Chapter: 002

Jinwoo managed to punch in the password to his apartment with the little energy he had left. The whole accident thing earlier kinda drained the life out of him. A good rest would be nice at this point.

As soon as he entered, he went straight to his bedroom. He plugged in his dead phone to the charger and put it down on the night stand. He then threw himself on to his comfy bed to get the rest he wanted. He didn’t even bother to check the long list of missed calls and texts.

But his rest only lasted for a little while when his phone rang.

“Oh, c’mon!” He groaned in frustration as he turned his body away from the phone while hoping that his phone would stop ringing.

Unfortunately, the caller was a persistent one and Jinwoo sighed deeply. He was just about to get some rest.

Jinwoo turned and reached out his hand to the nightstand to grab his phone. He read the caller’s ID.

As soon as he read it, all the frustration he felt earlier just vanished.

It was a call from his sister, Jisoo.

He plugged his phone out and sat up before he swiped the green button to the right with his thumb.

“Oh, Jisoo-yah. What’s up?”

“Gosh oppa! Finally!” Jisoo sounded relieved.

“I’ve been trying to reach you since forever! The calls kept going into voicemails.”

“Heh, sorry. My battery died just now.”

“Anyways, why did you call? Everything okay?”

“Huh. You forgot.”

“Huh? What do you mean I forg—Oh !”

He looked at the time on his watch. Almost 4 p.m.

Crap! I was supposed to pick Jisoo up from college an hour ago. Jinwoo promised to take her to the newly opened dessert cafe. Jinwoo slapped his forehead because he just remembered.

“Sorry, Jisoo-yah. It just slipped off my mind. I’ll come pick you up now.”

“Argh!” Jinwoo sat up almost immediately which caused some pain on his already sore neck. He rubbed his neck to ease up some of the pain. He began to regret his decision of refusing to wear a neck brace.

“Oppa, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just wait for a while, I’ll come and get you. Where are you now?”

“Home. I hitched a ride with Taehyun-oppa just now.”

“Ah, is that so?” Jinwoo heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that. Good thing Taehyun was studying in the same campus with Jisoo.

“Oppa, are you sure you’re okay? You don’t sound so good right now.”

“If there’s anything, let me know. You can tell me anything, remember?”

Jinwoo sighed. He could never keep a secret from Jisoo. She knew him too well.

“I’ll tell you only if you promise not to tell anybody especially mom and dad.”

“Why?”

“Do you wanna know or not?”

“Ugh. Okay fine, I promise.”

“Good.”

Jinwoo paused for a while before continuing.

“It’s nothing really. I just got into some minor car accident a few hours ago.”

“WHAT?!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOTHING?! IT WAS A FREAKING CAR ACCIDENT FOR GOD’S SAKE!”

“Hey, hey. Keep your voice down. Mom might hear you.”

“Trust me. It’s just a minor accident. I’m resting at home right now.”

“You’re not lying to me now, right?”

“Hey. You know I will never do that to you.” Jinwoo chuckled.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m fine, really.”

“I don’t care. I’m coming over to your place right now.”

“Wait, what?”

“Jisoo-yah! Hello?” Jinwoo looked at his phone and he saw that Jisoo had already hung up the call.

“Ah..that kid. Making a fuss over a small matter.” Jinwoo shook his head but smiled shortly after. He really was the luckiest brother ever for having a sister like Jisoo.

***

Jinwoo got up from the couch and walked to his front door to open the door for Jisoo. When he opened the door, his eyes widened immediately because he only expected Jisoo alone. But behind her were Taehyun who was holding a string of ‘Get well soon!’ purple balloon, Seungyoon was holding a fruit basket, Seunghoon held a string of ‘It’s A Boy!’ blue balloon and finally Mino was holding a bucket of fried chicken.

“Oppa!” Jisoo immediately hugged Jinwoo.

“Oh, hey silly.” Jinwoo wrapped his left arm around Jisoo.

Then, she let go of Jinwoo’s body and her eyes frantically searching for any bruises and stitches on Jinwoo’s face and body. “You okay? You don’t have anything serious right, oppa?” Jisoo asked worriedly.

“I told ya, you don’t have to worry.”

“See? I’m perfectly fine.” Jinwoo flashed an assuring smile to Jisoo.

“Ahem. Are you gonna invite us in or not hyung?” Taehyun cleared his throat interrupting the siblings. Jinwoo glanced behind Jisoo. He had almost forgotten that the four losers tagged along with her sister.

“I thought you said you were coming by yourself. How did you end up coming with these losers?” Jinwoo asked Jisoo referring to his four best friends.

