Dinner was always a dull affair. With the long, wenge wood dining table separating them, conversation was almost nonexistent. Eunji focusing solely on her food and Sehun alternating between taking bites or spoonfuls, and working on his phone or tablet. No one joins them for dinner; Chorong prefering to take her dinner in the kitchen with the other maids and Kyungsoo, the cook.

Eunji never asks her to join, and Sehun probably has never even thought about it. How pitiful his life must have been; alone and isolated. Mother dead and father gone—the servants were kind but they weren't family.

He was used to eating alone.

And she supposed, he was used to being alone in general.

In her mind she conjured up a mental picture of him, sitting on a california king bed, with room service and a large flat-screen on mute in the background. He'll not be paying attention. He'll be on his computer again, working throughout the night as dinner grew cold and lay ignored.

Eunji stared at the contents of her bowl. The spoon in her hand forgotten. There was the sound of someone clearing his throat, which made her quickly snap to attention.

“Is there something wrong with the soup?” Sehun's father was not the monster that his son always claimed he was, although there was something about him that always made her uncomfortable.

“N-no! I just suddenly thought of something...” Someone, her mind corrected.

“Something important?”

Yes.

“No,” Eunji answered, “It's nothing. I just spaced out a while there.”

The sound of the man's chuckle bought a subtle shiver up to her spine. She took a sip of her soup to hide this, and nearly choked at the taste of it. It was suddenly bland compared to a few minutes ago.

“I'm ready for dessert. What about you, Eunji-ssi?” At that, Chorong, who had been standing quietly by the entryway, moved towards them to collect their bowls. Eunji had no chance to protest before her meal was already taken from her. After Chorong's leave, another maid soon came in with a tray, with two dishes of crème brulee, decorated with raspberries and accompanied with two flutes of wine.

Eunji thought wistfully of the times when dessert meant mango cheese bingsoo, and iced chocolate bubble tea. It was the only thing that Sehun would ask for seconds, and finish faster than her. He has a sweet tooth, certainly, but Eunji swore that if it were possible, he would live off of bubble tea for the rest of his life.

And again, she was thinking about Sehun, her sadistic employer, while she should be enjoying her french-based delicacy.

Picking up her spoon, she pierced the darkened caramel crust of the crème brulee, scooping out a generous amount of the creamy custard underneath. The taste was like heaven on her tongue, the sweetness of the custard blending in nicely with slight bitterness of the torched caramel, creating a well-balanced flavour.

Eunji looked at her dessert thoughtfully. Sweet and bitter. Total contrasts. Too much sugar alone, it'll just taste sickly and nauseating. And bitter is just bitter, unpleasant and untolerable. Together though, it's the perfect match...

Sehun and I, though. We're a failed dish. She concluded with a sardonical smile.

And this man...

She let her eyes wander over to the other end of the table, and then to the glass of red wine near her resting hand. Unhesitatingly, she took a sip of the drink. It was an explosive taste of sweet, sour, bitter, but underneath it all, it simply tasted expensive and vintage. It was a strange taste.

...is something I can't label yet.

.

The noisy sound of his phone vibrating on the glass table pulled him out of his stupor. He had been staring at the litted screen of his laptop for so long, the wo