“She is mine.”

For some reasons, Hannah felt electricity hit her but she stayed as composed as she could be. She stood up, but miscalculated her movement and lost her balance. Jinki, who was standing behind her, was alert enough to rescue her and grabbed her elbows, making her fall back against his chest instead.

And it didn’t help her at all. More skinship meant more electricity hitting her insides. “Careful.” Jinki softly uttered and helped her stay still, like a true gentleman.

“Thanks.” Hannah managed to regain her stance. She looked at Yeojin and chuckled bashfully, “You know I’ve always been so clumsy.”

“Yes, you are.” Yeojin laughed back and agreed, trying to save her friend from embarrassment as well.

As they were laughing, Hyungsik cleared his throat getting Hannah’s attention once again, “I think I’ll have to excuse myself then.” He smiled awkwardly, “Nice meeting you, Hannah, Onew sunbae.” He only bowed slightly at the latter, gaining a nod from Jinki in return. He made his exit right after.

“Uhm, I’m sorry. I think that was quite rude.” Hannah then faced Jinki who still had his hand slightly touching her elbow. “It felt like you completely shut him off.” She added.

The only reaction she got from him was Jinki blinking a couple of times before smiling. “Am I wrong?” He chuckled playfully as he released her elbow.

“I’m not yours to begin with.”

“Oh gosh…” Kibum suddenly blurted out and they didn’t even notice that they already took few steps towards the three. “Such a chic.”

“Come on, you can be honest here…” Jinki said in his coolest tone, but the reaction he gained from the other guys who were there unashamedly overhearing the conversation were very different.

“No hyung, hyung, don’t be like that…” Minho whispered.

“Hyung’s going to be in trouble.” Jonghyun spoke.

“Hyung better not continue anymore…” It was Taemin this time.

“Jeez, this guy really doesn’t know anything about girls.” Kibum said finally. They’ve known Jinki so well for years that they could already read what he was going to do, and could already foresee the reaction.

“I know you like me.” Jinki uttered making the rest of the men close their eyes in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry?!” Hannah’s voice was suddenly raised a bit higher. She felt so uncomfortable but Jinki still continued.

“It was too obvious from the first time you saw-“

What stopped Jinki from talking was the palm that landed on his left cheek. A loud slap echoed the entire room which was then filled with tension.

“Oww!!!” Minho, Jonghyun, Key, and Taemin all expressed in chorus as if their team just lost a goal in soccer.

Hannah was speechless on the other hand. She couldn’t move for few seconds until she walked out without even a word of goodbye to Yeojin. She could hear her own heart beat racing that she thought she needed to get out of that place as soon as possible or else she would really get caught.

When she entered her car, Hannah held her chest as if to control her abnormal heart. She held it in for about a minute, and then she sighed and shook her head. “What did I do?” She asked herself as the event from minutes ago came to her head. “You’re so stupid! Bae Hannah, what did you do? Did you just slap him?” She panicked alone, regretting what she just did. She paused for a bit, contemplating what really happened, and then she nodded. “That’s okay. You did it because he was rude. Right. That’s okay, Hannah.” Finally, she settled in and nodded in agreement with herself. “Right. You liked him because you thought he was nice and gentle and sweet and everything else his image claimed him to be. But he’s not. Onew might be your ideal guy, but that Lee Jinki who plays his role is a complete opposite.” She shook her head, started the engine, and took off.

Meanwhile, inside the pasta house she just left to, it took 2 minutes for the people inside to recover. “That was unexpected.” Jonghyun broke the silence, not really sure what else to say.

Jinki remained looking at the ground.

“Oppa, are you okay?” Yeojin approached and looked closer, checking if the slapped left any mark on his face. She sighed in relief after realizing there was none.

“Good for you.” Key walked towards him and patted his back. “Such a sin to randomly tell a girl you know that she likes you.” He said shaking his head.

“Doesn’t she?” Jinki asked.

“Judging from how loud the slap was? No.” Kibum said honestly as all of them kept shaking his head. “You know what? You’re handsome, you’re talented, you’re nice but you definitely don’t know how to deal with women.”

“Hyung, do you really like her?” Taemin asked once and for all. Everyone got silent again waiting for the oldest’s response.

“Of course not.” He replied. “I was just fooling around.”

“Come on.” Minho didn’t buy it. “We know you too well.”

“It’s too late to be embarrassed, hyung, just say it.”

Jinki shrugged his shoulders and sighed heavily. “I think I’ll just have to give up the house.”

“That’s it!” Kibum clapped his hands enthusiastically. “You were enchanted by that beauty. Wow. This is like the first time you actually liked someone.”

“And you said she doesn’t like me.”

“Because you’re stupid.” Kibum was being a mom at this time again. “You offended her. Let’s say she really does like you, which I actually don’t believe so, but still, you didn’t have to voice that out. You embarrassed her in front of all of us.” He scolded. “You were obviously trying to act cool, but that didn’t work. That’s so lame, hyung, and besides, that’s not you.”

“So you really like my friend?” Yeojin barged in with a wide smile on her face. “You just met her twice. This morning, and a while ago. I don’t know why suddenly you…”

“It was probably love at first sight.” So Eun replied to which Jinki shook his head. “Then what is it?”

“Let’s just drop the topic. It’s getting too uncomfortable for me.” Jinki was not used on being on the hot seat. He would normally be the one on the side line looking at the situation and intelligently giving options on how to resolve. But that time was different. He was at the center of the situation – worse, he was the one who messed it up. “I probably need some rest.”

While he was about to stand up, Kibum and Minho stopped him through both shoulders. He was suddenly in the middle of the circle his younger friends had formed around him. It looked like he was about to go under interrogation of a criminal case.

“Do you really want to make her yours?” Kibum asked in such a low tone which made it seem like he was doing a role play of some sort of drama.

“We could help you.” Minho, who stood opposite Kibum, on the other side of Jinki, spoke in the same tone.

“Kids, stop playing around.” Jinki said addressing the fact that he’s older than the rest of them. However the two didn’t even nudge a bit.

“First off, you’re not giving the house away.” Kibum spoke.

Jinki must admit that whatever was going on inside his dongsaengs’ head was making him so excited. Perhaps, there’ s no harm hearing their plan.