The male rapper watched the flustered woman being supported by their group’s maknae. She had pretty much got herself really wasted. He did not remember having ordered heaps of alcohol. She probably bought her own beer or soju. Classic mong ji.

They had ended up at his restaurant for a get together dinner with the running man team and everyone was pretty much filled to the brim with the amount of meat he had provided for them. Everyone reeks of Korean barbeque, and food coma seemed to be hitting as he noticed some of the PDs had already bid their goodbyes. Perhaps they had family, which explained why both of his older hyung (Jae Suk and Suk Jin) left the dinner table just about an hour into the meal.

“Why did she even drink so much?” Haha questioned, while still trying to bicker small fight with the drunk female.

“Ah Gwang Soo,” Gary walked up towards the tall junior of his. “Get yourself back home, you live the furthest and you’ve got your drama filming tomorrow.”

“Hyung, are you acting like my manager now?” The maknae joked, and carefully allowed his noona to rest herself against her Monday boyfriend. “Are you sure? She is heavy,” something that could only be said when the sole female of the program wasn’t fully lucid.

Jong kook and Haha had decided to leave the responsibility to Gary to deliver the female home safely, stating that he should be doing his job. Haha always knew he had a mild crush towards the actress, and it was a torn feeling between appreciating his good friend’s gestures or blaming him for causing him to fall a little deeper.

He hailed down a cab and passed the driver her address.

“Is she okay? Will she vomit?” Questioned a very worried driver.

Gary pulled out a plastic bag and held it close towards Ji Hyo, assuring the driver that he got the potential vomiting situation under control. He glanced, once a while at the sleeping female who was leaning herself against the window glass. She was already letting out soft snores.

The city lights still lit brightly, even though it was almost 12am. The streets still seemed a little busy for a Monday night. The ride seemed smooth, only to be disrupted by a sudden halt causing the female beside the rapper to jolt up, eyes half closed as she tried her very best to assimilate into her surrounding.

“Ya Jihyo ah, we are on the way back to your home,” Gary explained and chuckled a little as he heard the minor groans coming from her.

“Oppa…” her words slurred from her drunkenness, “I don’t feel so good,” she said and threw her head back, forcing her eye shut.

Gary tilted his head a little and turned his body to face her. “Where?”

The next thing he knew, the female had opened the door of the cab and clumsily made her way out. Confounded, the male shouted loudly as he quickly grabbed his wallet and made payments to the driver. “Sorry, we will stop here!”

The driver was shouting, probably to warn him that they weren’t allow to just alight in the middle of the road but Gary could not care less, and was frantically chasing down Ji hyo with a few cars honking in the background. She had one of her hand on her knee, and another against her chest as she threw up the content she had earlier on from dinner.

Gary quickly made his way towards her along the roadside. He could hear her vomit hitting the floor and the sound probably had caused her to throw up even more. She sank to her knees, and Gary followed. Ji hyo was avoiding eye contact with him, and Gary knew she was embarrassed at the sight she was giving him. He sighed a little, and held her hair up, preventing any form of residue getting into her hair.

It was about 30 minutes later Gary had found himself following the lady along the path of Han River with snacks in his hands and a bottle of water. She had conveniently stopped by the 24hrs operation mart to get herself some snacks. Which of course, he had to pay for it.

Ji Hyo had refused to return home for the moment, and despite pushing her oppa to get into a cab and get himself home, he disapproved and loosely followed her as she made her way around the river.

“Oppa, get yourself home please, it’s almost 1,” Ji hyo grunted, and sat herself down on the grass. She must be really tired. “My mum would give me another earful if I return home reeking of alcohol so strongly,” she let out a soft giggle, causing the male rapper to take a sit next to her.

“I think you should really go home Ji Hyo,” Gary said firmly, only to receive a sight of her plopping herself down grass as she let out a loud sigh of relief.

“I promise I will go home, plus I’ve a shoot tomorrow,” she said, laughing and touching her beet red face. “I’m still heating up. Just 20 more minutes.”

Gary leaned back and used both his arms as his support. He listened to the female next to him complained about her busy schedule for the week and how she had been trying to lose weight after all the pent-up stress eating. He let out laughs in between and joked around with her.

“55kg,” he said, and wasn’t surprised when the female had sat herself up and gave him a beating.

