Past the morning as well as afternoon knowing about the rumor, every new customer would enter the café & Hyerin would doubt them for a suspecting fan, who may have come to drag her out thinking her as the sasaeng.

What if Jinho gets to know about this incident?

Of course she can explain to him, but she was still very nervous about going through the fear of her café being the center of the topic too, along with her now.

Overthinking was not in her control, realizing that this crisis wasn't really her concern, but situation over situation was freaking the hell out of her, especially the involvement of her cafe now.

She would have to explain it again & some other customers would hear that again & spread it more in the town then & then slowly her café would turn into an empty room with her food going waste & tables around being empty forever, being the obvious result.

All kinds of worst scenarios were running down her mind like a flipping camera roll in front of her eyes.

“Noona, I’m going to an interview tomorrow” she was startled by Jinho’s cheerful voice who was standing at the reception, leaning on the desk in front of her, where Hyerin was sitting lost in her thoughts.

“Oh! Really?” “Congratulations” she smiled as cheerfully as she could, looking up from the registers she had on the desk, “All the best & Do well” she went back to writing the record again after a short & quick cheering as JinHo took the bar-stool near him to sit.

“No free coffee to you then” she said with her eyes fixed down with a stern voice.

“Alright” Jinho mocked her before unlocking his phone in his hand, sitting down on the stool.

These siblings were three years apart from each other but other than calling Hyerin ‘noona’ JinHo didn’t behave anything like a dongsaeng to her. He was demanding, spoilt brat, culprit of all the mischief, and Hyerin was his all-time trouble-shooter noona & savior of him, who saved him everytime from their nagging mom, but often got herself involved as the victim to his crazy-head pranks as a result.

Although Jinho was the only person Hyerin missed in those five years, when she was away in Paris.

He used to call her often, for the former two years, as he missed her too, but after going to high-school, his life got as busy as any high-schooler, surrounded by a huge lot of friends & fun then, but they still had small talks then on random phone-calls in that time as well.

Even though he was a social butterfly he felt lonely sometimes without Hyerin in the family when he was alone around his mother.

Jinho was a human magnet, he could attract any person just by talking to them, and Hyerin kept wondering how it was that easy for him all the time, as she hardly had any friends in the school & even college in Paris for that matter.

The siblings were opposite but loved each other way too much for that matter.

For everyone else, Hyerin was a escaper, who left her family & was the one who got her mother sick leaving her alone in their hardest time, according to all their relatives, but for Jinho, she was the hero, who flew off to get her passion & came back as a patisserie from Paris, he was proud of her & always respected her for being so confident about her passion. He liked how brave his noona was to take such a step in that young age of hers.

When Jinho would encourage Hyerin about her passion, he often reminded her of their dad’s dreams, he had seen for her, and she thought about it a lot, how Jinho had got his cheerful & optimistic kind of behavior from their father.

She looked up to notice JinHo busy with his phone, “What happened about the sasaeng you were talking about in the morning?” Hyerin brought it up carefully enough to not be obvious.

JinHo was scrolling his phone when he heard Hyerin, he looked up in the split next second with the mention of shinee, “Very unusual of you” he was observing her with suspicious eyes, “You scold me other times even when I mention them & now you’re asking about them?” Jinho was staring at Hyerin, who had pulled her head down in the register to prevent her curious eyes from getting caught now.

“Are you falling for them finally?” His teasing voice made her embarrassed of her dilemma of asking him of all people, so that she could at least think of a solution beforehand.

“Of course I knew you’ll turn into a Shawol when I saw you humming Replay for the whole day, last week” he smiled sheepishly at her when Hyerin looked up to face him with eyes watching him in confusion.

"I was?" “When?” she blinked at him when the memory was conveniently erased from her mind, as she was subconsciously hooked on that one song of Shinee for the day after hearing it on JinHo’s playlist that morning.

“Stop talking so much & answer me first” Hyerin roared, widening her eyes at JinHo to stop him from acting up & teasing her more.

“Noona was even staring at taemin’s poster in my room this morning” "Don't lie!" "I saw you standing in front of my room earlier" he wasn’t going to lose his chance of teasing his anti-idol noona, who loved his favorite group’s songs but never admitted that she was eventually a fan then.

“Are you having a crush on him these days?” JinHo was enjoying it now by seeing Hyerin flustered face & red flushed cheeks.

Though he couldn’t stop thinking why his noona who always sulked about him being a fanboy, was getting interested in Taemin specifically since the last few days, when she would always stop him from talking about him otherwise, saying it was a waste of her time & his too.

“Let it be” "My bad I asked you” Hyerin replied frustrated as Jinho let out a soft laugh on her reaction.

“All the posts were deleted which contained those rumors” “I guess it was just a rumor spread by antis to ruin the comeback” JinHo explained as Hyerin had her ears up for it immediately.

