Taeyang continued to admire Hyosung’s unique smile, until a familiar ringtone snapped him out of it.  It was Jiyong’s song Crayon, meaning that he had been the one to call his phone.  As Taeyang went to grab his phone to answer it, Hyosung took a seat next to the stylist.

“Hyosung-sshi, I didn’t know that you and Youngbae knew each other?  He doesn’t speak with a lot of idols, so it was a surprise seeing him act this way again,” the stylist told her.

“Ani, we had our first conversation with each other right before his second recording,” Hyosung explained, but what was left in her mind was the second part of the stylist’s statement.  “By the way, what did you mean by again?”

Just as the stylist was about to answer, Taeyang had spoke loudly, with another voice responding just as loud.  The two women turned their attention to the phone call.  “Yobosaeyo?  Jiyongie, you’re on speakerphone.”

/Ahhh, neh./  Jiyong responded.

“So what’s up?  Are you at the kogi(meat) restaurant already?,” Taeyang asked.

/Yeah….about that.  It seems that I’m gonna be here a while longer.  Like maybe 2 hours longer./

“Chincha?  It’s already 7pm.  I guess we should go next time then?”

/No can do.  Ahjumma already closed the restaurant down for us, and she’s expecting us soon.  Sorry, Youngbae-ah, but it looks like you’ll have to go solo./

“Ahhh, I understand then,” Taeyang said disappointedly.  “Good luck for the rest of the photoshoot, Jiyongie,” he said before hanging up.  “Aish, going alone?”

Hyosung immediately jumped up from her seat and hurried to Taeyang.  “Taeyang-sshi, I’ll go with you!”  Taeyang gave her a questioning look, surprised by her sudden statement.  She saw this and responded, “Just think of it as a thanks for supporting my song.” 

Then she got closer to his ear.  Taeyang gulped a bit at this, but Hyosung didn’t seem to notice.  “And because you ended up embarrassing yourself instead of telling on me, I’ll pay for the meal,” she whispered.  She pulled back smiling and asked, “Is that okay?”

Taeyang took a moment before responding, “Are you sure?  You must be tired, so you don’t need to do that.” 

“Ani, it should be fine.  Besides, I was just going to return to my dorm, but I can’t pass up going to a kogi restaurant!,” Hyosung exclaimed.

Taeyang saw her eyes lighting up from the prospect of eating grilled meat and couldn’t help but chuckle at the woman’s unintentional cuteness.

The type of aegyo that he couldn’t resist.

“Arasso, I’ll go with you, Hyosung-sshi.  But only because you offered to pay,” Taeyang said chuckling as Hyosung realized what she had offered and starting groaning cutely at her own decision.

**********

“Are you sure about this, Hyosung-sshi?  I can handle paying for our meal too, you know?,” Taeyang asked as he got out of the van and helped Hyosung out.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.  I offered in the first place, remember?  And besides, I said we can get rid of the formailities, remember?,” Hyosung repeated.  She turned around to her manager who drove them and said, “Oppa, you can go home and rest for now.  I’ll call you when this is done, arasso?”  Her manager nodded and drove away, leaving the two idols outside the small restaurant.

Taeyang headed towards the door, with Hyosung following behind, and knocked on the closed door.  “Ahjumma?  It’s me, Youngbae.”  Moments after, they could hear light footsteps approaching the door from inside.  Before long, a couple of locks were being opened up until the door finally opened, revealing a older, shorter woman.

“Youngbae-ah!  I thought you wouldn’t be coming tonight after waiting for so long!  Come here!,” the elder lady said before motioning Taeyang to hug her, to which Taeyang fulfilled.  “Congratulations on your comeback!,” she continued as she broke the hug.  “Where’s Jiyongie?”

“He’s still finishing up his schedule at the moment, but I’m not sure if he will still be coming tonight,” Taeyang answered.  She understood and nodded her head, before finally she noticed Hyosung standing behind Taeyang.

“Annyeonghasaeyo, Jun Hyosung immida,” Hyosung said as she respectfully bowed to the elder woman.

