13. Lee Lesson

Seulgi glanced through the hole of the door and contained another sigh.

"I'm not opening," she yelled.

"Why?" Taeyong whined from the other side. "I really forgot my keys in your apartment!"

"You said that last time too and you suddenly found them in your pockets when you stepped inside," Seulgi reminded him. "And then you refused to leave!"

"You never forgot where you put your things Seulgi?"

She saw that he had crossed his arms on his chest and looked at the door with a raised eyebrow through the tiny hole.

"Yeah but I don't go check at someone else's house before verifying my pockets, fool!"

"But it's true this time!"

"Do you take me for an idiot Taeyong?" Seulgi scoffed. "I am not going to help you with another task, just go ask Ten."

"I swear that I left my keys in your apartment this time," Taeyong affirmed. "If it's not the case you can fire me."

"Do you think it means anything coming from someone who always talks about resigning and who doesn't care about what his boss thinks of him?"

"Fine then I'll let you kick me in the face," he said.

"Really?"

"No what the open the door Seulgi."

Seulgi muttered a few incoherent words before letting Taeyong step inside her apartment for the second time this week. The last time he came was actually three days ago when he pretended to have forgotten his keys in her apartment from the time he went to get her for the party. It was unbelievable that he just remembered that he left them in her apartment months after the party but Taeyong told her his roommate was always at home before him so he never had to use them and basically never thought of coming back to get them until he got stuck outside his apartment.

Seulgi wasn't buying it but Taeyong seemed pitiful with his big brown eyes pleading her to let him in and he was just great at convincing her anyway. In fact, Taeyong was great at deceiving Seulgi because as soon as he stepped in, he took his keys out of his pocket and pretended to be surprised to find them there. She was about to snap at him since it was late and she had just came back from her eventful night with Sehun and he was there acting like a kid with her again. He promised her it was important and then begged her to help him do a template prototype because he had no idea how to do it even if Ten explained it to him and the latter expected him to bring him one the next day.

"You don't want to deceive your best friend but you don't care about your boss thinking you're annoying?" Seulgi had said with an incredulous tone.

"You already think I am annoying if I'm not mistaken," Taeyong answered as he opened his laptop. "Would it change anything that I ask for help? Please Seulgi."

Seulgi admired that Taeyong was willing to work hard (for once) and requested help when he truly needed it even if the circumstances and the way he asked for it were a bit deceiving. She helped him build a template with an old model she used last year for a winter issue and then watched him do one on his own all the while correcting his mistakes. It took them the whole night but Taeyong finally understood and was pretty happy with the result so Seulgi didn't think it was a waste of her night. Plus, she knew that she wasn't going to sleep whether Taeyong came or not so he kinda became a distraction.

But this time was different because Seulgi didn't intend to let Taeyong trick her another time.

She watched every one of his moves as he searched in the living room. He lifted the pillows, searched between the cracks of the couch and looked underneath the table.

"Stop fooling around Taeyong," Seulgi warned before walking to him. She took his hand to keep him from moving and then looked into his jeans pockets. Taeyong smiled at her when she didn't find anything.

"I told you I didn't have them," he sighed. "I know you really like me but you just touched my while looking for my keys, boss."

"Are you going to file a complaint to the HR?"

"Nah I liked it."

Seulgi rolled her eyes at the smug smile on Taeyong's face while he continued to look for his keys, making a mess in her apartment.

He then moved to the kitchen where he pretended to diligently search for his keys. He looked on the counter and focused on a cookie jar on the side.

"No way," Taeyong gasped. "Look what I just found Seulgi!"

"You left your keys in my cookie jar?!"

"I found them in your cookie jar, it's different," Taeyong corrected.

"Do you think I'm dumb enough to not see you put them there yourself just to have an excuse to come back?" she said before hitting his arm. " Do you think I'm really dumb enough to think they magically appeared there?"

"Come on Seulgi, things—"

"Yeah things happen, I know," she finished his sentence. "But I think they happen way too often for you," she grunted before going back to the living room. "You're being really creative these days, your tricks are becoming more and more interesting."

"Why, thank you," Taeyong smiled.

"I was being sarcastic."

"I'm not good with that," he admitted while following her. "I'm usually the type to say things straight."

"You're half the time sarcastic and the rest of the time you're mocking people, how does that make sense?" Seulgi said as she watched him crash down on the couch.

"True," Taeyong nodded. "You're starting to know me well Seulgi."

