"I hope you know this night won't change anything between us."

"Sorry?" Mino narrowed his eyes at Seulgi, as if he had not heard her clearly, which he did.

"You and me." She made a slight movement with her finger. "As soon as I leave this car, we'll go back to our respective paths."

"Sure..." He feigned oblivion while nodding his head. "You'll go back to your room and I'll go back to mine."

"You know that's not what I meant." She rolled her eyes and sighed, not knowing how to put in words what she truly wanted to say.

"I know, I perfectly understood what you meant." They had gone back to the area behind the hotel's kitchen, where he had just parked the Lamborghini back to its original spot from hours before. "I just don't understand why you're so dismissive of the idea about us simply being friends?"

"It has nothing to do with us simply being friends." She held his gaze. "You've been in this industry long enough, you should know this."

"Do, please, enlighten me on this issue, because I really don't know." She ignored the sarcastic tone on his voice.

"This could cause a lot more trouble than it's worth, for both of us!"

"Why do you keep saying that as if we're doing something illegal?" He retorted back. "Are you going to lose your job? Are you SM folks only allowed to keep contact with the people in your own company?"

"Red Velvet already has an uncountable number of anti-fans, I don't want to be the cause of a sudden increase just because of you." Seulgi had unconsciously leaned closer to Mino, fixing her eyes straight into his. Her knuckles were turning white from tightly clutching the leather seat.

"I see." He leaned even closer, never turning away from her gaze. He felt himself distractedly looking at the shape of her eyes, and how much it resemble him the ones from a fox. He remembered, a few nights ago, how he had furiously tried to sketch those fox eyes of hers from memory, but failed miserably. There was just something unique and weird about her eyes, and yet, even in that moment, where he could stare at them up close, he just couldn't put his finger on what made them so intriguing. "You're not even going to take the risk, I presume?"

"Tonight was risky enough for me."

"Then that means you just used my presence for your own sick pleasure." He calmly stated. "Shows how lonely you really are." She felt herself shrink under his gaze, as each word he spoke felt like a bullet.

"You don't understand, do you?" She took a pause, trying to swallow the lump in . "It must be so nice to not be affected by double standards, uh? At the end of the day, thousands of loyal girls will be there to get your back...but who will take mine if this all goes to hell?"

She turned around and was ready to leave the car in a hush, until his hand caught her wrist. It almost felt like déjà vu.

"I will." Her eyes were no longer on him, but he knew she was listening carefully. "It takes two to cause a mess out of this. And if you end up getting hurt in the end, I'll be there to take the blame, if it's needed."

She snorted and looked back at him, his hand still tightly wrapped around her wrist.

"It's not just about me. I got Red Velvet under my wing, and you got WINNER. Don't make promises you can't keep, Mino." His hand hesitantly let her wrist go, as if afraid that she would vanish from his sight.

"I always keep my word...even when it's out of my reach." His expression changed into an amused one. "It seems that you do know my name, after all." He mocked her by pinching her cheek, which made her slap his hand away and try to hide the smile that was threatening to appear on her face.

"Why are you doing this?" Her voice was low, close enough to be a whisper. "Is this some kind of bet that you'll be the first one to charm an SM idol? Or are you just used into sweet talking female idols in general?"

"Neither." He raised both hands in a defensive pose. "Do I really give you that impression, though?" When she spotted his smile morph into a smirk, she quickly tugged him harshly on the shoulder.

"It's not something to be proud of!"

"I know, I know." He said while holding onto his shoulder and making a pained face. "I swear to God, I think you just dislocated my shoulder...Kiss it better." He leaned closer to her and turned his head, displaying his cheek.

"As far as I know, your shoulder is not on your face." She pinched his cheek away as a revenge from before.

"Worth a shot." He shrugged his shoulders and feigned disappointment, but grinned at her once he noticed how the heavy atmosphere had mostly gone away. "So...I guess we'll be seeing each other on Melon Awards, yeah?"

"Not exactly..." Seulgi frowned uncertain.

"Oh, my bad." Mino rolled his eyes. "We'll be ignoring each other there."

"No, it's not that." She quickly retorted. "Red Velvet won't be attending, that's all."

"Why? Didn't you guys got nominated?"

