Chapter Nine

A/N: Some side information you guys should know: the drinking age in Korea is officially 19, so Minseo would be a legal drinker. Just a heads up as this will be featured in this chapter. 

Chen hated crowds. 

This feeling had festered in his chest increasingly over the last several years, and the more he saw them, the stuffier and more uncomfortable he felt. Throngs of people just seemed to follow him everywhere, like a shadow he couldn't escape on a sunny day. Why these people felt the need to treat him like a king, he didn't know. It wasn't like he saved the world or won the Nobel Peace prize for his amazing ingenuity. All he did was write a couple of books that had miraculously attained overnight fame, probably due to their cliche themes and hit among the younger generations. Add in a horde of bouncy teenage girls/stalkers and you have all of Korea's social media buzzing over the hottest young author: Chen.

Grabbing his suitcase, Chen heaved a deep breath before taking slow, hesitant steps out the exit terminal. The moment he did so, he felt the light of a million camera flashes overwhelm him.

"Chen! Chen! Chen! Can I have your autograph?! I love your book One Moon!" 

"Chen, you are the best, oppa! I can't stop reading Underdose!" 

"When will you be writing the sequel to Miracles in January?!" 

Chen tuned them out. He had heard the same thing so many times that their voices sounded like drones in his ears. In all honesty, Chen just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. He had been away for far too long. China was nice, but it was nothing like home. 

As the fans gathered around him, pressing in on his personal space, Chen found himself wishing he had a bodyguard. Why hadn't he accepted it when his manager offered to hire one? Maybe he wasn't thinking clearly that day, or else he would've been more rational and taken the offer. 

Chen sighed, before threading his way through the crowd. 

"Excuse me, excuse me. Please let me pass. I need to get out." 

Did that just come out of his mouth? Chen furrowed his eyebrows, looking for the source of the voice. He had thought it was his own for a moment, bearing all of his internal desperation to be free in its tone of imploring. 

And then he saw her. The girl that would remain in his dreams for days and nights after that moment. 

She passed swiftly in front of him, grazing his outstretched arm, with a phone pressed against her ear and her glossy black hair bouncing behind her. For a brief second, she had turned her head towards him to mutter a soft apology, and Chen couldn't erase her features from his mind from that instant. Her doe eyes were a pearly soft shade of brown, reflective in its glassy quality, adorned by a row of long eyelashes that complimented their delicacy. Her skin was milky white, glowing almost, lit up by the most adorable pink cheeks Chen had seen in his life. And then her lips topped it all off, a rosy hue filled up to the sharp Cupid's bow that undoubtedly had shot arrows at his heart. She towered over all the other girls around him, which was probably why she stood out starkly among the rest. 

And just like that, she was gone. Lost in the crowd. 

Chen was fazed. He should've moved his legs, spoken up, wandered around, but yet in that moment, he couldn't register much aside from the constant snaps and buzzing from the devices around him. 

And then the strangest thing happened. 

He laughed. 

It was a hearty guffaw, one of utter disbelief that one has on the verge of an epiphany. It didn't strike Chen that what he was feeling was attraction, but rather he associated the warm feeling in his chest for an unquenched curiosity. 

Chen made up his mind. He was going to find out who this girl was. 

"Stupid! So stupid!" Lu Han exclaimed in frustration. He had been driving in circles around the block near Minseok's apartment, but he couldn't spy the raven-haired girl anywhere. Where could this brat be?! 

Another half hour passed, then he threw in the towel. This whole ordeal was just stupid. Lu Han didn't know why he was breaking his back trying to find a little girl he didn't even know. If she left, that was her own fault, not his. He had no responsibility in any of this. Especially since he was just playing the role of somebody's wife out of the goodness of his heart. And that goodness was being drained very quickly. 

Lu Han needed to go home anyway. He hated these hideous pants. 

Swerving abrasively back into his parking space, he got out and slammed the car door aggressively before running into Minseok's apartment to change out of his clothes. He took off the sports bra that had been haunting him all day and threw on a pair of basketball shorts, much to his relief. Lu Han left on the wig and makeup just in case he saw anyone on his way out, especially Minseo herself. Lu Han didn't need anymore drama in his life. 

Looking around once more to make sure nothing suspicious was still around, he left the room. Then abruptly stopped in his tracks. 

Leaning his head back in the doorway, he eyed the black laptop that was sitting ajar on Minseok's bed. Lu Han cocked his head in confusion. That wasn't there this morning. 

Lu Han inched his way back into the room, flipping the laptop screen backwards. He turned it on, his eyes widening when a web page opened up in front of him. His face turned fifty shades of red when he scanned the contents of the page. 

Itaewon bars?! What the hell?!

Lu Han fumed. There was no doubt that Minseo had snooped into this room while he was gone and accessed the lapt