"...is this a bad time?"

"Yes," came Woo Bin's automatically curt reply - then he sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and pushed the stack of folders away from him almost petulantly. "Will you hang up on me, now?"

"No," Yi Jung admitted, laughing a bit. "Just wanted to go through the pleasantries, that's all. Not that I care about them."

That got Woo Bin to crack a smile, even in his currently agitated state. "I'll be worried if you suddenly do around me." He eyed his work, then resolutely turned his chair so that he was facing the grandiose view of the city from his window, instead of the dreary files he'd been working on all day. He needed a distraction - and Yi Jung's phone call came at an opportune time. "What's up, bro?"

"I could ask the same of you, bro." Somehow, in Yi Jung's voice the word sounded wrong, but Woo Bin didn't bother correcting his pronunciation - he knew his friend was only using the word to make some sort of a point - or to catch his attention. "I've noticed you haven't been bothering me these past few days so I called just to make sure you're still alive."

"Careful," Woo Bin told him. "Any more sweet talk like that and I'll start to think you actually miss me. Wouldn't want any of your girls over there to think I'm their competition, would we? I've got enough trouble to mind over here that I'd hate to think about unexpected attacks coming all the way from Sweden."

"Then you needn't worry," Yi Jung replied easily. "There's none like that here."

That was a surprise. He pressed his ear closer to the phone, tried to detect where Yi Jung was, at this very moment - but the quiet background of his friend's location wasn't helping him any. "Don't tell me... the F4's legendary Casanova has lost all his charms?" That would be the day, Woo Bin thought, when hell had frozen over or broken loose. Of his friends, the potter often ended up his only realcompetition when getting women. So Yi Jung losing everything like that was just... unlikely.

Not that Woo Bin wanted to waste the chance to rile him up about it, though. "Or maybe your charms only work on Korean women, bro. Tough luck."

"Far from that." There was a bite to Yi Jung's tone because really, the very idea itself was absurd. "Let's just say the women here are-"

"-harder to get? Difficult to please? Taller than you? It's the heels, man. Get them off and you'll be able to see them eye-to-eye." Woo Bin paused. "Wait. How tall are Swedish girls, anyway?"

Yi Jung sighed. "Tell me again why I called you?"

"Because you miss me and all the women in Sweden are taller than you, so you're feeling a little bit... I don't know, low?"

"We're almost the same height."

"Yeah? Well." Woo Bin grinned. "I'm not the one in Sweden."

"Don't remind me." Yi Jung exhaled loudly, a telltale sign of him trying to rein his annoyance. "-you know, for someone who claims this is a bad time, you sure have a lot of time to be annoying. What have you been up to, anyway?"

Woo Bin turned so that he was facing his table again. The amount of unfinished work he still had to do had him frowning in no time. "I've been working, actually. For my father." Who else?

"Doing... what, exactly?"

The intoned and implied questions in Yi Jung's voice had Woo Bin grimacing even more. Now there was a bite in his voice when he replied, "Legitimate things. Have you forgotten we're actually running a legal construction company? We even helped you build your family's museum."

Though who knew for how long Woo Bin's venture into the Song business would stay on the 'upright' side of things. It was not that long ago that his father mentioned bringing him along for a 'trip' to Costa Rica, after all.

Yi Jung was quiet for some time that Woo Bin thought he'd actually hung up - and felt guilty about lashing out like that. All his friend did was ask a goddamn question, after all.

He was about to check when Yi Jung spoke, much to his relief. "Bad week?"

Woo Bin actually laughed. "I told you already, didn't I?" His surprise spot check last week had him surprised, truth be told. There were a lot of irregularities about the transactions the company had been involved in, in having that building built, and Woo Bin had called for allthe documents just so he could scrutinize them, one by one.

He was beginning to get a concrete image of just how "shady" their business really was.

The question now, though - what was Woo Bin going to do about it?

"-you still there?" Yi Jung asked him, and he realized he'd drifted off in his thoughts for quite a while.

"Yeah." He sighed. "Never thought working would entail so much work. I wonder how Jun Pyo's able to stand it?"

Then again, it was never a choice for their friend, was it?

Yi Jung chuckled. "Well, there's your challenge," he said. "If Jun Pyo hadn't yet cracked and he's been working longer than you have - what right have you to complain?"

Goddamnit, but Yi Jung was right on that one.

A few hours later, and Woo Bin found himself parking his car near the porridge shop.

The light was still on, even if it was already a bit late. He pocketed his keys and strode towards the shop, noting from outside that it was empty, as usual. His eyes searched for Ga Eul, but didn't find her there. Perhaps she was behind the counter?

He pushed the door open, and the ringing bell overhead got her to pop out from where she'd been, just as he'd expected. "Yo!" Woo Bin flashed her a friendly grin. "You told me this place had been missing me, right? Well, here I am-"

What he did not expect was for her to grab his arm and pull him with her right outside the shop again - or that she would face him with an expression he'd like to call 'frighteningly livid.'

"-Ga Eul?"

"Woo Bin-sunbae," she practically hissed, daggers glinting in her eyes and really, this was not the kind of welcome he was expecting. From anyone. "You dare show your face here, after what you've done to me?" The last words were shrieked with her fists clenched at her sides, and he blinked at her, suddenly at a loss for words.

It was perhaps his good fortune that hardly anyone was walking in the streets that night, lest they behold the scene of a commoner shouting at F4's Don Juan - who only stood staring stupidly straight back at her.

"-what I've-" He pointed at himself, "-done to you?" He pointed at her.

Talking to her felt like he walked in the middle of something, and was expected to explain himself, without knowing what the hell it was that he'd done that, based from her expression, seemed so- well, anger-worthy.

