Luhan whistled happily as he walked out of the lecture hall with the trio following not far behind from him.

After seeing that lop-sided grin of his that had been hanging at his mouth since the class from earlier, Minwoo finally could not resist but to pop the question.

 

“Luhan, do you like her?”

 

He stopped whistling and turned his head back towards Minwoo. With a slight annoyance in his voice, he drawled out the words while rolling his eyes.

 

“Are you out of your mind?”

 

Then, he continued his way, steps still as light as before. Minwoo observed him longer and touched his chin, muttering to himself.

 

“It’s still weird that he’s in such a good mood.”

 

Dongho wrapped his arm around Minwoo’s shoulder and nudged him slightly,

“Chubby Min, relax. He’s always happy after beating people up.”

 

Minwoo considered his words, and nodded.

 

“Yeahh, and it seems pretty impossible for Luhan to like Jieun. I mean does that guy even likes a girl?”

 

The trio snickered and Minwoo finally dismissed the possibility of Luhan liking Jieun.

 

However, he changed his mind again when he saw that Luhan’s attitude was somewhat different when he was interacting with Jieun. Like now.

 

Unbeknownst to Minwoo, ever since Luhan said himself that Jieun was one of his people, subconsciously he had developed a sense of responsibility to “take care” of what belongs to him. Henceforth, even though Jieun was called to the basketball court again to carry out her pick-up ball duty, Luhan was careful to not let the ball swirled out of the court that often.

 

Nevertheless, he was starting to get curious of the paper scattered on her lap that she was so absorbed in since the beginning. With his attention elsewhere, Luhan missed the signal Dongho gave him as he passed the ball to him. By the time he came around, his arms instinctively deflected it away. Yet, the ball now went to the direction straight at Jieun who was still focused scribbling the papers in front of her.

 

Crap!

 

Luhan’s long legs strode across the court as fast as he could. Despite knowing, it would be a futile attempt, he still tried to catch up with the ball. Like how Luhan intently hoped the ball would miss Jieun, it miraculously swirled slightly to the right and barely brushed passed her left ear.

 

Jieun’s head shot up the same time as her hand, clutching on her left ear. Her eyes were already round and big to begin with, widened even more with a hint of shock. The wind blew and the papers that were no longer in her firm grip, scattered all around the ground.

 

Luhan huffed, catching his breath and frowned in concern,

 

“Are- are you okay?”

 

Jieun’s left hand rubbed her ear briefly, it burnt slightly from the brief contact of the ball, but it was no big deal.

 

“I’m okay.”

 

Luhan stared at her small ear that was red from the incident, the sunlight on it made it seemed like he had hurt her more than what she made it to be.

 

“I didn’t mean to-“

 

Jieun gave him a mumble of acknowledgement to his attempt in apologizing, but her focus was no longer on him. Instead, she was already gathering the mess of the papers on the ground.

 

The pool of guilt gathered in Luhan’s gut dispersed when his sincere apology was not only cut off but also dismissed half-heartedly. He stood still as he watched the little figure shuffling around to gather her colourful brochures and did not even budge when he was aware there was one flyer right under his foot. Not until the small face peered up at him that he feigned surprise and lifted his leg.

 

Seeing how Jieun calmly took the last of the flyer and sat down on the bleacher like nothing happened, Luhan was a bit ashamed of his childish act and sat down beside her rather sheepishly. He cleared his throat, trying to sound apathetic as he popped the question.

 

“So, you’re looking for a job?”

 

Finally able to see the content in the flyers, he saw how most of the papers were full of her scribble. Luhan leaned in even closer, not even aware that his sweat covered body was radiating heat had made Jieun shuffled slightly away from him. The tip of her pen halted slightly, before picking up speed again trying to ignore the stuffiness brought by the simple minded guy beside her.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Much to her displeasure, Luhan’s head came so much closer to the point almost touching hers. Her hand shot up and pushed his head away with the head of the pen, then, made it obvious to Luhan that she did not want him to sit any closer by sitting a few seats away from him.

 

Luhan uttered a sound of dissatisfaction, she was such a miser with words. She could at least offer a bit more of friendliness, considering he helped her big time last time.

