Eunhye thought the program was a drag and realized should have stayed in her room. This was the third time she had been to this event and it was almost the same opening speech every time. The possible investors introduced their companies, more than half of them foreigners.

"We need to present it in English," Wonwoo realized. "Those two companies might actually have a use for our app." He was pointing to two company representatives, one from France and the other from the US.

"I'll do it," Changkyun volunteered. The guy lived in Boston for some years so he was confident with his English. 

The discussion went for hours. They were served lunch, giving them two hours for the buffet before the next set of activities. Eunhye lined up along with the others, Wonwoo right behind her. He saw her longingly checking out the crab sushi, seeing for himself what Sunmi warned him about her rebellious side. She liked to eat small portions of those food she was allergic to. Wonwoo pushed her head with one finger, forcing her to look away from it.

As Mark filled his plate, he could not help but check out whatever Eunhye was putting on hers. In buffets like these, she would always find a way to slip in stuff she was not supposed to eat when he was not looking. Mark even stopped eating those she were allergic to, just so she would not be able to steal them from his plate. He looked at where she was and found Wonwoo taking something off her plate, suspiciously looking like buttered shrimp and putting it back where she got it. He watched Wonwoo pulled her away from the table with Japanese cuisine altogether. It seemed like someone else became her food police now.

"Hyung," Jackson, a close hoobae came to him. "I thought you don't eat crabmeat."

"Why not?" Mark said, placing a couple more bites of crab sushi on his plate. The two of them went back to their table, their plates full.

Eunhye came back to their table shortly after that, with nothing but a chicken cutlet and a potato salad. L noticed this and laughed.

"That's new," he commented. 

"Shut up," she told him. "I don't have the appetite anyway."

They were from the same school so they were assigned to the same table, which was circular, so she was in direct line sight with everybody, including her ex. Eunhye felt weird that she could look at him now straight in the eye without the urge to look away, or without that knot in her chest whenever she remembered that time when she found him and Sana in liplock. She was not really the forgiving type.

Eunhye felt her phone vibrate. She checked it and felt the muscles on her face tighten upon seeing the notification.

CS5.Tuan: Can we talk?

**********

When the evening program was about to end, Eunhye excused herself to go to the bathroom, but actually went and took a detour, leaving the hotel altogether. She did not feel like talking to Mark and she did not want to have to mingle with Wonwoo for now. She found a manhwa cafe, which was open 24/7. She got a private booth and picked four different volumes which she just skimmed through. This was the only closed place she could stay for a long time.

She got texts both from Wonwoo and L (and one from Mark), asking her where she was after the event. She told L she had to buy some stuff and went to get it, promising to be back soon. She ignored both Wonwoo and Mark.

Mark wanted to talk. She did not. She knew at this point that whatever explanation she had, it did not change the fact that they could not get it back to whatever they had before. She kept trying to convince herself that it was just because she had moved on already.

Wonwoo was... Well Wonwoo was Wonwoo. He was everywhere and it was overwhelming. It annoyed her that she found herself looking for him when he was not in her line of sight or when he was not there beside her. She should not be feeling that way towards him.

Her phone vibrated as a call came in, showing a picture of a black poodle. She answered it. lying down on the huge cushion. 

"Yep?" She pulled up her most nonchallant voice. "What?"

Chanyeol could read through her though. "L said you ran."

"No, I was bored," she said, opening a manhwa as if that would convince him somehow. "It was the same speech from three years ago. I don't even know why i'm here."

He chuckled. "I do."

"Shut up." She checked her battery, realized she forgot to bring a charger with her. "I would ask for a run but my battery's running low."

"Did Mark say anything?" Chanyeol said. "I should have joined you instead of him."

"Nah," she said scrunching her nose. "It's fine, really. Other than being stuck in the elevator, nothing bad happened."

"What?" Chanyeol's voice suddenly became too loud she had to put the phone away from her ear. She put her foot in again. "What do you mean stuck in the elevator?"

She told him about what happened, except for the detail about how she managed her panic attack.

"At least Wonwoo was there," Chanyeol said,  genuinely sounding relieved. "What did he do? Did he know you were claustrophobic?"

She paused, remembering Wonwoo's soothing voice telling her she was going to be okay. She bit her lip, thankful that her friend was not there to see how red her face was. "He does now," she replied, choosing to answer his second question. "And then they gave me huge amounts of courtesy refreshments afterwards. It was a party."

"Hmmm. Changing the subject," Chanyeol noted. "Well, where are you anyway?"

She looked around, feeling a slight catch in at the site of the four walls that were closely around her, but the top was open so she was not really caged in. "In a manhwa cafe," she answered. He was miles away anyway so it was fine. He would not run and make her feel like she was a nuisance to everybody. "They have really good stuff here, I might end up sleeping over."

"Stupid. Go back to the hotel and sleep on an actual bed. After that elevator incident you should be asking for the presidential suite."

Eunhye chuckled. "Maybe later." 

She soon ended the call, somehow feeling comforted. She kind of felt alone in that room full of people, and she got tired of having to socialize. She was not an actual participant so she did not see the need of faking too many smiles. It w