"Please take my feelings into consideration, gamja girl."

Those were the last words Ji Eun remembered until things went dark for her. She opened her eyes only to realize she was still outside. Warm and was laying fully on the bench. She scrambled up into a sitting position, her eyes darting around the nearly abandoned park.

How long had she been out? She wasn't damn sure, but everything seemed darker.

"Oh, you're awake." Ji Eun glanced over and saw Jong Hoon just sitting on the ground besides the bench. He looked calm as he took another sip of his beer. "You've been out for about maybe twenty minutes?"

"Where's Baekhyun?" she interjected. Her head whipped around again for a chance to see the male idol, but he was no where in sight.

That boy. He confessed to her, right? Where the hell did he go?

"Oh, your black haired friend? An older man who's claimed to be his manager took him away in a rush," Jong Hoon replied. "He insisted on waiting around until the cab we called come pick us up, but they had to leave in a hurry. I promised to take care of you, though." The male patted the poor, confused girl's head. "I already called your dad about the situation and the cab should be here soon."

"Baekhyun left?" she murmured out in disappointment.

Jong Hoon stifled a laugh. "Yah, what are you getting all upset about? Who's the one who had one of her fainting spells when being confessed to?"

Her heart absolutely stopped.

It wasn't a dream!

Ji Eun was sitting up straight now, eyes bulging and a new rush of adrenaline in her veins. "Right? He asked me out. That wasn't something I hallucinated? He actually came here and confessed to me." The male gave her a nod, another chuckle leaving his lips at the bewildered expression etched on her face. "Oh my god... Oh my god. He did." She clutched at her chest. Her heart was racing so rapidly now.

"So..." The short haired girl glanced back at her ex-boyfriend. "I'm getting the vibe that Baekhyun is someone more than just any guy, right?" Jong Hoon laid his head back on trunk of the tree behind them, gaze up at the starry night. "I wanted to mention it earlier but when I first met the guy, he looked scary familiar. Then it hit me, he's the same guy from that group. You know, the concert you dragged me to a year ago with Su Bin?" Ji Eun's silence was enough to answer the boy and he couldn't help the amused smile from carving onto his face. "At first, I didn't want to believe it, because what are the odds, but that's the same damn guy. Since when did you become lucky enough to meet an idol by chance and get close to him."

Now that Jong Hoon had said it, her experience with EXO's vocal did seem humorous. The chances of that happening were slim to nothing, but all it took to meet the boy was a drunk Valentine's night. And from there, they bonded and gotten close, and Ji Eun found herself falling for Byun Baekhyun.

It really wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Jong Hoon's phone suddenly rang. He quickly answered the call and chatted for only a minute before hanging up again. With a sigh, he got up onto his feet. "C'mon, Ji Eun, our cab is here."

The two walked out of the park, both with their now empty cans of beer thrown away in the trash. In the cab ride to the restaurant, Ji Eun's mind couldn't stop racing. Of course she had a lot to think about. The boy she liked had just confessed to her and she fucking fainted from shock. Out of all the times she could have her spells, it had be the very moment that dazzling boy had admitted his feelings and asked her out on a late night date on Thursday. And the damn idol left before she could give him an answer.

Jong Hoon paid for their ride and they entered the restaurant as it was closing time. Inside, she saw her father wiping the tables and... a Su Bin sitting in one of the booths with a worried expression. The girls' eyes met and the taller stumbled onto her feet.

Su Bin.

The tension was suddenly thick in the air.

At this, Ji Eun's father scurried into the kitchen along with Jong Hoon to give the ladies some space.

"Eunnie..." Su Bin murmured out as she approached her. In her hands, she held out Ji Eun's phone to her. Ji Eun stared at her supposed best friend intensely. She would've understood her intentions. But going as far as lying to her about missing the show and stealing her phone for her petty reasons was not okay. But had Ji Eun ever judged her before? No, because Su Bin usually told her everything. "I'm really sorry for what I did."

"Are you sure about that?" Ji Eun murmured as she snatched her phone from the other girl's clutches. "What was your reason?"

"I was a selfish bitch. Look, I'll tell you why I did it, but promise me you'll listen." Ji Eun couldn't refuse such a request, so she merely nodded at her.

With a shaky breath, Su Bin told her her reasons for her childish plan. She went on to tell her the exact things that she told Baekhyun, about how she wanted to make sure for herself that what might be happening between her bias and her best friend was real, genuine. Su Bin even mentioned about the text messages they shared before and after EXO's performance, in which Ji Eun read. "Ji Eun-ah, I know now that he really cares for you and would do anything for you. Were you able to meet up with him before coming here?"

