Kyungha takes pride in having not gone to a single ball or dance. And for good reason. Firstly, she was obviously not a people-person. She could not for the life of her squeeze into spandex and wear an expensive dress, in which she had to be careful for the entire night. It was an indulgent thing for other people.

Not for her. She found that after working an average of forty-five hours a week, she’d learned to value sleep more.

So when the girl was finally done with another, excruciatingly long shift, she was excited to head home and get into the shower. After a full day, all she wanted was the feeling of hot water scorching her skin. Her bed was also tempting. She wanted to melt on the cloud of her bed.

But. That didn’t happen. Because Joohyun and Seulgi found her in the lobby with their sparkly, doll eyes—the I’m-up-to-no-good eyes. Kyungha is immediately and hopelessly trapped between them. Now, it wouldn’t be so bad. Normally, one of them would ask her to take the next outpatient while one of them took a short nap. She’d be fine with it because she’d have nothing better to do anyway.

Now was a different story. Her bed was calling her name, and she didn’t want to be here for a second longer.

Joohyun smiles, precisely the kind of smile that Kyungha wanted to run from. “Listen, Kyungha. The hospital foundation is holding a banquet tonight. Seulgi said she would come if you did too. So, I really, really need you to say yes.”

Kyungha smiles humorlessly, pretending she was as enthusiastic as the two. Well, she wasn’t. She gave Joohyun the exact answer the latter didn’t want to hear. Before she could continue walking, she’s held back.

“Why do you want to go in the first place?” Kyungha asks, but she wasn’t really curious.

Seulgi jumps. “We get to dress up? Hello! Look pretty for the first time since this grueling job? Besides, I gotta get my game on and find a rich guy to marry.”

Joohyun nods, “what she said. So, what do you say?”

Kyungha rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to spend a perfectly good evening in an uncomfortably stiff environment to satisfy your vanity.”

Seulgi juts out her lip. “Look, it’ll be fun.”

She shakes her head. “No, it really won’t be.”

“Honey, you don’t know what fun is. Your definition of fun is curling in front of a hundred-year-old textbook. I would drop dead,” Joohyun deadpans.

Kyungha merely shrugs. “Hey, to each her own. And Seul, if you want to go so badly, go with Joohyun. I don’t need to be there.”

Seulgi shudders. “I can’t be in the same room with her for more than an hour if I’m coming out of there alive.”

Joohyun looks half offended, half amused. “I’m just that charming.” She throws her hands up dramatically as if she was expecting a grand welcome.

Kyungha clicks her tongue. “I can’t be coerced into this. This is non-negotiable. The answer is—“

Someone, please educate her on what the hell she was doing in the middle of an unnecessarily overdone ballroom. The red carpet was brushed shiny. It felt like she walking on a giant red carpet, and Kyungha’s done that before.

It was like some person couldn’t attend his own movie premier and decided to DIY an entire place—only fancier and less useless. Scratch that, if the venue had cost as much as she guessed it had, it was a pretty useless way to spend money.

But Kyungha wasn’t here to judge anyone. She didn't want to be here in the first place. On either of her arms, Joohyun and Seulgi had locked their arms around her. She felt like she was playing Monopoly with Kyungsoo. Forced into it and scared for her life.

She gazed down at her intricate gown and black heels. If someone had offered her to wear this outfit for a million dollars, she would walk away without looking twice. Firstly, she didn’t need it. Secondly, she hated heels. They served no other purpose than being a pain in the .

Over the course of her life, Kyungha had developed a passionate hatred of high heels. She had attended enough movie premiers and afterparties for a lifetime. Jungkook hated wearing a suit and ties. Yeah, well, she hated being out and under the scrutiny of others.

Every time she attended social events, she always caught the attention of men. Only a handful of people in her life had called her beautiful, so she couldn’t confirm the status of that.

It was the legs. Her stupidly long legs.

Additionally, being the center of attention was the bane of her existence. She wasn’t Haeeun or Jongin. She didn’t shine in front of people. Instead, she felt like a robot. Kyungha couldn’t smile even if she were forced to. She’d look like she was on her way to kidnap children.

Joohyun and Seulgi didn’t seem to care about any of that. They marched alongside her like she was their trophy. Kyungha figured out what they were doing pretty quickly. They were trying to catch the attention of guys, yep—using her. If only they knew that she was terrible at speaking to people.

After a while, the two got bored and distracted by the lavish buffet table. They’d somehow wander off without telling Kyungha, so she was left alone, turning her head in every direction to find them. No luck. She was seriously annoyed.

