Forcing the scowl from his face, he took on a mien of benign indifference and entered the competition room. Almost without trying, his gaze found Sehun, already setting up at his station, and Andreas had to physically swallow past the lump of pure hatred that lodged in his throat. 

There would be time for that later.

Right now, in this moment, he needed to concentrate. If he was going to win here—which he would—he had to get inside Sehun's head, both in and out of the competition room. 

And, if there was one thing that Andreas knew for certain, it was that the best, surest way to with Sehun's head, was through a woman.

* * *

Soojung checked the time on her phone as she walked into the dark, crowded interior of the Skyline bar. Just like Sam had told her and Sehun the other night, the place had been transformed from a low-key, relatively quiet lounge, to a loud night club, packed from wall to wall with people celebrating the end of the competition. 

The winners wouldn't be announced until the following morning, but the contest organizers obviously wanted to make sure that everyone—winners or losers—had a good time tonight. Unfortunately, the fully stocked bar, laser light show, and the huge spread of decadent desserts set up opposite the entrance were all like salt in the wounds of Soojung's frayed emotions. 

She hadn't even wanted to come tonight but Sam, as always, had managed to talk her into showing up; not because either of them thought she'd have a good time, though. Mostly, it was because they figured, if she had any chance of getting Sehun to talk to her, it'd be here. Though, she admitted to herself, even that might take some effort, considering he'd been avoiding her all day. 

To be honest, the fact that he wouldn't even talk to her was really starting to annoy her, but she tamped that feeling down, knowing that if she let his temper get to her, they'd never get this whole thing figured out.

Chewing her lip, she craned her neck, searching the crowd for any sign of Sam. They'd planned to come together, but he'd ended up getting a last-minute call from one of the managers at Sugar, and told her he'd meet her when he had the situation taken care of.

She'd briefly considered changing her mind, not coming at all, but by that point, she'd already done her hair, and put on one of the other dresses she'd bought on her outing with Sam—and, really, the only thing more depressing than getting dressed for a club party she didn't want to go to, was the idea of getting undressed after having not gone, at all.

So, here she was. Alone. With no sign of Sam, and no idea where to even begin looking for Sehun. Or if he'd even be willing to talk to her, once she found him. 

Annoyed with herself and the whole situation, she wound her way through the maze of cocktail tables dotting the main floor, and headed for the bar. By some miracle, she didn't have to elbow her way through the milling crowd, and actually managed to reach the actual bar without a ton of effort. 

At the glass-topped counter, the bartender, an attractive, dark-haired guy with tribal tattoos spanning his muscular forearms, propped an elbow on the counter and smiled a crooked grin that reminded her of Sehun. "What can I get you?" 

Soojung glanced at two guys who were standing just off to her right. "I think they were first, actually."

The bartender's grin turned flirtatiously playful as he scanned her from head to toe. "I'm the one with the cocktail shaker, so I call the shots," he told her, "and I say, you're definitely next."

Rolling her eyes at his less-than-sincere flattery, she said, "I'll have a cosmo."

He shook his head. "You don't want a cosmo." His charmingly arrogant tone proved that he and Sehun had more in common than their smiles.

Soojung lifted an eyebrow. "I don't?" 

His grin kicked up a notch. "Nope. You want a mojito. I make the best in the city." 

She laughed at his languid cockiness. "Alright. I guess I'm having a mojito, then."

"Sweet." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and, with flamboyant flair, threw together the drink with a speed and expertise that would've met even Sam's impossibly high bartending standards. He sat the glass in front of her. "Eight bucks, even." 

She reached to open her purse, but stopped when she heard Andreas's voice, just over her shoulder, telling the bartender, "Put it on my tab."

"No problem," the bartender said and, before Soojung could stop him, he turned and ducked back behind the bar, headed for the cash register.

Turning, Soojung frowned at Andreas. "Thanks. But in the future, I'd rather pay for my own drinks." 

"I'm Italian," he said, by way of explanation. "Letting a beautiful woman buy her own drinks goes against my breeding. Not to mention," he added, as he slid in next to her at the bar counter, so close that she could feel the heat rising from his body, "this is one of the few I've seen you without one or both of your guard dogs. I had to commemorate the occasion."

