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there was too much activity around the house. the bathroom door was opened and closed, footsteps could be heard down the hallway and a mix of perfumes invaded the house.

"seol-ah are you ready? we're waiting!" jooheon exclaimed as he looked at his clock. it was past 5:45 p.m and they had a reservation at 6:15 p.m for seol's birthday dinner. 

"i am coming!" she exclaimed from inside her room as she ran everywhere looking for her other matching earring. 

for her birthday, jooheon had gifted her a short navy blue dress, long sleeved with a lacy back. seol had loved it since she remembered once they went grocery shopping and she had said how pretty the dress was but she didn't have any special occassion to wear it so she didn't buy it. 

jooheon knowing this, took advantage of the information and bought the dress the next day, two months ago. 

she brided her hair and applied soft makeup. the earrings were also a gift from her dad from last year. she grabbed her cream coat and made her way outside. 

mr. ha and jooheon's eyes widened when she emerged from her room. "i am ready, let's go." she said smiling widely, grabbing her dad by the arm. 

both jooheon and mr. ha compliemented her on their way out but soon they were stopped when a familiar figure emerged from the shadows. 

"ahhh jinjja!" jooheon jumped, hand on his chest as he stared at the tall one. 

"hyungwon-ssi!" seol exclaimed once her eyez recognized the handsome features. he cleared his throat and bowed respectfully. 

"annyeonhaseyo... i- i heard it was your birthday today... so, i brought you this." 

one would think a boy would gift you flowers, chocolates or teddy bears, and that was usually what boys gift. but not hyungwon, he wans't exactly that kind of boy.

he handed the bag, beautifully decorated. inside there were 3 objects. seol glanced at the people around as she picked the first one. "oh a coupon to learn aikido... that's... great." she said nodding as she tried to pick the nect present. 

seol's father glanced at the boy with curious eyes. "oh... a peppermint spray? - seol tilted her head, looking at hyungwon a bit confused. hyungwon only cleared his throat as he stood there with his hands entwined behind his back. 

mr. ha glanced at the present with a blank expression. "finally we have... an... - she frowned - an umbrella?" she looked at hyungwon with inquisitive eyes. 

"well, thanks... these presents are very...

"helpful." mr. ha said nodding in approval glancing at his daughter and the tall one. "very helpful, thank you young man." he said walking away with jooheon.

"seriously? what kind of present is that? he should have gotten her something better... like a dress." jooheon mumbled as he felt mr. ha's scolding hand, pinching his ear. 

"seriously? aikido classes? peppermint spray?" seol asked him once they were left kind of alone on the sidewalk. hyungwon only shrugged.

"important, if you want to be protected at all times, if there's no one around you... you should know how to protect and defend yourself." he said avoiding her eyes. 

seol chuckled. "thanks, it's true. they are very helpful... though... an umbrella?" she asked curiously.

he only shrugged. "i noticed you didn't have one. that is also helpful, it protects you from the rain and you could hit someone with that." 

she laughed this time, shaking her head. "you're really something else." she said hugging her bag of presents. "i love them, thanks." 

hyungwon's eyes widened after hearing her approving his presents. he was nervous the whole way down here just unsure if seol would approve them since they were probably nothing compared with the presents the ceo used to gift her.

"so how did you know it was my birthday?"

"lee minhyuk." 

"ahh." seol nodded. 

"seol-ah we're late, kaja." they both turned to look at jooheon waiting impatiently, only to receive a head smack from the old man. seol couldn't hold her laughter that later was contagious to hyungwon.

they noticed mr. ha approaching them, staring at hyungwon with sweet eyes. "hyungwon-ssi... have you already had dinner?"

"ahh abeoji!" jooheon complained on the back, moving his whole body, throwing a tantrum.

hyungwon glanced at the black haired with an awkward expression. "ah... mr. ha i haven't but... i don't want to bother you tonight-

"non sense! it's not bother at all, we're having a birthday dinner with seolie, would you like to come with us?"

"uh- he glanced at seol who nodded eagerly - i... i am not sure - he scratched the back of his head. jooheon popped out of nowhere, grabbing both seol's hand and mr. ha's. 

"he said he's busy, kaja, we're going to lose the reservation." he again received a smack from seol's dad.

"yah! he hadn't say he was busy - mr. ha turned to hyungwon - are you?"

hyungwon only shook his head, providing with a great laughter to mr. ha. "then you're coming with us, kaja!" he said pushing softly the tall one in their direction. 

