"Everything is your fault, Woo Bin-sunbae," Ga Eul practically hissed at him as she placed his bowl of porridge before him.

...or maybe 'placed' was too light a term, as the bowl was actually shoved at him that for a frightening second Woo Bin thought the hot and heavy liquid was about to escape its porcelain prison and scald his heavily and expensively-clothed lap.

He eyed the bowl surreptitiously, knowing he'd have to move quickly if he wanted to avoid getting hurt. Satisfied that the porridge was not, in anyway, behaving in a manner un-porridge-like, he finally looked at Ga Eul. "-what's my fault?" he asked, blinking innocently up at her and coupling it with an expression he'd used to lure too big a number of women to his bed before.

Of course, he should've expected that look to vehemently not work on her. Ga Eul did say it pinched his face and made him look funny-looking.

Ouch.

With shaking fingers Ga Eul gestured behind her. "-that!"

Woo Bin followed her frantic gestures, saw a loud throng of screaming women standing and shrieking outside the porridge shop. "Prince Song! Prince Song!" they chanted as one. Only the cook, bravely standing in front of the door and holding a mop in his hands, kept them from completely going in.

He wondered why he never noticed them when he came in the porridge shop. Had they been there the whole time?

Then he realized that he'd long learned to tune out such unnecessary noise. By now, it was pretty much in his nature to ignore this kind of thing.

Woo Bin picked up his chopsticks, placed some greens atop the porridge, then took his time in setting up his meal just the way he liked it. "What about them?" he asked politely, trying his damnedest not to laugh at the severity of the glare he could practically feel Ga Eul was showering him. Really, sometimes it was just too easy to rile her up.

"You're very bad for business, you know that?" Here Ga Eul sat in front of him, crossing her arms as she leaned forward to get a better look at his face. "I thought that a member of F4 as a regular paying customer would be good for business, but you turned out to be exactly the opposite!"

He lowered his chopsticks, wiped his mouth. "Hey, I resent that."

She blinked. "Which part?"

"The part where you said I'm 'regular'." He grinned cheekily at her.

She curled her lip and leaned back. "Typical," Ga Eul barked. "Of all the things I said, that's the only word you were able to pick up?"

Woo Bin spooned some food into his mouth, chewed thoughtfully, then helpfully said, "I picked up all of them. I just chose to ignore most of them, Ga Eul-yang."

Ga Eul huffed, looked away, and for a moment Woo Bin thought he had offended her with what he'd said. Shouldn't she know by now that he was just kidding? He'd been visiting this shop regularly for the past few weeks, after all. This sort of conversation had already become the norm for them. So why was she-

He paused as an irrational thought occurred to him.

Was she actually offended because he called her the same way that Yi Jung usually did?

Then Woo Bin gave an imperceptible shake of his head, dismissing the thought as soon as it came.

"Why aren't you letting them in, anyway?" he asked, as a way of sidestepping the issue and because he was genuinely curious. "Wouldn't it be better for you to have them all in here instead of blocking the door like that? They might scare away potential customers." If they've come here to gawk at him, then might as well allow them to gawk at him in the shop where they'll have the opportunity to feast both on his good looks and good food, right?

She gave him an incredulous look. "Are you kidding? Don't you remember the first time we let that happen? Those girls practically broke our chairs and their necks just to get close to you. They 'accidentally' broke so many bowls, too... and look!" Ga Eul pulled her sleeve up, revealing a small part of her arm, "I've got so many scratch marks from that day, all because I was serving you! But that's not even the worst part."

He arched a brow. "What is?"

"They didn't pay for the damages." She shot him a look that practically screamed, and neither did you. "It truly is your fault, Woo Bin-sunbae!"

He couldn't help it; Woo Bin laughed. "You seem to be forgetting who I am, Ga Eul-yang," he said affably. "The girls, the chaos... It's all part of being F4, yo."

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "More like F1." Then she blinked, covered , and glanced at him as though realizing the gravity of her error.

Woo Bin could feel the smile freeze in his face in response. "...aish," he said, then took the bowl of greens to dump them all inside his porridge. "Ga Eul-yang really doesn't mince words, does she?"

In a very small voice he could hear her say, "Sunbae. Sunbae, I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Ga Eul was saved from apologizing further when Woo Bin's phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, saw Yi Jung's name on it, and abruptly got to his feet. "I have to take this," he said coolly. "Thanks for the meal." He fished out a large bill from his pocket and slid it towards her, before strolling towards the door without looking back.

"Sometimes I wonder why I ever left."

Woo Bin raised his brows. "Is it really that awful over there?"

Yi Jung chuckled, the sound slightly muffled by the telephone and the timezone difference between them. "There's lots of things to do here," he replied easily. "But it's too... quiet. It's allowing me many opportunities to actually think. I'm not sure I like that about Sweden." He sighed, and Woo Bin could imagine Yi Jung pinching the bridge of his nose in thought. "The sights are something else, though, so there's that. Not to mention the distance between me and everyone else. Perhaps being in a place far and away from my father's influence and my mother's whims will do me some good."

"Your mother's fine, bro," Woo Bin told him, after debating within himself if he should even bring it up. "She's entertaining guests again. Tea parties." He hesitated a bit. "Your father visited her twice for the past month."

The other person on the line went quiet for some time. "You're keeping tabs on my parents?"

"Someone had to." Then Woo Bin cursed silently, because that wasn't how he planned on saying it and that implied so many things about Yi Jung and-

"I didn't ask you to."

There. Woo Bin winced at the barely-controlled fury in his friend's voice. "I know," he admitted. "I'm still doing it, though." Someone had to, he thought again.

A few seconds more, and the line went dead.

One of the clubs which he frequented suffered a lot of damages from a fight that broke out without warning that very night.

The patrons knew exactly who was responsible, but not any one of them breathed a word about it.

2/?