(a/n: the day I put an author's note here saying that I have already edited the latest chapter is the same day that I announce to you all that I've kissed Kris.)

Kris Wu’s POV

Dinner arrived within a few minutes to my delight. My stomach clenched with anticipation as she set the table and served the food. Maybe my eyes glowed with the same impatient hunger that burned within the depths of me, because she piled rice into my bowl.

We sat across from each other, a single bulb dangled over the table forcing us into a dim pool of light.

As Yunji waited for me to start eating, I couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the image in front of me. Was it possible for people to use photo filters in reality?

I picked my cutlery and collected a heaping spoonful to taste. When I removed the spoon from my mouth and began to chew, she averted her gaze to the side.

“I-I-I’m sorry it’s only leftovers. It was just meant to be m-me here tonight s-s-s-so I didn’t-”

“Don’t worry about it,” I cut her off, “it’s good.”

It baffled me how her confidence fluctuated so drastically. At times she could be incredibly bold and then painfully shy. The fact that she was so nervous, so concerned about what I thought of her for feeding me leftovers, was ridiculous. I understood why she felt the way she did, but it just seemed silly.

She pursed her lips. “Really?” She asked in a meek manner.

She need reassurance, I smiled. “Really,” I nodded.

She relaxed after that. The two of us ate in what must have been the most comfortable silence we had ever shared. The combination of starving mouths, warm food, and a mutual insecurity formed a strangely harmonious vibe.

My bowl was empty shortly after the meal commenced, however my stomach felt the same way meaning I had to serve myself seconds. Unfortunately for my ego, my movements weren’t as graceful as Yunji’s. So when I started refilling my bowl, there were little awkward noises; a clang here, a screech there. Just like when I first sat down at the table, I cringed and prayed that it was only me who thought I was being noisy. My eyes were glued to the table as we continued to eat, I was too uneasy with the thought that she may be silently laughing at me.

“Excuse me for a moment,” she politely murmured. Quietly she drifted away from the table. She was so much better at moving around than I was here.

Of course, it was her house so what was I to expect?

When I heard the soft thump of a door closing, I finally brought myself to stare across the table. Yunji’s vacated seat was in front of a half-empty bowl. While I was powering through my second serving, she had just began to get through her first. Just like any other girl, she ate much slower than me; or any man for the matter. What was cute about the view was the few displaced grains of rice close to her bowl, suggesting that she dropped food like a kid on occasion.

The scent of the chicken stew lulled me back into my hungry trance. I shovelled more food into my mouth and softly hummed in appreciation. Had she made this earlier in the week, or had she bought it late one night?

Could Kyungsoo make this if I described it to him?

I could taste soy sauce, ginger, and chili peppers. There was a subtle sweetness to the dish too; maybe sugar? My body went into a state of autopilot as my mind busied itself with trying to decode exactly what the stew was made up of.

I can already hear his reply to my description.

“That’s so vague.”

A small voice in the back of my head wailed for me to check the time. Another insisting that I make sure to get back to the dorm before the others did. But before I could act on any of these little voices in my head, a pretty voice intruded my pressing thoughts.

“You really were hungry huh?”

I don’t know when she got back exactly.

The serving dishes were empty and Yunji’s place setting was missing. I peered down at my own place setting to see that only a spoonful of rice and stew remained in the centre of my bowl. Robotically I reached for my napkin and wiped my mouth for anything that may have stuck to my face.

Clueless I asked her where her bowl went.

“I threw it in the dishwasher when I felt full,” she replied.

“When did you finish eating?” I tilted my head to the side.

“A while ago,” she didn’t give me an exact answer.

I was suddenly very aware of just how much I had eaten while at someone else’s house.

“Aish,” I hissed. I felt my ears heat up. “Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly.

“For what?” She raised her eyebrows.

“For acting like a glutton,” I bowed my head.

A strum of tinkling giggles made my head snap up. Was she laughing at me? My face flushed with a wave of heat as I watched Yunji muffle her giggles with a hand to .