"alright, s-sure..." hyungwon said joining them towards the cab that was waiting for them. 

as they walked towards the car, jooheon quickly opened the back door and pushed seol inside first to them get himself right in and dragging mr. ha with him, leaving hyungwon to take the passenger's seat by himself. 

during the whole trip jooheon glared at the blonde one. he even stuck his tongue twice, making hyungwon laugh in silence. he couldn't be mad at him, he thought he was just endearing. 

when they arrived the restaurant it was the same, jooheon always trying to get seol to be away from hyungwon. it's not that he didn't like him, it's just he didn't trust him yet. 

"please this way." a suited waiter told them as they walked inside the crowded place. there were tons of different smells in the air, all of them making jooheon's stomach to twitch. he could feel his own guts moving and his mouth watering. 

he was so distracted by thinking what he was going to order that he didn't realize when hyungwon took a seat next to seol, sending him almost to the edge. he stared at the couple with widened eyes and mouth to receive a few seconds later a push from seol's dad, forcing him to seat down in one of the chairs. 

"jooheon-ah... behave." he said with scolding eyes. he sighed in frustration and stared at the pair in front of him, who were looking at each other with soft eyes and warm cheeks.

after they ordered the food they began the small talks. mr. ha was marveled with hyungwon's presence. he thought he was a really good catch for seol. 

"so how did you spend your day?" he asked, taking a sip of the wine that had been served for them. 

"aigoo... it was chaotic. first of all jooheon woke me up at 5 a.m with a loud happy birthday and a very improvised birthday breakfast - 

"it wasn't improvised." he complained, arms crossed on his chest as he sat carelessly on the chair. 

"then i kicked him out of my room because it was too early to eat. i am not hungry at 5 a.m you know?" hyungwon nodded as if he understood. 

"then we went to the park to have breakfast and a ball was going to hit me so my dad pushed jooheon and it hit him instead." she said as all of them burst into a warm laugh, all of them except for jooheon who mumbled things and rolled his eyes. 

"after that, we returned home but got caught in the rain and jooheon almost slipped, so when he tried to balance, he accidentally touched-

"yah! why are you telling him all these things?"

"he touched the breasts of a lady that was standing next to him." the laughter grew as jooheon buried his face on his hands avoiding the embarrassment. 

"so it happened to be my birthday but it was jooheon's hell day." mr. ha said laughing as he now petted jooheon's shoulder, looking at him with lovingly eyes, as if he was his own son. 

hyungwon smiled sweetly at the black haired and nodded in reassurance. after the food arrived they started eating. 

mr. ha was marveled of how hyungwon ate so deliciously yet he looked so refined. "so what do you do hyungwon-ssi?" he asked. 

"uh... i am - he tilted his head, not knowing exactly how to explain his job since he hadn't have the need to explain it before - i am like someone's asisstant and personal body guard?" he said nodding. seol looked at him and smiled.

"he is the right hand of the ceo of yoo enterprises. he also covers other areas, basically his lifesaver." seol said smiling at him. 

hyungwon felt both grateful and relieved when she got his back like that. "ah interesting! do you like your job?" her father asked nodding.

he stayed frozen for a second, repeating the question inside. did he like his job? 

the answer was: no. 

he hated it. 

he hated being related with yoo kihyun but he didn't have any other choice.

"it's fine... it keeps me busy which i like." he said shrugging. 

"i agree, there's nothing more terrible than having nothing to do and parasite." he said glancing at jooheon. 

jooheon groaned in frustration from his seat, showing it through his body. "aishh... abeoji! i've told you, what i do it's called, the future alright? i work from home-

"how can someone work from home, have you heard?" he asked to hyungwon. he and seol just laughed watching the old mand and jooheon's love-hate relationship. 

"jinjja abeoji! it's how the work will be in the future!" jooheon complained. 

"you should get a job, in a company where you can get benefits like social insurance, medical insurance and a proper retirement plan!" 

seol and hyungwon laughed as the pair kept debating. "they're funny." hyungwon said leaning to seol and taking a sip of water. 

when he put down the glass on the table, his fingers accidentally brushed hers for a second. his heart raced at the instant and he quickly withdrew the hand. 

he didn't apologized verbally but his eyes spoke enough. seol swallowed hard as she took her hand in the other and caressed the area where hyungwon's finger laid a few seconds ago. 

she didn't know what she was feeling. she didn't know if it was a positive thing she only knew she felt different. hyungwon felt different in all ways. 

once the dinner ended and they payed, they took another cab back to seol and jooheon's apartment. during the trip back, hyungwon glanced at seol through the rearview. his eyes were fixed on her the whole way back and he didn't even try to hide it. 

it upsetted jooheon since he realized it and he tried to distract seol with a small talk or just pointing things out of the car. 

when the familiar neighborhood made its appearance in front of them, hyungwon couldn't help but feel kind of disappointed. 

he loved every second of the whole night out and he knew when they arrived seol's apartment, he would have to say goodbye and he would have to return to his house. 

