Hayi smiled as she walked into YG building. Just as she walked into the training room, confetti popped everywhere and she jumped back in surprise. The sound of applause ensued and she opened her eyes to see familiar faces around her - her dancers, the iKON members, a few Winner oppas, and of course her close friends Akdong Musician were there too. Even Bom eonni came even though CL and Dara couldn’t make it because they had work.

Suhyun excitedly jumped into her arms and she laughed as she hugged the younger back, spinning around in circles. “Congratulations on your successful comeback, Hayi eonni~!” Hayi wiped away happy tears as she thanked everyone for the little surprise and exchanged hugs with a few people.

Bom squished her cheeks and pinched her while cooing, “aigoooo when did my little Hayi grow so big? No, I can’t accept this,” she said as she pulled her in for another hug. Hayi struggled to release herself, “B-bom eonni- you’re suffocating me-”. Bom pouted as she let go of her but smiled at the younger soon after.

“I’m getting a free autographed copy of your full album once it’s out, right?” she teased.

“Of course eonni~ I already told Tablo sunbae to make sure I had extras so I could give one to my favourite 2ne1 eonnis, especially Bom!” Hayi paused before looking around, “speaking of Tablo… where are the Epik High sunbaes?”

Bom shrugged and Hayi’s gaze swept across the room again as she walked to the iKON members to ask if they knew where her album’s co-producers were. When they all said they did not know, she frowned in dismay. Well, she was just with them the night before when they found out that “Breathe” achieved an all-kill #1 on all Korean charts. So it wasn’t as though she had not seen them in a long time. Plus, they were probably busy. But she was still upset that they weren’t there to share this special moment.

Bobby casually threw his arm around her shoulder and ruffled her hair, making it a mess. She glared at him and he just flicked her forehead. “Wipe that frown off your face, silly.” he says and right on queue, the 3 silly grown men she was looking for walked in holding a cake and screaming “CONGRATULATIONSSSS” like maniacs.

Hayi laughed and trudged over to them before noticing a fourth person walking in behind them. Her eyes widened but she controlled her gasp as she gave a slight bow in his direction. He smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Her forehead creased at his half-assed response before he shifted his gaze to something behind her and she turned to look at what he was so intently glaring at. Or rather who he was glaring at. Zico walked over to Mino and did their usual handshake in greeting, but she clearly saw his gaze dart back to Bobby who oh-so-casually had his arm around her shoulder just a moment before.

Hayi smirked when she realised the cause of his iffy attitude but chose to ignore it. It was the first time her boyfriend had showed any form of jealousy and to be honest, she found it quite cute. She skipped over to the cake and clasped her hands together as she blew the candles out. She cut a slice and fed the three Epik High members some cake as thanks. More claps and hoots filled the room as all the shameless labelmates came up to ask for a slice.

Suhyun was the first in line and Hayi fed her a bite before she skedaddled away happily with a slice for herself and Chanhyuk to share. When Mino the glutton came up for a slice, she laughed and pushed him away, knowing he would eat everything and leave nothing for the rest. The rapper pouted as Seunghoon went up instead and she gave him a big slice for the three Winner members that came to share.

“Oh, right,” she stopped Seunghoon before he walked away and plopped two strawberries onto the plate, “give some to Ji- I mean Zico sunbae over there.”

Hoon did an okay sign with his fingers just as the iKON members came up to take their share. Hayi put both hands on her hips and stared at the seven hungry boys. “Seriously?” she asked, “How am I supposed to cut this into seven parts?” she pointed at what little was left of the cake.

“Just give it all to us, then,” said Junhoe. Of course it was Junhoe saying that. That piggy. Hayi had no idea how he could eat so much yet still maintain such a good figure. The others nodded in agreement so she conceded, handing the cake on the little silver base to them. Bobby and Hanbin took some cream from the side and looked at each other knowingly before smearing it on either of her cheeks. Hayi’s mouth grew wide open in her flabbergasted state.

Jinhwan joined in and took the chance to get some cream all over her forehead too. When she finally came to her senses, the three boys were covering their mouths, trying to hold back their laughter. Hayi gave them her signature ice stare and they knew they were done for. “Oh yeah? Think this is funny?” she grabbed cream from the sides of the cake and smudged it all across the three of their faces before wiping her hands clean on the sleeves of their shirts.

They all stared at each other for a few moments before bursting out laughing. “Okay, okay, call it quits! Stop destroying the cake or there’ll be nothing left for me! I mean us!” Junhoe grabbed the cake and ran out of the room with it, causing the rest of the boys to run after him lest he gobble it all up himself. Hayi shook her head with a laugh before turning to look at who remained in the room.

She walked over to sit with Suhyun and Chanhyuk but sure enough, her gaze met the blonde man in the corner who was staring at her with his arms crossed as he nodded noncommittally to whatever Mino was spouting. He seemed to be sending telepathic signals to her with the quirk of his brow and half tilted head towards the door where the seven young men had just left. ‘What was that about?’, she could almost hear him say.

