Wonho stopped for a minute. He was going to walk her home afterwards but would this mean he wouldn’t be able to initiate his plan? No, not necessarily. Wouldn't it be better is she was home? She'd be more comfortable there. That would definitely be better for him.

"You're going to make me Ramyun?" He replied after a short pause, to which Ausia replied with a nod. "So you’re asking me to go to your place and eat Ramyun?" Ausia nodded again, she didn't seem to understand why Wonho needed so much clarification or why he suddenly broke out into laughter. She hadn’t been here very long, so it didn't surprise Wonho that she didn't know. He just found it amusing that such a shy, awkward girl just asked him to ‘Netflix and Chill’ without knowing. Unless she did know, either way Wonho wasn’t complaining

"So what...are you coming back to my place or not" she finally gave a shy reply, still warm in the face from Wonhoe's round yet slender, smiling face. The moonlight reflected off his Dewey skin, giving him a deceptively angelic glow.

With a few deep breaths, Wonho bottled up his laughter but kept the sweet smile on his lips. "Alright then, if it's you then I'll let it slide I guess." He replied smoothly, discreetly sliding his hand around Ausia's waist and walking the route to her house. Ausia froze momentarily before looking down at his hand. Her cheeks got warm all of a sudden; he had never held her like that before. It was nice... relaxing.

She looked at her feet timidly as she walked, abashed but enjoying the situation at hand. Subconsciously resting her head on his shoulder as they walked, Ausia smiled and closed her eyes for a little while, confident that nothing could hurt her whilst she was in his arms. Wonho looked down at her as she did so, holding her closer, a contented grin on his thin lips.

Neither of them wanted this moment to end.

They arrived at her house after around 20 minutes. Cautiously, Ausia opened the door, monitoring how she put in the key, ensuring it didn’t jangle too much. The neighbours could be quite picky after all and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with them. She took her time, slipping from Wonho's grasp and allowing him to enter as she removed her shoes. "Kitchen’s on the right" She explained after he had begun examining the wallpaper and art work on the walls. He recognised some of it as symbols from various idol groups and concept art from some of their albums.

After taking his fill of the artwork, Wonho made his way to the kitchen. He took a seat on one of the bar stools and watched as Ausia came in and ran a hand over her afro hair which she had tied back into a bun, ensuring it was all out of the way before she set about making the feast. He smiled at her quietly, admiring how fluid her movements where and how quickly she cut the accompanying vegetables.

Back and forth she went over the tan tiled floor, setting pots on to boil, cutting vegetables, getting seasoning from a white chipboard cupboard or two and returning back to the cooking station on the outskirts of the boxy room. She was concentrating so hard, Wonho couldn't resist the urge to a little.

"Where's the coat rack?" He queried, keeping his tone casual as he planned his next move

"It's under the stair case...." Ausia mumbled, keeping her attention locked on adding the correct amount of seasoning to water. She grumbled a little noting that she didn't have enough seasoning for the amount of Ramyun she had cooked, but that was nothing salt and pepper couldn't rectify.

Wonho smirked as he stepped outside and hung up his coat, returning back into the room without a shirt or vest cladding his upper body. Slyly he walked over to the girl at the stove and leant over her shoulder eyeing the food, just enough sp she could see his face in the corner of her brown eyes. "How long until Ramyun?"

After inputting the time limit on the inbuilt timer, she put the lid on the pot and exhaled "Two minutes, not long" she turned to face him with a relaxed grin, which quickly faded to flustered wide eyed shock when she saw the barely clad man behind her. "Oh my god" her startled voice came out barely audible as she backed away from him towards the opposite counter. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it before, more like she hadn’t seen it coming.

"What?" He shrugged, sweeping some hair from his face, intentionally flexing his muscles as he adjusted his weight.

"Put a shirt on" she urged him, still focusing on his muscles, captivated by his physique  whilst trying to look away.

Wonho shrugged "I don't want to" she shook his head a little before raising an eyebrow "Why, do I make you... uncomfortable?" He lowered his voice seductively

"What the hell?! Just go dress yourself you creep!" She stretched out her hands, shooing him off after noting Wonho had begun to prowl forward towards her.

Wonho didn't reply to her or give off any form of expression as he progressed; only keeping his eyes locked on hers and keeping his smirk. Ausia knew this face all too well. The males head cocked slightly to the left with a determined smirk that was reflected by the animalistic intent in his eyes. This was his work face. And once he got started, he wasn't stopping.

Wonho placed a hand on the counter either side of her body with a husky chuckle.

"Okay ha-ha, funny joke, games over now!" Ausia babbled robotically in an attempt to ward him off without using her hands, not like she could anymore, she had brought them to her sides instinctively. She held her eyes closed for a moment, partially wishing it was all a dream as she waited his lips to brush hers. But nothing happened. He didn’t get any closer to her. She opened her eyes to the sight of Wonho raising a curious eyebrow at the girls gesture.

He laughed a little, admiring her cute gesture before moving his head in towards hers causing Ausia to move her head back. As he moved closer to her, simultaneously she moved away. Again and again, as if she was dodging something.

"I’m not that scary am I?" Wonho gave a jovial smile but stopped when he saw Ausia not moving. She wasn’t interested, she was shaking. His plan wasn’t working. His intent had only been to a little, but he had ended up scaring her. He lowered his head for a moment.

"W-wonho....?" Ausia questioned quietly

He only knew how to flirt and tease, he had never had to confess or ask anybody out before. 'How is this supposed to go....do I just speak, or do I make it into a joke...?' he thought to himself, debating internally how he should speak. The boy leant forward, sinking his head toward her shoulder "I just..." Wonho closed his eyes, thinking back to the dramas he had been made to watch with Shonwu and Jooheon. Everything worked out perfectly in those scenarios usually. 'Just be honest... that’s what they usually do right?'  that sounded like a better plan than his.

