This has been happening a lot, Hakyeon muses watching Hongbin rush out if the practise room as soon as he said that it was enough for today.

"What's with him!" Ken asks, wiping the sweat off his forehead. They have just debuted a month ago and the album was doing good but not good enough. They needed to practice, they needed to be better if they intended on lasting in this industry.

"Don't know," Ravi answers, watching Hongbin disappear through the door.

'Is something wrong?' Hakyeon wonders. Although he knows he shouldn't put his nose in Hongbin's business but then again as a leader it's his responsibility to make sure everyone of s were fine.

"I'll be back in a moment," he's out before others could say a single word.

He runs down the corridor just in time to see the younger male walk out the building. He follows after him, his heart shouting for him to stop.

Hongbin would not like this. He never liked people probing in his life. But Hakyeon couldn't stop himself. His curiosity getting the best of him.

He might regret this later.

After following the younger for about fifteen minutes, Hakyeon watches him walk to the door of a cafe and his whole demeanor changes. His shoulders relax, his body becomes lax and there is a bounce in his step as he marches to a girl standing by that door.

Hakyeon can't make out much from the distance he decided to maintain but he can see that she's wearing a loose t shirt and jeans. A very unusual choice for a young woman in Korea. Her braided hair are no less unusal. There is no trace of beauty in her.

It makes Hakyeon wonder, how can someone like Hongbin, the handsome and charismatic Hongbin be with someone like her? She's not his sister. The girl doesn't even look Korean. If anything she looks like a thug.

Hongbin takes her hand and she smiles and it's then that Hakyeon realizes why his dongsaeng fell for her (if he did). That smile is absolutely breathtaking.

There is chiming of a bell and they disappear behind the door. Hakyeon stands there wondering what to do next.

He has two options, one he could go back to the dorm and pretend like nothing happened like he saw nothing or March in the cafe and ask Hongbin about what the hell was going on.

Being the shrewd leader that he is, he combines both the options and turns around leaving them be.

For now.

 

It is four hours later that Hongbin comes to the dorm, a smile plastered on his face only to find his leader sprawled out on the sofa. There is no television in their dorm. It's hardly a proper arrangement for living honestly but they are in no condition to voice that out.

"Hyung?" He tries to adjust Hakyeon's head so that he could rest comfortably but his action wakes up the leader.

"Hongbin?" He rubs the sleep out of his eyes and focuses on the younger, "you're back."

"Were you waiting for me hyung?" Hongbin asks already on his way to the kitchen. He needs some water.

"Do you have something to tell me Hongbin?" Hakyeon asks instead, already impatient. It has taken quite some time for him to get rid of his other band mates. He knows the possibility of him finding Hongbin alone will be rare. So he takes this one.

"Tell you what hyung?" The kitchen isn't that far from the living area. No room is far from any other room.

"About your secret meetings."

He chokes on the water he's drinking and launches a coughing fit, splashing water everywhere.

"What!"

"Your girl. I want to meet her." And with that he walks to his shared room with Leo and Ravi, not waiting for his answer. This was not a suggestion, it was an order.

 

It's two days later that Hakyeon finds himself standing in front of a cafe with Hongbin. A strange sort of nervousness in his system. The younger had been pissed. He still didn't talk to Hakyeon.

That makes Hakyeon wonder if he did the right thing by forcing Hongbin to do this. But as a leader he needs to make sure that his dongsaeng isn't in bad company. And that girl certainly looked like bad company.

 He waits for Hongbin to push the door open but he doesn't so Hakyeon nudges him softly which makes him do it and they both enter the cozy looking cafe. There is warm smell for coffee in the air and Hakyeon instantly finds himself liking this place.

"Oppa," a girl's voice interuppts his thoughts and he looks up to find a waitress looking at them, smile on her face.

It's that smile that Hakyeon recognizes instantly. 

It's her.

"Hyung," it's the first time in the two days that Hongbin has spoken to him, "this is Zia."

Hakyeon turns to the girl in with the waiteress uniform to find her looking at him, "Hyung," she immitates Hongbin and he sees an involuntary smile break out at Hongbin's lips as well, "Nice to meet you."

Her accent is a little off although her Korean sounds fine. Certainly not a Korean.

"You can't call me hyung," he chides softly finding it cute, " but you can call me oppa."

She looks at Hongbin and then at him, "but he's oppa so you can't be oppa."

He opens his mouth to counter but she beats him to it, "You're hyung."