And somehow along the way, she bumps into the person that she had least wanted to see. God, anyone but him.

Her stomach churns and does a weird flip. Sehun is right in front of her with loosely combed hair. She really badly wanted to brush the little strands away from his forehead, but then at the same time, the strands of hair make him ier. He’s wearing a cream suit that hangs off his frame in a boxy silhouette. It’s perfectly tailored to where his broad shoulders are the star. He’d ditched wearing a tie and sought out for a messy formal look with his collar ed, exposing the top parts of his pale chest and deep collarbones.

He didn’t pay attention to her, busy in conversation with Jongdae. Kyungha was completely fine with it. She was too busy pretending that she didn’t just do a deep analysis of his body anyway.

But Jongdae, his quick eyes set on her and the minute she hears his energetic voice calling her name. She knows she’s done for.

Kyungha can't avoid him, and she’s screwed. She ends up strolling up to them, pretending that she wasn’t dreading the next few minutes of her life.

Sehun’s smile from earlier—probably laughing from a joke Jongdae made—grows into something warm and vanilla. His eyes drag across her body with appreciation. Well, she didn't appreciate it because now, her stomach felt tingly again.

Jongdae is oblivious when he turns to address her. “Lovely to see you here. You look very beautiful, sweetheart.”

She notices something flash across Sehun’s eyes, but Kyungha isn’t fast enough to catch what exactly it was.

“Same to you, Dr. Kim,” she responds, ignoring the way Sehun’s dark eyes flit over her. Just how many times was he going to do this? She’d appreciate it if he could stop.

Jongdae hums, “call me Jongdae out of work. Dr. Kim is so…formal. It makes me sound old.”

Sehun doesn’t miss a beat when he says, “that’s because you are, Jongdae. Don’t call him that, sweetheart. It’s very unprofessional.”

Kyungha mentally rolls her eyes. What was he? A child? She wasn’t a prize that he could win at a fair.

Jongdae frowns, nudging his friend. “Do you suddenly have something up your or something?”

Sehun smiles arrogantly. “No, and by the way, your wife texted me earlier. She said if you didn’t pick up your phone, she’d expose you for using .”

This makes Jongdae’s eyes dart back and forth frantically. He stumbles to find his phone to see that it was indeed, dead. Panicked, he looks to them. “Forget everything you heard if you know what's good for you.” Then, he runs off in the opposite direction.

Kyungha scoffs, crossing her arms. “You’re still an . Nothing’s changed.”

Sehun ignores her insult, stepping closer until they’re inches apart. Being only an inch shorter than him, Kyungha had the advantage of not having to crane her neck to stare him down. “Oh, good. Do educate me. I’d love to know how I’m being one.”

She glares at him with more intensity. “This isn’t a game. I’m not a game. Stop trying to get involved in my life. And maybe I did need you a couple of weeks ago, but right now, I can tell you that I’m perfectly fine. In addition, all your presence does is become a hindrance to me. Why don't you just spare me?”

Sehun’s eyes glimmer with amusement. “You’re still adorable. I’ll give you that.” He boops her nose with his index finger before pulling away.

Her jaw ticks. When the hell was he going to take her seriously for once in his life? It was a useless question. She wasn’t going to stand around and wait for him. “I’m leaving,” she announces, turning her back to him.

“What if I tell you that I can offer you a really good deal you won’t be able to say no to?” His voice is slightly raised as if he wasn’t asking her a question—merely making a statement like he was confident he knew what her answer was.

Kyungha couldn’t resist. She turns around slowly, lifting a brow.

He continues, “of course, you can stay here and enjoy the company of all these lovely people—“ Snarky bastard. She wonders how satisfying it would feel to just throw a mean hook at his pretty face. “—or, you know, you could ditch with me and have the best night of your life.”

The edge of her lips raises in a mocking manner. “Oh Sehun and ‘the best night of one’s life’ simply do not go together. Nice try, though.”

She decides to leave for real, but he holds out a hand. “Sweetheart, you didn’t give me an answer.”

Kyungha rolls her eyes. “I choose ‘or.’ Happy?”

Sehun's eyes shine with a challenge. “No, I’d rather you choose the second one. I thought I made it seemed like the better offer.”

“I hated it.”

“What? Like you hated being my friend?”

She’s rendered silent. He catches her with an obnoxious aha. Without waiting for her answer, he takes advantage of her silent fuming and begins to pull her along with him. Kyungha tries to struggle, but frankly, his hands are just as strong as ever.