“You mean all the posts were deleted?” “Is it possible so quickly & easily to delete all these social posts?” Hyerin asked in surprise about how her worries were put to rest at once with this news.

“Yeah!” Jinho smiled confused at his noona acting far unusual than before, “It can be done with the help of professional help most of the times'' Jinho explained as Hyerin nodded her head in understanding, “Maybe some shawols in the profession must have interfered this as Taemin is having a comeback or it’s even possible that the company interfered for once to avoid the misunderstanding” Jinho continued, as Hyerin was silently listening to his brief but detailed explanation, “But it’s rare for the management to do so!?” “How did they even knew so early about it?” Jinho himself was in confusion knowing how the company rarely interfered in the fandom interactions & this topic was still in the inner circle of their fandom to be acknowledged by the company so quickly.

“Anyway it’s better that everything is settled without much fuss” Hyerin whispered to herself startling Jinho who heard her murmuring.

“Huh?” he was watching her to confirm what she said, “What are you mumbling about?” he asked, curiously, as she realized that she said it out loud what she was supposed to think inside.

“I was saying that it’s better” “He can have a comeback without distraction now” she explained, smiling widely than ever at Jinho, making him look at her with suspicious eyes again.

“It’s okay to tell me if you’re really getting into the fan-mode” “I won’t judge you at all” he was staring at her with his lips rising into a smirk.

“I don’t have much time for all that” “Go away now” "It's time for my practice session" Hyerin picked the registers keeping poker face, moving to the cabinet to keep them inside before walking to the kitchen with a soft smile forming on her lips naturally for getting relieved from the vivid dream she was seeing since morning.

"Alright” “But when can I taste the pastry you were talking about?” he rose from the stool as his eyes followed Hyerin who was approaching the kitchen.

“Soon!” she turned back gleaming before moving to the door, “I have a brand new idea for the frosting” Hyerin’s voice was cheerful like a child now when she smiled at her little one talking with professional terms, which Jinho was kind of aware by now after listening them several times from her.

-----------------

-The same morning-

“What the…?” “How did this get out?” Taemin exclaimed in anger, looking at his phone in shock.

“What?” “What happened?” Euisoo-nim was already busy with heavy work due to the promotions to have another problem coming his way one after another. He wondered what Taemin was cursing over now.

“I should do something about this” Taemin scrolled down hastily, his eyes staring at the phone screen with anxiety.

“About what?” “What is it?” Eui soo-nim stopped the car in panic looking back at taemin for an answer.

“About the sasaeng incident yesterday” “There are rumors spreading on the SNS today” “they even know her address” he informed, watching the posts on his screen, “This will cause her a lot of trouble,” he murmured, getting worried now.

Taemin was the idol who had a secret account to know how-about of his fandom activity, where he got this update, as he was quite inside the circle of the these active fandom after having this account for the last three years now, to even know a small rumor like this which was still in the small circle of his fans.

“Hyung do you know someone who can delete these posts?” Taemin looked at his manager in the driver seat.

“Just if we could delete the ones talking about the café thing & mentioning her address & all” “It will be cooled down soon anyway otherwise when they will not find any solid evidence on it” he was looking between his phone & eui soo-nim for an answer.

Euisoo-nim was observing Taemin getting so anxious about a rumor after a very long time now, that wasn’t even of his concern that much as it would anyway not be a big deal as it’s a misunderstanding, other than the possibility that the fans may rush to the café to confirm & may end up disturbing Hyerin in that case for a while. It was not a big deal.

“Hyung?'' Taemin looked up again, his voice needy & desperate, making the eye-contact this time making Euisoo-nim blink at his flustered expression, not knowing if this was so important.

"I know someone who can help” watching Taemin stare his eyes out at his manager till he responded, “Wait!” Euisoo-nim stopped the car to make a call from his phone to a person he knew who managed such kind of work for the company.

Till Euisoo manager talked to this person & all the posts related to the rumor were deleted, taemin kept asking him throughout the day, for the update as if his life was dependent on it.

This wasn’t just gratefulness that Taemin was feeling for this girl, Euisoo-nim was seeing Taemin interfering in others business so actively for the first time. He was not normally the person who would go out at this level to be concern of anyone's life, without knowing the person well.

“What should we have for dinner?” Euisoo-manager asked Taemin as they were walking out from the building, where Taemin had his last schedule for today. He was going to leave after driving him home finally, after dinner.

“Meat!” Taemin pouted & Euisoo-nim laughed at the obvious answer of the maknae.

“I know a good place” “Should we go there?” he asked looking at the tired face of the idol walking holding the hem of his jacket tightly.

“Until when should I keep having dinner dates with hyung?” Taemin had a sulky face now, running with soft steps to the car as he heard Euisoo-nim chuckling over his answer, “Why?”

