Epilogue II - Sehun

I was about to divide the chapter into 2 parts, but nah i want yall to cry at once since this chapter of Sehun counts 17k words. So please know how much I love him too in this story ;__;

It wasn’t considered as special to personally know how your ideal type of a lover was, everyone mostly did. To know what kind of person you wanted to fall in love with. To choose which kind of person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. To determine the person you want to build your family with.

Especially, when you have loved someone so dearly in the past, but the universe thought that both of you were not meant for each other. And it just became inevitable to have the shadow of your past lover luring, making you thought that you want that kind of personality as your lover.

So that was how, probably for some people, the ideal type was created.

But well, everyone actually should know how sometimes, if you’re (un)lucky, the universe loved to do funny things to your fate.

And of course, it’s funny when the realisation dawned on you.

That the universe has turned the table for you.

When you realised that you fell for someone you never thought you would fall in love with. When you realised that you missed those small fights happened every single time you met them. When you realised that all the scoff you let out when you’re annoyed, all the small talk you did to yourself saying how you didn’t want to see them again, was actually you, being in denial.

It’s funny.

And it might get more interesting when the realisation came a little too late.

“Oh Hyera, stop fidgeting. If you keep doing it, I’m going to think you’re doing something bad behind my back.”

The siblings were in the middle of a casual dinner when Sehun suddenly dropped the question. A question that the younger sister knew would be dropped sooner or later since this evening. And yes, Hyera has been fidgeting on her seat, trying to gather the courage to tell her brother about this thing that she had been hiding from him. Well, she already caught red-handed, so she actually had nothing to hide anymore. She didn’t know why though, but she really had a hunch that Sehun might have found out about it because the older too, has been keeping an eye on her every single time she told him she has a schedule with her doctor.

It has been a year and half since Hyera has finally been discharged from the Kim hospital after staying for a year there. The doctors were proud to claim that Hyera no longer needed to stay, but of course with the notes here and there for Sehun to pay close attention to. And she has never felt any better than finally being able to breathe the freedom.

Hyera surely took more time to adjust to the new surroundings after years of only having a white four-walled room as her constant. And Sehun had been nothing but assisting. After starting to work for the Kims, Sehun had more than enough time to take care of the little sister. They spent their time together with Sehun bringing her to every nook and interesting corner of the town, going on a little sibling date on the weekend when Sehun was off duty, or just simply hanging out at home watching some random movies at night before bed. Everything just went normal for Sehun, Hyera adapting just fine, and he could safely say that there was no significant incident, or worse, any relapse on her part, so Sehun rarely felt worried for the little sister.

But that was only until recently.

Sehun started to notice how her visit to the hospital gradually increased in the past weeks. She always told him she had a visit scheduled for her, only when Sehun was already at work. Of course, he couldn’t just leave his work to keep his sister company, especially when he had a lot on his table to be done. Hyera never failed to say that she didn’t mind going alone. Sehun was reluctant at first, but the little sister managed to convince him that she would be just fine taking a cab. Once, twice, and thrice. Sehun started to feel weird. When he asked her if she felt something wrong, she shook her head, even with a convincing smile plastered on her lips saying that she was completely fine.

“But why are you having a couple of visits scheduled if you feel fine?” Sehun asked her back then, not quite understanding why she kept coming back to the hospital outside of the schedule—yes, Sehun took note of her schedule so he knew when she should go for her visit. And when the brother told her he would pick her up, most of the time, she reluctantly shook her head, carefully refusing.

On the fourth time Hyera asked for his permission, Sehun sighed, but he let her go without any question. If Hyera looked kind of surprise because her brother didn’t usually give his permission without any nagging, Sehun tried to ignore it. She then gave him a wide smile and grateful hug before Sehun finally out to work.

But Hyera really had no idea that Sehun was silently following her that day.

So yes, Sehun kind of get an idea about what has been going on, but he wanted to hear it directly from the girl to prove if his suspicion was true.

