Laughter resonated in the small booth which housed the two women that were currently involved in seemingly pointless conversation.
“That’s so cheesy. Did he expect you to fall for that?” Sunjung asked when the laughter died down.

“Yes,” Gaeun nodded, her eyebrows arched, “I told him that I knew I was beautiful.”

“That wasn’t too harsh,” Sunjung shrugged, taking a sip of her kiwi juice.

“Yeah. I’ve gotten worse pickup lines,” Gaeun pushed her long black hair back, “Way too inappropriate.”

“No one ever used pickup lines on me. I just drive people away with glares,” Sunjung told her friend honestly.

“Why though?”

Silence followed.
Sunjung looked down at her almost empty plate, her eyes unfocused. It was a while before she took a long breath and answered.
“Not looking for a man.”

“You already seem to have one.”
Gaeun leaned forward and gave Sunjung a teasing smile.

“No,” Sunjung sharply stated, “not Lu Han.”

“How do you know I was talking about him?” Gaeun’s smirk only became bigger.

Sunjung looked quite taken aback by her friend’s retort but came up with her own retort after a while. “He’s the only man you’ve seen me with,” she reasoned looking satisfied with her answer.

“There’s Yixing.”
Sunjung gave her an almost dirty look. Gaeun held up her hands.
“So what is going on there?”

“We share an apartment,” Sunjung said matter-of-factly.

Gaeun’s eyes widened. She certainly hadn’t been expecting that answer. In the few weeks she had known Sunjung, they had only spoken about things related to work. Gaeun did most of the talking and Sunjung had mentioned her housemate once or twice. Gaeun wouldn’t have been able to guess Sunjung lived with the Lu Han. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Sunjung simply nodded, “we needed a place to live and a mutual friend found us one.”

“Oh...”
Gaeun shifted in her seat as she reached for a napkin. She did not say anything more. She honestly did not know what to say. “His name doesn’t sound Korean.”

“He’s Chinese.” Sunjung cleared , looking down while a small smile made its way onto her face. “He’s supposed to pick me up in a few minutes.”

The two were having a girls’ a day out on Gaeun’s insistence. They had watched a movie and at some point had made it to the zoo. The two women had turned into children for a few hours and explored the place. With tired feet and happy smiles they had decided it was time to call it a day and feed their hungry stomachs.

“Housemate and chauffeur?” Gaeun asked in a teasing tone.

“No, we’re just going somewhere.”

Gaeun made a small sound which Sunjung didn’t really acknowledge.

A few minutes later when they exited the restaurant, Lu Han was waiting for Sunjung in his car. Sunjung bid her friend farewell whilst she bragged about being smart enough to wear flats and slipped into the passenger seat.

***

Sunjung had almost leapt with joy at the happy coincidence.
Junyoung’s band was playing that night.

She felt a fleeting sense of happiness but it was soon replaced by nervousness.
She took a deep breath.
Nervousness wasn’t what she was supposed to feel when seeing her little brother. Wasn’t she supposed to feel affection, a rush of familiarity and warmth?
But all she felt was the sudden knotting up of her stomach.

As she sat and listened to the band perform a song that sang of falling in love for one night, Sunjung could only think of various scenarios of how things would go if she decided to confront her little brother right then and there.

Sunjung was so engrossed in replaying one scenario after another; she didn’t even notice Lu Han’s presence next to her until he placed his hand on her arm.
Slightly startled, she