“Don’t you like me?” euisoo-nim walked with fast steps behind him watching him with soft eyes.

“Hmm” “Find yourself a girlfriend instead” taemin shouted sulking before opening the car door bringing out a long & loud laugh from his manager hyung.

---------------------

A WEEK LATER

“Hello” Hyerin noticed the call finally in between of her new experimental routine on madeleine.

She was trying to blend sweetness & bitterness together by filling it with a honey & raspberry jelly combination & then coating the half with a dark chocolate layer on the outside. She had tried it with a mixed fruit mousse without the chocolate too & it was appreciated by her customers then but she wanted a sour & sweet combination this time so she was trying it out with just raspberry jelly. She wanted to monitor the proportions of jelly & honey for the definite amount of sourness & sweetness, so she was trying a batch of madeleine filled with different proportions for 2-3 hours now, searching for the exact taste she wanted.

That was the whole thing taking her attention when she ignored the last 3 calls not bothering, as it would either be GoonHo or Jinho. Who would call her?

She didn’t want to lose the memory of taste by taking the break.

She finally moved to the table after completing the last batch, putting it into the oven to where the phone was kept & saw that it flashing GoonHo’s name on the screen, that’s why she stopped & scrolled to receive, with the skin of her knuckles, curling her fingers filled with flour into her palms more tight, pressing the speaker mode immediately to move to the basin to wash the soiled hands, as she was almost finished working.

“I was calling you for a while” “Where were you?” He was in a hurry, his huffing voice explained that he was running somewhere, being out of breath on the phone now.

“I was in the kitchen & the phone was away” she walked to the wash-basin to wash her hands first.

There was pin-drop silence as the café was closed past 8 pm, and now the time being probably past 10 pm.

Hyerin realized that she started with the madeleine as soon as she closed the cafe but it still took her 2 hours to get done with her practice today, “Why were you calling suddenly?” “Anything important?” she asked with calm & patience, taking no effect of his anxiety on her.

“I wanted to ask you something” “Can you come with me for dinner tomorrow night?” He asked between the heavy breaths still heard through the words.

“Definitely it’s not just both of us?” she asked, making him go silent, “the way you’re asking for my permission?” Hyerin got his intentions and before he could speak further she interrupted, “Are you introducing me to your client again?” she stopped & turned to the phone on the table from the washbasin.

“Yeah” he replied on the other side of the phone rubbing his temple getting nervous now, doubting if Hyerin would agree for the dinner when he had already did all the setting, “It’s a beneficial connection, Hyerin” he started with the informative tone, as Hyerin turned back to finish washing her hands with a light sigh coming out of , which went unheard as GoonHo continued to speak further without giving her much time to reply, “See! This person came to our firm today who wants a marketing plan for their new uni salon & spa project” “They were not thinking about adding café but then after talking to them, I came to know that there will be an extra space near the reception as they are planning to keep the whole part of their salon upstairs” “So you see I asked them if they can think about a collaboration & I suggested you for managing the café downstairs in the lobby” Goonho was walking out of his office finally, finishing his meeting with the last client he had today. He had immediately called Hyerin to let her know, so that she could keep her time free for the evening.

“So they want to meet you when we’re having a meeting tomorrow at dinner” Goon Ho continued, as Hyerin heard every single word silently till he was finished, standing near the wash basin leaning her hip on the counter thinking about her answer.

“I’m already planning something coming up next week & I’m busy in that” she replied, “I can’t make much time in the day because of the café, so night is the only time I can manage to give myself for experimenting & processing my new ideas”  Hyerin moved wiping her hand taking the cloth from the table, and taking the phone in her hand.

“Yeah I know about you experimenting and all” “But it’s just one dinner & who knows you’ll be having this café as your sub-franchise” GoonHo’s voice was clearly telling how excited he was.

“But I don’t want to manage another cafe or have a sub-franchise right now” “I clearly told you that” she had a formal tone, making him click his tongue then knowing where the conversation was going again.

“I want to focus creating this whole new menu for the café right now” “I already have a plan in my head” Hyerin explained keeping her voice down & her head cool, careful that she was not starting a fight again.

“Plan?” “Like what?” GoonHo’s rude tone in response was not pleasant at all for her to keep listening thereafter, “Again a free menu tasting exhibition?” he went on with the nagging, while Hyerin was losing her patience inside, “And getting a new addition to the loss again?” The last sharp & emotionless words were enough to break her patience.

“Yes!” Hyerin’s deep voice was making it clear now that she wasn’t ready to sit down & just listen to him anymore, “It’s a free meal for you, I see?” She tilted her head staring at the flower-vase at the corner in front of her, with anger saturating in her eyes, “Are you looking down on me right now?” her blood was rising up recalling his words.

“Why can’t you understand that I’m doing this