Sehun parked his car a few meters away from the spot Hyera was standing at, enough for him to see her, but not too close to avoid getting caught. He was still wondering why she didn’t just call the cab to pick her up at the apartment’s lobby and went as far as walking to the bus stop. The older brother went out earlier only to borrow his colleague’s car in exchange with his, before coming back to park the car not so far from the lobby and make sure he could get a clear sight of his sister if she went out of the building. Because he knew Hyera would easily recognise their car if Sehun didn’t try to disguise. And when he spotted her going out of the building, he slowly followed her behind.

It didn’t take long until he saw a car stopped close to the girl. First and foremost, it wasn’t a cab. It was a sleek metallic black sedan, so Sehun didn’t really pay attention to it. Not until he saw a man going out of the driver side, skipping some steps before pulling the door to the passenger’s side open. Sehun saw Hyera smiled at the man before ducking her head and went inside the car. Who the ?

His attention was suddenly distracted by the loud vibration coming from his phone. He stole a glance at the screen and couldn’t help but groaned as soon as he saw the caller id.

“Sehun, where the are you right now? It’s almost ten.”

“I took a day off. I need to take care of something.” He said nonchalantly.

“Didn’t you read my message? They decided to move the probation evaluation to today because Junmyeon oppa suddenly needs to go out of the city tomorrow. You should come right now.”

Sehun burst out laughing as he couldn’t really contain his amusement. “Oh well, did the mighty Jung Sena just admit that she actually needs me for this presentation?”

“Ha, you wish.” Sehun heard the snort coming from the other line. “It is because you are my supervisor so you should be here.”

“Aw, how cute, I suddenly become your supervisor now when it’s time for you to report to the board.” The man cooed, knowing exactly how she would be so pissed with him.

“You know what? Just don’t come. I can do it by myself.” Even Sehun could see how she would roll her eyes before finally cutting the call.

“Damn it.” Sehun let out a curse when he realised that he already lost the car bringing his little sister from his sight.

“Are you busy? Can you come to my office for a moment?”

“Sure. I’m coming, Sir.”

The man quickly grabbed his blazer before rushing to the elevator. He swiftly put them on as the door to the elevator slide open, stepping inside and pushed the number to the highest floor. Sehun was that type who didn’t want his superior to wait for too long when they demanded him. And of course, having Kim Junmyeon suddenly called him when it was almost time to go home only meant that it was something important.

There wasn’t a lot of people who knew that Sehun, despite everything that happened in the past, actually managed to graduate and successfully pocketing a bachelor’s degree in law. Funny, sometimes Sehun still thought about how him, who was so familiar with the mafia world since his young age, even managed to be convinced by his father to take law as his degree, only to have it useless because he didn’t have any choice but to do things against them. Junmyeon though, was more than happy to take him under his wing along with Kyungsoo. He directly supervised him to get the grip on how their firm works. And now having been working under the older for more than a year, Junmyeon could proudly say that he was satisfied.

“Sir,” Sehun pushed the door to Junmyeon’s office after knocking twice.

Junmyeon turned his head towards the door, nodding his head to the younger signalling him to come inside since he was still talking to the phone. The younger proceed to walk inside and comfortably sat on the couch. It didn’t take Junmyeon long to finally finish his phone call and joined Sehun on the couch.

“How was the smuggling case?”

“We’ve got the firearm case under control now, only need to wait for the confirmation before proceeding to the police for the arrest. But we still have some problem with the drug case. I didn’t recognise these people and we’re still collecting information. It seems like they are a new player.”

“Great. You may need to keep an extra eye on the drug case. But yeah, sorry, it’s not why I called you here in the first place.” Junmyeon slid the file he’s holding onto the table. “Jongin’s sister-in-law, Soo Jung’s younger sister is joining us here starting from tomorrow, and I will put her under your supervision.”

Sehun remained silent, waiting for Junmyeon to continue. “You both are actually going to be partners later but for now because she still needs to adjust, I would like you to help her to get used to how things work here since she formerly worked overseas. Things might be different there.”

