“Hold up,” Hana raised a hand to stop Kyungmi from talking. “So you’re telling me you went to dinner with WINNER and didn’t speak a word the entire time?” Kyungmi’s cheeks reddened nearly as much as the cherry tomato she popped in .

“I’m not the chatty type.”

“Since when?!” Hana exclaimed with wide eyes, and Kyungmi let out a laugh.

“Since the music department branded me a loser,” she said comically and Hana could feel her insides burn with anger again. As if sensing her inner violent reaction, Kyungmi reached for Hana’s hand. “I know I shouldn’t be used to it, but I am. It’s not really that bad anymore, especially since I have you around now.”

They’ve been over this before, and Hana really didn’t want to ruin their lunch so she willed herself to calm down a little and drank from her soda can to soothe her suddenly parched throat. Kyungmi giggled and kept eating her salad. “The dinner was hella awkward but I had fun, to be honest. They talked about music with my Dad a lot, and not in the way we talk about it in classes, you know? There were mentions of stocks and trends and all these business things that I really know nothing about. Surprisingly, they knew a lot. Especially Taehyun.”

“I still find it irritating that no one even bothered to include you in the conversation when you’re sitting right there,” she scrunched her nose, poking around at her spaghetti.

“Actually, Kim Jinwoo tried to talk with me. I guess he had no choice since he was sitting beside me,” she replied sheepishly. “But I got tongue-tied.”

Hana rolled her eyes. “You’ve been attending school with these people for three years now. Why are you still starstruck around them?”

“Because, Hana, they’re gorgeous and talented and we’ve only had minimal interaction in the last three years, then all of a sudden I’m having dinner with them and they’re talking to my parents? That’s a lot to take in,” Kyungmi huffed. “It was a good thing Kang Seungyoon wasn’t there, one less person to worry about making myself look like a fool.”

Hana looked away at the mention of Seungyoon and shoved a forkful of pasta in , hoping Kyungmi wouldn’t ask about her dinner. Because then, Hana would have to tell her the truth (she decided it wasn’t wise to lie to her only friend in school) and she really didn’t want to.

She didn’t even know why she agreed to eat with him when he invited her, but then Seungyoon said he’d treat her to dinner. What fool would say no to free dinner? And technically, he owed her for dragging her all the way up to that building, which had a gorgeous view regardless (not that she would ever tell him), and laughed at her several times and forcibly made her sing. Of course she had to at least let him spend a few thousand won, right? That’s the reason why she said yes. And it totally wasn’t because she strangely wanted the night to last a little bit longer as they rode the elevator down. No. It wasn’t because of that.

They ended up in a noodle place not too far from the building. Seungyoon insisted they serve really good udon, and Hana took his word for it. Things were going smoothly until Seungyoon took out his wallet and his eyes grew the size of saucers.

Before she can even ask, he’d blurted out, “. I just realized I don’t have my card.”

Hana let loose a disbelieving scoff, folded her arms against her chest and listened to Seungyoon explain himself. She didn’t know if she should believe him, but regardless of whether he was telling the truth or not, what he was doing was completely, utterly shameless.

“So let me get this straight,” she began to say, narrowing her eyes. “You come to my workplace asking me for a favor, and despite my reservations, I obliged because you begged. And Kang Seungyoon never begs, right? So I sing for you, and I get nothing in return. Not even a song. Lastly, when I could be home right now eating my Grandmother’s delicious food – which believe me, I deserve after the kind of day I had – I come with you instead because you offered to buy me food. But now you want me to pay?!”

Seungyoon’s mouth opened by a fraction but no words came out. Instead, he gave her an embarrassed smile. “It’s not like I’m not going to pay you back?”

Hana looked down sadly at the delicious bowl of udon and felt cheated of a free meal.

“I forgot I gave Mino my card. I really did! You can ask him!” Seungyoon paused. “No, wait. Scratch that, don’t ask him. But just believe me.”

Hana looked up and she could swear that despite Seungyoon’s half-assed apology, she could detect hints of amusement on his face. She let out a defeated sigh. “This is the day that keeps on giving,” she muttered sarcastically and reached for her bag. She took out her wallet and stared longingly at the few bills she had with her. Her next paycheck wasn’t due until next week and frankly, she was planning on penny-pinching until then. She still had that gift for Kyungmi she needed to save up for.

Seungyoon leaned forward and took a peek. “Do you have enough? Because I maybe have some—“

Hana held up a hand. “Dwaesseo. I’ll take care of it,” she dismissed.

“I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

“I don’t know if I can believe that,” she gave Seungyoon another scowl as she put her bag away. When she looked up, he was giving her a pout that made his lips look plumper than they were. She wasn’t sure if it was intentional or if this was how he looked whenever he was sorry. For her pride’s sake, she had to keep herself from breaking into a smile at his expression which she had to admit was… cute. HA. Who knew she’d call WINNER’s leader that? It was hard to believe this was the same moody guy who’d been tormenting during her first two weeks in school. She wasn’t exactly complaining, because the world needs less of gloomy, rude Kang Seungyoon, but she needed some time to adjust to this side of him.