"We did, but...It's not like we'll be winning because there's this one group, ironically or not, called WINNER, way far ahead of us on the votes." She smiled at how he seemed embarrassed out of sudden. "The company said it would be a waste to go...but deep inside, we all know that the reason is mostly because of the recent scandals."

"What a shame, you won't get to watch me perform." She rolled her eyes at his words. "But I do know these WINNER guys, I could beat them up for you." Seulgi laughed, unconsciously resting her head on his shoulder.

"No, it's alright. There's a really cute guy in that group."

"Oh?" Mino raised his voice in fake curiosity as he smiled brightly. "And what's the guy's name?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"What was it again? Oh, right. Seungyoon." She calmly stated.

"Hah! I knew it- Wait!" He froze in the spot, looking at her in dismay. "What?"

"The guy I met on the Event's floor. Your leader, Seungyoon!" She tried to keep a serious expression, but the look on his face made it hard not to laugh.

"Right...I'll make sure to pass this information to my leader." Even though he was faking mock hurt, Seulgi couldn't help but notice a hint of malice on his tone. "Anything else you'd like to share or are you done hurting my pride?"

"You know...perhaps I could kiss your pride better." She said slowly, almost timidly, making Mino stare at her with wide eyes.

"What?" He looked at her as if she was a mirage, waiting to slip away and then suddenly he would go back to reality. But Seulgi was no optical illusion, especially when she was this close to him.

She remained quiet, lazily staring at him with eyes that seemed to sparkle in the dark. Shifting her body to a comfortable position, she leaned closer to him as he stood paralyzed in a state of trance, not daring to move a single finger.

The eminent smell of his cologne was getting stronger, but she had gotten used to it, so her nose did not itched in discomfort. In fact, the closer she got, the more it simply just smelled like him. A mix of hair gel and mint, strangely pleasing combo.

She could feel his shaky hot breath on her skin and the weight of his eyes staring at her. A moment ago, she was saying they should return to their respective ways, and now, here she was an inch away from his face, looking like a hunter playing mind games with its prey before devouring it in one bite.

"Good night, WINNER's Mino."

He almost didn't hear what her soft voice had said, but before he could react, she quickly leaned away from him, opened the car's scissor door and headed out, purposely oblivious to the astonished expression on his face, as if she had just thrown a bucket of freezing water on him out of nowhere.

"Hey!" He had lowered the window and loudly exclaimed, making her stand still on her spot and turn on her heels to face him. "Are you just going to leave me hanging like that, fox?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." With a last smile shot at him, Seulgi entered the hotel kitchen's back door. The smile never leaving her face.

Mino leaned back on the leather seat and smiled to himself. A sudden beep startled him, making him quickly reach for his phone. There was many notifications, mostly from Seungyoon, but he ignored all of them and went straight to the most recent one.

―(I'm not a fox, I'm a bear!!  ʕ； •`ᴥ•´ʔ )

Wendy looked around in awe with Joy's expression matching her own, while Irene, perfectly composed as always, remained with a blank look on her face.

After receiving Seulgi's lonely texts saying she was missing them and how she regretted leaving the Halloween party, the three had decided to make her a surprise, so the four of them could have a slumber party on the luxurious suite, order room service and dance to Beyoncé's songs all night long.

"Has Seulgi ever mentioned something about her family's generous profits?" Irene bumped into Wendy, making the latter yelp at the collision.

"It's none of our business, Wendy." Irene handed Joy her backpack. "You two can go sit somewhere. I'll take care of our registration, if it's needed."

Walking towards the empty area of the grand lobby, where the sofas were mostly located, Wendy and Joy sprawled themselves in the middle of the fancy looking cushions, completely dismissing the guy sitting nearby in another couch.

"Look at this, Joy!" Wendy opened a crystal jar at the coffee table in front of them. "Free food!" She launched a cute looking sweet towards her.

Silently eating their expensive looking candy, Wendy took notice that the guy near them had stood up, anxiously walking in circles while talking on his phone.

"No, I'm still at the hotel...I went to look for Mino, but he's nowhere in sight and is not answering his phone. The receptionist said he left with a girl."

Wendy paused as she heard the familiar name. Mino...Where did I heard this name before?

"Unnie!" Joy whispered at her discretely. "Isn't that guy talking on his phone from WINNER?"

Before Wendy could widen her eyes in acknowledgement, Irene started to signalize for them to come over at the reception's counter.

"If it's not too much trouble, could you tell me if the Kang fami