“Sir, are you sure you’re delegating me for this?”

Junmyeon noticed the younger’s hesitation and he smiled before leaning back to the couch, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Yes, of course. It’ll be a lot easier than all these missions I’ve been giving you, no?” The younger nodded at the question and gave him a stiff smile. Well, he still didn’t feel confident enough to lead someone else to learn, but he knew Junmyeon wouldn’t give him this task if he didn’t think Sehun would be able to do it. Sehun took the file and opened it to skim through the paper. “She has bachelor’s degree in Criminology. I’m sure you both will learn a lot from each other, and it will be fun to work with her.” Junmyeon added, somehow noting the determination starting to shine on the younger’s eyes.

Sehun was taken out of the flashback happening inside his head when Junmyeon called his name, resulting to almost half of the people inside the meeting room turned his head at him. “Yes?”

Earlier, the man decided to take a U-turn as he concluded that he probably didn’t realise the car he was following took a turn at some intersections while he was talking on the phone. He laughed cynically at himself. It was such a humiliation for him who was once a person who would never lose a normal car on a road. He was worried, yes, but at the same time—he didn’t even know where this comfort came from—he knew that his little sister would be just fine. Sehun really wished his feeling wasn’t wrong this time, so with a quite heavy heart, he turned back to go to the office since he knew that he was needed there.

“We all could see that Sena did exquisite analysis especially for the case three and five. But I’m not really sure why she didn’t show the hard work she did especially in case five.” Sehun rose from his chair and walked to the front of the room, taking away the spotlight from the girl. Sena did great, he had to admit. And of course, he wanted to at least help to show them that she really could outdo her responsibility—well, although everyone in the room should’ve known that she was a notable lawyer at such a young age. “Sena, please show the last slide you showed me in our discussion.”

“Sir, I’m—” She stuttered, didn’t really expect that Sehun would bring this up. But it only took a hard glance from the older for her to comply and proceed to show the last slide she intentionally didn’t show earlier. When the screen lit up with the new page, Sehun started to recite, especially to shut all these stupid head who was filled with nothing but thirst and greed.

“Thank you.”

Sehun turned his attention away from his bowl as he heard the small voice coming from the thin pursed lips of the girl sitting across him. She was playing with her food, didn’t really dare to look up because she would only meet her supervisor’s eyes. They were sitting in a small Japanese restaurant only a five minutes’ walk from their office. Sehun pulled the girl out of the meeting room as soon as all the board members left, only saying that he was hungry before proceeding to drag her to eat his favourite chicken curry rice.

Sena had been on edge since this morning after receiving a short message from Junmyeon, stating that he had to move their meeting which was supposed to be held tomorrow. So today became the big day where she was needed to present the exclusive cases handed to her during her first year in this new law firm. She was nervous, for sure. Especially because she knew her supervisor wasn’t here. Junmyeon informed her that Sehun took a day off, but he also smiled, telling her not to worry although Sehun wasn’t present. Junmyeon was a sweetheart, that was something Sena could never deny. The older was stern, yes, but he knew when to guide, or when to just let her solve the problem by herself. He was the definition of leader in her eyes, and she would be forever thankful to him for every single detail he had taught her.

The girl was ecstatic when she heard that her parents approved of her wish to go back to her home country. She spent almost half of her life, together with her big sister, being away from her parents. She went beyond excited when she heard that the Kim Law Firm, which she had been eyeing since the very beginning of her plan of coming back, was related to her brother-in-law. Jung Sena didn’t need connection, honestly. Her curriculum vitae was grazed and sparkly with all grand achievements during her study. She could just point at wherever she wanted to work, and there’s no doubt they would put the red carpet for her. Yes, she was confident that much. But of course, some people chose to ignore those and focused on how she directly landed herself on a decent position, especially when it was known that you are related to someone up in the top management.

Jung Sena hated that. She was tired of being looked down by those people.

“Thank you for coming even though you’re supposed to take a day off.”