“Ya!” She raised her voice tersely. “Who said I’m 55kg!”

“I carried you before so I know how heavy you weigh. You weigh exactly the same as the punching bag Jong Kook hyung has in the gym he usually visits,” finishing his sentence, he let out a laugh and briefly raised his hand to block himself from another round of beating.

“Oppa!” Ji Hyo pushed him, annoyed. She seemed to have forgotten about her composure as she gracelessly tried to get on top of her work partner. Punishment at its highest, tickling had always been Kang Gary weakness and he squirmed under her.

“Ya! Ji Hyo ah!” Gary was twisting his body in a way to avoid the tickles he was receiving, and with a cheeky grin plastered on his face, he grabbed both of her arm and pushed her down.

She was a fighter, always had been. She tried to bit into his knuckles that was holding her down, causing Gary to tighten his grip. “Ah, oppa, it hurts!”

“Promise me you won’t tickle me anymore!” He said, “Promise me!”

Ji Hyo decided that it was fruitless trying to fight so instead, she let out an annoyed grumble. Gary smiled, knowing he had won over the battle. Running man members were just competitive by nature. A strong gust of wind blew, shaking them up to reality as had they not realize, Gary was hovering on top of Ji Hyo after all that wrestling, they had.

“Get off me!” Ji Hyo briefly kicked him, causing him to fall next to her. “Ah, now my clothes are dirty.”

“You laid down here first,” Gary argued. His face was a little red from the thought of how close he was with her, but felt immediate comfort knowing that he could use the idea of alcohol as a cover up. “You should stop drinking so much from now on, you can’t seem to control your alcohol intake.”

Ji Hyo grimaced, “I am Song Ji Hyo!” She said confidently, causing the male sitting beside him to let out a soft chuckle. “I am able to handle my alcohol. Why do you care?”

Gary rolled his eyes. “You knew I always care for you.”

There was a moment of silence, and he wasn’t sure was it his words that made her kept mum or was it just her blanking out once again. “Mong Ji,” he woke her.

“Ah oppa, stop saying all these. Especially when we are alone.”

Gary had always love teasing. “So are you shy when we both are alone?” He chuckled as he felt a push against his arm. She indeed was shy.

“Ya Ji hyo, why are you so elusive?” He finally questioned.

Gary was someone who always tried when it came down to Love. It had been a while since the last time he felt this close to a particular female, and that odd jittery feeling he received whenever she shook him off onset due to his persistently flirtatious attitude towards her. He had told Haha that an interest had spark for the sole female member of the team, which he immediately regretted his decision as now it seemed as if every time the good junior and friend of his would find a chance to (openly) pushed him to be near Ji Hyo. And not to mention, discrete is definitely not in Haha dictionary.

“What?” Ji Hyo grumbled. It seemed like the alcohol had not fully worn off yet.

“Are you pretending?” Gary pressed, leaning towards her. “Is it because you’re shy?”

“Kang Gary!” She raised her voice, “If you’re going to be like this, I am going to leave this place right now!”

“So, you can leave right now? Why have you been just staying then?” Gary questioned, before a light smirk appeared on his face as he caught the flustered Ji Hyo biting down onto her bottom lip. Cute, as always. Gary thought.

“Okay fine, I will leave now,” Ji Hyo stood up immediately, only to have her hand caught by the sitting male. “Don’t be mad,” Gary pouted, “I’m just kidding.”

“Ya Kang Gary, you’re seriously annoying.”

He shrugged cutely. “Can you stay a little more?”

It took about a couple of seconds before a soft grunt escaped the actress’ lips. She sat back down and noticed that the male rapper was moving himself slightly closer to her. She would like to blame the cold weather for his action.

Gary grinned cheekily like a small kid. With the intention of having his arms around Ji Hyo, he opened up his arms pretending to be stretching. She caught him and moved herself forward. “Are you this childish?”

“Just trying my luck,” he chortled. “You seem to be warming up to me.”

“Since when?” A disgusted look.

“You stayed,” Gary shrugged, plopping himself back down onto the grass. He moved his hands secretly to grab onto the hem of her maroon jacket in case she had decided to leave.

“Ya, I’m still a little heated up. I’m not staying for you.”