"That's because you're always there," she rolled her eyes. "And get your stinky feet off my couch."

If it weren't everyday at work or during lunch, Seulgi now had the opportunity to see Taeyong at home. She sighed at the sight in front of her: he was comfortably lying down on her couch with his hand reaching for the TV remote, completely unbothered by the look she was giving him. Seulgi pried his hand away before he could take the TV remote and kicked his feet to sit down on the couch.

"Can I consider this abuse?"

"What are you even here for?" Seulgi asked as she the TV.

"I was bored," Taeyong shrugged before snatching back the TV remote with a grin. Seulgi only sighed and tiredly looked back at him. It's not like she really wanted to watch TV after all.

"Don't you have other friends?"

"You consider me as your friend?"

"I was talking in general don't let it get to your head."

"My friends are either spending time with their girlfriend or working," Taeyong said as he got up to sit properly on the couch. "And I get to spend time with my boss how fun," he sarcastically smiled at her.

"Are you trying to say that I'm not fun?" Seulgj frowned. "I didn't invite you in the first place so sorry for not having prepared something to entertain you prince Taeyong," she scoffed.

"Your joke receptor is pretty damaged, you should get it fixed soon."

"Maybe if you jokes were funny I would laugh Taeyong," Seulgi deadpanned. "And I'm not watching cartoons," she said before taking back the TV remote. "What are you, 7 years old?"

"How can you say no to Sponge Bob? Where is your heart?" Taeyong dramatically said. "It's not about being an adult or 7 years old, that's Sponge Bob!"

"My heart is in the trash can next to the tub of ice cram I binge ate yesterday, why do you care?"

"Oh I feel like we entered a dark subject that I didn't want to know about," Taeyong said as he got up to sit two places further from Seulgi. "Pretend I didn't ask."

"But you did."

"The keyword being pretend here," he smiled.

"You even asked me why I took the day off yesterday, you don't want to know anymore?" Seulgi asked as she sat right next to him.

"I feel like I already know," Taeyong said as he got up. "You were probably depressed because ex number 1, 2 or 3 didn't contact you again."

"No I was just sick with a flu," Seulgi revealed with a confident smile. "Not everything is related to them you know."

"Well they're the only thing you talk about. At least with me."

"I talk about X Korea with you."

"Yes so basically work and your pitiful love life, how lucky I am," Taeyong rolled his eyes.

"You hate it?" Seulgi asked with concern.

"I'd rather say that there many other things that we could talk about."

"But I talk to you because you help me a lot," Seulgi bashfully confessed. "I mean, I'm not really great at handling these things and you give great advices. You listen to me well and your jokes are somewhat funny —I said somewhat funny, don't look at me like that," Seulgj slightly blushed. "Anyway, the point is that I thought I could ask you, if you don't want me to then I'll stop. It's just that the people I usually ask tell me to just forget it or kill them."

"Did Wendy really tell you to kill your exes?" Taeyong frowned.

"Well not exactly but I'm sure that's what she meant deep down."

"You honestly both have issues," he said as he turned to face her. Taeyong gave Seulgi a boyish grin before chuckling "Since you just admitted that I was funny, that you sincerely needed me and I'm in a good mood tonight, I'll hear you out."

"I've got nothing to say, I was just responding to your assumption about me only talking about two things," Seulgi said.

"Come on there has to be something, anything," Taeyong pressured. "How went your date with Baekhyun?"

Seulgi bit her lips and avoided Taeyong's eyes. She had completely forgotten that she talked to him about it. Seulgi indeed told Taeyong everything without even noticing, it was just so easy to talk to him.

"It was fun," Seulgi said flatly.

"Great, what else?"

"And I had about seven mental breakdowns and two panic attacks."

"That sounds fun indeed," Taeyong nodded sarcastically.

"Jongin and Sehun came one after the other," Seulgi continued.

"Which explains the two panic attacks," Taeyong reasoned. Seulgi smiled at how he could understand with only a few words.

"And then we went to an amusement park," Seulgi said as Taeyong continued to nod to encourage her to keep going. "And then Jongin and Baekhyun went home so I was left with Sehun. We fought twice, yelled at each other later, realized we were both extremely stupid after talking a bit and fell asleep."

"Fell asleep?"

"Oh that's right, I forgot to tell you we had to go to a hotel because the road was inaccessible for the night. We shared a bed, talked and left as soon as we woke up the next morning. I didn't say a word and he didn't either until we reached my place where I thanked him for bringing me back. That's it."