Sehun let out a snicker before followed by a small chuckle. Sena looked up from her plate, her pupils dilated at the sound of light tone the man just released. Yes, Oh Sehun just chuckled in front of her with his eyes turned into a crescent. A rare event that she thought would never happen when they are together.

“Of course,” Sehun said after gulping his meal, earning a small smile from the girl. “There’s no way in the world I would miss the fun of seeing Jung Sena being scrutinized by the board.” The man barked another laugh when she frowned and threw a crumpled tissue to his face. Sehun looked so satisfied with his own teasing.

“Forget it. I’m taking back my gratitude.”

“They still bullied you, didn’t they?” Sehun asked gently. He knew there was something wrong, but Sena never talked to him about any hardship she went through. “Hey, you know you’re smart, brave, and loaded with achievements. I really don’t get why you would cower from these people whose head are just nothing but empty shell.”

“I don’t.” Sena pouted, turning her attention back to her food.

“You do.” Sehun put down his spoon. “I watched you these couple months, Sena, and this is something that I can hardly miss.”

Although he knew that they spent most of their times arguing—God, Junmyeon even said that they both were like a cat and a dog—Sehun was so bothered by the fact that the girl somehow changed. She easily lost her confidence lately. Sena came gracing everyone in the office with her sophisticated aura. She was full of confident. And yes, she met the higher ups’ expectation. She knew how to collect credible information, how to analyse and break down a problem into the very little details, and especially she knew how to execute her ideas into a solution.

“What happened to the old Sena, though?” Sehun asked, softly this time. Partly because he’s sincerely concerned, and also because he didn’t want this to turn into another high tempered argument like they usually did.

“You sounded like you’ve known me for long.” She mumbled, taking another spoon of her soup, trying to cover the gloom which was clearly present in her voice.

“It was a drastic change. Anyone would notice it.”

Sena looked up at him, noticing the tone of concern in his voice. She only realised now how his face turned soft when their eyes met. But Sena couldn’t stop herself from bursting, which instantly earned her a crumpled tissue thrown on her face—yes Sehun finally got the chance for revenge. “You look funny, Sehun. Please, I think a serious conversation doesn’t really suit us.”

“I regret having even just a tiny concern for you.” The man scoffed, watching as the girl in front of him laughed in glee. He suddenly got up from the chair, making the girl panicked because she hadn’t even finished her meal.

“Yah, Sehun I haven’t even finished.” Sena quickly took a final gulp from her cup of tea before standing up to follow the man. She wanted to pay for the lunch. That’s the least she could do today as a token of gratitude for her so-called supervisor. She knew they always fight no matter how the situation was. There were always things to argue between them even the smallest, and she didn’t even have any idea why. So yeah, paying for their lunch sounded quite wise for her today. “Let me pay.”

“Nah, I’m the one dragging you here, you can pay another time.” Sehun said, gripping both Sena’s hand with his, and used his other hand to pull a card from his pocket. “I will choose an expensive place when it’s your treat—ow,” Sehun grimaced in pain because the girl just pinched his arm.

Sena only rolled her eyes, mumbling some incoherent words and walked away first. But when she didn’t sense that Sehun was following, she turned her head back only to see the said man stood frozen in front of a couple.

“Sehun oppa…” She heard the girl calling his name with a small voice. And then Sena noticed how the girl suddenly let go of the man’s hand who has holding hers. There was a question popping inside her head seeing the unreadable expression on Sehun’s face and she couldn’t help but wondering who they were to make Sehun looked like that.

“Promise me you won’t be mad.” Hyera met his eyes with an apologetic look clearly reflecting on her face. She knew she should’ve told him since the start, but Hyera just don’t want to worry him. Sehun could be a bit possessive at times—she laughed when she thought about this—but she knew it was because they had no one but each other, so it was understandable. She wanted to take her time and slowly tell him about this, but well, the universe didn’t seem to agree with her plan.

“It depends.” Sehun answered shortly, still trying to look stern at the girl.

