“It’s getting late. I should be going.” Sunghee stood up as she was bidding her goodbye to everyone who was there celebrating Minho’s comeback. “It was nice getting to know all of you. I had lots of fun.” She smiled to everybody and they all nodded in appreciation.

“Minho-yah… lead her outside.” Minho’s mom whispered.

“Oh. No, omma. It’s okay. I can manage. Oppa should stay here with his friends. I can go alone. Thank you very much, again. See you soon, oppadeul, Soeun-unnie, Omma, Yoogeunnie, annyong~” She smiled warmly, bowed three times and left. Minho didn’t really stand up to lead her out.

“She is such a sweet and genuine girl, right?” His mother quickly praised Sunghee as soon as she left. “That’s certainly why I like her for you.” She winked towards Minho but he shook his head.

“I thought you were rooting for Yeojin. What happened?” He asked.

“Well?” His mother shrugged her shoulders. “Neither of you made an effort to take it to the next level. You resisted on courting her why she never took the chance to look at you as a man. My Sunghee here is willing to do everything to make you like her, that’s why I’m really seeing hope with her.”

“Hope?” Jonghyun and the rest of the guys laughed upon hearing what his mother said. “What do you mean hope, omonim?”

“It’s because of you, pabo.” Minho told Jonghyun which made him surprised. “Because of you and Soeun, now omma wants me to marry someone so she could have a grandchild.”

“How is that our fault?” Soeun intruded and asked with an obvious smile.

“Omma wants to have her own Yoogeun.” He looked at omma and she smiled at him. “Seriously, omma… can you wait a bit more. We’re getting there.”

“What?” Jinki, Kibum, Jonghyun, and Taemin all uttered in chorus. “What do you mean we’re getting there?” Jonghyun asked.

“I have a girlfriend.” He revealed which literally shocked everybody.

“What?!” His mom blurted out. “How can you have a girlfriend? You weren’t even dating anyone! Is she someone you met in the Philippines?” She asked continuously to which Minho didn’t actually know how to respond on.

“I said wait a bit more, omma.” Minho only said, but his friends and his mother couldn’t stop asking.

“Come on, hyung. You’ve already said it, why not just spill it all out?” Taemin asked impatiently.

“Right. Who’s that girl? Why didn’t she go here with you?”

“She’s coming, okay?” Minho told everybody. “She could possibly be here one week from now and I’ll introduce her to all of you. So please, omma, stop pushing me towards Sunghee, and stop giving her high hopes. I don’t want her to be hurt. She’s still a friend.”

“I like Sunghee for you, and if you really have a girlfriend, then I think I should get to know her first.” She raised an eyebrow as if she was trying to act strict, but it was really not in her character. Minho’s mother was very sweet and gentle, though she’s very attentive when it comes to her children.

“I don’t think Minho has a girlfriend. He is just tricking us.” Kibum shook his head as he wasn’t believing anything that Minho said. “Seriously, Choi Minho. What’s there not to like about Cha Sunghee? She seems really perfect.”

“Only because both of you are into fashion. Why don’t you just date her then?” Minho told him irritatingly.

“Can I?” Kibum asked and Minho’s omma who was just by Kibum’s side elbowed him.

“She’s for Minho. Don’t lay any finger on her, Kim Kibum.” She said and looked at him with her threatened eyes.

“Fine. Fine, omma. I won’t.” He said and nodded eventually, sighing in disappointment. “Oh, yeah, Choi Minho. Was the girl the one who took your birthday photo that night? And the one we heard talking about a strawberry cake?”

Minho was speechless. He didn’t know if he should say yes and no. He looked at Jonghyun as he was certain Jonghyun knew it was Yeojin. “She can be or she cannot be.” He just answered simply and hope Jonghyun won’t tell anything.

It was hard to hide everything when he could just let everybody know. But since he promised not to tell anyone before Yeojin arrives, then he had to hold on to that – even if it means pushing away Sunghee by all means he could do without talking about her.