“Where are you taking me?” She blurts when they’re outside. He simply shrugs at her with a casual smile. She watches him hail a cab, and she catches the suit welding against his back, his muscles baring from underneath the fabric. She’s also distracted from the way his shoulder muscles flex when he reaches an arm up in the air.

When he turns around, she forcefully blinks out of her daze and pretends for the millionth time she wasn’t checking him out. Clearly not. Kyungha had taste. Maybe not great taste in men because she'd prefer old men. The ones who produced the textbooks that she herself was obsessed with. Not the men themselves but their work to be more accurate.

A cab pulls up beside the curb. He waves her in the backseat with him. She humors him because he was partly right—she’d rather not be back in the venue with curious eyes on her. In the cab, Kyungha pulls out her phone to text Seulgi and Joohyun that she was going home. The two girls were going to scream at her the next day, but Kyungha strangely didn’t dread it.

The taxi driver greets them with a quiet hello and he asks them where they were going.

Sehun tells him the exact address to her annoyance, so she’s still in the dark. When the car pulls up, she notices that they’re in front of a small shop. She still couldn’t tell where he was taking her.

“Have a lovely night, you two,” the driver says. Sehun and Kyungha turn to the shop. He offers her a hand, but she ignores it and continues walking.

“Where are we?” She asks, glancing inside the store window.

He hums, “they have awesome milkshakes.”

Kyungha snorts, “you made me ditch to get milkshakes with you? I’m leaving. I’m not even drunk enough for this.”

Sehun in a breath, shooting her a look. “Come on, sweetheart. You haven’t even had a taste of it yet. Don’t be a party pooper.”

She clenches her jaw. “Fine, ladies first.” She points to the door. He chuckles and struts in front of her, shaking his around to be funny. “You’re unbelievable.”

“I’ve been told by numerous people,” he notes, holding to the door out for her.

Kyungha scoffs, “I wasn’t trying to boost your ego.”

Sehun winks. "Being with you is already an ego booster.”

“Why is that?”

“Because you’ve always been guarded, but you let me hang around nonetheless, and I simply appreciate you.”

Her heart tap dances in her chest without her permission. She pushes forward on her feet, making her way toward the register. Sehun strides forward easily with his long legs. They were evenly matched, which only fueled her burning desire to take him down a notch.

Sehun holds a hand out to her. “Do you trust me?”

She answers honestly, “no.”

“Then trust me this once. I’ll blow your mind.”

Kyungha becomes uncharacteristically quiet as she moves back to let him take over. He speaks to the cashier who is as of now smiling nervously at Sehun. After a couple of minutes, he walks back to her. She hadn’t had time to appreciate the interior but Sehun had good taste. It was still as small as it looked outside, but it was comfortable and homey.

Mini black light bulbs strung the exposed wooden beams on the roof. Bookshelves lined the back walls. The interior consisted of polished brick and paintings of intricate art adorned the walls. She felt her breath catch in when he leads her to a bulletin board filled with polaroids and handwritten notes.

“They’re doctors…” She murmurs curiously, tracing over the pictures. She can recognize famous doctors who’ve pushed the medical field with their innovations and research.

Sehun nods. “The staff comes here a lot since it’s near the hospital.” Silence falls between them as she reads over the tiny notes. Then, he breaks it. “Do you like it?”

“I love it,” she answers, and Kyungha didn’t know who was more shocked. Sehun or her? She was being blunt as usual, but she didn't expect herself to drop her guard around him again.

“I’m glad. Come on, I challenge you to an extreme battle of Operation,” he says, nudging his head toward the main area again.

She scoffs, “oh please.”

Sehun lifts a brow. “Don’t underestimate me, sweetheart. I'm the reigning champion.”

Kyungha narrows her eyes. “We should bet.”

“Alright, what do you want? Money?”

She waves her hand. “A wish.”

He blinks. “A wish? What do you mean?”

“If I ask you to do something, you have to do it. You can’t say no,” she explains.

Sehun’s smile widens. “Let’s do three.”

“No, that’s so cliche of you.”

“Why? You scared?”

Kyungha crashes into him purposely when she walks by. “Of you? In your dreams, sweetheart.”

She ignores the flutters in her stomach when his quiet laugh brushes by her ear. He brings over the familiar board game. She couldn’t remember the last time she played it. Probably because Jungkook threw a fit when he found out Jongin was cheating. Then, Kyungsoo just banned playing board games because they were all too competitive, afraid that there would be bloodshed.

The game drops on the table with a plunk. She rubs her index finger of the nub of Cavity Sam’s nose.

