***Warning: angst and an instance of violence***

Baekhyun must have worked out how he was planning to surprise Jinsu on her birthday, because the next day, everything was completely back to normal.  He even sort of brought it up as the pair of them were sitting in a secluded spot on the terraces, waiting for the others to get their lunch.  Now that she was with Baekhyun on a regular basis, she was discovering just how many areas in life he’d been hit by with that court judgement ten years ago, and one of them was school lunches.  He’d explained that he did sometimes eat at school, but that it was often cheaper for him to bring his own food, especially when the restaurant would provide him with tidbits of a much higher quality than anything the school cafeteria produced.

Baekhyun also had a erse sense of fun that led him to believe convincing Jinsu to close her eyes before feeding her mouthfuls of stuff she’d never tasted before and then telling her it was something it wasn’t was the best form of entertainment he could get out of his lunch break.

“Come on, open up.”

Jinsu grimaced, trying to push his hand away from her eyes.  “You’re not going to tell me it’s ox or something gross again, are you?”

Baekhyun seized the opportunity to pop something Jinsu would have described as a slimy canapé into .

“Nope!  This is scrambled sheep’s eye.  It’s a delicacy in the Middle East.”

Jinsu choked, clamping a hand over as she threatened to throw up.  Beside her, she could hear Baekhyun chuckling as he opened a couple of boxes.

“Just kidding,” he told her.  “It’s caviar.  Some really rich foreign businessmen dropped by yesterday evening and ordered much more of it than they ended up eating.”

Jinsu mumbled something that just about sounded like I hate you as she reluctantly began chewing again.  The caviar was potent, and her opinion was split on whether she liked it or not.  It was probably one of those things that was an acquired taste.

He removed his hand and Jinsu hastily swallowed the caviar to see what he’d brought for them that day.  A box of tiny round pastry things was suddenly plonked in her lap.

“These are mini pork pies,” Baekhyun started to explain when a handful of them disappeared.

“Mm, these are good,” commented Chanyeol’s deep voice as he popped a second one into his mouth.  “Thanks, Baek.”

Baekhyun placidly reached over Jinsu for Chanyeol’s tray and stole his chocolate muffin, biting into it.

“Hey!  I was going to eat that!”

Baekhyun shrugged.  “I know.”

“You .”

“Children, children, it’s a chocolate muffin,” said Kyungsoo with an air of long-suffering patience as he sat down beside them, also lifting a couple of pork pies.  Baekhyun stole his chocolate muffin too and handed it to Jinsu, who eyed Kyungsoo warily before she dared to take a bite.  Kyungsoo didn’t seem to be too bothered, but that was probably because he’d had two of them on his tray in the first place.  Sehun and Minju joined them a few moments later, and Baekhyun and Jinsu had no opportunity for privacy until the end of the day.

It appeared that Baekhyun was on make-up mode, because he took Jinsu’s hand as they walked out of their last lesson and accompanied her to Chanyeol’s locker, asking her about how she’d enjoyed Jongin’s party the previous night and apologising for not being able to go.  Happy in each other’s company, they meandered from there to a nearby park, Baekhyun commenting something about his shift not starting until a bit later on that evening.  There was a nice spot overlooking a lake, various ducks and geese happily playing about in the water, and they spent a languid hour and a bit there chatting and kissing.

“So, tomorrow,” Baekhyun finally said as they headed towards a metro stop where Sungwoo was going to pick Jinsu up and Baekhyun was going to take the metro to work, “what time do you have to be back home?”

Jinsu considered.  She’d been staying out a lot later than normal recently and everybody in the house had commented on it, but nobody had yet laid down any ultimatums.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to be too annoyed so long as it’s before midnight.”

Baekhyun hummed happily to himself.

“Where will we be going?” Jinsu asked curiously.  “Will I need to dress up?”

He winked and tapped the side of his nose.

“Baek, I don’t want you spending money on me.”  Jinsu was unable to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

He laughed quietly, chucking her under the chin.  “I’ve barely spent a dime, trust me.”

