“So you’re usually a regular here?”

“Neh.” HongBin said. “As I said yesterday, school has been stressful lately.”

Raelyn ran her fingers through his wet hair, blushing as she did so. She zeroed a lock in between her fingers and brought her scissors up to trim off the top, brushing the fallen pieces away gingerly while doing her best not to hurt him.

“You’re still in high school, correct? Haven’t you guys been out for winter break for the past few months?”

There was a pause in his reply that made Raelyn wish that she had said something else. After a moment, his smile returned with a nervous chuckle.

“Our financial state hasn’t exactly been great lately either.”

Raelyn’s face flushed cherry red at this. She did her best to ignore it by continuing on with her work. “I’m sorry to hear that….”

He laughed it off, however. “Gwenchanayo. Since my brother has been giving extra lessons from our apartment, we’ve been doing a lot better recently.”

Raelyn looked down at HongBin’s reflection through the mirror; there was a slight gleam in his eyes at the mention of his brother.

She smiled. “Do you look up to JaeHwan all that much?”

The smile on his face faded almost instantly, confusing Raelyn. There was suddenly a tension in the air that felt nearly suffocating.

He looked down and away from her puzzled eyes. “Not really….”

“Oh.” The aura caused Raelyn’s ears to flush. She did her best to look away and focus her attention back on the t of his hair. “Um….”

Suddenly his smile came back, as he was obviously doing his best to change the subject. “HakYeon Hyung’s t every now and again have been enough to get me through the winter, but I would like to look a little different for the start of the new school year.”

Raelyn paused for a moment to look at him, but the smiled coyly. “Is that why you decided to come back today after getting your hair cut yesterday?”

She noticed him look up at her with a shocked face before he smiled and looked away. “Er, neh….”

His face had turned a bright pink color, making Raelyn smile with feels. She brushed her fingers through his hair one last time before setting her utensils down.

“Alright, it looks like you’re all done.” She said, unwrapping him from the sheet and moving for her broom to sweep up the snippings. When she turned back around, however, she found the HongBin had already stood up from his chair, towering over her with his length. She looked up at him, a blush immediately taking over her face at the sight of his new haircut.

He had asked for layers as opposed his one single length that he had been sporting since she had met him. The thickness of his hair caused the layers to fall over each other, giving his hair a more full look and causing the bangs that fell over his forehead to fring to the side, exposing more of his beautiful face.

He turned to look in the mirror, admiring the work she had done.

“Whaah! It looks amazing, Raelyn-ssi.”

She couldn’t help but smile and lower her head slightly at this. “Er, kamsahabnida. I did my best.”

“Well you’re amazing.” He said, looking her directly in the eye. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever before Raelyn’s nerves forced her to look away and begin sweeping.

“W-well, uh, thank you for coming. We hope you come back again….”

HongBin’s face had dropped in surprise at her suddenly withdrawn attitude. After a moment he cleared his throat and looked away. “Um, yeah. I’ll make sure to do that.”

Raelyn continued focusing on her work until he had moved over to the register to pay. She let out a sigh, not even noticing that SeoYoung had moved over to her.

“He likes you.”

“WHAT?!” The shriek  pierced through the building, making everyone look over. Raelyn blushed in embarrassment before bending over to pick up the broom that she had dropped. “No way. No way in Hell.”

“Then why did he come in and specifically ask for you to cut his hair?”

“Because Natsuki isn’t here today. She’s the one who usually cuts his hair.”

“But why you of all people?”

Raelyn stopped what she was doing to turn to SeoYoung. “Hell, I don’t know! Why are you asking me these questions?”

SeoYoung shrugged and sat down in Raelyn’s styling chair. “I’m just saying. I’ve been sitting over there and watching you two flirt with each other for the past twenty minutes. The way he looks at you isn’t the same way he has ever looked at anyone else in here.”

The blush seemed to only grow more and more until Raelyn could have sworn that it invaded her whole body. “There’s no way-”

“Raelyn?”

The two girls turned around to find their cashier standing before them, She bowed to them before holding out a couple of folded bills to her. “The young man who just left asked me to give these to you?”

Puzzled, Raelyn took the money and bowed back the the cashier before she left. She took a second, but then she opened the folded bills to count how much he had given her. As she did so, a small paper fell out and to the ground.

“What’s this?” SeoYoung asked, bending down to pick it up. She took a second to read over what was on it before smiling slyly.

“He doesn’t like you, huh?”

Raelyn gave her a confused look before she took the slip of paper and read over it.

Want to go out for some coffee sometime?

“Good night, Raelyn!”