Hayi raised both her shoulders in a shrug and tried to hold in her snickers at her boyfriend’s frustrated expression. Just then she realised that Chanhyuk was asking her something so she turned her attention away from the steaming pot of jealous a few metres near her. A few moments later Seungyoon called her name and said they were leaving.

“Oh-” she tried to hide her disappointment but nodded and waved goodbye to the members, standing and bowing at Zico again.

“Thank you for coming, sunbae. And sorry to take time away from your work with Mino oppa.”

“Don’t mention it,” he replied with an easy smile but that she could sense that he was trying to keep himself composed.

Chanhyuk, Suhyun and Bom excused themselves since they had recording to do while Hayi had to get started with her dance practice. Hayi got up and clapped her hands to get the dancers’ attention.

“Alright, guys. Party’s over. Let’s do thi-” she paused as her phone ting!ed. That sound was the notification tone for only one person in her contact list. She held a finger up, “Sorry guys, just a minute.” She opened her messages and was bombarded by a chain of messages from the same sender.

Pabo Mr. Jico: So here I thought I’d give my girlfriend a surprise but guess what I see when I walk in?

Pabo Mr. Jico: she’s got lil Bobby’s arm around her shoulder and THEN THESE BOYS BE FLIRTIN AROUND WITH MA GIRL AND PLAYING WITH CAKE AND YOU WERE GIGGLING AND ALL?!

Pabo Mr. Jico: AND OPPA? MINO ‘OPPA’?! YA, YOU STILL CALL ME SUNBAE TILL NOW!!!

Pabo Mr. Jico: what time does your practice end?

Hayi smiled at how immature he was being. She rarely got to see this side of his.

Ms. HAIYAH: :p i have practice rn, sunbae. Gtg~

She set her phone on silent and set it face down on the take before walking over the the centre of the room where everyone was warming up already. “Okay guys, let’s get to work!”

-

The dance practice went by pretty quick and it wasn’t all that tiring since ‘Hold My Hand’ didn’t exactly have many dance moves for her as the singer. She checked her phone after practice and was surprised to find that there was only 1 message. ‘Text me when you’re done, let’s meet at the cafeteria downstairs’.

She raised an eyebrow. Had he gone bonkers? They were at her company for God’s sake. If someone caught them together- ting! Another text came in. ‘I’m already downstairs eating. Mino went across the street to go buy something. We can just act like we bumped into each other, I’m not dumb. We won’t get caught.’

Hayi gathered her stuff in lightning speed and made her way down. Despite her slight anxiousness that someone might suspect something, she was excited. It had been a while since she and Jiho last met up since they were both busy with work. She walked into the cafeteria and saw two other staff seated at a table behind Jiho. She casually walked past his table and went to the ahjumma to get her food.

She carried her tray and sat on the far end of the table Jiho sat at, not wanting to look suspicious. She ate quietly but was hyper aware of Jiho’s glances in her direction, waiting for her to say something. Five minutes later, the two staff members got up and left the cafeteria. Jiho sighed when she still kept eating her food in silence.

“Why are you sitting so far away?” Jiho said, looking at the wall in front of him instead of her.

“So if anyone sees us, it won’t be a problem,” her eyes remained focused on her food as she replied

“But we just look like an awkward sunbae and hoobae right now.”

“Better awkward sunbae-hoobae then ‘oh are those two dating?’ sunbae-hoobae.”

“You know, sometimes your paranoia annoys me.”

“Too bad, too sad. Go cry then,” she stole the briefest glance at him just to stick her tongue out at him.

Jiho could not help but shake his head as the corner of his lip twitched up in amusement. Fine, then. If she wasn’t going to move closer, he would. He scooted over to the middle of the bench he was sitting on, closing half of the distance between them. Hayi groaned. “For God’s sake, Jiho! We’re at my office. Someone could walk in and see us. Heck, sajangnim could walk in and see us.”

He scooted closer till he was sitting right across from her. “Which is why it would be better to act like we were casually talking to each other instead of talking to inanimate objects like psychopaths.” Hayi huffed but gave in and let him have his way because she knew that he wasn’t going to budge no matter what she said.

“So. What was earlier about?”

Hayi lifted an eyebrow as she lifted her chopsticks to . “What, you can have half- y girls in your music videos but I can’t have a few guy friends?” she challenged.

“Okay fine, forget about Bobby and B.I and that other shortie. I’ve been trying to get you to call me ‘oppa’ for more than a month but you just won’t and yet you call SONG MINHO THAT DORK OPPA?! Like, it’s rare enough to hear you call me by name ‘cos most of the time you call me sunbae but-”

“Jiho oppa,” she interjected, cutting him short. “Jiho oppa, I called you oppa now so stop being jealous, okay~?”

