“Where’s…Taehyun?” She was expecting him rather than the individual in front of her.

“Don’t tell me Taehyun is more your type.” Mino merely says while stepping inside her apartment. 

“I would prefer his company.”

Mino heaves a sigh from beside her as she walks back towards the couch. “You’re breaking my heart, darling.” Was it only his imagination? But, she really did seem like more herself yesterday. 

She offers no response but when she looks up once more, Mino had already set a chess board on the low coffee table and takes a seat on the ground, across from her.

“I think we can play one game before the others come.”

“The others?”

“After what you said yesterday, it has put everyone on edge.” Mino reveals. “If Jeeun is going to come, where do you think she’ll head first? The person who makes her the angriest.” He points at the young woman before him. 

Unable to deny his reasoning, Haneul starts setting up the pieces on the board.

As the game carried on, while Haneul was busy thinking of her moves, she didn’t pay attention to the fact that Mino was merely moving his pieces around without much thought. In fact, as soon as she made her move, he followed right after. 

Finally removing her focus from the game, she looked up at him to see he was staring back so intently. His chin gently leaning into the palm of his hand and a small smile upon his face. 

“What is it?”

Well, he couldn’t be honest, could he? So, he thought of something else to say. “This situation with Jeeun…you’re a few steps ahead, right?”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Mino starts chuckling but Haneul figures he would be the only one with such a reaction. “Even I had thought about it.”

“Like what?”

“About us.”

Haneul stiffens up and slowly, she begins diverting from his eyes.

“Don’t you dare look away.” Mino leans over the table to reach his hand out far enough to hold her gently by the chin so she would face him once more in a playful manner. “Don’t act like it’s not mutual.” 

“I can’t say that for sure.”

Leaning forward, Mino clenches his teeth jokingly. “You say that after what we did the other night?”

“Isn’t this a situation where you’ll bring up your food analogy like – it’s impossible for a coyote to like a chicken?” 

“Then, would you rather me eat you?”

His expression soon softens upon seeing how Haneul wouldn’t back down from him. 

“That was quite a tangent – what I wanted to say was that we’ll figure it out once all of this is over and when you’re sure about how you feel.” After his words, he releases his hold on her while keeping a stoic expression on his face – it only made Haneul curious to know what he was hiding.

Just as he did, knocks upon her door pulls the two away from their conversation. 

“I’ll go open it for them.”

Once everyone made themselves home in whatever spot they could find, Haneul discovers the spotlight on her.

“Haneul, tell me that you had a good reason to go off taunting Jeeun.”

“I do.”

In unison, a sigh of relief coming from different directions meet her ears. 

“Okay, explain.” Jiyong urges.

“First, I think we have a few days.” She hopes that they would somewhat relax upon hearing her words. 

“What makes you think so, Haneul?” Jinwoo curiously asks.

“She’s recovering.”

“Recovering? Since when was she injured?” Seunghoon reacts. Haneul had mentioned the possibility before but they never had a chance to confirm it. 

“She has to be injured – do you remember what I said? I think there is a link between us. I can feel the bind weakening.”

It has to – it would be the only possible reason to explain why Mino’s touch didn’t hurt as much