“Youngbae, who is this beautiful young lady?  Perhaps….your new girlfriend?  It wouldn’t be a surprise since it is you we’re talking about,” the elder woman teased to Taeyang.

Taeyang felt his cheeks heat up from her statement, but was able to correct her.  “Aniyo, ahjumma!  We’re just friends and she wanted to keep me company since Jiyongie might not make it.”

“Friends?  That’s how it all starts,” the elder woman teased once again.  She looked back to Hyosung and said, “Annyeonghasaeyo, Hyosung-sshi.  Hope that your stay here will be a good one.  Now let’s go inside, you guys must be hungry.”  She led them inside to a small booth with a grill.

Taeyang and Hyosung took seats across from each other as the elder woman went to get the food ingredients.  Hyosung started the conversation, saying, “You two seem to be very close, Taeyang oppa.”

Taeyang acted a bit awkward towards the use of oppa, as he wasn’t comfortable with it just yet, but he was able to answer quickly.  “Neh, me and the rest of the members used to come here a lot when we first debuted.  You could say that it has a lot of significance to us.”  The woman came back with the meat and other ingredients, before leaving the two again for their meal.  “Well then.  Let’s do what we came here for.  Dig in!”

Hyosung didn’t hesitant and starting grilling the meat while she ate some of the other food that was placed on their table.  Taeyang was hungry, but he couldn’t help but watch the woman in front of him in her frenzy.  Even if she wasn’t in public, it didn’t matter if her image was ruined by her actions.  Taeyang admired it, as she was acting how he wished he had the past few years.

As her own self.

*****

30 minutes later, they were already on their third serving of meat, and Taeyang decided to go use the bathroom real quick.  Hyosung, still placing a piece of meat in , acknowledged him, which led him to chuckle.  “Looks like the meat is more important than talking right now,” he said before getting up and leaving.

As he left, Hyosung’s phone rang.  She nearly forgot about the piece of grilled meat in when she answered the phone, so she hastily chewed and swallowed it.  Finally, she said, “Yobosaeyo?  Jieun?”

/Unnie?  Where are you?  We’ve been waiting here for you./

“Eating.”

/Eating?  With who?/

“Taeyang op-…..I mean Taeyang sunbaenim.”

/Taeyang…..oppa?!  Why are you with him?  Why are you eating with him?  Are you two dating?!  How are you guys clo-/

Hyosung heard footsteps coming closer.  “Sorry, Jieun!  He’s coming back!  Gotta go!  See you soon!”

/Unnie!  Wait-/ 

Click.  Hyosung just hung up as soon as Taeyang appeared.  “Were you on the phone?,” he asked, to which Hyosung just nodded.  “Ahhh, arasso.”  Taeyang looked towards the grill to see only one more piece of meat left.  “Is that the last one already?”

“Neh!  And I called it!,” Hyosung yelled as she took the meat with her chopsticks, much to Taeyang’s displeasure (and amusement).  As she continued to grill the meat, she asked Taeyang, “What took you so long at the bathroom anyways?”

“Oh.  I went to pay ahjumma for the meal already so we don’t need to deal with it afterwards,” Taeyang stated.  Hyosung was bringing the meat up to , but when Taeyang said that, she froze, dropping the meat in the process.  Taeyang took this opportunity, saying, “Oh look, another piece came from the heavens!  I guess it’s mine to eat then!,” before taking the piece to eat.

Hyosung finally got out of her daze, yelling, “Yah!  Oppa!  I said I was fine with paying for the meal!,” as she started to give a pout.

“But I wasn’t fine with bringing you all the way here and letting you pay for the meal.  I was already appreciative when you offered to come just so I wouldn’t spend my comeback celebration alone.  So thank you, Hyosungie,” Taeyang explained sincerely.

Hyosung started to blush a bit at his words of thanks.  “Fi-fine!  I’ll let this slip by.  But if you win on M Countdown this Thursday, then I’ll pay then!  Promise?”  Taeyang started to think about her offer, but Hyosung could tell he was joking by the way he acted.  “Oppa!  For real!”

