Seohyun nervously knocked on the door, clutching the cup of milk. “Master…Yong? It’s Seohyun, and Taeyeon sent me up with a cup of milk.”

There was no answer. Seohyun pressed her ear and leaned against the door. “Master…Yong?”

The door suddenly opened and took her by surprise. Seohyun tripped over and smacked head first into…. Yonghwa.

What’s more, she had splashed the entire cup of hot milk onto him.

Seohyun stared with wide eyes as Yonghwa screamed. “Ouch!!!!! WHAT THE- IT HURTS! IT BURNS!”

Although she was feeling sorry, Seohyun couldn’t help but laugh. The sight of Yonghwa jumping around howling was too funny for words. She pressed her lips together but despite her efforts, a giggle still escaped her lips.

“Are you laughing right now?” Yonghwa glared at her. “What are you going to do about this?” He pointed at a red patch of skin on his arm.

Seohyun gasped, all colour draining from her face. “I’ll….I’ll get the first aid box and… and fix that for you.” She stuttered and ran downstairs.

Yonghwa sighed and gritted his teeth. It was just his luck.

“Ouch!” Yonghwa screamed, startling Seohyun whom was holding a cotton ball and gently dabbing medical lotion to his arm.

“Wait for a minute, it will be done soon.” Seohyun looked at him apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Master Yong.”

“It’s okay, accidents happen.” Yonghwa sighed, and then looked at her with a peculiar expression. “Wait…what did you just call me again?”

“Master Yong?” Seohyun replied half heartedly, dabbing frantically at the red patch on his arm.

“Did you learn that from Taeyeon?” Yonghwa laughed. “Just call me Yonghwa oppa. I don’t like people referring me as Master- you’re working for me, not my dog or my slave.”

“Okay, Yonghwa oppa.” Seohyun said without thinking, because she was too concentrated on dabbing the lotion carefully. And then about 2 seconds later, she realized her mistake and slowly lifted her head to look at a silently laughing Yonghwa.

“Wow, you called me oppa with hesitation, huh?” Yonghwa laughed. “What a brave girl.”  

Seohyun immediately blushed. “Omo! I’m sorry Master-“

“Call me Yonghwa oppa or I’ll have you fired.” Yonghwa smiled. “And let me have the honour of calling you brave girl too?” The cheeky smile was back on his face.

Wait…is he flirting with me? Seohyun thought. Oh my gosh.

Seohyun swallowed. “The arm is done.” She was about to keep the tools when she spotted a whole patch of milk on his shirt.

“Oh! You’re injured under your shirt too.” She wrinkled her eyebrows.

“It’s okay.” Yonghwa said quickly. “I can fix them myself.”

“No.” Seohyun said firmly. “I caused it, so I should do everything.”

She then quickly proceeded to his shirt. It wasn’t like she had any dirty thoughts in mind – Seohyun was a caring and nice person in nature, and she had no other intentions than to help Yonghwa.

She bit her lip and the sight of a huge red patch upon removing the shirt. “Oh, no. We’ve got to fix this fast.”

Yonghwa sat there uncomfortably as Seohyun gently dabbed at his body with the cotton ball. No one except his mother had ever done this for him, and that was when he was a very young boy. He had always took care of his injuries himself, and Seohyun was the first woman whom had ever done something like that.

“It’s done.” Seohyun said quietly, and quickly packed up the box. Yonghwa proceeded to button up his shirt, and he gave her a gentle smile as she bowed and left the room.

“Thank you!” Yonghwa hollered as she left.

“Any time, Master Yong.” She called over her shoulder.

If there was something Yonghwa wanted to change about her, it was her way of addressing him. He didn’t want someone this nice to go around calling him Master, and hoped to get to know her better.

*

“What’s up?” Seohyun greeted Yoona after she had sat down. “Wow, your drama was really great.”

“Have you watched it?” Yoona asked while munching on a bun.

Seohyun nodded, and then cleared .

“You’re lying.” Yoona narrowed her eyes. “You’re lying because I know that you can’t stand looking at Kyuhyun for more than 3 seconds on screen, let alone for an hour in the drama.”

Seohyun sighed. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

Yoona shook her head. “It’s okay; I forgive you this once cos’ it’s him.” Yoona grabbed her chopsticks and attacked at a mini prawn roll. “Wow, he’s still a jerk after all these years.”

