"Heya, Soo." 

"Glad that's catching on." 

Sunyoung laughed at the dryness of his tone and took a seat at the counter, spinning in her chair once before propping her elbows up on the surface to face him. She had been coming more since her first time visiting with Jongdae. Most times the two came together, but she was alone today. 

"Omelette rice and a coffee please." Sunyoung closed the menu with a snap and handed it back to him.

"What?" Kyungsoo noticed she was staring when he took back the menu.

"You have a small tuft of hair sticking out." she pointed to the left side of his head and laughed when he tried to fix it. "Come here."

Kyungsoo hesitated. He never really felt comfortable within close proximity to others, especially with women. Sunyoung rolled her eyes when he froze up.

"I promise I won't bite." 

Kyungsoo loosened and leaned forward over the counter to let Sunyoung run her hand over his hair. 

"There." she gave his head a gentle pat as she finished. "And by the way, you gotta tell me what kind of shampoo you use." 

"Thanks." Kyungsoo leaned back. "Papaya extract." 

"What?" 

"Shampoo." 

Sunyoung grinned. "Noted."

Kyungsoo went back into the kitchen to hand the order to his cook. 

"So, whose the girl?" Ryeowook grinned as he took the order sheet and wiped his free hand on his apron. 

"No one." 

"Quit yankin' me. You know she's not just nobody." Ryewook adjusted his chef's hat and moved towards the giant steel fridge for two large eggs. 

"She's a friend of a friend. And I don't have to explain myself to you." 

"Sure thing, boss." 

Kyungsoo glared at Ryeowook in an I'll-fire-your- kind of way before he went about his work inspecting the kitchen. He caught sight of Sunyoung through the order window. She met his eyes and waved.

Ignoring Ryeowook's knowing smirk, Kyungsoo awkwardly waved back. 

***

"Maybe you should just stop being such a ." 

"Maybe you should go yourself." 

Taemin cackled at Jongin's flat response and menacing glare. 

It wasn't often that Jongin visited his aunt and uncle, but he'd heard that his cousin was back from England and decided to visit the Lee estate an hour's drive away from his own home. 

"Alright, fine, be a . Sit here and pour out to me." Taemin lined up his stick to aim for the red striped 13. 

Jongin didn't reply as he applied the blue cue chalk to the tip of his stick. Taemin was still hunched over the table, lining up the shot. 

"Now, I assume you didn't just come here to tell me that." he said, grinning triumphantly after the cue ball hit his red striped 13 into the far corner pocket. "We both know the solution to that problem is actually really simple. You're just over thinking it."

"It's not that simple." Jongin retorted.

 Taemin rolled his eyes. "How hard is it? You don't want to marry her, period. It's not rocket science." 

"My old man has all but agreed and based on how Hyungi stared holes through my head at Lee Soohyun's debutante ball, I'm assuming that he's pissed that the marriage is more than likely to happen." 

"So? I thought you and Seulgi had a deal all worked out. The good old point-out-all-flaws-deal. I take credit for that." Taemin's attention wandered for a split second as he focused on the TV playing on the far wall across the room above the fireplace.

"Credit? It's common sense, not the recipe for Coca Cola."

"Whatever. As for the deal, the only reason it wouldn't work--"

"I'm not stupid and Chanyeol happens to have a mouth the size of the Grand Canyon." Jongin replied as he began to line up his own shot. "I just... never really wanted to touch that area."

"She's kinda maybe a little in love with you." Taemin chuckled. "Can't say I didn't see it coming." 

"She's not in love with me." Jongin sighed. "She's just... hanging on because she's way too sheltered." 

"Yeah, the princess is too afraid of the big bad world, huh? And you're the only thing aside from family she knows to trust." Taemin noted. "Didn't she spend like 3 years in New York by herself?" 

"If you count living in a high security luxury apartment complete with bodyguards living by herself, then yeah. And she spent most of her time staying at her cousin's." 

"Alright, we can always talk about your marriage issues, but this isn't the main point, right?" Taemin watched as Jongin's orange 5 sank into the middle pocket closest to him, leaving only the 8 ball. "There's something else." 

Before Jongin could get into it, the quick pattering of footsteps came running down the stairs. 

"Nari, I told you not run down the stairs. What if you fall?" Taemin chastised gently as he welcomed Nari into his arms, where his daughter flashed a toothy grin at him and buried her face into his stomach. Following suit, Naeun came down to the basement slowly. 

"So?" Taemin asked, extending his arm to rub her shoulder.

"Healthy as always." Naeun reported excitedly, her hand resting on her stomach as she turned in Jongin's direction. "Well if it isn't Jongin." 

"It's been awhile." Jongin said with a smile. "How many months?" he motioned at her visibly expecting belly.

Naeun smiled. "Six. Nari's pretty excited." 

Nari nodded, her pigtails bouncing as she smiled wide. She had climbed onto the pool table and taken the liberty of putting both the cue ball and the 8 ball into the pockets, effectively ending the game. "I'm going to be a big sister." she beamed proudly as Taemin picked her up.