He narrowed his eyes at her and leaned back. “I’ll let you off this one time. Just this once.” Hayi laughed more and shoved a piece of kimchi in his mouth. “Got it, Mr. Zico~”

A minute later Tablo walked in to find the two seated together and talking casually about work. “Oh? You two are here?” he asked. Hayi avoided his question and tried to act natural but her hands had gone clammy with nerves. It wasn’t like it was the first time that Tablo saw them together. It’s just that she realised what a close shave they had just experienced. If he had walked it just a while before that, she would have been caught feeding the tall man in front of her. What would they say then?

Realising that his girlfriend was at a loss for words, Zico turned to Tablo. “Yeah, I was about to leave after eating but Hayi came down so I decided to stick around for a while to chit-chat,” he breezily explained the situation. Hayi nodded as she shoved a spoonful of rice into , glancing up at her ‘2nd boss’. Tablo sat down next to Jiho and elbowed him.

“You better not mess with our princess, aite?” he playfully jested but his words sent a chill down the young producers spine and he laughed nervously while scratching his nape.

Tablo turned his attention to Hayi and started speaking excitedly. “Hayi-ah, we should all go over to your mom’s restaurant tonight to celebrate!”

Tablo asked Zico if he had ever tasted her mother’s famous soy marinated crab and he shook his head. “I’ve heard that it’s really good though,” he added and is met with a slap on the back. “DAMN RIGHT IT IS!” Tablo replied, always way too enthusiastic. Well, everyone needs a hype man, right? “Hey, you should come too, Zico-ah.”

Jiho glanced at the girl in front of him and smirked a little before turning back to Tablo. “Oh, I don’t know… Should I?” he asked the older but clearly that question was not being directed at him at all. “Of course! The more the merrier. He can come, right, Hayi?” shot Tablo. Hayi looked back and forth between the two men before her. “Oh. Uh yeah, sure. Of course. Mom would be happy as long as it means more customers.”

“It’s settled, then! I’ll text the rest to inform them. You’ll make the reservation for us? Is 8pm okay?”

Hayi nodded in affirmative and Tablo said goodbye to the two and left after grabbing a sandwich. The moment he was out of earshot Hayi groaned and massaged her temples, earning a bout of deep chuckles from her amused partner. With a kick to the shin, he is immediately silenced. “Owww, what was that for?” he whined and she folded her arms as she continued staring at him.

“Oh come on, no matter how intuitive you say your mom is, I seriously doubt your parents are gonna find out we’re dating. Besides, what’s the harm if they do? Best they get to know their future son-in-law early- OWWW! THAT REALLY HURT!”

Hayi grinned just like an evil witch while Jiho pouted and wriggled his toes that were just stomped on. He was babbling about how his shoes were Timberland and they were his favourite pair and she would have to pay for that, but she simply rolled her eyes. Served him right for making her blush so early during the day. She glanced at her watch and rose from her seat before carrying her tray to the tray return corner.

“You need to go already?”

She nodded and waved at someone a distance away. Jiho turned around to find that Mino had returned. No wonder she was in such a rush to leave. Being caught by Tablo was enough. She did not want to take anymore risks. Mino raced up to them and held out an ice blended caramel frappe to her. “I was actually gonna drop by your practice room later to pass this, good that I bumped into you here.”

“Ah, sheesh, I told you you didn’t need to keep buying me drinks whenever you go to the cafe, oppa…” she reluctantly accepted the cup and thanked him anyway.

“Well, I know my favourite dongsaeng tends to forget to eat so at the very least I can get her her favourite drink, right?” he ruffled her hair and she swatted his hand away in mock annoyance. He laughed at her reaction; it was always the same.

“Arasso, arasso. Thanks again! I need to go for my vocal practice now oppa,” she turned to Jiho as she said that last word. He was trying his very best to keep his expressions in check and not explode out of jealousy again. Hayi bowed in his direction and waved as she walked away. “It was nice talking to you, Zico sunbae!” she said, exaggeratedly enunciating the word he hated so much.

Jiho squinted at her retreating back before grabbing his coffee from Mino and walking to the lifts that led to the studio they were working in. He replied to whatever his dongsaeng was saying but in the back of his mind, he was already formulating a plan. If Hayi thought it was fun to like this, he was so going to get back at her later that night.

A/N: ayeeee guess who's back? URIGA WINNER- ok no hahaha i kinda binge wrote this yesterday night and today so yeah. IT'S PRETTY LONG OKAY SO I HOPE THIS MAKES UP FOR THE MONTH LONG DISAPPEARANCE. I'm sorry my sweethearts but life has been hectic off late :") my final exams are next week, I'm only left with 2 papers then hopefully after that I'll have a liiiittle more time to update. Hope you guys liked this and as usual, do tell me what you thought about it! Love you guise :*