“Arasso, arasso.  It’s a deal, Hyosungie.  If I win, you can choose to pay,”  Taeyang held his hand out for a handshake agreement, and Hyosung took it.  “By the way, I couldn’t help but notice that you were blushing a bit.  Perhaps….you like me?,” Taeyang said teasingly.

“Y-ya-yah!,” was all Hyosung could say before she stood up from her seat and started slapping Taeyang from across the booth.  Taeyang started to playfully block her hits as well.  This continued for a bit.  Until….

CLICK.

Along with the clicking sound, a flash appeared from the side of the booth, leading Taeyang and Hyosung to look in that direction.  “Oops.  Did I do that?,” a male said.

“Ya-yah!  Jiyongie!  I thought you were going to take a while?!,” Taeyang said embarrassed.

Jiyong put away his phone with which he just used to take a picture of the two.  “Yeah, I thought that too, until the director told us to continue the photoshoot tomorrow.  So I thought I’d come since you would have been alone.  But I guess not,” Jiyong said before smiling to Hyosung.  “Annyeong, Hyosung-sshi.”

Jiyong took a seat next to Taeyang, before continuing his talk.  “Is this why you were looking for Youngbae, Hyosung-sshi?  I didn’t know you two were dating?,” he said bluntly to the other two’s surprise.

**********

The three artists had gathered into Jiyong’s car before leaving to Hyosung’s dorm.  “So that’s what all this was?  Just to repay for spilling water onto his shirt?,” Jiyong asked Hyosung as they drove.

“Neh.  That’s all,” she answered.

“Well then I apologize for assuming past my own knowledge of the situation,” Jiyong replied.

“It’s fine, Jiyongie.  It’s not a big deal.  At least the truth came out, right?,” Taeyang added.  Both Jiyong and Hyosung nodded in agreement.

Silence filled the car for a span of 10 minutes or so, before Jiyong spoke again.  “So the plan for you two, is that if Youngbae wins on M Countdown, you’ll pay for the meal that time, Hyosungie?,” Jiyong asked, making sure to not use formalities again.

“Neh, that’s the plan.  Ohhh, here’s my dorm on the next right.”  Jiyong followed her directions and parked in front of Hyosung’s building.  Taeyang got out of the car and opened the door for Hyosung.  Afterwards, he walked her halfway to the dorm’s door.

“So you got my number and everything for Thursday just in case, right?,” he asked.

“Of course I do, because no doubt you’ll win, Taeyang oppa!  Oppa, fighting!,” Hyosung said.

Taeyang smiled before turning around and waving bye.  But just before he got to the car, he turned around and yelled back to Hyosung.  “Hyosungie!  Thanks for tonight!  It was the most fun I’ve had for a while!”

Hyosung turned around and yelled back, “No problem!,” before opening her door and closing it behind her as she entered.  Taeyang took one last look towards the door, before getting back into Jiyong’s car.

Jiyong started to drive away with Taeyang staying quiet.  Noticing his best friend’s behavior, he started to talk.  “Youngbae-ah, it’s great to see you being more social again, especially since you’re promoting now.”

“Neh,” was all Taeyang said.

Jiyong sighed deeply before continuing on in a serious manner.  “But Youngbae, how long are you going to keep this act up.  The members know what’s up with you, and it’s certainly not healthy if we have to be checking up on you.”

“I know, Jiyong.  I know,” Taeyang said as Jiyong slowed down before parking outside his condominium.

“Look, I’m just saying that we can help you with this problem, but you’re not letting us.  And now, Hyosung-sshi’s entered your life again.  I don’t know how you going to avoid this, but we all know that she’s the reason you’ve become this way.  What are you going to do if she finds out?”

Taeyang was silent for a while, before he answered.

“If she finds out, then I have no choice but to explain it.  But there’s no way she’ll find out.”

Right?

­­­­­­_______________________________________________________________________________

Ohhhhhh, what’s happening now, huh?  Leave a comment down below if you want to try and predict what’s going on with Taeyang, and why it involves Hyosung.

Anyways, thanks for reading and supporting this story and keep your eyes out for the next update!