“A glutton?” She seemed to be amused with the notion.

I bit my lip and rubbed the back of my neck, unsure of what to do. I was meant to be a cool guy; cold face, confident. Why was it that around her I was starting to feel less and less like an idol? It was as if she possessed the power to jerk me back down from the clouds to earth, where I wasn’t the famous EXO-M leader.

Where I was just Yifan (Kevin even); that tall, Asian basketball player, with a cool hair and a nice face.

“Let me ask you a question.” She had my attention, I looked at her. “What would you have eaten tonight if you hadn’t stayed here?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe ramyeon,” I shrugged.

She shook her head in a motherly way. “I can only imagine how many packets of ramyeon you would have gone through with your appetite,” she said. Her hands busied themselves with collecting up the dirty dishes at the table as she spoke. “I’d rather watch you eat me out of house and home than hear about you filling up on the staple food of students.”

“But-” I wanted to protest.

“But nothing,” she stopped me. “Don’t feel bad about eating well when you’re here Yifan,” she stood up with her arms full. “I needed to finish that stew sooner or later anyway.”

Before I knew it I was on my feet, following her to the kitchen. I didn’t have anything else to say in response to the whole ‘glutton’ thing, but I did have a new problem.

I was worried that she’d drop something, trying to carry so much by herself.

“Here let me take some of that for you,” I outstretched my arms towards her.

“I’m fine,” she took a step away from me, “thanks anyway.”

“No really, let me help you,” I insisted.

“It’s okay,” she shook her head, “I can manage.”

When we reached the kitchen sink, she put the dishes down carefully and the kitchen sink faucet to start pre-rinsing.

“I can do that,” I edged closer to her. I wanted to help out somehow.

She looked over her shoulder at me. “You don’t have to do anything Yifan, just go and sit down or something.”

It irked me how she wouldn’t let me do anything for her. Remaining oblivious to the cloud of frustration hovering above my head, she rinsed dishes and placed them in the appropriate areas of the dishwasher by her flank. I could see the steam coming off of the hot water as it pummelled down on both the dishes and her bare hands. I frowned.

“If you’re not going to let me help, can you at least look after yourself?” I sighed, raking a hand through my hair.

“What do you mean by that?” She gave me a weird look.

I reached over to the edge of the sink. “What are these?” I held up the yellow pieces of rubber.

“Gloves,” she squinted.

“Right. What are they used for?”

“Washing dishes.”

“So can you please use them?” I extended them out to her. “Instead of burning your hands with scorching hot water.”

She blinked twice. “Are you serious?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” I retorted.

She turned off the water and d at the closest tea towel to dry her hands. Taking the gloves from me, she slipped them on.

“You sound just like my mother,” she remarked.

I felt my jaw drop.

“Am I not allowed to care about you?”

“A lot like my mother,” she mused.

“Yah, what are you saying?”

“That you can be very motherly at times,” she replied back cheekily.

“You’re calling me feminine?” I scorned.

“That too,” she started the dishwasher.

Her confidence at that moment was mind-blowing. I felt another chunk of my ego crumble. I just couldn’t manage to maintain my cool-guy image that night.

If I didn’t know any better, I would lean down right now so that our faces would be mere centimetres apart, and watch your whole face turn red. Just to tease you back.

“Y-y-yah! Keep your embarrassing thoughts to yourself.” I must have said it out loud.

That blushing face I was well-acquainted with had decided to make an appearance once again. Yunji looked extremely flustered with her arms folded protectively over her chest and her lips pressed tightly together. It was cute.

Our eyes locked for a few seconds; my face blank, hers uncomfortable. She broke the eye-contact first, abruptly fixated with the ground. Entertained, I couldn’t help but bite my lip to supress a victorious smirk; unintentionally I had gotten back at her.

The moment gradually came to an end as slowly but surely she scuttled away to the couch. I followed suit and sat down too.

