The sunlight hits him as he gets out of the van, muttering directions to his manager-hyung before the vehicle drives away. He lowers his snapback, puts on his shades, and walks to the café ahead.

___________________________

Hyosung’s looking at the menu when a tall, gangly figure comes into view.

“Are you a terrorist,” she chuckles, taking in the sight. The guy clad in black cap, black sunglasses, black haversack and even a black face mask towers over her. Dirty blonde locks peek out of the cap as the figure shakes in laughter.

“Yah, I was just trying to be cautious; your uncle fans are no joke. I don’t want to be mauled by your fanclub if I’m caught on a coffee date with the Hyosung.”

She smiles, maybe to him, maybe to herself. His Korean was pretty cute.

“Coffee date? Date?”

He takes off the mask and glasses, and shakes his hair out of the cap. “It’s what Naver would call it.”

“Your fangirls are something too… have you seen them on the forums. You and Jaejoon-ssi…” she teases.

“Eyyy, don’t talk about that,” he huffs, snatching the menu. Aww, the guy always gets flustered talking about the drama (secretly, everyone loves teasing him about it. Seeing Takuya angry was like finding a pot of gold).

The food arrives and Hyosung’s eyes light up.

“It’s just a bacon sandwich,” Takuya snorts, watching Hyosung’s eyes trail the plate as it made its way to the table.

“Yah!” she hits him after she flashes the waiter a 30 000 watt smile, “exactly, it’s a bacon sandwich! Don’t you know what it means? It’s my first real meal after 4 weeks of a vegetarian diet!”

“Seriously? Why do you even diet, you don’t need to…”

“Haha,” she replies dryly. It’s times like this where Takuya knows she’s still thinking she’s never good enough. He’s only gone on diets during the debut stage and yet! It was more for him to bulk up instead of slim down. He was born skinny, tall, and awkward.

Takuya doesn’t really get why all these female idols are forced to diet but alright.

“Just eat your food, Hyosung. You deserve it.”

She smiles as she chews, and Takuya wonders how she does it. Unconsciously, his eyes crinkle into crescents.

____________________________

They’ve been friends ever since Match Made In Heaven. That’s true, and people know that.

“It was a cute show,” Hyosung muses as she watches Abnormal Summit on the couch.

Takuya throws and arm around her. “It was kinda stupid. This though,” he says, jabbing a finger at the television screen, “is far better.”

“Self-praise,” Hyosung waves dismissively at him.

“Hey, it talks about global issues and all! You actually learn something!”

“But what about the love?” she protests, throwing her arms in the air.

“Well we do talk about marriage, cohabitation, -”

“No, you know, romance! It was nice in MMIH, I guess.”

Takuya nudges her side. “Are you referring to me or James?”

“Aish, you always have a complex about that!”

“No but I wanna knowww-” he starts going all [Aegyo Explosion 101] and all Hyosung really wants to do is call him an overgrown kid and strangle his (sinfully beautiful) neck.

“Shhh, look it’s your part! You’re talking on TV!”

He shuts up and watches with rapt attention. His screentime is rare; with people like Julian, Alberto and Yuan-hyung, it’s pretty hard to get a chance to say something.

Takuya’s part is over, but they sit in the silence and watch the rest of the show. It’s a Monday night, and somehow both their schedules are free. Hyosung does chuckle a bit. The show is admittedly a little bit funny. A little, but she won’t tell Takuya that. It’s then that she decides to look up at him.

His face is so serious that it’s hilarious; his eyes trained to the captions on the screen and his lips parted in concentration. The show’s now briefly showing Takuya, they’re talking yet again about “seomseom-ogsu” and how Takuya does The Hand Thing with his wrists and fingers. Everyone laughs. A hint of a grin pulls at the sides of his mouth.

His left arm dangles over her, his left hand splayed around her shou