image credit: @Onehope_WH       "Shin Wonho?"   Their eyes met, and it stayed that way for quite some time, both of them too surprised to find each other at some remote place at this hour. It was just them, the cold wind and warm orange light, and the sound of the rain lightly falling on the canvas overhead. Eunseo tried to process Wonho's change of outfit and couldn't help but stare; his all-black ensemble made him look even paler, and there was a stark difference in his aura when he had his hair brushed up, damp from the drizzle.   Eunseo's eyes lingered a tad bit too long on the cigarette in his hand. He noticed.   "Eunseo?" Wonho's voice was soft. His hand moved to snuff the cigarette by the bin, killing the light and breaking Eunseo out of her thoughts. "Are you okay?"   "Huh?"   "You look...lost."   "Oh. No. I just—I didn't think I'd see you here."   "Did you come to get some coffee?"   "No. I was on my way home."   He frowned a little, then he gave Eunseo good, long look. "Wait here." Wonho disappeared way too quickly into the cafe and came back seconds later, not even long enough for Eunseo to take a breath. He had an umbrella in his hand.   "Let me walk you home."   Eunseo automatically shook her head. "It's far from here."   "It's raining," Wonho reasoned, "And you don't look like you have an umbrella."   Eunseo looked at the umbrella warily. True, she didn't have one with her at the moment. But it was late and it was raining, and Wonho was a stranger she'd just stood up a few hours ago.   "I think I can manage."   "Come on," he said softly, the softest Eunseo's ever heard from him. A voice that didn't sound like he had any ulterior motives. And if there really were, he was pretty damn good at hiding it.   He shook the umbrella open above both their heads. It was large and red and had the name of the cafe printed on one side. "Consider this as the dinner I didn't get to buy you tonight."   Eunseo gave the umbrella in Wonho's hand a long look before saying anything.   "There's a gate leading to our subdivision, not far from here. Could you...walk me until there?"   Wonho finally smiled and nodded. "Lead the way, tiger."         Wonho smelled like fresh coffee. Also a hint of cologne, and the faint traces of his last cigarette—a myriad of things, all at once. The umbrella was smaller than Eunseo expected, and Wonho was larger than she expected too. It was the first thing she noticed as their arms brushed against each other under the umbrella every now and then. They had walked a few blocks, turned right and taken a left at the next intersection, and Eunseo could see the light of the gate from a distance. Wonho hadn't said anything since they left the cafe.   He simply held the umbrella up, looking around and soaking in the night, sometimes whistling a familiar melody into the cold air.   It felt strange that he was so quiet. It was like 'Shin Wonho' and 'silence' couldn't belong in the same sentence, as Eunseo believed.   "You," Eunseo started, after much internal debate. She finally decided the silence wasn't bearable, not when they were that close to each other, "You didn't strike me as the quiet type." She glanced at Wonho, who caught her eye just in time. He chuckled.   "I'm not. Lucky for you, I'm just thinking a lot of things right now. You didn't strike me as talkative either. But this—" Wonho glanced around, noticing the tall buildings and the lush gardens behind fancy iron fences that decorated the sidewalk, "—this is a pretty rich neighborhood you have here, Lee Eunseo."   "I have rich grandparents," she corrected.   "Do you live alone?"   Wonho felt Eunseo's shoulder tense, and he realized what his question could have implied a second too late.   "Oh, no! That's not what I meant," he said, waving a hand at her, "It was an honest question. But you don't have to answer that."   "I live with my sister," Eunseo told hm after some thought. "It's just the two of us."   "Ahh. Lee Eunbi, right?"   "You know her?"   Wonho waved his hand in the air between them in a so-so gesture. "I know her name and her face, I guess? Well, I had to call her on your phone when you were passed out at the acquaintance party, so—   "You—what?" This time, Eunseo came to a full stop, just as they were feet away from the subdivision gate. She looked dead straight at Wonho. The lightest trace of a scar on his cheek all of a sudden caught her attention.   Then, flashes of the night in question started flying past Eunseo's head in a blur. Hyunwoo and Minhyuk, her last shot before she out, the throbbing in her head and the ache on her ankle the next day. And Wonho asking her at the lockers if she got home okay...   Eunseo gasped. "You—!   Wonho beamed as Eunseo swallowed an embarrassed whimper. He looked like he was enjoying every second of Eunseo being mortified. "Let's just say this isn't the first time I'm helping you get home. Sort of." Wonho laughed.   "What...happened?"   "Well, I was out for a smoke when I saw you slip and fall on the sidewalk that night. I recognized you as Hyunwoo's friend. I tried helping you up but you flipped out and hit me with your purse." Wonho pointed at the scar on his cheek, and flashes of a certain blue band-aid that was once their resurfaced from her memory.   "You're making this up, aren't you?"   "I sure as hell didn't get faced that night enough to forget what happened. But I get it, if you can't trust me."   Eunseo crossed her arms. Then she uncrossed them. No matter how she tried to make the pieces un-fit, they fell right in place. Besides, this was one time she couldn't trust her own memory and she knew that.   "I owe you an apology," Eunseo sighed.   "And a dinner date," Wonho corrected. Then he leaned in a little closer, one corner of his lip pulling up into a subtle smirk. "Where were you today, Lee Eunseo?"   "I was at the library. You asked me out so fast I didn't get to tell you I had a test tomorrow."   "I waited for you, you know."   "I doubt you waited long," Eunseo scoffed, "Apparently, you had a job to go to."   Wonho laughed. "My shift isn't until eight. I was going to go after we grabbed something quick to eat."   "Oh, so you were going to ditch me right after dinner? Nice."   Wonho's eyes lit up a little at her words. "So if I did take you out on that date, you'd have wanted me to stay longer?"   "I didn't say that."   "Okay." He nodded, still smirking. "But noted. No taking Lee Eunseo out to dinner on nights when you have shifts at Twosome."   "I didn't say that," Eunseo stressed, feeling the urge to hit him in the head but not having the strength to actually do it. But by the way Wonho was chuckling while holding up the umbrella, she knew she'd lost this round again. She brushed it off. They've gotten to the gate and it was time they parted ways anyway.   "Thank you," she told him, "You can take me until here."   "Take this," Wonho said all of a sudden, slipping the umbrella into Eunseo's hands, confusing her.   "Won't your manager look for this?" Eunseo protested, "And it's still raining."   "All the more reason you should take it with you. A star student shouldn't catch a cold."   "Don't be stupid. How are you going to get back?"   "Lee Eunseo," Wonho leaned in a little, chuckling, catching