I think subconsciously we both must have been trying to keep a safe distance between us; we were seated on opposite ends of the sofa. In a sort of communal mindlessness, we started to watch TV. A tacky chick movie was what Yunji settled on watching after flicking through the channels. The protagonist was a teenage girl who liked some arrogant kingka. Within the first 5 minutes of screen time, he had rejected her 18 times. I suspected that what would come next would be a series of events leading up to her confessing to the kingka for the 19^th time and finally being accepted as the movie title was 19 Time’s the Charm; someone needed to be fired for coming up with the title.

I silently thanked the world for having ad-breaks when the movie that Yunji seemed to now be enthralled by faded out of the screen. The signature jingle of the news sounded, followed by a female news anchor’s voice. An update on several things was given, from boiling politics to the nation’s latest sporting achievement.

“Join us again in the next 30 minutes at quarter to 1 for another news update.”

My eyes popped out of their sockets as if someone had just poured a bucket of ice-water down my back. I couldn’t believe it was that late already.

“Crap,” I hissed, contemplating whether the gang would be back at the dorm already.

“What’s wrong?”

Droopy-eyed, snuggled up under a blanket, Yunji stared at me. She looked so warm, so natural with her hair slightly messed up from leaning her head against the arm of the sofa that I nearly forgot about the time.

“It’s late,” I stated.

She looked at the clock hung up on the wall and sat up properly. “Oh. Yeah, it is.”

“I should get going,” I stood up.

“Mmm,” she hummed in response.

She waddled behind me to the door, the blanket wrapped around her in a cape-like manner. I slipped on my shoes and patted my pockets to check that I hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Again, thank you for earlier,” she yawned and shallowly bowed while holding the door open for me.

“Don’t mention it,” I shook my head. I stepped out into the hallway and glanced back at her, hands stuffed in the pockets of my jacket. She was pretty, even when she was tired.

“Thanks for dinner,” I started, “I had fun.” A smile broke out onto my face.

“Me too,” she smiled back.

Rocking back and forth on my heels, I wondered if I should go first or wait for her to close the door. She must have been in the same boat as me, events from earlier that night repeating themselves.

“I’ll see you when I see you I guess?” My gaze flickered to the ceiling for a second.

“I guess so,” she nodded. “Goodnight…Yifan-ssi.”

I flinched. “Just Yifan.”

She swallowed, I saw it. “Okay. Goodnight…Yifan.”

The corners of my mouth lifted up into a smile that if sasaeng fans at the airport were ever so lucky as to capture with their cameras, would be framed in their bedrooms forever.

“Goodnight…Yunji-ah,” I winked.

Impishly, I spun on my heels and left her (hopefully) flabbergasted. Once out of her earshot in the elevator, I cackled like a nut.

It really was fun teasing her.

Despite facing the possibility of getting caught by the other members, I didn’t feel scared. I was too happy for the fear to actually settle in.

I slipped on my sunglasses as the elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, its doors slowly opening.

The problem with elevators is that you can’t hide in them. There simply isn’t a way to remain unseen in a 3 x 3 metre shaft.

That’s what I realized when I came face to face with someone I really could have gone without bumping into.

Minwook-hyung was gawking right back at me. Sunglasses rested on the top of his greying head of hair, and a lit cigarette hung out of the corner of his mouth. His hand was glued to his phone which was glued to his ear, but it didn’t take a genius to know that he wasn’t really listening to the person on the phone.

I hadn’t been scared of anyone shorter than me during my teen years until I became an SM trainee, and even when I became an idol that stuck.

“Y-Youngjun, I swear Hyunkyun and I quit last week. It was probably someone from the camera crew who left that packet of smokes in the bathroom.” He walked into the small compact space that I was trapped in, his eyes never leaving me.

I contemplated on whether I could escape out of the elevator before he could ask any questions, but I knew that if I did make a beeline he’d bring it up the next day in front of the other managers.

“You’re constant old-woman-nagging finally got through to me, okay? I don’t smoke anymore. End of story.” Minwook-hyung pressed the eighth floor’s button.

