It happened to be that they did it again every single day during Sooyoung's holiday. Their excuse was that after the holiday Sooyoung would be away for months so, why not now. They went to the theme park, the zoo, the aquarium, plays and musicals and finally, the minister’s holiday came to the inevitable end.

So there they were again, in front of Hyoyeon's apartment. They just returned from the aquarium where they spent their last date.

"Thank you for the date!" Hyoyeon smiled widely, swinging Sooyoung’s hands. They were standing closer to each other than the first time.

“You’re welcome! Thank you for hanging out with me.” Sooyoung smiled back. A moment of silence, they stopped swinging and now just holding hands. “S-so... I guess that’s it... I’ll see you again in a few months...”

“... but we can still text right?” Hyoyeon asked.

“Of course. Text me anytime. And I really mean ANYTIME. Even if it’s midnight or 2am or 3am or just anytime ok?” Sooyoung shot a serious look at Hyoyeon.

“Okay. Don’t text back if you’re really tired though, promise? I know your job is really stressful so you need to rest properly.” Hyoyeon mindlessly adjusted the tall minister’s coat and flicked off some dirt. A part of Sooyoung really wanted to pull the blonde in front of her into a hug but the other part said she should just let it be. What was the point anyway. “Okay... so, good night.”

As Sooyoung walked to the elevator, Hyoyeon felt like she was kind of falling apart inside.

-------

It was such a shock to Hyoyeon to go from hanging out with Sooyoung every day last week to not going anywhere this week. The girl was restless. She walked around the house, turned the music on, picked up and put down books she couldn’t be bothered reading, then turned the music off so she wouldn’t lose her mind.

“Hyo unnie, what’s wrong??” Seohyun asked, looking up from a Sarah Waters book she was reading.

“Aigoo Seororo. Unnie feels weird!” Hyoyeon frowned slightly and came to sit next to her maknae.

“Weird? Why is that?” The younger girl raised her brows.

“I just… I’m bored! There’s nothing to do.” Hyoyeon sighed.

“There are plenty of stuffs to do, unnie.” Seohyun said, surprised. “I thought you were reading that book I gave you? And why did you turn off the music?”

“It’s boring, Seo And the music wasn’t helping.” Hyoyeon pouted. “I’m bored, but I don’t feel like doing anything.”

“Now that’s a problem.” Seohyun marked the page and put down her book. “If you don’t do anything then how are you going to get out of the boredom?”

“I don’t know!” Hyoyeon lay down in defeat, her feet wiggling in frustration.

“Where’s Sooyoung unnie? Are you not hanging out with her today?”

“Oh…” Hyoyeon stopped all her actions upon hearing the name, and she felt her body getting a bit stiffer and warmer. “Her holiday week had ended so she’d gone back to work. She said she was going to go overseas and be busy for months.”

“Oh I see…” Seohyun nodded. “That’s why you’re so restless. You two hung out literally everyday and now you’re just not used to the spare time yet, Hyo unnie.”

The blonde girl nodded. “You’re right. All I’ve been thinking of is hanging out with Sooyoung and like…”

“You miss her?”

Hyoyeon blushed. “A-ani. I do, but it’s not like that.” She blushed more and felt like not being able to hold a smile of embarrassment.

“Aigoo, unnie. It’s written all over your face.” Seohyun chuckled but as such a sweet girl that she was, she decided not to unnie any further. “So when can you see her again?”

“I’m not sure exactly when, or even what month…” The older girl sighed. “She only said that she will be back. I can only hope that it will happen soon.”

------

On Sooyoung’s private jet

“Madam?” Dong Ho slightly leaned forward to look at the young Minister’s distracted face. “Is something wrong?”

“Eh?” Sooyoung woke from the daydream. She blinked a few times and turned to look at the guy. “Oh? What is it, Dong Ho?”

“Ah, I was going over the outline of the next meeting. I guess I did not speak clearly enough.” He patiently turned the pages back to the first page.

“Oh no, you did a good job and I was the distracted one. My apologies, Dong Ho.” Sooyoung sat up straight on her seat and took a sip from her cup of jasmine tea. “If you could please do it once again I promise that’ll have my entire attention.”

“My honour, Madam.” Dong Ho nodded and flashed a brief smile. “Madam, the next meeting is with the Prime Minister of Japan and his other Ministers at 2pm. We will land at 12pm and have lunch then the car will take you to a hotel where the meeting will be held privately. There will also be other Ministers of National Defense from Singapore, Malaysia, US, Canada…”

“Oh, Ministre de la Défense nationale” Sooyoung chuckled and blurted her accented French. Dong Ho gripped the paaper on his hand, trying hard not to laugh.

“At the beginning we will briefly review and comment on the economic and political changes since the last meeting and then go on to discuss about the asdfgh— “

“Stop!” Sooyoung put the index finger across her lips. “This matter is top secret. Would you please whisper in my ear or else the reader will know.”

