The car ride to the markets wasn’t long. It was never long. Luhan parked the car and the two made their way to the market. They were walking down the crowded middle road, looking at the name brands on the plate. Luhan’s jaw-dropping looks never failed to make girls blush and stare. But Jinah felt glad that at least one of the three girls rolled her eyes and pushed her gawking friends into a nearby café. At least someone had the sense to not fall for someone just by their looks. She looked at Luhan’s side view in curiosity – he had a straight nose and a noticeable Adam’s apple, and collarbones that were really hard to ignore. He, like Sehun, looked pretty good. Was she admiring? Of course not. He was a cruel person that made girls cry for the fun of it and – stop. Prejudices were bad. She hardly knew him. Prejudices and stereotypes kept people from being naïve but acting based on simple conjectures or random assumptions was bad. She couldn’t say anything about Luhan until she got to know him. Stop. But it was strange how Wolf sent so many girls back crying and devastated, yet the only person that was mean to her was Xiumin…was it in act? Were they mocking her? No, but Lay seems so sincere…their bond looked so strong. Then again, she’d be surprised how good of an actor people can be. She learned it first-hand.

           “Bakery was first on the food list, right?” Luhan said. He pointed at a shop that had a loaf-shaped plate with the golden words in cursive writing, Nana’s Bakery. “What are we getting here? Cupcakes?” he joked. He almost surprised himself – was he trying to joke with a girl?

           Jinah snorted quietly. “No, we’re getting bread. Two loaves of bread.” They entered the shop and a warm and sweet smell rushed into their noses. Was this sugar? Her eyes flew to the display case. “And, you know…” she gulped, “maybe some muffins…and cookies…and pastries…”

           Luhan chuckled softly as he saw Jinah rush to the display case. Her eyes hadn’t left the display case since she saw it. Jinah’s lips were apart at the delicious bakery goods. She looked like a little kid in a candy factory. In the display case, there were rows and baskets of countless baked goods, freshly out of the oven. A pleasant scent was roaming around them. Baguettes and chocolate-covered croissants were on the side. They were surrounded by scones, pies, and brownies. On a round table, though, were free samples. He glanced at Jinah, who was still awed by the things behind the display case. A smirk fell on his face as he picked up two samples of Raspberry Danish.

           Jinah felt someone poke her shoulder. She ignored it, but the second poke was stronger, and a third one came. Annoyed and reluctantly, she turned to look at who was poking her – and of course it was a grinning Luhan. Just when she was about to tell him off, she saw what he was holding – a sample. A sample! Free!

           He encouraged her to take it by raising his hand a little. She muttered a thanks as she took the sample and bit into it. She had never tasted something so sweet since a long, long time. Back when she was eight or something, she had stuffed pure sugar inside because no one would give her cookies because they ran out and she was craving. Minjung had kept it a secret so no one knew. She almost smiled at the memory – but then her chest tightened. Minjung.

           “Don’t look so glum, I even got you a little present,” Luhan said, tapping her nose. “Do you like it?”

           Jinah nodded yes.

           “Anyways. So, bread, muffins, cookies, and pastries?” Luhan said, taking out his wallet. “Just tell them what type and how much you’d like, okay? Don’t worry about the price, you know,” he leaned in and whispered in her ear, “we are a Top gang.” He went back to his normal position as he flicked through the bills in his wallet. This was exactly the type of contact Jinah hated. It made her body want to shiver violently and squeal. It made her feel somewhat vulnerable, and she hated it. Especially with that smirk of his and careless actions – she didn’t know what to make out of it. He probably did this with every other girl he met.

           But he couldn’t have, the voice that made things complicated said in her head. He tells every other girl to screw off, right? Why you? I wonder why~

           Jinah rolled her eyes at the voice. Oh, shut up.

           A boy around her age, maybe a little older, came out from behind the walls. “Oh, customers. Sorry, didn’t hear you!” he said. He seemed like a very cheery and happy boy – perhaps a little naïve. “What can I get for the beauty?”