“Good night!” Raelyn called back into the building before the door closed behind her. She turned around and let out a large breath, her breath fogging in the cold of February. She pulled her scarf snuggly around her neck before beginning her descend down the sidewalk; she didn’t get far, however, before she caught sight of the black Prius at the end of the block. As she moved closer, she could see the tall, bundled up figure leaning against it, as well as the nose peeking out from over his scarf.

“What the Hell are you doing here?” She asked him, her mood now sour.

Ken looked over and caught sight of her before pushing off of the car and confronting her.

“I followed my brother over here. He was talking about you last night and said you worked here.”

“You’re such a goddamned stalker.”

“Am not!” Ken exclaimed. Rather than engaging in a glare off however, he grunted and held out a small gift bag to her. “Here. This is yours.”

Raelyn looked at it and then cocked an eyebrow at him. “What, are you getting me gifts now? Aren’t you supposed to be dating my sister?”

“It’s more like a gift that you left for me and I am returning.” JaeHwan explained. Raelyn hesitantly took the back, staring at him in confusion, but when she opened it and peered into the confined space her face lit up.

“Hey! I’ve been looking for these!” She couldn’t hide her excitement at this, yet suddenly out of nowhere she paused and looked back up at him with a confused look on her face. “But wait… why did you have them?”

“Apparently you wore them on New Years Eve.” He explained, setting a lightbulb off in Raelyn’s head. “And how the Hell I didn’t notice a pair of green velvet shorts with bells hanging off them sitting around my bedroom is a mystery to me. WonSik found them in the laundry.”

Suddenly Raelyn’s face flushed. “You mean he touched these….?”

“He did, as well as HakYeon hyung.” He explained. “Well, and myself of course.”

“Believe me, I know you’ve touched them.” Raelyn said, sending an awkward wave through the air. After a moment she pressed her palm to her face. “This is so embarrassing… You didn’t tell them that they were mine, did you?”

“Of course not!” Ken threw his hands in the air, making a face at Raelyn. “I played it off and said they were mine, which was absolutely humiliating, but anything to keep suspicion from

rising will have to be done.” He huffed, narrowing his eyes slightly on Raelyn.

“So….” Raelyn glanced at the bag, then back at Ken. “I heard you and Lucca kissed.”

“Oh, you’re not jealous are you?” Ken narrowed his eyes on her.

“Ew, no! One mistake was way more than enough.” Raelyn shook her head, a look of disgust on her face as she looked up at him.

“Agreed.” Ken shook his head in disgust at the thought.

“No, I was more or less wondering whether or not you were going to tell her…. about New Years, I mean.”

Cringing slightly, Ken looked around slightly. “Well, uh…. I never really thought about it….” He replied, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

“You didn’t think about it even when you were her face off?!” Raelyn exclaimed, her eyes widening as she looked up at him.

“Her face is completely in tact, thank you!” He snapped back, his eyes narrowing on Raelyn. “And what about you!? You could have told her, but obviously you haven’t!”

“I was going to! But, you know….. She just seemed so happy about everything that I didn’t want to ruin it….” Raelyn defended herself, looking away slightly.

Groaning now that he was actually thinking about it, Ken leaned back against his Prius. Rubbing his eyes, Ken shook his head. “Well, what the hell are we supposed to do? What the hell am I supposed to do!? I not only have the cloud of guilt hanging over me now, but I also live with the only person who knows what happened and he was already giving me really weird looks when they found your stupid boxers!”

“They are not stupid!”

“That’s not the point!”

“Wait a minute,” she cut him off, staring at him in confusion, “Who was giving you weird looks? TaekWoon-ssi?”

“Yes, TaekWoon-Hyung.”

“Why was he giving you weird looks?”

“Hell if I know. He’s been really tense and closed off from everybody since the New Year started.” He explained. “I mean, he has always been kind of quiet and stand-offish, but it’s only seemed to be worse recently.”

Raelyn stared at him for a moment in confusion. “I wonder why that is….”

“Who knows….” Ken rubbed the back of his head and looked away. “Of course, he’s never really liked me all that much either, so maybe that has to play into it.”

“He’s not the only one who has never really liked you all that much.”

“At least we know the feeling is mutual.” Ken glared at her.

“So do you think he really will keep this a secret?” She asked.

“So far, yeah, but I’m worried something might set him over the edge. He doesn’t really talk about a lot of things, but I know he talks to HakYeon-Hyung a lot, and the last thing I want is for the others to know before I even get the chance to tell Lucca….”

“So we are in fact telling Lucca?”

“Neh.”

Raelyn let out a breath. “Whew, thanks heavens. Simply knowing that took the weight of the world off my chest.”

“Well don’t feel relieved yet, you’re going to have to take the repercussions of it as well.” He explained. “I’ll tell her soon….”

“How soon is “soon”?”

“Soon.”