“Yah hyung!” All of the boys whined about being called losers. All sort of protests came from each of the boys’ mouths. Mostly self-praising remarks about themselves of course.

Jisoo and Jinwoo couldn’t help but chuckled to whatever they were saying.

“Shut up and come in, losers.” Jinwoo teased the boys again. The boys came in with protests still coming out from their mouths.

“Were you guys carpooling?” Jinwoo asked once they had settled down.

“I don’t know about them, but I came together with Taehyun-oppa. In fact, I was surprised to see them standing in front of your apartment’s building.”

Seungyoon, Seunghoon and Mino pretended to look elsewhere.

“I wonder how they knew about your accident.” Jisoo said as she side-eyed Taehyun.

“Nowadays, words travel faster than bullets, Jisoo-yah.” Taehyun said sheepishly.

“Plus, they needed to know as well. Jinwoo-hyung is like a brother to all of us.” Taehyun added. He was right though. They had known each other since they were little.

The other three nodded in sync, agreeing to what Taehyun said.

“Whatever guys. As long as you guys keep it within this circle.” Jinwoo said drawing a virtual circle around them.

“I appreciate you guys coming down here.”

Then Jinwoo’s eyes spotted the balloon Seunghoon was holding.

“What’s up with your balloon? I don’t recall giving birth to anyone.”

“Taehyun bought the last ‘Get well soon’ balloon and I wanted to give you balloon as well so I bought the ‘It’s A Boy!’ balloon.”

“You like blue and you’re a boy so everything fits.” Seunghoon smiled proudly.

Everyone just shook their heads. Silly Seunghoon is silly.

“What?” Seunghoon asked naively.

Then, everyone’s heads turned towards the munching sound coming from Mino. He was busy munching on his favourite fried chicken.

Mino paused his munching for a while when he realised that all eyes were on him.

“Why are you all looking at me?” His lips glistened by grease.

“I thought you said you bought that bucket of chicken for Jinwoo-hyung.” Seungyoon said.

“That was an hour ago. Now, I changed my mind.”

Everyone in the room gave him a look.

“It’s not my fault. It keeps seducing me with its crispy looks and smell.”

“You know I can never resist fried chickens.” Mino continued to munch his chicken.

Everyone face-palmed. Typical Song Mino.

“Anyways, what happen to the other person involved? Is he okay?” Jisoo asked.

“It’s a she I got involved with.” Jinwoo corrected Jisoo.

“She seemed fine earlier, nothing serious. She should be thankful that nothing serious hits her considering the accident happened because of her reckless driving.” Jinwoo sighed when the flashes of the accident struck his mind. He obviously hadn’t moved on. Thank God he rammed the brake as quickly as he could or the accident could’ve been worse.

“Have you lodged a police report, hyung?” Seungyoon asked.

“I’ll file a report first thing in the morning.”

“Are you sure you wanna do that, oppa?”

“You’ll have to go to trials and you’re just gonna waste your time and money.”

“Yeah, Jisoo is right, hyung. I think you should make a settlement deal with her.” Seungyoon chimed in.

“That’s too easy on her. I could’ve lost my life because of her so I’m not letting her off the hook.”

“An old woman, hyung?” Taehyun asked.

“Nah. She looks like she’s in her 20s. Probably the same age or younger than me.”

The boys were suddenly interested hearing the woman was in her 20s.

“Is she hot?” Mino asked. A question expected from a playboy.

“Yah!” Seunghoon smacked Mino’s arm. “Ow!” Mino cried. “Hey, I was genuinely curious.” He said.

Everyone gave him a ‘Yeah right’ look.

“By any chance, does she like fried chicken too?” Mino asked as he held up a chicken drumstick.

The room fell into silence for a moment and everyone just gave him a ‘Really Mino’ look.

“I guess..it’s a no then.” Mino turned his attention to the bucket of chickens in front of him and continued munching the love of his life, chicken.

The ringing of Jinwoo’s phone diverted the clique’s attention from Mino to Jinwoo.

Jinwoo read the caller’s ID and sighed.

“It’s Mom.” He showed Jisoo the caller’s ID.

“She must be calling about the lunch date she set up earlier.” Jinwoo said.

Jinwoo took a deep breath before answering the call.

“Hello, Mom.”

“Kim Jinwoo! You better give me a good reason why you skipped the lunch date just now.”

Jinwoo took a few moments to work out a reason for his mother.

“Uh…I was so occupied with work just now so it slipped off my mind. Sorry mom.”

“You’re not just making up an excuse right?”

