“Are you sure you’re going to be fine being alone?” Hyerim asks her younger sister once again.

She’s going out for her date with Taeil but she’s worried about leaving her sister by herself in the apartment. Hyerim is afraid Hyeyoon might have another panic attack with no one there to help her.

“Don’t worry unnie, have fun on your date!” Hyeyoon gently pushes her sister out of the apartment.

“Call me if you need anything!” Hyerim shouts before she leaves.

Hyeyoon nods and waves goodbye to her unnie. She’s glad that things are going well between Hyerim and Taeil. She’s never seen her older sister this way before and she hopes they’ll have a long-lasting relationship.

Thinking about relationships, Hyeyoon's thoughts wander to Jaehyun. Her cheeks heat up as she recalls everything that happened yesterday, except for the sasaeng attack which she absolutely wishes she could erase from her memory.

Jaehyun told her he was going to visit her today but he hasn’t called or texted her that he’s coming. She feels a bit disappointed that he didn’t keep his word but she tries not to let herself get too worked up about it. Maybe he’s busy with something urgent related to work and he needed to go to the company to deal with it.

Hyeyoon looks around the small apartment, trying to think of something fun or productive to do. She’s already done with all the housework and she’s finished reading all the books she bought. With nothing to do, she decides to lay on the bed and browse the internet on her cracked phone. Its screen got broken because of yesterday’s crazy encounter with the sasaengs but she doesn’t have any money to get it fixed or buy a new one.

She’s careful not to press too strongly on the shattered screen. She’s pretty sure she might get a cut from the small shards of split glass. She reads through a couple of articles on the internet that caught her attention.

About an hour later, she unexpectedly hears a knock on the front door. Caught in surprise, she suddenly presses on the screen too hard and ends up getting a small but harshly bleeding wound on her thumb.

“Ow!” she yelped. She gets up from the bed and runs to the sink to wash the blood off. She hears more knocks on the door, “just a moment please!” she says as she lets the water run through her wound.

It didn’t seem to have any effect as more blood continued to come out of the small graze. She hears the door open and someone taking their shoes off hurriedly. Hyeyoon turns around to find Jaehyun, who let himself in after becoming worried that something happened to Hyeyoon since she wasn’t opening the door.

“Are you okay?” he asks and immediately rushes to Hyeyoon’s side when he sees her hand covered in blood.

“What happened?!” he was holding a large white paper bag but he quickly places it on the floor and holds Hyeyoon’s bleeding hand.

Seeing his face scrunched up in worry, somehow comforted Hyeyoon. She pulls her hand off of Jaehyun’s grasp. Afraid that his hands might get covered in blood.

“It’s because of my cracked phone screen,” she says, feeling a little embarrassed.

Jaehyun finds Hyeyoon’s phone on top of the dining table and frowns when he sees its extremely damaged condition. He was about to tell her why she didn’t get it fixed but then he stops himself when he realizes she probably couldn’t afford it.

“Do you have any band aids here?” he starts to look around the kitchen cabinets and luckily finds a box of band aids right away.

He opens one and returns to where Hyeyoon was standing. The bleeding has stopped but the wound is still bright red. He grabs a couple of tissues and dabs her thumb dry before placing the band aid around it. He did it very carefully; making sure Hyeyoon wouldn’t feel anything at all.

“Thank you,” she tells him after he’s done.

“You’re welcome,” he says and plants a kiss on the back of her hand before letting it go.

“I thought you weren’t going to come, oppa” she admits, looking down on the floor feeling shy.

“I wanted to surprise you, look at this.”

Jaehyun removes a black box with a pretty pink ribbon from the paper bag he brought with him. He sets it down on the table and gestures for Hyeyoon to unwrap it.

“This is for me?” Hyeyoon asks in doubt. She didn’t think she deserves to receive any gifts from Jaehyun, let alone something expensive. Just from the box alone, she could tell it was costly.

Jaehyun nods and urges her to open it with a smile on his face, “please open it, Hyeyoon.”

She hesitantly unwraps the ribbon from the box and lifts the lid. A stylish leather handbag sits in the middle of white fancy wrapping paper inside the box. Hyeyoon has wanted to buy a nice bag such as this but she knows it’s too expensive and impractical for her to have.

“Do you like it?” Jaehyun says, looking at Hyeyoon’s expression which he couldn’t read.

“I do, it’s so pretty… but I don’t think I should accept this.”

“Why?” he kind of expected for her to say this.

“It’s too expensive and someone like me wearing this… I don’t think I suit it.”

“I wanted to give you a new bag since yours got ripped apart by those crazy girls yesterday… I didn’t want to see my girlfriend carrying her stuff around with just her hands.”

Hyeyoon’s heart skipped a beat when she heard “girlfriend”.

“I-I’m your girlfriend?”

“Aren’t you? Yesterday was our first day as boyfriend and girlfriend, right?” Jaehyun shows off his dimpled smile, making it difficult for Hyeyoon to concentrate on refusing his extravagant gift. Jaehyun was enjoying seeing her cute reaction.

“Ye-yes… I guess so, but still! I don’t think I should accept this bag right away! We only started dating yesterday oppa…” she returns the lid of the box and reties the ribbon.

Jaehyun sighs but he respects Hyeyoon’s refusal, “I understand. But how about I give you something else? Something that you really need!”

Before Hyeyoon could respond, Jaehyun grabs her broken phone from the table and shows it to her. “Let me buy you a new cellphone, please?”