           The boy’s words made Luhan frown. On the other hand, it made Jinah blush. She still wasn’t used to being around guys – let alone them boldly complimenting her. She could never deal with compliments very well. She decided to ignore it instead. “Um, bread. Two loaves.”

           “Alright. White or whole-wheat?”

           “White.”

           “Thick or thin?”

           “Pardon?” she blinked.

           He laughed at her reaction. “Are you new in town?” the boy asked.

           “She’s my new Prix,” Luhan said flatly. “She’s in my gang.”

           The boy’s face fell. “Y-You’re a gang member?”

           “Are you going to do your job or continue interviewing us? Didn’t you hear her?” Luhan’s smile was bittersweet and mocking. Jinah couldn’t figure out how he could have a smile like that. Wasn’t a smile supposed to be a sign of happiness – or at least fake happiness? “Two loaves of bread. Do you think a thick-crusted one would fit in ? No. Obviously thin.”

           “Yes sir.” The boy seemed strangely intimidated by Luhan. Luhan didn’t look scary – only when he frowned, or he fought. Even at the small face-off in the challenge yesterday…that short moment was enough for Jinah to make sure to never seriously anger Luhan, although that seemed impossible with his angelic face. “I’ll be right back.” He went behind the curtain again.

           Jinah folded her arms and looked at Luhan. “Be nice.”

           “I’m very nice,” he said. “He shouldn’t flirt with a stranger.”

           “F-Flirt? He was just talking to me!”

           “Yeah, in a flirty way,” Luhan said, facing the display case instead of her. But then he turned to her once more and pointed his index finger at her, “And don’t you flirt back with him.”

           She scoffed. “I wasn’t!”

           “You were.”

           “Oh? Since when was answering to questions flirting?”

           Luhan opened his mouth but the boy came out with two loaves of bread, properly packaged up. “Anything else for today?” he asked.

           “Assorted muffins please,” Jinah said.

           “How many?”

           “Um – thirty.” The boy’s eyes widened a bit at the large amount but then he glanced at Luhan and he thought better to argue against it. Besides, they were customers… gangster customers, but customers, so he kept quiet. But Jinah noticed his discomfort. “Is there a problem? Perhaps it’s too many…”

           “N-No! No, thirty assorted muffins it is… is there a specific flavor you’d like or is completely random okay?”

           “Um… ten chocolate chip, ten blueberry, and ten banana nut, please.”

           The boy nodded. He called to the kitchen, “Ten chocolate, ten blueberry, ten banana nut muffins – to-go!”

           “Alright!”

           The boy looked at the two customers again. “Anything else?”

           Jinah shook her head.

           “One moment. Try some free samples in the meantime, okay?” he smiled gently at her, and he did the same for Luhan, who returned it – only Luhan’s didn’t seem exactly pure. And with that, The boy walked into the kitchen again, probably to help out.

           Jinah looked at her watch. It was a little over noon. Lay was probably awake, and he was probably hungry. “We should get back soon… they’re probably wondering where we are.”

           Luhan shook his head, “It’s okay. I can just text him.”

           “Text…?”

           Luhan raised his eyebrows at her. “Yeah. You know, phone? Cell phone?” She blinked at him blankly, the words clearly unknown to her. “Mobile? Telephone? No?” Jinah shook her head. Now it was Luhan’s turn to blink – how did he explain a phone? He bit his lower lip in contemplation. “Okay – how do you talk to someone that is far away?” he asked.

           She frowned. “What do you mean? You just go to where they are and talk to them or you call them over.”

           “No, like – what if like – how would I talk to Lay?” Luhan asked. “He’s at our base right? You can’t call him over.”

           Jinah shrugged. “You couldn’t talk to Lay then, I guess.” She couldn’t help but notice how he said ‘our base’. Our. It was hers too. They were one gang. It made her feel involved, like she was actually a part of the group, despite being new and female. “Why?”

           Luhan took out a peculiar device and for a second, Jinah thought it was a bomb detonator. “This is a phone. You use this to talk to people that are far away – or anywhere, as long as they have a phone too.”