They were in the middle of teasing him when he just decided to open his phone and see if Yeojin was online on skype. He waited for few minutes until she finally got online.

“I’m here talking with the guys. Omma, Soeun, and Yoogeun are here, too.” He sent a message to her which she immediately replied on.

“Great, but isn’t it a bit late already? You should rest. Miss you. ^^”

He automatically smiled upon reading Yeojin’s reply on his message.

“Eeehh… someone’s smiling…” Kibum immediately teased and he quickly hid his phone afraid that one of them would just snatch it away. “Minho-ah… tell us about your girlfriend.” Kibum still insisted, asking a lot of questions about his girlfriend.

“Let’s see…” Minho sat straight as he was thinking how to properly described Yeojin to them. “Well, she dresses beautifully, cooks deliciously, smiles warmly and chuckles cheerfully, also, she knows how to take care of a child very well.”

“Aahh….” Jinki took all of their attention when he suddenly nodded as if he remembered something. “She takes good care of a child very well, you say? Choi Minho… perhaps, she’s someone who used to live with you?”

Crap. Minho suddenly remembered that he did let his hyung know about Yeojin and him having Angel for a while. He was the one Minho called up when he was problematic on that day Angel was given to them. “H-huh?”

“So I guess there’s really a huge surprise coming over…” Jinki laughed and the rest were confused about what he was talking about.

“Hyung, you know something?” Taemin asked and Jinki responded with a smirked, and then he hummed along to a random song.

“I know something no one else knows yet~~ Choi Minho, the sneaky romantic guy~~”

“Hyung, stop.” Minho was getting uncomfortable but Jinki only chuckled.

“Fine, fine, I won’t say her name…” Jinki laughed louder after seeing the reaction on Minho’s face. The latter stood up and grabbed Jinki’s arm. “Hey! Hey! Where are you taking me?!”

Minho dragged Jinki outside the Pasta House to talk to him privately.

“Hyung, don’t let them know yet. I promised her we’ll tell everybody about us when she comes back.” He begged to which Jinki smiled and nodded.

“So it happened… as what I’ve predicted. I would have wanted to suggest on telling everybody so Sunghee ssi will stop and we would welcome Yeojin back with a bang, but since you promised not to tell, then I have to act like I don’t know anything yet.” He went closer to Minho and patted his shoulders. “This is a good news. I mean, you and her a good match. You should tell us all what happened in the Philippines that you, two, decided to be together.”

“I will. Once she’s back.”

“Good… but…. What’s the score?” Jinki smiled ersely which made Minho punch him in the arm.

“Yah! Hyung! Stop thinking like that!”

“Aishh~ it’s not like both of you are innocent.” Jinki laughed. “But then, I’m happy. Have you told Yeojin about Sunghee?” Minho shook his head. “She must know. What if she misunderstand.”

“I’ll settle these things before she comes back. I have 7 days to stop Sunghee.”

“Will she really stop immediately?”

“She has to. Seriously, hyung. She’s nice. She’s beautiful. She’s intelligent, but that doesn’t mean I would like her the way she wants me to, and besides, she’s insisting that I promised to marry her when we were young. Hyung, I was only 8 at that time now why does she expect me to have said things I would really mean?”

“Well, maybe she was just using that as an excuse to make you pay attention. After all, she must have really fallen for you for all those times she was just watching your soccer game on TV. I don’t know, I’m not sure. But for real, Choi Minho. You must fix this, or else, Ahn Yeojin would go through the same process as she did during the time Jonghyun and Soeun met again. It won’t be good if she feels like history is repeating itself.”

“I won’t let that happen.” Minho assured though deep inside, he was starting to get worried about her. Whether or not he tells her beforehand, it would still bother Yeojin so the best option really is to talk to Sunghee and make her realize that they will never work out.

How he wished it would be so easy – for Cha Sunghee is such a nice girl.