“What? You don’t have to do that.”

“I’ll buy a nice one that’s not so expensive. Anyway, most phones cost way less than the bag I just bought you.”

Just how much does that bag cost? Hyeyoon wonders. She feels Jaehyun’s hand on her shoulders. He’s subtly guiding her towards the doorway.

“Let’s go buy one now, will that be alright with you?” he asks. Jaehyun wouldn’t force anything on her but he really wants to give something to Hyeyoon. A new phone is something that she needs and he wants to make up for the mess that their group’s sasaengs caused.

Hyeyoon stops and thinks for a few seconds before finally nodding which makes Jaehyun clap with joy. I guess getting a phone from her boyfriend would be okay plus she badly needs it. She doesn’t want to get any more cuts from her shattered screen. Her heartbeat quickens thinking about Jaehyun as her boyfriend.

“Let’s go!” Jaehyun says excitedly and takes her hand.

 

 

 

The rest of the days flew by. With NCT 127’s comeback in full swing, Jaehyun and Hyeyoon had no time to meet. Even though he wanted to spare a few minutes to visit Hyeyoon at her apartment after their schedules, Jaehyun decides it’s better if he didn’t. He has to be extra careful to keep the media and the sasaengs out of Hyeyoon’s way, especially since all eyes are on the members of NCT during their comeback promotions.

 

 

 

Wednesday morning, Yuta somehow finds time to go with Hyeyoon to the police station to settle the assault incident. Jaehyun wanted to go but he had a personal schedule with some of the other  NCT members.

“Thank you so much for reporting them to the police and for coming with me at the station today,” Hyeyoon says politely bowing to Yuta as they walk out of the building.

“It’s nothing really, those es- I mean sasaengs have been bugging us for months already. They deserve it! I am really glad you got compensated. But, you should have demanded for a higher price! 2 million won* is too little for what they did to you!”

(*2 million won = about 2,000 US dollars)

Hyeyoon laughs and shakes her head, “2 million is already a lot of money!”

“Are you hungry? I know a really great place nearby, let’s grab lunch before you head to the dorms and I go to my schedule,” he suggests.

“Sure! Please let me treat you to a meal to thank you for helping me, Mr. Yuta.”

“No! I should pay since I’m the older one here and please call me oppa. It feels too formal and awkward if you call me Mr. Yuta all the time,” he turns to her, smiling fondly.

Hyeyoon somehow reminds Yuta of his younger sister who’s in Japan. Being with her at the police department all morning, they had to do a lot of waiting since most of the officers were busy. The two of them found themselves enjoying each other’s company. Yuta has been feeling homesick after meeting his friends last Friday; they were his old classmates visiting from Japan. It made him miss his parents and sisters in his home country. But after spending the morning with Hyeyoon, he feels a little less homesick. It was as if he just spent time with his own sister.

“Follow me, my younger sister!” he says and starts walking.

Hyeyoon giggles and trails after Yuta. She unexpectedly finds his humor hilarious and she feels comfortable being alone with him. But she suddenly thinks about Jaehyun, he’ll probably be okay with me sharing a meal with Yuta, right? She thinks.

As if on cue, she feels her phone vibrating in her pocket. She feels her heart flutter from the thought of Jaehyun calling in to check up on her.

“Wait a minute Yuta oppa, someone’s calling me,” she tells him and they both stop walking.

“Let me guess, it’s Jaehyun?” Yuta raises an eyebrow.

“I think so,” Hyeyoon chuckles and grabs her phone from her pocket but she’s surprised to see that it was from an unknown number.

“Hello? Who is this?” she answers.

“Hyeyoon, it’s me. Your Auntie Mihyang! How are you?” Hyeyoon hears her aunt’s familiar voice.

“Auntie! I’ve been well! How about you? Are you and mom doing alright?”

“We’re both doing fine here in the countryside. It’s so difficult to get a signal in your town though! I’m visiting an old friend in a nearby town that’s why I could call you today.”

“Is that auntie?” Yuta asks. Hyeyoon nods and Yuta asks if he could say hello to her.

“I’m glad to hear that auntie. Please tell mom that I miss her and that me and Hyerim unnie are doing well here in Seoul. By the way, auntie, Yuta oppa would like to say hello to you,” Hyeyoon hands him the cellphone.

“Auntie! How are you? We miss you and your amazing cooking!” Yuta speaks happily on the phone. Hyeyoon could see that Yuta was genuinely excited to talk to her aunt.

“Yes auntie, Hyeyoon is a great cook just like you! Okay auntie, please take care of yourself and enjoy your break! I’m giving the phone back to Hyeyoon now,” Yuta returns the cellphone to Hyeyoon with a large grin, as if he talked with his own aunt which made Hyeyoon smile too.

“Hyeyoon, before I forget. I have something to tell you,” Aunt Mihyang speaks through the phone.

“What is it auntie?”

“I’ve decided to cut my break short, I’m going back to Seoul next week. I’ll arrive there this Sunday so you don’t have to work in the dorms on Monday.”

What? Aunt Mihyang is supposed to rest for 2 more weeks but she’s already going back to work?

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back to work auntie?” she asks.

“I’m getting bored here in the countryside and my side-dish customers might start leaving me if I don’t go back to selling! Well, I’m going to eat lunch with my friend now. Bye Hyeyoon and I'll see you on Sunday!”

“Goodbye auntie…”