"That's it?" Taeyong repeated incredulous.

"We haven't talked since then and I don't want to try to text or call him because I fear being left on read again and I still can't get over how Baekhyun played me at the restaurant so I refused to answer to his facetime calls twice, am I not evil?" Seulgi giggled.

"Yeah… that's definitely what real evil people do," he said sarcastically.

"By the way, Sehun intended to marry Bae Joohyun," Seulgi revealed as if she was talking about the weather. "He even proposed to her last year but she rejected his proposal and dumped him, can you believe? And he doesn't hate me but he blames me for… for many things actually."

"Wait that's too much information all at once!" Taeyong snapped. "He proposed to Joohyun and she refused?"

"She would be called Oh Joohyun if she hadn't, are you paying attention?"

"That's intense," Taeyong gasped. "But how are you taking the news?"

"Me?" Seulgi asked taken aback. "What about me, that has nothing to do with me, why are you trying to include me in the situation, what do you want me to do with that information?" Seulgi jabbered.

Taeyong knew Seulgi had the habit of talking fast when she had a lot of things to say but he had never seen her like that. Seulgi definitely looked stressed or nervous deep down and Taeyong figured it certainly had something to do with Sehun.

"Is that a panic attack?"

"That's me not understanding where this is coming from," Seulgi answered after regaining her composure.

"It's obvious that you should be affected: your ex was planning to marry the woman he dumped you for. You must feel like a loser."

"First of all, Sehun didn't dump me for Joohyun. He dumped me and then went for Joohyun," Seulgi corrected before hitting lightly Taeyong. "Second, I am no loser," she continued with another hit. "And third, that was mean. Plus, I don't care. Sehun can marry whoever he wants."

"Yeah sure, you really look like you mean it," Taeyong rolled his eyes.

"Listen, after this weekend, I decided to find peace," Seulgi affirmed. "I now know the reasons why I've been dumped so I should be able to move on."

"Should? So you admit that you still can't?"

"I am currently finding peace with myself, so I am currently moving on," Seulgi smiled although Taeyong didn't seem convinced in the least.

"So you wouldn't mind trying dating another man even if there is a chance that you get dumped a fourth time?" Taeyong raised an eyebrow.

"Things happen," Seulgi shrugged.

"How long are you going to pretend that you're fine with all this? It's getting boring."

Seulgi pursed her lips and contained a sigh. The last few months had been incredibly eventful and maybe it was true after all, too many things happened too fast. Seulgi was trying to change too fast, so fast that she wasn't sure that she had even really changed. She had found the reasons behind her break up with all her past exes but what did that mean? What could she do with all those reasons now?

What do I do now?

Was she supposed to put an end to all her remaining worries and just let go, find someone else and learn to trust again? Was she supposed to ignore her lingering feelings and pretend they were just the result of bringing up again all her past love stories? What about the revelations Sehun told her last weekend. He said that he used to love her, that he broke up with her because he was insecure and that he always felt like she didn't really love him.

"Let's just talk about something else okay? It gets me in a weird mood to talk about this."

"Because it hurts you," Taeyong pointed out.

"No, because I don't like to talk about my exes in general and yet that's what I always do," Seulgi answered. "Let's drop the subject for once. I want to hear about you."

"Me?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, just who is Lee Taeyong?"

"I'm a prankster who got promoted for dissing a guy taller than me at a party where rich kids played board games."

"I hope there's more to you than that," Seulgi chuckled.

"What do you want to know about me?"

"What is your love life about that you can give advices so easily?" Seulgi asked as her eyes gleamed. She turned off the TV and completely turned to face Taeyong.

"You want to know about my past relationships?"

Seulgi excitedly nodded, for once they weren't talking about her exes.

"There's nothing to say, really. I dated about two women in my whole life," Taeyong casually revealed.

"Two? That's it? A player like you?" Seulgi gasped.

"I dated the first one for three years and my last girlfriend and I dated for five years."

"What the… you're a romantic."

"I know how to keep my people unlike you," he grinned which took away Seulgi's smile. "I was joking."

"I figured," she said with an eye roll. "Why did you break up with the last one, if it's not too sensitive of a subject of course."

"Our personalities changed over time and we didn't have the same goals anymore. We clashed," Taeyong said calmly. It was the first time Seulgi saw him so serious, it was a new side of Taeypng she was discovering and it made her smile a bit.

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