“More champagne?”

Despite being highly skeptical, Yoon Jisung accepted the third glass of champagne generously offered by his sister, immediately after he had emptied his second one. After confronting his younger sister and colleague once they had escaped the dance floor, Daniel had ushered the three of them away from the crowd, towards one of the empty cocktail tables located in one corner of the hall. Sadly, modern science and medicine hasn’t developed anything that could erase memories, and her trusty assistant Daehwi was missing in action with her laxative order, Jihyun’s only option was to drown Jisung with as much alcohol as possible so that he would be drunk enough not to remember anything. She was slightly thankful of Daniel’s quick action in ushering them away from the centre of the hall, because she had been unable to form the right and more appropriate response to her brother’s question about their acquaintance. However, it also gave Jisung the opportunity to interrogate her further now that they were out of eyesight and earshot from the wedding guests. She also had an uneasy feeling behind the mischievous smirk Daniel had been showing for the past few minutes.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Daniel snatched an extra glass of champagne from Jihyun’s hand (most probably as a preventive measure since he had experienced Jihyun chucking a full glass of punch in his face before), one which she planned to switch once Jisung finished his third glass. She shot him a warning look as he leisurely sipped on the alcoholic drink, at the same time sending her a meaningful wink, “So… you guys are siblings?” he asked, his voice sounding almost 99 percent sure of the answer.

Jisung nodded, settling down his champagne flute on the table, “Yes, she’s my younger sister,” he wrapped an arm around Jihyun’s shoulder, “Sis, I don’t think I’ve told you yet but he is my friend and the director of the department where I work,” he gestured to the younger male.

Jihyun’s heart started to beat faster as the smirk on Daniel’s face grew wider, “The maid of honor,” Daniel replied with a small nod, knowing very well that he has the upperhand in the situation. The girl took a step back behind Jisung and clasped her hands together, mouthing ‘Please!’ and begging Daniel to keep it a secret from her brother, “We… didn’t get to exchange our names earlier. I’m Daniel,” he understood the signal and automatically adjusted his words to fit their current situation.

Jihyun was stunned. She had not expected Daniel to easily agree to her pleas, especially after knowing that he could have her wrapped around his finger with the surprising fact that he had just discovered. However, her inner voice was telling her that Daniel’s current behaviour was too good to be true. He must have something up his sleeves, something that he plans to blackmail her for. She stared at him in a daze, unable to read the reason behind his actions, “I’m J-Jihyun,” she stuttered, Jisung had to nudge with his elbow to get the answer out of her.

“You know Miss Yoon Jihyun, you look very familiar… I think we’ve met somewhere before…” Daniel continued the act, his voice trailed off as he swirled his champagne flute. He took a whiff of its scent before taking another sip, almost teasingly.

“Really? You have?” Jisung was intrigued.

“NO! I don’t think so,” Jihyun quickly intercepted, fervently denying the claim by shaking her hands and head, “This is the first time we met,” she glanced at Daniel from the corner of her eyes with gritted teeth, he was obviously doing this on purpose and was enjoying her flustered reaction way too much.

“I doubt I’d easily forget a beautiful girl like you. You don’t happen to be involved in any car accident recently do you?”

Kang Daniel definitely took it too far.

If Jihyun had been holding onto a champagne flute, it would’ve slipped through her fingers and shattered all over the floor at Daniel’s statement. He was behaving completely out of character the entire day, from casually throwing praises at her to actually making an effort to be nice compared to the usual pranks he would always play on her (she had at least expected that he would trip her while walking on the aisle). Is his alcohol tolerance level very low for him to already be drunk with a few sips of champagne? The few seconds after Daniel’s bold statement were spent in complete awkward silence between the three of them, as each one waited for the other to speak.

“I d-don’t have a car! I don’t even drive!” Jihyun instantly felt lightheaded from the sudden pressure and and simply threw out any words that came on the top of her head. Where was Daniel going with this conversation?