“Just eat,” she pointed to his food.

They ate in silence for a while, but despite their squabble (if you can really call it that), it was strangely comfortable. Then again, after the horror of having to sing to Seungyoon, and only to him, everything else seemed like a walk in the park. As if she wasn’t already nervous enough to be alone with him, he had to make everything even more difficult by being so… near all the time.

Hana could not, for the life of her, understand how Seungyoon’s brain works. Maybe he really just had a loose concept of space, or maybe he’d been trapped inside the training studios of YG too long that he had absolutely no clue how to interact with girls anymore.

She was close to giving him a piece of her mind, and it would go along the lines of: One, you do not pull girls into rooms, stand too close, and rile her up for no good reason. Two, you do not pull girls into rooms, stand too close, and be nice to her for no good reason. Three, you do not hold a girl’s hand twice as though it were so easy, as though it were normal human behavior. Lastly, you do not bring girls to your favorite spot in Seoul – and a freaking rooftop overlooking the city with a breathtaking view at that – ask her to sing for you, and tell her things like ‘your music is honest and beautiful’.

No. Guys simply do not do those things. Especially guys who had the likes of Jennie Kim for a girlfriend.

Girls don’t just go accepting dinner invitations either, she mentally scolded herself. As much as Seungyoon was guilty of doing things guys aren’t supposed to do, she had as much willpower to walk away and she didn’t.

She raised her face in time to see Seungyoon looking at her curiously.

“What?”

“Are you still mad?”

“I wasn’t really mad to begin with,” she shrugged. “Just tired. Anyway you’ll pay me back, right?”

“Right,” Seungyoon’s expression brightened. “I knew you would understand.”

“Yeah, apparently, I’m the understanding type,” she muttered under her breath.

Just then, she felt the familiar sting in her shoulder and placed her chopsticks down to reach for it with a hand. She massaged it gently, the pain easing a little bit.

“Dance class?” Seungyoon asked.

She nodded. “How do you people dance for hours every single day?”

One side of Seungyoon’s lips tugged up in a lazy smile. “You grow a tolerance for it. But believe me, dancing was my worst enemy back in my early months as a trainee.” He turned to his bag and looked inside, before pulling out a flat, square box. He extended his hand to give it to her, and only then did she realize they were medicine patches. “Here, you can have them.”

Hana could have politely declined, but it would save her a trip to the pharmacy so she reluctantly took it. “This isn’t you paying me back, right?”

Seungyoon broke into a chuckle. “No.”

Seungyoon had laughed several times tonight, but it was the first time she was seeing it clearly. It was dark outside the café, and at the rooftop, but under these lights, she could see the way his cheeks puffed, and his eyes danced. There was something so hearty and genuine about his laughter, like someone who didn’t give the slightest damn about how stupid he looked with his mouth open or how unpleasant the noise he made.

Maybe it was a good thing that Seungyoon rarely laughed or smiled. For her sake, he probably shouldn’t laugh or smile a lot. She cleared and for the hundredth time that day, ignored the quickening of her heartbeat. She mumbled a quick thanks before turning to her food again.

Just as they were finishing up, a waitress came to their table and put down two bowls of ice cream. Hana’s eyes widened, about to tell her they didn’t order dessert – and if they did, they were going back because she couldn’t afford it – but the girl just smiled at them. “This is on the house. My mom is fan of Kang Seungyoon-ssi,” she said and turned to Seungyoon. “Can we ask for an autograph?”

“Of course,” Seungyoon chirped and smiled widely, accepting the piece of paper and pen from the girl. He asked her what her mother’s name was, chatted with her like they’ve been friends for a long time, complimented the food. Before Hana knew it, she was smiling as much. When the girl left, Seungyoon turned to her and pointed to the ice cream, a smug grin still on his face.

She rolled her eyes. “I get it. You’re famous,” she grabbed her spoon and dug in just as Seungyoon did. Her eyes wandered around the restaurant and spotted the table beside theirs trying to take a photo of Seungyoon without even trying to be subtle. She turned to Seungyoon again, who was clearly enjoying his free dessert. “Doesn’t it bother you though? Strangers trying to talk to you, wanting your picture all the time?”

He looked up from his bowl. “I guess it gets weird sometimes, but nothing I couldn’t handle. As long as they don’t go overboard and start stalking or something.”

Hana stiffened and she didn’t even know why. It wasn’t like she was a really a stalker, she was just accused wrongly of being one. It also reminded her of their meeting at the music room and somehow, it made her flush. Seungyoon must have noticed her odd reaction because the corners of his lips twitched again.

“Now that I think about it, you really seemed like a stalker the first time we met,” he cocked a brow.

“I shouldn’t have been at your music room, I know, but being there hardly made me seem like a stalker.”

Seungyoon rested his chin on the heel of his palm. “That’s not the first time we met.”

Oh. “The bus from Busan. Right.”

“Yeah. I remember thinking how rude you were just staring at me. You have to forgive me though. I was having a very bad day. A bad week, actually. I went home hoping that some fresh Busan air would help me write, but I came up with nothing.”

“I