“Tell me more.” Seohyun rolled her eyes, but inward she was relieved that Yoona’s impression of Kyuhyun was still the same. She didn’t know what she would do if Yoona ended up falling for Kyuhyun.

“So basically, whenever we were offset he acted like he was a pro and insisted that he didn’t need to study the script.” Yoona fumed, poking harder at the prawn roll as if it was Kyuhyun’s face. “And when it came to filming the actual scene, he made SO MUCH NGS it was driving me crazy.” The prawn roll finally came apart, and Yoona picked up the prawn and popped it in .

“We took 24 takes just to film a talking scene that consisted of 5 sentences yesterday!” Yoona hissed, chewing. “He kept messing up his lines and facial expressions; I almost wanted to slap him.”

Seohyun laughed. A grumpy Yoona was funny, and Seohyun missed her best friend.

“Oh, and he asked how were you doing.” Yoona continued, this time picking a meat bun up with her hands.

Seohyun’s heart immediately turned cold. “Oh yeah? What did you say?”

Please don’t say I’m still struggling to pay off debts…… Please. Seohyun’s heart pounded quickly as if it was on fire.

“I told him that you’re earning some big money with lots male suitors, and told him to bug off.” Yoona grinned, earning a high five from Seohyun.

“That’s the way, girl.” Seohyun laughed.

*

Flashback

(Seohyun is 15, Kyuhyun is 17)

Seohyun stepped into the classroom and looked around for Yoona.

Yoona wasn’t around, and Seohyun sighed. The only exciting thing in school was meeting Yoona and having fun with her, and when Yoona wasn’t here, she felt so…….empty.

Today, the teachers were assigning partners for their major project, and Seohyun hoped that she was getting a hardworking boy, since their teachers never assigned two girls or two guys together. She didn’t want to do any work, and would rather spend her time reading books.

She listened to the teacher drone on and on about what they were supposed to do for the project, and looked around the classroom. All of a sudden, she caught sight of Yoona sneaking in from the back of the class and silently slipping into her seat beside her. The teacher hadn’t noticed since they were sitting at the second last row from the back near the door, and Yoona grinned, mouthing the words “woke up late”. Seohyun nodded, gave a thumbs up and looked towards the back once more to make sure that no one had seen her sneaking in.

She caught the eye of the guy sitting at the back of the classroom. The guy gave her a slight grin, and she politely smiled back. Ever since she had rescued him from some bullies a year ago, he had been trying to express his gratitude to her. Seohyun thought that he was quite nice, and perhaps a little good looking, except that he needed to fix his floppy hair and iron his clothes.

“Okay, so Im Yoon Ah will be working with Lee Seunggi.”

Seohyun silently laughed, and Yoona’s mouth dropped wide open, muttering, “What the heck?!”

At the front of the classroom, Lee Seunggi was pumping his fist right into the air and turning back to grin at Yoona, who rolled her eyes. Seunggi had been having the biggest crush on Yoona for almost 2 years, and he often left sweet little gifts such as chocolates and sweets on her table and in her locker. Seohyun thought that that was quite sweet, but Yoona thought otherwise. She often called Seunggi a ‘stalker’ and a ‘creep’, and told him countless times to bug off but Seunggi had a very persistent heart and wasn’t anywhere near giving up.

“Seo Joohyun will be working with Cho Kyuhyun.”

Seohyun wrinkled her eyebrows. Who was that? She hardly knew anyone except Yoona from here although she had been schooling here for almost a year.

“It’s him.” Yoona said, gesturing behind her.

“Who?” Seohyun whispered.

“The guy you rescued some time back!”

Before Seohyun could say anything else, the bell rang. Yoona got up and said, “I need to talk to Seunggi, before he bugs the hell out of me for the project.”

As she watched her walk away, Seohyun laughed. Yoona may say that she hated him but Seohyun believed that it was  a matter of time before she fell for him. Lee Seunggi was a nice guy, and Seohyun thought that he would treat Yoona well.

A shadow loomed before her, breaking her train of thoughts. It’s him.

“Hi.” He smiled. “I’m Cho Kyuhyun, and I’m glad that you’re my partner.”

“Me, too.” Seohyun said and shook his hand. Although it wasn’t entirely true that she was glad, but at least a part of her was assured that it was him.

*