But Ga Eul was so furious she was shaking. "It's a good thing you came here - I'm spared from having to go to your house and killing you there!"

-except that wouldn't be possible, because she wouldn't have succeeded in killing him as he was capable of defending himself, thank you, and even if she did (by way of a surprisingly sudden attack when he wasn't looking at her, rendering him defenseless from her assault thereby disabling him from disabling her; any other scenario just wouldn't really be plausible, given all his skills damnit!), she wouldn't be able to come out of his house alive or in one piece and really, this was getting a tad too ridiculous for his taste.

Woo Bin could feel a headache coming, and pinched the bridge of his nose to halt it, counted to five quietly, then asked, "Would you mind telling me exactly what I've done that's so... horrible you're planning to kill me in my own home?"

The urge to smile at the absurdness of the thought was really, really hard to fight.

Ga Eul shoved her hand inside her apron, and took out not a butcher knife as he'd initially thought, but a slim, harmless, white piece of... paper.

"This!" She all but shoved it at him. "See for yourself!"

He pried the paper off her trembling fingers to see what this was all about. He unfolded it, recognized the Shinhwa logo at the very top-

Being the top choice for most of Korean youths, Shinhwa University prides itself in opening its doors only to the most elite of students...
...we are pleased to welcome you into our most prestigious institution...
...we assure you of the best instructors in all of your classes...
...you shall be under the tutelage of Ms. San Hyeo Rin, a renowned instructor from overseas...
...Congratulations and again, welcome to Shinhwa University.

Jun Pyo's signature under the seal of the Shinhwa Group was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

Woo Bin blinked again, glanced at Ga Eul's face, and inwardly cringed. Right. In the face of all that's been happening at work, he'd forgotten all about this little idea of his until it was staring him right at the face.

"Well?" Ga Eul demanded. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Um." Gently, he folded the paper, smiled at her beatifically, and said, "Congratulations for getting in?"

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to her - again - because she made an indistinct sound at the back of and all but ripped the letter off his hands. "That's just it," she said, "I didn't just 'get in'! I was 'ushered in'!" She took a step closer to him, and there was this wild look in her eyes that made him miss the quiet, timid Ga Eul who seemed to be absent lately. The quiet, timid Ga Eul who would have most assuredly not threatened his life while looking like a shrieking banshee-

Woo Bin fought the urge to step back.

"There was this man who came by the house Friday morning, and, and he had this letter with him and all these papers and he said, and I quote, 'a generous benefactor had gone and sponsored me to study at Shinhwa University' and I don't even have to pay for anything and even my meals were paid for and all I had to do was sign these stupid papers-"

And she was wringing her hands and if this scenario happened to Yi Jung, Woo Bin would have laughed himself to oblivion but it was happening to him and dear god, what was she saying now?

"My parents were so happy about this and they congratulated me on my luck but-" Here she stood glaring up at him, "-this wasn't justabout luck, was it? Who in their right mind would sponsor anyone without something in return? Or, in this case..."

And now she looked hurt, betrayed, and she shoved the letter into her apron almost dejectedly. "I didn't tell anyone about my problem. No one knew I had difficulty with raising the money I need to get in. No one but you." Her eyes were flashing again. "And after I made you promise you wouldn't do anything like this-"

"I never made a promise like that," he cut in, because he could remember that conversation clearly and at no point did he commit to inactivity like she'd implied.

Ga Eul pursed her lips, crossed her arms. "So you do admit it. You're behind this, aren't you?"

Technically, Jun Pyo was her benefactor in exchange for the donation Woo Bin was placing in the school - but he had no desire to correct her thinking, just as he had no desire to point out the obvious choice - she could always say no to what was being offered to her. "Would you have preferred I didn't do anything at all to help you, even if I could?"

She averted her gaze.

But he needed her to look at him, damnit. "Ga Eul. Do you really think I would have asked what your problem was that afternoon if I had no intention of helping you through it?" Now he's the one crossing his arms. "Don't friends help each other, if and when they can? Aren't we friends?"

worked awhile, opening and closing as though she had words she wanted to say but chose not to, at the last minute. Then, "You paid for four years' worth when I couldn't even pay for a single semester." Here, Ga Eul looked closer to tears than she'd been at the start of her rant. "S-Sunbae- I can't-" She swallowed, hard, and whispered, "I can't pay you."

That admission pained her, and it showed in her face. This was what she was really feeling, underneath all that anger and frustration. Embarrassment. He smiled, and placed a hand on her arm, wanting to ease it however he could. "Whoever said I was asking you to?"

She shook her head. "I'm considering your help as a debt, though, don't get me wrong," she said. "I can't pay you now, but I will. I'll pay everything back."

There was no sense in arguing with her, was there? "If you want to. For the record, though-"

Woo Bin wasn't able to continue with what he was saying because at that moment, Ga Eul had launched herself at him in a fierce but abrupt hug. "Thank you," she told him, very near his ear. "You- you don't know how grateful I am for this. Sunbae- Thank you."

He told himself it was only because he'd been caught unawares. He told himself it was ungentlemanly for him not to return the friendly hug. But suddenly there was an uncomfortable hammering in his gut at her touch and when she drew back and smiled at him, he became aware of a definite lurching in his chest, which was not, in any way, how he should be feeling right about now. Especially not when it came to Chu Ga Eul.

Perhaps it's because it had been a hell of a day for him and this conversation right outside the porridge shop was just the most fantastic way of ending it.

Perhaps it's because he'd been sober for so long that the absence of alcohol and smoke-infused atmosphere had rewired his brain, somehow.

Perhaps it's because he hadn't eaten in a while and wasn't this why he sought out the porridge shop in the first place? Because he was hungry?

Yes. Yes, that was it.

He forced himself to smile right back. "You're welcome."

6/?