Ausia frowned down at the , what was wrong with him? Wonho exchanged deeply before he spoke "Recently I..." He shook his head, internally cancelling the previous thought "It’s not easy to hide my heart; I know you feel deceived so I’ll end it"

"Huh?" This time Ausia raised her eyebrow confusion, what was he saying?

"At least once a day I think of your smile...I don't think there's another girl like you..." Wonho spoke quietly with embarrassment, he raised his head slowly "what I mean to say is.." Wonho cut himself off, 'what am I doing, this is so dumb!'

Ausia offered him a relaxing smile "Y’know, unlike some people I don’t bite" she spoke lightly, to relax him a little. She slowly and gingerly wrapped her arms around his body. At one point in the conversation, the thought of him liking her crossed her mind but she quickly removed the thought after seeing how awkward he became.

What happened next was all so fast that Ausia couldn't tell the order in which anything happened. A set of strong arms wrapped around her body and pulled her in closer as a set of  lips settled on hers, slightly rough from the cold. Wonho closed his eyes lightly and held her close, as if he'd lose her if he let go.

Ausia's eyes widened. This wasn't....no, was this happening? Wonho had only gotten like this at the hotels but even then there was something different about this kiss compared to the others. It was warmer, softer than the others. She settled into his grasp, embracing his-

"GET THE HELL OFF HER!" A deep, demanding English voice bellowed loudly through the kitchen followed by a swift thwack against Wonho’s skin. Within seconds Wonho was staggering away from Ausia with dark red patch on his bare arm. Ausia froze momentarily unsure of what was going on.  Wonho hissed in pain as he whatever had attacked him but instantly shrunk at the sight of the boy standing defensively by Ausia. He wasn’t any taller than him but the aura coming off him was one of defensive, almost murderous intent "What, you want another one? I got a SHIRYUKEN ready for you, er!"

"Oh my god Vernon, what the hell?!" Ausia protested, latching onto his arm of her aggressive defender

"Keep back Ausia; I'm going to get this ert good!" He shook her off his arm and raised his fists once more "I haven't been playing street fighter all this time for no reason" bouncing on his toes like a boxing movie, the boy threw a few warning punches into the air causing Wonho to curse at him with irritation.

"What's wrong with this guy?!" Wonho frowned as he stood straight, and screwed up his face at the intruder provoking his rage. He couldn’t understand what the stranger was saying even with his limited knowledge of English considering how quickly he was talking

"Nothing!" Ausia dismissed him, rapidly switching between the two languages as she waving her arms in front of Vernon to distract him and hopefully resolve the conflict "I can explain this I swear!"

"What is there to explain about a shirtless guy assaulting you in your house! He's clearly a ert!" Vernon protested with an accusatory finger towards the ‘ert’ in question

"What’s he saying?" Wonho questioned, misunderstanding the situation completly "does this foreigner want a fight or something!"

"I'm actually half Korean you jackass!" Vernon shot back in Korean causing the two to begin an intense insult battle in the language of choice. “Where do you get off rolling into someone’s house shirtless anyway?!”

“You’re still a foreigner to me, where do you get off talking to your elders like that? There’s something called respect, don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it!”

“What’s there to respect about someone ually assaulting my friend?!”

“Its not ual assault, she’s my wife I can do what I want!”

Silence.

A aura of shock entered the room.

Nobody spoke for a while until Ausia spoke up “um…run that by me one more time? Cuz I don’t recall seeing any rings” Vernon looked between the two as Wonho’s face began to burn bright red

“…I-I should probably go” He gave a timorous, shaky farewell before darting out the room with his face cover. He picked up his coat quickly and bolted for the door, pulling it on messily and regaining what little composure he had left until he made it onto a street far away from where Ausia lived.

Once he had made it near to his house, Wonho stopped in an alleyway near to his home. He came to a halt, sliding his hand into his jacket pocket and staring at the ground as he ran his hands over the small box containing a simple gold ring. He’d been saving the money he earned from his night job to get the gift for Min Soo, even though he was pretty sure commitment wasn’t as easy as he TV made it sound.

‘It was probably too soon for this anyway…what was I thinking, I don’t even know if she likes me that way’ He thought. Over the weeks, little by little, step by step, Wonho had been learning little things about Min Soo quietly. ‘That’s someone I could spend a long time with...’ The thought came to him more and more often as he learned, until he finally decided to take the plunge.

The original plan was to propose to her after one of their sessions. When he spoke to Minhyuk though, he mentioned something about the process being wrong but he didn’t know much about dating so Wonho ignored him. Now though, he was really wondering if his friend had a point…

He leaned his head against the brick wall and whined quietly, “why did I even bother in the first place, I must have looked stupid…and I still want ramyun” he sighed before pulling out his phone and texting one of friends alerting them that he would be coming over “Hyungwon is good with girls,  I’ll just ask him”

Meanwhile, Ausia and Vernon stood, still watching the door even after the had ran out so abruptly, their heads one below the other around the door frame like a children’s cartoon.

“So…” Vernon prompted, not entirely sure how to start the conversation up again

“Long story” Ausia gave a short but descriptive reply

“Okay question.” Vernon asked cheekily, smirking and inhaling the air through his nose “Are you by any chance going to explain whilst we eat that ramyun over there?”

If this was anyone else, Ausia would get irritated and charge them for the meal she had cooked. After all it was her house; they had no right to freeload food. But Vernon was her longstanding friend for a number of years she couldn’t count, so she could let him off. “I guess so.” She shrugged and prepared the bowls “It really is a long story though”

“Don’t worry about that” Vernon scoffed and picked up a set of chopsticks “I’m all ears”