           “What the – so you carry that thing with you?” she asked.

           Luhan nodded. “See, look. I can either call him – like, punch in Lay’s number, which will send a signal to his phone, and it’ll ring. When he picks up, I’ll be able to hear and talk to him, and he the same. If I’m too lazy to call, I can text him.” He unlocked his phone and the screen changed. “Oh, don’t mind the apps.” He clicked on a small icon that read Contacts, and scrolled down to Lay. He clicked on it, and numbers appeared. “You see this? Send text?” he clicked on it without waiting for her answer. “Now I type whatever I want to tell him – with Jinah for food, don’t panic – and I click send. Now the message should’ve appeared on his phone, and he’ll have to check it to read it. Yeah?”

           Jinah was utterly fascinated by this device called ‘phone’. “Wow…things like this existed? They never told us back at the dwellings!”

           Luhan grinned. “Pretty cool, huh?

           She bobbed her head absentmindedly. “Yeah…”

           “Order complete!” The boy said, letting the package of freshly baked muffins slide on the counter. “That comes to twenty dollars,” he said, and Luhan handed him two bills. “Thank you, have a nice day!”

           Luhan took the package of muffin and Jinah hugged the two loaves of bread as they went out of the bakery. The sun was fully out and shining brightly, warming their faces. The spring breeze was hardly cold, just refreshing and cool. With this type of weather, Jinah had to take her hood off, and when she did, her vision got brighter. The hood no longer shadowed her view. Luhan walked next to her, “Next place was grocery store, right?”

           “Yup. Let’s put the bread and muffins in the car before we hit the store – we’re not only buying fruits, but also a wall clock, eggs, milk, butter, fish, oil, vegetables, cereal, and –”

           “Sweets? Yeah, I saw your list. You seem to like sweet foods.” He grinned at her and she rolled her eyes, but cracked a smile. “Ah, there it is – your smile.”

           The smile disappeared immediately.

           “What? No! Why’d you stop smiling?”

           She frowned at him, “Are you okay?”

           “Yeah I’m fine, but that’s not the point – why’d you stop smiling? Keep smiling! Smile!” Luhan urged, and it made Jinah raise her eyebrows. “What – no – smile!” When she stubbornly continued to frown, he groaned and used his fingers to push the ends of her lips up. “There,” he said, chuckling.

           She smacked his hand right away, feeling extremely flustered. She massaged the ends of her lips, “You’re weird.”

           “Your smile’s nice,” he said with a smug smile, but she didn’t believe it one bit. She hated her smile – it was awkward and it didn’t look natural, or right. Not all dimpled smiles were nice. Lip gloss or lipstick or lip liner couldn’t make her smile ‘nice’. He cleared his throat. His cheeks were lightly feathered in pink. Clearly he wasn’t used to behaving in this manner and to be quite frank, Jinah thought he had gone mental for a second. The distant Luhan…do something like – whatever he just did? Wow. Luhan changed the topic as he asked, “So, grocery store?”

           “Yeah, to buy a wall clock, fruits, eggs, milk, butter, fish, oil, vegetables, cereal, and –”

           “Sweets,” the two finished together. And this time, Jinah couldn’t suppress her smile. Luhan didn’t even bother point it out – he just smiled back.

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DID YOU GUYS LIKE THIS CHAPTER :$ If you think it's not enough, then I'm sorrry > - < If you think it's too fast, sorry again, but there's a reason behind it all as I mentioend several times. Hm, yeah. I hope you enjoyed it > < I have no idea how like the LuNah/JinHan moments look like to you, or if they even suffice to be called a LuNah/JinHan moment. gaaaah T  T

And wow, we reached the twentieth chapter! I still haven't brought in future antagonists.. /sighs. It's okay though. Anyways, so the promised status check: 123 subscribers, 67 comments, 2560 views, and 17 upvotes. As you can see, the numbers increased drastically! Thank you for your support!~ ^3^

-Seohee