An Extra Beat of Love

6. Introductions

"Mr. Jeon?" 

"Yes?"

"How many people are going to be there?" Taehyung asked, turning to face Jeongguk instead of the buildings that they zoomed past. 

"Umm...seven including you, Taehyung-ssi," Jeongguk said with his eyes never leaving the road. 

"Ohh...umm....do you have any personal preferences?" Taehyung asked. 

"No..uhh...you can make whatever you want. It's going to be work, anyway. Dinner is something that I'm offering to them because it isn't manners to call them to work on the weekends. Dinner isn't the priority, so anything is fine" Jeongguk explained. 

"Ohh...okay, sir."

The drive after that was silent. Neither of them had anything to say to each other. However, when Jeongguk pulled up outside his villa and unlocked the main door, Hana had everything to say to her friend. 

Taehyung saw her running towards him with a screech and thus got down to his knees promptly and spread his arms open for her. "TAETAE OPPA!!!" she yelled and ran right into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs. 

Taehyung grunted and gently wrapped his arms around her tiny body. "Aww, hello, Hana," he said with a grin, but his slight pant didn't go unnoticed by Jeongguk. 

'How hard did she run into him to knock his wind out like that?!' he thought, but he didn't feel too concerned about it. He just decided to sit later and teach Hana not to run into people so hard the next time. 

"Umm....sir...?" Taehyung called out just as Jeongguk began to walk back to the dining table to continue his work. "Yes?" Jeongguk turned around and asked. 

"Around what time do you expect me to serve the food?" Taehyung asked. "Umm...around half-past nine?" Jeongguk asked hesitantly. "Ohh....okay, sir," Taehyung said and looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to do. 

Jeongguk noticed his awkwardness and realized something that he had forgotten to do. "I'll...show you the guest room....you can freshen up if you want. It's just half-past three right now, so you can go around and have time for yourself in the city if you want" he said. 

"Ahh, no, no, sir. I'll just spend time with Hana here" Taehyung said and looked down at Hana, who was standing with her arms wrapped around his left thigh and her cheek squished against it. He smiled at her and patted her head gently. 

"Ohh...umm...okay..." Jeongguk said and gestured for him to follow him. 

"Let's go" Taehyung whispered to Hana and pried her arms off his leg and held one of them in his hand instead. 

"So...umm...I'll just go...I gotta work...umm....please tell me if you need anything" Jeongguk said after showing Taehyung the guest room. "Be a good girl, Hana" he warned at the end and left the room to continue his work. 

"Let's not watch TV, okay? It's bad. Show me your toys. We can play something" he heard Taehyung say as he walked back to his laptop. 

With a small scoff and a grin, he sat back down. He understood why Hana got attached to Taehyung so fast. He was the first person in her life who was willingly playing with her. 

He had heard his mother tell him that Taehyung had played with Hana even on the day of his mother's funeral just because she wanted to play and had no one to play with. 

His parents generally let her watch TV for most of the time or just sat her down and tried to teach her animals, colours, rhymes, numbers, and whatnot. They never properly played games with her.