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She was the first thing he saw when he looked up after feeding the elephant seal. His eyes rounded when she came walking in with another worker, who led her into the prep area before the actual staff area of the exhibit.

She was focused on what the worker was saying but when the two seals bounded up towards the crack between the rocks, she flinched.

He let out a laugh, not realizing he had been watching her this whole time instead of watching the seals. He walked over and called the two seals back, who were curious at the new face.

She finally looked up and saw him, giving him a small grin. He smiled back, giving her a quizzical look. He looked down at the seals, giving them pats on their head. He tried to lead them away but they seemed set on staring at her.

He met eyes with the other worker, who was explaining the safety precautions to her. He sidestepped by the two animals and slipped past the rocks out into the prep area. He walked over to them.

“If they nudge you away, we’ll take you back out here immediately. Otherwise, they will come up to search you. It’s normal when they see a stranger so don’t be alarmed.”

She nodded, listening carefully to what the guy was saying. He turned to Minhyuk. “Then, I’ll leave her to you and Jooheon.” He dipped his head at her before leaving the room.

Minhyuk turned to her and tilted his head. “You didn’t tell me you were coming today.”

She smiled. “Yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise. Although, I figured you would’ve already known by now.”

He shook his head, eyes wide. “I only just figured it out when I saw you walk through that door. What are you doing here?”

She pointed towards the two sea mammals. “I had to come and take pictures of the workers and the exhibits they’re in charge of. You’re my last stop.”

His eyebrows raised and he was genuinely surprised. “So, you’re just here to take pictures of us with the seals?”

“Yeah, but I’ll be off to the side so you don’t have to worry about me.”

He laughed. “Alright, then. I’ll take you inside.”

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Mina looked around the busy street, her eyes wide as she tried to take everything in.

The city had put together a night market with street stalls full of different kinds of food. There were vendors selling crafts and souvenirs while the majority were stalls with grilled food.

Minhyuk looked down at her fascinated expression and he laughed. She turned around when she heard his laughter.

“Have you not been to a night market before?” he asked, lightly nudging her to the side when people walked by. She shook her head. “Never.”

Since she had to stay an extra hour to discuss some of the details with the public affairs director, she ended up catching Minhyuk on his way out after he was done packing up. Neither of them had a chance to eat dinner and he suggested coming downtown to see the event the city had put on this weekend.

When another crowd of people came passing by, Minhyuk pulled her in with an arm around her shoulder. She looked first at him and he gave her a small smile before nodding his head forward, signalling for her to go first.

They looked around the many stalls and after finally deciding on a small restaurant that sold fresh seafood, they sat down at one of the small tables and waited for their order.

The lady came over and gave them their food, but not before doing a double-take when she saw Minhyuk’s face. Mina looked between the owner and Minhyuk, who still had yet to notice because he had his focus on cleaning off the chopsticks.

He looked up.

“You’re the boy from the zoo the other day, right? The one who brought my grandson to find us?”

Minhyuk’s eyebrows furrowed for a split second before his eyes rounded. “Ah, you’re the grandma that was with Gangwoo, right?”

She nodded excitedly, turning around to call for someone behind the stall. Mina sat there, watching Minhyuk’s face lit up when a little boy came running from behind the stall and into Minhyuk’s arms.

“Gangwoo, you’re here too?” Minhyuk asked, pulling back to stare at the boy’s face. The little boy nodded, taking his palms and squishing Minhyuk’s cheeks together.

Mina let out a laugh at the scene and the elderly woman finally turned to see her. She gasped. “Oh my, I’m sorry. I must be interrupting your date. Come here, Gangwoo. We can visit this older brother another day at the zoo, okay?”

Minhyuk smiled, ruffling the boy’s hair before watching him run back and disappear behind the door.

Mina turned to him and she smiled. “You must be really popular with the children at work.” Minhyuk chuckled, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t say I’m popular with them but I guess I do like playing with them. Sometimes, I wish my job was a daycare teacher instead.”

She laughed at his comment. “It’s not too late to switch careers.”

He put on his plastic gloves so he could peel off the shrimp without dirtying his hands. “How about you? Do you work with kids a lot for your job?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever.”

“Would you ever want to?” he asked, looking at her while he bit into the food. She thought about it for a second before nodding.

“I did a lot of volunteer work with children during summer camps and I kind of miss having them drain me out, you know?”

Minhyuk laughed. “You should come visit more. Maybe you could volunteer and help my friend out whenever you’re free. He has to deal with all the schools and classes that come in for a field trip at the zoo.”

“I’ll let you know if I have the time for that,” she said with a chuckle.

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Mina laughed when Minhyuk finished telling his story of the time he had to go into a haunted house with his friend last year.

“I’ve never seen a guy scream so loudly before in my life. My arm was numb because he was gripping onto it so hard,” Minhyuk sighed.

She chuckled. “And this is Jooheon? The other guy you work with, right?”

Minhyuk nodded, taking another sip of his warm drink. “Yeah. As much as I was terrified at the time, I think I was more scared because he kept screaming in my ear every time he heard a noise.”

“That sounds like a fun experience,” she said, smiling.

The two of them had decided to talk a walk around to see the rest of the night market but before they knew it, they had walked further down into the streets. They were know walking by the commercial stores of the downtown area which was even busier at night.