“O--Of course not mom. I never skipped any lunch date before, remember? Today, I just happened to have a lot of work than usual so I forgot about it.”

“Hmm…never mind. Thankfully, Chaerin agreed to go on another lunch date with you. I’ll tell you the date and place later on.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me. Make sure this time around, you don’t stand her up okay?”

Jinwoo sighed inwardly.

“Will do, mom.”

“Okay, take care honey.”

“You too, mom.”  The phone call ended there.

“What did mom say?” Jisoo asked.

“She’s gonna set up another date with Lee Chaerin.” Jinwoo sighed.

“Oh my god, again? Wow…mom is really set on finding you a potential wife soon.”

“Hyung, I suggest you find yourself a girlfriend soon. At least when you have a girlfriend, you won’t be going on those lunch dates for a while.” Seungyoon suggested. The others nodded in agreement.

“It’s not as simple as that, Seungyoon-ah.”

“Mom wants me to have a wife, not a girlfriend.”

“Then, get yourself a wife.” Taehyun teased.

“Ha ha! Funny NamTae.” Jinwoo laughed sarcastically.

“Hey, I was just trying to help a brother out.” Taehyun retorted.

“Nice try.”

“I can’t even find myself a girlfriend, let alone a wife. Where would I even get a wife? From eBay?”

“You could try.” Hoon said and laughter filled up the room.

“Shut up, Hoon.”

"Anyways hyung, what time are you going to the police station tomorrow?" Seungyoon asked.

"I'm not sure. Probably around 8 or something."

"If you need a ride, I can help you out."

"Nah, it's alright. I can manage. Thanks though." Jinwoo gave a grateful pat on Seungyoon's shoulder.

"I still think you should settle this personally with the woman, oppa. Or else, it will eat more of your money and time." Jisoo said.

Jinwoo knew Jisoo had a point so he just remained silent and looked away.

"Just let it go, oppa. It's pointless to drag it out." Jisoo tried to talk Jinwoo into settling the matter personally.

Jinwoo looked at Jisoo and sighed shortly after.

"Okay. I'm gonna let this one go just for you." Jinwoo said and his response was met with a smile from Jisoo. "That's my oppa." Jisoo wrapped her arms around Jinwoo's left arm.

Jinwoo picked up his phone and sent a text to Irene.

From: Jinwoo
To: Irene Van

Let's meet up tomorrow at Tick Coffeeshop. 8 a.m.

***

At Solar's apartment.

"Here." Solar handed a mug of hot chocolate to Irene.

"Thanks." Irene gave a faint smile to Solar.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better."

Irene carefully took a sip of the hot chocolate.

"What did your boss say when you called him just now?"

"Obviously, he was really mad."

"Oh my...what about your night shift at the bar later?"

"Boss replaced me with Kangjun. I'll take Kangjun's shift tomorrow night instead."

Irene sighed loudly. "I'm so doomed Yongsun-ah. Boss obviously will cut my pay for god knows how many months. Plus that Jinwoo jerk is obviously gonna demand a lot of money."

Solar patted Irene's back to comfort her. "Don't worry. I'll help you out in any way I can, Joohyun-ah. Everything will be alright."

Irene gave Solar's hand a grateful squeeze. Solar had always been there for her since they were 19. Both of them met when Solar was still working at the bar. A couple of years after that, Solar got an offer as a singer at another club and the pay was much higher so she moved but both of them still remained best friends until now.

Irene's phone beeped signaling that she just received a text.

Irene picked up her phone from the table to check whose text was it.

From: Jerk

Let's meet up tomorrow at Tick Coffeeshop. 8 a.m.

"Who is it?" Solar asked.

"The jerk."

"Really? What does he want?"

"He wants to meet up at 8 tomorrow morning."

"Huh. That's weird. Aren't you guys supposed to be at the police station tomorrow morning?"

"Exactly."

"So, what are you gonna reply him?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I think you should go and see what he wants. Who knows maybe he wants to make a settlement deal with you?"

"So, you think I should go?"

Solar nodded.

Irene then texted Jinwoo a brief reply saying, "Okay."

She wasn't sure what Jinwoo's game was so she would have to wait and see how things go.

A/N: Hello readers! I know I have abandoned this fic for a couple of years. Well, you know real life happened. Work happened. Writer's block happened. Seriously, writer's block is such a pain in the . WinVelvet's lack of interaction is also one of the factors. :( I hope my babies will interact more! Anyways guys, enjoy this chapter for now. I will update the next chapter as soon as I can. I welcome any constructive criticisms so feel free to drop your thoughts below on what you guys want me to improve on. Thanks guys! :)