“Are you talking to Sehun?”

“Umm, no? I’m talking to you.”

“No, dummy, that’s not what I meant.” Seulgi takes a moment to compose herself. “Are you two talking.”

Haewon blinks. “What does that mean?”

Seulgi sighs. “You are so clueless Jung Haewon.” Haewon makes a face but lets her friend continue. “Do you have his number?”

“Yes?” Haewon averts her eyes when Seulgi raise an eyebrow.

“Are you guys talking to each other?”

“We’re talking about the performance,” Haewon offers.

Seulgi perks up at that. “So you are doing it!” Then her face twitches, like a switch flipped in her head. “Wait, are you guys talking about anything else?”

“No?”

“You’re lying!” Seulgi takes a long sip of her fruit tea while maintaining eye contact with Haewon. “Baekhyun squeezed it out of him yesterday since he kept looking at his phone during breaks.” The smile she has on her face makes Haewon feel uneasy. “So, what do you two talk about?”

“About meeting up for practice.” Haewon gives Seulgi a tight-lipped smile. “Nothing else.”

Seulgi shakes her head. “I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?”

Seulgi tips her chin towards Haewon’s phone on the table. “Cause that.”

Haewon wishes that she changed his contact name to not have the dumb emojis he included and that the earth would swallow her whole. “That’s not what it seems.”

“Sure, Hae.” Seulgi looks like she’s trying really hard to not burst out in laughter. “I’ll leave you to it, hope you enjoyed lunch. Come by the studio during hours sometime.” With a wink, she prances off.

Haewon’s sure her face matches the strawberries on the slice of cake in front of her. She stabs at it and sticks the fork in as she picks up the phone. “Yeah?”

“Are you coming to me or do you want me to pick you up?”

“I think your emojis are dumb.”

“Umm…okay? But that doesn’t answer my question.”

“I’ll come to you.”

“Okay, Haewon. I’ll see you in a bit!”

“See you soon, Sehun.”

Because of her dependency on public transportation due to her lack of a car, Haewon arrives to her lunch-dinner-meeting-not-date with Sehun and friends late.

“You’re late! That means you’re paying!” Baekhyun teases. He grins and pats the empty seat next to him in the booth. "Sit here!”

Haewon slides into the fake leather seat and greets Jongin, who still can’t meet her eyes. She raises an eyebrow and gives Sehun a small smile when their gazes meet.

“So we’ve all congregated here today to settle very important matters,” Baekhyun announces. He claps his hands together. “When did you two start dating?”

“What?” Haewon blinks. She’s interrupted by the waitress stopping by to take her order. “We’re not?” Haewon looks over to where Sehun is sipping his drink silently. “When did this happen?”

“Do you only speak in questions?” Baekhyun grins as he leans his head on her shoulder.

“We’re not dating,” Sehun coughs. He makes awkward eye contact with Haewon and stirs his orange juice with his straw. “She’s my partner for the dance.”

Baekhyun wiggles his eyebrows. Jongin tries to curl himself in even smaller, like he wants the booth to swallow him whole. “Haewon, can you do something about Jongin? The poor boy can’t even look at you!” Jongin lets out small whine and buries his face in his hands. “Tell him you forgive him. You do forgive him right?”

With the amount of enthusiasm in Baekhyun’s eyes, even if Haewon did still hold a grudge, it would have melted away right then and there. “Y-yeah. I mean, I don’t hold it against you.” She offers Jongin what she hopes is a comforting smile.

“I’m never drinking again!” Jongin wails. He buries his face into Sehun’s side. “Never!”

Sehun’s eyes are wide in bewilderment as Jongin latches onto him. Haewon bites her lip to hide the smile that forms on her face. Her food arrives soon after and she eats while Baekhyun talks animatedly about how they all met each other. Sehun, on the other side of the booth is still trying to extract Jongin from him with no luck. For some reason, Haewon finds herself stealing glances at Sehun instead of focusing on Baekhyun’s rant about Seulgi. Sehun eventually lets Jongin stay where he is and he’s content with looking at the way Haewon’s red hair changes colors when the light hits it.

“No one is listening to me.” Baekhyun claps his hands together again. “Maybe it’s time to leave. Haewon,” he sticks out his hand. “Your card.”

Before Haewon can take out her wallet though, Sehun slides his card into the tray with their orders and shoves it into Baekhyun’s hand. “Go pay.”

“I really didn’t expect that,” Haewon laughs.

Sehun bumps his shoulder into her side. “Baekhyun’s really loud. And I thought Jongin got over it already, but I guess he didn’t. Sorry for putting you in a tough spot.”

“No, no. I really enjoyed it.”

“How are you getting home?”

“I’m taking the bus.” Haewon fixes the strap of her bag and chews on her lower lip. “I think it’ll be a while until the next one gets here, so you can leave.”

“Actually, Jongin took me here but he left already so I don’t really have a choice but to take the bus too.” Sehun scratches the back of his neck. “Mind if I tag along with you?”

Haewon feels her stomach do a flip. “Of course not.”

The bus arrives twenty minutes later, but time seems to fly by when a you’re having a good time. Haewon is having a great time. They manage to grab the only two open seats before the bus begins to move. Sehun’s fingers twitch where they’re situated on his thigh and the back of Haewon’s hand keeps brushing against his pinky.

“Are you free on Sunday?”

Haewon nods, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “For practice right? What time?”

“Actually, I was wondering if–”

The bus halts at its next stop and Haewon’s eyes wonder to the front of the bus where an elderly woman hobbles down the aisle. She glances around before standing and holding onto the bus handle. “Sit here,” she says.

“What are you–” Sehun blinks when the old woman sits down and smiles at Haewon and starts a conversation. He quietly stands and nudges Haewon into his seat. Haewon raises a questioning eyebrow at him. “Take my seat. It’s fine.” He grabs the handle dangling above him and smiles. “It really is.”

When they reach their stop a good half hour later, Sehun’s arm is sore from being raised for so long.

“It’s really no joke! I haven’t held my arm up for that long since high school!” he laughs. He takes a moment to listen to Haewon’s reaction and grins when she laughs too. “Hey.”

She hums to show that she is listening and looks up at him. “Yeah?”

“Could you clear out your Sunday?”

Haewon thinks she didn’t hear that correctly. “Huh?”

“Go on a date with me, Jung Haewon.”