"well... thank you so much for inviting me to seol's birthday dinner." he bowed.

"it was our pleasure." mr. ha said. 

hyungwon glanced at seol and smiled. "i'll see you at work, on monday."

"aigoo... what are you saying? i baked a cake for seolie, you need to try it!" mr. ha said pushing hyungwon inside. he glanced around confused, looking for seol's eyes. she only shrugged and followed them inside. 

hyungwon felt so welcomed by seol and her dad, even by jooheon, even if he wasn't as warm as the others, he could feel he wasn't a bad person, he just imagined he probably didn't trust him yet.

mr. ha's cake was really pretty. it had a lilac frosting and flowers made of sugar candy. seol stared wide-eyed at the beautiful cake and thanked his dad for it. they sang her the birthday song and soon after ate the cake with a warm cherry tea. 

all those pictures, flashing memories inside hyungwon's mind as he remembered the times he'd celebrate birthdays with his parents and his little sister. not it was only the two of them since his parents were gone. 

they talked for a couple of hours about anything, they joked and even played games and hyungwon didn't want to leave during the whole night. 

eventually, mr. ha excused himself and went to bed since it was past midnight. jooheon stuck with them as he still glared at the tall one. 

"why are you looking at me like that?" hyungwon dared to ask, his tone more sweet than arrogant. 

jooheon sighed. "tsk. i can't look at you? ah? ah? is that a crime? am i going to jail because of that?" 

both seol and hyungwon laughed. "yah! hajima... don't you have better things to do?" seol said, imitating jooheon as she crossed her arms on her chest.

"no thanks, i am good right here, between you two." he said staring at the tv. seol glanced at hyungwon behind his head and giggled. 

"i know you two are looking at each other, stop that." jooheon not even moved when he spoke. "i am staying here until he leaves." it only took him 20 minutes or less, since he quickly fell asleep between seol and hyungwon.

when they noticed he had fallen asleep they let themselves look at each other on the couch. "thanks for coming." seol motioned with her lips. 

hyungwon smiled warmly and gave her a reassuring nod. "i think i should leave now." he motioned back. seol nodded and they carefully stood from the couch. 

hyungwon helped jooheon by resting his head in one of the cushions as he slowly and quietly walked towards the door with seol.

they put on their shoes and seol walked him to the elevator. as they waited she turned to look at him and smiled. "seriously... thank you for coming. it was... nice that you came." 

the elevator doors opened and they got inside. hyungwon watched carefully as seol pressed the low level button. "i kind of wanted to come... so it's not a problem at all." his voice echoed inside the elevator.

his eyes stared intensely at seol's big brown eyes. he felt his heart racing, temples throbbing as his eyes fixed now on seol's lips.

he felt they were an invitation for him to kiss her and he felt it was the right place and the perfect way to end the night, but soon the elevator doors opened and he was awakened by the usual beep sound of the elevators.

seol giggled as she stepped outside first, being soon followed by hyungwon. 

they walked next to each other towards the entrance and hyungwon felt his heart racing again. 

there were words stuck at the back of his throat. things he wanted and needed to say to seol, but he was afraid if he spoke those words, their relationship might change in the future. 

he was afraid he was going to scare her away by revealling his feelings to her, and that's why he hesitated for so long. 

he grabbed her arm to stop her once they walked out of the building. his desperate, now big eyes looked for her, for a sign that she might feel the same way. but seol looked confused, her eyes were clueless about what could possibly be happening to hyungwon. 

the words were dying to escape his mouth but he didn't have the strength to say it out loud.

but even if he really wanted to say it, when he looked at her again he felt his heart racing. there was no other perfect moment to say it, it had to be now. 

"seol-ah..." he breathed out her name but frowned when he heard it too, next to him. 

they both turned around and found the ceo standing next to him. his fiery dark gray eyes piercing hyungwon's as his fists clenched at the end of his sleeves. 

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