Huffing out, Luhan tried to ignore his bruised pride and decided to stick through his words; he could help her as he remembered seeing the recruitment sign from a supermarket store under his father’s company.

 

“I know a pretty decent job. Shorter shift hours but good pay. You interested?”

 

Due to the upcoming long weekend, many supermarkets were taking this opportunity to make various promotion offer to boost the sales. Therefore, there was the need of employing part timers and if performed well, they would continue the employment for mini promotion events from time to time. Most importantly, the manager of this specific branch is Luhan’s cousin, therefore the moment Jieun showed interest for the job, Luhan made a call and secured her long weekend part time job.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Although Jieun’s words of appreciation were brief and rather distant, it did not bother Luhan at all. He did not even bother hiding his gleeful face to the point Minwoo really could not stand his inflated ego because of a mere Thank you from the almighty Lee Jieun.

 

Jieun went to the supermarket after a few days Luhan made the call. Luhan's cousin briefly said hello to her when she showed up at the designated office as per instructed. After being briefed about the promotions and the products, Jieun was given a key to the locker in the staff room. She changed into the prepared outfit and as soon as she stepped out from the room, a sway of a ponytail hit right into her eyes which she shut her eyes quickly in discomfort.

 

The owner of the ponytail seemed to have notice this and wanted to apologize, but after the ‘s’ sound, the rest of the word was stuck in surprise.

 

Blinking her eyes, Jieun looked up and understood why the apology was cut short. Naeun had a rather sheepish looking face and from her uniform, Jieun knew that their booths were just next to each other.

 

What a small world.

 

“Sorry about that, I wasn’t looking…”

 

“No worries.”

 

It was like the meeting of the villain and the protagonist in a movie, inevitable because that was how a plot unfolds. Jieun was not particularly fond nor detest to have met her here, instead she had better things to do. Walking past Naeun, Jieun went straight for her booth, she had to prepare early before the promotion hour starts.

Their relationship was not entirely hostile but it was not all that pleasant either. Still, they were not friends and at the flashback of Suho’s brightened up face after seeing Jieun, Naeun pursed her lips. After gathering her wits, she pulled out her trademark smile and trotted after Jieun.

 

“Are you working part time here?”

 

Naeun started a conversation in which Jieun only made a sound of acknowledgement. However, Naeun did not stop at there and continued her talking despite reaching their booth.

 

“Me too! Today is public holiday, so there will definitely be a crowd and by the end of the day, my legs gonna be jelly. On the bright side, this part time job pays well!”

 

Jieun gave another mumble absentmindedly as she was starting to think about how should she attract customers to her booth.

 

“That’s why there were many uni students who tried to apply too! If it wasn’t for Luhan, I wouldn’t able to get this part time job too!”

 

Jieun’s train of thoughts was cut off momentarily when she heard Luhan’s name. Turned out, he helped Naeun, just as he did with herself. Then again, his action was befitting to his zealous personality; he was not one to think too much on his decision, all was decided impulsively. Shaking off her thoughts that had been trailed towards the pretty boy, Jieun regathered her focus and started to arranging the products like how she had planned.

 

“Oh, what a coincidendce! I’m just right beside you. I’m promoting the juice-”

 

“You know,”

 

Her moving hands came to a pause as she intercepted Naeun’s endless chatting, her bored yet sharp gaze had Naeun’s mouth stopped talking immediately.

 

“You obviously don’t like me, why waste your energy to be all friendly with me.”

 

The smile that Naeun was wearing turned stiff and her expression shifting, not knowing how should she react to Jieun’s bluntness. Although Naeun was not the prettiest girl on the campus nor she was a daughter from influential family, she was still fairly confident of her sweet looks. Nauen was also a people person, she was very much likable by everyone, but at this moment, Naeun felt as if her barest self was exposed by Jieun’s simple remark.

Ignoring the stunned girl in ponytail, Jieun walked around her and started setting up another booth.

 

“Also, I’m here to work, not to assure you that you’re an amiable person.”

 

Naeun’s face flamed up in embarrassment; Jieun had hit the bull’s eye on her intentions. At the same time, she was beyond frustrated because Jieun seemed like a mirror, always revealing her innermost ugly thoughts and negative emotions, reminding her she would never be the person she had constantly pretended to be.