“Did you meet Jooheon through work?” she asked.

Minhyuk shook his head. “We met during university. We were roommates during my second year, which was his first year, and then we ended up staying as roommates with another friend of ours until we graduated.”

“And all three of you work together?” she asked, slightly surprised. Minhyuk laughed. “Yeah, it’s a funny coincidence now that I think about it. I don’t know how Jooheon can work with animals when he’s scared by everything.”

She smiled to herself when he continued talking. She realized that he was very good with conversations. He either had a lot of stories to tell or he knew so many random facts that he’d be able to jump on a conversation about it for a while.

He was also very excited whenever he talked about something he was passionate about. Even before, when he was talking about working with children, she saw the way the corners of his lips would tug up to show his teeth.

And the habit of his that she managed to pin down was that he always scrunched up his face in a way that she found both adorable and charming.

Though she wasn’t sure if she was interested in him, she did know that she enjoyed his company. He was nice to be around and he was always so full of energy that she sometimes found herself forgetting about the workload she had waiting for her at home.

He turned to her and he blinked when he realized she was staring at him. “Did I get something on my face?” he asked, reaching his fingers up to feel around his face.

She chuckled, shaking her head. “No, don’t worry about it.”

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Mina let out a breath, looking up at the neon sign that read ‘5:14’. The bright pink colour of the lights was starting to bother her and she looked away. She gripped onto her bag, turning around the corner of the building towards the back. She walked up the few concrete steps and entered in the security code to the door.

Hyunwoo had called her earlier asking if she could drop off the prints because he needed to confirm them before he left for the week on a trip.

Even though she was around the back, she could still hear the blasting music coming in from the speakers.

She arrived in front of his office and remembered he told her not to knock because he wouldn’t be able to hear it anyways. She pushed open the door and he looked up from the desk.

“Sorry to call you in so suddenly. I need to get these sent to the publishing company if I want them done before the event.”

She shook her head and gave him a small smile. “It’s fine. I was in the area anyway.”

She looked around while she waited for him to scan over the prints. Her eyes fell onto the pictures frames he had on one of the desks and her face fell when she saw a familiar face.

“These look great.”

She pulled her eyes away from the frame and looked at him. He set the folder down onto his desk. “I knew I could count on you. Thanks so much.”

“You’re very welcome. Is there anything else you need?”

He paused to think. “Changkyun left one of his cables here the other night. Can you give it back to him?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

He got up from his chair and headed towards the door. “Alright, give me a second. I think we put it into the back.”

She sat down onto the couch in the corner of the room and kept herself busy by looking around the room.

A few minutes had passed and she finally looked down at her phone to check the time. She frowned when she realized it was taking him longer than she had expected. She put her phone back into her pocket and continued to wait, assuming Hyunwoo had run into something that he needed to tend to first.

The door opened and she got up but when she met eyes with the person who walked in, her eyes widened and she felt like the air in her lungs had been knocked out.

Wonho stood there, staring back at her.

She wanted to move but her legs felt as if they had become lead and she wasn’t able to move a single limb in her body. Her eyes fell onto his blonde hair and she felt her heart stir at the sight of in its tousled and natural style. He was still wearing his bar uniform and she’d be lying if she said that he didn’t look alluring with his sleeves rolled up to show the tattoos he had on his arm.

When she saw him open his mouth to say something, she quickly turned around and grabbed her bag. Before he could say anything, she walked to the door but she felt his fingers wrap around her arm and she froze.

“Did you make it home safe the other night?”

Hearing his voice, she turned around. She let out a laugh of disbelief when she shook his arm off.

“That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Mina-”

She held up a hand, stepping back. “Actually, save it. I don’t care.”

Wonho frowned and stepped forward. “Mina, come on.”

“Did you expect me to see you and chat as if we were old friends? I knew I should’ve stopped coming here but I only came back because Hyunwoo needed a favour. I didn’t want to run into you ever again.”

She tightened her fists when she heard her own voice raise an octave and she took in a deep breath when her chest tightened painfully.

“I’m sorry,” he said, letting his hand drop to his side.

She glared up at him when she felt her eyes water. She shook her head, taking another step back.

“Sorry won’t make up for all the you’ve made me go through. I hope you know that.”

She turned around and walked off down the hall. She ran into Hyunwoo who had just turned the corner and when he held the cable out, she grabbed it and left without another word.

Once she got outside, she fell against the brick walls of the building and let out a sob. She reached into her hair and tightened her fingers but the pain didn’t help to keep her mind off him. She buried her head into her arms and cried.

Thankfully, it was the back of the building and since it was late at night, nobody would come around.

She took her hand and clutched onto the fabric of her shirt, finding it increasingly difficult to breath when her chest began to tighten. It was like someone had stepped onto her chest, blocking off the air from going into her lungs.

Her mind was running wild and she was beginning to feel nauseous.

She blindly reached into her pocket to grab her phone and pressed the first number in her speed dial contacts.

“Hello?”

She opened to speak but the only sound that came out was another sob which she had unsuccessfully tried to muffle with her palm.

“Mina? Are you okay? Where are you?”

She grabbed her phone and dropped it onto the ground beside her, putting an arm over her eyes as she sank back. She wiped at her eyes, not caring whether or not her makeup was smudged.

“Please pick me up,” she whispered.

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