Chaewon stared at her reflection and huffed, she heard the door to her room open.

“Hey, your brother told me you were still home.”

She glanced back, Joohyuk was making his way towards her.

“Wow, my older brother just let you in my room.” She joked, Joohyuk chuckled.

“Don’t act like we didn’t live together.”

“I only agreed to that because one of your crazy ex-girlfriends broke into your place.” She pointed out as she stepped back from the mirror, she picked up her blazer and put it on.

“What brings you here?” She asked him.

“Have time for me?”

“Nope.”

“Good, I need your help on something.” Joohyuk said, ignoring her reply. She sighed and pulled him out of her room.

“On what?”

They reached the foyer, and Chaewon could hear her brother arguing with Hwan. The boy wanted to have cookies for breakfast.

“I need to refill my fridge.”

“What?” Chaewon balked at him as they headed for his car.

“I have no idea how to navigate through a Korean mart, J.Won. It’s been years.”

Chaewon slid inside the Maserati, not wanting to reason out with him, it was pointless anyway.

“I have a meeting this afternoon, but fine. Not like I have choice, right?” She said, Joohyuk started the car.

“Right, how did that meeting go yesterday? You getting along with your ex?” He said teasingly, Chaewon glanced at him, now she was annoyed.

“How….do you even know my schedule?”

“Come on, babe, I know everything about you.”

“Oh my god, get lost.” She muttered, Joohyuk chuckled as they left the Ji property.

“Not bad, huh?”

“What?”

“Working with someone you know.”

“Obviously.”

Sehun scratched the back of his head as he trudged towards the entrance, his mother had called him earlier, requesting, no, demanding that he buy some ingredients for her.

She was planning to whip up a home cooked meal for the family the next day, and her secretary was sick and had taken the day off.

Sehun took out the shopping least and grabbed a cart. There were at least forty items written on the sheet of paper, and some of them he had no idea how it looked like.

“No, cabbage and lettuce are two different vegetables!”

He paused and looked up, his eyes widened as he recognized the couple before him.

“What? But they look..alike.” Joohyuk muttered as he stared at the greens display.

“It sounded borderline racist. But whatever.” Chaewon shook her head, and then she spotted Sehun in the crowd. Her brows rose briefly.

“Out for some shopping?” Sehun spoke as he approached them, Joohyuk turned to him and smiled.

“We’re planning this cookout, just a small group of friends. You should join us.” The male said, Sehun blinked back.

Chaewon turned her head to the other male, her eyes wide and questioning.

“A cookout?” She repeated.

“Yeah, your brother mentioned it to me a few days back, it’s some sort of welcome back to Seoul party for you.” Joohyuk switched on his charming smile and laced his fingers with hers. Sehun looked away and chewed on the insides of his cheek.

“Don’t feel that you’re obligated to. He’s prone to…making stuff up.” Chaewon muttered as she picked up a bag of tomatoes.

“When is this?” Sehun smiled as he asked Joohyuk.

“You’re really going?” Chaewon was stunned, Sehun glanced at her and nodded.

“This weekend. The Ji residence, you’re familiar with the place already, I assume.” Joohyuk chuckled, Sehun grew confused.

What kind of alien is his ex-girlfriend dating?

“I’ll be there. See you around.” Sehun said, Joohyuk nodded and pulled his cart towards him.

“Chaewon.” Sehun gave her a nod, she looked up and turned to him.

“Yeah.”

Sehun’s lips quirked up as he walked away from the two.

“Quite brave. But I see your vision.” Hyebin mused as the male plopped down.

“How you..manage to not get killed is a mystery to me.” Changwook added as he walked in the room.

“I decided take the opportunity, hyung. I mean, he was there, and from what I can see,”

“What?” Hyebin was intrigued.

“Things are getting better for those two.”

“Really?”

“She might deflect the topic when I talk about him, but she doesn’t avoid it, hyung. Not anymore. And, they’re on better speaking terms now. They call each other by their names, not their titles. That’s good progress, right?” Joohyuk asked, Hyebin nodded eagerly.

“I still am trying to understand why our father did what he did.” Changwook spoke, Joohyuk’s forehead creased.

“But, you know what really scares me?” Changwook faced the two.

“What is it?” Hyebin prodded.

“What if Chaewon finds out, and we all know how much she’s changed for the past few years. She can be very volatile and cold. That’s why, I think someone should explain to her, tell her the truth. Because, if she hears this from a stranger, it won’t be good. I have a feeling she’ll really get back at our father.”

“And this someone should be Sehun.” Hyebin said softly, Changwook nodded.

“I don’t think he’ll ever tell her everything, hyung. If you look at it, Sehun hid all that to protect her.”

“Protect her from what?”

Joohyuk puffed his cheeks before speaking.

“He wanted to protect her relationship with your father, hyung. He respected him enough to do that.”

Chaewon ran her fingers through her hair as she got out of the elevator, she had reached the building’s basement. She took out her car key and was about to walk towards her Mercedes Benz sedan when she heard footsteps behind her.

She spun around and halted.

“I was just about to head up to your office.” Sehun spoke to her, she noticed how he looked a little tense.

“Did we have a meeting today?” She blurted out and started to reach for her phone.

“No, no. I wanted to talk to you.” He spoke to her, Chaewon nodded back and looked around them.

“I realized I shouldn’t have said yes right away to Joohyuk. I mean, we may have agreed to try being…civil to each other, but having me there, at your own home, I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable because of me.” Sehun said softly, his forehead creased in worry.

Chaewon didn’t know what to say. Honestly, she really didn’t think too much about it, sure, it was going to be a little awkward with him around. But, she didn’t think it was going to be uncomfortable for her. Well, it wasn’t going to be that uncomfortable.

“Sehun, it’s not like that. I was just surprised about the cookout.” She told him, Sehun had his hands buried in his pockets, an old habit of his that he did when he was on edge. Chaewon chewed on her lower lip.

“You should come, my brother and Hwan are probably expecting you to.” She tried to shrug off how she felt a little on edge too.

What was she doing right now?

But it felt odd. Talking to him like this, it didn’t even feel strange to her. And yet all those years of being mad at this man, who standing before her, she still finds herself being at ease with him.

Chaewon mentally sighed.

“Are you sure about that?” Sehun asked her, the look on his softening.

“Of course.” She tried to muster up a small smile, and then Sehun chuckled.

“Is it too soon to ask you out for coffee?” He asked her, Chaewon tilted her head at him.

“I think so. Maybe, next week?” She said, copying his light tone.

“I’ll take what I can get. Drive safely.” Sehun nodded before walking away from him, he let out a shakey breath as soon as he was far from the girl.

Chaewon puffed her cheeks as she padded towards her car, she quickly slid inside and started the engine.

“It’s fine, you’re going to be fine. You’re back to being friends with him now. Friends.”

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