Jongin smiled at her. "Well, you certainly have a glow." he turned back to Naeun.

"You throw up all morning and you'll have this glow too." Naeun replied dryly. 

"And speaking of which, climb into bed. I don't want you on your feet all the time." Taemin carried Nari over to the foot of the stairs and she ran up. 

"I'm not a child, Taemin." Naeun reminded. 

"I know, but I still want you to take it easy." Taemin guided her to the stairs by the shoulders.

Naeun nodded and climbed back up the stairs. 

"It's just my luck that you flaunt your flawless marriage in front of me right when we're talking about my marriage that hasn't even begun." Jongin said with mock bitterness. 

"What can I say, man? I got the perfect woman, the perfect child, and an equally perfect child on the way that I have no intention of hiding." Taemin set the pool stick down on the table to head to the bar. 

"Well, at least try." Jongin replied. "Can we get back to--" 

"Your favorite topic of you?" Taemin asked flatly. "So what's the problem?" 

Jongin felt like squirming as he sat on one of the bar stools and Taemin set a bottle of scotch and two glasses on the bar.

"There's someone else." 

Taemin feigned an appalled gasp. "How could you? What would Seulgi say?"

"Cut the , Taemin. I'm serious." 

"Alright, alright, so what's the mistress like?" 

Jongin raised his glass as if to throw it at Taemin. "I will ing kill you." 

His cousin laughed and put his hands up in defense. "Alright, sorry. She a socialite, heiress, model or--"

"She's none of those."

"Oh, so she's a regular citizen then. She hot?" 

"What?" 

"She hot?" Taemin repeated, filling Jongin's glass with scotch. "Don't look at me like that. I need to paint a picture in my head." 

At that, Krystal flashed across his mind. He'd seen her in the nines, dressed in her best and looking y as hell.

He'd also seen her at her worst, drunk and messy, with lip stick smudged on the corners of and her cheeks gaunt from fatigue. 

"She's beautiful." 

Taemin stared at him, scotch still pouring.

"What?"

"You've gone soft." Taemin eyed him as he set the bottle down. "Look at you, blushing like a teenage girl talking about her crush. What a dear diary moment."

"Shut up." Jongin flushed. 

"Moving on. So what's she like? Personality-wise."

"Well, she's got a... hard quality. Feisty, in a way. She's the kind to knee you in the crotch if she catches you being a ." 

"Sounds hard to resist." Taemin said dryly. 

If Taemin even knew how sinfully hard it actually was.

"You'd be surprised." 

"Ok, so what's stopping you?" 

"Huh?"

"You obviously like this girl, so why don't you just get out of the whole Seulgi thing and seriously go after... Help me out here, what's her name?" 

"Krystal." Jongin filled him in.

"Krystal." Taemin repeated as if he didn't believe him. 

Jongin shrugged. "I don't think it's the real deal, but she won't tell me. It's the name she uses on the job."

"Dude, is she a stripper? I'm not judging, I'm just-" 

"She's not a stripper." Jongin explained.  "More of a hostess type thing."

"So like a hooker without the ." Taemin pointed out, sipping from his glass.

"You are seriously lacking in tact." Jongin admonished.

"Listen, I don't care what she does for a living or anything like that. If you like her, then I believe that she's one hell of a girl." Taemin gave him a hearty pat on the shoulder. 

"She really is." Jongin couldn't help but agree. 

"And as far as I can tell, you seem to really like this one. I'd hate to see you miss out just because you didn't try." 

Jongin thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah. I'd hate that too."

***

"Hold the door!" 

Suji turned to see Krystal catch up to the elevators. She was surprised to see her in a completely different outfit, which was much more provocative than the blouse and skirt she was wearing this morning. Suji couldn't help by admire her style: a wine coloured off the shoulder body con dress and black scarpin heels with gold accents. 

"Look at you, dressy dress." Suji commented with a smile. "You changed?"

"Yup. Girl's night out." Krystal smiled, putting a lock of stray hair behind her ear. "Hey, you wanna come? It'll be fun. We're heading over to this new club. It's called Octagon or something." 

Suji's heart warmed at the invitation, since she wanted to become friends with Krystal, but she couldn't.

"Thank you, but I need to get home. My daughter has a school play." 

Krystal gaped at her. "Get out. You have a kid?"

Sujji was almost always ready to talk about Jangmi, her pride and joy. Fumbling through her phone, she opened her album dedicated to pictures of Jangmi, documented from the day she was just a six pound new born to the bumbling four year old she was today.

"She's so precious!" Krystal squealed as Suji beamed proudly. "Oh, is that your-" 

It was photo from their camping trip last year as a family. They were at the beach and Minho had Jangmi on his shoulders as they waded in shallow waters. Suji remembered digging through her bag for her phone just to snap a picture. 

"Yes, that's my husband, Minho. We've been married for five y