Letting go of her jacket, he raised his hands to her cheeks and felt for her temperature. The actions of his had caused the female to flinch away. “You’re not heating up anymore,” Gary said. “And it’s almost 3 now. I guess you must have really drunk a lot that 3 hours, 1 sandwich, 1 cup ddeokpoki is not enough to metabolize the alcohol.” Sarcasm was definitely applied.

“I drank like, 10 bottles of beer,” Ji hyo made up an excuse. “If you’re so annoyed with me staying for this long, I will go somewhere. I didn’t ask you to stay either.”

Standing up once again, her hand was caught by him. This time round she tried to walk away, but Kang Gary was also known as Mr Random Capable. His strength was overpowering her or was it perhaps she was just enjoying the idea of how this male colleague of hers, with his forever persistently flirtatious attitude, tried to stop her from leaving. “Ji Hyo,” Gary tightened his grip on her hand. “Stay a little longer, please?”

“Why?”

“I rarely get the chance to be alone with you,” he explained coolly. “And I kinda enjoy the sight of drunk Mong Ji.”

Ji Hyo could not help but to hide her giggle as she felt her heart fluttered with his words. She maintained her annoyed image and shook his hand off. She knew he was teasing. “It’s just tonight that I over drunk. Just tonight.”

Gary loved the idea of teasing the blur head standing in front of him. She had always been playing that push-pull game with him, making him return home head full of questions and having to spend hours in the shower to decipher the little micro actions of hers during the times of filming. “Just tonight?” He questioned, only to be receiving a nod coming from her. “Then, if it’s just tonight, can I kiss you?”

Oh yes, he had prepared himself to be mocked, to get beaten up, to be scolded, to be nagged or to be ‘woken up’ by the stunned woman. He was very much prepared to be having some awkward moment with her during filming and hoping that his question would eventually desensitize in her mind. He was so well prepared to be rejected, to be brushed off and to not having her sit next to him during lunch break. So, Kang Gary was definitely surprise when the female standing in front of him had actually knelt down to his level, let out her usual classic annoyed grumble with one of her hand grabbing onto his shoulder. 

“Hurry up,” she said, staring straight at him.

His eyes widened a little, but deep inside he was screaming like a happy love-struck teenager. “Really?”

“Hurry!” Ji Hyo chided.

“How am I going to do it when you’re staring at me?” Gary argued, feeling his face heating up a little. It was definitely the alcohol.

“Do you want it?!” She was getting annoyed, and he could tell she was really embarrassed with the whole situation.

“Ah seriously am I supposed to kiss you with your eyes wide open staring at me like this?”

Gary could tell her ego and pride was definitely her Achilles’ heel when it boiled down to love. Or maybe she was just being the alpha female she usually was. She still refused to kiss him despite the opening Gary had provided her. If he was going to bring up her flustered face, he knew he would be knocked down with the argument that it was alcohol instead, and never was because of him.

“Forget it, you’re seriously such a trouble –“

Gary leaned in, capturing her soft lips and cutting her off in the midst of her sentence. He could taste the lingering alcohol left in her, and he believed he would taste the same too. He just did not expect her to have such soft lips, and he definitely did not see it coming when the blur head was actually returning the kiss.

They pulled away after a solid minute. They stared at each other, before a frown marred Ji Hyo’s face. “Ya, it’s just – “

Before she could finish, Gary had leaned in for another kiss. How could he resist her? His hands slipped across her waist, pulling her a little closer. He was then pushed away, with a grin smeared across his face.

“You kissed back,” Gary plainly said, before losing his composure and quickly covered his face. He let out an embarrassed scream and brought his knees to his face, allowing him to hide himself even more.

“Kang Gary, if you – “

“I kissed Song Ji Hyo!” He cheered, with both his arms raised.

Ji Hyo could not help but to chuckle at the sight in front of her. “It’s just tonight okay. The alcohol is burdensome.” She stood up, and he immediately followed. She really, really should have known better not to create any form of romanticize relationship with her colleague, but there was no one as innocent as Kang Gary.

Gary happily followed the steps of the female, all the whilst trying to hold her hand which, to his surprise again, had allowed him to. “Ji Hyo ah, if it’s just tonight, do you want to stay over with me?”

He received a kick in his , before she stomped off.

Maybe we should have more dinner gathering. Gary thought, and smiled as he chased after the dark-haired female.