dates to raise about 30% more of the monetary fund, and I personally think it’s a pity to cancel this event altogether just because only mere 7 people signed up. 10 would be fine I guess. 15% raise isn’t that bad obviously, because it’s still better than nothing.”

“I agree with Mr. Lee,” Jihoo nodded thoughtfully whilst glancing at Mr. Lee. “So we need another – maybe 2 or 3?”

“Yeah,” Yoona nodded. “Indeed.”

Jihoo exhaled heavily before turning his chair to his right, studying her frozen daughter who was physically involved but not spiritually.

“Naeun,” Jihoo called softly and she looked up instantly.

“Yes?” And the single reply from Naeun made everyone else turned to the father-daughter pair in curiosity.

“Your fiancé, Minhyuk won’t be joining you for this dinner right?”

“Yeah - but I already have a partner.”

“Oh do you?” Jihoo raised a brow naturally. “May I know who is your partner?”

“My assistant.”

“Your assistant?”

The rest of the room began mumbling softly at Naeun’s blunt answer. Naeun rolled her eyes at the nosy voices and continued to focus on her dad.

“And Minhyuk is okay with this?”

“Yeah.” Who the cares Minhyuk is okay or not? Shesssh.

“Okay,” Jihoo nodded with full understanding. “But can you do me a favour, as the managing director of Blue Diamond Hotel?”

Naeun did not like a tiny bit about the way his dad said it.  It was as if he was judging her superiority and her capabilities as a human being.

Naeun leaned forward, propping up her head in her hand, letting her free hair to sweep across her shoulder. “What is it?”

“Join the dinner date, please.”

“Excuse me?” She asked almost rudely before pausing to fix her voice tone. “What are you trying to say?”

“I would like it if maybe – you and your assistant would go to the dinner date, separately of course, because we are understaffed.”

Wait what –

Oh hell no, mister.

*****

Its fall time and, yeah, college is reopening. Wish me luck on my second semester y'all \0/

And in case you didn't understand the dinner date part - lemme explain it for you :)

The main idea of dinner date is to pair a staff or a representaive form the hotel with one of the fundraisers where they get to sit toegther for a dinner, privately, in the ball and basically just enjoy each others' company.

So when Jihoo said that Naeun and Jongin should go to the date separately, that means they both will represent the hotel for the date with the fundraisers.

It pretty much means Naeun won't be with Jongin during the ball, but with some guy from the fundraisers and the same thing goes to Jongin.

Wait for the next update to see if Naeun rejects the offer or not~ :)))))