Before Jinsu had time to calm her nerves, he’d used the finger still tracing her jaw to tilt her chin up so that he could kiss her.  Jinsu responded almost absentmindedly to him, one of her hands coming up to close around the pocket of his school blazer and pull him in closer.  She could feel him laughing before he drew back.

“There’s no dress code, but it would be nice if you wore something prettier than our school uniform,” he told her before dropping another gentle kiss on her lips.  “Sungwoo’s here.  I’d better get going.”

It took Jinsu a little while to return to planet earth after that, and it was only because an evidently curious Sungwoo engaged her in conversation.

“You and young master Byun appear to be doing well, Miss,” he commented.  Jinsu started so badly she nearly cracked her head on the car door.  “I take it your father has not yet found out.”

“No – oh, heavens, no.  I think I’d be under house arrest if he did.”

“I agree, Miss.”  Sungwoo sounded amused.

“He’s taking me somewhere for my birthday tomorrow,” Jinsu told him.

“Where’s that, Miss?”

“I don’t know.”  Rubbing her head, Jinsu watched the streets of Seoul and the traffic sweep past through her window.  “I told him not to spend money on me and he says he hasn’t, but he seems pretty satisfied with himself.”

“Then I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, Miss.”

Smiling, Jinsu settled back in her seat.  Sungwoo was most likely right.

Except, she suddenly thought with a panic, that she needed to look nice for Baekhyun the next day, and she needed advice on how to do that.  Sungwoo raised a curious eyebrow at her as she patted around for her phone and finally located it in her school bag.  She paused for a second before scrolling through the contacts to look across at her chauffeur.

“Um, I. . . might need to stop off at a mall or something,” she admitted.  “Is there one nearby?”

Sungwoo considered for a few moments and then switched lanes.  “Not a problem, Miss.  How long do you intend to shop for?”

“I have no idea,” Jinsu admitted.  “I was going to ring a friend for shopping advice and—”

Sungwoo laughed.  “In that case, Miss, I shall avail myself of dinner while you have fun and you can ring me when you are making your final purchases.  The mall has a restaurant or two in it and I shan’t disturb you.”

“Sungwoo, you’re a legend,” Jinsu said gratefully as she returned her attention to her phone to see if she had Minju’s number.

Minju was apparently not one to settle for mere advice over the phone.  With a firm “stay put!  I’ll be right with you!”, she made Jinsu wait while she made the trek out to the mall herself.  When Jinsu discovered that the girl had made an entire list of things she was adamant Jinsu needed to buy in the taxi on the way over, she began to wonder if it might not have been a better idea to somehow get hold of Saeeun, because as much as Saeeun seemed to think that Jinsu was a catwalk model, there was no way she would have expected Jinsu to wear the sheer amount of stuff Minju thought acceptable for a “cute, fierce, y” look.  Jinsu hadn’t even been thinking about cute, fierce or y: she just wanted to look nice on her birthday and she wanted advice on what to wear.  Minju apparently wanted her to buy an entire new wardrobe.

They compromised on an ivy-green number with a scooped neckline (Minju thought it wasn’t daring enough, but it put more cleavage on display than anything Jinsu was used to wearing) that fell to the knee with plenty of flair when she turned, enough jewellery for Jinsu to worry that Minju was part magpie, or possibly even part dragon, and so many hair accessories Jinsu was certain there was more plastic and metal on her head than hair.  Not all of it was for the following day, of course, but Minju apparently set a lot of store by contingency backup plans.

Jinsu also lost the friendly argument about needing makeup, and Minju hauled her off to her favourite makeup shop in the outlet, gushing about organic products and no it won’t make your face feel all dirty, don’t be so silly and how she was going to look gorgeous by the time she was done with her.  Jinsu wasn’t totally sure how she was supposed to be able to apply this makeup either the next day or at any point in the future since she almost never wore the stuff an