You were out shopping for groceries with Minhyuk after you just finished for the day at the floral arrangement shop. Ever since your mom started staying with you, she had been helping you to take care of  Minhyuk while you were at work well, except for today. Minhyuk had simply refused to let you go to work and clung onto you the whole morning until you gave in and brought him along with you. He wasn’t usually like this so you just dismissed it as one of his occasional moods. The shop owners were glad to see him though and spent a few minutes fawning over him like he was their grandchild. 

“Minnie, what would you like for dinner today?” You asked Minhyuk, who was currently sitting in the seat in the shopping trolley that you were pushing.

“Pixa!” He answered without even taking a second to think, all the while bouncing in his seat and clapping his hands excitedly.

You grinned at his adorable pronunciation. “Pi-zza.” You tried to correct.

“Pijja!” He repeated after you instead, while continuing his bouncing in his seat.

You ruffled his hair and laughed. You would just have to work on his pronunciation another time. “Ok, pizza it will be then!”  

Just as you were about to push the trolley to the correct aisle to get the ingredients you needed, your handphone started ringing so you parked the trolley at the side before reaching into your bag to find your phone. Before you managed to grab your phone though, you noticed that the trolley was lurching forward due to Minhyuk’s constant bouncing so you had to temporarily abandon your search for your phone in favour of getting a hold of the trolley and getting Minhyuk to calm down.

By the time you managed to get hold of your handphone in your bag, you were so flustered by the constant ringing that you didn’t bother to check the caller ID.

“Hello.” You answered, a little breathlessly. But there was no answer on the other line. You frowned a little before pulling the phone away to check if the call was still connected.

“Hello?” You repeated when you saw that the call had not been disconnected.

“Oh. Hello.” A male voice hurriedly answered. “This is Junhyung.”

“Oh. Hi.” You said before you could stop yourself and cringed at how dumb you sounded. “Is there something you wanted?” You quickly added after taking a moment to compose yourself.

“Umm, I called to ask about the possibility of meeting you but I just… really didn’t expect you to answer my call.” He confessed, his voice sounding a little hopeful.

“Yeah, about that,” You said sheepishly. “I was busy with something and didn’t bother to check the caller ID.  I didn’t expect you to call.”

“Oh.” His voice sounded flat for a moment before he continued, “Well, I guess it’s good that you were busy then. Am I interrupting you now? I could call you back another time?” He offered.

“No no. It’s alright. I’ve stopped what I was doing already anyway, so just go ahead and say what you want to say.” You encouraged although not too kindly.

“Right.” He said before clearing his throat awkwardly. “Can we meet this Friday? I can pick you up at your place and then we could go for dinner.” He suggested, managing to sound a little hopeful again.

“Actually, I can’t make it this Friday. I’ve already made plans for dinner.” You tried your best to sound sorry for turning him down but it was becoming really difficult because all you could think of now was that you had dinner plans with Kibum in a few days. It had been so long since the both of you actually went anywhere alone and you missed it, more than you’d ever dare to admit.

“Oh. Ok. That’s too bad then.” You could hear the disappointment in his voice.

“Yeah,” You added. “Umm, I’m actually in the middle of shopping for groceries right now…” You trailed off, hoping that he’d understand what you were trying to hint at.

“Oh right. I’ll let you get back to that then. Can I call you again to rearrange when I’m sure when I’ll get another free day?” He asked, once again sounding hopeful.

“Yeah, sure.” You relented, unable to turn him down a second time in less than a few minutes. “But only when you’re certain and not before. Deal?”

“Deal.” He answered without hesitation. “Goodbye, -------ah. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Goodbye.” You hummed and quickly ended the call, biting your lip as you stared wordlessly at your phone, not fully believing what you had just done. Soojin is going to kill me.

You ended up spending longer than you had expected doing the groceries because you were highly distracted after the phone call from Junhyung and kept forgetting to pick up important ingredients and other items that you were supposed to get. That meant that you had to keep going back and forth between the aisles, which started to frustrate you after a while and only served to worsen things for your already overloaded mind.

You groaned inwardly when you left the supermarket only to discover that the sky was overcast and it had already started to drizzle. You put the grocery bags on the floor before taking out your umbrella and opening it.

“Minnie, can you help omma carry this?” You handed the umbrella to him and he nodded and gripped it tightly, taking what he was tasked to do really seriously. “Thank you.” You gave him a smile before balancing him on one arm and picking up the bags in your other hand.

“Ok, let’s go home.” You announced, even as you began to walk back to the apartment complex.

“We’re home!” You called out when you entered the house and shut the door behind you but was unexpectedly greeted by silence.

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Omma?” You called out again but was met with silence yet again. You wondered where your mom could have gone as you walked into the house, keeping an eye out for a note as you placed the groceries on the kitchen counter.

You were about to check her room when you heard the shower running from the bathroom. You knocked on the bathroom door gently. “Omma?”