The little sister pouted at him, knowing that he wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t tell him the truth. She stopped playing with her spoon and took a breath before carefully saying the words. “Doctor Ahn asked to be my boyfriend, so I accepted him.” There, she let the cat out of the bag. Hyera avoided his eyes and turned her attention to her hands. But when she didn’t get any response, she slowly looked up at him and found his stare on her, the unreadable one just like when she accidentally met him in the restaurant earlier. Hyera felt her heart picked up a beat. What if her brother mad at her?

“Oppa… say something.” Sehun heard the small voice nagging. The girl timidly reached and tugged at his hand because her brother stayed silent.

Ahn Joo Hyuk was an intern at the Kim Hospital. He was Doctor Yoo’s assistant—the doctor who handled Hyera since she was moved there. Sehun met him quite a lot of time, because he was there almost every single time he visit his little sister. Hyera talked about him quite a lot too. Sometimes she talked about how the doctor randomly brought her a slice of cake in the evening, or simply keeping her company when she was allowed to go out to see the garden. Some other time she talked about how when he’s done with his shift, he would drop by and talked to her. He talked about the stars and the moon until they didn’t realise that it was time for bed. And he would stay until she fell asleep before finally left the room.

So yes, Hyera actually never hide it. If anything, it was him who didn’t pay attention. Ah, Sehun felt a tug in his heart. Now he wasn’t the only one who had her heart. And he couldn’t help but feel sad because there was someone else who would get a share of his little sister’s warm hug.

But above everything, Sehun was happy. Because there’s someone out there who would cherish and love her. Because he could clearly see the happiness shining on her eyes when they were together. Because he felt how happier she became every single day.

“So now I need to fight for your attention because clearly I’m not the only one anymore.” Sehun said with a pout, earning a gleeful laugh from the little sister.

Hyera got up from her chair and took a seat beside her beloved brother. She snuck her arms around his waist and put her head on his broad shoulder. “You know you won’t need to fight for my attention because you’ll always be my number one.” She said softly.

Sehun leaned, slightly pulling away from her before getting her attention fully on him. He brought both his hands to cup her small face. Sehun smiled as he tucked strands of her hair behind her ear. “Are you happy?” He asked.

The girl didn’t even take more than a second to nod her head, a smile blooming prettily on her lips.

“There’s nothing more important than your happiness, baby chick. I’m so happy for you.” Sehun gently pinched her nose. The little sister beamed happily at him. “You deserve every single happiness in the world.”

“You do too. You deserve all the happiness in the world, Oppa.” Hyera said, squeezing his hand.

“Now, now,” Sehun suddenly turned serious. “How long have you guys been together? I can’t believe you never told me this, and you even lied about having your hospital visit?! You thought I wouldn’t notice?”

Hyera chuckled at the older’s complain. Yes, she lied to him about the hospital visit because there’s no way he would give her permission if she said she’s going out with a man. Doctor Ahn actually never failed to mention his intention to meet Sehun. He wanted to introduce himself as someone who loved his sister dearly, and of course, he wanted to ask his blessings for their relationship.

“I’m sorry.” Hyera said with a small voice, her hand gently playing with his fingers. “You’ve been really busy these past six months. I never had any intention to hide this from you. I told you a lot of story about Doctor Ahn too.” Sehun noticed a tinge of blush blooming on her cheeks. “He actually confessed not too long after I got discharged. But although I feel a lot better than the past couple years, you know how terrible my confidence was that time. I felt like he deserves someone better than me. I pushed him away, but he kept coming back to me. He showed me his patience. He gave me time for myself without making me think that he left. It took me a year, and he was still there, waiting.”

“And instead of asking me to be his girlfriend, he asked if he could be my boyfriend. It was… you know, it’s kind of same, but it felt different.” By the time she stopped talking, Sehun could see how her face was shining with a right amount of happiness and softness.

“Oh God, my little sister is so whipped for her boyfriend.” Sehun rolled his eyes, earning a weak slap on his arm from the girl. The brother laughed, and it made the younger laughed with him. “And you’ve been hiding this from me for, what, a year and a half? I feel so failed as a brother you know.”