“Yes, you did. You drove Sunmi’s car to move out to your new apartment. You even declared that guy as your enemy after he made you pay for his car repairs on top of getting fined,” Jisung was not being helpful by recalling the fateful first encounter between Daniel and herself, which actually added more fuel to the fire.

“Enemy is a strong word, do you hate him that much?” It was meant to be a rhetorical question, but Daniel was staring directly at Jihyun as if demanding for an answer. She clutched tightly to the edge of the table to steady herself from the overwhelming stress, seeing the room spinning around. She needed to get some fresh air. She needed oxygen, a glass of water, anything that could relieve the dizziness creeping to the top of her head.

As Jihyun was fantasizing about burying Daniel alive, she was saved by Chungha’s chirpy voice, “Oh, Jihyun there you are! Come on, we’re getting ready for a picture with the bride!” Making a mental note to treat her best friend to a nice meal for saving her life, Jihyun let Chungha drag her to the altar where Sunmi and her lively bunch of close female friends and family members gathered in front of the photographer.

“Jisung, I didn't know you have a sister,” Daniel continued their conversation earlier, the two men watched as a flustered Jihyun was pushed to stand next to the bride and a silent chuckle escaped Daniel’s lips when he saw the girl stumbling on the length of her dress. While Jisung was muttering complaints about his sister embarrassing herself as the maid of honor, Daniel actually found her quite endearing, despite her lack of gracefulness. After all, this was not the first time he had seen her clumsiness.

“She's not available right now,” Jisung’s protective brother-like answer made Daniel raised his eyebrow in curiosity. Dating his colleague’s younger sister has never occurred to him, yet Daniel found himself neither denying the statement or rejecting the idea as he stayed silent. The photographer started clicking on his shutter as Daniel waited for more explanation from his friend, “Don’t tell her I told you this, but she just went through a huge breakup. Oh Sehun is a bastard, no one cheats on my sister and gets away with it,” Jisung downed the remaining contents of his glass in one gulp before placing it on the table.

Jisung had let slip a new name in Jihyun’s life, Daniel had never heard of someone named Oh Sehun before. With the little amout of information currently available, he speculated that the man waiting for her at the lobby of their apartment to be Oh Sehun, her ex-boyfriend. “Then, who’s Donghae? I mean, I saw her talking to someone named Donghae earlier,” Daniel asked, dying to know further. There was definitely more mystery behind the girl’s relationship with these two men. Jihyun reacted differently to both of them; she was in cloud nine and would easily blush and behave like a love-sick teenager around Lee Donghae, but meeting Oh sehun drained all the colour on her face as if she was pushed off the cloud nine into an endless dark pit and left to weep all night long about her misery.

“You’ve met him? He’s our childhood friend. He used to be our neighbour back when we were still in school. Jihyun had the biggest crush on him,” Jisung spoke of him in a lighthearted manner, showing that Donghae had left a good impression to the siblings.

Daniel had more questions, but he decided to keep them to himself to avoid Jisung’s suspicions and continued watching the photography session in silence. Jihyun was even more glowing with the genuine happy smile on her face as she posed for the camera. She looked so happy about it, it made her look even more beautiful. He had never noticed it before, but when Jihyun smiles, it’s like watching a flower bloom. Her smile perfected her beauty. Despite their nonstop pranks and witty banters, he felt charmed by this girl. As their eye met, a sudden warm feeling came bubbling up inside him at the small exchange and he naturally flashed her a genuine smile of his own. He could see the faintest flush appearing on her cheeks and her ears reddening from the distance. The odd feeling stirring in his chest made it impossible for him to do anything right. It wasn’t like him at all, but right now, all he wanted to do was to admire this beautiful yet mysterious flower.

***

[Flashback]

“Jihyun…”

It had been four long weeks and Oh Sehun was the last person she had expected to see standing in the lobby of her new apartment. After sending a confused Daniel off to the elevator with the bags of groceries, Jihyun brought h