It was getting chilly, however Jinyoung did not wish to forfeit the feeling of the light autumn breeze and thus insisted on keeping the window slightly open while he enjoyed a cup of lady grey tea at Gureum. Although his attention was mostly focused on the scenery outside, his eyes would occasionally wandered towards Youngsoon, inadvertently following her every movement.

Somewhere inside him, Jinyoung was in search of any trace left from the candid smile that he had the honour of witnessing that evening when he dared to be honest with his emotional state. No matter how hard he searched though, Youngsoon’s smile was back to her disciplined and trained one, the very same one that she described as her armour. Sighing softly to himself, Jinyoung clung onto that memory, with the fear that it might all have been a dream. However, something felt different about the girl when Jinyoung saw her leave for work and he held onto the optimistic belief that maybe even just a little, he had helped her shed some of the weight of the armour that she was so used to wearing.

Leaning against the counter, Youngsoon was in a deep conversation with Irene who was holding onto two jars.

“This is the Thai tea I mentioned,” Irene explained while handing her the other jar. “And this one is a mix of the Thai tea and dahlia flowers since they are in season now.”

Opening the jar handed to her, Youngsoon lifted it to her nose and absorbed the delicate scent. Yongsoon’s face visibly relaxed as the aroma of the mixed tea transported her to some distant beach in Thailand decorated with bouquets of dahlias and other autumn flowers.

The snapping sound of a photograph being taken pulled Youngsoon away from the short-lived fantasy and when she opened her eyes, she came face to face with a proud looking Joy who was busy typing away on her phone.

“Cute,” Joy chirped. “I’ll send it to Mark oppa, he’ll definitely like this photo of you.”

“Wait what?” Youngsoon stuttered, unable to process all the information. “Send the photo to who?”

Even Irene looked surprised, it was a bit of a mystery how Joy would know Mark and was on such friendly terms with him.

“Oh you didn’t know?” Joy looked up from her phone and stared at Youngsoon while batting her eyelashes. “He reached out to me on Instagram. He figured out we’re good friends since I’ve posted quite a few photo of us together.”

“You’re just overactive on social media,” Yoongi commented, poking his head out of the kitchen. “But figures, Mark did say he stalks Youngsoon online.”

“Why’re you making it sound like I’m being used or something?” Joy frowned.

“In a sense you are.” Yoongi shrugged his shoulders. “Youngsoon is infamously known as being actively dormant on social media while you are the complete opposite, so for Mark who has been starved of content from his sister, you are the proxy and replacement.”

“I-he- maybe…” Joy mumbled in response.

Yoongi simply smirked, satisfied that Joy was unable to offer a counterargument.

“Kind of makes sense.” Irene nodded. “Mark’s been getting along well with Jinyoung too. Whether intentional or not, he’s gotten on the good side of two people who are very close to Youngsoon.”

“More importantly, they are the nephew and daughter of her boss,” Yoongi sniggered.

The smile on Youngsoon’s face stiffened even though she was certain Mark had no ulterior motives for approaching Joy and he had become close with Jinyoung purely because he was her neighbour. As if sensing the subtle shift in her expression, Irene playfully slapped Yoongi’s shoulders and the male retaliated by snarling at her like an angry wolf.

Youngsoon’s smile loosened when she saw Yoongi and Irene’s exchange and then, feeling a pair of eyes on her, she turned around and ended up looking straight into Jinyoung’s eyes. Jinyoung was actually heading to the toilet and out of habi