“Nah, it’s just I’m doing so good at hiding.” She said with a tease. “You’ve been so busy being in love with your new partner anyway.” Hyera stuck her tongue at him which made the brother caught her on a headlock. “Aaah!” She laughed and screamed, slapping Sehun’s hand many times so he would let her go.

“I don’t.” The man exclaimed. “That would be the biggest joke in this entire planet.”

“I swear to god I will laugh the hardest when one day you admit you fall in love with her.” She said, folding her hands on her chest, challenging her brother because god knew how much he had been talking about her. Although he never forgot to mention how annoyed he was with this girl, Hyera felt that there was something different with this Sehun. And oh well, she just knew how sometimes people were just so blind. “Was that her? The girl who was with you at the restaurant earlier?” Hyera suddenly asked out of curiosity.

“Yeah, it’s her.” Sehun caught a teasing glint from the younger as she winked her eyes at him and whistled. “God, stop it, Hyera.” The younger only laughed, saying she wanted to wash up and prepare for bed before leaving him, thinking about how ridiculous it was to fall in love with Jung Sena.

Well, even love turned people dumb sometimes.

“What?” Sena stopped in front of Sehun’s desk, finding out that he had been watching her since she came out of Junmyeon’s room.

“Are you sure you’re not crushing on our boss?”

“Yah!” Sena was quick to slap his arm. But Sehun didn’t miss the blush that was blooming on her cheeks. “Why did you say something so stupid like that?” She kept slapping his arm while Sehun laughed, wincing because her hand was quite strong for a girl.

“You’re blushing!” He pointed at her cheek. “Y’all Jung Sena is crushin—” Sena quickly shut his mouth with her hand before pulling him up and dragged him from his desk to clock out. Thank God there weren’t a lot people on their floor since most people had their desk on the floor below. And also  because most of them already went home. Sehun had something to finished, and Sena had a personal meeting with Junmyeon. The man was about to go when Sena messaged him begging for a lift since she didn’t bring her car today.

“You’re so stupid.” She muttered after she succeeded getting him inside the elevator. “What if Junmyeon oppa heard?” Sena sulked, folding her hands in front of her chest, clearly avoiding Sehun’s eyes.

Sehun couldn’t help but giggle at the display of the cuteness. Wait, did he just think that she was cute? “Don’t worry, he won’t hear.” He looked at the girl, trying to hold his laugh. “So, you do like him, huh?”

Sena groaned. “I’m not! I mean, he is kind to everyone, and he helped me a lot. I’m just so thankful to him and want to always be on his good side. I’m not crushing on him.”

The girl turned silent even after they went inside Sehun’s car. She opted to stare on the window side, avoiding Sehun and only answered with a hum or simple no when she didn’t agree with him. Sehun couldn’t help but steal some glances from time to time. Had he gone too far with his joke? For the first time Sehun felt bad for teasing her.

Sehun was curious, honestly. It wasn’t the first time he saw her blushing after she went out of Junmyeon’s room. The girl looked happy whenever she was in an easy conversation with Junmyeon. Well, it could also be because she was Jongin’s sister-in-law too. But somewhere over these observations, there’s a tiny question that got his attention—well, Sehun didn’t even know why this thought even crossed his head—he wondered if Sena caught a feeling for his boss.

“Sehun,”

Her voice suddenly pulled him out of his sea of thought. “Hm?” He turned his head to her, trying not to look startled.

Sena puffed her cheeks, sulking because Sehun clearly didn’t listen to her question. “Never mind.” She went back to stare at the street. It was almost dark outside. The city lights started to light up the town, accompanying the dark. The girl was suddenly reminded of how exhausting today was. She went out with Junmyeon to some places related to cases she was handling. And yes, just like every other day, she still got those stares from people who envied her. Some girls from another department even talked bad about her when she was inside the toilet, only scoffing cynically when Sena went out from the cubicle. Not to mention how Sehun was being so annoying earlier. What if these people heard his not-so-funny joke?