"He did," Ji Eun murmured.

"And?"

"He... asked me out." The short-haired girl hung her head. No matter what drama they faced, Ji Eun still felt a pit of betrayal for having this happen. Wasn't she supposed to be the good friend and help Su Bin get closer to the idol instead of herself? What she couldn't forgive herself for was falling in love with Baekhyun. How else was she supposed to feel about that?

"Aaaaand, did you say yes?" Su Bin pressed on with an interested expression.

"I wasn't able to answer him."

The taller female's girl's eyebrows furrowed together. "Yah, don't tell me you didn't accept him because of me." Su Bin sighed, her gaze turned a little bit away. "I'll admit, it does hurt. But, it'll hurt me more if I took away my best friend's happiness because I was so stubborn and selfish. It's damn obvious how much you two like each other."

"She wasn't able to answer him because she fainted the moment he confessed to her!" Jong Hoon hollered from the kitchen.

Su Bin's eyes widened. "You FAINTED?!" She then let out a laugh and nodded. "I guess that makes sense. I would have fainted too for something as surprising as that. But, give that boy a proper answer in person."

"In person?" Ji Eun uttered as she thought about seeing Baekhyun.

"Of course, in person! I will seriously kick your ass if you call him or text him your answer. That boy deserves to know face to face."

"I agree!" Jong Hoon chimed again from the back. He poked his head out of the kitchen door to look at the two girls. "Are you two okay now or?"

Su Bin looked at Ji Eun  expectingly, hoping for a positive response.

The shorter pursed her lips at the situation, after all, she already knew she wouldn't be mad at Su Bin much longer. After all, the girl just gave up her most favorite boy for her sake. Ji Eun isn't the heartless one to shut anyone out even more after such. "She owes me some of those macaroons by her workplace tomorrow," she said with a nonchalant sigh. At this, Su Bin smiled brightly and attacked her into a crushing hug, a strewn of thank yous leaving her lips. "Yah, you better get my favorite flavors, I really am too easy on you."

"Gosh, I love you so much, Eunnie! Much more than Baekhyun." 

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Kang Ji Eun was on a mission the next day.

She made sure to have boxes full of their famous variety of fried chicken as well as side dishes and rice to go along with them. She didn't pay mind to her curious co-workers nor her father as she moved about the kitchen in a quick pace to do all of this. What's more odd to them? The young woman was zooming about in their kitchen on her day off.

"Who are you planning on feeding with so much food?" Sun Woo asked with a perked brow. The younger male had been watching the girl cook the food for the past five minutes. Thank goodness business was slow at this hour. "Did we have an order from some school sports team that I missed?"

"Nope,"  she chirped with a firm p. "You can go ahead and put this on my tab."

"On your tab?" the college boy mused in a surprised tone. "Since when have you asked to put anything on your tab? This is a first!" Ji Eun only rolled her eyes in response. She paid him no more attention as she worked quickly with the chicken. She grabbed a pen from the counter and wrote a small message inside the lid of the boxes.

Yes.

She wrote that on each one.

She was, in fact, going to surprise Baekhyun with a visit and hopefully he'll understand what she meant with her chicken message. Cheesy, but obvious enough, right?

And since she knew EXO well enough, she had to bring some extra to satisfy the tall, growing boys. It'd be too suspicious if she only brought one box of food.

Wook Yong approached Ji Eun while she was in the midst of pouring some rice in styrofoam containers. "This is odd, even more so coming from you," the older woman replied as she stared at the working Ji Eun. She laid her back against the counter as Ji Eun began adding pickled radishes to a smaller container with a sliver of a smile to her lips... One that didn't go amiss by Wook Yong. "Omo, what is this? You're so happy to be making this order! Who's this for?"

"I'll let you know about it later, guys," Ji Eun murmured as she closed the container with their rightful lids. "Lunch rush is about to happen so you all better prepare, okay?"

"What? I don't see any customers--" Sun Woo was cut off when the chime from the door caught his attention. Coming in looked to be a family of six. The boy sighed at the unexpected amount of people rushing into their restaurant. "Alright, alright. I'll get back to work, noona." Ji Eun then shot a look to Wook Yong and she too let out a disappointed sigh and went out to do her work.

She placed all the food in two humongous plastic bags, making sure to put it in a way that none of the food would spill. The young girl glanced over to her father, who was too busy cooking the food to pay her any attention of her gathering of food. "Appa, I'm going to take the cab, okay?"

"Is that for... ehem, Bacon Bits?"

"Yup, yup. Along for the others. Don't worry, Appa, I'll pay for this one in full." She took off her apron to put on the rack. She glanced down at her outfit, smoothing out any creases as well as fixing her short hair so it looked decent. She bared one smile at her father. "I'll be going!" Food in hand, she left the restaurant and called down a cab to pick her up.

