Hyemi was on her way, walking on the courtyard accompanied by her friends when Haewon ran in front of them, saying hi in her overly chirpy voice. After Haechan chided her for leaving the house on her own he fastened his pace and walked ahead, huffing and puffing. 

“Unnie!” Haewon turned to Hyemi. “Can we go to a nail salon and shopping after?”

“Sure.” she smiled and patted her head. 

“Yah, Park Nari, wanna come?” the younger turned back to face her.

“Yah? Park Nari? Yah!” the red-haired girl shrieked and pinched Haewon’s cheek, the girl yelping. “Show some respect! Respect!”

Haewon has been staying with them for five days already and both Nari and Haechan slowly started to reach the peak of their patience. Johnny on the other hand, surprisingly got along well with the girl, treating her like a little sister. He lent her his old phone so he could call her in every hour, making sure she was okay, he took her out for lunch and even let her use his laptop. 

“Park Nari-ssi, may you join us?” she asked mockingly.

“Annoying brat.” the elder groaned.  “I’ll pass. I have an appointment.”

“What appointment?” Haewon raised an eyebrow.

“A appointment.” Haechan yelled back. 

Nari lurched forward and got him in a headlock, Haechan yelping and screeching while the girl pinched his ear. Jaehyun and Hyemi let out a tired sigh simultaneously while Johnny just shook his head in disapproval. Those two will never grow up. 

“Eww.” Haewon scrunched her nose then turned to Johnny with expectant eyes. “What are you drinking?” she reached her hand but Johnny held his cup in the air.

“It’s spicy and disgusting. You won’t like it.”

“I can see it’s iced coffee! Give me some!” she jumped up a few times but still was no match for Johnny the Tree.

“No, you’ll be high on sugar and I can’t deal with you when you’re hyper.” he put his palm on her forehead and pushed her away gently.

Haewon huffed and crossed her arms. “I’m not a child!” she whined.

“You ing are.” Nari muttered under her breath.

“Oh Lord Jesus, what the is she doing here? ing .” Haechan stopped his track and stared straight ahead. 

At the gates there stood a luxurious looking, petite girl with folded arms. Her fur coat screamed expensive, her sunglasses covered her whole face. She was leaning against the wall, standing proudly in her black, stiletto boots. The students gave her curious looks as they passed her but she wasn’t fazed by them. When she’s spotted Haechan she started walking towards him, seemingly furiously. 

“Who’s she?” Nari nudged the male with her elbow. 

Haechan gulped then heaved a sigh. Now he’s in deep . Nari will bite his head off for keeping this from her, but he didn’t have time for that right now because Yoojung was almost in front of him. 

“My future fiancée. .” he groaned back an answer.

“YOUR FUTURE FIANCÉE?” Nari, Johnny and Jaehyun asked in unison.

“Are you kidding me?” Nari half shouted half whispered, pulling Haechan closer by the arm.

“Do I ing look like I’m kidding, Park?” he shot back, swatting her hand away. 

“I don’t know, you’re an so probably.” she crossed her arms, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, we gonna do that today too? You wanna fight?” 

“You’re the one keeping a secret as big as this!” Nari cocked her head towards the approaching girl. “You ing ! Am I really your friend?”

“Shut up, she’s coming. Oh , oh !” Haechan stood rooted to the ground as panic washed over him.

“Yah, you are fuc…” Haewon started but Johnny was quick to cover .

“Don’t even dream about saying bad words.” he let her go but put the straw of his coffee in . “Drink, don’t speak.”

Hyemi’s known about the girl already. After their first meeting, Haechan had called her angrily, complaining about how the girl he was supposed to marry was a gangster, cursed the whole time and was a pain in the . Hyemi had tried to console him, saying it might have been a hard step for her too and not everyone could handle situations the way he could. Just give her time, she’d told him and Haechan groaned and whined in response.

“Lee Haechan.” the girl stopped in front of him, she took off her sunglasses, her eyebrows were furrowed, making her look like an angry puppy.

“How may I help you, Yoojung-ssi?” he inquired politely, in his sweetest voice.

“Omo!” Haewon gasped and grabbed the girl’s hands, startling Yoojung. “You going to be my sister-in-law?” 

She swatted away her hands. “That’s why I came. I felt obligated to inform you that I am going to run away and I have no intention to marry you.” she stated firmly. 

“Oh God, here goes the weekly drama episode like I’m Song Joongki or Lee Minho. Listen here, Miss.” he heaved a sigh. “Do you have a boyfriend right now?”

Yoojung was taken aback by the sudden question but quickly collected herself. “No.”

“Then do you happen to have a crush on someone?”

“No, but…”

“Then,” he continued. “Why do you want to run away? We met once.”

The others were quietly watching the exchange. Even Nari was at a loss of words.

“I don’t want an arranged marriage. I don’t want to be a trophy wife who cannot do anything on her own. I want to travel, I want to learn about new cultures, I want to explore the beauty of the world.” she said dreamily. “I just cannot sit at home waiting for my husband.”

“Who the hell said that you cannot do ?” he asked incredulously. 