"If you're talking about my friends," she countered, "Sam'll be here in a few minutes. So, there's not much of an occasion to celebrate."

Andreas cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Friends? You're friends with Sehun Oh."

There was something about his tone, slightly sarcastic and the tiniest bit confrontational, that bothered Soojung, but she decided to ignore it. "Why do I get the feeling you're surprised by the fact that Sehun and I are friends?"

"No, no. I'm not," he protested, only to concede, "Well...knowing his reputation, I didn't think Sehun had it in him to do the 'just friends' thing with a woman. I just assumed that you and he were...more than that."

Wow. She'd been trying, and failing, to drive home the 'just friends' thing in her own head for so long that, the irony of having this conversation with Andreas of all people, was practically the last straw. 

"Well, you were wrong," she muttered, sipping from her drink. "Sehun and I—and Sam—are all just friends."

"Well, then..." Andreas grinned. "Maybe, I won't have to put in nearly as much effort as I thought I would."

"At what?" she asked, warily.

"Getting you to agree to have a drink with me." He slid his hand across the bar, so it came to rest a fraction of an inch from her fingertips. "What do you say?"

Expelling an annoyed breath, she lifted her half-empty glass. "I already have a drink. You paid for it, remember?"

He laughed again. "Yes, but, this isn't exactly what I had in mind for us."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that, when it came to the two of them, there was no 'us,' but for the sake of preserving the last remnants of civility between the Sehun and Andreas camps, she held back. Only asking, "And what, exactly, did you have in mind?"

He shrugged. "A change of venue, mostly. We can probably still have room service sent up tonight. Or, better yet," he murmured, his gaze dropping to , "have breakfast tomorrow morning."

Soojung stared at him, not knowing if she should laugh in his face, or turn around and walk away. Before now, she'd let his comments slide because they'd seemed harmless. But now, knowing the history between him and Sehun, she was starting to realize that all of this, Andreas's whole coming on too strong act, was more about Sehun, than it was about her. 

She took a deep breath, and turned to face him, fully. "I really don't think—"

The rest of her comment died in as her gaze slid past Andreas to where, at the other end of the U-shaped bar, Sehun had just appeared with some woman—a beautiful, olive-skinned woman, with long, gorgeous inky-black hair. And, in that moment, the missing puzzle piece of where Sehun had likely spent the night came together in Soojung's mind with a loud, sickening click.

"Speaking of Sehun..." Andreas murmured, his cool gaze following hers.

In the next instant, almost as if he'd heard Andreas, Sehun looked up, across the length of the bar and, his golden eyes slammed into hers, his brows drawing together into a deep scowl when he saw Andreas next to her. 

Soojung swallowed. Suddenly, with Sehun's large form just a few dozen feet away, the room felt smaller, cramped. Without a word to Andreas, she pushed away from the bar, and walked over to Sehun, acutely aware of the way he was warily tracking her progress.

Thirty seconds, and she was there, standing next to him. The woman he was with momentarily distracted as she chatted with a bartender. With the low hum of her mojito buzz in her veins, Soojung took the opportunity she was given. 

"Hey," she murmured. When he didn't say anything, she her bottom lip, took a tentative step toward him. "I...I've been calling you. All night. Are you okay?"

A hard, sarcastic smile touched his lips."I think the better question is, how's Andreas doing tonight? Looks like you two are having a nice, little reunion."

She took a deep breath, knowing that, before anything else, she had to explain why he'd just seen her with the guy who was, basically, the reason they were fighting. "Look, Andreas came up to me. Bought me a drink. I told him not to do that, and that was the end of it. Now," she searched Sehun's closed-off features, "can you answer my question? Are you okay? I was worried about you."

He smirked. "Besides being hung-over, and not in the mood for this conversation? Yeah, I'm just peachy." 

With their stalemate broken, he rested both elbows on the counter, the lapels of his chef's coat falling open with the motion, and glanced away. 

Usually, she loved the sight of him in the crisp, white double-ed ja