Chapter Five.

Never Say Never

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“You know why she’s doing this, right?”

Hanbin dribbled the basketball in between his legs. “I don’t know. Because she’s bat crazy?” He huffed.

It was five in the afternoon, and Hanbin and Bobby were having their usual basketball session at Jinhwan’s place. After the unpleasant encounter with Saeyeon after school, Hanbin and his friends separated, some headed over to Jinhwan’s while the others left to their respective homes. Yunhyung, on the other hand, went to a family clinic (because he swore he tore a ligament of some sort).

Bobby shook his head, attempting to steal the ball from Hanbin. “You know that’s not the reason why.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? And why would I even care?” he muttered, dodging Bobby’s quick (but not quick enough) hands.

“Maybe Saeyeon’s not as bad as you’re putting her out to be,” Bobby shrugged. “She has to have a reason why she’s being the way she is.”

Annoyed, Hanbin stopped dribbling and held up the ball. “Look, man. Are we going to play ball or are you going to keep on talking about Saeyeon?”

“I’m just saying,” Bobby defended himself. “I saw her at lunch today, and she was a mess, dude.”

Hanbin cackled in laughter. “Man, I’d do anything to see her get humiliated.”

“Seriously, Hanbin?”

“What? I can’t control what Jennie does to her,” he replied.

Frowning, Bobby scoffed. “And I guess you can’t control what your sister does to Jennie in return either.”

Hanbin narrowed his eyes at his best friend, because the Bobby he knew wouldn’t have said that. He shouldn’t have. Kim Jiwon was usually the mood maker, not the mood killer, and the fact that he defended Saeyeon’s actions over Jennie’s said something. Hanbin tilted his head. “You know, ever since you learned that Saeyeon came back, you’ve been acting strange. Saturday, on the phone, at the club, today at lunch, and even now. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

The latter refused to meet his eyes and awkwardly laughed. “What? What are you talking about it?” he denied.

“You know what. I’m not dumb, Bobby, and neither are you. I just refuse to believe it’s because what I think it is.” Shooting the ball towards the hoop, Hanbin stared at him as it cleanly swooshed in. “Don’t disappoint me,” he ended before walking away.

 Once Hanbin was out of sight, Bobby sighed, kicking a pebble. “It’s a little too late for that. Five years late.”

--

Being the daughter of Park Jungah, the CEO of Stylenanda, and Kim Heegun, the CEO of GHK Inc., Saeyeon played a pretty big part in the corporate world. She, and many people like her, were the future of Korea, and to survive in this generation and generations to come, she needed status, stocks, and power. In other words, she needed a husband.

So here she was at 8 o’clock in the afternoon at Goo Hotel, waiting for her blind date. It was the thirteenth floor, and Saeyeon could only question why anyone in the world would put a restaurant up so high. She didn’t even know why and how she let her mother talk her into this, but after what happened with Hanbin and his stupid friends today, she needed some time outside of the house.

Staring at her premium, medium rare New York steak, she sighed impatient. Her date was an hour late, but fortunate enough, her food arrived on time. Kudos to the waiter. At least the food was good.

“Did you wait long?” a voice asked.

Saeyeon looked up to see whom she assumed was her date.

Dressed in casual clothes, he had beautiful bronze skin and a wide eye-smile. Just as she opened to answer, she was interrupted. “Well, of course you did,” her date continued. “But I’m here now, so your life just got that much better, didn’t it?” He winked, taking a seat in front of her. “Oo, that looks yummy.” Rudely, he grabbed her plate and placed it in front of him, proceeding to cut the steak into thin slices. He stuck some in his mouth and chomped loudly. “Wow, this is great. Did you want some?”

Saeyeon scoffed. She did not wait an hour for some sleazebag to just show up whenever he found it convenient and bask her in his arrogant presence. She didn’t care who he was or who his parents were; the guy was a douche, and she was leaving. Grabbing her Michael Kors wallet, Saeyeon got up.

“Leaving so soon?” he questioned tauntingly. “And I thought we’d end the night in bed.”

Saeyeon stared down at him and raised a brow. This must’ve been what he wanted, for her to leave. But she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction, whoever he was. Not yet. “I bet this is usually the part where you get water thrown at your face, isn’t it?” she said, sitting back down.

The guy shrugged. “Sometimes it’s champagne. On special occasions, wine.”

“And I’m guessing you don’t mind it whatsoever,” she assumed.

Dabbing a handkerchief onto his mouth, he shook his head. “No I actually do not.” He abruptly stopped and groaned. “Man, this steak is delicious. Are you sure you don’t want any?”

Saeyeon tightly smiled. “No thanks.”

“Okay, it’