The drive to SM Entertainment was somewhat tedious and it didn't help that the driver was giving her skeptical glances for bringing food over to the building. And since she didn't have her uniform, she could only guess that he thought that she was willingly to buy anything for her idols whether or not she'd be able to see them or not. All she could do is strain a smile at the driver as they made their way there.

Taking out her phone, she looked at the throng of text messages she missed last night to this morning from Baekhyun. All she could respond with was that she was fine and she was home safely. Reading the rest only made her stomach flutter, because all it could do was remind her of last night. She was fuming with embarrassment and shyness at this point. If she were to read the messages before she kickstarted this plan, then she might've backed out and waited for Baekhyun to come to her. But, really? When could that be? She can't be the one who always have to wait for him, she should make an effort to see the boy too.

But now that she was reading his messages now, she could see that he was still filled with worry. So she sent him a quick text.

To: Bacon Bits :3c

< Baek, I'm totally fine, don't worry about it anymore!

< Just focus on your work and I'll focus on mine, okay?

She placed her hand to her chest and let herself breathe slowly. She had taken her medications that morning and she made sure to keep herself calm. She can do this. She can talk to Baekhyun normally.

Once paying the driver, she hopped out of the cab and walked into the building before her. Eyes darting around, it finally landed at the front desk and, surprise surprise, that one receptionist was there. Ji Eun internally groaned at the situation in hand, but she couldn't do anything about it. She's the one that deals with whoever comes in their glass doors.

Ji Eun stalked up to the front desk and flashed an extremely obvious fake smile at the woman at the desk as she set down her food on the counter. Once the woman glanced up at her, her expression fell into both confusion and mild irritation. "You?" The brunette woman scanned her whole desk and looked through, oh this time, fluorescent orange sticky notes. "I didn't have any calls about a delivery from your restaurant."

This wasn't well thought out...

"Well, this is a special delivery," Ji Eun muttered. "So, I'm hoping to bring this up to--"

"I can't allow that."

Ji Eun bit down her tongue but then replied, "Please? Just this one time, I would like to bring this to the--"

"Prohibited."

"Ma'am, come on. You've seen me come in plenty of times before," she pressed on. "You know already that I'm cool with one of the members of--"

The receptionist held up her hand, stopping Ji Eun once again in the middle of her sentence. "I don't care whether you're a fan, friend, family member or whatever, I'm not letting you through without any special permission. So stop trying little girl."

Ji Eun was extremely close to blowing up into her face, but she swallowed down her words, realizing that she didn't have the right to force herself in. Maybe if she just let the woman bring up her chicken for her anyway, Baekhyun would get the message.

But that won't make such an effect rather than actually being there to accept his confession.

"Kang Ji Eun?" The mentioned girl turned her gaze to the owner of the voice. She blinked in confusion until realizing that the man who stood before her was EXO's manager. She quickly bowed at him in greeting. "Ah, I knew I recognized you. Do you have another delivery here today?" he questioned her.

"That's the thing, manager-nim. No one requested anything from her restaurant," the receptionist was quick to answer. Ji Eun could feel her blood boiling at the annoying lady behind the desk but, again, she refrained from letting out her annoyance for the sake of Baekhyun's manager in front of her. "She wants to bring some free chicken to your boys herself, but I can't allow that, as it's against the rules."

One day, she'll hurt this receptionist.

"Oh, you brought food for the boys, hmm?" EXO's manager asked her.

Ji Eun nodded. With a grim smile, she held out the bags of food to him. "I wanted to bring this to them, but would it be okay if you give it to them instead? I'm sure they're extremely busy anyway."

The manager beamed down at the girl, "No, no, it's fine. They're currently at a photoshoot. I'm sure they'll be happy if they have some food ready for them to eat when they finish." Ji Eun blankly stared at him, the bags still held out for him to grab. The older man then held out the documents he held in his arms. "I apologize, but can you bring it with you? My hands are a bit occupied at the moment. Just follow me, alright?" He then nodded for her to follow him out the building, much more to both the receptionist and Ji Eun's surprise.

But it wasn't like she was going to miss this opportunity.

She scurried after him to go to wherever EXO were and more importantly, to wherever Byun Baekhyun was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/n: I'm lowkey screeching because I wanted this done on Baekhyun's birthday but homegirl was lazy asf. BUT YO HERE IT IS.

I'll be working on that next chapter because I know that's the one most of yall be anticipating. I don't mean to drop it off at such a place but... it looked good to end there. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LONG WAIT.