Drowning inside her own thought, the girl suddenly noticed the car slowed down and came to a stop right in front of a small café with a warm ambience. She turned her head towards the driver side and found Sehun was staring at her. “It seems like some scoops of ice cream might help?” He asked with a smile.

She bit her lips trying not to look obvious and tried to hold her smile from blooming. Because who would be so stupid refusing ice cream to close such a bad day? Certainly not Sena.

Despite their usual argument and nonsense fight, Sehun found himself to be comfortable with his partner in some situations. Sena was a fun person to be friend with. But everyone knew both were hard-headed, and that pretty much explained the frequency of heated argument happened between the two, especially when it was about work. Both were smart, even Sehun proved himself to be qualified in their field. But most of the times, they had different perspective which made them fight for their own stance. Sometimes Junmyeon even needed to get in the middle of their argument to teach them that a brilliant solution might come from collaborating both their ideas. Stubborn, yes, they were stubborn.

“Although you’re the one bringing me here, let me pay this time.” Sena said, the remaining ice cream on her waffle cone. The girl cut him right away when Sehun was about to argue, “Please, I don’t want to start another fight with you. Why can’t we just be civil to each other just once? We always end up arguing one way or another.”

“I don’t know. You always started it.”

“Tsk. You should see yourself.”

Sehun only laughed. He was such in a good mood somehow. Although he really wanted to more, he wouldn’t. The girl seemed to be a bit grumpy today, and Sehun thought, well, better safe than sorry. “Can I ask you a question?” Sehun suddenly asked. She looked at him sceptically but managed to nod when he didn’t look suspicious. “I was just curious, but you don’t need to answer if you don’t want to.” Sena stared at him. “Why did you decide to come back here?”

Sena took a breath before answering him. “My sister moved back here after she got married, so I was left alone. It’s not really a problem, honestly, but you know, there were quite sometimes where I felt so lonely. I don’t really have many friends, and my sister isn’t there anymore. So why would I stay? Besides, my dad’s health is getting worse. I don’t think I have any more reason to stay longer.”

This was the first time Sena being so opened about something private to Sehun after nine months of knowing each other. Well, it wasn’t like Sehun asked about it before. But they rarely talked casually like this. Sehun then asked her about a lot of other things while trying not to have her question anything about him. Sena noticed it somehow, the way he tried not to make the conversation about him. And she respected him, thinking that he probably didn’t want to talk about anything private, yet. Surprisingly, they could talk about a lot of things. Even sometimes laughed together about some silly things, kind of forgetting the ice cream which slowly melted on the cup.

“Sehun wait here a moment, I need to go to the toilet.”

The man nodded as he took his phone from his pocket. He checked some messages. Some of them coming from his little sister, and another one coming from Kyungsoo, talking about the secret case Junmyeon handed to him a while ago. Sehun was so immersed in chatting with the older, not realising that it was already more than fifteen minutes since Sena left for the toilet. He looked around the café, finding only two other couples who was still there. They sat on the second floor, and the toilet was on the first floor. Thinking that it was already late, Sehun took Sena’s bag with him and went down so they could go right away.

Coming down from the stairs, Sehun noticed that Sena was already standing outside the café.

But she wasn’t alone. She was conversing with a man Sehun didn’t know.

“Sena, please, I miss you. I can explain everything.” Sehun caught the conversation as he went out. He didn’t know why he stopped beside the door. Sehun didn’t really want to interrupt, but at the same time, he knew he didn’t want to leave. Sena was standing with her back facing the door, so she didn’t notice that Sehun was already there standing, watching them intently. “I went all the way back from UK here to see you, you know. Why would you do this to me?”

“How many times should I tell you that there’s nothing between us anymore so stop.”

“Sena, I know you still love me,”

The girl laughed bitterly. “I am not that stupid. You’re a cheater so why would I waste my love on you?” Sena tried to pull away from the hand which was gripping her wrist. “Let go of me, it hurts.”