Yoojung shifted her weight from one leg to another as she blinked rapidly. “Well… Isn’t it like that?”

“Yoojung-ssi. You seem like a reasonable girl. I know this situation is not the best for us but as I said we only saw each other once. I won’t stop you doing your own things, you can travel and explore I don’t care, just bring me a fridge magnet every time. We didn’t even have the chance to talk properly. Running away does not solve the problem it would just add fuel to the fire. Do you want your parents to handcuff you to a table again?”

Jaehyun and Johnny shared a baffled look, Nari letting out a loud ‘what’ with a horrified expression. 

“No.” Yoojung hung her head.

“You sure it’s not a scripted drama?” Jaehyun leaned closer to Hyemi, whispering. When Hyemi just shrugged, he raised his voice a bit, but still was whispering. “She was handcuffed, Hyemi! Handcuffed!”

“Another normal day in Lee Haechan’s life I guess.” she replied with a nod.

Haechan let out a tired sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose. “There’s a café over there. Come on Gangster, my treat.” he grabbed her hand and started pulling her but she stood on her heels and stopped. Haechan peeked at her then turned to face her. “I just want to talk. We should get to know each other, right? We can be friends at least.”

“F-friends?” she stuttered and was agape. 

“Yeah.” he nodded with a warm smile that eventually convinced her to go with him. “See you guys at home.” he waved, not looking back at his stunned friends.

“Haechan is so cool.” Jaehyun stated and the others nodded in confirmation.

“Whatever.” Haewon shrugged and turned to Hyemi. “We’re still going to the nail salon, right?”

“Sure.” she nodded. 

Johnny bid them goodbye since he had to go to work, Nari and Haewon were bickering as they were walking down the street to the bus stop. Hyemi was about to say goodbye to Jaehyun when he held her wrist and spun her around.

“Can I call you when you got home?”

“Yes, but why?” 

“I just want to hear your voice before I sleep.” he smiled, showing his dimples. 

“You’re such a sweet talker.” she laughed and peeked at their intertwined fingers. “I’ll call you after dinner, okay?”

“Sounds good.” he pulled her in a hug and pecked the top of her head. Hyemi s her arms around his waist and tiptoed so she could plant a soft kiss on his lips. 

Nari tilted her head to the side just when the two kissed. Her smile reached her eyes. The two has started to show affection towards each other in public these days and Nari thought it was a really big step for her friend, even though they weren’t official. Yet. She was glad Hyemi was happier and finally she could see that mischievous glint in her eyes. She was lively again. Nari pondered on the thought of love. She has never felt those feelings for anyone in her life and wondered if ever she would be in love. 

“ off!” Nari hissed at the male who grabbed her arm, pulling her closer. 

“Ay, don’t be like this Nari!” the male cooed and she felt like throwing up.

Nari wasn’t the being-in-love type of girl. She’s dated many times and she likes to flirt but she hasn’t felt those butterflies in her stomach of which Hyemi has talked about thousands of times. She didn’t really care about love, she just wanted to have fun, and despite carefully choosing her one-night-stands, she became the notorious Femme Fatale of Hanyang University, some thinking she was an easy target. But Nari isn’t like that, she doesn’t just sleep around with anyone and that jerk grabbing her arm was really trying her patience.

“Park Nari!”

She looked at the direction of the voice calling her name. Nakamoto Yuta was running towards her with an ear-to-ear smile and stopped after a small jump.

“Yuta?”

“Sorry for making you wait. Oppa’s here now.” he stated jokingly. “We can go, come on!” he nodded, his grin still apparent. 

Nari furrowed her eyebrows, not really recalling if they arranged a meeting. They haven’t even talked since summer. Yuta’s smile merged into a dangerous frown as he scrutinized the male grasping Nari. 

“What are you doing? Let her go.” he spoke up in the lowest voice Nari’s heard him, his eyes shot daggers at the male.

She felt a familiar feeling and her heart skipped a beat. She knew that look on a male’s face. That look meant trouble if the other won’t let her go in less than 10 seconds. 

She brushed the male off of herself and combed her hair with her fingers. “I’m sorry but as you can see I have a date.” she turned tail and rushed to Yuta who offered her his hand, Nari taking it with a sheepish smile. They walked away and when the other man wasn’t within hearing distance she turned to Yuta. “Thank you for saving me. He’s gone, you can let me go.”

Yuta shrugged, his addicting smile back on his face, his grip tightening around the girl’s hand. “Now that we’re here, we can really have a date if you’re free. I treat you to lunch, what d’you say?” he winked at her and Nari stopped breathing for a second. “I missed you.” he confessed, staring at his feet. “I’ve been thinking what went wrong, you know. Between us.”

“Yuta…”

Nari stopped walking, making Yuta stop in his tracks too. Yuta’s been her regular and for a moment Nari had thought that she finally found the one. But then something changed. Yuta has started distancing himself, eventually stopped looking for her. It was because of the rumors, Nari thought. They call her a even though they don’t even know her and Yuta probably believed those rumors, so Nari just let him go. She didn’t feel the strength to fight for him. 

Yuta held both her hands and pulled her closer, speaking in a cute accent. “I like you, Nari.”

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