The shower immediately stopped running. “-------? You’re home already?” Your mom’s muffled voice came through the bathroom door.

“Deh, omma. I’ll just go get started on dinner now.” You informed even as you stepped away from the door.

“Alright, sweetie.” You heard before the shower got turned back on.

You got started on Minhyuk’s dinner first because his stomach had very kindly informed you that it was hungry when the both of you were on the way back from the supermarket. You made the pizza exactly how Kibum would have made it because that was the way Minhyuk was used to having it.

You took the pizza out of the oven and set it down on the table for a while to let it cool before placing it on a plate and cutting it into small bite-sized pieces. “Here you go.” You placed the plate in front of Minhyuk and handed him his fork. “What must you say?” You prompted.

“Thank you!” He chirped before happily stabbing the pizza pieces with his fork.

You were midway through making dinner for yourself and your mom when your mom walked into the kitchen. “Do you want some help?” She asked.

“No no, omma. I’ll be done in a bit. You just showered so you shouldn’t be in here, if not you’d smell of the food later.”  

“Ok ok, I’ll be outside with Minhyuk then. Sometimes, I really wonder whether I’m your mom or the other way round.” Your mom shook her head and grumbled but still went to sit at the table with Minhyuk.

You snickered. It was only with your mom that you could be the one doing nagging. When you were with either Soojin or Kibum, they were always the ones nagging you.  

While you were having dinner with your mom, the doorbell suddenly rang, startling the both of you. “Were you expecting someone?” Your mom asked, her eyebrows raised.

“Nope.” You shook your head and shrugged. “I wonder who that may be.” You voiced out even as you stood up and walked to the front door.

You looked through the peephole and got even more confused. “Kibum? Why did you use the doorbell when you know the code?” You asked after opening the door.

He glanced around quickly before saying in a hushed tone, “Can I come in first?”

“Oh right. Yes yes. Come in quickly.” You rushed him in before shutting the door behind him.

“Are you alright?” You asked, your eyebrows once again furrowed, slightly worried by Kibum’s behaviour.

“Yup, I’m fine. I can’t stay long. I actually sneaked out just to tell you something before I need to go back.” He replied, still talking in hushed tones.

“Ok. Go ahead then. I’m all ears.” You said, leaning closer to him since he was practically whispering.

He exhaled heavily. “I’m so sorry but I’m going to have to cancel our plans for this Friday. No, not cancel, postpone. We have to postpone our plans for Friday.” He corrected himself. “I thought that we had the day off this Friday but we had a last minute schedule and I only found out yesterday and I didn’t want to tell you over the phone so I sneaked over…..” He trailed off, realizing that he was rambling.

“Hey. It’s alright. I understand… well, kind of. I don’t get why you had to sneak over though?”

“Well, the last minute schedule that I told you about, is actually an overseas schedule and we’ll have to leave really early tomorrow morning so manager hyungs are staying over tonight.” He explained.

You nodded in understanding. “Well, you better hurry back then. I don’t want you to end up getting into trouble.” You urged, not daring to look him in the eye.

He cupped both sides of your face with his hands and tilted your face up to look at him. “You’re disappointed, aren’t you? I can tell.” He said softly, his eyes filled with regret. “I’m sorry.”

You felt tears well up in your eyes and had to quickly shut your eyes to stop yourself from crying. In truth, you had been looking forward to it quite a bit and felt just only slightly disappointed at the sudden cancellation. But seeing Kibum so full of regret and apologizing so sincerely for something that he had no control over, just reminded you of how perfect and wonderful he really was.

You pulled him into a tight hug. “Why are you so perfect?” You pulled back slightly to look at him when you asked.

He gave you a smile which didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m not but I have to try to be if I’m to be good enough for you.”

You blushed and immediately lowered your gaze, too shy to look up at him anymore. “You shouldn’t say things that aren’t true.” You mumbled. You were the one that wasn’t good enough for him. You took a quick glance up and saw the puzzled look on his face but quickly added, so that he wouldn’t ask you what you meant. “And you don’t have to keep saying sorry too. It’s not your fault. Your schedule is beyond your control.”

The regret returned to his eyes again and he pulled you back into a hug. You could feel his warm breath on your neck and his lips close to your ear as he whispered, “I know, but I still can’t help but feel bad.” He squeezed you a little tighter. “I’ll make it up to you somehow.” He promised before releasing you.

“Don’t worry about it. Have a safe flight.” You said as Kibum was reaching for the door handle.

He looked back and gently brushed his knuckles against your cheek. He had been doing that very often now, especially when he said goodbye in the morning after having breakfast with you. The way he looked at you always never failed to leave you breathless for minutes even after he left. “See you soon.”

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This chapter turned out much longer than I had intended it to be. Yet again, my fingers had other plans and typed out far too much dialogue than I had planned. 

Anyway, hope you all will enjoy this!