Sena suddenly felt a hand circling around her shoulder, slightly pulling her towards the owner of the warm hand. She could smell the familiar scent of mint combined with musk and woody notes coming from the person cradling her closer. “Who is this, babe?” She heard him ask.

“Who the is he Sena?” His grip on Sena’s wrist became even tighter, making the girl winced.

“She asked you to let go of her hand, are you deaf?” Sehun calmly asked.

“Who the are you? Can’t you see we’re talking here?” The man hissed, still not letting go of her hand.

“I should be the one asking who the are you and how dare you touch my girlfriend. Let go of her or you will lose that hand.” Sena shuddered at the tone Sehun was using. It was the first time she heard him talked this way, and somehow it made her heart skipped a beat. Sehun took a step forward to the front of the girl while still staring at the man intently. And when the man finally let go, she quickly clutched her hand on the back of Sehun’s shirt, timidly hiding behind his back.

She didn’t know what Sehun did, but it didn’t take long until she heard the sound of footsteps going further from them. Sehun turned to her and found her looking down at her toes, her shoulder looked slightly shaking. It was when he heard soft sniffles that he realised the girl was crying. The man gathered her in his arms before gently patting the back of her head. “Ssh… He’s gone. It’s okay, you’re fine now.” Sehun whispered.

They stood there in silence with her head still cradled close to his chest, drawing comforting circles on her back from time to time. She was sobbing softly, and Sehun let her take all the time she needed. After some minutes, Sena slightly pulled away and took a small step back. Sehun watched as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and let out another soft sniffle. “You okay?” Sehun asked gently. “Do you want to go home now?”

Sena nodded with a hum, still looking down and not wanting to meet his eyes. The girl could feel a callous hand surrounding hers as he gently held her hand and pulled her to the car. Sena only followed him quietly. Sehun pulled the car door open, waiting for Sena to get in before closing it and ran to the driver side.

The trip to Sena’s home was spent quietly. Sehun opted to stay silent as he didn’t want to bother the girl. And Sena was just so thankful because Sehun didn’t ask her anything. But as time went by, the silent started to become deafening, and Sena didn’t like it one bit.

There were so many things currently running inside Sena’s mind. One thing that she still couldn’t forget was how the warm hand slowly curled around her shoulder and pulled her close possessively. No, no, no, she was sure it was only in Sena’s head. Sehun did it because he knew she needed help, so there was really nothing but Sehun’s pure intention to help—that’s what Sena tried to think to drive any stupid thought away. But yes, again, call her stupid because Sena felt her heart skipped some beats as she remembered how Sehun claimed her as his girlfriend, without any single tremble in his voice.

Sena stole a glance at the man who was silently holding the wheel on the driver side. He was focusing on the road as they went to the highway  and it was a bit crowded, considering it was time for people to go home. It was quite dark, but the girl could see how the splash of city lights illuminating his serene face, highlighting the chiselled features that he had.

It was the first time she observed his side profile like this.

But it clearly wasn’t the first time she admired him. Although yes, it was never this close.

The girl turned her head back to her window, not wanting to be caught looking. It had been long since she acknowledged this feeling strangely blooming in her heart. They have known each other only for nine months. People called them as partners who always argue, and she was irritated because of him almost every day. But somewhere along the way, Sena suddenly saw him from a different perspective. It was then when he backed her up when the board thought she didn’t do very well. The second time was when he caught someone talked bad about her. Sehun didn’t know Sena was there at the back, listening to him talking in fury to these people who were just nothing but envying her.

But Sena never knew if it was mutual. It was only natural for partners to back each other up. It was called humanity when someone side with you because they knew what people talked about you was wrong. So, she remained silent, opting to keep her feelings intact without anyone knowing. She just hoped Sehun wouldn’t notice it. As much as she wanted to hold her feelings back, she knew it had become quite unbearable for her. Not when Sehun always had her back at work, although they fought most of the time. Not after they spent a lot more time together, bantering and laughing silly.

Especially, not after tonight.