 

Naeun dropped her smile finally and glared at Jieun who was busy preparing before the doors of the department store open. Ever since then, she said no word to Jieun and only put up her smile again when the manager came by for last inspection round.

 

Jieun was put in charge of instant coffee promotion, comparing to other chilled beverages booth, hers which required hot water to brew the sample coffee had lesser customers because it was currently the hottest period of the summer season.

 

At first, Jieun quickly changed the boxes of coffee into pyramid shaped arrangement, it had managed to capture customers’ attention and as she started soft selling the coffee products, there had been quite a crowd at her booth. Nevertheless, the customers’ interest were more on the unique arrangement of the coffee boxes rather than the coffee itself as they usually just continued on their way after a sip or two of the hot sample coffee.

 

Naeun who was just not far from Jieun was gloating at her own booth’s popularity as her boxed juice constantly had customers flocking around while she steadily selling out the drinks with her cheerful and friendly demeanor. Catching Jieun’s eyes, she tiled one side of up and jerked her chin upwards slightly in a provoking manner.

 

When the first break came, the workers were all eating quickly to regain energy before the next shift start. However, Jieun was still thinking of ways to increase her sales and easily overlooked Naeun’s taunting gaze which stopped at her figure from time to time.

 

As the next shift came, Jieun changed the arrangement of the boxes again, this time it was arranged in a way that seemed like two swans ducking down their long necks into a heart shape. This certainly had grabbed more attention as young and older couples stopped by the booth to take pictures. Jieun grabbed the chance and managed to sell more comparing to the morning shift. Even so, the number of the sales was not up to satisfactory considering this was holiday promotion.

 

“This is a well known brand, the advertisement is played almost everywhere, therefore you have no need to worry about the tas-”

“Oh sorry, I don’t drink coffee.”

 

“Would you like to try some, it has a very nice aroma…”

 

“No thanks! It’s too warm of a weather to drink this now.”

 

“This promotion only lasts for two days, buy two and free one, quite a goo-”

 

“Woah, this decoration is really pretty! Take some pictures for me!”

 

Jieun stepped aside as the woman posed for her companion to take her pictures. Her face smooth without any sign of irritation despite several rejections by customers or being cut off halfway as she was speaking.

 

Unknown to her, Suho was standing at the corner of the booth area as he saw how she hadn’t had the easiest time trying to promote her products. It was quite a sight that he needed some time to get used to, the girl whose personality was as cold as her piercing gaze, could also converse with customers like how a promoter would. Even if she was brushed aside by the customers, she would just move on to the next person at ease. If this was the change that her family’s misfortune had brought upon, then perhaps he was at the very least comforted that Jieun was still standing strong.

 

“Hey, look at him! He’s so handsome!”

 

“Is he an idol trainee? Let’s go take a picture with him!”

 

The two girls who were still deciding how many boxes of coffee they wanted suddenly shifting slightly away from her booth as they whispered to each other about an entirely different topic. Following their line of transfixed gaze, Jieun momentarily stilled when she saw the familiar jet-black hair, the honey-like warmth in the deep-set eyes and the pale complexion that almost seemed like it was shining even under the superficial lights of the market. As far as she could recall, she had no recollection of seeing him in a grocery store, ever.

 

“What brings you here?”

 

Jieun tilted her face upwards as she straightened her whole body even more even though the soreness in her back was resisting; she was never too fond of the big height difference between them, especially when Suho had come closer.

 

“…I want to buy some things and saw you the moment I came inside.”

 

Suho resisted his urge to scratch his neck- a gesture he would do when he was not being entirely honest. If he had not overheard Minwoo and Dongho talking about how Luhan got Jieun a part time job in the nearby supermarket, he would still be waiting and wondering where had she disappeared to. The last time he saw her was she walked out of his house after the bike accident. The next moment he knew, he was already walking into the supermarket she was working at.   

 

Thinking that the lack of contact from her was probably due to her not wanting to trouble him or just that her pride would not let her get help from him, hence, Suho also resisted not reaching out to her for a few days. However, now that she was just right in front of him, Suho finally gave in into admitting that he wanted to see her.

 

Even if she was no longer coming to him and stayed by his side like she used to, all he had to do was to be the one to look for her first.