“You’re going down, Oh Sehun,” she states matter of factly.

Sehun’s lip curls into a wicked smile. “We’ll see about that, sweetheart. I’m going to end this night with an extremely satisfying victory. I can't wait to use my wishes.”

Kyungha leans back, crossing her arms. “We should make this harder. Let’s play with our left hands.”

Sehun’s an experienced surgeon. He’s practically ambidextrous at this point, but Kyungha had to hope that she had a higher chance of winning. Maybe he was less steady on his left. She highly doubted that, but she was going to take whatever chance she had.

“Easy peasy,” he says, taking off of his suit jacket. Then, he pulls back the cuff on his left hand. She stares at his green veins that pop out when he flexes his wrist to his sleeve. Unfair. He wasn’t allowed to be this attractive. “Ladies first.” His voice picks up a mocking tone as he points to the deck of cards.

Kyungha clears , turning her attention back to the game. She draws the first card, flipping it over to read Water on the Knee. She would earn $150 if she successfully extracted the pail of water.

All those years of switching to her left hand, she became versed in both hands. Kyungha could use either hand to do everyday activities. It was an easy extraction.

Sehun draws the next card and extracts his object just as easily. Kyungha huffs. This was going to be down to whoever got the last card.

There are still several bones left, but each of them got half already, around the same amount. As of now, she was leading with 50$ ahead of him.

The cashier from earlier approaches them with a tray. Kyungha gapes at the large milkshake. It’s bigger than her forearm.

The milkshake is contained in a mason jar. Its rims were brushed in chocolate. The top was filled with whipped cream with two chocolate Pocky sticks and a thin strip of wafer, half brushed with white chocolate. She observed the tiny specks on chocolate shavings on the cream.

“The Kitty Kat,” the cashier informs them, placing it down to the right of the board game.

Sehun signals to the shake with his eyes. “Try it.”

Kyungha tentatively picks up the red and white paper straw. He nods at her, winking. She takes a sip, and wow, the girl had never had anything this explosively tasty.

“I knew you would like it.”

She takes another big sip, letting the bits of kit kats coat her tongue with the tasty sweet cream lingering. Kyungha closes her eyes, letting out a low, satisfied breath.

When she opens her eyes, Sehun is staring at her. His pupils dilate. She swallows. How was it possible for his irises to grow darker? Instead of the chocolate brown that she was familiar with, she was staring into black.

He blinks it away, and it was like she’s never even seen it. “Whose turn is it?” She blurts, trying to dissipate whatever weird tension fell over them.

Sehun’s gaze falls on the board game. “Right, it’s—erm—mine.” He easily wins the spare ribs.

Kyungha picks up her next card. A huge grin falls on her lips when she turns it over for him to see. “I win,” she announces with full confidence.

He his eyebrows. “No, sweetheart. You have to actually remove it first.”

“Fine, watch me demolish you.” She had gotten Bread Basket and the reward for it was $1000. It was by far the most out of every other ailment. She was already a couple of hundred bucks ahead of him. If she managed to extract it, it would be game over for him.

Kyungha inches closer to the board, carefully adjusting the tweezers in her hand. She successfully sticks her tweezer inside of the tiny space. As she begins fishing out the slice of bread, she becomes distracted by how close Sehun’s gotten to her all of a sudden.

Like her, he’s leaned all the way forward to watch her pull out her ailment. He doesn't seem to realize it either until their eyes meet. Kyungha freezes, every brain cell of hers blaring alarms. Abort, abort, abort, abort, abor— Her brain short circuits when he instinctively tilts his head.

Then, the sound of an obnoxious buzzer echoes from beneath her hand. She jumps back as if she’s been burned. Kyungha stares down at the board. She’d missed her shot. Her tweezers hit the side of the metal.

She drops it irritatedly. “You—you distracted me!” The girl points an accusing finger at him.

Sehun lets out haughty laughs. “I did nothing.” She watches him pull out the piece of bread that she’d positioned perfectly.

Kyungha groans. “You're a ing cheater—argh!”

He props an arm under his chin, tilting his head at her. “It was all part of the plan. I get three wishes. You can’t take back your word.”

“I hate you. I ing hate you so much,” she grumbles with zero sportsmanship whatsoever.

The edge of his lips curls into a boyish smile. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetheart.”

Kyungha knew she wouldn’t be able to get a wink of sleep. All her bravado has flown out of her into distant lands. She won’t be able to get the image of his lips out of her brain. She hatefully stares at the smug boy in front of her, wishing that she truly hated him.