“The… r-reader??” Dong Ho’s eyes widened as he looked at Sooyoung in confusion.

------

“Unnie, how about knitting?” Seohyun grinned and squatted down next to Hyoyeon who was sitting on the floor, organizing her photo albums. She showed her big sis a catalogue of knitted outfits and accessories. “Look at these!! Aren’t they so pretty! I’m thinking about learning how to knit, would you be interested to join me?”

“Woahh Seororo, these look really nice!” Hyoyeon exclaimed and flipped over the pages. “Sure I’d love to learn with you. Let’s do it.”

“Maybe you can knit Sooyoung unnie something.” Seohyun wiggled her brows and nudged the latter.

“Psht.” Hyoyeon countered with a slap on Seohyun’s knee. “You’re into teasing your old unnie now, aren’t you?”

“Oi unnie! You’re not old!”

“Then you’re definitely into teasing me!” Hyoyeon slid her hand behind the younger girl’s knee and tickled it.

“Noooo unnieee STOP STOP PLEASE. THAT TICKLES!” Seohyun fell on the floor and laughed out loud, trying to push Hyoyeon’s hand away from her leg. “Nooooooo ahahaha I’m sorry nooo stoooop”

“Promise not to tease me again” Hyoyeon kept on poking and tickling.

“I promise! I promise!!” Seohyun said desperately. When Hyoyeon finally stopped and let go of her, she sat up, breathing heavily. The blonde girl picked the catalogue up and continued to go through the pages of models in colourful and well knitted clothes. The two girls agreed that everything looked great and so they couldn’t decide which one they should pick for their practice piece. “I think normally people would start with knitting a scarf, because apparently that’s the easiest.” Seohyun said.

“That makes sense. The sweater looks like it requires much skill and effort, compared to a scarf…” Hyoyeon nodded and flipped to the scarf section. Suddenly she stopped at a page where there was a tall girl wearing a shiny trend coat with a navy blue scarf dangling loose about her neck.

“This one will look so pretty on Sooyoung unnie!” Seohyun pointed her finger on the page and said the latter’s thoughts out loud. “This one, unnie! You must agree with me!”

“Well then I have no other choices.” Hyoyeon chuckled. “This one it is then. What about you? Are you knitting one for Yoona?”

“Of course I am! And one for me, too. Couple scarves!” Seohyun smiled wide. She marked the page for Hyoyeon and resumed the search. “The two of us are going on a holiday to France next month and it’ll be winter. I’m hoping that I can finish the two scarves by then.”

“France! That’s so exciting, aigoo. I’m jelly!”

“We’re going to Disneyland, too, unnie, kekeke.”  

Just then, the doorbell rang. Hyoyeon went to get the door so her saeng could continue on looking at the catalogue.

“Hello? Who’s there?” Hyoyeon said, opening the door.

“Annyeong! It’s TaeNy~” Tiffany smiled brightly and waved at Hyoyeon, her other arm was clinging Taeyeon’s.

“Ohh hey! Come in. What’s the occasion?”

“Oh nothing. We just come by to tell you guys that we’re going to Singapore for a holiday, since Taeyeon’s boss just awarded her a surprise vacation for two!”

“Another runaway!” Hyoyeon exclaimed. “Seohyun just told me that she and Yoona are going to France next month.”

“And that’s about the same time that we’ll be in Singapore, too. Right, Tae Tae?” Tiffany turned to her girlfriend and asked. Taeyeon nodded in response. “We’re going for two weeks.” Tiffany continued. “And I’m just wondering if you guys could please once in a while check up on the apartment for us, in case something happen? Since we’re on the same floor…”

“That’d be no problem.” Hyoyeon smiled. “I guess I’ll take the responsibility since Seohyun will be absent by then.”

“That’d be awesome, Hyo! Thank you so much.” Tiffany pulled her blonde friend into her tight hug. “It won’t be a hard work that needs much care. I mean the building is already highly protected by the security system. Just when there’s maybe an emergency call or mail, it’d be great if you could just give me a call.”

“Got it! And you’re welcome!”

------

 Sooyoung’s POV

Aish. I was distracted in front of my colleagues. That never happened before!

But if you ask what I was thinking of, well, I don’t know to be honest. I was, MAYBE, thinking of where else Hyoyeon and I could hand out next time….

And MAYBE just having her face and her smile floating around and stuffs hahaha.

Okay. I was daydreaming. I can’t believe I, Choi Sooyoung, the Korean Minister of National Defense, was daydreaming! I have to get it together and focus on my work. Seriously. My job is not one to be done half-heartedly. I can think about Hyoyeon on my break, or when I have time that I can spend on my personal life. Not while working on behalf of a whole country.

Get it together, Choi Sooyoung. The meeting is in half an hour. You’re not permitted to screw it up. 

A/N: Sorry or the super late update! Good news is that I didnt give up on this story. Hope everyone is doing well :D