I facepalmed myself as the doors closed, wishing that I had paid more attention to the time.

I should have seen this coming.

“Uh-huh. I see. Uh-huh. Okay. Arasso. See you tomorrow.”

The elevator bell chimed, signalling we had reached his floor. Reluctantly, I stepped out first and dragged my feet to his apartment door which just so happened to be the closest door to the elevator.

My manager came to my side and produced his keys from his pocket with one hand, taking a long drag from his cigarette before unlocking the door.

“Mind telling me why you’re here?” He questioned nonchalantly.

“Yes, actually. I do mind.”

“Too bad. Get inside kid,” he nodded for me to go in first.

Sullenly, I obeyed. Minwook-hyung kicked off his shoes and all of the lights. The faint sound of club music could be heard from outside.

He walked over to his table for two and sat down, gesturing for me to join him.

I removed my shoes and stiffly complied, sitting down across from him.

“Spill it.”

“I was visiting a friend,” I replied emotionlessly.

“Male or female?”

“A golden retriever.”

“Very funny,” he took another drag from his cigarette. Smoke puffed out dangerously close to me. “Answer properly Kris.”

“Does it really matter?” I sighed.

“So it was a girl. Did you do anything that I should know about?” His voice came out gravely. His bad habit wasn’t helping his lungs or throat.

“I’m not stupid-”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Did you do anything that I should know about?”

“No. She’s just a friend. We ate dinner and started watching a movie.”

“?” He removed the white roll from his mouth.

I banged my head against the table. “Like I said before, she’s just a friend. We started watching 19 Time’s the Charm.” He was always douche after a couple of bottles of soju.

“Sounds like a crappy romcom to me,” he scowled.

“Yep,” I nodded.

“Gross,” his brutal honestly was the reason why he was single.

“Yep,” I said again.

He placed his now burnt out cigarette in the ashtray that sat in the centre of the table (apparently Youngjun-hyung had never visited his place), and gave me a hard stare. Going against my instincts, I returned the stare back with equal force; not breaking eye-contact.

“Okay Kris, this is what we’re going to do. I should be yelling at you right now, and I should have Youngjun on the phone too. But I’m not going to do that.”

I raised my eyebrows, intrigued.

He continued. “Because I know that if I rat on you, you’re going to rat on me about my babies,” he pulled out a whole packet of cigs from his jacket pocket. “So what I’m going to do is this,” he gingerly placed them down on the table, “I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see you tonight.”

I had never expected him to say that. Ever. In fact, it had never crossed my mind that I could get him into some serious trouble if he decided to discuss this incident with the other managers. He had too much faith in my scheming abilities.

“And in return, you’re going to pretend that you didn’t see me tonight,” he said in a matter of fact tone. “So as far as I’m concerned this whole,” he waved his hands around, “thing never happened. We’re both going to pretend it never happened. Arasso?”

I nodded once.

“Okay, great,” he cheesed. “Now get out of here before you get caught by someone else.”

I nodded once more. Unsure if what had just happened had really just happened. I walked over to the door and slipped on my shoes.

“And Kris,” Minwook-hyung called from the table.

I took a deep breath. “Yes?” I didn’t look back.

“Whatever you’re up to, be careful kid.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t get caught up in a scandal,” I retorted

“Not that kid,” he grunted. “I meant be careful, not to fall in love.”

I froze.

“Women can ruin men Kris. You just have to look at me to see that.”

I almost asked him what he meant by that.

“We become fools over them.”

At the time I didn’t understand the crazy greying man at all.

Now I do. 

Writer's Notes:

Hey everybody! It's been a while.
Summer is nearly over, so I'll be starting school again soon. I'll try and churn out a few more chapters before then. 
As for this chapter, I don't know if it makes sense to you all, but it should- I think.
If you thought this was going to end soon just because of Kris' epiphany, then you're in for something else.
Thanks for reading/commeting/subscribing/upvoting/supporting/loving/being amazing readers!

Lots of love,
xoxoxo,
HEARTACHES <3